Ready, Aim, .........

The new year is still over a month away, but I am making my resolution now. It's not the usual (although I need to make the usual as my pneumonia got me so far off track) but a jewelry business related resolution. (Actually I probably should call it.... updating my business plan!)

I was reading the blog of Babette Cox who sells personalized stamps for metal clay. Her site is http://www.babettecox.com/pnamestamps.htm. I have one of her stamps and am planning on getting more. (I just have to remember to use them and my .999 stamps. Darn I keep forgetting!) Anyway, she had an interview with Don Fredlich who was the guest speaker at the 2008 PMC conference. (His work is wonderful!) He told her that some people say Ready, Aim, Fire and that she was going Ready, aim, aim, aim......... It was time for her to fire. I thought that was a good way to put it. I think I'm just aiming too and haven't fired yet.

So, it's time for me to FIRE! Hence my new year resolutions (or my new business plan, it is that time of year.)

I AM ........

going to write those letters to the school superintendants to see if they will approve my classes for Act 80 credit for their art teachers.

going to take a picture a day of my jewelry for 30 days and post it every day on my Etsy site (it has been sooooo neglected.)

going to apply for the Etsy Metal Clay group

going to enter competitions

going to try my hand at a magazine article

going to check out more galleries for my work

going to begin work on Phase I of the metal clay masters registry (with my friend Carol)

going to check out more teaching venues (which I have already started to do.)

and I am going to finally get started on my Transit jewelry series which is based on the fabulous architecture of the National Transit Building.

Okay, does this sound like enough resolutions? I do have a year to complete everything, right?

Also, here's another piece of jewelry from my "water series". (LOL)

Big Frog in a little pond

As usual I just start playing with the metal clay and see what comes. Well, it isn't as easy as it would seem. Often, it takes more time than is necessary and there are times when it appears that nothing is going to work. (Although I only have one piece in my scrap jar that I gave up on.)

Big Frog in a Little Pond is one of those pieces. It started out as a circular disk for a demonstration on rolling, texturing and cutting out the clay. Now I don't even remember what my original intent was. The piece sat on my work table for weeks while I waited to hear what it wanted to be. There was a frog that was fired also sitting nearby and I decided to use it with the piece. Originally the frog was going to sit on the rippled water surrounded by a variety of leaves. But, the piece was too small and needed to be enlarged, so another textured piece was made to put on the back to enlarge it. Since this reminded me of water, I used the texture with the Koi fish on the back. (So I guess it could be said that this was also a big fish in a little pond.)

The leaf punches that I had just looked too plain so I used a leaf mold that I got from one of my Tennessee friends. It worked great but was rather large and hung over the edge. So again the design took another direction as I designed a bail on the back to mimic the overhang.

The next step was to move the pendant up a notch by making the clasp, rather than using a ready-made one. The clasp is simple, just a toggle and bar done in the same Koi texture.

The turquoise beads add an earthy feel and the crystals represent water. (For some reason I've been on a water kick lately. Maybe I can sound very artistic and say it's part of my water series.)

Finally!!!

No, I don't have my computer back. But, I 'm on my daughter's computer and I know how to download (upload?) pictures to it.

So.... here's a couple of pictures.

The first picture is of the copper (sort of) fiasco. It wasn't a total loss as the underlying copper was fine. But what a mess the rest turned out to be.

The other picture is an example of a piece I made as a demo during a water etching class. I'm very pleased with the final design of the whole piece. But, that wasn't always the case.

During the Arrowmont earring extravaganza, Linda Kline showed us a technique that included a tab designed right into the piece. The piece was fired flat (like the by-pass ring) and the tab was bent into a round bail after firing. I didn't get a chance to try it, but my friend Nancy (who was sitting right next to me all three days) did. She made a water etched pendant and was nervous about bending it; but it worked slicker than you know what. It turned out beautifully.

So, I never did a test piece (that would have been too logical) before my class. Instead we dove right in (thank goodness I only had one student), made our pieces with the tabs and fired them.

Then came time to bend them. (You know where this is going. Do you see a bail on my piece?)

Yes, they snapped off. Both of our pieces broke.

My student drilled a hole in her piece and hung it with a jump ring. I pasted the broken bail onto the back and re-fired it. For months it laid around my studio, while I tried to decide what else I wanted to do with it. I was listening, but it wasn't talking. Finally, one of the other jewelers in the Transit building, said she liked it just the way it was. So I took another long look at it. Looked in my basket of beads and this is what I came up with. I do really like it now. It has a South Western look.

