Three 'Tribal Armbands'

The famous Tribal Armbands, the only thing I got into the Student Show this last spring. The one on the brick is the weakest. I need to make some more, perhaps play with some sterling or try out keum-bo on copper. It's supposed to be possible.

I exchanged emails with Cree and found out it is true--the Harn Museum Shop takes fifty percent of the selling price. Thanks but no thanks. How can anybody make any money that way? Anyone except the Harn Museum Shop, that is.

I picked up the latest issue of Profitable Glass. I do very little glass and only could be considered a glass artist by the kindhearted and very generous. I melt some funky, organic beads from time to time and want to get back into fusing someday when I have the time, money and space. But the magazine has an article on photographing work and that crosses over from medium to medium. Bit by bit, I'll get a handle on what I'm doing photographically. I know I need to get a graded background and also something, or things, to support my pieces. Some sort of wire frames--especially if poseable/moveable--or lucite or something that can hold things up but stay out of sight.

I pulled out my copies of the latest issues of Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist and Art Jewelry magazines. I was looking for an article that I'd briefly glanced at, I mean a nano second long glance, on getting publicity in the internet age. I glanced at it a little more but got already some great ideas. I signed up for a free internet newsletter from Alyson B. Stanfield and browsed around on her site. I'm enthused. I'm thinking tres seriously about signing up for her blogging triage class. That could be a great help. I did try to friend her on facebook--it was her idea after all--hey, friend me! Helas, nothing. I'm feeling...bereft and abandoned. Perhaps I have issues.

Sandi and I have another trip planned for the hinterlands. I hope she's expecting to stop at FDJ and not just the Sewing Studio and Ikea. I expect I'd go into withdrawal if I came within FDJ's sphere and didn't stop in and look around. And spend money. Probably on a Foredom drill press and vise.

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Chased wedge t-fold, work in progress

Chased wedge t-fold, copper.

This is the first chased wedge t-fold that I opened the legs out on and then folded and crimped the legs.

It shows a fair amount of oxidation. I will probably clean it up when all is said and done. I might end up putting some sort of enamel on it, probably just a clear flux. Anything else would take attention away from the form itself.

I expect that I will eventually use it as the focal piece of a collar but as yet don't have a clear vision of the collar itself.

I also need to come up with a way to attach it to said collar. Soldering something onto it is always a possibility but one I want to steer clear of if at all possible.

Jump rings and their kind are a failure of imagination.

When I know what the collar is supposed to look like, the attachment will come clear.

All the chased wedge t-folds with opened, crimped, curled legs have a Rorschach test like effect on people--it's a fox head, etc. Read More!

I miss Alphatype

I continue to play with this page and gain a little more understanding each time. Yet it is so frustrating. I want to drop the blog title--it's way too high in relation to the photo behind it, but I don't know how. I'm beginning to get a little clue of what the html means when I read it but not enough as yet to be effective. I did a damn fine job, though, as a typesetter using only code. Html is just different code. I'll master it, if I put my mind to it.

I'm going to the Teaching Zoo with the Digital Photography Meetup. And yeah, it will be fun. But, oh, look at that, the studio is just a stone's throw away, might as well go in and work. I've begun a new bracelet, made of the heavy copper wire from Lowe's (gauge 4 I think it is). I began it with a mind to making a companion piece for the collar I'm working on. Not sure, though, if they'll really blend. I've put a squiggle in each length of wire for the bracelet (also seven pieces, like the collar). But a choker with a similar squiggle would be nifty, too.

I have yet to work out a clasp for the bracelet. It will need something.

I searched through my toolkit and bags and have not found my piece of reticulation silver. This is all right as I still haven't dug out my brass scratch brush so I couldn't begin to depletion silver it anyway. I must sort out the car. I have decided to throw out the original clasp and make cones of the reticulation silver and thread something through them, possibly some kind of fiber.

I feel like the collar is slowly coming into focus. When I'm in the studio Saturday or Sunday I will get some more work done on it. I spent part of Wednesday evening straightening and annealing the 16 gauge square wire that I had wrapped around one of the strands. I'll need to make sure there's some drafting tape on hand; I think that will work okay for holding the square wire in place whilst I wrap it around the copper. I plan to use two pieces of it and crisscross them, weaving over and under. I still haven't decided how to attach the stuff. Read More!