There's something to be said for deadlines....

Now that the show is over I feel totally unfocused.  Leading up to the show there was no question about what I HAD to accomplish.  Everything else just took a back seat.  Now all those back seat items are staring me in the face and I am somewhat at a loss for what to do first...where to focus my energy. 

I did have two pieces to alter....those will go out in the mail this week.  But what to do from here???  I am working on getting things up on Etsy but that is a slow process.  I have a short attention span...especially during the week because I'm tired from working all day.  So only a few pieces posted at a time. 

I have books to read.  I'm currently reading a Cara Black novel...Murder in the Palais Royal (Aimee Leduc Investigations, No. 10)  This is a murder mystery series based in Paris...each book is in a different neighborhood and all involve Aimee Leduc as the female detective/heroine.  I also want to continue studying African masks, sculptures, and textiles....something I started this summer. 

I have to clean the studio too.  Boy....do I need to clean the studio.  It's such a mess.  Remember all those spacers I dropped on the floor.  Well I was in the studio a few days ago and knocked over two more containers of.....spacers.  It was ridiculous.  So I spent about an hour on the floor picking everything up.  And because I'm so anal I will spend a couple hours sorting them all back into their little compartments.  I also need to sort all the other pieces/parts.  I'm hoping to do some de-stashing so stay tuned.
.

Never leave your husband in the booth alone!!

My shows are done for the year....all 2 of them...LOL.  It was a good show and quite a few friends stopped by the booth.  Every time I do a show the booth display evolves.  This year I had to quick come up with something for the walls besides my tent sides.  I say "quick" because I left it to the last minute...as usual.  So I ran out to BB&B for some sheers.  They worked out well.  Below are some pictures of the booth.

Pic taken by Brenda Baby!!

The three days seem like a blur now.  I'm glad it's done but it's also a little sad.  You spend three days getting to know the artists around you and catching up with friends you made in previous years....then you leave and don't see them again for a year....or never.  It's a little strange. 

I also learned a lesson....never leave your husband alone in the booth.  While I was gone a customer came in and asked where I get the bronze.  He told her that we take trips to Macedonia and dig it up ourselves.  I repeat....never, ever leave your husband in the booth alone.

I didn't take any pics except one....it was a piece that Lou told me I had to see.......

This is a piece by Michael Weiss.  I asked him about the use of straps and faux rivets on his pottery.  His teacher has been using this particular design technique for 40 years.  We both agreed that there are no original ideas anymore.  If you can think of it....someone else has already done it. 

“Nobody can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man who has just discovered an old idea and thinks it is his own.”

-Sydney J. Harris

.

Hopping to See You....

I got this e-mail today from brenda baby.  Now I have a friend Brenda...but I knew it wasn't from her.  I've never heard my friend refer to herself as "brenda baby"...LOL.  Apparently brenda baby is "hopping to see me".

I am Brenda. I am sorry for inconvenience you, i found your email where i am searching for browsing, and decided to have contact with you, and hope you will not neglected to contact me, i respect people especially for their good characters, understanding and way of reasoning. I hate to be neglected, humiliated or cheated! I like people that are straight in heart, truthful, social,loving, kind, humble, obedient, And am ever ready to meet you at your door step if your love could be true!. I love to keep a date with a man who understands love and know what it takes to build a healthy and strong relationship that could lead to marriage and not just a relationship. I accommodate new friends and serious relationship most. I love and associate with people who have fear of God. Your nationality, race, locality, location, Body color, eyes, hair or language is considered not a problem if only we love and understand each other very well. i will send my photos to you when we get on very well. please contact me on my email hopping to see you, have a nice day with my regards


This is a first for me.  I get lots of spam but I haven't been hit on by a girl before. 
 
 I also get spams on my blog all the time and they are weird.  They make no sense.  It's like schitzoprenic poetry.  The last line is particularly interesting...as long as your not a male.

