Busy as a bee!

I'm going to be doing the American Craft Council Show in Baltimore February 22-28. It'll be two days of wholesale and then four days of retail. I'm getting excited! There's so much to get done that I've been working non-stop.

I'm doing a whole series of Gothic pieces in shades of grays and black, and I've been enjoying them immensely. Here are two pendants:



And another charming flower necklace. This one will be in shades of purple:

And more butterflies too!

Pins!

Yes, I'm branching out into the glorious world of pins. It's actually very liberating to be freed from shapes that need to fit themselves into necklaces, bracelets, or earrings. I've made a whole garden of flora and fauna.


I've made a charming lotus flower pin in shades of pink and green. Below, you can see the setting I created echoes the motif:


Here's my bench right now. As you can see, I'm very busy getting ready for my two upcoming shows- The Piedmont Craftsmen show in Winston-Salem (November 20-22) and the Carolina Designer Craftsmen show in Raleigh (November 27-29)

My New Grinder!

I know, it doesn't look like much. I assure you that the grinder you see above is truly a work of art. No more hours and hours of grinding by hand, my fingers bloody and my joints in agony.

My friend Lillian (see her gorgeous work at www.enamellist.com) helped me get it all set up. There's two parts- the arbor in front that you can attach different grinding/sanding/polishing wheels to) and the motor in back. It was a tricky business- the motor is attached to the arbor with a pulley, and we've mounted it on a board with hinges so I can easily change the belt. (thereby changing the speed) The motor itself was a pain because the silly cord came unconnected! We had to wire it up ourselves.

It has a little spigot that drips water on each wheel. Check out my ingenious water delivery method. (okay, so it's a plastic jug and some tubing, but still... the wonders of gravity doing all the work!) All the water (mostly) drains into a bucket on the floor. I've put it in the basement because it is a little messy. And, although my basement looks sort of scary, it's really not. I love our basement!


I cant really hold onto the piece while grinding, so I've attached the piece to be ground onto a paint stick using dopping wax. The dopping wax smells really good when it's melting, so there's another bonus.


Here's me actually using the grinder. Remember that dragon from the last post? I spent two entire days grinding and polishing it by hand. There's definitely a learning curve to using the grinder- you have to be very careful not to use too much pressure and to keep the angle correct, or it quickly turns disastrous. I did pretty good- I ground about 20 pieces and only destroyed one. (sadly, it was a charming bumblebee pendant, but that's the price you pay for learning new things.)

"Flight of Fancy"

Here's a picture, hot off the presses, of my newest creation, "Flight of Fancy". It's actually very comfortable to wear, and very striking. I fabricated the chain out of 18 gauge silver wire.

Color in Transition

One of the things that I love about enamel is the way the colors change as they cool. When I first pull a piece out of the kiln, the colors are backwards- the blues are green and the greens are glowing red. As the piece cools over the course of a couple minutes, the colors fade into their true shades. It's all very magical.



I snapped the left side just as I got it out of the kiln. I was a little worried that I'd damage the camera putting it that close to the enamel, because the heat was so intense, but things all seemed to work out. The right side is the cooled enamel with the true colors.

Workspace of the Day

Here's my desk right now. It looks messy, I know, but it's actually very organized! As you can see, I'm working on the colors of the lotus necklace.

Feeling very Autumnal!

I've been a busy little bee these past weeks. This is, by far, the largest grouping of work I've ever done at one time. But it's been very enjoyable. I'm trying to decide if I should push the larger pieces (the dragon and the lotus necklace) all the way to completion first, because then I could get them photographed in time for the Autumn shows. I'll decide today if that's the way to go or not.


Yes, a Lilly pad! It's a fairly large piece, and it's going to be a pin. I've got some great new pinks and creamy whites, and I'll contrast it with a green background. Which will sparkle over that gold leaf!


These are the wires for the Lotus Necklace. They are all fired in place and ready for color. It's going to be very vibrantly hued, I promise.


I'm just started the best part of the whole process- the painting of the enamels. I'm doing the dragon in shades of blues and greens.