BAD-2013 18/365

BAD-2013 18/365, a photo by markasky on Flickr.

more experimenting on pocket protectors with new enamels. This is opal horizon blue.

BAD 2013 16/365

BAD 2013 16/365, a photo by markasky on Flickr.

More experimenting with new enamels on some sort of brooch type thing!
I like to call this a "Pocket Brooch" or for my nerdier side a "Pocket Protector Brooch." Designed to slip into a pocket.
This is opalescent chartreuse enamel, torch-fired over plain copper. Quickly becoming one of my favorite enamels!

BAD 2013 15/365

BAD 2013 15/365, a photo by markasky on Flickr.

I just got some new enamels! So thought I would experiment with them while putting them on some sort of brooch type thing!
I like to call this a "Pocket Brooch" or for my nerdier side a "Pocket Protector Brooch." Designed to slip into a pocket.
This is opalescent turquoise enamel, torch-fired over plain copper on the left and over white enamel on the right.

Why Do I Make Jewelry?

It's that time of month again... The Etsy Metal Blog Carnival!

This month's question is "Why Do I Make Jewelry?"

I have a BFA in sculpture and did metal sculpture and some jewelry in college, a long long time ago.    
But, I've made art all my life. I've made lots and lots of different art... printmaking, calligraphy, sign painting, clay, silk painting, metal sculpture, photography, drawing, ... 
I don't really think I have a choice, I have to make something.

So about 10 years ago I ventured back into working with metal and enamels and making jewelry. And I felt like I had come home. I absorbed everything I read and learned in workshops and it stuck. It was as if I already knew all of this stuff, I had just forgotten. 

It was different than making something to hang on a wall. Jewelry is more alive: it moves; it's 3-dimensional; it's noisy; you are allowed to touch it, as a matter of fact you have to touch it. I have a hard time going to a museum or a gallery to look at paintings and sculpture and not being allowed to touch them... I do it anyway!

 The other thing that appeals to my ADD nature, is that just about any art that you can do, you can do on jewelry, like painting, drawing, calligraphy, small sculpture, photography... so I feel like I'm not missing out on anything.

Why do other Etsy Metal members make jewelry?

 Cynthia Del Giudice 
 Laura Jane Bouton
 silentgoddess 
 Beth Cyr 
Peculiar Forest 
Tosca Terán 
 Nodeform 
Mary Anne Karren
My Precious Studio
 Deborah Lee Taylor
Anne Walker
Andrea Ring 
Gracebourne Design  
 Danielle Miller 
 Inbar Bareket 
 Jewellietta 
 Abella Blue 

Etsy Metal Blog Carnival

Topic: "Back to School?"

Fall has arrived, are you taking any classes or workshops? Metal/jewelry related or other: Is there a new technique you've learned recently?
Do you have children that are in school, what grade, what kind of school and how does it affect your routine/schedule?

Well, my kids are all back to school, college that is. I have 3 boys and they are all in college, I'm pretty sure they will graduate at some point!! The oldest is at San Francisco State studying communications & film, the middle one is at Long Beach State studying art, and the youngest is at Cabrillo College studying math & physics. They don't really affect my routine much except when they need money!

I went to a lecture of Betty Helen Longhi and bought a delrin anticlastic stake and another hammer.

And I've been spending a lot of time trying to learn CSS & HTML, so much that my brain feels like it is going to burst!

See What Other Etsy Metal members have been doing:

2Roses

Silentgoddess

Kate Jones

Anne Walker

Abella Blue

LauraJaneBouton

Mary Anne Karren Studio

Victoria Takahashi/Experimetal

EtsyMetal Blog Carnival ~ September 2, 2012 "Pets"

Etsy Metal Blog Carnival
Topic: "Pets"
Please share your pets with us! Pictures, stories, new pets, old pets, dogs, cats, ants, anything that has ever lived in your house that wasn't human, be they friend or foe!

Right now I have 2 Australian cattle dog mutts, Lucy and Sparky. They are the funniest dogs I have ever seen. They'll play tug-o-war and Lucy will lay on her side, dead weight, and Sparky will drag her around the house. 

Before Lucy & Sparky we had a chow/yellow lab mix named Chris. He was a great dog. The lab/chow mix had him a bit confused though. Chows don't like the water and labs love it, so when we would take him to the beach he'd want to go in the water, but he'd only go in up to his doggie knees. It was a sad day when he died at age 13.