Body, hundreds of spectators, thousands of spectators, arrived at the ball field at that you have the the federal highway funds. Out, they?re going to assign morning television, answering earnest questions from David Hartman in a simulated still and thinking flu-related thoughts. That is constantly being enriched by a diverse and electromaggots Today?s science question that people give you for Christmas when they get desperate. Soon the excited england, not to mention that we lose a couple of airmen, to achieve the purpose catching Hell Call me a regular American guy if you want, but baseball season is kind of special. Great jokes angry letters from shouldn?t be too much trouble as long as you avoid Common Taxpayer Errors. The character that breeds tremendous pains couple agreed with that policy. League, I look for yet obnoxious?can this city face up to the multitude of problems besetting it and consisted of deciding that our band outfits should include sun glasses. Which as I said earlier people have loosened up to the point where they would react positively past, namely: You get a hold of a whole bunch of the males, sterilize them, and drop them.

So the hours are ticking down until THE SHOW.  The car is packed and I'm ready for set-up tomorrow.  I like the fact that we set up the day before. The show starts Friday. 

Now...I'm heading back into the studio to make a few more necklaces....I'm never comfortable with my inventory.  I could have 500 pieces and I would think I needed more.  I could have 500 pieces and someone would ask for something that I don't have.  One year a women asked if I had a bronze pendant in purple to match her sweater and this was after 30 minutes of trying of almost everything I had. 

Let the fun begin!!

The Goal: 30 earrings and 10 necklaces in one weekend...

so I am ready for the show next weekend.  I can work a little bit during the week but the bulk gets done on the weekends. 

Needless to say my house and studio are a disaster area.  I have managed to get some laundry done but not much else.

The carnage that is my studio....

 Yes...I was sanding metal clay....and running with scissors.  What you can't see is my mask.  I do wear one when I sand.



 I said it was carnage.....

Gotta have my glass of Diet Dr. Pepper...that's my version of coffee

 Maybe I shouldn't have posted these...this is embarassing

 I use a strainer from the kitchen store to sift through the carbon for my pieces.  It works really well.

All the stuff on the floor by the wastebasket....I tipped over a container of little spacers....no time to pick them up...LOL...gotta keep going.  If I need them I know where they are.

 Lots of bits and pieces all over the place.  I sometimes wonder how I can work like this.

 Glass, bone bronze, brass....

 Some cool beads by Karen Elmquist...the white and frosted round ones.  The rectangular ones are Roman glass

And the results......so far 7 necklaces and 27 pairs of earrings...and I still have about 6 hours left before I call it a night.

Later!!
.

All right Mr. De Mille, I'm ready for my close-up....

Me...23 lbs. lighter and a new do!!

.

Beads and brass and bronze and bone.....

Oh My!!

Plugging away in the studio.  I'll break on Saturday to pull out all of my show supplies and figure out if I have everything I need to set up my booth.  Last year I was determined to make fabric side walls for my booth.  How could a year go by and I not get this done?  So the tent walls will go back up this year.  I'm going to look at getting sheers to hang up over them to give the booth a softer look....then maybe in 2011 I will find the time to make the fabric side walls....Yeah...Right. 

Then it will be back to production.  Why do I never think I have enough jewelry for a show?  There is always that little voice saying....make more...make more. 

.

17 days to the show....

and I'm spending most my free time in the studio.  This weekend was no exception.  I never get as much done as I imagine I can.  There's always other things to take care of...cleaning, cooking, laundry...that get in the way.

Plus I have a short attention span.  I can work for 4-5 hours and then I have to go do something else.  I'm even like that when I take classes.  If it lasts too long or doesn't have enough variety....I loose focus.  l'm surprised I can do my day job since it's pretty much the same thing everyday.  I have to admit there are times when I want to let out a blood-curdling scream.  But I digress...

Here are a few pics of the weekend's work....

Coin Necklaces

Organic beads, bone, brass, and bronze

I have about 12 of these with all different focal beads

Battle shield with bone, brass, glass and an African coin

.

Class Pic...

I lifted this from Jen Cabic's blog.  I never have pics of me in the classes that I take.  So here is one....with my typical eye's wide shut look...LOL

Mary Ann, Cathy, and me.  Noreen in the background

.

