Happy Easter From The Studio

It's temporary, I know this, it won't stay like this for very long. But I've spent the last three days, during my free time and at night, cleaning up the studio.

The kind of cleaning that takes everything off the table, wipes it down with heavy duty cleaner, and puts everything away in its rightful place.


Sad to say, I haven't cleaned like this since way,way before Christmas.


You know that time of year when it's super busy, many things going on. And it's very cold in the studio in the winter months, so I'm not motivated to do a deep cleaning.


But it seems springtime, the weather is sunny and warmer. Spring cleaning!


It was the time to get out the vaccum cleaner and bucket of cleanser and go after it.


I have areas where I work on various media. There's a place for the polymer clay work, painting and baking.


There's my buffer, all dusted and wiped down.

This workbench is usually a multi-colored area, deeply covered with many ongoing projects.

It looks so clean now!


And I did buy a torch but it isn't out of the wrapping yet. I don't have a soldering tripod, the fused glass shop was out of them, so I can't really get started with that. But I moved one of the rolling workcabinets over by the patio door and set up the things I have now, all ready to do more enameling. I'll get good ventillation there. In fact, if it's pretty weather I may roll that work cart out onto the patio and work outdoors.


Back in the corner is the messy part of the studio where I do the patinas, work with the soldering iron and grind the cast pewter. Right now it's sparkling clean.

I admit that I carefully avoided taking photos of the jewelry assembly desk, it's still all piled up with components, beads, chain and wire. But I promise that it's next on the list. I don't know about you, but I like to have things out and visible while I'm working, sometimes I get inspired that way. But there's a point where it's too messy to be able to work.


It feels good to have the shipping station cleared and the glass wiped clean and shiny. If you've ever ordered from me, I prepared your package right on that glass tabletop.

The workdesks are all cleaned up, now I can go to work! But I'll try to keep it cleaner from now on.

At least, for a while, anyway. Being creative is MESSY!

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Don't forget to pop over to the Art Bead Scene, if you post a comment to the question on my Studio Saturday post, you could win something!

BEADZILLA and The Play Day at Cindy's

I got an invitation to go to Cindy J's house for a play day for a couple of hours today. She's signed up for a class in June with Richard Salley, the locket class that I didn't take at Artfest, so we were playing with iron wire and fold forming copper.


Well, I was playing with iron wire, Cindy was playing with fold forming copper. She knows how to do lots of things, I love going over and playing at her house.


Her workroom is right in the front of the house, well-lit and very cleverly decorated. She has beads hanging in many clever ways, all around the room. It's a bead extravaganza!


And she has colorful fun things to look at, it's a visual feast!


Her friends Joan and Gail came over too.


We don't always have a plan for things when there's a play day. Sometimes I just bring something I'm working on already. But Cindy does have lots of articles and photos, to get the ball rolling.


This is a picture on Cindy's wall, I love the way it looks.


It has beads and wood measuring ruler in the design.

There are giant fused glass monkeys hanging from the chandelier. Beauties, and very fun! I wish I had colorful glass monkeys hanging from MY chandelier...


We all bring our favorite tools, and Cindy has lots to share also.


I took my Artfest things to show them, and we talked about torches a while, Cindy knows a lot about torches.

One of these days we're going to have the play day at my studio. I'm cleaning it all up, tomorrow I'll post some photos of it while it's clean because it may not last long that way.

I'm very messy as a rule. I finish working with something and I don't always put it away. I'm going to try to be better about that.

At least I finally got all my Artfest packing and tools put away again.

In a cleaner studio!

Old Time New Way

I took classes with Melissa Manley and Richard Salley on enameling with a torch. It seemed very new-wave and up to date, a brand new method of working with enamel and copper.

This is a photo of one of Richard Salley's class projects for a class he's teaching later this year. That central part is enameled copper. Lovely, isn't it? I wish I could take some more classes with him, he's a great teacher. I'll talk more about the class later on in other posts.


I got curious about the background of torch firing enamel and started doing some research; I found an amazing old article from "Popular Science" magazine, it was published in November.

Of 1960, that is.

A while back. And yet the instructions are very similar to the methods used and taught in the classes I took last week.

I find that facinating.

What's that old saying about "nothing new under the sun" - yet again we find how true that can be.


Of course, there is some new technology also. There's no need to cut down a tin can if you don't want to go that way, you can get a soldering trivet.

But I guess if you don't want the expense of a soldering trivet, there's probably a metal coffee can around somewhere, right? I might give it a try just to see what happens.

And the BenzOmatic propane torch shown in that quaint old photo - it's basically unchanged, and the torch head is the same also.


Just goes to show, how old things become new again.

I've been doing some historical research on enameling on copper. It is a very ancient technique, and it's been around long before tin cans or propane torches.

And it's still evolving now. Facinating...

At the Waterline, At the Skyline

I love being near the water. For many years I lived by the water on the Gulf Coast, but I've been landlocked now for almost the same length of time, here in the midwest. I guess I could go down to the mightly Mississippi river, but somehow that's not quite the same, at least not to me.


So when I get to Port Townsend in Washington State for Artfest, I like being in the Dorm that's close to the water, with the scent of the salt in the air. That's the building on the right, I was in a room at the top of those stairs.


It's cool and rainy, with the grey tones of color in the sky and water, but that only seems to enhance the natural colors around them.


