Lulu Bug Jewelry

And now for something completely different

2011-10-04T19:13:00.000-07:00

I made this last weekend at Art is You in Petaluma, an art retreat. I was signed up for 3 1/2 days of workshops, but was so busy with making jewelry that I could only attend one. It was a tough choice, but I decided to forgo the jewelry making workshop with Thomas Mann (seeing as I make jewelry 7 days a week as it is) and I attended the Michael deMeng workshop, Dr. Xray's portrait.

Using transparancies, photos, found objects and Michael's fantastic aging techniques, this is what I came up with. I started off with an old photo that I took in Uganda (which had been printed on watercolor paper via polaroid transfer), a transparency of the photo, a bank receipt from Cairo and a deep frame. It was really fun to do something totally new and different, and I hope to do more workshops with him next year. Click on the photos for a much more detailed view.

And since we artists have to support each other,
I came home with this amazing piece of Michael's.

Check out Michael's blog here. His books are great, and if you ever
have a chance to take one of his workshops, do it! You won't regret it.

Handmade and cheap Chinese knock offs

2011-07-01T08:41:00.000-07:00

I was contacted last night by Jessie, who has the lovely Etsy shop westbyron She works in metal clay and I've always admired her work. She just discovered that many of her designs are being knocked off very cheaply in China, and are being sold by supply sellers on both Etsy and Ebay, and as finished jewelry on Etsy. She is devastated, to say the least, and was hoping I would have some advice for her. As I understand it, because they are being made in China, copyright law doesn't apply. This is all SO wrong, yet there is nothing that we artists can do about it. Putting our work on the internet leaves us wide open for this sort of thing. There's a Chinese wholesale marketplace site called Alibaba which has a huge number of Etsy photographs on it. They don't even photograph the knock off themselves - they take the photos directly from Etsy and use those to sell with. This has happened to me, but I try to stay off the Chinese wholesaler sites because it's so infuriating. I was lucky in that the manufacturer using my photos took them down, but many won't.

This is Jessie's lovely, handmade piece. Here it is in her shop

Here is one of the many suppliers selling it on Ebay.
Tibetan "silver" is not silver at all, other than the color.

Edit - of the shops I linked to has commented and I've taken the down the link. I apologize for dragging her in to this mess as she didn't know. Which I believe is probably true for most, if not all, the people buying the charm as a supply. It's a bad situation for everyone, except the for whoever did the knock offs in the first place.

One of the biggest problems with this is that if these knock offs proliferate and become popular on Etsy, sooner or later someone is going to accuse Jessie of copying. Ugh! I wish there was a solution for this mess, but I don't think there is. One thing we can do as individuals is be conscientious of how we spend our money. Do we really need so much cheap junk? The cost is actually much higher than we realize.

Old work, new direction

2011-03-28T17:49:00.000-07:00

I made this piece almost 20 years ago! It's huge, about 2.5" in diameter (65mm) and the cost of the silver alone would be well over $100 these days, though back then it was probably $10 - $15. It's totally fabricated from sterling sheet, I sawed, I used my pitch bowl and repousse' to give the cheetah form, I chased the details in, and did a whole lot of soldering. Phew! I didn't keep track of how long it took but it was a considerable amount of time.

I've been wanting to do some personal pieces lately, so I've been looking at my work from the olden days, when my livelihood wasn't dependent on selling my work. I've always been fascinated with dioramas and boxes, and much of my older work reflects this. I've been kind of stuck as to what I want to do though, because while I'm sketching and pondering my designer voice invariably takes over and beats the poor artist voice back into submission. Doing this for a living has really changed my creative process. Not that it's a bad thing, I just approach it very differently than I used to and I'm finding it difficult to switch gears.

My friend Lora Hart, teacher and jewelry artist extraordinaire, has recently started offering mentorials on her Etsy shop. I figured she might offer a good perspective on my dilemma so I decided to give it a try. I'm very happy that I did. She offered me some really excellent advice and thoughtful insights and I'm feeling unstuck and ready to create some things just for the sake of creating now - yay! I highly recommend her! You can find her shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/LoraHart

I've already started on my first personal piece, I'll post it here when it's done.

Custom hawk start to finish

2011-03-20T18:43:00.000-07:00

I did a custom piece awhile back for someone who wanted to see my process,
so I took a few photos along the way.

I started with her hawk photograph.

I created this black and white artwork from the photo.

Then I printed the artwork onto special paper and transferred it with
heat to a brass sheet that has been cleaned and sanded in
preparation for etching.

I etched the brass and used it to make an impression in
my precious metal clay.

I fired the piece in my kiln at 1650 degrees for 2 hours and out came
a pure silver hawk. Here it is finished and ready to wear.

A little Photoshop goes a long way...

2011-03-01T09:17:00.000-08:00

Taking good product photos is probably the hardest thing about selling your work online. I use a Fuji Finepix S1500, which is inexpensive and is in between a point and shoot and an SLR. Honestly though, my photos are not so hot right out of the camera (helpful hint: don't have your photo studio in a room with pale green walls if you can help it!) but I'm fortunate in that I used to do a lot of product photo editing in my former day job, so I'm quite well versed in Photoshop. I use two daylight balanced bulbs and a piece of white nylon fabric as a light tent to diffuse them.

The top photo has only been cropped, while the bottom photo has had cropping, rotation, skewing, levels and curves adjustments, hue/saturation adjustments, dodging, burning, sharpening and blurring. It sounds like a lot of work, but for me it's faster to do the work in Photoshop than to fuss with the actual photo taking. I recommend taking an online Photoshop class to really get a good feel for it. I did several semesters online at my local JC and it was well worth the time.

Happy 100th birthday grandma!

2011-02-07T17:25:00.000-08:00

My wonderful grandma Paulina will be 100 on Friday February 11th! She was born in a small village called Triebswetter, in what was then Austria Hungary and is now Romania. She came to the US in the 30's with my grandpa and has lived in the Chicago area since, except for a brief move to Fargo, North Dakota. She has 2 daughters, 5 granddaughters, 7 great grandchildren and 1 great, great grandchild. She is an amazing woman and we are all blessed to be a part of her family! Happy birthday grandma! We love you!

Renegade Holiday Fair San Francisco

2010-12-16T13:39:00.000-08:00

It's been a very busy 6 weeks here at the Lulu Bug studios, and for a bit of icing on the madness cake I'll be selling at the Renegade Holiday Fair in San Francisco this weekend, Dec. 18 and 19. If you go please stop by and say hi! I'm sharing a booth with my sister, who's work you can see here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/rawartletterpress

Please note that it's not at Fort Mason, it's at the Concourse Exhibition Center’s East Hall, 620 7th St. You can get all the info and directions here: http://www.renegadecraft.com/holiday-sf
Back to work now, I've got a lot to do!

How to etch with Ferric Chloride

2010-10-26T09:36:00.001-07:00

I use brass plates that I've etched with my own art work to imprint my silver metal clay. Here's a very quick tutorial on how I do it.

Create your art work

All my art work is done in either Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator (or both.) Above is the art for a custom piece that I did from the photograph on the left. It's been sized and is ready to print on to PNP blue transfer paper. The art work has to be black and white - no shades of gray.

Cut and prepare the brass sheet

Ferric chloride will etch brass and copper, I use brass because it's a bit cheaper. 20 gauge is plenty thick, and it's available at many hardware and hobby stores, and of course online. KC Engineering makes it in many sizes. After I cut it with my jeweler's saw, I clean it with Penny Brite copper cleaner and 220 grit sandpaper. Comet cleanser also works for this, just not quite as well. Clean metal is critical, water should sheet off the surface. If it beads up it's not clean enough yet. Dry the clean metal with a clean cloth or paper towel.

