Let it Rain!

Beau, the youngest of the youngest.

(I remember playing in the rain....... a long, long, time ago!)

Oil Heritage Festival Day two

Yesterday at the Oil Heritage Festival was pretty promising as I mentioned in my post.  We were hoping that today would be better since people would be off work and more likely to stop by.  That was not the case.   The number of people in attendance was disappointing to say the least and it wasn't only for us.  The outside vendors also saw quite a drop.  The weather didn't help as there was once again a tornado warning in effect.  The sky got pretty black and all the outside vendors cleared out about an hour early as today was the last day.

We were able to stay open a little longer since we had nothing to take down and made an extra sale or two.  We also have the advantage of being able to be open tomorrow during the car show.  It's a whole different crowd and I know when my husband takes me to a car show, I usually look for something else to look at.  So.... hopefully tomorrow will add a few sales.

Today was the 5K race that all the members of my son's family participated in.  I wasn't able to see the race but "the crew" stopped by after the race.

John Manders (our resident book illustrator) was once again doing caricatures out in the street in front of the gallery.  He was positioned in such a way that we were able to watch him draw when he wasn't busy.  (He even did a caricature of a Mastiff named Lenny today.)   Yesterday he did seventy caricatures.   I had him do caricatures of my three grandsons today.

Tyler the oldest

Ethan the middle child

Cody the youngest

That time of the year

For over 30 some years Oil City has hosted the Oil Heritage Festival on the third weekend in July.    Well, it is that time of year again.

Two years ago, I bought a tent and set up in the street.  My goal was to get my feet wet at outdoor exhibiting and to create a gallery setting within the tent.  As was mentioned in a post on that show, I succeeded at both my goals and made some money too.

Last year, I moved inside the Graffiti Gallery and exhibited with Swan Daashuur (the other jeweler in the Transit.)  We were positioned behind the tents and sales were pretty dismal.  Swan sold more than I did but still not as much as she expected.

This year I had planned on going back out on the street but Swan persuaded me to try the Gallery one more year.  This year the Festival Committee left the space in front of the Gallery open so it was more visible.  We still did not have the number of visitors the street vendors did but it was so much better than last year.  Sales were pretty good today (hoping that tomorrow is even better.)   And, we will be leaving the show up for the entire month of August.

Work by John Mander, Corinne Carbaugh, Abby Bunnell and Swan Daashuur

Part of my display.

 The outside vendors set up  today and it was a good thing it wasn't yesterday.  We had severe storms yesterday and the fire sirens kept going off to warn us of possible tornadoes.  (The Transit Building is built like a you - know- what.  So, if I have to be somewhere during a storm the Transit is my choice.)

Today the wind came up again and it rained for about an hour.  Some of the tents were toppled and people were looking pretty wet.  So..... I'm thankful I was inside.  Linda Lineman who paints porcelain decided that she was tired fighting the weather every year and will join us inside next year.

Calories don't count

After five days at Myrtle Beach, SC I learned that "Calories don't count outside your zip code." (That's good to know since I was dreading my next weigh in at Weight Watchers.)

 I also learned that there is a certain age when it doesn't matter how good of a body you have..... Bikinis are a no no. (There are some images in my mind here that will give me nightmares.)

The grandchildren loved the ocean and the alligator farm.

And the granddaughter loved the day she went shopping with her Mom and Grandma.  

I  got to golf at Tidewater golf course and saw first hand the huge number (and size) of the sand traps on a premiere course (although I only ended up in two of the traps.)  Makes me appreciate the little courses I golf on around here.

Ended the trip by taking the grandchildren to the NC Zoo in Ashboro.  We really, really like that zoo and this will probably be the last trip there.  (My daughter and her family moved back to PA.)

Children will play.  These young baboons were playing peek-a-boo with the grandchildren.  

I also learned that July in the Carolinas is hot, hot, HOT!!  (But it was fun .......  now back to work.)

The process of design

There are many methods of designing art.    During the conference, Tim, Ellen and Helga all shared their designing processes which I talked about in a previous post.

Helga explained how she begins her design process by "playing."  During the session she discussed how she played with paper to stimulate ideas that could be translated into jewelry.  http://crafthaus.ning.com/profile/HelgavanLeipsig?xg_source=activity   After playing, she draws up 10 designs, chooses one of these to expand on with 10 more drawings.  Taking those 10 drawings, she expands one again until she finds something that she likes.

