Valle Country Fair!

On the third Saturday in October, at the peak of the fall leaf season, is the Valle Country Fair, held in a hay field in Valle Crucis NC. It's my big show of the year and I'm excited about the possibility of making some money to pay for some big-ticket items I've been putting off. It's also a really fun day, as my booth space is surrounded by members of my co-op galleries' booths and we turn it in to a social event.

It's only a one day show, but I have to set aside at least three days for this. Today (Friday) is the day to pack the car and go out and set-up. Then all day tomorrow, followed by the chicken dinner at the local middle school. (The 8th-graders raise money for their annual trip.) I'll be exhausted by the time I get home, so Sunday is unload and unpack day.

Our weather has been mild, but right on schedule, it's turning cold for the Fair. Time to break out the long underwear, big coat and gloves. Even though it's a church event, one of my friends always brings a warm toddy of some sort! There's 150 craft booths, music, dancing, story telling and fantastic food. If you're in the area, please stop by my booth!

And The Winner...

by random number generator, of Wanaree Tanner's bezel designs and a starter kit for the Silhouette Cameo is...

Louise Little!!

Congratulations, Louise! Please contact me at zoenelson@bellsouth.net and we'll get these right out to you.

A Whole 'Nother Week

There's a whole week left to collect entries for the giveaway for Wanaree Tanner's bezel designs and a Starter Kit for the Silhouette Cameo machine.

I have quite a few entries, but there's always room for more people to join in the fun. If you have a Silhouette Cameo, or you are considering purchasing one, you should enter this contest.

Just leave a comment on my original post on this subject:

Lucky Day Giveaway. (<--- click there)

I'll draw a winner next Monday, October 8.

Some Miscellaneous Stuff

Shadows of the last of the coneflowers.

Here's just a few things that have been on my mind lately:

• I've had a lot of response to my giveaway so far, and there's still time to enter. If you have, or plan to purchase a Silhouette Cameo cutting machine, go make a comment on the "Lucky Day Give Away" post to win a Starter Kit and a package of bezel designs by Wanaree Tanner. I'll draw the winner on October 15.
• I mentioned in that post that I was looking towards retirement (13 months!) and was probably not going to invest in an expensive piece of equipment, and I think people thought I was retiring from a "job". Well, let me clarify that I've been a full time self-employed artist for over 20 years and retirement to me just means that I'll be able to collect my Social Security and I won't have to worry about money quite so much. The transition for me will be from making jewelry because I have to sell it to make a living to being able to do more fun and experimental artistic things. I love to paint and collage and I feel like I will enjoy that more if I'm not telling myself that I'm wasting time. I will NEVER stop working with metals, though!
• My "Jewelry Making with Metal Clay" class is going really well after the second week. I have a great group of students this time. I have decided, though, that this will be the last one. It's bittersweet because I love teaching - it's so cool to see someone's eyes light up when they've made something beautiful with their own hands but, unfortunately, I just can't make any money doing it any more. The cost of the materials is over 70% of the tuition and it takes up 15 hours of class time and about 36 hours of studio time. It just doesn't make sense. If I could do more teaching here in the studio, instead of at the University, I might consider it.
• I've had a case of vertigo for the last few days. If you've never had it, it feels like you're drunk without the benefit of alcohol. Dizzy and a little nauseous. Ugh. It's hard to do anything when every time I move my head the world tilts. It makes it hard to sleep, too, because whenever I roll over in bed it feels like the room is spinning. I had a Chiropractic adjustment this morning so let's hope that it goes away soon and the green tinge to my skin is gone.
• My friend Debbie Keen came over yesterday for another one of our "play dates". Since I have to fire copper clay for students this week, we decided to make some copper pieces of our own to fill up the kiln. I'll post pictures when they're done. It's nice sometimes to work along side someone else and bounce ideas off of each other and share tools and supplies.
• Autumn is really here. The trees should be at peak color in just a few days, which seems about two weeks early to me. I'm ready for some cool weather and to put my garden to bed for the winter because it's looking very tired and I'm tired of dealing with it. We haven't had a killing frost yet, but that should happen next week.
• Two weeks ago I did the first of the two art shows that I sign up for now. It was in West Jefferson sponsored by the Ashe County Arts Council. I was very pleased with the turn out and with the amount of money I brought home. I used to do a LOT of shows, but they're too hard on me and I can't do them without help any more. This time I got to spend the day with my friend Janet, which is always a great pleasure, Now, I'm prepping for my second and biggest show, the Valle Country Fair, coming up on October 20. I don't "prep" like I used to when I did LOTS of shows. No more frantically producing as much as possible so that I would have enough. I realize now that "enough" is whatever I have on hand. I do fill in some gaps of things I'm missing or low on, but the frenzied I'M GETTING READY FOR A SHOW is not a part of my life any more. I think this is another cut back, slow down towards my version of retirement.

