Catching Up

So, again, it's been a long time since I posted and there's been a lot going on. First we had a bad storm that they're now calling "Superstorm Sandy". You all know how horrible it was in the north east, so I won't complain too much about the snow that we got. It was too early and that's my only complaint. I got about 4 inches here on the east side of the county, but the west side got a lot, with high drifts. The wind was scary and I prepared for a power outage, but that didn't happen.

Here's a delightful "small world" story for you. Last June I met fellow jewelry artist Donna Whiteside at the PMC Conference in Cincinnati and after the conference we Facebook "friended" each other. Earlier this week she posted that she was camping near Boone, NC. I posted that she was near me and to contact me if she wanted a list of fun things to do. Then another friend of Donna's, Jeanne, piped up and we discovered that Jeanne has known my friend Brenda (who also lives here) for 30 years. So this morning  Brenda and I met Donna and her wife, Linda for coffee and talked to Jeanne on the phone. How cool is that? Wasn't there a movie, Six Degrees of Seperation, that said that everyone is just six steps away from knowing every other person in the world?

Linda, Donna, Me and Brenda

I finished teaching my last class this week. It was bittersweet, but I know I made the right decision to stop teaching, at least through the University. I have a group of women coming in January for private lessons here in my studio and a couple of the students from this last class said they might be interested in individual instruction. That's the way to go for me if I want to make any money at it.

Since I had to fire student work every week I actually got quite a bit of my own work done. I made four more pendants in my flower series, three with glass and one with an opal. I don't know why I love making these little suckers, but I do.

And a few others, to boot. Upper left has a pink sapphire, which didn't turn out so great in the picture. Upper right has a blue topaz. Lower left has a black onyx bullet and I think this would look good on a man. Lower right has a lab ruby and my mixed texture.

I didn't post much about the election here, or on Facebook, because it's all so exhausting to me and I'm horrified by our country's lack of control over campaigns. But, I will say that I am over the moon that we are keeping Barack Obama for four more years. It's great to have a smart, kind and compassionate man running the country.

I have a trunk show coming up in a few weeks, so those of you in Charlotte be on the lookout for details on that. I think that over the next few days I'm going to be on this computer a lot. I need to edit photos and get the ole Etsy Shop ramped up for the holidays. I've decided to sign up to take gift cards and for the direct pay option. We'll see if that helps sales.

I hope y'all are having a great day and I'll try not to be away so long again.

Smooth Sailing

I read my horoscope this morning and it said:

"Today you should have a very strong sense of well-being. Your inner self is functioning harmoniously, and you do not feel emotional turmoil or strife. You are not in the mood for adventures, challenges and major changes, nor is it necessary to be so."

Nice, huh? And it's true. There really hasn't been a lot on my mind, and definitely nothing that would put me in a mood like I was in a few weeks ago. I seem to be at the top of the wave right now, and it feels good.

I have been in the studio because it finally feels like what I want to do. I've just been moseying along doing what inspires me. Here's a few of the new things:

Three new pieces with the beautiful dichroic glass I got at the Gem Show last July.

This one has a lab ruby.

I'm going to try and do an Etsy Shop update this weekend. I've found some more studio stash that I'd like to get rid of and I'll list some new things, too. Maybe I'll list these four!

Have a great holiday weekend, everyone, and stay safe!

Charity Bracelet Raffle

Shortly after I opened my Etsy shop in 2009 I joined the Etsy Metal Clay Team. My purpose was to gain more exposure to my shop, but it's turned out to be that and soooo much more. We are a worldwide group of women who have become close friends, some of which I had the pleasure of meeting in person at the PMC Conference last June.

In the past few months two of our team members have passed away. Lucia Gulino and Mieko Takahashi Shull were both talented artists and cherished team participants. In their honor we have created two charm bracelets out of metal clay to be raffled off in their honor. (You can see my copper charm on the first bracelet, below.) The proceeds will go to charities that they were passionate about. A ticket is $5.00 and you get a chance at both bracelets, so two chances with one ticket!

