Studio Helpers

I'm not sure this will come under the title of helpers exactly but it is what it is.  My husband, long officially retired (?) from toymaking and major art shows finally found some renewed art passion.  It's been awhile before there was something he could enjoy again.  Knifemaking and forging is something he can do and take breaks with.  The forge has to heat the steel up and so he gets breaks in between hammering.  Hammering isn't so good for him either so our oldest son found him an old Murray power hammer and it takes most of that out of the equation.  Whew!  Good, right?

These are the types of knives he makes.  Some are regular and some are Damascus.  He is especially fond of making the Damascus and for that especially he needs that power hammer.  He loves doing this.  Nah, he's not selling them but it's gratifying.

It's gratifying but the power hammer is frustrating.  Not to him.  To me when I need to work.  Me and especially to my eldest "studio assistant".  Yes, everyone has assistants, right?  Damn right! 

So I'm working on setting these pieces in hoping they will be juried into the shows later this summer.  I don't have time to make some glass that I would set.  It would be a bit before I could perfect what I'd like to present.  It's not that I couldn't maybe get the glass ready.  If I worked diligently at it I might.  But I'd never get the glass and set it in time to participate.  I've decided to instead work with something that fits the theme's "reflections" and something that has tripped my trigger for a lifetime! 

When I was a kid my grandfather used to attached glass reflectors to my bike.  He told me they were gems.  I kept those reflectors - I love them.  To me glass, in any of it's forms, is exactly like gems.  I don't much tend to make any distinction there.  My "perceived" value is the same.  Over the years I've collected a wide variety of reflectors but more recently came across an entire stash of them.  So that will be my focus for these pieces of reflection.  My history, my perception, the reflections.

What's holding me up?  Studio Assistant.  This is how the power hammer affects my one of two beloved furbabies.

Trudy's reaction to the power hammer.  "Oh NO Mom he's making noise!"

Trudy is 14 years old.  She's never been particularly skittish until she started to lose her vision.  But, we never thought it would get like this.  I work in the round.  My tool bench is made up of several work areas that are created in a large semi-circle so I can go from designing to fabricating and so on.  There isn't any room to fit me and two dogs into the area.  Shhhh, don't tell Trudy that.  

Don't worry, she comes first.  When this starts I decide whether I'm at a point I can stop or if hubby needs to stop for a moment so one of us can settle her down.  

I love them both, but helpers?????  I need to hire out next lifetime.

Uh Where has the time gone....

It's time I got back to this......I think about it, and don't do it.

No, I've not been sitting still on a rock out in the universe.  Oh, yes I have - literally, but not figuratively.  So, for the sake of getting up to date I'm going to spend a day going to through the events of the past year and see if there isn't some way to catch us up without losing site of what is currently going on so I don't get 'lost in space" again.

In the mean time - I've had three major  metalsmithing classes.  No surgeries, whew! I've become a studio monitor at a major a major Asheville glass studio, and gone back to teaching (in at least one medium).

Busy, yes.  But not too busy that I can't get back to this.

So, temporarily hang tough.  I hope you'll come back to once again check out what's new here.

Recent Run-In with Stamps

I can't say it's not a great time to use Navajo hand stamps - it most certainly is.  In keeping with my current fascination with reflector glass and the stamps I have created a necklace/brooch.  In the reverse I have used both a pin catch and the requisite necklace bail.  I wanted something I could wear both ways. 

There is so much more of this "line" of jewelry to come.  Some is on my bench in various states of being fitted with settings and so much more is in the sketchbook waiting to be fleshed out.  I really need to concentrate on what is already out there and then move forward - although I will admit it is always hard for me to do.  When the ideas are flying it is hard to focus.  But, it needs to be done.

7 More Days Until I take that ride to VEGAS

This is me getting ready for the Gathering:

Yup, this is me - hands over my head wondering about the changes I'm about to make to the necklace below.  I knew it was the wrong chain for the bottom but then decided I'd be better off making a solid drop for it.  More consistent to the vision of the work.

Please excuse the dental floss - it's what we put under stones that don't have a hole in the back - otherwise you can't lift them back out.

Finally, a more finished piece! I like the solid drapes better than the chain.  In the end I am sandblasting a bead that will be capped and hang at the bottom.  It's actually a sweet little necklace.  I'm giving it to the ISGB for the conference.  Silent Auction.  I hope it raises some money for whatever their future plana are.  They're a great group.