So, that's an update from me. Remember to enter the contest if you're a Silhouette person. I'll be back later!

Lucky Day Giveaway

A couple of weeks ago I attempted to attend the online Craftcast presentation called “More I Love Tools”. It was live demonstrations by several artists and the subject was their favorite tools for jewelry making. I could never get the audio to work on my laptop or on my iPad, so I had to leave the class. I was so disappointed! The next morning I get an email from my friend Molli Koltun that I had won a prize during the presentation the night before! Oh boy! How lucky am I? Actually, I was very lucky that day and I should have bought a lottery ticket. In my mail I found an envelope from the North Carolina Department of Revenue and I thought for sure I was being audited. No! There was a check for $100 because somebody (either me or my accountant) made an error on my 2011 tax return. But, I digress… where was I? Oh, yeah, I won something. So I emailed Alison Lee, the brains behind the Craftcast presentations, and told her about my sound issues and that I wasn’t able to attend the live broadcast. In order not to spoil the surprise she only told me that I’d won something during Wanaree Tanner’s presentation and that I could watch a video of the entire presentation shortly.

I’m not good at being patient, but I finally got to watch the 5-part series on YouTube. Wanaree’s favorite tool is the Silhouette Cameo machine (an electronic cutting tool) and she demonstrated how to use it to create a texture in Scratch Foam. This machine plugs in to your computer and usually uses a small blade to cut materials like paper or vinyl. Wanaree had an embossing tool in place of the cutter and that made the impressions in the Scratch Foam. Then she engraved some words directly into dry metal clay. Very cool!

Then she announced that I was the winner of the Silhouette Starter Guide and a collection of Wanaree’s bezel wire designs, a package worth $60! Wah, wha, wha…. I don’t have a Silhouette Cameo machine! And, as I look towards the end of my career and to retirement, I’m really not interested in investing in a high-dollar tool. Darn. But it was still an honor to have won!

The bezel wire designs also come with instructions on how to alter the patterns to fit your stones and a shrinkage and resizing chart. Here are some examples of the bezels:

This is where I actually get to the point of this post: I am re-gifting these items to one lucky winner!! If you have, or plan to purchase a Silhouette Cameo machine you should enter this contest. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post telling everyone what you love about this machine. Who knows, maybe I'll be convinced to buy one after all. The contest starts today and on Monday, October 15 I will select a random winner from all the entries. Good luck!

Hey!

I just want everyone to know that I haven't fallen off a cliff, or something. There just hasn't been much to blog about. But, I'm taking this opportunity now to give y'all some advance notice that there is a big give-away coming soon. Stay tuned. I'm working out the details right now.

The goldenrod is in full bloom, the Monarch butterflies are headed south, the hummingbirds have slowed way down and we had our first light frost this morning. I think it's about two weeks early, but I'm grateful for some cooler temperatures.

I'll post more about the give-away soon.

My Tumbler Loves Me!

I use a tumber to make my jewelry all clean and shiny. For those of you who don't know what a tumbler is, or how it works, it's a plastic barrel that rolls around on a motorized base. The barrel is filled with these little metal pieces called "shot" and when I put the jewelry in I cover everything with water and a little liquid soap. As the barrel rolls around the shot and the metal jewelry rub together and the shot makes the jewelry nice and shiny. It takes a minimum of an hour and it's a low-effort way to achieve a high shine on several pieces at once.

This is the tumbler barrel

Way back when I first got the tumbler I mistakenly bought carbon steel shot instead of stainless steel shot. (Carbon steel was cheaper and that's probably why.) Since carbon steel will rust I have to be careful to completely let it dry before I store it until next time. So when the tumbling is finished I dump the shot and the jewelry into a strainer and rinse it all off and pick out the shiny jewelry. Then I spread out the shot on a kitchen towel to dry:

Shot drying on a towel

When the shot is completely dry I scoop it to store it in the tumbler barrel. I pick up the edges of the towel to gather it together in the center and every time this is what I see:

It's a shot heart! I mean, a heart out of shot...

Every time! I don't mean to make a heart out of my tumbler shot. It's the Universe telling me that my tumbler loves me. It must be.