(This is my interpretation of her design process.)

Once again her ideas reminded me of an approach I used with my students for their 3-d plaster sculptures.  (I really need to reflect back on some of my own teaching experiences and give myself assignments like this one.)

The assignment was to create a carved plaster sculpture based on the human figure.

Step one:  Find 10 photos of people, preferably in some sort of motion
Step two:  Do 10 quick gesture drawings of each photo for a total of 100 drawings.  This sounds like a lot, but gesture drawings are very quick.
Step three:  Choose three of these drawings and simplify each one five times into simple geometric forms.
Step four:  Choose one of the simplified drawings and make it three dimensional out of oil clay.  (This is called the additive process of creating sculpture.)  This piece is basically a three dimensional "sketch" and is called a maquette.
Step five:  Using the maquette to aid in visualizing the form, begin carving into the plaster to create the sculpture. (This is the subtractive process of creating sculpture.)   In order to make an area project out,  you must cut into the form.  (That was a hard concept for the students to understand.)

I don't remember who made these pieces, but these are just a few of the results from the lesson.  The lesson was successful for every single student (which was amazing.)  The bottom two pictures are the same sculpture from two sides.

The process works..... whether it's making jewelry or sculpture.

Can you draw this in ice?

Before I explain the title of this post I want to show another one of the charms from a Japanese artist, Mika Tajiri.  Mika is a Senior Metal Clay Instructor in Japan.  Her charm was so exquisite I just had to put it on a chain to wear as a necklace.

Mika's Charm

Mika's Card

My ancestry is Irish (among other things) so I'm obviously not going to do origami because it's not in my history.  But I did buy some square metal clay sheet at the conference so that I can give it a try.  For me, the most obvious origami to do is a "Junk Boat" as it was part of an assignment I gave to my students years ago.  

I can't take credit for coming up with this assignment.  (I would give credit if I could remember his name. )  This was one of those inspiring things I picked up at an art education conference.  (My students always dreaded when I went to a conference because they knew that meant more work for them when I got back.)

This was about a 1600 point assignment which took the entire six weeks grading period.  They first learned how to fold a junk boat.  Then they had to draw a schematic drawing of the process that would teach someone how to make one.  The rest of the assignment could be done in any order they wanted but they had to do five or six drawings of a junk boat as if it were made out of another material, such as ice.  (Hence the title.)   They also had to do five to six drawings of a junk boat as if a famous artist had drawn it.  (Let's say..... how would Van Gogh have drawn this?)  The choice of art material was their own.  Lastly, they had to design a working folder to keep all their work in.  The folder had to have a cover that made the viewer want to look inside.  It was an exhausting assignment that lead to a lot of complaining along the way but a sense of accomplishment when they were done.  (The students out did themselves on this assignment and I wish I had more pictures to share.)

Comic paper junk boat

It was also an assignment that lasted for years.  Even though the students complained, several of them kept the "Junk Boat" alive.  They continued to make them smaller and smaller, until they were smaller than a penny. (How they ever did that many folds with that small of paper is beyond me....... but I guess I will find out.  They were about the size of earrings.)  Then they went the opposite direction to see how big they could go.   One of my seniors even made one hundred of them (from McDonald's fliers) and hung them in a mobile.  

Small, smaller, smaller and smallest

Bigger

Biggest  (Probably could have handled 8 students in it...... if it hadn't been so flimsy!)

I guess that time does cycle around.  Now it's my turn to do my assignments.  

A World of Metal Clay

The final PMC Guild metal clay conference was a national conference, but in name only.  There were many other countries represented,  Canada, Australia, England, Greece, Japan, the Netherlands, Panama, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Germany.

Some of them came with charms and I was lucky enough to exchange with a few of them.  (Sorry about the quality of the photos.  I'm trying my daughter's macro lens and not quite use to the depth of field thing.)

One of the first exchanges was with Lila Diamantopoulou from Greece.

www.liladiam.com

Some of the Japanese Artists combined polymer clay and metal clay in their charms.  I'm sure you can find the metal clay in each of these pieces.  

Miyako Kobayashi

Anna M Aoki

(Who is actually from NY.)

www.d2nyjewelry.com

Yoshiko Komoro

http://wallpaper.fumbaro.org/en/

How wonderful it is to be a part of the Metal Clay Community.  It's a wonderful (and large group!)