Please go to the Etsy Metal Clay blog for more information about the charities and to get your raffle ticket. It's as easy as clicking on the "Donate" button. The drawing will be held on September 30.

Thank you!

A big THANK YOU to Metal Clay Today magazine for featuring this blog in their "Best of the Blogs" section. (I tried to get you a picture of the cover of the fall issue, but I'm working at the gallery today and our computer here just couldn't handle that.) And a warm welcome to all the new readers who have found me through the article. The author called this a "tranquil blog"... Sometimes, but not all the time!

Metal Clay Today is a free, quarterly online magazine. Their banner states

"Metal Clay Today is devoted to giving recognition, encouragement and a voice to the many gifted artisans, teachers and enthusiasts in the metal clay world."

I feel very honored to have been chosen out of all the bloggers out there that write about metal clay. Thanks again!

Finally! Some new jewelry.

I made this ring as a custom order for my friend Lyn. I hope she likes it - she's been wanting one for a long time.

While I was in a ring making mood, I made this fancy ring with four amethyst cz's across the top. It fits me and I might keep it. Or, I might wear it for awhile and decide it's not my style. We'll see.

This necklace is a toggle with a lapis cabachon set into it.

And the necklace part is lapis and sterling silver beads:

The pendant below is another in my flower series.

And it hangs from a hand forged sterling silver chain:

I'm still having a hard time getting into the groove. I just can't seem to find my muse for jewelry. We have another week coming up with predictions of snow for several days, so I guess I'll give it a shot. Sometimes it helps to just get out the material and stare at it and see what emerges. I hope it's something interesting!

Plodding Along

Photo by Marty Hulsebos

Sometimes life goes smoothly, thank God! That's where I am right now, and I'm grateful for the ordinary-ness and the mundane. No deadlines and plenty of inventory so upcoming shows aren't daunting. In fact, I have a show this coming Saturday and I'm really not freaked out by it at all. I'm ready. The only thing I'm a little freaked out about is loading up my car for the show because there are still several black snakes living in my shed, where all my show equipment is stored. I don't like to go in there and especially don't like to move things around that snakes might be hiding in or behind. And there are no galleries breathing down my neck wanting work. No stress. Ahhhh.....

Monday night was the second week of the Metal Clay class. I've only got four students, which is both good and bad. Good because it makes class very easy on me and everyone gets a lot of personal attention. Bad because my pay check is smaller, but a small check is better than none at all. The last session was cancelled because only one person enrolled. Jim, who teaches the fabrication jewelry class, said his class is small this time also. We used to over flow into each other's classes. If mine was full, the registrar would suggest that they take Jim's class, and vice-versa. Anyone out there have an opinion about why enrollement is down, other than the pat answer of "the economy"? Are there any other Metal Clay teachers out there experiencing the same thing?

Since the University still doesn't have a kiln I can use for my class, I have to bring student projects home and fire them in my kiln each week. ("The economy" again - University spending is restricted.) Between classes I've been making a few pieces to add to the kiln load, but I have nothing hanging over me. My only deadline is to get the kiln fired each week before class on Monday night. And I'll have to do it again the following week, so if I don't get a piece ready to fire this week it's no big deal. It's nice to be able to take my time and think about every step, to try out something new and to just let the creativity flow. Below are a few things that I've managed to complete. You might recognize them from this post.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Oh, Happy Day! Copper Success!

Just look at this pile of copper lusciousness! I guess third time's the charm (no pun intended) for me to have a successful copper firing. Everything sintered, and when I drop them onto the table they make a jingling sound like coins, not the "thunk" of un-sintered metal clay.

This time I used the two-phase firing schedule recommended to me by Lora Hart. First, I fired the pieces on an open kiln shelf at 555 degrees for one hour. Then I transfered them to the firing pan with the carbon and fired them at 1670 degrees for three and a half hours. And voila! Hard, shiny copper! I'm no scientist, but I think this has something to do with the binder burning off. You metal clayers out there know that when the binder burns there's a smell, right? When I put the fresh pieces in the firing pan with carbon I never smelled that smell. When they were on the open shelf the smell started when the kiln hit about 450 degrees, just like with silver.

