HappyDayArt!

I have so much to tell! FIRST Thing! and another installment in "What to do with 'the bead', the ongoing series."

I took a fantastic day of two classes on Saturday with one of my favorite teachers Kriss Silva!  In the morning the class was called "Twisted, Knotted and Fused Rings". In the afternoon we had 3 hours devoted to "Fused Bangle Bracelets".  I learned some great new tricks and I am crowing about what I made.  The pictures follow.  Please click to see the larger version. 

All the rings I made in 3 hours...

twisted, fused ring with a patina

knotted, fused ring, no patina

stacked rings, stamped and with a patina - the ring on the bottom is made with argentium silver wire which also fuses beautifully

my cute little "princess solitaire"  and the way the bead is attached

Close up of the top - looks like a shoe print, but did you notice the striped texture is echoed in the part of the ring where the loop is attached?  I just made this one up while I was waiting for the bead reamer.

Why the bead reamer you say?  Because we were making bracelets and bangles in the afternoon and we needed big holes in our beads so we could slide them onto the large gauge wire.  This is where my silver handmade beads come in.

One of them is adjustable:

The other is just plain fun!

See how I am using one of my treasured larimar beads?  I got a whole strand a couple of years ago that cost about as much as a car payment.  I have been using them sparingly because (I am a hoarder at heart) I love them!  Here is a close up of the join.

 pretty isn't it?

I had such a good time on this day with Kriss.  She has the BEST ideas.  Do you think she knows that I am one of her biggest fans?  Yes, because I told her!  Oh yeah, you can find her online classes at BEADUCATION.

Remember the deco leaf earrings?  Here is a photo of the original pair (pacific opal, jonquil aurora borealis and moonlight).

and a second pair in other colors (black diamond, heliotrope and jet) 

You can compare them.  One for day and one for night.

I got my little statue from Georgia Mann who came and taught at Artfest in 2007.  I always hang a couple of pairs of earrings on her.  I haven't seen or heard anything about what Georgia may be doing now.  I do love her little sculpture though. 

And then there was the Etsy MetalClay Charm Swap and my charm assembly line. Well the charms were gathered and distributed and here they are in all their precision and beauty! 

 Ta Da!

We each contributed an extra charm and that bracelet will be auctioned off for charity soon .  What a wonderful and talented group of women I have the pleasure to be involved with.   That's the bracelet I am going to attach them to.  I just haven't had a spare moment to do it.  I've been pretty busy this week.  

I got a new car.  (woooopeeee!)

I made a tile for a collaborative mosaic.

I packaged and shipped jewelry out of here.

I got a new order right away and started making one of my fancy peony necklaces and that is going to be fun to make!

I did an amazing demo for my Metal Clay Guild on "Chain Making with Silver Clay and with Wire" and we video taped that.  We're editing it and going to make it available for people to buy in a few weeks, so stay tuned for that.

People have been writing to me asking when I am going to put new things in my etsy shop and well, if you have been following my blog a little you may understand that I haven't really had much time to load things in there.  I am going to do my very best in the next few weeks to load it up and make things available that I have been holding on to and try to focus on that until I am done.

AND I have been planning and putting together a new class, set for Saturday, October 17th.  I have students coming to learn new things and techniques I have spent time learning and getting used to this year.  I'm calling it:

  the Second Annual Silver Clay Class at Catherine's House 

and it is sure to be a blast!

 Email me if you want to know more.

Note about something I wrote in the previous post:

If you are interested in the tearaway technique I wrote about, I have located another book that was written by Celie Fago who made the technique popular with metalclay enthusiasts.  It's called "Keum Boo on Silver" and it's a really good book for the beginner as well as the more advanced student.  It is $20 plus shipping.  I loved it!

"Show and Tell" or "What I was doing the last two days"

It's the tearaway technique.  Peculiar that I have been working with PMC for about 10 years and I never did this before.  It's so interesting.  My friend Lore just took a class from Celie Fago on the other side of the continent and learned this technique from her and so I got inspired to try it myself.  You can find the instructions for this in the book "Metal Clay Beads" and on the internet.  