Print on to the transfer paper

I use press-n-peel blue transfer paper for my resist. It's available by the sheet at Whole Lotta Whimsy or by the package at Techniks. You have to use a toner based copier or laser printer to print your art, inkjet printers don't work. I have an inexpensive desktop laser printer that works great for this. I just make sure the toner cartridge is still printing very black. Since the paper is expensive, I just print what I need at the top of my document, that way I can trim the paper and keep running it through. You can also draw right on your brass to make the resist - I find oil based black markers hold up the best.

The tricky part

Now for the most troublesome part of the entire process, transferring the image from the pnp paper to the brass. This is done with an iron. Here in the US, all the irons have an auto shut off feature, unless you get an expensive "professional" model, which I finally did. The temperature of the iron is very important and you won't get a good transfer if it's too hot or not hot enough, and make sure the steam setting is off. I've found 275 farenheit works very well. I used to use a digital meat thermometer to monitor the temperature of my auto shut off iron. How long you need to apply heat varies on the size of the metal and the amount of large black areas in your art. This part will require some experimentation on your part to get good results, so stick with it even if it doesn't go well at first! The pnp instructions recommend 275 - 325 degrees, and 1.5 to 4 minutes. If the image doesn't transfer well, simply scrub it off with sandpaper and whatever cleaner you're using and try again.

You can carefully peel up a corner and check the transfer - if it's spotty give it some more time. Large areas of black can be difficult, but you can touch them up with an oil marker or a sharpie.

Success! All the black has transferred from the paper to my brass sheet. The black will resist the etchant, resulting in raised areas where ever the resist is. I've taped the back and sides, which will also resist the etchant.

The actual etching

I pour the Ferric Chloride about 3/4 to 1" deep in my glass dish. I run a long strip of tape over the back of the brass and suspend it in the liquid face down. You want it face down so the etched metal falls away. They don't have to be immersed, just fully in contact with the liquid. I use fresh solution every time and leave it in for 50 minutes to an hour. I do a lot of etching so I buy my Ferric Chloride by the gallon here, but you can get smaller bottles of it at Radio Shack - they call it PCB etchant. It's used for etching computer circuit boards, so if you're outside the US try looking for it at electronics supply stores.

You can check the progress, and yes, I should be wearing gloves. The longer you leave it in, the deeper the etch will be. I gently shake the dish to agitate the liquid every 10 minutes or so. This helps to get rid of air bubbles and makes for a smoother etch. You can try not agitating it to see the different results. After an hour the resist will start to break to down, especially fine lines, so I rarely leave it in longer than that. Once it's done I carefully remove the brass and rinse it, then I scrub the resist off with Penny Brite and my sandpaper.

The end result

Here's my newly etched sheet and the finished piece.

What's old is new again

2010-10-07T14:59:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to come up with a frog design for quite some time now, with no success. Then a few days ago I came across a necklace that I did waaaaaaay back in the early nineties that had a frog and a couple of snakes. I was working in wax and casting it myself back in those days. I liked the frog and one of the snakes so much that I decided to make them both. The larger piece on the left in both photos is the original casting. Silver cost around $3 an ounce then, it's currently $22 or so! The green dots are concrete.

New Tools!

2010-10-06T18:48:00.001-07:00

Last year September was pretty slow for me, but not so this year! It was actually my best month so far this year, so I decided to get some tools that will help me during the holiday crunch. Above and below is my new magnetic tumbler. Even though I do a matte or brushed finish on all my work, I like to tumble it first and make it shiny, which leads to a nicer brushed finish (in my opinion anyway). I have a regular rotary tumbler with stainless steel shot, but it takes at least2 hours and is pretty noisy. This little beauty uses magnets to move stainless steel pins around the barrel. It takes about half an hour or so, and I should be able to do 20-30 pieces at a time. It was pretty expensive but I think it will be well worth it.

While I was shopping for the tumbler, I noticed flex shafts on sale and since this one has a quick release instead of a regular chuck I decided to get it too. I've been using a dremel, but with a foot petal this is so much nicer! I got both of these at Otto Frei, which is located in Oakland California. Their selection is on par with Rio Grande, and both these things were on sale so the prices were better too.

Drawing just for the fun of it

2010-08-15T17:06:00.001-07:00

I draw all the time in the design and making of my jewelry, but it's been years since I've drawn just for the enjoyment of it. I recently discovered Zentangle, which is a structured doodling method which results in pleasing little drawings. I gave it a try, and remembered how much I love drawing in ink. I've moved away from the Zentangle format a bit, instead re-visiting the themes I used to draw, since I like to draw critters and such, not just pure abstraction.

Drawing with ink on paper is a good challenge because there is no erasing! I start off with a basic subject, like the rhino, beetles or mushrooms, sketch it out very roughly in pencil and then in ink, and do the rest in ink only, with no plan. I have no idea what will fill the rest of the page after the main subject is inked in. I use this small square sketchbook, which has very high quality, thick paper that the ink doesn't soak through.

Inevitably I add things I don't like, so then I have to figure out what to do about it. That's the biggest challenge, and my only rule is that I have to finish each one that I start. I may not love it when it's done, but no starting a new drawing until the last one is complete. Drawing without a plan is also new to me, I used to have it all laid out and would then would ink over the pencil, but I'm finding that I'm quite enjoying not knowing how it will turn out. If you want to know more about Zentangles you can check out the web site : http://zentangle.com/

Amazing show!

2010-08-03T18:42:00.000-07:00

My first Renegade was quite an amazing and exhausting experience. I don't really keep much finished stock on hand, since I do this full time I pretty much make it as I need it. But of course for this I needed lots of finished pieces, so I worked very long hours in the weeks leading up to have some inventory to take with. Then I had to get the displays made and figure out all the many details. Thankfully my sister came down from Mt. Shasta on Thursday and helped out, and worked the show with me all weekend. There's no way I could have done it with out her!

Here's what the booth ended up looking like. For the displays I bought 20 gauge aluminum sheet cut to size and a $40 bending brake from Harbor Freight. My boyfriend Kelly's sister Laura (who is also my housemate and bookkeeper) did the bending for me, I added the paper for contrast and hooks made from aluminum wire on the back to hold the jewelry (bending of 130 hooks courtesy of my sister Colette).

Here I am, hoping that I'm getting all the credit card info that I'm supposed to be getting!

A shot of the crowd. There was a huge stream of people the entire weekend. This was taken during a quiet moment.

Here's my friend and fellow metal clay artist Christine from Chocolate and Steel, who came up from LA to do the show. She does tons of these shows, and is currently 6 months pregnant. She's amazing!

Most importantly, here's our coffee making set up at the motel. Good coffee is not optional, it is a necessity!

It ended up being a very successful weekend, both in terms of sales and in meeting lots of people and seeing old friends. I learned a lot and took notes about what to do differently next time, but it all went very smoothly for my first show. Now I'm working on custom orders, a big wholesale order, and catching up on my sleep!

Renegade Craft Fair San Francisco

2010-07-30T08:44:00.000-07:00

I'm booth number 182 - please stop by and say hello if you come to the fair!
Here are all the details: http://www.renegadecraft.com/san-francisco

Getting ready for Renegade SF

2010-07-27T19:19:00.001-07:00

I've been working really long hours the last few weeks getting ready for the Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco this weekend. The jewelry will hopefully be all done tonight, then there's the displays to make and about a million other details! This is my first show ever, so it's been quite a bit of work getting everything together. If you're in the San Francisco area, do come by and and say hi. It's quite an amazing show. Here's the details: http://www.renegadecraft.com/san-francisco
Back to work now!