These are other pieces I've been working on, not set yet!  I'm finding the reflectors simply delicious to work with.  They're antique and reflect the light in such a beautfiul way.   And, of course, I'm going to a glass conference so it's doubly cool that they are glass and a glass that I love since they are bike reflectors and the very same kind that my grandfather tightened onto my bike.

Okay, onward and upward.  Only 7 days until I hope aboard that airplane!

Lucky Me - I have won the Cathy Finegan Scholarship to attend the ISGB Gathering in Las Vegas 2017.

I've put off adding this to the blog.  And why would you ever do that Sharon????  Really!, huh - huh!
I've thought about that.  First, I wanted to wait until it was announced by the ISGB.  But, I still put it off.  I just wanted to jump up and down all on my own for a little bit.  I've done that for two weeks.  I felt like the Scholarship was the beginning of an incredible "lucky me" run and I wanted to save it for the last post in this Lucky Me series.  It could also be called a "very grateful me" series too!

Let me tell about when I first met Cathy Finnegan.  She wouldn't possibly remember it.  I've never seen a bigger ball of energy.  She was running around an ISGB Gathering and making sure everything was perfect.  I didn't much understand anyones role at that time but I was sure to ask who she was and I certainly admired her ability to multi-task.  Plus, she seemed to know everyone's name and have the same energetic smile for all of them.

Remember, my whole career (non-artist) was to observe the social interaction and behavior of nearly everyone around me.  Being the introvert I am I guess it never much turned off no matter where I was - but luckily using the observations only applied at work.

Years later after a Gathering I had the opportunity and pleasure to sit and visit at the after party where everyone was doing Karioke.  My roomie, Lillian Rogers was there, as were Cathy and her parents, Sara Sally LaGrand and many others.  She was as nice as I had suspected.  And, as the saying goes - the nut doesn't fall far from the tree.  Her parents were charming in every way.  So aside from being this fire brand she was sweet, her parents were the same way and I've felt like a silent supporter ever since.

We had to supply some photos for the scholarship entry.  One was of some of our beginning beads.  I don't know about everyone else but I have a string of them right by my bench.  I find they keep me humble and remind me that every time you learn something new you have to start at the beginning.

I was lucky and had an interesting batch of teachers on that round.  Toby Upton was the instructor. He was primarily a boro guy and hot glass worker but he was full of interesting info.  Filling in for Toby was Al Young.  Like wow, His work is in Habitat Gallery.  We used Spruce Pine batch from the kiln that had been pulled into rods for us.  I suspect the leftovers from whatever they were running.  But, what they wanted for for us to feel it was "non-precious" and could be manipulated and thrown away. We were there to learn techniques.  This is the set of beads from that class.

We learned to manipulate tweezers, pairing knives, scissors, and various tools.  It was great.  They've stood the test of time - physically and technique wise.  

Thank you first teachers.  And, thank you all of the teachers since then.  

What does the Cathy Finnegan scholarship mean to me?  I've been thinking about that for two weeks now.  It's not such a casual thing to me that it went without that thought.  To me, it's an acknowlegement of 20+ years of work in the field of glass, it's practice/ practice/ practice, it's being honored and encouraged by the ISGB throughout my career (I've never had them say, "no, I don't want to share how I did that!"), it's all of this and so much more.  In my quiet house I danced like a crazy person barking at the moon - in public, a smile and a wink - but I can tell you my insides are like jelly when I talk about it.  Thank you Cathy Finegan for being the person I knew you were when I first met you and your family.  There wasn't a scholarship back then.  I've seen many fine people since then apply and attend the Gathering since that time because of your contributions.

I am honored - I am molten glass container in steel - I am grateful beyond words, and I am humbled by being chosen.

Thank You * Thank You * Thank You

Stamping...

Wow, I've been so busy.   Everything around here has just been a hopping.  I'll fill you in the next couple of posts.  Here is a follow-up about the Navajo stamps.  They are so much fun and stamp so beautiful.

I've found that the best way to align them is to mark both the metal and the stamp.  On the metal I drew concentric circles with a cross hair.  On the stamps I marked the top center and bottom center. It's easy to get stamps rolled in the wrong direction so I find it a lot easier to do it this way.