First you roll out a thin 1/8th inch sheet of polymer, specifically Sculpey III.  You place a small scale detailed laser toner copy or laser toner print design in high contrast black and white face down on the polymer and rub it on with a spoon or a flat rock or burnishing tool, let it sit for about 45 minutes to a few hours and then pull the paper off really fast.  There will be a thin layer of polymer that has stuck to the toner and that's your stamp.  Bake it for about 8 minutes on the temperature printed on the package before using it.

Remember to grease your stamp with a bit of olive oil or hand salve before you roll out your clay on it.

I felt like I had it down so then I made a bowl.

 

and a pair of earrings.

Then I carved a mold and made a flower.

I fired and tumbled it.

I made a mold of one of my heart pendants and then made pieces for a bracelet, and finished it for a friend for her birthday.

It looks like a perfect compliment to the necklace she already wears.

Then I was inspired by the organic style of Kathy Van Kleeck and made a freeform ring with a fat little slab of clay and textured the flap with the tearaway.  I added the dots!

It did patina a pretty purplish blue color and I just polished off the high points. I've been wearing it on my left thumb and I love it.  I FEEL SO COOL and MODERN!

Yeah, so the thing that really got me thinking about the tearaway a while ago was this app I found for my ipod touch. It has the very strange name of "Re:NancyKPH - woodcut image filter" and it turns your photos into stencil-like or rubber stamp type pictures and one day I went crazy putting my photos into it.

Black is perfect for the tearaway technique.

And you don't have to use black, you can choose combinations of colors and graduate them in the controls of the app for some pretty fine color adjustments and shades.

That's what I was doing.  And I am so excited about learning that tearaway technique, matching it up with the ipod stencil photos and thinking I could make some stickers from those stencils for Journalfest trades.  What I am thinking about and doing is all so interconnected and I could just keep on going until my next idea arrives.

Thanks for reading. 

❀

Didn't think I was done posting did you?

I'm just hopping from project to idea to next step and back.  This week I got a couple of the wrecked journals in my possession and I did a bit of work in them.  Here is a short picture show...............

close-up of an accompanying tag:

My journals below:

 

The hands were inspired by Ingrid Dijkers who I will be meeting in class in about 5 weeks at Journalfest!  

gesso and paint and re-inkers and alcohol inks

I sanded the pages after they were dry so the white shows a bit through the colors.

This one above I did with light molding paste.  I am a sucker for new art supplies, yes! But it was really fun working with it.  The container almost feels empty but it was full. Regular molding paste is heavy and dries hard.  This one is kind of foamy and absorbent.

Below, again gesso stamped on with foam stamps, covered with paint and re-inkers and alcohol inks and then sanded a bit,

and this next one altered in the iphoto program of my mac!

When I get going on something that's exciting to me I like to throw myself in!  So by a fortunate turn of events I found my way over to LK Ludwig's blog after following links the other day and I saw that she is going to have an online class called 

Point & Shoot Journaling  I think that's a link there.  If not another here.

I signed up for it sure!  I haven't used many photos in my pages yet and I haven't even started writing.  It's a long process for me and I am absorbing and trying as much as I can.

Art doesn't have to be just pretty.  It can be crazy, messy, simple, colorful, not what you would expect, dare I say it UGLY!, dark, spazzy and fun to play with.

Are you still here?  Why don't you just go and make some art now!

Cathy's Clever Photography Corner

Have you heard of "The Impossible Project"?  Their mission is to re-start production of Polaroid films for vintage (now) Polaroid cameras in the year 2010.  I have a few of these cameras and I am going to tell you about one in particular, the SX-70. 

 

You may have heard about it and the film called "Time Zero" which is the one that was manipulable and became very scarce.  Right now, I think we are pretty much on the tail end of the expiration dates for any of these packages of films, if not completely out.  The Impossible Project purchased and has been working on the formula and finding sources for some of the chemical components that made Time Zero film so unique.  I still have a few packages that are expired and have tried one of them.  The photos are a bit weird when they come out of the camera and one of the problems is that the developing goo inside of the pocket squirts out the ends as it is pushed out of the camera when you take a photo.  It has just been in there too long and has made the paper that holds it weak at the seams.  the photos are a bit strange and blotchy from my first roll but I kind of like that so I am going to experiment and see if I can alter them later on my computer and get something interesting.

