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.

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

Lucky Me - Shopping the GL&W Show in Asheville

Have I dropped from heaven and having a good month, or what!!!

I love bead shows, art shows, bead shops, fossils, and on and on.  Back in Michigan there was the GL&W show and it was held near Detroit.  Over the years its dealers dwindled.  It was a shell of its former self and I wondered if the only way to get to see another great wholesale show was to attend the annual in Tuscon, AZ.  Something I'm sure I will never be able to afford.  By the time you paid for plane ticket and hotel - although I have a friend close by I could stay with - you could say a total goodbye to any funds to spend.  And then I'd still be paying off that plane ticket for awhile.

Anyway, I digress.  So we moved here to NC from Michigan.  I love the area - one set of children are fairly close by (although I miss the others) and low and behold...  There isn't only one wholesale show nearby - - - there are THREE.   And two sets a bi-yearly.  The ones in Franklin are by far the biggest but the ones in Spruce Pine are larger than the old one in Michigan.  The Asheville one is only the GL&W Show but considering the other two were early in the year, I'll take it.  

You're not supposed to take any photos in these shows so I snuck these.  I'm not quite sure what it is people were doing with the photos they took that made them ban them.  But, since I have no ulterior motives I hope no one will be too upset.

Attending these is entirely too much fun.  After we parked, in a parking garage instead of on the street somewhere, we found we were at the back of the Civic Center.  Around the center we went - - up the darn hill.  Really?  Does any place I need or want to be around here (Asheville) have to be a low incline?  Some how I figure it's heaven's way of forcing me to exercise.  Around we go and then - whammo, so not done yet - - - another block to the front of the Center and there are photocopied signs plastered in each and every door in the building.  OH TELL ME IT ISN'T SO!  Yup, the entrance is moved.  We must have had this really befuddled and pitiful look on our faces.  A sweet guard came to the door and said, "Oh my, I bet you walked around this building - Come on with me....I've an elevator and can take you right down to the show floor!"  Whew, and thank you southern hospitality.  

We still had to walk up a hill and back to the parking garage but the reprieve provided by that sweet lady certainly made my day. 

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

 



Turtle Murrini

Murrini is ancient...a thousand flowers is what the translation boils down to.  I learned murrini making from Loren Stump.  The current king of murrini making.  No one does it as complicated or as well as Loren. You will certainly enjoy this demo from Corning and will give you an idea of how complicated this can be.  Yes, thank goodness there are easy murrini we can all make but there's nothing like that feeling of holding up a glob of glass and knowing that you are going to having this incredible miniature to work with when it's all pulled out. 

 

Look at the size of piece of glass he is holding and working on.  Trust me - this is not easy.  And all of this to make a murrini that might be pulled as small as 1/4" or smaller.  Of course, these large and complicated murrini's of Loren's are not pulled to this extreme - they are meant to seen.  But, it is glass and the blending that goes on to create the depth (WOW) - and think about the amount of minute details in a piece that is 28mm X 58mm.  This is considered a large and extremely complex murrini.  It has a price tag to match - it's a collectors piece.

 

The detail in this is incredible - it was made in sections, heated, and assembled.  I believe you can see the process on Loren's site.  It's highlighted above so you can easily go and look at his amazing work.

 

Can I do this?  Oh hell no.  I've made the faces and learned to do simpler murrini.  There are very few brave souls who would even attempt what Loren is capable of making.  He is the maestro of this form - a master.  I bow to the temple of Stump on this one.

 

But, if you're going to learn to do something you might as well sit at the feet of the master - and so I did.  I took my first class with Loren when I was a red and raw rookie.  I dropped hot glass on the floor - burned a hole in the plywood protecting the floor - was totally embarrassed and learned more than anyone should have the privilege of learning.  It has held me steadfast through all of these years.  I took the second class with Loren some 15 years later and was much better prepared.  I also got a nasty burn because I got distracted and moved my hand into the path of the flame.  What is it about his class that makes me reckless - it's beyond me and has never happened - before or after.  Just with him.  What a putz I can be...maybe there were stars in my eyes.  I do know I was trying to hard and needed to relax.

 

But what about this turtle murrini you're saying - since I titled this post that way.   Well, here you go.  I wanted a turtle in some of the tide pool beads that I'm making.  You can't exactly do an intricate turtle shell on them so I thought I might make one.  I saw one on Corinna's beads - (she wrote the first and definitely book on beadmaking - Passing the Flame) and decided I needed to make one.
 

Crap - what was I thinking - I got way carried away.  I looked like Loren holding up a glob of glass that was an inch thick and 2+ inches wide.  I know better - really I do.  You're supposed to start small - its a single smallish murrini not a piece of a complex one.  By the time I was done (an hour and a half later) I needed some extreme massage from the DH to recover.  I hope the murrini works out when I use it.  I pulled it way to small for some of what I want to do.  It's an issue for me for sure - and boy did those lessons come back - I could hear Loren yelling in the background - "Don't make it look like a bone when you are pulling it - that means not enough heat was applied to the ends."   Grrrrrrr, and a bone shape I had - as you can see.  Heaven's allowing, it will be cute on the beads.  And worth the hour plus I spent creating it.

You can see from the photos on the top I had quite the handle bars on this piece of murrini I was pulling and how it cracked as it cooled.  I never put the ends in the kiln just the cut sections you can see in my fist (complete with doggie hair).  The last photo are of some of them after I lapped them down.  I haven't much on the way of an index fingerprint after that but I have a nice selection of sizes. 

