My studio is usually a mess right up until 15 minutes before a class.  I recently bought my jewelers bench from Warg Etc.  I love it.  I feel inspired to create new jewelry every night when I get home from work.  It’s amazing how much the bench has organized the studio.  Here’s a peek into the studio with my new bench.

Last week I was reading Tamra Gentry’s blog.  She mentioned in her blog that she is selling some of her hammers.  I have a collection of hammers.  I have them displayed on my wall in the studio like art.  I love looking at them.  I have almost all of the Fretz mini hammers.    I bought Tamra’s Peddinghaus Embossing hammer.

Make sure to check out Tamra’s jewelry on her website to see all the amazing stones she uses in her jewelry.

This is a picture of all my hammers.  Most are displayed on the wall and a couple more a waiting for some more wall space including my mallets.

I am a certified trash picker.  I was at The Stamp Act on Sunday, while Jim taught the viking knit class.  I was not even in the door 10 seconds and I saw wonderful treasures of old McCall’s magazines in the trash…..wow…..hold on…..what are they doing in there?  Must be a mistake!

Gloria told me, the girls went through them and cut out what they wanted the night before.  I had a blast.  I spent 4 hours cutting out images and laughing hysterically at the ads.  Especially the old ads for deodorant for women.  “Use this rub on deodorant to prevent dress rot!”  What a riot.

This is a blog I read often.  http://annsart.blogspot.com. Ann uses a lot of vintage photos and ads in her work.

Jim loved the old Bell Telephone ad.

Here are some of the other images I collected.  Some day when I have free time, I’ll make some collage sheets to download.

I received Charles Lewton-Brain’s book, Foldforming, today from Amazon. I am in love with this book. I am have been wanting to learn how to add veins to leaves by using fold forming techniques, but Charles Lewton-Brain has taken fold forming to the nth degree. His step-by-step instructions in the book are so easy to follow. He will be teaching this summer at Metalwerx in Waltham, MA. I wish I had the time/ money to go. It’s a week long class starting August 6th. Charles Lewton-Brain has published many articles ranging from Fold Forming, to Patinas for Small Studios, to Small Tools for Jewelers. These are wonderful articles to add to your library. You can get many of these articles one on CD. He has also written many articles on Ganoskin. Here’s my fist attempt at fold forming. Nothing is filed yet or sanded. I had a blast hammering away at the metal. I think this was the most I’ve ever used my torch. I cannot wait to get into the studio to make more pieces.

I will be teaching a 6 week class this Fall at Metalwerx in Waltham.

Thursdays, 6-9pm, 9/25 thru 10/30

Have you ever wanted to design and create your own jewelry? With Precious Metal Clay (PMC) you can do just that. This class is for both students who have taken a basics class as well as beginners who are motivated to learn a whole variety of jewelry making techniques using PMC.

Students will review basics of working with metal clay including texturing; filing, firing, and finishing but also extend beyond the basics to include:

· How to achieve different textures using Celie Fago’s technique of Polymer Clay Tear-Away sheets

· Creating your own molds in order to repeat patterns and forms

· How to construct rings, hollow forms, beads, draping, stone setting, and keum-boo

· Various ways to polish the metal including tumbling, hand polishing with 3M polishing sheets, and flex shaft attachments.

This is an 18 hour class held over 6 weekly sessions (3 hours each). If a make-up class in necessary, it will be held on November 6, 2008. The class and materials fees covers one 28 gram packet of PMC+ (additional packets of clay will be for sale by the instructor during class) and in-class use of instructors tools, textures, finishing supplies, and kiln - everything needed to create your one of a kind jewelry.

Students will be required to either bring their own PMC+ slip (estimated at $32.00) or purchase a container from the instructor for use with making rings, hollow forms, draping, and stone setting. Students may either bring or purchase from the instructor PMC Sheet (estimated at $13.00) and/or PMC 3 16 gram for stone setting (estimated at $30.00)

Joy Raskin is a great friend of ours.  I’ve mentioned Joy in a previous post.  She is an amazing jewelry teacher.  She LOVES animals.  When Joy comes to visit the cats and our Chihuahua, Daisy, flock to her.  Our persian, Mickey, cannot get enough of Joy.  She pets him for hours.  We joke that Mickey needs to go on antidepressants when Joy leaves.  Joy likes to sleep in, but when she’s here the cats have her up at the crack up dawn….wanting attention.

