Trades and Links

This should be my final post on Adorn Me 2011.

There wasn't as much trading going on this year as last year, but I did get these awesome trades. Although I tried to keep track of who made what I wasn't completely successful at it. I know the colorful dangles in the center were done  by Chuck Young. I may have the enameled copper and PMC charm at the top mixed up though.  The card with the dancer and the copper disk is mine. 




One attendee made this awesome padded bag for us to store our trades:



I thought this was a very thoughtful trade.  It came in very handy when I packed up some of the jewelry I made.  If this is your trade let me know and I'll credit you.

I'm going to put the charm trades from this year and last year into a necklace, or maybe a necklace and bracelet.  And I'll have the fork tine earring trades to wear with it.  

Here are some posts from other bloggers on Adorn Me 2011.  I've listed them in no particular order.

Picking Poppies


Lorena Angulo


Something Sublime


Rosa & Josies


Fully Flummoxed

Check them out.  I know Don, of Fully Flummoxed, was going to add posts so there may be additions to the list since I last searched.

Day Six at Adorn Me: Carnivale Time Party!

Sunday evening was the Carnivale Time dinner, desert and entertainment.  Attendees were also invited to compete for a 1st prize Visa gift card with an item  made in one of the classes. 

After dinner and desert the instructors (Lorena Angulo, Thomas Mann, Stephanie Lee, Keith Lo Bue, Kim St. Jean, and Melanie Schow) got together and looked over all the entries. Then Thomas Mann announced that for the first time the instructors had decided that instead of one first place there would be a 1st and 2nd runner up. 

2nd runner up was Carol Graves with her beautiful necklace done in Kim St. Jean's Memorabilia Necklace class.  Unfortunately my pictures are pretty poor, but the necklace was made of mica sheets encasing seeds, a seed pod, lichen, fibers and other things. I really liked her selection of unusual items, especially the pod and lichen, and the way the seeds were sandwiched in the mica.  I loved the way the items fell around Carol's neck when she was wearing it.  All the items perfectly balanced and complemented each other in shape and color.  Congratulations, Carol!

 

Next up was the 1st runner up:  ME! Here's my finished necklace from Keith Lo Bue's Precious Little class. I named it Urban Tribe.

The first place winner was Lynn Bacon-Trzcinski with her Found Object Ring done in Keith Lo Bue's Precious Little class.

I was happy to see Lynn win.  I think her piece was technically the most difficult piece in the competition because of the things she had to work with. Unlike most of the students at Adorn Me Lynn does not have a jewelry background.  She is a woodcarver.  She showed us some pictures of some of her work which is very detailed. She came to Adorn Me to broaden her artistic horizons.

Lynn had to make her ring from 3 things: the sunflower stalk she found outside, the drawer handles that were discarded by another student, and a bracelet she had brought from home made of small beads strung on elastic. She was a little stymied at first in class when Keith wouldn't let her use glue or wire to hold it together.  Instead, she pegged it with bits of wood! The sunflower stalk was very difficult to work with because the center wouldn't hold things stuck into it. Lynn persevered though.  She took the drawer pulls apart and nested them.  Bits of the hardware from the pulls were utilized elsewhere in the ring.  The bracelet was strung around to make the band, and parts of it were worked through the stalk and up into the knobs to hold them on. Bits of stalk or wood were feathered and run through the top of the knobs for an organic flower look.  The ring has an overall organic look: the knobs remind me of some fantastical flower or lichen.  

Here are a couple of views.

Congratulations, Lynn!

The evening ended with a magical performance by Jamie Salinas. His magic act was superb.  And he was very funny.  If you ever get a chance to see him in action you are in for a great time.

As you can probably tell I had a great time at Adorn Me and hope to attend next year. 

My next post will be a review of a new book, Kumihimo Wire Jewelry by Giovanna Imperia.

Day Four at Adorn Me Part B: Vendor Night!

Friday evening was vendor night at Adorn Me. In other words: awesome shopping opportunity! The line at the door started early.  Bren and I were among the first in line.  As soon as the doors opened we went straight to Richard Salley's booth.  It was kind of funny because the people in front of us went straight to Richard's booth too. We were women on a mission. We were all after one of Richard's dimpling tools.   I'm not sure what he calls them but I used one to make the dots around the heart in my mixed metal Milagro pendant (previous post).   Bren and I got the last two of the tools he had.

