HANDS UP!

A heart-shaped stone I found on the beach in California.

Summer's gone.  Amazing how fast the time goes.  It was a busy one.  I had a couple shows, some major construction on my house, a wonderful trip to California with Paul and my sister Jamie, and now new things are around the corner.  As many of you know, I have had some major issues with my right hand for a few years now.  I have an injury that's really common among we metalsmiths, (especially the women kind!) namely the basal joint of my right thumb is worn out and grinding against bone.  Yuck, more info than you wanted, right?  Well, it's gotten very bad in the last few months, to the point where I'm having trouble buckling my seat belt, and buttoning my jeans not to mention sawing sheet metal.  So, on Monday I'm having surgery to repair it.  I'm a bit freaked out by the length of time I have to spend in a cast, but I'm pretty resigned to the whole thing.  I'm not the world's most patient person and I have a really difficult time asking for help, but I guess I'm in for a period of personal growth.  I'm going to read books, sketch new work, tend my online store and anything else I can figure out to keep myself occupied.  I'll have a few months in various casts and splints before I'm back up to speed, but hopefully I'll be pain-free and ready to go soon.  I'll keep you posted on my progress.

MISS SOPHIE

Miss Sophie

I've been away for a while.  A few weeks ago Paul and I lost our sweet kitty Sophie.  She was 15, which I know isn't young, but she was really healthy, so the sudden nature of it was a shock.  Losing her has been really hard for us (even our other kitty, Lily), she was a sweet, pure soul, who we'll never forget.
My family has faced a lot of loss the past few years.  It got me thinking about the nature of loss and how we deal with it.  Our lives are shockingly short, though of course it doesn't feel that way when you're young.  We all face loss in our lives, that is if we have anyone or anything worth losing.  Still, we go on accumulating people, pets, things, that surely, we will lose one day.  Seems like lunacy to me.  I had a thought soon after she died that maybe I could put a wall up around myself and never care about anyone again.  I thought maybe I could protect my heart that way.  Of course, that's the real crazy thought, isn't it?  Think of all that I'd really lose if I did that.
So, to honor Sophie and all those that I've loved and lost, I'm trying hard to continue to live with an open heart, even though it gets battered from time to time.

WHERE'D JULY GO?

July 2012 is almost history.  I'm shocked how fast it went.  It's been a weird summer so far.  Drought, heat, with no end in sight.  The Iowa River which runs through the town where I live is running at less than 10 percent of it's normal flow.  We've had 2/10ths of an inch of rain since the beginning of June.  It makes a person edgy, when the weather misbehaves like this.  Maybe that's a Midwestern thing.
Well, I've been here working hard.  Gail and I have been working (separately, due to geography) on our class samples of our submissions for the 2013 Bead & Button Show.  All of the making is done and my samples have been sent off to Gail to photograph and then we'll get them submitted.  I love what we came up with and I hope the committee that chooses the classes will too.  This year we're offering a mix of traditionally fabricated jewelry and silver clay projects, and one that combines the two.  I'm very excited about them and later on we'll post some pictures of our submissions.
At the same time, I've been making a lot of new jewelry that I'll have for the first time at the show at Brucemore on August 25th.  I'll post pictures of some of that as soon as I have time to take them. I hope I see some of you there.  It's an excellent show at a lovely place.  More on Brucemore later.
I've also been working on refreshing the findings section of my Etsy store.  Tons of new buttons, toggles (some new larger ones since people have been asking), charms, and rings.  Some are listed and some are waiting to be listed.  Also, I have a few new tools to add to the tool store.  Yikes!  I need an assistant.

SUMMER

 Forged and acid etched earrings

 Mixed-metal Earrings 

 My favorite new thing, forged, twisty, bronze bracelets

 New leather, gemstone and bronze bracelets

Buttons 

Wow, time flies!  I've been going non-stop since the Bead and Button Show.  I've been to the last PMC conference in Kentucky, I've been working with Gail (remotely, of course, as she's in Ohio) on our next year's Bead and Button submissions.  Seems early I know, but submissions are due in August.  I'm working on jewelry for a show (more on that later) that I have in August. Lots of other stuff too!  I want to put some of my photos up of all of my travels and new jewelry to share and I'll do that soon.  The last couple of days I've taken hundreds of picture of jewelry and components to list on Etsy.  I'll be putting a few items up a day as I edit the photos and write the descriptions.  I wish people knew how much work there is in photographing and listing all of this stuff.  I think some people think people who make things for a living just get to sit and create all day!  I wish that were true.  Not that I'm complaining, I just wish this part took less time!  Anyway, please check out the store if you're in the market for any jewelry or components.  You can check it out here.  Also, if you need any jewelry making tools, please have a look in the tool store here.

MASTER CLASS

 Tim McCreight, demonstrating how to personalize a forging hammer.

Tim forging a rod of copper.

My hammer in a vise, in the process of being cut down to size.

Learning to forge ingots.

Me, and one of my forged bits.

It might not look like much, but this small pile of metal represents a lot of work.

