Staying home because of the rain is a great excuse to get fun time creating some of the ideas I've had swirling around in my head. Still, some daffodils have popped out in my yard and I got a picture last week before the rain came
Yesterday was a quiet Saturday because my kids left early to meet up with a bunch of their friends to go hang out in Japantown in San Francisco. They are old enough now and have had some experiences taking BART and carrying around wallets and ID. Of course, I still hope it will go off as planned and nothing goes wrong. Nothing ever has but I'm their mom and some worry comes with the job.
They had a blast and all that went wrong, if you could call it that, was soaking wet shoes from all the rain. They went in a big gang and then she went off with her friends and he went roaming with his. They came home with stories of what they ate, what they saw and what they bought. It was fun to hear them tell me about the costumes they saw from the "Anime on Display" convention happening there.
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A week ago I went over to Mona's again and she showed me how to do some foldforming. It was so much fun. You know I love to hammer metal and that's exactly what we did.
This is what I made:
front and back
copper leaves - I especially loved how soft the metal became with annealing
silver earrings
These are rather large for me as earrings so I'm planning to make some smaller that I could wear comfortably but don't they look pretty? I think I need to get some brass sheet metal!
Mona and I are signed up for a class at the Crucible in a few months. It's called "Fred Ball Experimental Enameling Technique" taught by Judy Stone, who is an amazing enamel artist herself and runs the department over there. I can hardly wait!
I've been working on some things to submit to an online exhibit called "NEW DIRECTIONS: Powder Metallurgy (Metal Clay) In A Sheet Metal World" I can't show you anything yet because it's not finished and I am still adding and changing my pieces. But as soon as I can, you know I will . . .
but I CAN show you the last two rings I made.
RAW 7/52 the challenge progresses
cairn ring twins leaning -sculpted from metalclay
They are like the rocks stacked up in the Hawaiian countryside and various other places in the world I've heard. I couldn't make just one - one is crosshatched and one has 4 little patterns.
Here is my latest ring RAW 8/52:
PMC and Keumboo
I read about a technique where you get the texture for the metal clay from paper so I found some embossed paper, watercolor paper and a piece of plastic with a grid from a box of chocolates since they seemed to complement each other. I always wanted to make a ring with the edges looking like you tore the label off something and the way it curls up
as you peel it off. I also pulled the edges off the top piece so it would look ragged and rough and it's a bit sharp too but putting it on the top with the other two layers just peeking out from behind it, it doesn't hurt you or catch on your clothes, something I'm wary of because I really don't want anyone to ever have to return a piece I made because the top got yanked off. It has a couple of layers of gold fused on there so it's good and bright and they're all held together, shank and 3 layers with argentium rivets that are just barely seen on the top.
This challenge has inspired me so much that I am about 8 rings ahead and it's hard not to post them all but I'm trying to be patient and pace myself. Each week I see more rings and then I make more rings. It's a great way for me to hone skills and learn.
Anyway, in my quest for rocks, I got a few pretty slabs of red jasper and Sonora Sunrise:
Sonora Sunrise is a great new find out of Mexico that was the hot new rock at the Tucson and Quartzite Gem and rock shows! It is made up of Chrysocolla, which is a beautiful blue, and Cuprite, which has some great red variations! (Click on it to see it up close.)
And I found this small thick piece of mica that's pink.
I probably won't do anything with it but look at it. It's flaky layers make it too fragile for a ring but I love the color and the thickness of it and it was only $4.
TOMORROW at NOON: RAW blog Carnival! You won't want to miss that!
