We are featuring jewelry this year!

For the first time, the Guild decided we can sell jewelry in our bi-annual sale.  I am featuring metal clay jewelry, fine silver, bronze and a few copper pieces.  So far, it has been well received!  Two other potters have ceramic pieces in the show.  I also have some stoneware, olive dishes with an area for the pitts, and some small salt bowls with spoons.  Stop by & shop!

thrown copper bowl, 2.25 inch diameter

So long since my last post…I’ve been making pots for the upcoming Colorado Potters Show & Sale.  (and dealing with a sore foot that I had surgery on 10/14)  Yesterday, while assisting Kathleen & Ortrud with the firing of one of kilns at the Guild, a large gas reduction kiln, I threw some COPPRclay for the first time.  I usually don’t throw this small, but it turned out nicely.  I also made a small spoon.  The next challenge will be the firing.

For the Potters sale, I threw some small salt bowls using B-Mix white stoneware (they are in the kiln cooling down).  I also made a few salt spoons from cone 6 Aspen porcelain yesterday.

small salt spoons, aspen porcelain

Lastly, anyone for a picnic?  We had so much snow here in Denver for October–the fall leaves have yet to be raked!  Evan shoveled for the neighbors two days in a row, he has had 3 snow days-yippee!  I had to go back & forth to the Guild for stacking & firing-it was so icy!  And I’ve been driving in the snow for 31 years!

October snow in Denver

Snail buried in snow

published in the PMC Guild Annual #3

I received my copy of the PMC Guild’s Annual # 3, Exceptional Work in Metal Clay 2009, and this piece is in!  It was also published in the 2009 calendar, The Art and Design of Metal Clay Jewelry, by Holly Gage.  I feel very honored, as the work in the new annual is exceptional!

I am gearing up for a busy fall season, will post my schedule soon.  On October 16 & 17, I’ll be part of a Bazaar at the Crazy  Merchant in Littleton.

Oh–the first mouse came in the house from the cold, and was too sly for Scooter, my expert mouser.  He had the little guy & let him go in Evan’s room.  After pulling all the furniture away from the walls, he eluded us again…..

Scraped surfaced

Carved surface

I’m experimenting with bronze clay which is so lovely to carve.    The top photo shows scraping with a Dockyard tool.  The other side was done with the Dockyard “v” micro carving tool, 2.0 mm.  I am firing soon and will post another picture after they are fired.

Resin pieces, "Dream" and "Breathe"

I’m still trying to photograph resin pieces.  This isn’t too bad. These images are from Teesha Moore, she sells amazing sheets of her journal pages.  I added the type and cropped them.  Ever have an odd dream & feel like a gargoyle is taking flight off the top of your head?

I took a workshop a few weeks ago with Richard Sweetman, and we made a spoon.  We first made an alloy of fine silver & sterling silver.  Our goal was to have 96 percent silver.  We melted the mixture with a torch in a cucible, then poured an ingot, approximately 4 inches long, .75 inches thick.  After that we pounded for about 4 hours!  The key is to work hot, so after heating the ingot, you immediately picked the silver up with a vise grips & began pounding.  It was a lot of heating/pounding/heating etc.  The metal was not at annealing temperature, but hot.  Needless to say that evening, my arm was sore!  And I didn’t have the spoon completely finished, I went back to refine it’s shape & polish it another day.

near the waterfront, Chicago

at the bottom

This building in Chicago is amazing.  It was designed by a woman who taught at the Illinois Institute of Technology.  I loved standing near the base & looking up the building at all angles.  It reminds me of erosion of rocks along a shore.  What does it remind you of?

There have been several questions on the Yahoo Metal Clay Group forum about finishing bronze clay.  My favorite way is to burnish the highlights.  I recently took my dremel tool with a tip on it (don’t know the name) and used that for highlighting the high areas.  I like the way it looks.  I haven’t sealed these yet.  Am working on a sealant that doesn’t turn off the glorious colors coming out of the kiln.  Renaissance Wax totally dulled the colors on a recent bronze batch. Will report back when I find the right product!

Did this summer blitz by? It feels like it! I participated in the Evergreen Fine Arts Festival, the last weekend of August. It was a great show, we had great support from members of the Evergreen Artists Association.

http://www.evergreenartists.org/

They were by to booth sit, refill water bottles, etc. The weather held until about an hour before take down, and then it rained.  Everything was soaked!  I had to set up the tent at home on Monday to dry it all out.  Luckily, most of my display is waterproof, almost all of it.  So no damage there!

This picture is a smaller version of one of my pearls. A woman asked if I ever did them smaller, so this is one of the first attempts. You can wear it casually. It measures 1.5 inches long by .75 inches wide.