Nice Surprise!

I had a nice surprise in the mail yesterday.  Even though it is called the January issue and is not due on newsstands until December 6; I received two copies of Art Jewelry magazine with my article in it.  The article looks beautiful and was not too chopped up by the editor.
There is one picture that I would have liked to replace but they did not have time to make the change.  Photo 3 does not show the dividers positioned correctly it should look like this:

Overall, it was a very pleasant experience working with the magazine and I will most likely do it again.  In the mean time, I am working on a video about carving a wax model.

Lopez Island

I have spent most of the month of August on my beloved Lopez Island, WA. This is our sixth summer on the island and the longest stretch.  Next year we are thinking of staying for two months.

I have set up a small studio in the basement of the house we rent and thanks to a gracious landlord, I will be able to leave my tools here.  It is very primitive but functional.

Here is a prototype I did of a pendent.  It is a spin off of one I designed for my beginning student's first setting project. I think it turned out pretty nice but I am not crazy about the size relationship of the stone (carnelian) to the back plate (fire patina copper).  As well the overall size is a bit clunky for me. Pardon the background, I don't have a backdrop here.

Long Month

Wow, it has been a long month.  Lots going on with family (I know, what else is new?).  Anyway, in the mean time, I was able to finish a ring.  I had challenged my advanced students, at The Art Center, Highland Park, to make a ring for the call for entries for Lark's new book "500 Rings"s and I thought I should make one too.  I had it professionally photographed by a jewelry photographer named Steve Wagner.  See the link to his site in the links section of this blog.  Steve is very personable as well as professional.  He also photographed one of my students works and it turned out very nice also. I am not sure why the server keeps rejecting the image of my ring but as soon as I figure out how to, I will post it. In the mean time here is a very amateur picture by yours truly...  OK, maybe not, can't find it.  More to come.

Pewter Casting

I went to a one day pewter casting workshop over the weekend.  It was a fun day out with my friend Pam.  We drove to Mineral Point, Wisconsin (which is a great little destination that deserves a posting all of its own).  The workshop was put on by Shake Rag Alley (again deserves a post of its own) and instructed by Eric Donaldson.  After a slow start (waiting for the plaster molds to cure) we finally did some casting in the afternoon.  Here are the two things I made, a little tulip charm and a salt spoon.  Any of you who know my wax carving will notice these are rather crude for my work.  But, I had fun and learned the basic process which was the idea.  I will definitely be doing more experimentation with this process.

Article update

I finally heard back from the editor this week on my article.  She liked it and thought it was very thorough, just needs one additional side bar on raising the fine silver.  I sent this off yesterday.  I will mail the ring to them on Monday, then they will send me the contracts.  They've decided to send me two contracts, one for each part of the article (wax carving and setting the stone).  Once they get that back, they will pay me!  The other bit of news on this is that the article is now scheduled for January 2012 (vs. March 2012).

Repaired Link to HCJ

Yesterday a friend told me that the link to the Handmade Contemporary Jewelry Project (HCJ) was not working.  That is now fixed.  She also wanted to know what it is.  Well...this is a new site to me that looks very exciting.  Here is an excerpt from the site's about page:
"What are the project's aims?
1.To provide comprehensive, up-to-date information related to contemporary jewellery, contemporary silver ware, and small "object art".
2. To aid easy distribution and dissemination of submitted content. Increase exposure for those taking part."
I am going to look into it a little further, perhaps you should too.

New Page

I have updated my blog to include a separate page with soldering tips (see tab at top of blog).  I originally planned these to be quick little tips which I would submit to a magazine on an ongoing basis, I still may do that but in the mean time I thought people may be able to get some use from them.  I wanted to put them in my blog as a printer friendly page but have not been able to figure out how.  So, for now, you will have to right click and print the blog page.  As time permits, I hope to post more pages on different subjects.

I have also included a search bar on my blog.

If you have not already, sign up as a friend and you will be notified when I post.  Also, if you want, please feel free to pass this page on to people who might find it interesting.