Organics

Great organic beads...again from Joanne Zekowski

.

Cuniform Necklaces

Our Day with Robert

My piece....I just finished watching The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency filmed in Botswana.

Yesterday was spent with Robert Dancik. There were 12 of us in class. A fun bunch to be sure!! This was the third class I've taken with Robert. Working with the Faux Bone was fun and I did tube rivets for the first time. Funny to think of some of the common techniques that I've never tried. Robert had me use an eyelet setter to start the flaring of the rivet. It worked really well.

 From front to back...Cathy, Mary Ann, Jen, and Robert in the background...all enjoying the day.

Robert demoing for the group 

Jen

Cathy sawing with such a big smile...I told her she looked much to serious and she started laughing. 

 Another demo.  Using a tin can as a bracelet mandrel for the faux bone.

The group and below is some of the work

 One of the coolest pieces is this bracelet made by Pat.  It is Faux Bone with alcohol inks used for the colors.

New necklaces

I threw in bone and glass and bronze and more glass to make necklaces.  The real genius of these necklaces are Joanne Zerkowski's beads. 
. 

All shined up....

The pics don't show all the detail (I need a better camera) but you get the idea.  I still like to cut gashes in the shields.  I will mend them with leather lacing.  I think of these as battle shields for the warrior in all of us.
.

Primitive Bead Pendants

Beads by Joanne Zerkowski of Z Beads.  She is not on-line.  She can only be found at bead shows.  I ran into twice this year...in Santa Fe at Beadfest and Milwaukee at Bead and Button.  She makes these fabulous organic primitive looking beads.  These fall into my "lickable" category. 
.

Bronze...I just can't quit you

I haven't worked in silver in over a year.  I'm just to synced into the bronze.  I'm still working in the original too.  The colors keep me working in original.  Yesterday as I worked in the studio there were a lot of thoughts going through my head about the things I've heard about metal clay's other than silver. 

I've heard people complain about the bronze...it's messy, it takes to long to fire, blah, blah, blah.  Some have even gone as far as to say it isn't really a metal like a sheet bronze, it's not strong, you can't forge it. 

Well...it's not sheet metal.  Neither is silver PMC.  It's different.  Just like acrylics aren't oils aren't watercolors.  They are all different forms of paint.  And strength....I've been wacking the crap out of it all weekend long and it's forging beautifully.  Messy....yes it's messy.  The fast fire bronze is cleaner...but still messy. 

I was enjoying myself yersterday working at the bench.  I was thinking about various other art forms and the inherent messes that are associated with each one.  My only conclusion was.....put your Big Girl panties on and deal....or go do something else. 

That had me laughing all afternoon.

.

I was about to conquer the world but got distracted by something shiny....

I missed class tonight because I had to work late but the upside was that Lou and I went to the Moosehead Saloon for a late dinner.  He's travelling off and on so we have to catch time together when we can. 

It also gave me a chance to finish hand polishing the pieces in the picture.  I kept thinking that I should just throw this stuff in the tumbler but I don't want to lose the color....especially in the cuniform pieces.

 I'll be busy in the studio again this weekend....which is fine by me.  I still have at least 2 loads to prep for the kiln...more pieces parts and some medallions and shields.  Plus I have an idea for incorporating some leather into the pieces that I want to try out.  Too many ideas and not enough time.

Ahhh...if only I didn't have to work the day job....the jewelry that I could make.   Hey...Bill Gates, Warren Buffet...don't you have a spare million I could have.  I mean you can only do so much with your 50 billion dollars.  Really....you wouldn't even miss a million.  I'd give you free jewlery...LOL.
.

Studio Weekend

This weekend was the best kind of weekend.....no plans except to spend time in the studio.  I put some necklaces together.  Carved some bronze connectors that are now in the kiln and worked through another 200 grams of bronze with some new tear-aways.

The November show will be here soon so I wll be spending a lot of time in the studio between now and then. 
.