Edgar update

2010-06-30T16:55:00.001-07:00

Edgar made it through the night, and after giving him a little breakfast I took him to the Sonoma county bird rescue center, where he is now in very capable hands. The best part is that they got another baby crow in yesterday who is about the same age, so he'll have company while he's there. You can really see his blue eyes in this photo, and that stuff on his beak is the baby bird food I was feeding him with an eyedropper.

Edgar Allen Crow

2010-06-29T20:44:00.000-07:00

We have lots of crows in my neighborhood, and there are several nests in trees in the neighbors yards. Little Edgar here must have fallen out and ended up in our back yard. With all the dogs and cats here it's amazing that he is unharmed. He's got feathers but can't fly yet, and the nests are too high up to put him back, so I brought him inside. He just sat in my hand and let me feed him some baby bird food that we had left over from when the budgies had babies. I was a wildlife rescue volunteer years ago so I've fed more than a few baby birds. The parents were frantically calling and flying around, but now that it's dark they've quieted down. It's heartbreaking to hear them, but I will be taking Edgar to the Sonoma County Bird Rescue Center first thing in the morning, where he will get taken care of and released.

New stuff!

2010-06-27T17:30:00.000-07:00

Here's some of the pieces from the latest batch of etching shown on the last post.

Etch-o-rama

2010-06-25T10:05:00.001-07:00

Art work in Adobe Illustrator ready to be printed on to PNP paper and transferred to brass sheets

The etched brass plates

This last couple of months have been crazy busy for me, but I'm finally starting to get caught up on my very long to do list. Yesterday I went wild the etching, and did plates for 5 new designs in 2 sizes each, as well as a couple of custom pet pieces. The first photo shows my illustrations, all sized and ready to print on to to the PNP transfer paper. Thanks to my spiffy "professional" clothes iron, which does not have automatic shut-off, I was able to get all my images transferred to prepared brass plates without much trouble. This used to be the worst part of the whole procedure - having an iron that shut itself off every 5 minutes made it very difficult to do the transfer process more than one at a time. I was forever waiting for the iron to heat up again. I should have some finished pieces to show in the next day or two.

What I did with my day off

2010-05-31T17:11:00.000-07:00

Here's some pieces I made while messing around with the rough diamonds. I was experimenting with different ways of setting them, since they did change color in the kiln. The bezel is the easiest to work with I think, and the best part was when I realized that I didn't have to wait and order some tomorrow, I could just make my own! Metal clay is fun that way. Back to my regularly scheduled work now.

Rough diamonds

2010-05-29T20:28:00.000-07:00

I've been seeing rough or raw diamonds more and more lately, so I thought I'd get some and play around a bit. I was mistakenly shipped a largish packet of small stones and the vendor told me to just keep them, so I have a bunch to experiment with. I put them in little balls of PMC3 and fired at 1110 for 30 minutes (and went out for Ethiopian food in the meantime). They survived the firing, but did darken. Which is fine for the ones that were already dark, not so good for the orange and yellow ones. I have plenty of other options for setting them though, so I'll continue to experiment. What I will eventually do with them I have no idea! That's part of the fun though.

Custom flower, start to finish

2010-05-04T17:23:00.001-07:00

The drawing, done in Adobe Illustrator

Building the flower out of PMC. This gray thing is going to become .999 silver after firing in my kiln.

Just out of the kiln, where the organic binder has burned off and the silver particles have fused, created a pure silver flower. It's like magic, I tell you!

The finished piece, inlaid with tinted concrete

Here's a large custom piece I just finished which I photographed along the way to show the different stages of working with precious metal clay (PMC). I like to do my initial sketches on paper with a pen, but always take them in to Adobe Illustrator for my final template. Since PMC shrinks around 13%, it's very helpful to scale my drawings in Illustrator so I can get the finished size I want. The shrinkage does vary sometimes, but I can get very close to the final size I want this way. This piece is much larger than I usually work, 1 3/4" in diameter (45mm) I may have to make one for myself!

Great suggestion Jan!

2010-04-27T19:20:00.000-07:00

Ready to fire

Finished

Jan J. commented a couple of posts ago that I should do gourd birdhouse, and here it is, both in progress and the finished piece. You can see more photos of it at my Etsy shop here. Thanks for the great idea Jan!

I work in silver precious metal clay (PMC), which is silver that's in clay form. The basic gourd shape was constructed around a form that I made, then I let the PMC dry and I cut it in half to get the form out. I re-attached the two halves, added the vines and leaves, and sculpted and attached the bird. The loop at the top is fine silver wire. The first photo shows the piece right before I put it into my kiln. I fired it at 1500 degrees for 2 hours, and the clay binder burned off and the silver particles fused. Kind of like magic!

Recent custom work

2010-04-22T13:43:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of recent custom pieces that I remembered to photograph before sending out. I start with a photo, and turn it in to a black and white drawing, which I then etch on to a brass plate. I use the brass plate to imprint the image in to the silver with. The black cat, Berkley, was quite a challenge since there was not much detail to work with. I think the piece turned out pretty good though. Frida the Chihuahua was fun, especially with that tongue sticking out!

Birdhouses

2010-04-21T10:55:00.000-07:00

Here's my latest series, a collection of birdhouses. When I sat down my original plan was to do something with a bird's nest and baby birds, but I quickly ended up doing these instead! They are quite enjoyable to build, and I'm mulling over other house ideas at the moment.

Molly the Barn Owl and her babies

2010-04-08T16:04:00.000-07:00

If haven't seen this yet, you simply must go check it out! It's a live web cam that shows a barn owl named Molly and her 4 recently hatched babies. Here's the link: http://www.ustream.tv/theowlbox Be warned though - it's totally addictive!

Spring color!

2010-03-31T10:10:00.000-07:00

I've been working on lots of new stuff lately! Here's a few them, all available at my Etsy shop.

Interview and giveaway at Etsy Stalker!

2010-03-30T19:49:00.000-07:00

I did an interview and am giving away a tiny owl necklace over on the Etsy Stalker blog, you can read it and enter here: http://etsystalker.com/?p=8199

Blue whale necklace, sketch to finished piece

2010-03-29T09:50:00.000-07:00

Never throw old sketch books and drawings away! I came across a treasure trove of 8 year old sketches the other day, including the little whale on the left. I've been thinking about doing a whale so the timing was perfect! I don't have a scanner so I took a photo of the drawing and then opened it up in Adobe Illustrator. I traced it and worked out the shape so it would work as a pendant. Since precious metal clay shrinks 12%-15%, I use Illustrator to figure out what the size should be to start with to get the finished size I want. All I do is get the drawing the size I want my piece to be, and then scale it up 113%. I then use that as my template. It's a very accurate way to work with the shrinkage inherent to all metal clays.

David Worcester Jewelry Designs

2010-03-14T12:05:00.000-07:00

Through the magic of Facebook, I've recently reconnected with my old friends and employers David and Helen Worcester. I worked for David and Helen for 6 years when they were located in Guerneville, California. David is an amazing designer and a master at producing absolutely flawless fine gold and gemstone jewelry. I assisted him in all stages of production, except for stone setting. The skills I acquired while working there have been a huge asset in my new venture, both the metalsmithing skills and the in's and out's of running a small company. I even worked the big JCK jewelry show in Las Vegas a number of times, which was quite a change of pace for me, putting on fancy clothes and writing orders for thousands of dollars!

