So I Gathered...

Art & Soul Hampton 2010 And Another Winner...

So I just found out that I will be teaching at Art & Soul Hampton in 2010!  Here are the 4 classes that I am offering...

Over the Edge- A New 3 Hour Class!

We will be collaging a cradle board that will allow you to use tiny nuts and bolts to attach metal wings and other accessories...

Marvelous Mica ATC's- A New 3 Hour Class!

We will make tiny collages to sandwich between mica sheets and then rivet crowns, wings and other accessories on to the piece.  You will also received a tiny pair of real butterfly wings to use in one of your collages!

Perching Pixies

Here is a passel of pixies students made in a past class...

This one cracked me up!! Just look at that face!

Bedazzling Butterfly Boxes

Some fabulous butterfly boxes made by students in a past class...

So, registration opens October 11, 2009.  Come join me and have some fun!  Oh, and remember that I also will be teaching at Art & Soul in Las Vegas in 2010 and ArtFest 2010!

At the end of my "Cyberspace Is A Funny Thing" post, I wrote that if you left a comment before midnight on Sunday, August 30, you would be put in the high-tech drawing machine for a drawing today for a glossy 8x10 print of "Good to be Queen".  Of the seven people who commented (I left you out  Michelle, since you had won an egg last week and we want to share the wealth,lol!), the winner is...

Actually, my poor high-tech drawing machine is broken down with a 102 fever.  New school, new kids and new germs evidently, so I had to draw the name myself.  Fellow-Texan Tina, send me your snail-mail addy and I will send your print on its way!

Oh, and thanks to those of you who voted the other day!  Here are the results:

It was a close race, but I won with 42% of the votes.  And I didn't even have to call my family to vote, lol!

I read somewhere that a lot of people don't care to read blogs that are all sweetness and light.  They like to know that the authors are dealing with reality too.  I will share that I have had about 3 sleepless weeks worrying about closing a refinancing loan on my house.  When I divorced and moved to Austin a few years ago, I was able to secure a 3 year, high interest rate (9.25%!) bridge loan to purchase my house.  Well, that loan matured on August 15th and the closing I was promised would happen by July 31 hadn't happened. And still hasn't happened!  This thing has morphed into a money-sucking black hole since the appraisal came in $10,000 too low and interest is still accruing on the original loan.  There was supposed to be no money out of pocket for us, but now it is a significant amount and we are scrambling to try to cover it.  There goes the tiny nest egg that was saved and I might have to borrow from the bank of Mom for the first time in almost 40 years!  Oh well...I tell myself just get through each day and pay what I can.  That doesn't help at 2 am, but I have come up with some new art ideas as my brain chases itself around and around, lol. Wish me luck...hopefully closing this Friday!

Cast Your Vote!

So I received an email this morning that one of my prints that I offer for sale on ETSY is one of three featured on an independent website today where you can vote on your favorite ETSY listing of the day.  It's a fun site to visit.  I think my piece loses a bit in translation because you can't see the Life Buoy box at the bottom of the picture, but oh well...

If you have time, stop by (http://www.voteetsy.com) check it out and vote!   You don't have to vote for mine...really...

Cyberspace Is A Funny Thing...

So my New Year's resolution for 2009 was to increase my  presence in cyberspace: update my website more often (not happening), maintain my ETSY store better (some improvement) and start this blog.  It has amazed me how quickly one becomes interconnected with so many!  And I find it so interesting as to how people find you!  A gallery contacted me after seeing my work on ETSY and now I am going to be involved in a small show that will hang for 2 months and has the opening reception on the 6th of September.  Here is the invitation/notice about the show...

I was so excited that they decided to use my art for the invitation!  And my name is there in the middle on the back of the card...very cool!  A few weeks ago they contacted me and said that they had enough room to show some of my original boxes as well.  I quickly agreed, then realized about 2 days later that they would have this large chunk of inventory during the Bayou City Festival in October.  Ack!  I had a bit of a panic attack, but have been working feverishly on setting up new boxes (which I will post pics of soon!), so I don't think I will have a major freak-out at the beginning of October.  I REALLY need to invest in one of those big wall calendars...

I went to the art district of San Antonio yesterday (about an hour drive) and met with Andrew at Robot Art Gallery.  This was the outside of their door...

On the other side of the door was this!  My work hanging...

and postcards on the table...

and down the hallway...

Andrew had printed some of my work on wonderful, high-quality art paper (Somerset Velvet!  Great name!) and I needed to sign the prints.  I felt very professional...

I asked Andrew how he had found me on ETSY and he replied that he had conducted a location search, starting with San Antonio and then expanding out to Austin and voila!  I added the "Voila!"...he didn't actually say that...