The Spirit of Metal

In past conferences there was a set time for the charm exchange.  This year was different.  If we had charms to exchange we were to put a star on our name tags.  (Needless to say, after we looked at people's necklaces..... we looked at their name tag.)

This was a good idea but it had some drawbacks.  First of all it was too easy to make a mistake and get two of the same person's charm.  We were so busy looking at the charms that we didn't really pay that much attention to what the person looked like.  Instead we focused on what they were wearing (and of course each day they had on different clothes..... hence the mix-up. )  (Actually I'm hoping that is the explanation and not that I was having Senior Moments!)

Most of my doubles came from the Guild members from Louisiana, L'esprit du Metal.   They all had this really neat logo on their cards.

I don't mind doubles (now I have earrings.)  Some of the people had more than one choice of charm so some of my doubles are more about having two of the same person's.  

Heather Griffith

Dianne Hoyt  ( I have two different charms from Dianne)

Andi Benefield (got duplicates here.)

Simone Patout Palmer  (duplicates too.)

Cecille

(I apologize if I've messed up any one's name.)

I too had three different kinds of charms.  They were all the same design but they were either small silver, large bronze or large silver.  And since my photo polymer plate was designed for earrings the design was reversed on half of them.  What are the chances they got a matching pair to make earrings?

I can only hope!

Speaking of Backs

One of the first people I traded charms with at the conference was Kim Paige.  (She recognized my charm from my blog...... nice to know that it's being read.)

Kim's charm 

I mention Kim because she was wearing a necklace that had her children on it and I noticed it immediately.  When I went to take a closer look at it (on her neck of course) I saw that the other side was also beautifully designed.  (Why is it we immediately turn the piece over?....... another reason for taking extra care with the opposite side.)  Kim designs and sells under the title "Red Tree Studio."  (I guess that's why the red leaf!) 

Check out her portrait pendants.  http://redtreestudio.com/photopendant.htm

A few years back I did a portrait of my granddaughter Olivia.  That was another reason I was extra interested in Kim's necklace.  Her technique allowed for more detail than the photo polymer plate I used.  

Actually after seeing Kim's, I'm embarrassed to even show mine.  In fact I won't.  I'll just show the sweet little picture it was taken from.  This is Olivia Pearl!

Check your behind!

As an art teacher, I always tried to impress on my students to not neglect the back of their art work.  Even though it may not be seen, it was important to follow through on the back with their craftsmanship.

This is something I've tried to attend to in my jewelry making.   Now I'm not talking about making a piece reversible so that there is no back or front.  This in my opinion is getting a "twofer"  (two for the price of one, thus making the piece worth more.  An example of this is "Big Frog in a little Pond."

The original "front"

On the "back" a Koi fish

What I am talking about it taking great care with the back to make it just as interesting as the front, (even if it doesn't get seen.)   I try to keep my backs clean and smooth.  But, after being at the conference, I realized that just isn't enough.   How the back is treated separates the men from the boys (as they say.)

I sat behind a girl at one of the sessions and noticed how nice the back of her earrings looked.  I couldn't see the front of the earrings but the interesting texture on the back intrigued me.

At the "Show and Sell",  Vickie Hallmark's cloud pin http://www.flickr.com/photos/vickiehallmark/ not only had great detail on the front but she also included two cz's at the points where the pin attached to the backing.  (I just couldn't get over how nice it was to see such attention to detail...... even on the back.)

Lisa Barth's book (that I mentioned in a previous post) shows how much time and detail she puts into the backs of her stone settings.  These are not reversible, but the backs are just a lovely as the fronts.

http://www.cooltools.us/Lisa-Barth-Jewelry-Design-Gallery-s/1344.htm

Good art  requires careful designing not only from the front, but from the back also.   

"I caught a worm!"

"Grandma, I caught a worm and Ethan caught a pink worm!"  Obviously the little man doesn't quite have the grasp as to how this fishing thing works and didn't see Grandpa put the worm on his hook.  He did manage to catch a little fish later in the day at the campground's frog pond.

Well we are back from the campground and relaxing in the air conditioning.  It was a good time and we are looking forward to doing it again.

Vampires at the Arcade

A great weekend for playing in the pool

 climbing the fire tower to the top

and playing in the stream.

Today my legs are KILLING me.  I guess I should have stayed on the ground!