Joy has been down to spend the weekend with us, several times over the last couple of weeks.  When Joy is visiting I usually get a private lesson in stone setting.  The last time Joy was here I was totally excited.  I had the stones lined up, my bezel wire, solder, etc.  I thought everything was perfect…..just as we were getting into soldering, the acetylne tank emptied.

I was able to set up 8 bezel settings.  Some with backs others backless.  This past weekend Joy was over and with her guidance I finished the settings.  I now have an amazing bracelet.  It’s big, but I love my jewelry to make a statement.  I had a lot of fun texturing the settings.  I used my new Fretz hammers.

This is my new favorite bracelet:

And here are 2 pendants I set:

While Joy was here, she was getting ready for two upcoming craft shows, Guilford, CT (July 17 - 19) and Sunapee (Aug 2 - 10).  Joy made what seemed liked 100’s of earrings.  They are all amazing.  I would have a hard time just buying one pair.  Joy has a very unique way of forming her ear wires….you just have to have a pair!  Joy also wove an amazing whisk……her utensils are unique and wonderful pieces of art.  I wish I had a picture to share with you.

Til next time…..

We have a new class, Ephemera as Jewelry. We’ve been trying to brainstorm some ideas on how we can bring simple jewelry making classes to local craft stores. Since I am in love with collecting old photos, images, and ephemera, this was a natural next step.

I was inspired by my friend Sara of Irreverent Arts. She made me a beautiful pair of earrings using glass, lead free solder, solder iron, copper tape, lazertran paper and VOILA…a beautiful pair of one-of-a kind earrings.

I have collected tons of ephemera to share in the class.

Here’s a sample of some jewelry you can make in the class. The best part…the pendants are reversible!

We are teaching the class on:

July 26th at The Stamp Act in Marshfield.

November 2nd at Bella Beads in Andover.

We had a wonderful class weekend before last (June 28th and 29th) at Warg Etc in Scarborough, ME. This was the first 2-day metal clay class with Pauline Warg. On Saturday I taught Metal Clay Basics and on Sunday, I was a student in Pauline’s class, Metal Clay Enameling. It was a great class. I had a hard time at first getting the colors to work with me….but that’s because I was reading the chart backwards…..I was looking at how the colors appeared on copper not silver. In the end I loved my butterfly and koi fish. I did not experiment with any of the opaque colors since I had a lot of texture I wanted to see through the colors. I really enjoyed working with the translucent colors. It took a while, but the best results were when I layered the colors.

Here are some pictures from the class:

Today is our 8th Wedding Anniversary!  I cannot believe how time has flown by.  We have so many happy memories together!

I have not posted much about my jewelry.  I decided right after I got into PMC that I needed to know more about metalsmithing.  I took a beginners class at Metalwerx in Waltham, MA with Diane Lawton.  She is a great teacher and very patient.  I then met Pauline Warg of Warg, Etc.  I went up to her store/ school in Scarborough, ME last July to do a one-on-one class on soldering.  I was not ready to work with a torch and acetylene tank on my own, but I needed the practice.  Pauline is so patient.  Her hand-outs are the best.  After the class I bought my Smith torch from her, and I bought my actelyne tank that following Tuesday.  Pauline is a wonderful teacher.  I have several pieces of her jewelry including a bracelet I wear every day.

I was on my way now to soldering at home, the only problem was, I was not ready to set stones and I have tons of stones.  I signed up for the advanced stone setting class with Joy Raskin at Metalwerx.  I think it was a 6 week course in the evening last July.  I was way out of my league.  Most of the students were jewelers and had experience setting stones.  Joy is the most patient person.  She never made me feel like I did not belong in the class.  I listened patiently, took tons of notes, and at the end of the class I made a ring with an amethyst tube setting.  At the end of the class, Joy invited me to her studio in NH.  I took her up on the offer, more to just see what an experienced jeweler’s studio looks like and to see all her amazing tools.

