Some finished pieces

Darn!  Sometimes finishing the pieces are more work than making them .  Sanding, firing, polishing, and adding findings can be tiring and hard on the fingers.

Here are some of those thirteen pieces all finished up.  (Please pardon my photography skills.)

Nautilus with moonstone

Double teardrop pendant with Swarovski crystal

One of my favorite leaves, the Ginko.  

I'm also trying something new by not offering a chain with the pendant pieces.  The chains really up the price of the piece and are often not the desired length.  This way people can use their own chain or if they want I can make them a chain in their preferred length.  Hoping this will make my pieces more accessible to more people.  

I'm still a Pisces

Yesterday I did a post on the making of my piece for the Tionesta Art Auction.  That post was about the making of the fine silver fish.  Today's post is about the final piece and how it came about.

My original intent was to make a necklace for the silent auction.  But I got to thinking that I was already donating a butterfly necklace for the regular auction.  Also what usually happens with jewelry, is that it gets set on a table and gets lost among all the large paintings that are hanging above and around it.   No one really notices it, until it is held up and brought around before the bidding starts.  I knew that would happen with the butterfly necklace (although I put it in a large box, hoping that would help.)   I also put a note in with it that signified that it was fine silver.  Last year someone wrote on the tag that it was pewter.  (Big difference between silver and pewter.)  That's what led me to "hanging" the jewelry like a picture.

I procrastinated and the final piece came about around 10:30 the night before.  I was sure I would have to pull an all-nighter because things were not going well.  (I really wasn't sure the direction I wanted to take.)  Earlier in the day I ran to the Dollar store and bought a couple of frames and some glass cabs (clear ones, blue ones, big ones and small ones.)  Didn't know what I would need so I figured it was best to have more than not enough.

I played around with the positive and negative traits of the Pisces by typing them out.  I thought I would cut them out and paste them like a collage.  Wasn't working.  My mind was blank.  Printed some on white paper.  Didn't like it.  Printed some in different fonts.  Didn't like it.  Couldn't figure out how I wanted to arrange the words or if I even wanted to use words.  At one point I decided I would just chuck the idea and make the fish into a necklace.  I had brought home the beads from the studio and the tools.............. but not the beading wire.  Damn!  It was getting later and later and I was mentally blocked.

Next I tried typing the words in Photoshop.  Naw!  I would be able to type around a path if I used Illustrator.  Naw........  haven't used Illustrator in years.  Couldn't remember how to do it.  So....... back to Photoshop.  Decided to use blue paper to print on, typed out my words and manipulated them with Photoshop.  It looked pretty good to me.  I put the positive traits at the top and the negative traits at the bottom.  Then I distorted the negative shapes so they were not as easy to read.  Next step was to figure out where I wanted to glue the glass cabs.  (As you can see I didn't need the blue ones or very many for that matter.)   I tried all sorts of placement before I decided to just put them on the bottom.

The next hurdle was attaching the fish to the picture.  Thought about cutting a space for the bail to slide through to the back but the backing for the frame was too hard.  (I'm such a wimp,)   I decided to take it to my studio the next morning and drill a couple of holes with the drill press (hoping it wouldn't chew up the paper.)  I made a test piece to drill through first.  It worked, clean as a whistle.  I threaded a wire through the bail and into the holes.  Gave a little twist to the wire in the back and my fish was attached.  Ready to go.

Well not quite.  The fish didn't hang the way I wanted it to.  Now what to do?  Time was running out.  I needed to get on the road to deliver it.  My cousin and I tossed around a few ideas and we came up with the idea to glue something to the background behind it.  A few clear beads glued in strategic places and it was finally done.

I had a student one time who said  "Art is hard work.  You just don't know it."   

Believe me..........  I KNOW IT'S HARD WORK!  (But I can't quit.)

I'm a Pisces

 I see my last post was over a month ago.  Sorry!

As usual this time of year I get into a funk.  I've just spent several months in Florida and developed a new routine.  Then I come home and it takes a while to get back into the old routine.   Plus it was 27 here this morning and 68 there.  Need I say more?

Anyway, I tried to get somethings done around the house before I went to the studio.  I straightened up, put things away, swept and dusted......... Then my husband decided that now was a good time to put in a new tub.  So........ now I am straightening up every day, putting things away every day, sweeping every day and re-dusting.... everyday.  So...... I've decided that now is the time to get back to the studio and get out of the house while this remodeling is going on.  I can keep my sanity better if I only have to deal with the aftermath

I volunteered to donate a piece for the Tionesta Art Auction and to make a piece for the silent auction.  The theme this year is the Zodiac and since I am a Pisces, it just seemed logical for me to do that particular sign.  Needless to say, I knew about this since back in early March(?) but procrastinated until the week it was due.  (Oh how working under pressure drives us.)

My original thought was to do a necklace with the two fish we usually associate with that sign.  I used a  Koi fish texture plate for the back of the piece and cut it out in a water droplet shape.  (Clever, Eh?)  Then I used a texture plate that had native American style fish for my two fish.  (Didn't think of it at the time but Tionesta has a rich Indian heritage.)    The original design didn't have the aquamarine in it (that was an afterthought.)  Here is a picture of the piece before firing as I envisioned it. 

I really liked the look of this and planned to put a hidden bail on the back.  Then I decided to add the stone............ that's when things started to change.   Once I added the stone it looked like an "eye."  I tried to ignore the eye.  But it wouldn't go away.  All I could see was this eye which looked like the eye of a bigger fish.  As much as I tried not to think about it, I knew I had to put a tail on this bigger fish.  It was no longer elegant (what I was aiming for) but now became whimsical.  (Which is okay.  I guess my jewelry this time wanted whimsy.)

