Right Turn Art Werks

I showed my Richard Salley classes first because I had good phone photos of those pieces but it was just one round of great classes.  I also had a phenomenal class with Linda Larsen of Objects and Elements.  What a treat she is – confident, artistic, and open.   The class I took was very different from the Salley classes in many ways.  We did a hinge, but in a different fashion.   Linda made major metalworking look pretty darn easy. 

My first "Captured Object" neck piece.

 

Our project for this class wasn’t necessarily a beginner’s project and Linda was quick to point that out many times as her students were working hard.   I agree.  It’s why I took that class.  In this case we (and very quickly I might add) cut a major setting from metal, patterned the material,  chose a stone (everyone’s was different), made a pronged setting for the stone, set it, and made the flip front (completely hand domed and patterned), and hinged everything together.  UH, we were humming along – we even got to patina the piece as Linda guided everyone through various choices in metals, stones, patinas, and so on. 

This class was not for the faint of heart in teachers either.  But, I’ve got to tell you something – Linda Larsen rocked it.  She guided everyone through with panache and a smile.   No one went wanting for help despite our variety of choices and skill levels.   If she wasn’t pooped out after that class I certainly don’t know why….but she didn’t seem to be.  She seemed energized!

Does this look like a terrorist to you? Looks can be deceiving!

 

After B&B I returned home to “bad kitty” – I’m not going to elaborate about that here but I will say that a family pet with a temporary “screw loose” was enough to unnerve even the most loving furbaby mother.   I was originally planning on redoing my Larsen project with a more suitable stone (I had brought the one I used thinking it would look great - what the hell was I thinking?).  It’s a great setting and my follow through was good – but my choice of stones turned it into a very bland piece for the amount of work.    So, since I bought a few stones at the show I decided to have my do-over even though it’s going slow as I clean up after “bad kitty.”  But, what I wanted to say about this, through this convoluted story, is that I didn’t take good notes in Linda’s class (and trust me – she was throwing out extra info right and left).  I relied on my pea brain to remember them and when kitty gone wild interrupted my train of thought when I arrived home I lost important bits of information.  Note to self – take more notes!  Lesson learned. 

What else did I learn – and this is one of the many reasons that class rocked it.  I wrote Linda via her site Objects and Elements.  She immediately wrote back and answered my questions.  She didn’t have to be so nice.  I had my class time.  But she was. 

Thanks Linda.  I loved my class and I’ll be back for another lesson so keep designing these great projects.

This is Linda Larsen's "Captured Object" necklace - I wanted to show you what I'm shooting for.

 

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