I signed up to be notified about the new type being released and when a company who is distributing it called "POLAPREMIUM" contacted me, I got some and shot my first package.  It's called "ArTistic Z".  

Here are 3 of the best ones I took which I manipulated.  They are journal pages. 

 

At first glance these 3 photos are a bit strange to me.  I'm not exactly sure yet if it's because my camera is a) not perfect, b) I set the exposure too light, c) it's the film that is greenish and has a more white-ish look.

Here is the actual journal page from the first photo in real color:

There's quite a difference.  The polaroid on the right was blue and the photo on the bottom came out first, got hooked up in the chute and has some exposure issues but I like it and altered it but it looks nothing like the colors on the page.  

Close-up of the best photo:

I'm going to try another package outside in better conditions and make sure all my settings are correct and see where that gets me.  Here is a link to a search I did on Flickr.  and here is the discussion about it.

On POLAPREMIUM'S site I found an interesting piece of equipment.  So if you have one of these SX-70's (and I don't get better photos and the film doesn't get better) you can still use your old camera with 600 film.  It's a little filter that costs about $13 that you can put over the camera lens and it lets this camera use the 600 film.

Look what I accomplished with it.

Now here are all 6 photos so you can compare:

Well the photos are much better but you can't really manipulate the 600 film.  It is too gel-y and just separates and you get a black line in your picture where you are trying to draw.  The Z film is more creamy and moves around with the color to make a more fluid and painterly effect.  

I think I need to take a few pictures of the tomatoes and bananas with the ArTistic Z.

I'll get back to you.

A class with Barbara Becker Simon

the author of the book "Metal Clay Beads" I mentioned a few months ago fell into my lap! 

 

Patrik Kusek, a talented member of our Metal Clay Guild is a friend of hers and he set it up for us.   So I jumped in head first knowing that the projects in this book are challenging and interesting and I wanted to see her working in person because that's the way I learn the best.

The class was held in one of the big meeting rooms at Fort Mason in San Francisco and  

 

happened to fall on a Tuesday and Wednesday right after Labor Day and right on the tail end of some repairs being done to our Bay Bridge.  Getting to the place was going to be tricky.  I thought there was a big chance that either there would be so much traffic I could not get to class on time, or there would be too many people on our rapid transit system and that would have it's problems too.  I decided to take the rapid transit, get off at the first stop in the financial district, get a cab and cross my fingers I make it on time.  The class started at 10 AM.  By the time I got to the station in my town (8:05) there were no available parking spaces so I had to drive to the next station and park on the street.  Luckily it was under the freeway in the shade and only cost $5 and about 20 extra minutes of travel time.  These kinds of things get me really stressed out.

Anyway, you know I made it.  I was the last one getting there on the first day.  Whew! The second day was easier by far because the bridge was back on.  They were two of the most gorgeous days you could ask for.

The class was packed with activity and information.  Here's Barbara showing us how to:

Of course I can't really tell you all that happened in class, but I can show you what I made.  It may encourage you to take a class for yourself.  I highly recommend it.  

First two big wire armature beads.  You can find this project in her book.  Don't forget to click on each photo for a larger view!

In the process of building and drying:

Front

Back

and then after they were fired, patinaed (I may have made that word up) and polished

I made a custom chain for this next one because it was just calling for something fancy.

You see that it's a heart?  What else?

We also made box beads with a little recessed window!  I love mine.  

Here is the front before firing

the back

and then here finished after the usual hand processing:

That little picture in there is my tiny photo of the doll we saw at the Antique Faire with a patterned paper background behind it.  All that is left to do is add some clear resin to the top of it so it is protected, dimensional and finished.

the back all polished up:

I used a stamp sheet I got recently from Michelle Ward for this box bead.  Everyone was asking me where I got this sheet.  Follow this link to find out.   Now go and try this.  It may take some extra time than you are used to but I think it was well worth the effort.  I got IDEAS now!  So many directions to go and so little time.