David and Helen have just launched their new web site, and they have added Argentium silver their line. You should check it out: www.davidworcester.com/

Changes in the studio

2010-03-06T12:16:00.000-08:00

There's been some big changes around my house lately - my boyfriend Kelly is now fully self-employed too! He's a transmission builder and mechanic, and while he does have shop space, he does his transmission building in the garage (along with his sister Laura - they both clearly have some sort of mechanical aptitude gene!) This means that he needs more space in the garage, and since neither of us will be doing any motorcycle racing this year, the race bikes are now in the living room, aka the Lulu Bug Jewelry studio. He built the rack, and since the bikes only weigh 220 pounds it was surprisingly quick and easy to get my bike on the second level. I took advantage of the space that was previously occupied by an end table to create a second work station, so I now have more work space in our crowded little living room despite the presence of two Yamaha TZ 250's. The two dirt bikes are next to the house under a tarp, my poor Ducati 996 is in a shed in the back yard, and a friend has our one remaining Ninja 250, so for the first time ever there are no motorcycles in the garage. It makes me a little sad, but we're both really focused on our businesses right now, which is a good thing.

Even more new stuff!

2010-02-22T18:18:00.000-08:00

I was busy this weekend! I had a customer request a tiny squirrel and a tiny cupcake, so I etched some other new drawings while I was at it. I got Sherri Haab's electronic etching kit before the end of the year and was hoping to make the switch to using that instead of Ferric Chloride, but it's requiring more experimentation than I have time for right now. I broke down and bought another gallon of Ferric Chloride, which lasts me about a year. I do hope to get the electronic etching sorted out (as well as the light sensitive resist film, that was a complete disaster!) but for now I need to get things done, so I've gone back to the tried and true method. Everything pictured here is currently available at my Etsy shop.

New stuff!

2010-02-17T17:22:00.001-08:00

I've got spring fever and want to see some color! These are my latest offering, color wheels, just listed on Etsy. They are sculpted fine silver inlaid with tinted concrete. You can see them here.

Grandma says thanks!

2010-02-13T14:12:00.000-08:00

My Grandma Paulina saw everyone's birthday wishes and is very touched! She would like to say thank you to everyone, it really meant a lot to her to have so many people from all around the world wish her a happy birthday. The Chicago weather cooperated and she had a great day (the photo is from her celebration yesterday). I think I can safely say that we all hope to look as good as she does when we are 99!

Happy 99th birthday grandma!

2010-02-11T08:46:00.000-08:00

My amazing grandma Paulina is 99 today! She still lives by herself and cooks great food and makes yummy Christmas cookies. She was born in the small town of Triebswetter, in what was then Austria-Hungary and is now Romania. She came to the USA with my Grandpa in the 30's, and was very fortunate to have got out before the communists took over. She has 2 daughters, 5 grandchildren, 6 great grandchildren and 1 great, great grandchild! Happy birthday grandma - we love you!

Signs of spring

2010-02-09T15:10:00.001-08:00

Two days ago

Today

While much of the USA is being covered in snow, here in northern California we're seeing the first signs of spring - Daffodils! It's a bit cold and rainy, but I really can't complain. No snow shoveling here.

Congratulations to rawartletterpress!

2010-02-04T09:13:00.000-08:00

My sister's "binary te amo" print won this week's Etsy voter! Thanks to all who voted for her!

Custom heart

2010-02-03T17:59:00.000-08:00

This is a customized heart I did recently. It's not the lighting, the aqua color actually goes from dark to light. The colors are so striking that I'm going to make one for myself like this! My customer is very happy with it.

Please vote for my sister!

2010-02-02T10:42:00.000-08:00

My sister's print "Binary te amo" is in the current Etsy voter. If you have an Etsy account and a free moment please vote for her! She's in the lead at the moment and I would love to see her win. The voting ends Feb. 4. Here's the link: http://www.etsy.com/voter_list.php?ref=voter&room_id=91 Thanks!

Mission Dolores in San Francisco

2010-01-31T14:47:00.001-08:00

Last week I went to San Francisco to show my work to the Artist Xchange gallery, located in the Mission district. I found a parking spot right by the Mission Dolores, so I went in and had a look around after my appointment. It's one of those local places of interest that I've always wanted to go to, yet somehow never have. The original mission was founded in 1776, the construction of this building began in 1782, which here in California is positively ancient! It's the oldest surviving structure in San Francisco. You can read more about it's history here.

This is the new basilica, built right next to the old mission in 1918.

Inside the mission.

Old and new. Relatively speaking that is.

The most interesting part was the cemetery, which is small but a very peaceful spot in the middle of a busy city.

I almost forgot to mention that I'm now showing my work at Artist Xchange! So if you're in the Mission district check it out at 3169 16th Street, between Valencia and Guerro.

Stormy weather

2010-01-26T16:26:00.000-08:00

I snapped this on my way home from the post office this afternoon - a bit of sunshine! We've had a week of very heavy rain in here Sonoma county, so much that the reservoirs have gone from drought levels to over 90% full. Everyone is hoping that we won't have another year of drought., which was looking like a real possibility. Last year we were all told to conserve water or there would be mandatory rationing (so no more front lawn) . It was such a huge success that the water department lost money and has raised the rates. What's that old saying - no good deed goes unpunished!

Sherry Fotopoulos workshop

2010-01-15T10:00:00.000-08:00

I spent the day yesterday in Oakland taking a workshop from Sherry Fotopoulos on making and using tiny screws in metal clay jewelry. Sherry came all the way from Texas to teach a number of workshops here. I enjoyed her teaching style so much that I signed up for a hinged box class tomorrow, which I wasn't originally planning on taking. My favorite part about these workshops is not so much the particular technique that is being taught, but all the little tips and tricks the very talented instructors so generously share.

I should have taken a photo before this was assembled with red locktite! This ring is made up of 4 separate components, there is a threaded sterling screw which goes through all 4 pieces (also my first metal clay ring!) Getting the threads in the screw started was a challenge (to say the least) but when I had Kelly take a look at it he felt the die was too small for the wire being threaded, so I tried the next size up and it was much easier. The advantage to this type of connection is that you can make a piece with changeable components or pieces with hard to finish areas could be made, finished and then get assembled. All in all an interesting new way of joining pieces.

How cute is my new tiny set of taps and dies?

Baby kiln

2010-01-13T14:14:00.001-08:00

My Christmas present to me this year was a second kiln. I rely heavily on my Paragon SC-2 and haven't had any problems with it, but decided I should have a back up kiln, just in case. My boyfriend Kelly is a transmission mechanic and has seen pretty much everything break during his career, so he has instilled in me the importance of having spares of tools and equipment that are really important. When I was racing motorcycles I had my race bike, an identical spare bike and a spare motor. One weekend I blew up the motors in both bikes and had to race one of Kelly's bikes, so I'm a believer in spares too.

Anyhoo... I got the Paragon SC-1, which is very tiny and heats up to 1650 in ten minutes or so! It takes my SC-2 almost 30 minutes to get up to temperature. During the holidays I was firing small batches once or twice a day, so this kiln is perfect for that. It's so light and small that when I want to use the bigger kiln, I just pick up the little one and put it on the floor.