Here's are some photographs of the progression -

This is the log I've set up to stamp on.  I was so lucky to gt this one.  I'd been looking for one but had wanted it to be only about a foot tall and really wide.  One day when we were cruising down by the River Arts District in Asheville we ran into a county tree service cutting down some trees in one of the lots.  They were simply huge - and just what I was looking for.   The guys were so very nice and not only helped me and hubby pick one out but one young hunky guy carried it to the car for us. SCORE!  I tried to get him to accept a tip so he and the guys could get a pop or something but he refused.  What a nice young man.  Nice people are just EVERYWHERE!

That's all for now.  I will try and be more consistent with posting....honest!  

Hugs to All,  Sharon

Stamping

Hi Everyone!

We were doing process posts and I thought I'd show you how I decide on a pattern for a symmetrical stamped piece of work.  The previous ones were somewhat asymmetrical. 

Firstly, there are a lot of places to get stamps now days.  My first ones came from either Rio Grande Jewelers Supply (which was very limited 20 years ago), and Indian Jewelers Supply.  You could get letter stamps from Harbor Freight or some very tiny ones from Otto Frei.  After that, Beaducation jumped on board and you got all of the fonts you could ever want and lots of designs that up until that time were unavailable.  Lately though it's been back to my roots - I had started with a variety of Native American Stamps.  Today, it's handmade stamps from House of Stamps.  They are strictly Navajo handmade stamps and they ROCK!

Now, it's not to say there aren't other stamp makers.  ImpressArt makes some great stamps but I've never used them.  There are other handmade stamp makers but there is nothing like a stamp made by someone with generational experience.  You can just type in "stamps for metal" in Google and check it out.   So, if I've missed your favorite stamp store, I apologize.  But I'm only going to talk about what I know and I've been using metal stamps for a long long time and have a very extensive collection from all kinds of companies. 

So lets talk about my favorites.  Those are from Lyndon Tsosie and the family at House of Stamps.  Lyndon is an Navajo artist.  His work is "to die for" exquisite.  So, not only do Lyndon and his family run a business to sell original and handmade Navajo stamps by the "makers" Lyndon disseminates major amounts of tutorial information on the stamp facebook page.  If you have not joined yet - do so!!  House of Stamps (this is the Facebook page).  I can't tell you what a relief it is not to have someone forcing at me a pay for it tutorial so I can understand how best to use their product.  And it's the aim of Lyndon to see to it that our questions are answered and that we can use those stamps to the best of our ability.  He, and his family, are the best cheerleaders for original stamp working I have ever met.  And, on top of that they are great people.  What a joy to work with them.  I have never been disappointed in my stamps or in the way they conduct business. 

Go and join their Facebook page.  They "kind of " BIN out the stamps on both their Facebook page and their Web site.  See for yourself.  You'll meet lots of great people, get good tips, and maybe even purchase a stamp or two.  Tell them I sent you.  I don't get anything out of asking you to mention me.  You know how I am about passing along good info and these people and their operation are good people.  I just want them know I'm shouting them out.

Now, on that process to decide on what I'm going to stamp - and how....

 

 

These are a fist full of the stamps I've been accumulating.  When I get a stamp I stamp it in my drawing tablet for a quick reference since my studio is downstairs.  I keep my HOS stamps in the boxes you see in the pictures.  All of my stamps have boxes or containers.  It's just plain easier to find them. 

 

Here you see what I do.  I pick a stone (that came from HOS too) - draw around it.  I give myself a little room for a bezel, move the stone, and start stamping.  Trials are to the left.  You can see the line of stampings I did.  When I find something I think is perfect I begin.  I didn't like the star pattern I added last (too visually light for what was going on).  But there it was, in permanent ink!  When I feel like I've got it down why do it over.  I just stamped various "other" possibilities on an index card and cut them out.  One by one I moved them over the star until I decided which option to use. 

 

After the holiday is over maybe I can get this stamped out.  I still need a stump.  I used to have a good one but left it back in Michigan.  That wasn't the best plan.  We are hoping today to cut one from a tree the neighbor cut down.

 

Have a great Labor Day and I hope you enjoyed the links!  

Process

I said I'd show you what I've been up to - - actually I think I had already begun that before the Op Ed post.  These are what I call process photos.  I will often take photos of what I'm doing so I can go back over them in the evening (if I think about it). 

