The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

Funny last Saturday... I felt terrible with a cold but I needed something to do so I worked in the studio.  Played with some bronze.  I had etched up all that copper and I wanted to see what the designs were going to look like.  I also worked with some molds.

The good...the molds came out nicely.  But molds usually do.  I've been using the actual object that I molded to give the backside of the piece a mirror image design.

This came from a mold of an African gold weight.  This is the front side.

Back.  I like that it's not perfect.  And is has my fingerprints on it. 

Another gold weight mold

The one on the right shows the back side.

This came from a mold I made in a Holly Gage class.  This is from an ancient coin.  It's the head of Apollo.

The bad....The copper I etched looks really great but in my rush to etch all the sheets, I didn't etch them as deep as I wanted. They etched about the depth of a tear-away...which is OK but I was going for just a little bit of a deeper etch.

The ugly....well..I love the shape, love the texture and love the faux rivets.  But....the texture is too shallow and some of the faux rivets fell off.  I am going to try to attach and refire them.  If that doesn't work I will drill out the spots and add real rivets...maybe with some screws to make it different.

Well...back to the drawing board.  I am going to etch new sheets so I can get a deeper texture.

Bead and Button Registration Opens Tomorrow!!!

Cristina Leonard and I are happy to be teaching classes together again at the 2014 Bead & Button Show! We will be offering 6 metalsmithing and metal clay classes.  Below are the pictures of our classes.  We guarantee you will gain new skills and techniques and have a great time doing it!!

Hot Forged, Twisted Bronze Bracelet ‪#‎B141347

Bronze Metal Clay Pendant Necklace ‪#‎B141445‬ 

Carved Wood and Fine Silver Pendant and Earrings ‪#‎B141568

Metal Clay Embellished Bracelet ‪#‎B141553‬ 

Mixed Metal Layered Acid Etch Earrings ‪#‎B141551‬ 

Metal Clay Tube Bead Bracelet ‪#‎B141351‬

Sorting the Bead Stash....

Spring is never the time I clean the studio.  January is usually the time this works best.  There are no shows and all the holiday obligations are over.  I've had this very large basket of beads in the studio.  Over the past year, every time I bought something it went into the basket.

Today I emptied it out on the floor.  Ben was impressed.  You can see it in his eyes. This pile is 5" deep in the center.
 

 



So I started to sort them out by color.  I hang the beads on hooks on the wall above my assembly bench.  I decided....I need more hooks!!

 

 

Sophie decided to hide in the corner while I was going this.

 

 

Browns, blacks, wood, ceramic, bone

 

 

I still have greens, blues, roman glass, oranges/reds to sort through.  I'm really going to need more hooks. 

Annual Review

I've had a raging cold the last couple days and no desire to do anything physical....so a little contemplation is perfect right now.  I found a website called Marketing Creativity written by Lisa Jacobs.  She has a 7 day, step-by-step process for reviewing 2013 and planning for 2014.  Just thought I would share the website.

What is it about New Year's....

I seem to always get sick.  I had 10 days off and luckily it was just in the last two days that I got the crud...headache, sinus pressure, sore throat, stiff neck and my voice is all squeaky.  I did go to work today but left early to avoid the grid locked traffic that always occurs on bad weather days.

The snow was so deep it buried the Baby Jesus...only the cow made it out of the snow drift.  Oh the humanity!!

Called Mom and she demanded that I take some aspirin and go to bed immediately.  Seriously....she said "Listen to your Mother".  That was at 6pm.  I haven't made it to bed yet.  Sorry Mom.