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.

This was a busy weekend. &rew from Urban Paper Arts arrived on Friday for a fun-filled weekend with Michael deMeng. We had a couple of hours to spare on Friday afternoon so we headed off to The Stamp Act. I decided to bring &rew to my favorite antique store, Reflections, in Cohasset, MA. As soon as we pulled up, &rew whipped out his camera and started photographing all the fun colors of the building.

This is the perfect store for the altered artist. We spent about 2 hours combing through the antiques. I bought several vintage photos, piano rolls, opera glasses, some wooden architectural elements, and a green feather hat. Last time I was there I came across the hat room. It’s actually a side room full of books with some vintage dresses and hats. I fell in love with the green feather hat. I couldn’t leave it there. I felt like I was 3 again playing dress up with my Oma. I tried on hat after hat as &rew took photos. We were laughing hysterically.

What’s the point of enjoying life, if you cannot laugh at yourself?

Thanks Allegra for the green feather hat, I love it!

When Kelly’s in town in August, we’ll definitely have to plan a road trip to the store.

Jim and I are busy creating jewelry for upcoming shows and for consignment at some local stores. Currently you can buy our jewelry at The Pear Tree in Brookline, MA. The Pear Tree is located in Coolidge Corner across the street from Trader Joe’s. It’s a great local source for beads and findings. They also have a beautiful selection of finished jewelry including Touareg jewelry. They also sell Enrica’s Etchings at the store. The etchings are done by an artist in Mexico. They make really cute gifts.

If you love Sharilyn Miller’s jewelry book, Bead on A Wire, and are looking for ethnic beads, The Pear Tree is your source. I’ve searched and searched online for ethnic beads and either they cost too much, you have to buy an entire strand, or I just don’t feel comfortable buying the beads from a foreign country. You can buy beads individually at The Pear Tree. Most of the ethnic beads are located in the cases. Tania is the owner of the store. If you are looking for something and cannot find it in the store, she can order pretty much anything. They have some amazing vendors that they buy their beads from.

We will also be selling our jewelry at The Cottage in Newburyport, MA.

We are updating our page on Etsy to sell all our new jewelry. We’ve added a lot of hammered earrings to our new line including the earrings below. The hammered copper earrings start at $12. We also teach a class, Copper Hammered Earrings. In the class you will learn how to cut shapes out of copper sheet, use hammers to create textures, and also use metal stamps to add designs to the metal.

I had so much fun making this card.  It was easy making the sunset with Ranger’s Distressed inks.

These are the products I used to make the sunset:

Tim Holtz™ Adirondack® Alcohol Ink Applicator

Inkssentials™ Ink Blending Tool & Foam

Tim Holtz™ Distress Ink Old Paper, Broken China, Faded Jeans, Mustard Seed, and Spiced Marmalade

Non-stick craft Sheet

White Cardstock

I always start by protecting my work surface with a non-stick craft sheet.

1. Start from the bottom of the page with Distressed Ink Old Paper. Apply the ink to the foam and rub onto the bottom on the page simulating sand, on a card that is 3.5″ high, apply the Old Paper ink along the bottom 1″ of the card.

2. Skip to the top of the page and using the foam apply Distressed Ink mustard seed to the top in a rubbing dabbing motion, on a card that is 3.5″ high, apply about 1″ of the mustard seed.

3. Using the foam, apply Distressed Ink spiced marmalade to the very top of the card, approximately the top 1/2″ of the page.

4. Mixing between the faded jeans and broken china, apply the blue ink to the middle of the page in a rubbing motion. The blue inks will blend with the brown and yellow.

5. Now stamp your image over the sunset. All the colors will blend nicely together making the sunset.

6. For that extra special effect I used Art Glitter’s ultrafine glitter in green on the hula skirt. I applied the pink art glitter to the wrists with a glue pen.

Let me know if you have any questions.

In March I took a star book class with Gloria at The Stamp Act. The class was so much fun. I used a great Washi paper with red dragonflies as the cover. The paper looks like leather.

I had so much fun using my altered art stamps in this book.

Last November I realized I had tons of vacations days that I had not used for the year and I was going to lose them come 2008. What’s a girl to do? I was planning on going to visit my cousin in Napa, but I never got around to getting tickets. If I go to CA, I really want to experience Napa with Jim. So what’s the next best thing….I decided to spend the week with Marie, Gloria, and Dan at The Stamp Act. I signed up for a private class with Marie learning different stamping techniques. We spent most of the class using Ranger’s Distressed inks. I was hooked right on the spot.

I ended up spending the rest of the week at the store. Marie showed me more stamping techniques, we made A Muse Christmas cards, and best of all, I learned how to make my first altered journal.
I love making jewelry and teaching PMC classes, but making journals speak to me. It’s a great way for me to express myself. I have always struggled with writing down how I feel, but using a paint brush, collage, ephemera, and rubber stamps I feel enlightened. I can show how I am feeling in a journal without writing down words.

I have since taken more classes including 5 Kelly Kilmer classes in December, and a star book class and a box within a box class with Gloria at The Stamp Act.

Starting this past April I am taking part in both the Fatbook group and Artist Trading Cards group at The Stamp Act. In April the Fatbook theme was fairies and angels. Today’s theme was song lyrics. Jim and I decided to each do our own page. Jim chose Bob Dylan’s, Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door and I chose Sarah McLachlan’s version of Blackbird.

I was teaching a PMC Basics’s class at The Peartree, so Jim had to go to the Fatbook meeting without me today. He made the cover below.

Here is a picture of both of our pages. I made my page backwards…..guess you learn from your mistakes.

This is the back of Jim’s page with the lyrics. I think he did a great job!

In the next posting I’ll show you my starbook.