Have you ever taken a photo of some work and all of a sudden there is this glaring mistake you didn't know what there?  Boy oh boy have I.  All of a sudden you will see there was a hairline fracture in stone, a solder seam that you could have improved on earlier in the process - you know. 

While settling in here to NC I've been looking around to improve my skill set - and make some new friends.  I have to say I am a tad concerned about that one, the new friends part.  It was easier to meet people when I was thirtyish.  Now that I am sixtyish it seems that people already have their "friends" groups.  I sure hope I can begin to include myself in a few of them.  So while looking around for classes, although I think I already knew, I've found the Asheville area is a wealth of artistic riches.  Penland north, Arrowmont in TN, John C Campbell, William Holland, Haywood College, and everything in between.  Be still my heart!!

I've signed up for a few for the Fall.  In the meantime I've taken two and updated a strong skill set. 

Currently I'm continuing to metalsmith and working with glass and found object.  This is one of several pieces using sea glass.  I love the stuff found on beaches and roads.  Fingering through Grandma's button boxes and my own cigar boxes of cracker jacks goodies cemented that forever in my aesthetics.   Let alone the fact that I grew up in Detroit - the epicenter of assemblages of parts. 

Here is one of the current pieces.  I hope you like where I'm going.  And again, if you have a question, ASK.  I love talking process.

Here is the drawing of the piece.  I do typically take whatever object I'm going to bezel and draw around it in my sketch book.  From there I work out around it.  There are often variations on a theme and many designs and as I post about what I'm doing you are often going to see photos with a star and maybe some highlighter.  The highlighter is so I can find them in the sketch book.  They're the ones I've decided are worth exploring more.

What are you currently doing that works for you?

Everything is all soldered up fitted. I've out the piece of glass in several times to make sure it fits. And I've made some design adjustments. I liked the holes on the original drawing but thought the lacier look of loops would balance better on the left side final piece. Now to clean out the solder globs on the inside of that bezel.  The last thing I want to do is to crack that glass when I set it. 

The next photo shows this piece with all of the bells and whistles added.  The stone (glass) is fitted and now it only needs to be oxidized and finished up. 

At the bottom is one piece I've completed.  It contains a malachite cab that was given out as a bonus when I purchased some Navajo stamps.  I thought it would look great in this piece. Just need to get that final photograph ready for Etsy.  I'm switching my regular Etsy (Right Turn ArtWerks) over to finished jewelry.  A new site, Right Turn Part Werks will eventually contain all of goodies I so love to create to add to my pieces.



Now for the finish!

This one is complete.  Sorry the photo isn't as "crisp" as I would like.  It's just one of my "process" photos.  Not the dazzler I should have to list it for sale.  (Smile!).

Tiny Earrings

They're small silver circles.  A fairly popular style with the jewelry community and I figured it was a good place to start with a small collection.  I'll maker some bar earrings next and maybe a few domed styles.  I've already begun to set some rose beveled cabs. 

Happily Working Along

I've been working on one of the litho square pieces and have expanded it to include a heart and hang from a two strand necklace with silver spacers. 

On one of the jewelry sites someone was using these great little tooled ends - my friend sent me the reference and I got some.  Today I pounded out a few designs and decided to make fancy headpins from them.  I needed an interesting one for the heart anyway.

     My friend, Susan asked me how I soldered the wires
     into the backs of the little buggers so I decided I'd post                                                            it here too.  After the designs are hammered in the front
the piece is removed the design steel by hammering a nail setting tool into the back of it.  It also leaves a mighty nice indentation on the back of the molded silver dot.  I push the silver form into a soldering board and use self locking tweezers to hold the wire in place.  I solder with easy solder since you don't need anything stronger.  You aren't going to be adding any other pieces so why use hard solder.  

For the ones in the top picture I had added a silver sheet round to the bottom and it covered up my center hole.  The best way to handle that is to then make your own divot in the sheet.  That divot is easily accomplished with a round burr that is either a cutting or grinding burr.  The burr shown in the picture happens to be a diamond coated grinder. 

           See the larger head pin on the heart?
                                           

In this last picture are two of the smaller head pins.  They will be great with bead earrings.  I haven't yet explored all of the possibilities but I'm off to a great start and it's wonderful to be back in the studio again.

Have a

great

Friday!!

I'd say it was a busy month - but when aren't they?