Many of the instructors were selling their own jewelry or various other products.  There were also other vendors.  I purchased several rubber stamps from one of my favorite stamp companies:  Lost Coast Designs.  Most of them I'll use in etching.

I also got these cool bits and pieces from Nothing Ordinary Antiques & Oddities. My favorite is the bug pin in the middle. She's missing a leg but she's still got it going on. I love the long cut steel beads on her wings.



These cool beads were made by Carmen Anderson of Carmen Anderson Designs.  They are polymer clay. The bottom ones will probably be earrings but the birds will go into necklaces.



Bren and I both got some enameling supplies at Spring Beads. I got some "clear for silver" that will let me enamel on brass.  I need to order some colors now and get to enameling.

There were 22 door prizes given out during the vendor event and Bren and I both won! Bren won a copy of Susan Lenart Kazmer's Cold Connections and I won this lovely chain mail bracelet.  The bracelet was made by Dale of Dale's Jewelry.





Bren was pretty lucky earlier in the week--she won a daily drawing and got to take home a cool tote with plastic storage boxes.

We also enjoyed meeting Stephanie Lee and TheMan (her husband) in person.  Bren and I both feel like we already know her after taking her great online metalsmithing classes. Bren had a class with Stephanie later on Saturday.

Day Three at Adorn Me Part B: Band Groupie

Thursday evening was Band Groupie with Melissa Manley.  Bren and I were both in this class.  Melissa is a great teacher and is so much fun in class. She really sets everyone to ease and explains things well.

 Melissa had a handy chart to help us determine how long to cut the ring stock for a particular size.  Of course, despite measuring twice and cutting once, I still cut mine one millimeter too short.  This represents 1/4 size if I read the chart correctly.  Next time I'll cut to the side of the line instead of right on top of it.

We textured our rings, bent them into a "D" shape, and then pick soldered them.  I had never pick soldered so I was pleased to get some experience with this.  The rings were then shaped, bevels filed and some polishing and antiquing was done.  I was able to wear my ring, just not on the finger I had intended! My seam was looking pretty good--not showing at all--until I antiqued the ring.  I think a little more polish work will take care of that.




This is Bren's beautiful ring. Below is mine:



I used my hammer to gently texture the edge of my band. Now that I'm home I'll do some more polishing and put it in the tumbler for a while.

Day Three at Adorn Me Part A: Creating Hollow Forms in Color

Thursday was Creating Hollow Forms in Color with Susan Lenart Kazmer.  This was the first time I had done any enameling.

After some instruction from Susan I attempted counter enameling of my copper domes.  Counter enameling is the enamel put on the back of the piece.  It's intended to strengthen the piece so it doesn't get bent later, causing glass to pop off. 

The biggest problem I had with this was dropping the little pieces before I got them to the torch.   I did finally get the backs torch enameled. 

The line for the torches was long so I switched to the kiln for the fronts.  I experimented with various colors and  also enameled a key, and the tips of some copper wires. The copper wires were done with the torch. It's a lot of fun seeing the colors pop out after firing.  At first everything is dark but when it cools, or after you quench it, the color shows. The color on the enamels can change with each firing.  The brown looking piece is supposed to be Victorian Red.  The backs of the domes, in particular, would have benifited from additional firings if I'd had more time. Each piece was fired twice, except for the wires which were fired 4 or 5 times each.

Here's my completed piece:



You can see I had a little trouble getting the enamel out to the edges of the copper. I'm definitely going to be ordering some enamels so I can work on the technique.

Bren, meanwhile, was in Keith Lo Bue's Weathering and Distressing class learning how to make things look old.  She came back with some boxes with handmade wire clasps on them, distressed down to the wormholes.

Up next:  Part B: Band Groupie with Melissa Manley.

Day Two at Adorn Me Part A: Repousse without Pitch

Wednesday was Repousse Without Pitch, taught by Richard Salley.  I found that I really liked doing this. The tools that I made on Tuesday worked well, although I see that I need to make a few more. I did a bird in flight for my pendant.



Instead of pitch we used a non-hardening clay.  Above is the pendant piece taped to my bench block for some more work on the outlining. The black is from annealing the metal with a torch.



