Luck is in the eye of the beholder

  Yesterday I posted that we weren't lucky at winning things but I said that we are lucky in other ways.  

   Today proved to us that we are indeed lucky.    As we were traveling home from our visit in NC, my husband fell asleep at the wheel.  Before we knew it, we were air born across the median strip and sliding into the opposing traffic's lanes.  With all that could have happened, we were not hurt.  No one in our two lanes hit us.  No one in the opposing two lanes hit us either, even though we sat in the middle of the road for several seconds.  With all the holiday traffic heading home the outcome could have been different.   God was indeed looking down on us.

   We had our oldest grandson with us and he was scared.  Thank God we all had our seat belts on. We didn't hit anything, so the body of the car is fine.  We did a lot of bouncing so something happened that caused the car to quit working.  Now we are sitting in a hotel in Summersville, WV until tomorrow.  Hopefully it won't take much to get the car running again.   

   Three different cars stopped to help and make sure we were okay.  One family even let our grandson sit in their car to stay warm.  All three cars stayed with us until they were sure we were okay and the emergency vehicle arrived.  

   We had Christmas presents hidden in the back of the Expedition and some of them landed in the seat beside my Grandson.  He wondered where the play dough came from.  We also bought one of those realistic kitties for my Granddaughter and it would meow every so often.  The car repair shop will probably think we have a cat in there.  I should have warned them about it.  It was still meowing when the car got towed away,

   Anyway, I'm writing a retraction to yesterday's post.  I am indeed lucky........ very lucky.  (And surprisingly our grandson wants to ride with us tomorrow.  But, he wants Grandma to drive.)

What Luck?

   If we didn't have bad luck, we would have no luck.  Isn't that what a lot of people say.  I really do believe that some people are just plain lucky.  Why else could someone win the lottery twice?

   We took the grandkids to the NC Zoo on Friday.  The weather was great, the zoo was good, and the grandchildren had a really good time.  All in all, it was a great day, until we got back to the parking lot.   My son drove his van and my son-in-law drove his truck (that he was going to trade in this coming Saturday on a new truck).  They parked at the edge of the parking lot, away from all the other cars.  Good thinking, right.  Well, as luck would have it, one of the Zoo vehicles jumped out of gear and got away from the driver.  In fact, she was knocked to the ground trying to jump back into the vehicle.  Luckily she did not get hurt.  Anyway, the vehicle's opened door managed to mangle my son's bumper and the back of the vehicle got stopped by my son-in-laws bumper and tail light.  The damage isn't major and the zoo will pay for it.  But just the same, it's an inconvenience.

   I won a pen once..... it leaked.   I won a poinsettia.......  it died.   I won a cake........ we ate it.  

My husband won a coffee maker........ we don't drink coffee.   That is the extent of our luck.  

    We are lucky in other ways (which really is better).   We have a wonderful family,  many wonderful friends and so much to be thankful for.   So, even if we aren't lucky in winning things, we are still lucky in life.

   (But it sure would be nice to have some good luck for a change.)  

Carolina Designer Craftsmen Exhibit

  I'm in NC for the Thanksgiving Holiday.  Today we went to the NC Designer Craftsmen Exhibit.  We discovered this wonderful exhibit quite by accident a couple of years ago.  We wandered in to it, thinking it was just a regular craft show...... which it is not.  Instead we found some high quality (and high price) one of a kind crafts covering a range of ceramics, woodcrafts, weaving, painting, quilting and of course jewelry.  

   Of course I was checking out the jewelry for inspiration.  But I was also checking out how the booths were set up, which ones caught my eye and drew me in.  I subscribe to the Crafts Report magazine and the newest issue had an article in it about how important the artist's booth is.  I tried to make mental note of what I liked about particular booths.  Lighting was definitely important as was the layout and backdrops.  Like anything else, some were better than others.  I did come to the conclusion though that setting up a good looking display will take some money.   As of now, I have no intention of selling from a booth, but one never knows.  