I have 3 sons, so we've done the pet circuit... we've had parakeets – Shim 1, 2, and 3. My son didn't know how to tell if they were male or female, so he took the 'sh' from she, and the 'im' from him = 'Shim." And we've had hamsters, bunnies, goldfish, and a giant 7' iguana named Noddy. That was interesting. He kept attacking one of my sons. And their poop is like giant bird poop.


On the uninvited side, we've had ants, rats, gophers, raccoons, possums, moths, spiders, skeeter eaters, mosquitoes, blue jays, sparrows, and an occasional squirrel.


If you would like to learn about the pets of other Etsy Metal Team members, check out their blogs here:

1. Laney (silentgoddess) - http://silentgoddess.blogspot.com
2. Beth Cyr - http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com
3. 2Roses - http://www.jewelrytutorial.blogspot.com
4. Erin Austin - http://metalmusing.blogspot.com/
5. Rebecca Bogan - http://AdobeSol.wordpress.com
6. Victoria Takahashi/Experimetal - http://vtakahashi.blogspot.com/
7. Lou Hunter- https://peculiarforest.blogspot.com
   Cynthia Del Giudice - http://cynthiadelgiudice.blogspot.com

"What In The World Are You You Doing?"

Etsy Metal Blog Carnival
Topic: "What In The World Are You You Doing?" 
What is a blog carnival?..... It is EtsyMetal members who write an article on the same topic on the first Monday of each month. 


It feels like I've been walking through molasses. It feels like I haven't gotten anything done. BUT...


I had to figure out how to update my website. I had built it with iWeb and then got a new computer, and iWeb wasn't on it. It is obsolete. 


Well, about a year ago, I bought DreamWeaver4 and then immediately avoided using it. I knew there would be a big learning curve. There was. My son had built several websites using DreamWeaver and he said he'd help me. Of course, he doesn't live here, so his help was through a few phone calls. BUT I started using it, and I was getting it. 


Then one day, my son calls me up and says, 'Hey, check out my website!" I said did you use DreamWeaver? He said no. He used Weebly, a free website builder. (Also the site that Mary Lu Wason had told me about a month ago.) I asked him why he didn't use DreamWeaver and he said it was too time consuming, Weebly was really easy. So I had to let go of the fact that I had paid a lot of money for DreamWeaver and go check out Weebly. He was right, it was super easy! So go check out my website... right now. Don't forget to take the poll of the month. I was totally obsessed with  creating this website for about 4 days.

I submitted some pieces to the Charles Lewton Brain fold-forming competition. That took me a whole day. Why does everything take sooooo long to do?!


I'm planning a trip to AZ this week (actually when you read this I will be there or on my way home. I am driving from central CA with my oldest son and we will pick up my middle son in LA then drive to Phoenix to see my brother and his family. I'm guessing it will be really hot.


For the last 2 weeks, I have been going to the gym every day!!


I have been refining my Dangerous Vagina jewelry series.


By July 15, our Flickr TADA group will have our 3rd show up – 
Personal Legends : Physical Interpretations of Story and Myth
www.trueaddictsofdailyart.com/legendsshow.html
So I have been working on a couple of pieces for that.
Join us if you like!


I have been reading lots of books:

• Imagine by Jonah Lehrer, about how creativity works. It's pretty interesting, I've blogged about it.
• Deadly Harvest, by Geoff Bond an anthropological look at nutrition. Really really interesting!!
• Cloisonné Enameling & Jewelry Making by Felicia Liban & Louise Mitchell written in 1980. It's a really good book with a lot of good info, not just about cloisonné.
• Mediaeval Craftsmanship and the Modern Amateur by Newton Wethered, has some interesting stuff in it.
• Scars Make Your Body More Interesting by Sherrill Jaffee I read this in the 70's, it's a collection of short stories. I'm not sure that it moves as much today, but I really like the title and am creating a line of jewelry based on the title.
• Interview Magazine
• Juxtapose Magazine
• Metalsmith

I've also spent A LOT of time looking for things that keep disappearing.

I have been doing battle with the gophers in my garden. So far they are winning. 


Please check out what these other Etsy Metal members have been doing!
1. Laney - http://silentgoddess.blogspot.com
2. victoria takahashi - http://vtakahashi.blogspot.com/
3. Miranda - http://gracebourne.blogspot.ca/
4. Beth Cyr - http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com
5. Rebecca Bogan - http://AdobeSol.wordpress.com

6. Anne Walker - http://www.creativeinclinations.blogspot.com
7. Erin Austin - http://metalmusing.blogspot.com/
8.  Danielle Miller - http://daniellemillerjewelry.blogspot.com/