As usual, things have been busy here.  We took a quickie trip back to Michigan to get what is the last major load of household items.  Mostly it was Brian's studio.  All of his tools from woodworking.  From being The Countree Toy Shoppe.  Only the greatest organic, wooden, recycling, toymaker in Michigan and beyond!  And yes, I am definitely prejudiced on that one.

The tools are now safely in his new area in the basement - a beautiful spot to work - even if there never will be a toy business again.  And, the overflow of regular household maintenance stuff (caused by the tools coming down) will move out to the new storage building in the next few months - after it's built.  Won't it be wonderful - a new deck and small building.  I can't wait.  What I can wait for is the bill on all of this - I so wish the house in Michigan would sell.  Fingers and toes crossed./

Below is a new pendant.  Not yet finished - stones need to be set, dangles figured out, and the square piece gets set a lot lower than it's showing here..  It's a variation from the drawings I showed in a previous post.  It's nice to be back to work.

Our oldest son drove his truck down here with a huge trailer.  While he was here we went to the Antique Tobacco Barn in Asheville and did some shopping.  Between there and a couple of thrift stores I scored a bunch more tin to work with.  Now for the cutting and storage - - -

 

On The Bench...

These are the designs I'm working on.  I'm trying to get as many of the mediums as I can into the piece without it looking overworked.  Can I do it?  I'm thinking YES.

Bezel for the top of the first design in all of its' gory glory before it's pickled and the backing cut. I'm planning to set an onyx in the bezel.  This one is going to be a black and tan piece.  I'll go for colorful in the second one.

Note the wonderful soldering aid the bezel is sitting on.   We used similar ones in Chris Darway's class at Wildacres.  It's just that old hardware store annealed steel wire.  Wrap a coil around a dowel, remove it, and fan it out into a soldering prop.  It sure is nice not to have to set up the tripod every time you want to solder.

 

 

Did I move to Heaven?

We live outside of Asheville, North Carolina.  I don't mean in a suburb - I mean in a different town but only about a half an hour away.  If that weren't fun enough, we are 18 miles away from Spruce Pine.  Spruce Pine is known as Mineral City.  It's not far from Penland.  They also have lots of Gem mines, a cute as a button town, and so on.  It is "up" the mountain.  You know, one of those switch-back road drives that motorbike riders love and truckers cringe over.  It used to make me cringe too but it's getting to be no big deal.  You just have to pay attention and go slower.  For an expressway driver from the Detroit area it's been a challenge to get used to the slower drives.  Even their expressway is 10mph slower at the top speed but I do think that the slower pace is better - and I'm growing to love it. 

So today we decided to check out the NC Mineral and Gem Show in Spruce Pine.  I figured it would be a little local show - nothing big.  The GLW had been in Franklin, NC a couple of weeks ago so how big could this be after that?  Uh, well count me bowled over.  There wasn't one little show - there were three pretty big shows.  Where was I, Tucson? 

We made it through two shows and I skipped the GLW since I'd been to Franklin.  Town was packed! The shows were fairly busy and it was only the first day and mid-afternoon.  Wow, what a shocker.  I feel like I've been dropped right into a jeweler's heaven.  Here is my loot - I was very careful.  I got everything, including my T-shirt for under 100 - what a deal.  It must be how everyone feels shopping in Tucson.  Now I'm a lucky ducky too.  I'm not sure what I'll set the gems into but they'd look great in some castings.  Hugs to all of you - and have a great day. 

Finishing up a complicated wax carving.

Today I had to go and have my left eye lasered clear.  the new lens from the cataract surgery is just fine - but the capsule it has been placed in has grown cloddy and a bit like cellophane to look though.  That is so not fun when you are using needles as wax tools.  You really need to know where to place that point so you can redefine some places and gentling nudge others into position.  thank the heavens, the cloud has been in lifted in that eye - the worst.  Maybe next week we can get the right eye done too.  Fingers crossed please.

I had to say it certainly had the desired affect.  I finished the things that were bothering me about this wax.  My tree spirit was missing an eye....and personality.  Now I think it's back in order.  I still have two branches to straighten out and the left hand corner to square off again but after that I can go ahead and sprue this piece and get it cast.  Whoot   whoot.  Thursday it's back to the packing!