Walk away......from the clay

"Walk away ........... from the clay" is something I am told that CeCe Wire tells her students during her classes.  CeCe's book is  the first source I used when I began teaching myself metal clay and I don't remember her saying anything like that in her book.  But, I definitely know what she means.  I often have to tell myself that as I work on a piece and try to perfect it too soon, which often results in damaging the piece.  

   But last week, it took on a different meaning as I struggled with a commission.  The pieces in question were not difficult, but for some reason they were giving me all sorts of grief.  The first step was to make a PPP plate for each of the pieces.   I have now made eight PPPs.  The second step was to create the pieces in clay.  First I did four of them in standard clay and then three more  in PMC+.   Out of those seven there is only one I am pleased with.  Thank goodness nothing is ever wasted.  I know I can reuse and re-fire them with some major changes for new pieces.  

    Thank goodness for the Thanksgiving Holiday.  It forced me to get away..........  from the clay.  It gave me time to think of how I might try to change the already created pieces.   If nothing else, when I get back to work, things might finally go right.

Open House

Here's some photos of my Open House.   I dragged almost everything out of my studio and tried to set up an inviting display.  The rings gave me a problem as I wanted to hide the ugly tags.  I set them on snowflakes and hid the tags underneath the snow flake.  It worked for a while, but as you can see it didn't last long.  I won't be going to this extent the next two events.  I'll set up displays but not as elaborate.  

How to mess up your checking account!

Give your husband a debit card!

Oh my God, I could be wearing Spencer Tracy!

   Had my Open House today.  Did it earlier this year, since I coincided it with an event at the studios.  It was strange in the sense that everyone who came, with the exception of one, did not come to my open house last year.  I'm basically going to be involved in two more events before Christmas so I know that lots of people who came last year will be coming to one of those events since they could not make it today.   But that really isn't what today's blog is about.

  What it is about, is an interesting thought.  My friend Donna Carlson was one of my visitors today and  I explained that metal clay was made from silver that was recycled from old movies.  Leave it to Donna to burst out with "Oh my God, I could be wearing Spencer Tracy".  She then proceeded to add a few more veteran actors to the list.  Philosophically, that is a pretty interesting thought.  Maybe a thought for a new series of jewelry.  

PPP earrings

    The last commission I worked on was a gift for the local cross country coach from her team.  The cool thing about this commission was that I was able to use the coach's own drawing for the earrings.  Unfortunately I had to lower the back leg of the runner so she was either just starting out or running slower than the original drawing.  If I had kept the leg where it was the earring would have been waaaaay too wide.  I also had to eliminate some of the little detail in the hat but I think it worked out anyway.  I hear she was wearing them the other day.  How cool is that to wear your own drawings on your ears? 

   I made them using a Photopolymer plate, which is really an easy process.  It just takes a little experimenting on the computer to see how they'll look when they shrink.  I used Standard clay for these so they would shrink a lot.  That gave me the chance to work bigger, but not have huge earrings.   I was pleased with the way they turned out.  What do you think? 

Yahoo!!

  Yahoo, my business plan is finally done.  (And two days before it's due!)  I made a business plan the last two years but they were only a couple of sentences long.  I didn't really know what a business plan looked like but now I do and it is thirteen pages long!!!!  It is a little scary, especially trying to project sales and cash flow for the next year.  If only real life worked the same as it does on paper.  I guess that is why we put it on paper so we can work on making it come true.   Anyway it is done and all that is left now is to make my elevator speech on Thursday night, turn in the business plan and graduate.  (Graduation gives me a years free membership in the local Chamber of Commerce and you can bet your boots I'm going to take advantage of that.) 

  One of our assignments was to interview our competition and I want to mention the gracious ladies who gave freely of their information to help me out.  You might want to check them out.  There is some nice work out there.