This is a picture of the finished fish.  (But not the finished piece for the auction.)  

Oh how he changed.

Stop back tomorrow for the trials and tribulations of finishing the piece for the auction.  

Beer jewerly

Added an new addition to my fine silver "Beer" Jewelry Collection.  (Could also be referred to as my "Road Kill" collection.)

Joining my Bud Light Earrings

and my Busch Light necklace

are my new Sam Adams earrings.

But it's fine silver.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, working on crosses in metal clay is delicate work.  I can't tell you how many pieces I have broken during the sanding process.  It's not so much sanding the edges but trying to sand the surface that I seem to have the most trouble.

This past week I was making a cross for a friend when I broke it three separate times.  Repairing metal clay in the dry state is fairly easy (as long as the edges line up.)  And, it's usually just as sturdy as if it hadn't broken.  The repairs went well...... until I dropped it.  It broke in two "different" places.  Once again, back to repairing it.  This time though I pasted it to a bigger cross to give it strength (and made my friend a new one.)

After firing the piece I added a patina.  Darn..... wouldn't you know it the patina came out a beautiful shade of blue. I decided to leave it (although it will continue to darken.)  The reason I say darn, is because fine silver is expensive and now it doesn't look like silver.  It looks like copper.  

Oh well, I like it and hopefully someone else will too. 

Bottoms Up.

In a much earlier post I mentioned that the drugstore is near the beer distributor.   And that I found a couple of flattened beer bottle caps in the parking lot.   One is a Bud Light cap, the other is a Busch cap.  (I think I've already share the earrings I made from the caps....... but I'm going to share them again.)

Two part silicone mold is an amazing material.  One part is usually white and the other is a color.  Both parts come in their own containers and don't do anything until they are mixed.  Equal parts of each compound are mixed into a ball.  Then the item to be molded is pushed into the ball and left to firm up; which usually only takes a few minutes.  When the mold sets up, the item is removed and voila...... a mold of the piece.

When the mold is ready, it doesn't need to be oiled as the clay will not stick to it.  The clay can be taken out while wet and used, as it was for this ring.  This way it can be shaped around a piece.  Or it can be left to dry in the mold before it is removed.

The beer caps molds .........

The finished silver pieces.....

"Bud Light"

"Busch"

Duh!

It's been about a month now since Oil City had their Oil Heritage Festival.  About ten of the National
Transit Artists set up in the Grafitti Gallery for the arts and crafts show.  We could set up out in the street, but that involves having a tent, setting up at 6 in the morning (and I am sooooo not a morning person), sitting out in the heat (and maybe rain), and taking it all back down the next day.

Instead we chose to set up in the Gallery where we could leave our pieces for several weeks and not just two days.  It's still a lot of work hauling everything down to the gallery and figuring out where to put everything.  It involves hauling down the tables, the jewelry and all the displays.  True to form, the elevator always seems to give out at this time of year.  So, it's a lot of running up and down the stairs carrying heavy loads.

Swan Daashuur (another jeweler in the Transit Studios) and I had displays that took up the most room.  As we were setting our displays up we kept talking about what we did last year.  Notice...... I said talked about what we did.  And..... tried to remember.  Sometimes we remembered and sometimes we did not.

This year we wised up and took a picture of our set ups.  Duh!  How easy is that?

This isn't how it looked last year but I think it was better.  I even had a couple of people make a comment on how nice the display looked.  

Next year I won't have to strain my brain trying to remember what I did.  Duh!  An easy solution.  

Happy Birthday

Yesterday I taught my first class since March.  A fellow Oil City music teacher, Beth Orris treated her daughters to a metal clay class for their birthdays.

This isn't the first time someone has given one of my classes as a present.  Another teacher friend gave her daughter and son in law a class for Christmas.  One Easter, a mother gave her son and daughter a class instead of candy.  They even used her own stones in their pieces.  And a fellow artist's husband gave her a gift certificate for a class.  Can't remember what the occasion was.   If you ask me, I think it's a great idea......... a tangible gift "and" knowledge.

Anyway, there were five students.  Not only did Beth and her daughters take the class but also Beth's sister in law, Amy Krumich and a good friend, Vicki Scherr.

What a great group.  Lots of fun and laughs (and lots of picking on each other!)   I felt right at home.

What always amazes me is the variety of work that comes out of a project.  Everyone adds their own flair and truly designs their own personal pieces.  

Unfortunately the photos I took of the finished pieces were rushed and most of them did not turn out.  (There were men watching little ones back at the house .......... need I say more?)  So, my best shot is the unfinished pieces as they were prepared to go into the kiln.

Julie and her mom brought leaves and ferns that they incorporated into their fold over bail pendants.  Others tried a variety of shapes and texture variations to make their pieces unique.  

As many times as I make pieces and teach it, it is still like Christmas when the kiln is opened.  Everyone surpassed their expectations.  Besides the pendants, we used the remainder of the clay to make a pair of earrings.  

This was the only decent photo of a finished piece.  These were made by Vicki.  Her earrings kept breaking so she ended up making a delicate necklace for her grand daughter. I wish I could show you the rest of the pieces but the pictures just don't do them justice.

Going Down!

The other design based on the steam elevator came from the left side of the elevator cage.

Again, it is a simple, very literal design and like the other designs seemed to lend itself to the silver clay.

(Although I can now see it in the brilliant bronze!)

Once again the photos do not do justice to the jewelry.  I've taken these photos all different ways and sad to say these are the best of them.  At least it gives you an idea of what they look like.

I made two photopolymer plates and reversed the image so the recessed areas in the first design are now the projected areas.

Color was added using the alcohol inks.  

National Transit Jewelry Display

I ended up with twenty one pieces of jewelry.  (No wonder I'm tired!)