So, getting yourself out there does start to reap rewards.  I have met so many people that I never would have plugging away here by myself in my studio. It has been so much fun to share and see what everyone else is up to.  I don't get to spend as much time in the blogosphere as I would like, but it is a blast when I get the chance!  Thanks for being a part of that!  I had so much fun giving away the eggs, that I want to do another give-away!  If you leave a comment on this post by midnight on Monday, August 31, you will be entered to win a glossy 8x10 print of "Good to Be Queen" as seen in the above postcard.  Have fun!

A Drumroll Please...

So at the end of my last post (The Egg-speriments Continue...) I wrote that I would give away three of the enameled eggs pictured.  I had over 200 views of that page, but only 16 people seemed to read all the way through and find that if they left a comment, they would be entered in the drawing!   Each of the 16 names was hand-written on a piece of paper and dropped into the machine.

Here is my high-tech selection machine...she looks official and serious, doesn't she?  I think the sequined basket adds a little something...

And the winner of the green egg is...

And the winner of the small blue egg with reddish-brown accents is...

And the winner of the smallest blue egg with dark brown accents is...

Thanks to all of you who took the time to leave such lovely comments.  I do appreciate the feedback, even if it was a bit coerced, lol!  Ladies, please email me your snail-mail addys, along with your finish preference (matte or shiny), and I will try to get your packages out on Monday!  Have a great weekend!

The Egg-speriments Continue...

So I have been playing with the enameled eggs, even though I should really be working on building butterfly box inventory for a couple of shows.  I promised myself one more playdate and then I would get to work...would you like to see what it took to get this one egg?

First of all, I was unhappy with the wrinkles that formed around the edge of the first egg I tried to form.  Even though copper is a soft metal, I remembered that annealing the copper would make it even softer and more pliable.  So I whipped out my little hand-held torch and annealed the metal.  When I put it on the dapping block and tried to dome it, it worked like a dream!  No wrinkling!  Smooth as an, well, an egg!

The next step was figuring out how these pieces were going to hang from a wire or necklace.  I cut pieces of sterling tubing and planned on soldering them to the back of the egg.  Paul gave me a refresher course on how to work my oxy-acetylene torch and I started soldering...well, sort of.  I am way out of practice and the results were not encouraging...I think the top two could be correctly described as "slag"!

I have to use hard solder so that it won't remelt in the kiln when I am firing the enamel.  The problem is that the sterling tubing has a melting point that is very close to the solder.  So, too much heat and you end up with a sterling puddle.  You can see that after a bit of practice, there was significant improvement...

And now to start enameling...you have to coat the back of the piece with enamel (counter enamel) as well as the front so that the differing expansion rates don't cause the enamel to crack.  Here is the piece ready for the kiln...oh, and trying to maneuver a powder-covered, curved piece onto a metal trivet without tipping it or dropping it is quite a challenge...

Here is the piece after several firings of the base color, a lovely pastel brown...

And here it is after firing on the accent color and etching with the etching cream...

I love how this egg turned out and plan on keeping it for myself!  The issue that I am running into now is that the neckwire I want to use has too much of a curve to fit through the tubing.  Now I am thinking that a large jump ring needs to be soldered to the back so that there is less of a "tunnel" for the wire to have to fit through.  Back to the drawing board...see these things don't just appear overnight, lol!

Here is a little green egg I made...

And a few other little experiments...the two on the end could be tiny pendants or earrings...

Now, we will see who actually reads and not just looks at the photos!  The green egg's tubing is slightly cattywhompas, so I can't sell it.  If you leave a comment on this post, I will have a highly technical drawing (names go in a hat and a five year-old picks one) for this piece on Saturday, August 22.  You can let me know if you want to keep the shiny finish or if you want me to matte it like the egg on the left.   I will also give away the two small eggs to two other lucky winners.  I think they would look pretty cute with a small jump ring through the hole and hanging on a delicate chain.  So, see you around the blogosphere!

Not Quite Little Pink Houses...

So I also experimented with some enameled shapes in this whole process and was fairly pleased with the initial results.  I had visions of little houses enameled in different colors with gem tintypes peeking out of windows and bolted on to a piece of sterling silver.  So, here is the first one, bright and shiny out of the kiln...

The crown and title are cut from fine silver, which doesn't turn black from firescale (although I love the black firescale edges on the copper!) in the kiln...

and I hope the title doesn't offend anyone, it was just that kind of day and you'll see when you see the image I wanted to use...

So, here it is, all put together except the backing.  I plan on the sterling piece being just a bit bigger than the enameled piece so it outlines it.

