I have my new book!

I'm so glad I checked at the desk here at Books-a-million (by the Haunted Walmart). My book had come in, on the fourth and they 'tried' to call me. And here I was cursing their name and asking myself why I hadn't ordered from Amazon or from Alyson B. Stanfield herself. All moot now. I have my book. Now I will be getting beaucoup marketing knowledge.

Bob and Martha are expecting. So now in addition to the bowl I'm learning to make as a wedding present, I'm going to make a 'christening' gift for the incoming sprog. I'm planning a teething rattler made from heavy-walled sterling tubing with jinglies added for sound. One of the simpler projects I've planned.

I need to stop dithering around and order from Hauser and Miller (reticulation silver and sterling sheet and wire), Rio (the tubing) and Storm Copper. I want to make more of the 'tribal armbands' and expand their range somewhat. I also want to try my hand at some champleve.

I need to take more pictures. I need to swing by Harmon's and see if I can find a nice graduated backdrop--black to white--to take the pictures against. I still need to get or fashion things to hold the work without busying up the picture. I should ask Pat if she has any ideas.

My new book--it's here! Read More!

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.

Read More!

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!

Collection of random cuffs

Trying to add a little pizzazz to the blog and not happy with the picture sizes I'm getting from flickr. Oh, well, when I know what I'm doing, I'll be really dangerous.

Hardly got anything accomplished in class last night. As the evening wore on, I realized I was coming down with a cold. Well, that explained the complete lack of ambition.

I did read through some books and things on enameling and have a little better clue on what I want to do. I need to order a few more things--some kiln wash, some liquid enamel, etc., before I get down to business.

Pat asked me what I would need to do the plating. As I've thought about it today, really, for my beginning experiments, I might as well get the large boro beaker with lid that is available everywhere. The first little bowls and things I do should easily fit inside something like that. Then I wouldn't really need to worry about such things as 'throwing power.'

Got to know Janis a bit last night and she's all right. She teaches at Lake City Community College and she's crazy. I told her about coming in extra, like weekends, and she's interested. So who knows, I might have another partner in crime.

I mentioned, mostly to Karen and Sandi, how frustrating it is searching through blogs to find anyone interested in any kind of serious metalsmithing. I said something to the effect that finding that the person has an etsy 'store' is the kiss of death. Olivia's friend (the one with the tats and piercings) said, defensively, "I love etsy." The guy that's in class seemed a little shocked that I'd say anything negative about it. I said that I'd seen some really good stuff on it but that most was nothing special--bracelets assembled from pre-fab beads, pre-fab chain, pre-fab charms. Read More!

We need to boost enrollment

The powers that be have told Pat that we will need to boost enrollment in the jewelry classes to the max. Federal funds have been cut, so the only way SFC will allow the classes to continue is if they fill all the seats every term. Pat and I are planning a brainstorming session.

I have threatened in the past to take over the display window for ad hoc, guerrilla shows when class is in session. Maybe that would be one little way to increase our visibility, especially if we could get a few large pictures made to put up in the display as well as pieces of actual jewelry. And how about that window right next to Jayne's office? It's had the same three pieces in it for months and months. Why not some jewelry instead? Or in the window at the other end of the art building? Are there other display windows/spaces we could use on campus? Or places we could get our pieces in around town? I will need to ponder and to keep my eyes open.

It's hard to get back into gear this term. I did get some work done yesterday. I have discovered that I am lousy at rivets. There must be some secret that I haven't figured out yet. I still have fourteen more rivets to make, I think, for this collar. And then I need to figure out how to attach the square wire to the ends of each copper piece. I suppose I will drill the copper and will probably need to taper the ends of the wire to get it into the copper.

I am very unhappy--no, that's too strong an emotion--I'm very blah with how the clasp pieces are turning out. I need to do something with them to give them some sizzle. I'm thinking of carving on them a little bit with files to give them some shape. Silly, really, when you consider that the clasp will be largely unseen. And the rivets are really lousy. I don't want to drill them out and start over.

It looks like the studio is open this Sunday. Sandi and I are meeting for breakfast and thought we'd try the studio if it's available. The temperature is unlikely to get to the mid-eighties.

Karen has begun working on the prototype of the bracelet for Aspen. It seems like she is intent on replicating the design from the magazine. I don't see what the point of that is. I don't think much of the design to begin with, but that's just a taste thing. But why go to all that effort to reproduce someone else's vision? I can understand doing it for Aspen, she wants to make the bracelet her daughter desires. But to make two of them? I wouldn't make the same thing twice if it were my own design, not without trying to improve it, or explore it further. I was joking with her--you can reticulate it! you can hammer it! you can...do something, anything!

More pictures this weekend. I'm making a promise to myself to put the tripod in the car with the light tent, camera and the spare batteries and memory card. Read More!

http://beatricepostspictures.blogspot.com/ Read More!