Jim, Daisy (our Chihuahua), and I went up one Sunday afternoon.  Joy’s studio is out of this world.  She has pretty much every hammer you could imagine and most are antiques. You can see how they were lovingly used by other jewelers.  Joy spent the day helping Jim and I master the art of the viking knit.  Jim understood the pattern and made several bracelets, but I was a goner.  Not only did Joy help us with the viking knit, she showed us some of her variations.

Since then, Joy and I have become great friends.  Joy comes down to visit our critters, we talk all night long and occassionally I can get her into my studio.  Last weekend, Joy came down to visit.  We spent all day Saturday setting stones….well until the actelyene tank was empty.  I went through Joy’s stash of stones and came across this amazing Druzy.  Joy walked me through the stone setting.   We also used my rolling mill for the first time and rolled out some really amazing patterns.  I used flower punches for the ring band.  Below is a picture of the ring.  If you know me well, you know I love BIG rings!

Joy is a member of the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen.  Joy makes amazing jewelry including my favorite, the Silver Hedgehog pendant.   I have several of Joy’s rings and I love them!

Joy will be selling her jewelry this Summer at the 75th. Annual Craftsman Fair in Sunapee, NH.  The event is August 2-10th.  It’s one of the best craft shows in the U.S.  We’ll be going up to support Joy!

I cannot believe June is half gone.  I promised everyone I would post pictures from Michael deMeng’s pez class.  This class was a blast.  Jim and I had a great time collecting objects to use in our altered art.  We went in the pouring rain one morning to the Marshfield Flea Market.  Although it was raining, we were able to find some great items, including the armored mask I used on my pez.

As we got closer to the class I realized we’ve been collecting larger objects….most objects too large to attach to your normal 5″ high pez.  I was talking with Marie at The Stamp Act and she suggested I use a jumbo pez.   We waited until the last minute to look for pez, nothing new there.  We went to Wal-Mart, Walgreen’s, Stop & Shop, Shaw’s, CVS, and there were no pez.  I needed to get a couple of items from Linen n’ Things.  As I was walking through the store I came across a clearance table and to my surprise there was a jumbo cookie monster pez on sale from $19.99 to $4.99, BINGO!  As for Jim’s Pez, some of the girls brought in extra pez for those of us that could not find any.

We started the class by deciding on what objects we were going to alter our pez with.  I knew that I wanted to use the armored mask, but it weighed a lot.  I looked at Jim, and said “honey, will you make this work for me?”  He was armed with a dremel and cut-off blade and made it work.  I don’t mind using a saws-all at home, but the thought of melting the plastic with the dremel did not appeal to me.  Jim was also able to save the sound piece that plays the theme to Sesame Street when you dispense the pez.

Here are some pictures from the class.  It was so much fun taking the class with Jim.

Group picture from class.

This past weekend I took classes with Michael deMeng at The Stamp Act.  Saturday’s class was Head Sea Scrolls.  This was my second class learning how to mix colors.  This is a huge challenge for me.  One of Michael’s techniques is applying a wash…..I understood what Michael was saying during the demo, but when left on my own, I forgot to make a wash and applied a dark layer of paint over my images, definitely not my intention.  I then applied more color washes to the rest of the canvas but none of the colors connected to each other.  There was no consistency.  If you know me well, I am really great at pouting when I cannot figure something out.  I sat there starring at my canvas wondering what am I going to do?  I used some of my favorite vintage images and now you cannot see them well behind the paint.   How can I lighten the paint and not lose the images?  After Michael gave me several excellent ideas, I decided I know more about paint than Michael does and tried something else.  I applied a wash of Golden Acrylics Interference Violet over the entire canvas.   This was the answer.  Somehow, applying the same color wash over the entire canvas tied everything together and also lightened the darker areas.

Here’s a picture of &rew from Urban Paper Arts.  Have you ever seen someone having so much fun painting?

Here’s Michael posing with our Head Sea Scrolls.

Here’s my head sea scroll.

This was an amazing class.  Not only did I leave with a really cool piece of artwork, I am now armed with a better understanding of how to mix colors together.  If Michael is in your area teaching I highly recommend taking one of his classes.  He’s a wonderful teacher and a lot of fun.