HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

EEEKKKKK! It's Halloween already!!??

SURFACE

Acid etched pieces by my students last week.

Metal pieces colored with assorted dye oxide patinas, solvent oxides, pastes and simple flux and heat patina.

I've been playing a lot with the surface of metals again lately. Creating texture with hammers, etching patterns with ferric chloride, coloring with enamels and heat patinas and now creating color with dye-oxide patinas. I will be offering an all day class called the Surface Embellishment On Metals on November 14th at Bead Haven. We will be using ammonia based verdigris solution on copper, dye-oxides, Gilder's Paste (a type of colored wax), flux and heat patina on copper, and other techniques as well. I'll have tools and supplies for riveting as well, so we practice up on building our patinaed parts into some finished jewelry as time allows. The class is limited in size and there are just a couple of spots left, so please call Bead Haven if you are interested.

In December I'm hoping to do an acid etching class where we will make copper texture plates for texturing PMC. While there are countless rubber stamps for this purpose, it's really nice to be able to make your own textures that no one else will have. There is no better way to distinguish your work from others. I'll let you know when this gets added to the Bead Haven calendar.

LONG TIME, NO BLOG

Here are photos of what I've been up to since we last talked.

Lily in the bath tub, for no particular reason, except that she's cute. Sophie was not interested in being photographed that day.

Making a ring in the studio with the Little Torch. Don't try to take a picture of yourself using a torch, it's a bad idea.

A lovely bracelet made by Michelle, who was wearing it at the Preview tonight at Bead Haven. She used one of my toggles for it, so I asked her to let me take a photo of it. Very pretty and she used my favorite color of Miyukis.

My friend and photographer, Jonathan Sabin, taking new photos for my website. I will have those up soon. We spent many hours together recently shooting and editing. I really like this photo of Jonathan, it kind of captures his spirit.

Football! Night game at Kinnick Stadium. It was Iowa vs. Penn State. We won.

Homecoming was the Black and Gold game. Fans were instructed to wear either black or gold, depending on your section number. We Iowans are a obedient bunch.

Paul and I spent a pretty fall afternoon at Wilson's Orchard recently. They have the best fresh, hot apple turnovers I have ever eaten.

The view at Wilson's Orchard.

I can't believe it's been a month since I blogged. I really enjoy writing this blog, so I don't know why I took such a long break. Truthfully, since we lost my Mom, I have a had time with tasks that require communication. Mostly, I hole myself up in my studio and just make things. It's the one thing that I can do that seems to come naturally to me right now. I will work harder to post here more regularly, because I really did miss it.

Fall is here in full swing and that means football, apples, pumpkins, and the fall open house at Bead Haven. The preview was tonight and we had a nice turn out. It goes all day tomorrow too, so be sure to stop out and see me.