Another unfinished piece done. Finally!

Slow down!

The copper firing done on Thursday was definitely a learning experience. The first rapid firing netted great results. This one did not.

Nothing cracked like I thought it had. The cracking sound was a couple of balls popping off a piece. Other than that, everything looked great.

I brushed them and threw them in the tumbler. (Copper clay should have it's own barrel for the tumbler.) They tumbled for a couple of hours. Opening the tumbler is always like opening a present at Christmas. The first two pieces came out shiny and bright. The third piece had half of it's decoration missing! My first thought was that it cracked off, but it was not to be found in the tumbler anywhere. What was found instead was a nice coppery liquid at the bottom of the barrel. It disintigrated! So, I started to wonder. I took a pointed tool and started to dig at the rest of the decoration and sure enough it was soft like the original clay but had a copper crust on the top. The entire decoration came off easily.

Then I tried another piece that had a decoration on top. It looked great, but once I started digging, it turned to powder. Wow, how did that happen?

My thoughts on this is that the decorations were still wet. The base pieces had been dry for over two months. These pieces were put on the night before and I mistakenly thought they would be dry by the next day. Wrong!!! They were really, really thick pieces and obviously it takes more than a day to dry. The base pieces were fine, it was just the decoration.

For some reason it is best to air dry copper (and I presume bronze clay). For that reason I did not use the usual candle warmer or dehydrator.

I did take pictures, but don't know how to get them onto my son's computer. When (and if) I get my laptop back, I'll be sure to share.

Lesson learned....... you can't hurry love (oh, sorry that is a Diana Ross song) copper clay.

Also, the Open house is not going to pay for my computer repair. It will pay for my mailings and food but that is all. Don't ask..... it's a sore spot!

Good News, Bad News...... Damn It!

Damn It!!! There I said it. My daughter said it was okay. I don't have to be polite.

We got good news and bad news about the computers. Good news is that the old computer works. There was nothing wrong with it that the tech guy could find. So, luckily I kept the old moniter, keyboard, printer and scanner. I rushed home, dragged those all out of the closet and set it up. I got everything running (even after four years in the closet, the printer had some workable ink it.) The internet worked (sort of). Then I remembered why I got a new computer. The old bugger kept freezing up on me. What a piece of crap!

Okay, that was the good news, even though it didn't sound like it. The bad news is that the laptop is dead and will cost $500 to get it fixed. (Hope the Open House is good tomorrow!)

More good news though about the copper clay. First time I fired copper I used a two step firing which was mentioned in an eariler post. This time I was in a hurry (not enough hours in the day) so I did the one step approach... full ramp to 1700 and hold for three hours. It worked great. So, I did it a second time but fired for four hours as I had thicker pieces in. I won't know if it worked until I go to the studio this morning. About an hour into the firing I heard a crack, so I'm thinking there might be a problem If it is the piece I think it is, it was expected.

Oh, and one grandchild note. We just got a new motorhome on Monday. It has been winterized as we don't know when we'll get to take it out. My husband was showing it to my son's family last night and the middle grandson peed in the pot. Hey, that's what it's for right? I guess it has been broken in. Don't know how pee mixes with antifreeze.

Darn!

My computer is down!!!!! I won't survive!!!!!! When did I become so dependent on a computer?????? Darn!!!!

Panic is setting in..... my computer isn't working, Open House is this Saturday (I need more inventory), I can't post pictures of the latest enameled pieces (until the computer gets fixed...... I hope it can be fixed) and I need to get some copper pieces done. I advertised "the new copper clay" for my Open House and only have one pair of copper earrings.

Let's see.....three days until Saturday. How many hours is that? Is it possible to do all there needs to be done in 72 hours? Do I need sleep? Should I cancel my hair appointment? (No, too much gray is showing.) Will the copper firing go as desired (I do have a couple ready to fire.) What am I going to serve as snacks on Saturday? Will all my mailings pay off? Will people show up?

Why do we do this to ourselves before an event? Don't know and never will. Next year it will be the same. It was last year.

Am I rambling? Yes. Sorry! I'll try to keep posting some thoughts and hopefully some pictures soon. (But first I've got to figure out how to do it on my son's computer.)

Why did my computer have to go down at this time of year? Darn!