Visit to the California Academy of Sciences

2010-01-10T11:57:00.000-08:00

A few days after Christmas I finally went to see the new California Academy of Sciences museum in San Francisco with my boyfriend Kelly. The museum was recently entirely redone, and as a huge fan of the old museum I was looking forward to seeing what they'd done with it. Here's their website: http://www.calacademy.org/

Thankfully you can buy tickets online, but even with that the line to get in snaked around the block at opening time. They've kept a bit of the old facade, and if you remember the old museum you can identify other things that have remained. There is a giant, multi story living rainforest, the aquarium, plantetarium, the old African hall with it's dusty taxidermy and other exhibits. It was great to see a museum so jam packed (20 minute line to get into the rainforest, just like Disneyland!) but when we were done, both Kelly and I agreed that we liked the old museum better. I couldn't quite figure out why I felt that way, since the new museum is certainly very flashy. My friend Adam (who works for the Exploratorium, a very cool SF museum) sent me this article which pretty much sums up my feelings too. Very bright and shiny, but missing the sense of wonder that the old version provided. But I'm glad I went, and hope it continues to draw the crowds so the research they do can continue. The one area that did improve was the aquarium, I wish I could have the jellyfish tank in my living room!

That's a lot of PMC

2010-01-03T19:19:00.001-08:00

I started getting really busy right before Thanksgiving, so I thought I'd keep track of how much PMC I used through Christmas. I prefer the 25 gram packs, I find that even though I go through them quickly, I like having totally fresh clay more often than with the 50 gram packs. The easiest way to keep track of it was to toss the empty packs into my bench drawer. I counted them up and I used up 45 packs, or 1125 grams which is about 2.5 pounds of silver! For those that have never worked with metal clay, here's the 25 gram lump still wrapped up:

It's not much, is it? Well, this little lump of pure silver in an organic binder retails for $41.25 at the moment. Fortunately wholesale pricing is available to those of us in business, but it is still quite expensive. Everyone who works with precious metals is hoping for the prices to come down this year. I remember way back in the 90's when we all freaked out when silver hit $4 an ounce - it's currently at $17!

2009 revisited

2010-01-01T20:12:00.000-08:00

2009 was a very difficult year for many, but I have to say that it brought many unexpected and wonderful changes for me. If you'd asked me a year ago to predict what I'd be doing right now, I never would have guessed that I would be self-employed full time by choice. I am very lucky to have been able to grow a business "in this economy" (a phrase that will hopefully go away now!) I was so profoundly miserable at my job that I finally got to the point where staying was much worse than the uncertainty of trying to go out on my own. I'm so glad I did! It's been a very interesting and rewarding process so far and I'm enjoying the ride. Here's to a happy, peaceful and prosperous 2010!

Custom work

2009-12-21T18:02:00.000-08:00

I somehow managed to get this custom lavender rose done this weekend for my Aunt Rose. The color comes from Prismacolor pencils and tinted resin, the black is from an etched plate that I made and imprinted in to the metal clay.

Phew!

2009-12-18T16:34:00.000-08:00

Here are the pieces pictured unfired in the previous post. They went into the kiln at 2am, and were finished and ready to package at 2pm. A bit of sleep did happen between 3:30 and 7 this morning.

Here are the boxes ready to go at 4pm. My friend and housemate Laura helped out with the shipping so much that I was even able to get some stuff that was ordered today out. Now I can be tired!

Up all night

2009-12-18T01:46:00.001-08:00

December has been crazy busy! Not that I'm complaining, I'm just getting a little worn out. In the photo are the pieces I started at 6pm tonight, they are all sold and I'm hoping to ship them tomorrow. That means they get fired tonight, finished in the morning and then packed up and sent on their way. It's only 1:49 am, I have until 6pm to do all that, that should be enough time. Ack! Calgon, take me away!

Photo editing

2009-12-04T08:39:00.001-08:00

Right out of the camera

After working some Photoshop magic

I've been getting questions about photography lately (which is crucial if you are selling online!) so I thought I'd post a before and after of my process. After the holidays I'll do a more in depth post explaining the different Photoshop tools I use, but for now you can see the results. You can work magic on a mediocre photo with the right tools, and for me it's actually faster to take a so-so photo and correct it than it is to take a great photo!

Quit your day job article on Etsy

2009-12-01T08:25:00.000-08:00

I'm this week's quit-your-day-job person on Etsy! You can read all about my glamorous lifestyle here.

Penguin print from Raw Art Letterpress

2009-11-30T13:36:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I take my sister's prints and make jewelry, other times she takes the art work from my jewelry and makes prints. Here's a penguin she did using my penguin. You can see here at her Etsy shop, rawartletterpress. I think it turned out pretty cute!

Free Worldwide Shipping 11/27 - 11/30

2009-11-26T21:57:00.000-08:00

I'm participating in Etsy's Black Friday/Cyber Monday promotion so I'm offering free worldwide shipping through the 30th. All shipping has been set to zero, so there's no codes to enter. Ho Ho Ho.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T13:54:00.001-08:00

We're thankful for our sweet old Shar Pei Lily Belle (photographed here with the new camera) amongst many other things. Hope you enjoy your holiday!

Super macro!

2009-11-25T16:48:00.000-08:00

I've got about a million other things I should be doing, but my new camera was just delivered so I had to run outside and try it out in the last few rays of sun for the day. It's a Fuji finepix S1500, which is one of the point and shoots that is trying very hard to be like an SLR (but at a fraction of the cost - $160 on Amazon). I got this one because it's super macro mode got excellent reviews. All I did was put the batteries and card in and figured out how to set it to super macro. Very easy to use so far, and I'm quite happy with the results! These images were just cropped and had a few levels adjustments in Photoshop. Too bad the sun is down now, or I'd be outside taking pictures.

The perfect dog sweater!

2009-11-21T13:39:00.000-08:00

I ordered this custom made fleece sweater for Lulu Bug from Etsy seller Hoverfly. We took her measurements and ordered it on Wednesday, and it arrived today - Saturday! Sweet Lulu is a horsecoat Shar Pei so her hair is very short and she doesn't have an undercoat so she gets cold. This fits her perfectly (Shar Peis don't fit off the rack dog clothing), and it's one piece and stretchy, so it's comfortable to lie around in. I'm going to order one for Lily too, she's a brush coat Shar Pei and doesn't get cold like Lulu, but she loves wearing clothes so she has to have one too. Check out her shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/hoverfly and don't hesitate to get one for all your canine friends!

My latest "professional" tool

2009-11-20T08:13:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that I just spent $100 for a clothes iron! Before you start wondering what sort of glamorous wardrobe I have that requires such a fancy wrinkle remover, it's not for my clothes (which mainly consist of jeans, t-shirts and Keen sneakers) but for transferring images to brass plates for etching. The iron needs to be at 275-300 degrees for a good transfer. The auto shut-off feature was causing me much grief as I couldn't maintain the correct temperature for more than one transfer without the iron turning itself off. Here in the US, we are apparently incapable of turning our irons off ourselves, and the only one I could find that didn't have auto shut-off is this ridiculously expensive Rowenta professional model. The good news is that it does make my etching process much less exasperating.

Hot stuff

2009-11-16T09:01:00.001-08:00

Summer is finally over here in northern California. The pilot light for the heater has been lit, Kelly is wearing his long pants to work and there's been frost on the ground the last few mornings. Day time temps are still quite nice however, and anyone living in a place with real winter would laugh at what passes for cold here. Instead of rolling the kiln outside or firing late at night I'm quite happy to have it on in the morning now. Nothing quite like a little box heated to 1650 degrees for two hours to take the chill off!

Tis the season.......

2009-11-15T11:28:00.000-08:00

to make lots of stuff!

