Bead and Button...let the recovery begin

WOW.... I can't believe the week is over already.  As usual it was a blast.  There is a core group of us that get together each year.  We behave and laugh like little kids.  The classes were good and shopping is always phenomenal.  I wish I could have blogged more during the conference but the iPad doesn't upload pictures very easily nor is it very compatible with blogger.  Besides...most of my free time was spent in the lounge talking to friends.

The first class I had was with Joe Silvera on soldering bezels.  I managed to make a pendant in 6.5 hours...which is much faster than the last one I made which took 6 weeks of classes.  He and his wife, Anat, are great.  I would definitely suggest a class with them if you get the opportunity.  He has a number of DVD's available and wrote a book on soldering.

The rest of the classes were with Richard Salley.  I took those for practice on fabrication....sawing, riveting, layering pieces.  We worked with various sheet metals and faux bone.

A very funky hinged bracelet with a metal Frappacino lid as a base.  The hardest part about this was deciding what to put in the lid and how to put it together.  The rest of it was sawing and forming.

Cris's bracelet on the left and mine on the right. Cris coined the term post-apocalyptic punk.  They look like eyeballs. 

A locket....again a metal lid as the base.  We acid etched the design (both inside and out) and hammered, riveted, wire-wrapped the rest of it. Etching withe PNP paper was fast and easy.  Over the next few weeks I will be taking some of my favorite tear-away designs and etching them onto copper.

 A picture goes on the inside.

Here I am... hard at work doming the lid.  I need to wear two sets of glasses to see anything.



A faux bone and metal pendant.  All the dimples were made with a hole punch that Richard modified to produce dimples rather than cut.  Being the tool whore that I am.....I bought one in each size that he had.  He sold his entire inventory to the first class we were in.

Cris's pendant on the right and mine on the left.



Richard doing a demo.....

Brenda and Deb watching the demo...

Cris and I gave each other tattoos during class.  This is hers.  LOL....  It's dangerous when we have spare time on our hands.

More later...

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