In this one you can see the varieties if waxes I have uses t sculpt this piece,  each, is a different color and has different properties.  Maybe I can do a blog post of why I've chosen them for this piece.

Changing the picture to black and white always helps me notice any of the little things that are "off" in the design or execution of the wax.  You aren't distracted by the variety of colors in front of you so I often stop and get a quick phone photo.

By tomorrow I should be sprueing this piece and getting it ready to be cast next week.  There is a bail at the top created with the branches but I think I need to make a different type of bail and attach that to it.  I'll be working on that tomorrow.

 

Where'd the studio go...

Wow - wow - wow, things have been so busy here.   I'd like to be able to say we are all packed up and on our way to North Carolina but that's just not so.  Over the holiday we packed up that one U-haul.  It made it safely to NC and my son and his friends unloaded it into the house. 

We took about 10 days following the holiday to relax and regroup.  Now we are back to packing up.  I've just about torn apart the upstairs studio where I worked.  The soldering area is nearly packed.  A few more odds and ends and it will be down and ready to hit the door.  Here is a picture of my pile. Rolling mill, casting equipment, and boxes of glass and glass I will hand carry rather than box. 

This has been how the work is going in the basement.  That is where I lampworked.  Today Brian and I finished packing the majority of the glass.  You know - wrap the rods and pack 'em up nice and sturdy like they ship them to you.  All totaled I have six boxes weighing about 50# a piece and then there are two milk crates with downspout that have more in them - including the odd glasses and expensive ones that I want to take safely in the back seat of my car.   I kind of figure when it's all said and done there is between 350 - 400# of glass in my stash.  Uh, I'm thinking I better get back to making beads as soon as I get my studio back up in NC. 

The final "box" of glass - except the boro rods which are 3 feet long and I'm not sure I want to cut the tubing down

I've had some of that glass for a very long time.  When they used to ship glass "in the day" (LOL) they shipped it in 36" lengths.  You would nip off what you were going to use.  So when the glass came I nipped off a 12" length off of every rod to set into the short stack boxes to use.  That meant that in the long downspouts next to the desk were rods that were 24" long.  I had to go through all of that stash and cut them up.  It turned into a 3 hour project to get it all done - and I was nipping pretty fast. 

What I found when I was doing that was some pretty cool glass I had put away.  Hard to find parrot green, some great old ruby gold, and what appears to be Vetrofond black.  Could it be? I won't know until I get a chance to try it out.  Back then they didn't always put the names on things - just one tag with the number.  Frankly, it's been so long I'm just not sure anymore.  There's original coral and carnelian.  Lots of goodies to play with once I'm ready to go.

I have to say I'm both pooped by the packing and excited about having some new digs in a couple of months.   I'll be more excited when we can get this house ready and on the market and I can free up some money again.  The only untapped reserve is Daisy's hip money - she's plodding along just fine and should anything ugly and unseemly happen (it's like Murphy's law when you are not prepared) we are ready on that front.

So what's new in your New Year? 

A Fun Game for the Colorist in every Artist

 

Welcome to Blendoku! 

It's an application for your Android or Apple where you have to line up the color squares in a puzzle like pattern. 

This is more fun than I've had in a while with an App.  I got it for my Kindle - it was free.  I had color theory with David Barr in college and I thought the man was going to kill me.   He was working on a series of sculptures that had subtle coloring on them.  His thought process seemed to carry into the class and I have to say - I certainly learned how to mix color and how to tell subtle differences between shades of the same color.  This is one of his sculptures.  It's painted steel and approximately 15' X 15'.  The colors seem to change depending on the sun's direction, time of year, and so on - yet they are painted with some very subtle differences.  I guess the lessons stuck because I'm having a great time playing the app when I should be working on other things.

David Barr's Sunset Cube

Let me know what you think of the App

 



One "Happening" in the busy month

In Michigan there is a very strong group of beaders.  Actually, both beadmakers and beaders.  Bi-Annually the Great Lakes Beadworkers Guild holds their bead show.  It's always fun and jam packed with beads you can buy.  And aside from the show the guild has an all volunteer group that is just fantastic to work with.  Just the nicest, most welcoming group you'd ever want to meet. 