Pumpkin mania

2009-11-01T10:05:00.000-08:00

It was pumpkin mania around here, courtesy of Laura. She saves her creative energy all year and uses it in a fit of pumpkin and zucchini carving.

Giant Zucchini

Karen and Richard Carpenter (aka The Carpenters)

70's icons immortalized in carved squash

My sister's treasuries make the front page!

2009-10-27T13:51:00.001-07:00

My sister Colette has become quite the treasury maker,
and 2 of them have made the Etsy front page this week!
In the Etsy world this is very exciting. Check out her Etsy shop: rawartletterpress

More custom work

2009-10-27T11:03:00.001-07:00

I've been doing a fair bit of custom work lately. Here's the latest, a little compass. I like it so much that I think I will do one for my regular line.

Another road trip

2009-10-26T16:52:00.001-07:00

My boyfriend Kelly had another enduro this weekend (a 100 mile dirt bike race, all on trails in the woods) so we set off for gold country on Saturday morning. We went through Sacramento and then over to Highway 49, stopping in Jackson for a look around and a grocery store. The tiny downtown historic district is absurdly quaint, but it's very crumbly and peeling so it retains quite a bit of charm despite the touristy nature of it.

It's very popular with bikers, who are mostly harmless these days.

I love the colors in this window.

The trees at dusk. It got close to freezing at night, which for us is really cold!

Kelly making pan fried bagels in the morning. They're really good, but NEVER watch how much butter he uses!

While Kelly raced I went for a 6 mile run/walk in the El Dorado national forest. Running is much harder going uphill at 5000' than sea level and flat, hence the run/walk.

This is a weirdly distorted picture of the San Francisco bay at sunset from highway 37. No crashing, injuries or breaking down van this time, so we'll call it a success!

New stuff!

2009-10-23T09:25:00.001-07:00

I've been busy with new designs! Here are some new tiny necklaces, all available at my Etsy shop. I made all of these using etched brass plates. I take my artwork,print it on to special transfer paper, iron it on to a sheet of brass and then etch it with ferric chloride. I then use these brass plates to imprint the design into my precious metal clay. It's a great technique because I can take any black and white artwork and turn it into silver jewelry.

Facebook fan page

2009-10-12T22:58:00.000-07:00

If I may rant for a moment....I don't think they could have made Facebook any less intuitive if they tried! Ok, rant over, thanks for listening.

I now have a Facebook fan page, if you'd like to become a fan you can do so here:
http://www.facebook.com/lulubugjewelry.1
If you notice the ".1" after lulubugjewelry, that is the cause of the rant. I managed to set my personal user name to lulubugjewelry, instead of my fan page, they won't let you change it. Argh.

The cute dog in the photo is Lily Belle, who thinks we won't notice the dirt on her nose after she's been digging in the yard.

Front page for my sister!

2009-10-08T14:23:00.001-07:00

My sister made the front page today - top row middle. Yay! You can check out her shop, raw art letterpress, here.

New stuff!

2009-10-07T21:01:00.001-07:00

I've been working on new designs - here's a couple of them. I'm doing a much larger Dia de los Muertos skull for someone right now, and I liked it so much I stayed up way too late last night making a smaller version for my Etsy shop. You can see it here.

I've been trying to come up with a raven/crow design for a long time now, and finally succeeded. You can see this piece here.

I have lots more that I hope to get done in the next few weeks - a series of African animals, a sea otter, a goose, a colored hummingbird, a concrete dogwood flower and some winter designs too. I better get back to work!

Road trip

2009-09-27T22:24:00.000-07:00

On Hwy 37, looking across the mud flats towards the San Francisco bay

Crossing the bridge over the north fork of the American River, just outside of Auburn

The creek I hiked down to in the El Dorado National Forest, still flowing despite the drought

Kelly before the start of the race

I took a little road trip this weekend with my boyfriend Kelly. He was riding in the Fool's Gold Enduro, which is a 100 mile dirt bike race, mainly on single track trails in the foothills outside of Auburn, CA. The trip was full of minor misfortunes and Kelly ended up crashing out of the race, giving himself quite a black eye. His knee is pretty sore too, but nothing appears to be broken, and we made it home in spite of the rear differential on the van sounding like a jack hammer for the entire drive. The way the weekend went I fully expected to arrive home in a tow truck! It was nice to get away, but after all that I'm glad to be home.

Barbara Simon workshop

2009-09-24T19:41:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of taking a two day workshop in San Francisco with Barbara Simon. She's been working with PMC since the very early days and she makes some amazing things! This is one of the two projects we did (I still need to finish up the other one.) We bent copper wire into a free form shape and draped a textured sheet of of clay over it. I used one of my own textures, a squiggly line that I never get tired of. After that dried, it was removed from the wire form and the back piece was cut out, following the edge of the front. Then the fun began - fitting the two pieces together with a mitered edge. It was a bit tricky at first, but once I really got what we were supposed to be doing I quite enjoyed it, and was able to make a really nice edge on the piece. It's all in her latest book, but if you have a chance to do a workshop with her I recommend it. She was a good teacher and shared lots of information with us. This piece is quite different than what I normally do, but that's what I like best about taking these workshops. I do something I might not otherwise try.

Fun with google analytics

2009-09-17T20:18:00.000-07:00

Google analytics is an amazing free tool offered by google that tracks a ridiculous amount of information about who is looking at your website, how they got there and where they are from. Big brother really is watching you, and his name is Google!

One of the things I find really exciting is that people from all over the world see my work, which was not really even a consideration to most of us back in the olden days. It was all about craft fairs and getting into galleries and shops. That's all changed now, and I have sent my jewelry all over the planet. The map above shows where all the visitors to my Etsy shop have come from since the first of the year. Pretty amazing! Click on the map to see a larger version. The countries I haven't had visitors from are off white.

Boris the Spider

2009-09-14T16:01:00.001-07:00

Continuing with the Halloween theme, here's Boris the spider. I don't usually give my pieces names like that, but I've had "Boris the Spider" by The Who playing in my head since yesterday, so it seemed fitting. He's available at my Etsy shop.

More etching

2009-08-30T19:28:00.001-07:00

Here's my latest piece made from an etched brass plate. I did this one so the spider web is raised. I wasn't sure if it would turn out, but once again etching didn't let me down!

Hello Romania!

2009-08-28T14:36:00.000-07:00

There is a cool little widget over on the right side which shows where in the world visitors to my blog are coming from. I've been noticing a fairly steady stream of visitors from Romania lately, including someone in Timosoara, which is not far from the town of Triebswetter, where both my grandparents on my Mom's side are from. When they lived there (before WW2) it was still Austria-Hungary, buy my family is German speaking and we consider ourselves German.

I was really fortunate in that I got to visit Triebswetter in 1984 with my grandparents. It's a very small farming town, and at that time not all that much had changed from when my grandparents lived there. My great grandmother was still alive, and we had many relatives there, most of whom are now in Germany. This was during the Ceauşescu era, so I got to experience a bit of his brand of Communism first hand. I would love to go back sometime and see what has changed.

New owl piece

2009-08-27T17:04:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to do an all silver version of my little owl in a tree and finally got to it this week. I drew the wood grain texture in Illustrator and made a brass etching of it. The texture is on the sides and back too. He's now available in my etsy shop.