So I'm on Facebook one day

and one of my friends who lives nearby, Vivian posts an invitation to a bunch of us to see if we want to go to the Alameda Antiques Faire, you know, the one that only happens the first Sunday of the month and the earlier you go the better the stuff for sale?  So I say I want to go and fast forward to Sunday and I meet her at the "Addison Endpapers" booth -E 14.  Vivian said they had a big sale that week and the extras are going to be here.  The lady selling there is Wendy Addison's sister and she has some serious stuff!  We spent quite a while there and I got some very interesting things, too many to list here but here are some cool beads, the mauve nubly strand inside.  I also got this very great vintage ivory strand of carved tulips at another booth!  I saw beautiful earrings in my mind's eye with metalclay caps and I had to have them.

We had a great time.  We bought lots of cool little things, like I got some silver glass glitter in small vials, a package of aged and old looking fancy doilies in a pattern I have never seen and also one of these blue jars with a great galvanized steel lid. 

It has small bubbles in it too and seems like treasure to me.  Oh and an old sun bleached package of 3-3/4x3-3/4 inch silver leaf in perfect condition made in Japan that is 5/8ths inch thick with leaves.  It still has the thin string wrapped and tied around it and I can hardly wait to use it.  Here are some more photos from our day. 

a rusted heart lock and key

metal roosters

my favorite metal rooster

an old door knob with a pattern I like

metal ceiling tiles - there were so many colors!

Had to go and get a drink because it was hot and sunny and we got thirsty and hungry.

There was a great booth there with Indian food and I would go back there just for that alone, it was so good!

A wooden statue from a booth of a woman who collects things from the far east

and then we saw "the doll"and we both wanted her BUT

she cost $800.00 

She had a head and hands carved from ivory.  The guy who was selling her seemed pretty attached to her so we didn't even try to bargain with him.  Would you?

Vivian says she goes almost every month to this big one day sale.  I was there from 8:30am to 3:30 and we covered a little over half of it.  I need to go back there. Everyone was right.  It is really fun!

Etsy MetalClay - the charm swap

So we are having our first charm swap over at Etsy MetalClay and I made some very special charms for this very special occasion.  I started by drawing some pictures on my polymer molds and then carving with my carving tools.

I chose the top two on the right and made a 3 part mold.

Then I began my assembly line.

Two parts together,

three parts...

and above they have been fired and tumbled and below they have patina and are polished.  Click on them to see up close.  You must!  I am so proud of them.

Each participating member of the swap will get one of my charms and I will get 26 charms back.  I overnighted them today and our swap hostess will get them tomorrow (Wednesday) around 3PM.  I am so excited to get them all back.  

With a few extra I made a lovely pendant and some fantastic earrings.  I call them "Teeny Peony", because they were inspired by my "Peony Pin" and by Linda Greiss who suggested I make them.  Here is another pair of earrings with embedded sterling wire hooks and fancy red garnet drops!  Like them?

And while I was working on these I got another idea for some deco leaf earrings.  I'll show you all the parts and you can try to guess the rest.  

A pair of the finished earrings below with swarovski crystal additions.  Sparkly and spectacular!  Think you'd like to learn how to make some of these earrings or some of my other designs?  Come and take a class with me!  

And I was very lucky a couple of weeks ago after entering Birdland Creations' caption contest to win one of her darling little "Quentin" birdies.  He is the cutest little dear I have ever seen!  If you'd like to have a chance to win one of your own Quentins, go here and enter the last competition in which the winner will be announced Thursday, September the 1oth.

I am so lucky!

A little back track...

Went to Santa Cruz, the beach and Boardwalk with Leighanna before sending her off to teach and it was HOT! all weekend. 

Here are some scenes from the beach and the wharf I like. 

There was some major "rust".

It cooled off at night and that was nice. I came back and took her class Saturday and Sunday. Just thought I'd show what I did in class. This is my finished piece using her techniques 

and while I am not sure I like it, I did take a journal and some blank ATC cards and I love the cards! Look! 

The presentation center down in Los Gatos was very peaceful. They even have a pool you can use. I liked the salad bar and the whole class ate lunch together.