   Mary Boden who lives right here in the Franklin area has been doing polymer clay jewelry, printmaking and silver jewelry for years.  Her website is www.woodthrushstudio.com

   From Warren, Pa is Adrienne Grafton.  She originally was from Franklin also.  Her silver smithing studio is just down the hallway from my studio.  Her website is www.adriennemgrafton.com

   Melissa Muir is from Akron, Ohio and does traditional silver smithing.  I became aware of her work from one of the forums I belong to and I bought one of her necklaces for my daughter.  Her website is www.melissamuir.com

   And, from the other side of the state of Pennsylvania is Holly Gage.  Holly is the only metal clay artist that I contacted.  She makes her living from making jewelry and is very involved and well known in the metal clay community.  Her work is gorgeous and can be seen at www.hollygage.com

What a cutie pie!

   My grandson Ethan won't let me call him cutie, sweetheart or baby doll.  "I'm Ethan" he says.  No matter how much I try to tell him that those are words of endearment that mean I love him, he won't hear of it.  

  The other day he was trying on my gloves and hat and surprisingly agreed to having his picture taken.  He looks like such a cutie pie in this picture.  (Funny though, I don't look that cute when I wear them.)  

Visitors and Guilds

        My studio is fun to work in but it is more fun when there are people to work with and I've had lots of visitors the past few weeks.  

     Besides the Designing Women from Tennessee,  Dorothy Psuty from Titusville, Pa. treated her daughter Ingrid to a mini-introduction to PMC class.   Check out Ingrid's website at www.ingridpsuty.com to see some of her fabulous pieces.  Her jewelry pieces based on the work of famous artists are my favorites.  (Must be influenced by all those years of teaching art history.)

   Yesterday, the Western Pennsylvania Metal Clay Guild held their November meeting at my studio.   Four members from Pittsburgh made the two hour trip up to Oil City (which I really appreciate).  There were six members in attendance and two guests.  We started out with show and tell, then eagerly heard about Jan Durkin's experience in her certification class with Celie Fago.  From then on we just played and had a great time!  The longer meeting gave us plenty of time to complete a project from start to finish.  Everyone brought such a variety of snacks that we didn't have to stop for lunch.  We did make a short trip to the gallery downstairs though but then it was back to work (I mean play.....  when work is fun it is called playing.)    A benefit of a longer meeting is that the extra time gave us more of a chance to get to know our guild members better.  

   For anyone doing metal clay, joining a guild is a great way to share experience, knowledge, tools and fun with other people who do what you do.  I recommend seeking out a guild in your area.  You won't regret it. 

Part time business- Full time job

   Well, I only have one more week to go until I graduate from my business class.  The class was three hours long for nine weeks and was well worth taking it.  But I am finding out that starting and maintaining a business is full time work.  (Darn, I'm retired and I only wanted part time work... but that just doesn't work!!!)   We covered a lot of information and my head is somewhat spinning.  Our business plan is due next week and I hope to work on it tonight and get it finished.  I made a business plan last year when I started making jewelry, but nothing like this.   A business plan is a pretty detailed thing.  This class has spilled over into my personal life too as I am budgeting my personal money better.  (The hubby isn't happy with that one as he has to watch his spending too.)  But, that is a good thing!  (Did I just sound like Martha Stewart?)

Not bronzed yet!

       I have been reading a lot of posts on the metal clay forum about the new bronze clay.  I've got a sample pack and a 200 gram pack but haven't even opened them.  For some reason, the bronze clay doesn't excite me like it does everyone else.  In my opinion, it was brought out too early and all the kinks aren't worked out yet.  A friend and I are waiting until everyone else figures it out before we try it.  

      And, I guess that I haven't been doing metal clay long enough to feel that I know all there is to know about the silver.  I'm still exploring that.  But with that said, I have seen some very nice work done with the bronze clay.  The only bronzing I'll be doing is my legs with the Jergen's cream.  (I hate white pasty legs!)