The view from Fort Baker

2009-08-26T23:06:00.000-07:00

I had a lovely meal with my old pal Terry tonight at Murray Circle, which is in part of the old Fort Baker on the Marin side of the Golden Gate bridge. I've never been here before, you take a winding road down the hill right before you get to the bridge. It's all very hidden away and quite nice. My favorite part of the meal? The grilled corn creme brulee' with corn waffle and brown butter ice cream. Yes, you read that right. Brown butter ice cream.

Shar Peis love blue Octopus

2009-08-21T15:08:00.000-07:00

Lulu Bug and Lily Belle (especially Lily) love this blue octupus enough that whenever we see one at Western Farm Center we have to get it. There used to be tiny pink ones too, but they don't last long.

Tiny leaves

2009-08-19T08:27:00.000-07:00

Here are some new tiny leaves I just finished. They are all available now at my Etsy shop!

A blast from the past

2009-08-18T14:03:00.000-07:00

Our graduation show opening, May 1987, me and Terry Green

I just heard from my old friend, Terry Green. We went to art school together 22 years ago (!) He was a grad student while I was an undergrad, and we became friends while learning about the amazing world of computer graphics, which was in it's dinosaur stage back then. Your choice of 256 colors! 8.5" floppies! Color output to 35mm or 4"x5" film only! The wonder of it all. We were dazzled anyways, having no idea what was yet to come. Anyhoooo, Terry went on into motion graphics and founded twenty2product with his partner Nori. I just found out that they designed these postage stamps which were just released:

How amazing is that? You can read more about it here:
http://www.feltandwire.com

Why I love etching

2009-08-16T20:15:00.000-07:00

I've been doing lots of tiny pieces lately (more coming soon!) so I need a smaller hallmark. I have an etched brass plate with a bunch of hallmarks that I use to make the little tags I put on the back of my work, but they are too big for much of my new stuff, so it was time to see how small I can get. I get asked about how I get my art work on to my pieces quite regularly, so I thought I'd share a bit of the process here.

I etch on brass with ferric chloride (which is available in the US at electronic supply houses, since it is commonly used to etch PCB boards). The big trick is using Press n Peel blue transfer paper (also known as PNP) to transfer art to the brass for the resist. I do most of my artwork in Photoshop and Illustrator, and print it right onto the transfer paper in my toner based laser printer. You can also use a toner based copier with the PNP. You can google "copper etching" and get lots of info about it, or you can go to Art Jewelry magazine's website here:
http://www.artjewelrymag.com/art/default.aspx?c=a&id=647
and download the etching project. I hadn't etched in years and this refreshed my memory and introduced me to the PNP paper. I highly recommend it.

I did the art for the hallmark in Illustrator, so I have a nice vector file which can be resized without losing any image quality. I made it smaller - the line thickness of Lulu Bug is .35 PT, which is really fine! Once I got a little gang of them laid out, I printed it on to the PNP paper, cleaned my brass sheet and used an iron to transfer the image to the brass. I use a meat thermometer to check the iron temp - 275F seems to be optimal. Too hot or not hot enough and the image won't transfer. Once the image was transferred, I put tape on the back of the brass (to act as a resist and prevent the back from etching) and suspended the brass face down in a bath of ferric chloride. 45 minutes later I had my new tiny hallmark! The photo shows my original and the new one - 5/16" wide. I keep meaning to try photo polymer plates as an alternative to etching, but with the detail and fine lines I can get this way I probably won't get to it anytime soon.

New work

2009-08-12T11:58:00.000-07:00

Despite the recent arrival of something resembling summer, I'm designing for my favorite season, fall. I've been wearing one of these little silver and concrete mushrooms for about a week now and I quite like it! After seeing all the amazing sculptural work my friend Ruth does over at Birdland Creations (be sure to check it out!) I decided to try some things that are more sculptural myself. There are silver and concrete acorns coming too!

Finally - summer is here!

2009-08-11T16:51:00.000-07:00

I live in Santa Rosa, California, about 1 hour north of San Francisco. We're close enough to the coast that we enjoy sunny warm days and cool nights thanks to the coastal fog that is usually hanging around. This summer has been unusually cool though, with the fog coming in and staying through much of July, not that I'm complaining! We've had some hot weather as of late, and the tomatoes are finally starting to ripen - yay! Of course my brain has already moved on to fall, but I will enjoy the tomatoes. I had a little fun in Photoshop with the image.

Custom orchid

2009-08-06T11:23:00.000-07:00

I've been doing a lot of custom work lately, but I've been forgetting to take photos. I remembered with this piece though! I will probably do some of these for my regular line next spring - I'm in fall mode right now (more about that coming soon!)

Budgies and Bats

2009-08-03T18:34:00.001-07:00

I was taking photos of some new stuff and noticed that the budgies were all lined up and posing nicely. From left to right they are Greg, who is actually a girl, Nigel, who is an English budgie, Jeff, who was an escapee that we found outside and Wendy, the youngest of the bunch.

Here's one of the new pieces I was photographing:

Mini work bench

2009-07-29T09:16:00.000-07:00

My "studio" is actually my living room, which I share with two other adults, 1 Irish Setter, 2 Shar-Peis and 3 cats, so an already small space can get rather crowded! I have a nice jeweler's workbench but it's not really big enough, especially when I need to do some concrete or finishing work that will contaminate my metal clay. I found this sturdy microwave cart at Target. It has a wooden top, one shelf and one flat drawer so with a few modifications it's a perfect mini work bench! I already had the metal drawers (also from Target) which fit almost perfectly, and we added strips of wood around the top to keep stuff from rolling off, screwed in a bench pin, and got a board to put in the flat drawer and now I've a got a compact new workspace! Any metal sawing will still get done on the real bench since it's much more solid, but I can now do my dirty work away from my metal clay area. Yay!

I know it's still July....

2009-07-27T11:23:00.000-07:00

but here are some fall inspired pieces! It must be the Halloween front pages that Etsy is starting to run already, and the all the back to school stuff everywhere.

It's been 1 year since my first sale on Etsy

2009-07-24T08:53:00.001-07:00

How time flies! I opened my Etsy shop as a way to hopefully earn a little money to support my hobby and be able to write off my related expenses. I had no idea when I made that first sale of the earrings in the photo that I would end up doing this full time. I'm so happy to no longer be working for "the evil little troll" (one of my nicer nicknames for my former boss). It's hard work, long hours every day of the week but I wouldn't trade it for my former job, that's for sure!

The magical world of Bataeff Salvage

2009-07-22T17:48:00.001-07:00

Wonderful peeling green sheds and rusty metal

I always go to the scrap yard for tamale pots

Aluminum

For all your plastic bucket needs

Ammo boxes

We here in Santa Rosa are blessed with the always changing, never know what you might find Bataeff Salvage. My boyfriend Kelly is going to build a clothesline in the back yard and wanted some steel cable (he makes everything out of metal whenever possible!) so off we went to Bataeff today. I didn't really need anything so I just wandered around and was struck by all the amazing shapes, colors, textures and patterns that are found there. Imagine a scrap metal yard, Harbor Freight tools, an old fashioned hardware store, army surplus with a dash of flea market, and you've got Bataeff Salvage! They even have a web site now: http://www.bataeffsalvage.com
It was looking a little barren today though, I guess the price of scrap metal is down right now, but it's always worth a look.

Enamel workshop

2009-07-21T09:22:00.001-07:00

I did a two day workshop this past weekend on enameling on silver. It was held by my local pmc guild and taught by Mary Ellin D’Agostino & Olivia Competente. We learned plique a jour, which is like stained glass in that you build a silver framwork with no backing, so light shows through the enamel. The leaf is my plique a jour piece (which is very difficult to photograph!) It was fussy and very time consuming, and I'm not really thrilled with the result, but I'm glad I know how to do it now in case I have an idea that is suited to this method.