These from the Fern Series have a patina applied to show off the texture. I'm not sure yet if I like this. The Liver of Sulphur darkens the entire piece a little bit. The bright, shiny color right out of the tumbler looks so nice, but I don't know if that will last over time. One of the benefits of using metal clay rather than sheet metal is the opportunity for wonderful textures and when you darken the recesses the texture shows up better. With silver there's more contrast, so the jury is still out on whether to patina copper, or not. Anyone out there have an opinion on this? Please leave me a comment on this, and links to photos would be great to help me make up my mind.

Sparkly!

Sometimes when you fire metal clay you get the "Sparkly Effect" when it comes out of the kiln. I fired the above pieces today and they're REALLY sparkly. This is an effect of the silver particles fusing together and forming crystals on the surface. It's random and I don't think anyone really knows for sure how and when it will happen. And no one knows how to make this happen on purpose. These were not all the pieces in the kiln. The rest of them came out white, like they usually do. Vickie Hallmark wrote a blog post about this recently and went in to great detail about why this might happen. You can read it here, if you want a scientific hypothesis of why this might be.

My question to you, dear readers, is do I polish these to a  shiny surface and then put on a patina, like I usually do, or leave them rough and sparkly? Polishing esentially flattens down the crystals and light doesn't reflect off of the peaks any more.  I'm not sure I like it and I don't know how it will wear over time. What's your opinion?

I'm Charmed!

There's a team of artists on Etsy that consists of nothing but Metal Clay Artists. We call ourselves the Etsy Metal Clay Team (EMC Team). I'm proud to say that I'm part of that team. A few months ago we decided to do a charm swap and there were 25 of us who signed up to participate. We each made 27 charms and sent them to one team member who coordinated the sorting of the charms. Yesterday I received 24 charms back plus the one that I created. (Mine's the one on the upper right.) The photo above shows what an incredibly talented group this is! Most of them are made from silver clay, but a couple are made from bronze or copper clay. The extra 2 charms that each of us did will be made into two bracelets and donated to charity. One of them will go to New England Celebrities Tackle Cancer (read about this organization at http://www.joeandruzzifoundation.blogspot.com/ ) and I don't think there's been a final decision made yet about who will get the second bracelet.

If you'd like to see the rest of the work by members of the EMC Team, go here. I think I'll be working on making my own charm bracelet just as soon as I can get to it!

Wedding Rings

Miles and Clare picked up their wedding rings last night. Luckily, I remembered to get a quick photo before they left. The rings are fine silver from metal clay with a moonstone set into them. They were headed up to the Blue Ridge Parkway to watch the sunset and renew their vows. So cute! (Notice the blank check at the top of the photo.... Thank you so much! ) I wish you two many years of happiness.

What do you do when your slip pot is full?

Before metal clay is metal, while it's still clay, it ACTS just like clay. And, since it's silver, and silver prices are in the stratosphere right now, I save every little teeny tiny piece and filing and make slip out of it. (Slip is watered-down clay used to stick parts together, like a glue.) Since I'm meticulous about sanding edges smooth to be sure my finished pieces look their best, I generate a lot of dust and therefore a lot of slip. Well, my little brain has been working overtime trying to figure out what to do with all this slip, besides trying to re-constitute it to a clay state. I've tried that before and it's just not the same. My brilliant idea was to spread out a blob (technical term) of thick slip with a palette knife onto a tefflon sheet and see what happens. After it was dry I sanded the edges (again) to form the shape I wanted. The one above was supposed to be a circle, but a piece broke off. I just left it that way, added a bail and some embellishment and fired it. Voila! A whole new way to use slip! I like the texture that was left with the palette knife and it seems to be a strong piece. So... I did it again, this time pressing a fine silver bezel cup into the blob. The finished piece got a black onyx cabachon and black onyx beads for a chain.

And again!

I also had some shavings from when I carve dry clay and pressed them into the wet blob of slip. That made a very cool texture! And I embedded a small lab aquamarine in the one below.

Of course, all of the sandings that came off the blobs will go back in the slip pot. It's a never-ending cycle. What do you do when your slip pot is full?