Merry Christmas!

For the last few years The Western Pa Metal Clay guild has had a charm exchange during our December meeting.   Our meetings this year were alternated between member Barb Kaczor's bead Shop, "Four Directions" in Springdale, PA and the Wilkins School Community Center near Regent Square in the Swissvale/ Edgewood area.  WSCC is also home to the studio of member Carol Scheftic.

Our Christmas meeting was held at WSCC with lots of good snacks and beautiful jewelry.  My charm came from my Transit Series.  I made it a little more Christmas like by changing the Swarovski crystal drop to a red or green drop.  And I got a chance to play with my new Silhouette machine and make a little envelope to give my charm in.  (So far I've only played with paper in the Silhouette.  The grandchildren love it.... but that's a whole different post.)  

We put all the charms in a basket and everyone drew a charm.  The basket was brought around a couple more times until everyone who brought a charm had three charms.

I received charms from (left to right) Carol Scheftic, Sue Varolli, and Sharon Shepard.  Carol is a big fan of Hadar Jacobson and does a lot with Hadar's Bronze and copper clays.  Sue's piece has sparkly fingernail polish painted into the flower portion of her charm (very clever.)  Sharon included a CZ for sparkle.  

Over the years I've amassed quite a collection of metal clay charms.  I think I'll do what my friend Carol does, hang them all together in my studio to show them off.  

In case I don't get to post again before Christmas........ Merry Christmas to all of you (and thanks for reading my blog!)

Just Wondering!

Remember Rub 'n Buff?  I found several tubes in some of my stash the other day and wondered if Gilder's Paste is just a revised version of it.

Gilder's paste is a colored, oil based paste (at least it smells oil based) that is used to add color to a variety of media. So far I haven't had much luck using the paste.  It's not so much luck but that I don't like what I've done with it.  (But it seems likes a really good idea and the range of colors is great.)

At the conference this past June I received a couple of charms that had Gilder's Paste on them.  I apologize for the quality of the pictures and the fact that I don't have the names of the artists who created them.  But, it is 2:23 in the morning and I am sitting on the tub in my daughter's master bath with my laptop on my lap.   My husband is in the next room sleeping soundly, which obviously I am not.  (And the artist's information is at home.)

( I like what they did with the paste.)

It's been a few days since I posted and what better time to accomplish something than when I can't sleep.  Well, better get back to bed.  In four and a half hours I have to get the grandchildren off to school.

Just a little grandchild note......the   granddaughter greeted us with "Yay, the Grandpa with the chubby belly is here."  What are the chances he's going to eat lunch tomorrow?  Speaking of eating..... I'm hungry.


Foot note :  The top charm belongs to Candice Kiesaw at CC designs art jewelry and the bottom charm comes from Barking Dog Gallery

Only God knows

There are twenty eight silver charms ready to go to the conference.  (Not all are exactly the same as noted in the previous post.)

Sitting on my work table at the studio are fourteen copper charms, sanded and ready to be fired.  (Obviously they aren't going to the conference!)  All fourteen of those charms are not exactly alike...... in fact about four of them are total different shapes than the rest.

Now, about the bronze charms.   There were fourteen bronze charms (all of these are alike.)  And, actually there still are fourteen.  I just don't know where one of them is.  It will show up one of these days.  When my golf ball hits a tree and ricochets only God knows which direction it went.   The same principle works when a piece of metal flies off my finger when the flex shaft wheel hits it.  I heard it hit the wall, but again..... only God knows where it ended up.

So..... there were fourteen bronze charms...... and then there were thirteen.

"I know the silver is more expensive, but I think I like the bronze better."

Hidden Pictures

As a kid, I loved the "Highlights" magazine.  One of my favorite pages in the magazine was the Hidden Pictures page.  So..... here is my version of hidden pictures.

Can you spot the two charms that are different?

I bet you can figure out why they are different.

The copper and bronze charms are in the making (if I can get them done in time........ retirement is really busy!)

It's almost here!

The 2012 PMC Conference is just a week away....... and I'm not ready!

The last conference I went to (and my first and only one) was in 2008 at Purdue University in Indiana.  This year it's at the Drawbridge Inn in Fort Mitchell, KY and I can't wait.  The conference is a time to reconnect with old friends and meet new ones.  It's a time to energize our creativity and come home with more tools and supplies than we really need.  

There are pre-conference classes (which unfortunately this year I can't take.)  They take money and we all know how that one goes.  But there are plenty of demos and plenty of ideas floating around.

One of the usual treats of the conference is the charm exchange.  In past years there was a designated time for it, but this year it will be ongoing any time someone asks if you have charms.  At first I wasn't going to participate in the charm exchange but changed my mind today.  (Which of course puts the pressure on.)

The last time I made a charm that represented my state of PA.  (I'm too tired to take a photo of the actual charm.... thanks to the garbage man making me spring out of bed at 4:30 AM to run out 2 1/2 weeks worth of garbage.)  But I have included the card that was with my charm.  (Scanning in the card is relatively quick.)

So, today I was trying to think of what I could make.  My first idea was to make small silver quilts with colorful polymer clay borders.  I made one test piece to see if it would work.  Not bad..... but not good either.  

I did want something that would be my own original design.  So after about an hour and a half of racking my brain I decided to use an old photo polymer plate I had made.  I loved the design which I based on an Ojibwa Indian design.   (I've shown it on the blog in an earlier post about enameling and variations on a theme.)  

I never left the studio until 8:00 tonight, but I did get 25 silver charms made (well, at least formed.  Now I have to sand, fire, polish, patina and finish with a jump ring.)  I also want to make some in bronze and copper.  (No sleep for the procrastinator!)

Maybe tomorrow I'll post a picture of the quilt charm.  (It would be really cute if I would enamel the design or color it with resin.)  But time is running out and my first idea took a lot more time to make than I thought it would so the photo polymer plate is much quicker.

I'll share a photo of the Conference charm and the conference when I get back.  

Stuck in summer mode

Finally made it to a guild meeting tonight. It's been several months since I've been able to attend. We met at Beyond Beads in Cranberry Township. What a nice store.

This was our Christmas party, so there were lots of goodies to eat, lots of show and tell to inspire and informative tips to help with our metal clay work. We also exchanged charms. Each of us took three charms, dropped them in Santa's hat and took out three charms. The variety of charms everyone made was inspiring; balls with crystals, mittens, christmas trees, ornament shapes, and lots of beautiful snowflakes to name a few.

I guess I'm just not ready for winter. My charms included beach glass. A holiday and winter theme never even crossed my mind. With two inches of snow coming and a high of 19 degrees, I guess I'd better get ready (even though I don't want to!)