Tim, at the Master Class dinner at the Milwaukee Public Market.

 Gail and I, at the Milwaukee Public Market.

Well, Bead and Button 2012 has come and gone.  I looked forward to it for so long and POOF! It was here and over.  It was such a wonderful time.  I want to write about all of it, but I think I'll start at the beginning with the Master Class.  Gail and I were lucky enough to get into the Drawing With A Hammer workshop with Tim McCreight.  Many of you know Tim's reputation as a master metalsmith and teacher.  He was wonderful.  I know the basics of forging, or I thought I did.  I'm mostly self-taught and I think that's great, but that means that there are some gaps in my understanding of certain techniques.  We did so much in class that it's hard to know where to start.  Tim gave us each a 12 ounce riveting hammer.  It seemed enormous at first!  We learned to adapt it to suit our individual needs.  We cut the handles down, we shaped the handles to fit our hands perfectly, and we filed and polished the face of the hammer to make it perfectly domed so as not to mar the surface of what we forged.  It is unbelievable how eye-opening this was.  We believe that the tools we buy have been so well thought out and engineered that they are perfect the way they are (well, Fretz hammers are!).  Any imperfections left by them in the metal must certainly be our fault.  Not necessarily so.  I will be adapting many of my own tools from here on.
We learned to make the hammer do what we want in a more controlled fashion, which is great.  We learned the correct way to create a plane change on a wire.  We learned the correct way to planish a dome to remove the hammer marks.  We cast an ingot and learned to use chisels to cut pieces of it for forging.  How amazing to be able to make a piece from start to finish without having to rely on a manufacturer for the sheet or wire that we might need.  I probably wont abandon suppliers in favor of making my own materials, but it's great to know that I can and it's wonderful to have that connection with our materials.  It's kind of like being a city kid and not really understanding where milk comes from.  The penultimate part of the three day workshop, for me anyway, was when Tim explained that we were going to forge a spoon from a small ingot of brass.  I must admit that I was less than thrilled about this.  I'm usually game for just about anything in a class, but I was a bit reluctant to do this exercise.  I just didn't see the point.  I mean, what's flatware have to do with jewelry?  I didn't express my reluctance, I mean he's Tim McCreight!  So, I went ahead, followed Tim's instructions and 6 hours later I was the very proud creator and owner of an itty, bitty brass spoon!  How wrong I was to be reluctant.  What I didn't see before was that every action, every stroke of the hammer needed in the making of the spoon was a lesson in forging 101.  All of the forging techniques we used in making the spoon translate into jewelry forging.  Having us focus for so many hours on the spoon was, at least for me a way to ingrain all of these techniques into one project which I will not forget for a long time.  Amazing.  The class was jam packed filled with great information. Tim even took the time to answer some questions I had regarding forging, hardening, and tempering steel for making my own jewelry tools.  He is a very generous teacher. The class was so fun.  Many new friends were made and the facilities and folks at the Milwaukee Area Technical College were first rate.  I will be absorbing the experience for a very long time.  If you are ever lucky enough to take a class with Tim, do yourself a favor and jump on the chance.

BEAD & BUTTON TIME!

My pile of class supplies and one of my helpers.

Well, it's here.  Back when our classes got accepted I thought it would never get here.  Now that it's here, I don't know where the time went.  I'm very excited.  I'm excited to meet new students, to teach with my friend Gail, to see and spend time with her and all of my other excellent friends (Gigi, Karen, Anne, just to name a few!) I am taking the metals master class with Tim McCreight.  Most of the tools are provided for us, so I don't need to bring much.  Those of you who know me well know that I'm fighting the urge to bring every hammer that I own.  MUST RESIST THE URGE!  Ok, I feel better just getting that out.  So, saw frame, vise grips, gloves, silver scrap, and a note book.  That's it.  

I'm looking forward to the class.  It's going to open a lot of creative doors, I just can feel it.

Our first class is Wednesday, the first of our 2 acid etching classes.  Lots of messy fun.  It finishes just an hour before the Meet The Teachers event, so that will be exciting. 

I hope that you'll stop by my table at the Meet The Teachers, I would love to see you.  I'll have lots of new earrings, bracelets, pendants, charms, buttons, etc.  Plus, I will have tools as well.  Hammers, shears, saw frames, oh my!  And other stuff too. Please come by and say hi!  See you all there!

2 WEEKS TO GO!

Mixed-Metal Layered Acid Etched Pendant 

#B121356

 Riveting: A Keepsake Pendant

#B121468

Metal Etching 101

#B121469 and #B122554

Ok, it's really a little bit more than 2 weeks, but not much.  Gail and I have all of our supplies and tools ready to go and we couldn't be more excited to teach our 4 classes.  I'm looking forward to meeting lots of old and new friends.  Both Gail and I are taking the Master Class with Tim McCreight.  I'm particularly excited about this.  The focus is on forging, something that I do a lot of, but definitely want to learn more about.  We'll be casting an ingot and forging that as well.  So exciting!