Basically the design is outlined on the front, then turned over and placed on the clay where punches and other tools are used to move the metal into a relief. The backside is shown above.




Here I've finished the repousse and have patinaed the piece.  I didn't have time to complete the pendant.  In the corners you can see where I messed up the first stamp I tried and stamped over it.  Probably I will cut all that off.  It's a little big as is anyway. I did use one commercially made stamp to do the stippling in the background, and a small liner that Bren made. All the rest of the work was done using the tools I made in the tool making class.





Here I am doing some lining.




Bren is doing some lining. Bren did two pieces and colored them with the torch.  She got some amazing color on them.  I wish I had a picture of her work.

Day One at Adorn Me

I'm in Houston for the week attending Adorn Me! Today was Tool Making with Richard Salley.  My roomie Bren and I were both in this class.  We're also taking the Repousse without Pitch class taught by Richard tomorrow.  The idea is that we use the tools we make today in the class tomorrow.  I had a little anxiety about whether I would get some tools made for the class tomorrow.  It turned out that making the tools was quicker and easier than I thought it would be.  At the same time some things I thought would be easy turned out to be a little tricky.  We got to play with power tools!  There were several bench grinders with various grind stones and polishing wheels, plus a couple of belt sanders. 

Bren and I both agreed that the line tools were easy.  I tried a teardrop tool and it was harder.  I used a file to cut straight lines across the face of one tool, and deepened the cuts with my saw.  This made a 4 line stamp. It was really hard to get the face of this tool squared so it would stamp correctly.  It's still not perfect, but it's usable. One clever student in class did a set of tools that make a dragonfly about 3/4 of an inch long when put together.

Bren's tools:



My tools:




L. to R.:  short line tool, long line tool, square punch, teardrop punch, round planishing, round punch, 4 line stamp.

I also did a curved line.  The middle of the line came out a little wider than the ends so it looks a little like a waning moon, or the curved end of a flower petal.  I decided I liked it that way so I left it.

Here is Bren with instructor Richard Salley:




We've both taken classes from Richard before.  He's an excellent instructor. The class also included hardening and tempering of the tools, and twisting the middle of the tools to give it a decorative spiral and a place to hold it. Bren and I haven't spiraled any of our tools yet.

Susan Lennart Kazmer set up a store right before lunch.  Here's a shot of the crowd around their booth.  Maybe I'll do a little shopping there this week.

Adorn Me! 2010--Evening Day 2 & 3

One of the lessons I learned at Adorn Me!  this year was that it's probably not a good idea to take an evening class on a day when I have a day class.  The first day with the sawing class wasn't so bad.  I think I was wired with excitement and that it carried me through the very long day.

Wednesday and Thursday I was very tired during my evening classes.  I could tell my brain wasn't working as well as it should be.  I still had a great time though. 


fun funky ring

Wednesday evening was Jane Salley's Fun Funky Rings class.  I only got the one ring done.  I got to use the dapping blocks and the disc cutters, which I loved. I had never used disc cutters.  I did get parts of other rings done.  Jane is a lot of fun and the class was kind of like having "playtime."  We used several methods of cold connections: rivets, mini nuts and bolts, etc. 


knot bead pendant

Thursday evening was Melanie Schow's Knot Bead Pendant class.  This was a great class and I enjoyed it very much. Melanie made the complex bead seem easy and she had a great handout with photos. Check out her amazing coiled jewelry here.

I was going to antique this bead when I got home, but now I've decided to leave this one as is and make a second to antique, and a third out of copper...

Adorn Me! 2010--Day 2 & 3

The two day Found Object Sandwich (FOS) workshop with Thomas Mann was the most challenging workshop I took.  It was also a great experience and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to take it.  He's a great teacher.

I had a tintype from my collection to use for the photo.  I wasn't really sure where I was going with it and hadn't planned a design before class.  The first part of the class was spent getting our photos scanned and sized and designing our brooches. I was looking through the embellishment items when I found a cat and the sand dollar and knew what I story I wanted my brooch to tell.