The cliffs of green grass, the bright colors of a lighthouse seem to pop out of the grey midtones more strongly than they do in a bright summer lightness of sky and sun.


It's a lovely area, I walked around in my raincoat because you never know when a little shower will start. Can you picture a picnic at this table, with this view?


It's easy to be inspired in this setting.


The colors are rich and saturated, a feast for the eyes.


It makes me miss being close to the water.

Cool Yet Warm

I'm back from Artfest, almost unpacked. The studio still looks like a tornado hit it, and maybe it was hit by one, it was me while I packed!

I had a fabulous time. All my classes were superb.

I made some new friends and saw some old friends again, it was so wonderful. What a lively and talented group, and all so different from each other.

My dorm room in Dorm 225 was a single, no roommate this time, which worked better for me with my insomnia and late-night reading habits. But I slept fairly well even with the two hour difference in time zones.


One afternoon after class I walked on the beach near the dorm, and picked up some shells and rocks, there was every natural color you can think of in that group of washed up stones and bits of wood, I made a little beach collage and brought them all back with me to make a shadowbox with them.

Aren't they pretty, all nestled up in a white shell on a mound of damp sand? The colors of nature are so inspiring.

The weather was perfectly lovely, sometimes sunny and cool, a little rain but not too much, and moderate temperatures even at night.


These little baubles are from the "Hard Candy" class with Melissa Manley, the last day class for Artfest, right before Show and Tell started.

I wanted to make them warm on one side, cool on the other with the ruddy and blue colors. And a little industrial looking, very worn, like something off an old machine that had been sitting out.

One I put a copper wire through and threaded so I can wear it on a long chain. It's a great fiddly bead, it spins around on its axis like a top, and looks a little like a game piece or toy.


The other one I added some wire and twists to and put it onto a short length of steel wire chain I made, very quickly so I could wear it. I will most likely change that out for something else now that I'm back, but what fun to wear to dinner after class.

I'll be posting more about the classes, and I think I'll put most of the photos of the classes and the Show and Tell night onto the Artfest blog, so there's not so much here about it.

I'm also doing the Studio Saturday post this week for the Art Bead Scene blog, so I'll save some special ones for there. And as usual there will be a giveaway involved...

Did I mention that I had a fantastic time? Lovely, wonderful, superb.

Pairs in Sevens

I made up a bunch, well, seven pairs, of earrings before I left for Artfest.

I used the pewter together with pearls, ceramic beads and spacers.


To show myself what can be created with the earring pairs.

If any come back from Artfest, I'll put them in the Etsy shop.


Of if not, I'll make more. That's the beauty of using the pewter, I can have more. There are teensy Eiffel Towers, and round dark skullie beads. A small pewter cross and fern leaves.

I like these a lot, and I'm tempted to wear some.

But I will be good and refrain. I WILL be GOOD.

Maybe later I'll make myself a pair, just for me. I really like the blue ceramic with the bronze-copper stars, they seem very Texan to me, somehow.

Rainbow Pearl Costume

I had someone contact me recently, who had used my hand dyed costume pearls in the past, wanting some more.

In fact, wanting one pack for each color I had on hand.


When I took the photos of the one ounce packets stacked together they reminded me of a rainbow.

All the colors, so rich and pretty.

Red, blue, yellow, green. And black, too.


They were so colorful I had to share them here.

Bezel Me

I keep getting ideas about using the pewter together with resin, so I made another bezel.

This one is oval and has texture in the back. In case you don't want the back plain when you pour your resin into it, it will have a design showing back there.


I think it would be great for a bracelet focal with some chain and a clasp, just about the right size.

But of course it could be hung up and down with a dangle. In fact, I think my faux cameo beads will fit into it perfectly.


It's a nice size and lightweight. I have a plan of something I want to try with it, but it'll have to wait until after I get back from Artfest.

I won't be shipping again until Monday when I get back. But I'm not going to lock down the shop, I'm leaving it open. Just in case you need something while I'm away.

Hardware Jar

When I was a kid, my grandfather had an empty peanut butter jar out in the shed that he filled full of metal and odd things.

There were old keys, and parts to lawnmowers. Pencils that were too short to use but still had too much use left to throw away. Maybe that's part of the inspiration for the short colored pencil charms, who knows?


I loved to go through that old jar and play with the things in it. Nuts and bolts, old galvanized nails. Things you might need someday, you just never know.

I wonder if that has somehow influenced my enjoyment of mixed media and old paper goods.


So this pile of goodies has gone separate ways now, to the new owners. Maybe they'll turn into jewelry or maybe a collage or mixed media piece.

It reminds me of dumping out my granddad's glass jar of wonders.

Quality Nickel Games

Here's another example of the spiral bound books I have been playing with. I have a good time finding the images and putting them together.


This one has a game spinner on the front and guess what? I added a real metal spinner that moves, so you can twirl it around just like when you're playing a board game.


On the back cover I put a picture of a dice. It's very playful and fun.


It has 17 pages mixed of my recycled handmade papers, cold pressed watercolor paper and stiff cardboard with old maps and newspaper print on them.


I like the way it lays flat when you open it. Some of the watercolor pages are half-sized, so you can see the pages on either side. When I was traveling I liked using half-sheets sometimes, so you could see part of the next page while you were drawing. Kind of a pop-up book idea.

I hope you like these little spiral-bound handmade books. I'm putting them in the ExpeditionD Etsy shop, if you want to see more photos.

Or to grab one that's caught your fancy!