Ah, but can you see where this experiment failed?  Metal and glass have different expansion rates when heated and cooled, so tiny cracks appeared around the crown.  This may be due to the fact that the crown wasn't fully supported, so there might have been a bit of a gravity issue too.  The title seemed to be ok, though, so I might try again...

Now, what is that old adage again...ah, yes...leave well enough alone.  Perfectionist that I am, the cracks REALLY bugged me, so I decided to heat it up again...bad idea...you can see how the glass bubbled underneath and everything lifted up.  Oh well, live and learn!

Here is another house where I tried the sgraffito technique where you scratch into the enamel to form designs.  I wanted three flowers across the bottom, but the whole thing was much more difficult than I expected, so two it is!  I wish I had done something in the white space above the opening.  I might try to go back and use a black enamel pen and write something...here it is shiny...

Here it is matted out...I also like how the white powdered enamel layer wasn't complete over the liquid enamel layer...gives it a distressed  look...

I am thinking about hanging a stamped metal bar off the bottom that says, "Knock, knock"...wouldn't you like to have this handsome stranger at your door?

I received another batch of enamel samples last Friday and I managed to wait until Sunday (after my daughter's birthday party) to try them out, but it was hard!!  I hope to work on some more eggs in the next few days with these colors, so check back later.

Oh, and I bought a betta for Fiona for her birthday and she named him Tommy.  Today our cat Harley decided that Tommy should swim with the humans and knocked the covered plastic bowl off the counter.  Neon green gravel and fish water everywhere...luckily, ol' Tommy is a bit of an air breather because it took me a minute or so to find him under the couch where the tide had stranded him...

And another, "Oh"...here is a picture I took on our walk the other evening. I kid you not, these eggs were just sitting in a line on the sidewalk.  Fiona kept insisting we needed to find the nest to put them back into and I told her I didn't see a carton anywhere...maybe that is why she asked me why I put goose in my hair this morning.  That would be "mousse", sweetie...

Happy Birthday, My Baby...

So about this time 5 years ago today, I had a brand new bundle of joy, exasperation, exhiliration, tenderness, fearfulness, protectiveness...well, you get the idea.  Here are a few pictures my brother took that day and at 4 months after...

And here she was yesterday, dressed as Strawberry Shortcake for her Strawberry Shortcake garden party birthday celebration...

Someone said that when you have a child, you are taking your heart out of your body and letting it wander around in the world.  I have learned so much about myself and life from this very best of teachers.  I look forward to learning so much more...I love you...

Would You Like A Sneak Peek?

So I finally have the computer where I can download the images from my camera that I have taken in the last few days.  Would you like to see some of the first results from the enameling experiments?  Here are some samples I made to see what the colors looked like after firing.  As many of you know, the powdered enamel looks much different from the fired enamel.

Here are some samples where I tried to speckle the enamel with different colors...you can see how I left it shiny at the top and matted out the bottom with glass etching cream.

When I saw Lisa's enamel work where she had created a matte finish, the first thing I thought of was how it reminded me of an eggshell with both its finish and feel.  So of course, I had to try and make an egg!  And here it is, fresh and shiny from the kiln.  I tried making a flat one, but it didn't look right.  For this sample, I domed the copper shape that I had cut out with a jeweler's saw.  

The next step was to matte it with etching cream...voila!  Loving it!  Though the shiny finish has its appeal too...

Here are a few other pictures...

In a real nest, of course!

In my hand, for a little perspective...

I plan on soldering a piece of sterling tubing to the back before enameling the next one so you can wear it on a wire like this...egg on a wire instead of bird on a wire?

Some other shots so you can see the doming...

I wish you could feel these in your hands!  They have such a wonderful tactile nature...so smooth and soothing, but not as fragile as the real thing, lol!  I am working on different color combinations and hope to have these pendants (and earrings?) in different sizes later this fall. I think you can see why I have suddenly become enamored (enameled?) of this process!  It has me dancing around the studio and I was so frustrated that I had to wait several days to post and share with you.  I hope to post some further experiments tomorrow...but that may be delayed due to party preparations for the wee one who turns 5 this weekend!  Please let me know what you think if you get a chance...feedback on new material is always welcome!

ArtFest 2010 Information Is Up!!

So the webpage for ArtFest 2010 is up today!  Whoo-Hoo!  Go to Teesha Moore's website  to view the multitudinous and wonderful workshop offerings and try to make the difficult decision about which ones to take!  I am going to have to give it some serious thought myself!!

I will be teaching my Magnetic Personality class on Saturday and will be selling my artwork at vendor night.   You can see more samples and students' work in earlier posts here on my blog.  Hope to see you there!