Susan Lambert and I have participated in this show off and on for years.  We participate as "Glass and Such".  Mostly we do this because we are!  I bring the ceramics and we have some jewelry and occasionally we have a bargain bin for whatever is left from projects.  We haven't done the show in years.  Susan moved to NC and I've never had the stock to fill a booth on my own.  This year, with Susan working for the airline, she said, "Let's go for it."  Bless her heart in the best of ways since this was a long flight, and lots of work on her part.  Me - I got up at 3am to make the drive and work on my end but not like Susan had to.

Did I make a little money - yes!  Did I have a lot of fun after a busy month - YES! and it was priceless in it's value.  Our booth was by great old friends called "Fire Foxes Glass".  They are members of the Southeastern Michigan Beadmakers Guild - SMBG - or better known in the Bead and Button community as GLASS ACT.   Denise Billups-Walker, Joy Cichewicz and Kathleen Robinson-Young took me under their protective wing, as the member who moved north, a long time ago - and I love them dearly for it.  I was a fish out of city water up here forever.  I've shown with Glass Act at B&B for many years.  Those friends are grand - and fun - and best kind of friends you could ever want.  You know the kind, you pick up right where you left off when you last saw them.  And let's not forget Candy Orow and there are so many others.  Google the group and I'm sure you can find everyone.

Here are some photos from that show.  As soon as I can I will pump up my Etsy store with stock - some I had left here and some that was from the show and didn't find a home.  Beautiful pieces but not what the customer was looking for.

Cindy Orow, Joy Cichewicz, and Susan Lambert

Susan talking to a customer



Candy and Denise Billups-Walker talking to a friend

The "Glass and Such" booth at GLBG

 

More to come at a later date about my friends and their work and mine.

 

Have a great day!

 





 

 



Still Working Mixed

I love glass.  I love clay.  I guess I'm just a mixed media kind of person.   To add to the "look" of the clay I've been adding more and more homemade polymer clay stamps.  Nothing crazy just some patterns I can use.  You see the results on a few of them in this plate of new goodies.  The round beads were made of twisted ropes of red and white earthenware clay.  I hope the difference in color pops once they are glazed.  Some of the old plates full have already made it to being bisque and the horned vessel it currently sitting in plastic wrap with a damp sponge waiting for me to be inspired enough to finish it off.  Maybe tonight I can work on the stopper or top and see if there are any more textures I'd like to put on it before it gets dried to go in the kiln.

Then there are glass sets I've been putting together for a show in October.  Little by little the pile grows - discs, mermaids, hearts and two Buddha bundles. 

Peace, Love and Happiness!

 

and make lots of art too.

Plates Full of Clay - Not Like Feet of Clay - LOL

Stomping around in clay does sound like fun though - don't you think?

 

Shucks, nearly all my friends are going to the annual Gathering this year.  It's next week.  I just can not justify the expenditure while I'm saving for Daisy's new hip.  Maybe next year - or the one after.  Can you tell I'm in full out whine mode here?  I need to have Cher to slap me and tell me to "get over it".  LOL

 

 

 

Well here are 3 out of the five plates of clay components I've been working on.  They're about ready to hit the kiln and then the real work begins with the painting.  Some will get under glazes and others will just get glazed. 

 

I've a yearning for earring components so that is what I've concentrated on.  So far so good!

Do Over as I work on clay beads

Working on some redo's in clay today.  Tomorrow I'll be doing some more lampworking and when I'm ready to sit down for the day to relax I work on making some clay components.  Yes, it's how I relax.  The one that's complete (glazed, colorful, not so great) in this photo was an original I made about 6 years ago in a ceramic refresher I took with Jennifer Heynen.   I hadn't touched clay since college so I was having a wonderful time refreshing those skills.  I haven't stopped since that class.  I just intersperse it in with everything else.  I know lots of lampworkers who work with polymer clay, fibers, or metals - us artistic types never seem to sit still. 

 

 

The original is kind of yucky - I'd never done under glazes and you know how classes are - rush rush rush and learn the techniques.  But I like the craziness of it so I decided that with some alterations it might be an interesting focal piece, albeit a fairly large one.

 

I put on the wing - Maybe I should have stuck with it but all of a sudden wasn't sure if I liked it for the bigger work - or instead of people thinking it represented a mask they might get some sinister angel vs. devil kind of thing, which it isn't.  So, off with the wing and on with two horns. 

 

 

Hopefully the colors I chose for the mask will help to make him a more happy character and less ominous.   I guess I better keep it colorful.