The difficulties I had sawing the night before had been on my mind.  One of the things I've learned in teaching Pysanky (Ukrainian Eggs) is that most beginners need to avoid parallel lines until they have practiced a little. I usually teach designs with a straight line next to a wavy line.  I decided I should probably avoid parallel lines in sawing until I got better at it. The inside line would follow the contours of the photo and the outside line would be mostly straight sections. 


Thomas Mann demostrating use of center punch.

When I took a sketch of my shape to show Thomas Mann he held my drawing up to the class and pointed out that I had given myself the easiest shape to saw! I hoped he was right.  My straight lines hadn't been very straight the night before.

The first part that gets sawed is the interior line.  My sawing was much better than the previous night!  I don't know why--maybe "sleeping on it" works for sawing.  By the end of the first day I had completed sawing the sandwich. 

The second day I etched the front plate, did some drilling, tapping, riveting, filing, antiquing, and the sandwich was assembled. 


riveting the pin back before assembly

Here she is:



I don't know who this young woman was.  She represents my many times great aunt LaPeyre.  During the 1900 storm at Galveston she gathered her nieces and nephews into the upper floor of the house where they survived the storm that killed thousands. At the height of the storm a chest of drawers floated through the window with a cat clinging to it.  She saved the cat.  After the storm the family moved from Galveston.  They took the cat with them.

Adorn Me! 2010-- Day One

March 1-8th I was in Houston for Adorn Me!  I had a blast and learned a lot during the workshops.  I'll be posting for the next several days on my classes and experiences. 

One of the hardest things was deciding what workshops to take. I'm mostly self taught or I've learned from books and magazines. I made my final selections by picking the things I wanted to learn that I thought would be very difficult to learn without an instructor. 

Monday was meet the artists night.  I also met my roomies for the event: Bren and Julie.  They were the best roommates and I am so glad I got to know them. From left to right here's Bren, me, and Julie:



Bren is wearing her trades necklace.  Participants brought charms to trade and Bren put hers on a chain necklace.  It looked good and garnered lots of attention. Julie is wearing her Window pendant. 

DAY ONE: Tuesday

Bren and I both had Richard Salley's "Caught in a Trap" class. We cut our metal with tin snips, learned to foldform copper, then dapped it (domed for your non-jewelry people) and filed an opening for our cabachons.  The copper was riveted to a brass backplate. 

Richard Salley is a terrific instructor.  He's annealing a copper plate here:



 I was able to get the pendant finished and got the earrings half done.  Bren finished a pendant and earrings.  Several of the students got three or four pieces done.  Check out the fan photos on Richard's facebook page.  There are a lot of photos from this class and some from the Shield class later in the week. 




I textured the brass backplate with a hammer and a center punch.  I hit the brass with the torch to darken it a little.  All of the antique color on the brass and the copper is from the torch.  The cabachon is a vintage Czech glass cab from the 1940's. 

I left this class with my head spinning with ideas and wanting to get my hands on more cabachons. 

EVENING:

I had Thomas Mann's "Learn to Saw" class in the evening.  I had never used a jewelry saw before. This was a technical class and we learned how the saw works, not just how to manipulate the saw. Understanding how the saw works is particularly valuable when turning corners. I didn't take any pictures of the little parts I sawed because they looked terrible. My straight lines weren't straight and my curved lines zig-zagged. I sawed very slowly.  On the plus side, I only broke one blade.

At the end of the class I figured sawing was something that would  take about six weeks of practice before I would end up with something I would want to wear.  I had signed up for Mann's two day Found Object Sandwich workshop and was now worried about how bad my FOS might look after I sawed it out.  I reminded myself that it was better to have problems when there was an instructor available to help you correct them versus having problems when you're on your own.

Back in the room Julie, Bren, and I finished the evening with show and tell. Getting to see what they made and talking about the classes and what we had learned became a daily ritual and one of my favorite parts of the week.

Next post: my Found Object Sandwich.

Stephanie Rubiano Blog Giveaway

I found Stephanie Rubiano's blog today and she has a wonderful giveaway of an  enameled copper house pendant.  It's really cute.   Hopefully I'll be the lucky winner. 

I love her use of the antique photos.  I've been collecting tintypes that I want to use in pendants.

Stephanie is also teaching her Pixie Pins class at Adorn Me! in Houston this March.  I've signed up and am getting really excited about the workshop. Check out her website at Studio Rubiano.