I'm happier with the circle pieces, they are just enamel fired to the surface (I don't know which french term applies to this method). You add a layer of color and fire for 2 minutes, add more color, fire again, add more, fire etc. The hamster in my head is working overtime, spinning his wheel as I ponder how this method can apply to my work. In the meantime I will be ordering enamels and tools and experimenting with this new way of applying color to metal.

Happy birthday Lily Belle!

2009-07-13T22:25:00.000-07:00

Our other Shar Pei, Lily, turned 10 today. She loves wearing her pearls and tutu. I know what you're thinking, but she loves it. Seriously.

My sister is on the front page!

2009-07-09T08:20:00.001-07:00

I've been a bad sister and haven't introduced my sister's shop here yet, but seeing as she's had her first Etsy front page this morning, I thought now would be a good time! Her piece is the bottom right in the photo. She is a printmaker, graphic designer and photographer, and you can see her work here:
http://www.projectspeaklove.etsy.com/
Please have a look at her work, it's really great!

Phew!

2009-07-01T21:10:00.000-07:00

I am officially TIRED. I got everything shipped that sold while I was featured, and now I'm about to tackle the pile of custom and reserved stuff, which should keep me busy through next week. Not that I'm complaining. Thank god for good coffee and power naps!

Saturday night at the Sonoma Marin Fair

2009-06-29T00:03:00.000-07:00

I took a little break Saturday night and had a nice dinner at Central Market in Petaluma, and then a visit to the Sonoma Marin fair (not to be confused with the Sonoma County fair). I have a confession to make, the reason we went was because Bret Michaels was playing there, included with the price of admission. I'm not a fan of his music, but I have to admit to loving the utterly trashtastic "Rock of Love" shows that he's in. We don't even have TV at my house, but we watch it on the internet. The TV show can be compared to the fried twinkies touted at the fair - pure junk, nothing redeeming about it but a guilty pleasure nonetheless! As for the performance, it was WAY too loud, Kelly (who knows about these things since he was a rock star in Hastings, Nebraska) said the guitar player was awful, but Bret did seem to be genuinely enjoying himself and was doing his best to put on a good show. With any luck he'll continue to cash in and we'll get Rock of Love 4!

Featured seller on Etsy!

2009-06-27T08:33:00.000-07:00

I meant to post this yesterday, but I was so busy I didn't get to it - I'm the featured seller on Etsy through Monday morning! You can read the interview here:
http://www.etsy.com/featured_seller.php?featured_user_id=5868807
Back to work now!

Working half days

2009-06-24T08:15:00.000-07:00

There's an old joke about working half days when you work for yourself - you even get to choose which 12 hours of the day you work. I'm living that right now! So much for getting a bit more sleep now that I've quit the day job. I have a really big event coming up on Friday (more about that later) and have been making, making, making. The photo shows only some of what I've been doing. The gray pieces on the left are finished but unfired clay - they are in the kiln right now. The bright silver pieces have just come out of the kiln, and the black pieces are fired, finished a bit and oxidized and are waiting final finishing. There's still more to make. I guess I better make some coffee and get to work!

West 9th Street Egrets

2009-06-19T13:42:00.000-07:00

Here in Sonoma County, California, there is lots of farmland, open space, and a seasonal wetland (that may be the wrong term) called the Laguna de Santa Rosa. Great habitats for all sorts of creatures, including egrets and herons. But where does one large group of them nest every year? About a block away from my house in Santa Rosa, on a group of trees that are in the median strip of a 4 lane road!

They've been coming to this same group of trees since the 80's. There are plenty of other tall trees nearby, including some on Santa Rosa creek, but these birds prefer living in the hood. The city closes two of the 4 lanes beneath the trees for about 4 months every year while the birds nest and raise their babies. It's quite a mess beneath the trees, and a cacophony of very strange sounds. There are snowy egrets, great egrets and a few night and green herons too. There are 4 trees that are just loaded with birds, it's quite a site and draws birders from all over. I went with my mom and sister to see them nesting out at Audobon Canyon Ranch in Marin county a few years ago, but while the setting was nicer, the birds were closer and easier to see in my own back yard.

Vegetable silliness

2009-06-15T19:30:00.000-07:00

I was working away last Friday evening, after a lovely dinner at Abyssinia Ethiopian restaurant in Santa Rosa, and was struck the need to make a beet in silver and concrete. Immediately. So here it is.

Do try grilling beets - I slice and cook them in the microwave first (so they grill quickly) then brush with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar and throw them on the grill till they brown. Yummy!

The coldest winter I ever spent....

2009-06-12T12:12:00.000-07:00

was a summer in San Francisco - Mark Twain
He sure got that right! I was down in SF on Tuesday for an Etsy event and took this picture. The CEO Maria Thomas and a few others were in town so they held an informal meeting at a cafe'. It was very informative, they were all very friendly and seemed to truly listen to everyone's questions and concerns. The highlight of my evening was when I introduced myself to Maria and told her a bit about myself. I gave her my card (which is the same artwork as my Etsy banner) and she said "I know you!" Very cool indeed!

Custom piece

2009-06-10T18:19:00.000-07:00

I did these two pieces for my old friend Lori after we reconnected on Facebook. We hung out together in the mid to late 80's, right after high school, going to lots of punk and new wave shows. We were very cool with our asymmetrical haircuts and our Doc Marten's (hmmm, I had very asymmetrical hair until about a month ago and my closet is still full of Docs!) Back then mohawks and pink hair were still unusual and a bit shocking. Whenever I see kids today sporting that look I want to go up to them and say "that's so cute, I wore my hair like that when I was your age".

Anyhoo... Lori is training for a half marathon, and wanted something that symbolized strength and perseverance for herself and her training partner. She found the west African Adinkra symbol which symbolizes just that, the Tabono symbol. I suggested the 13 dots which represent 13 miles, and the tiny dot in the center is the final .10 mile. We had a good time catching up while designing the piece together.

I'm free!

2009-06-05T15:10:00.000-07:00

The jukebox in my head has been playing this song all afternoon, so I thought I'd share it. I wish we could see the fringey outfit Roger has on.

I quit my day job!

2009-06-01T19:52:00.000-07:00

Well, I did it! I gave notice today at my day job, so I can pursue my own work full time. It's scary, but I have been so unhappy at work for such a long time that it really feels like the right thing to do, even "in this economy" as the media is so fond of saying. The best part is that someone else quit yesterday too. Now there are 6 full time people, 4 of whom have the title "manager". Need I say more? No more complaining about the boss and annoying/lazy co-workers! No more relating to Dilbert! I'm free from the tyranny of petty office politics. Whatever time I waste on the internet is my own. Yay!

Metal clay tips and tricks

2009-05-31T16:07:00.001-07:00

I dry my larger domed pieces on a wooden ball, but I leave smaller pieces flat until after they're fired. I find it easier to dome them (or "dap" them) once they are metal. Instead of using a dapping block (a wooden or metal block with domed recesses) I've found that a wooden dapping tool and a rubber block get the job done with no marks on the piece and the embossed image on the front unharmed. I put the piece face down on the rubber block, and tap at it with a hammer and my dapping tool until it's domed. Fine silver right out of the kiln is very soft, so it's very easy. I did buy the cheap steel dapping set at Harbor Freight because I always wanted one, but I rarely use it. Maybe once I get back into some traditional fabricating, but for now I love my wood and rubber tools!