 

 

No, that's not all of the murrini I ended up with.  Those sticks in my fist were each about 4 or 5 inches long and since you use tile nippers to cut them into pieces less than a quarter inch thick you get quite a few.  What is on the paper towel is only what I might use when I'm ready to try them. 

 

As soon as the first tide pool or aquarium bead is done with them I will post it here.


 

On the Bench Today

My friend Susan and I are going to do the bead Show in Southfield this fall.  I haven't done that show in a very long time.  Since I now make ceramic beads in addition to the lampwork I decided I might as well show both types of work so in the evening when the TV is just in maximum overdrive I've pulled out the old table to work.  So far I thought I'd start with sets of rounds that I can paint with colorful decorations.  I'll try to make about ten sets.  They're a little on the labor intensive side when you aren't just putting one color of glaze on them but if I limit the sets with the fancy paint jobs and then work on regular glazes for others it will all even out I hope.

So here is the removable bench:  The largest beads are hollow - no one needs a lot of weight around their neck.  Jennifer Heynen taught me how to do this and frankly I just love it. 

The larger beads are about 1 1/2 " large.  See the plastic spoons?  It's my tip for keeping them as round as I can.  I tend to roll them around in there and they round back up nicely. 

Have a wonderful week.

The Creative Process

Don't worry Bead Soup Blog Hoppers - No finished piece here until reveal day and I'm not so sure which components I'll use.  And, for sure none of those red beads are going into the finished piece.

 

What to do what to do - I've made some progress but am still undecided on so many fronts.  I was originally stuck for awhile.   I put everything away and let it gel (or let it fall completely from my mind for a couple of weeks until I was feeling some pressure).  Either one of those creative situations usually works pretty good for me.   I find getting some pieces together and leaving them under your nose after they've been put away for a bit tends to reboot the computer.  Then comes the drawing pad.  I don't just use it for drawing but also free word association - just all kinds of notes/ quotes/ anything that smacks of setting my creative side afire. 

 

Home - home - home.  There was that odd ceramic shape - so much like my home...but what was I to do with that?  Uh, let's see....and here is where the free association can come in, plus some down and dirty Internet searches. 

 

1.  Home Sweet Home

2.  No Place Like Home

3.  Home is Where the Heart Is

4.  My Old Kentucky Home

 

You get the idea.  You can find the key to your theme within your focal.  Be it a word association - color Segway - poem - chorus to a song - you get the picture.  I'll bet that plenty of those phrases up there brought out visuals for you.   No place like home led me to think of ruby slippers and since it was obvious from my soup that I was going to be working in blue I quickly ruled that out.  Kentucky is a beautiful state for sure but all I could think about what the Derby and horses and for sure that shape was not a barn, it's my house.   Now home is where the heart is appealed to me as I love making glass hearts...but then it hit me.  I've seen Home Sweet Home twisted around every which way but loose and had recently created a bead batch which included a bird - Bang - Wham - there it was:

 

"Home Tweet Home"

 

You've seen the drawings so I guess this post is the prequel to the Blog Hop story I've previously posted since you've already seen the drawings that came after the angst of hiding (uh, storing) my soup and then re-revealing it to myself.  So when in doubt (for me) it's:

 

Lose the objects of frustration to your creative energy (bead closet for me)

Reintroduce the components and leave them where you can see them in passing

Start some free association with the focal component and decide your theme (loosely)

Start your drawing and note taking

Look through your stash for "go with items" (hunting and gathering)

Tighten that theme and the drawings

Begin to create but keep in mind nothing is written in stone (see my experiment with finger weaving)

Experiment with techniques (what haven't you done - how safe do you want to play it?)

Think about this - do you just want to string that piece? Take into consideration how much time you've left yourself for the completion of this project.  But remember - you want people to notice the consideration you've given to that Blog Soup gift and visit your blog again...notice your work and your talent.  Right?  Don't kill yourself - for sure - but use your talents to the best of their abilities.

Make your final decisions - Techniques, Design, Color, Accessory Components, etc.

Create your additional components and finish that piece.

 

For me - this is the process for Bead Soup creation with gift pieces - it's meant to be a challenge but not an agony.  It's never been easy and I always like to throw in an extra curve for myself.  One year it was waxed linen and a spiritual theme, another it was more of a knotting project and a very full necklace but its always been fun.  I'm excited to have an extra week but not happy that Lori's been sick.  I can't wait to see what Shannon has done, but to be honest I was a little "tight" in my color selection and should have thrown her a bigger curve ball - she could have easily handled it.  And now that I've worked my process a bit I'm excited to show what I've done too.  I hope you'll like it.

 

 

 

 

 

On the Bench Today

I'm fresh out of ham and Easter eggs at this point.  I've been busy but not nearly enough and have no one to blame but myself for not getting more art completed or beads made.  There have been moments in which I could have squeezed that in but didn't.  Shame on me.  Ha, like laying on a guilt trip will help shake me out of it...it's never worked before.  Isn't that the definition of insanity?  Doing the same thing and expecting different results...well, there it is!  What more can I say. 

This is what I have been working on.  Two rings.  One will be large enough to be considered a "statement ring" and will cover two knuckles.  The stone is beautiful - deep and moody like a nebula.  The other ring is smaller and the stone is a natural amber colored drusy.  It's not a flashy drusy but rather a calm one.  I bought it many years ago and loved it's nature.  Maybe it's because it reminds me that even the quiet people of the world can be lions - they just have to "be brave".  I stamped that and sweat soldered it to the back of the band.  Just a little reminder to the world of silent types - a private message that the wearer can run their thumb across.

 

 

And while I was working at the bench someone snuck onto my spot on the couch.  Good thing there are more chairs around the front room.