An Adventure?
It's more like I want a few adventures!
But up until a week ago, I really didn't feel that way and I was at a loss for something to want and something to want to do.
After we moved to our new house last year and I got my dream of having a big studio to spread out in, I was having a hard time figuring out what I wanted to do next, other than just hole up in there. I discovered that having such a big experience changed my life dramatically, especially in the "WANTS AND DESIRES" department. I felt like there was nothing else I wanted and I noticed myself slow way down with regard to my momentum in producing things and that wanting and striving for experiences and things is a way that people keep going in life. That's how we keep moving forward, staying interested, being excited, wanting something to happen. I finally snapped out of my reverie and just yesterday decided that I will get back to some physical work.
Up until now I've been drawing, experimenting, reading, drawing, cutting out shapes and pictures of things that inspire me. I've been decorating my happy place
The display over my soldering bench where I have some big wall space - a work in progress naturally.
. . . and even making some small things. There's been planning projects, taking the time to think through the steps I would need to take to accomplish making my next series of work, and taking the first steps.
It won't be a lot of jewelry . . .
I think it's going to be metal boxes, mixed metals in fact, with metal clay details and sprigging attached, and handles maybe, but certainly layers and box walls and parts fitting into each other . . . some thorns. I have about 12 drawings in process in which I like the direction they're going.
I'm going to make a few animals and get them cast in sterling silver to make things more interesting. Each piece will have it's little story.
But then there's a second project and I call it "my Altoids tin project". And I think I have about 20 or more drawings for that. And there's going to be COLOR, lots of color. I have over a hundred tins to work on! My designs will morph into new patterns and I'm going to make many.
I have to knuckle down now and start some cutting, continue learning and build my inventory.
I went to the American Craft Council show with my daughter. We visited Deb Karash there and I got this beautiful brooch! The purple one on the left is the new one and the red one on the right I got from her back in 2005 when I took a week long metalsmithing class with her at the Mendocino Art Center.
Brooches by Deb Karash.
I was inspired by all the artists there.
Do an art fair and sell my work.
I want to do that, at least once, maybe a few times but it scares the hell out of me. It would be putting my self out there, stepping over a line I drew a few years ago and working really hard again. Oh yeah and I have to apply . . . so
THE art fair I really want to do is the Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival. It's under the redwood trees at the foot of Mount Tamalpais. My friend Lynn Cobb had been on their waiting list for a couple of years and she got in this year. Today is her first day and I plan on going over to see her and give her some moral support. Another friend of mine, Theresa Kwong will be there too. Here's her etsy shop.
I want to work on my "Rock cutting and Lapidary exploration" and add some of those stones to some of my boxes. I joined the Santa Rosa Mineral & Gem Society back in May and I've been going to the meetings and going in on Tuesday nights to cut and polish my rocks. I finally finished my first set of rocks. Here they are . . .
A lot of stuff has gathered on my lapidary bench, like the slabs and rough on the right. I've cut some bigger rocks into smaller pieces and attached them to dowels and corks. That's how the guys do it at the lapidary shop. That dark purple slab on the right middle bottom half of the photo is an amethyst slice from a geode and it's spectacular with white geometric outlines of each crystal. I won it at the summer picnic. It was one of my lucky days!
I'm enjoying all the steps. The shaped stones above are my first completed cabochons. The top 3 rows are variscite. The two dark blue stones on the left are lapis. The one bottom center is a leopard jasper and to the right of it are two lace agates. I got them all polished to a shine.
Aren't they BEA-YU-TI-FUL? I think so! Here's my close-up.
Now I have to make something with a couple of them for the club display case at the Gem Society rock show next weekend. It will be on Saturday and Sunday September 27 and 28 at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts up in Santa Rosa, California. I'll be a volunteer there on both days, greeting the public, selling raffle tickets and helping the crafting booth keep the kids entertained while their parents run around the show.
Here are a few of the treasures that I get to work on:
There's the amethyst slab and a sonora sunrise slab that is red and black and turquoise colored and you must see this variscite up close! It looks like a tasty slice of rock pie.
I'd like to travel around California and Nevada with my husband to a few rock mines and come home with some rough rocks I can cut and polish.
I really want to go to the Paris flea market with a friend. Show up there for at least two days just to get a good feel for it. Spend a week and a half in Paris, just for ME!
I want to get a laser cutter . . . so I can cut things out. I am ON THE JOB researching it now. There's a great place in San Francisco called Tech Shop and I can learn what I need to know there.
I want to learn how to use a powder coating set-up and coat every metal thing a person can think of to coat.
I will practice and get good at cutting my own blanking dies for use in my hydraulic press. I have so many ideas! I really need to sit down and get some completed.
I found a swivel vice for cutting the steel dies at an angle.
Life goes on . . . and I am throwing as much paint onto my canvas as I can . . .
like the spray inks on these pages that follow:
and
and
and
and
and
and a grid of all of them:
and this cute cat I drew over ink:
and a rock on an ink embellished page of my journal!
The rock almost looks like a little whale . . .
and that is my "rothko", haha!
and my quirky ink and rock collage
It's got a sense of spirituality - yeah, I'm kidding - it's just pretty.
. . . but you see how I arrived there, right?
Of course I will keep on trying to do other things - just for the fun of it.
I'm making a tiny handmade journal with fold out watercolor pages . . . and a hard cover wrapped in crinkled pink suede leather. The book measures 3-3/8 inches wide by 3-1/8 inches tall . . .
and it's a fat little thing at 1-3/8 inches thick.
and lots of spray inked and patterned pages inside - I still have to bind in the pages.
This past week, I went off to the San Francisco Center for the Book to take a very interesting one day class called "Leather Decoration with Benjamin Elbel". He's a charming and brilliant bookmaker from London and he showed us how to make contemporary looking altered and distressed leather book covers for future books. I had a blast and I learned a thing or two that I could also try with paper as well.
Here are the two pieces of leather I worked on:
on maroon suede
on light brown suede
Next comes a quick change of subject:
I went to a Jack White concert with my son last month and as the venue was filling up before the show I took some photos with my iPhone.
I love this!
See the lady in blue?
Check out her heels!
The Bill Graham Civic Auditorium has a big crack through their floor!
And then everything turned PINK!
I love my iPhone! I'm excited to someday getting a new bigger version with the iPhone 6. I AM looking forward to the bigger screen, the better quality video and that it will be faster . . . and on and on about the arty apps. I'm making my own collage papers and elements, it really is an incredible tool for making art and altering pictures.
I want to capture every image that tells my kind of story, like this one here:
This one is for you Pallavi.
You understand.
And I want to live my life to the fullest that I'm able!
A few of my blogging friends want adventures too. I wonder what they will be about. Follow them here:
Andes Cruz: http://andescruz.wordpress.com/2014/09/20/adventure-blogospherethinktank/
Pallavi Gandhi: http://studioat605.wordpress.com/
Shelagh Blatz www.designsbyshelagh.com/blog
Beth Cyr - http://BethCyr.com/blog
Are you wondering about what this “Blog-o-Sphere” thing is?
Andes Cruz, a metalsmith I met online and whose work I love, formed a group of friends who blog and she called it the "Blog-o-Sphere Think Tank". We all write a blog post once a month about the same topic, and we all post at the same time, on the 20th. I've been writing with them since October 2013 and the group keeps me blogging even when I am busy doing my thing. I hope you’ll visit all the blogs on the list and see what they have to say and if YOU have anything to say, please leave me a comment. I would enjoy hearing about it.