Laziness is costly!

Today was the Second Saturday at the National Transit Studios.  Every month on this day a majority of the artists are in their studios from 12:00-5:00.   The studios are one of Oil City's best kept secrets (even though we try to get the word out there.)  Many times Second Saturday is poorly attended and considering the weather this weekend, we had no reason to expect anything but the usual.  But, surprisingly it was quite busy today.  Many people decided to stop down and see what we were all about.

I had a chance to share information about metal clay with quite a few, talk to a former student who now lives in London where she works as a model, talk to the mother of a former student who is majoring in art at Edinboro University and catch up with a couple who attended a demo I did over a year ago.  I made contacts for possible students and just plain met some very nice people.

It's interesting to hear people's perspective on things.  In yesterdays post I said how messy my studio was.  Well, today a visitor made the comment about how neat my studio was.  Go figure!

Today I also saw how costly being lazy can be.  The price of silver has skyrocketed since I started making metal clay and many of the pieces I made early on carry the price calculated on the price of clay at the time.  Instead of updating the prices, I decided to leave them the same.  (Too much work to go back and do all the recalculating.  Besides, if I had to reprint all the pages of my catalogue, the ink alone would cost me a bundle.  At least that's what I told myself. )  Anyway, I sold a ring today and just for the  fun (?) of it, decided to recalculate the cost to remake the piece at today's prices.  Using the same formula, the same price per hour and the same overhead charge, todays charge would be $12 more due to the increase cost of silver.  (Multiply that by the amount of inventory I have of finished pieces and that's a big chunk of change.)  Maybe I'll find some energy somewhere.

I also fired the slip trailed earrings today and managed to get both firings done.  Before I left the studio today, I polished the pieces and added a patina.  The unfinished pieces looked like there wasn't much there.  But, once the pieces were fired I was quite satisfied.  The slip did show up well.  Just in case, I had drilled a hole at the bottom so I could add a spot of color in the form of a bead.  Oh me of little faith!

Copper earrings

Yesterday's firing of CopprClay was successful and today's kiln firing of Art Clay copper was also successful. After tumbling, both clays look the same color. Now onto working out the firing schedule for Hadar's copper clay.

These earrings are AC copper with hammered copper wire; long and dangly.

That's cheesy!

      My New Year resolutions of drawing everyday, designing something note worthy and entering competitions were based on good intentions.  And, like lots of good intentions, they haven't gone anywhere.  (At least not yet.  The year is not over!)  

    Although I did enter a pair of earrings for a book about creating earrings in 30 minutes or less.  My design didn't get chosen, but that is okay.  I'll try again another time.  It could have been the design itself or it could have been the picture.  I didn't realize it at the time, but my photo showed some less than craftsmanlike rough edges.  I need to learn to really look closely at what I do.  (The photo below is improved due to the wonders of PhotoShop,)

   Anyway, I thought it was a clever idea.  The earrings look like a piece of swiss cheese and were made totally in 30 minutes, which included firing time.  

   Plus, they opened themselves up to many variations.  Resin could be poured into the holes to give them a stained glass effect.  A back could be added behind the "cheesy" form and the holes could then be enameled.

   These were given a brushed texture as a quick finish, but a more pronounced texture could be used instead.

   Another variation is to go with a completely different shape for the cheese slices and 

do something different with the holes.  These are derived from the idea, but go in a different direction.   I thought the possibilities were endless.