Safety First!

I haven't posted nearly as much as I had intended to.  

     You see, earlier in October (before my last posting) I was cleaning up my desk area to prepare for my mother coming to visit.  Well my desk and floor are always a wreck; between stray beads and things rolling off, and having a cat who finds it highly fun to intentionally knock things over.  My desk is a playground for him.

My foot knocked a small pile of beads next to my desk and I felt a horrible sharp pain in my foot. When I looked to see what it was I saw nothing sharp...except maybe a star shaped bead tip.  I looked at my foot and I only had a barely visible cut.  I shrugged it off, even though it hurt.  About two days later, I was in tears.   On October 31st I got into the doctor to finally have them do a check up and some x-rays.  I thought it was crazy that such a small bead tip could have hurt my foot so badly.

I remember sitting in the x-ray room talking with the technician as he took the images, and he turns around the corner grining and says, "We don't normally let people look at their x-rays this early...but I think you should get a look at this!"  He looked like an excited kid who just got the coolest present in the world.  I looked the picture and my jaw probably hit the floor.  I obviously had one of my John James' size 12 or 13 beading needles lodged deep into my foot.  There was no mistaking it.  You could even see the eye of the needle in the x-ray.  Great...for Halloween I got to be Frankenstein!  That day I had to shuffle around from doctor's office to doctor's office.  I thought it was really hillarious how all of the doctor's looked like it was Christmas!

I was stuck walking around for two more weeks in a 'moon boot' like device to keep my foot flat and unmoving until my surgery.  It has been so weird having to endure questions about it and explain sheepishly that I stepped on a needle.  The one question that keeps making me laugh is when people ask me how I managed to do that.  It can be tempting to make up silly answers for such a silly question!!  I finally got my surgery and everything went well.  It's having a hard time healing on me and it still hurts quite a bit, so I may be stuck in my surgery boot for another two weeks or so...but I am so happy it is out.

I thought I was very careful before with storing the needles.  We think that Rory, the Beady-Eyed monster cat knocked over a project box of mine and the needle got out.  I used to love being barefoot, I hate shoes.  I think my feelings are going to change now...

So ladies and gents, make sure your needles are securely stashed!  I may love beading and jewelery making a ton...but I never want it to be that much of a part of me again!

Bronzclay!

I finally busted open one of my packages of Bronzclay last night.  The clay reminds me of those little apple sauce and cinnamon 'dough' ornaments my mom used to make.  If only it smelled as good...

Everything smells like lavender in the apartment right now.   I read that lavender water helps inhibit oxidation.  I've found that the Bronzclay is awesome for getting strong, and clear impressions from moulds and stamps so far.  I'm drying a few flat pieces to try out carvings with later, and I can't wait to see how that goes.  I do have one piece that looks like it oxidized but I am not totally sure.  I'm really curious how enamels work and look on the bronze once it's fired.  Has anyone seen any examples yet?  

  

Here fishy fishy fishy!

I've been working on a fish pendant the last few days. Its a good size piece and the design is definitely presenting me with a few challenges. It's two different parts put together (one part fish, one part bubbles) and the middle support is what's so challenging. I've tried a few different things with it so far, and the most promising was using wire on the inside to support it...except I had a mishap with the wire and now the piece is fired. Oops! So now it's back to the drawing board! I was thinking about trying out enameling for the first time on the piece as well, if everything works out.

I've gotten a few earring components fired too, and I can't wait to put them together!

So here's my question for the day. How often do you run into challenges with what you make? How do you prefer to solve them? :)

Too excited.

So my birthday is coming up in a few weeks. My husband and I are not very good at keeping presents for any occasion secret for long. Naturally, the last week or so my husband had been throwing hints and jokes my way about what he had gotten me. I was banned from checking my e-mail for an excruciating few days so that I would not see what it was. I was told I would have to make room on my insanely messy desk for my present. What I never anticipated is that the room I would have to make...is basically all of my desk.

He finally caved in the other day and just had to tell me what his super present was. And yes...he really outdid himself and got the ultimate gift. It's practically a whole studio. I usually torch fire my PMC with the exception of being able to use a kiln at classes for my projects there. He got me a kiln, enamelling supplies, a lot of different tools, a tumbler kit, silver clay, and bronze clay with its firing materials, and other misc. things. He told me this was a pre-birthday (oh boy) present, and it arrives tomorrow. I'm as giddy as a kid at Christmas!!

Don't I have the greatest hubby in the world? I've been amazed at how much research he put into my gift. He looked at my PMC books, asked questions, read sites and put a lot of work into finding the right things. It's a wonderful gift, and seriously thoughtful. And he's just as enthusiastic. Thanks baby ;) The only rule that I have to my new gift, is that he is allowed to use one PMC paper strip to make a PMC paper airplane. It's so cute, he has been practicing his airplane folding techniques so that he can make a good one. I told him he can't fly it though. It'll probably go flying into the wall and stick like a dart...or poke an eye out.

I am thinking of going plant picking tomorrow to find some leaves and buds to make things out of with the PMC paste. I'll be that crazy girl walking down the street cackling giddily, picking at bushes and gathering things out of the garden on my deck. I wonder how crazy people will think I am?

Hello out there!

Well hello everyone! This is a bit awkward for me...the odd first post. Well I guess I should start out with a bit about myself. My name is Kelly, I live in the East Bay of California outside of San Francisco. I love movies, music, and learning history. You'll see a lot of the last two influencing my work. I'm particularly fond of Ancient History.

I've always been interested in learning new art forms, and expressing myself creatively. I started out making decorative boxes when I was in grade school. It was a form of release for me. I grew up with chronic migraines and it kept my mind busy from thinking about it. Like most of the things I do; I just winged it with making them. I would go to craft stores and get acrylic paint, scrap book paper, rub-ons, and I'd look for all kinds of trinkets to use for embellishment. They're a lot of fun to make, and I recommend it for trying! Here's an example of one of my boxes:
I don't make these boxes so much anymore. Mainly because I've become addicted to making jewelry!

My favorite and primary medium, is the wonderful material called Precious Metal Clay. The clays come in three different brands.
PMC, Art Clay, and BronzClay; and in three different metal types. Fine silver, gold, and bronze.

I prefer to use the PMC brand fine silver. An example of what Precious Metal Clay is for those who may not know; is a material made out of fine silver particles suspended in a binder and water. It looks, feels, and acts a lot like modelling clay. You can shape and manipulate this clay into designs and fire it. Once the material is sintered from firing, and finished, you are left with a design of .999 fine silver.

Here's a picture of my two first pieces I ever made from a while back. No laughing now! I used to make these roses from regular clay for my boxes:


I recently went through the Rio Grande PMC certification class, and I'm always learning.

Here are two pictures of my finish projects for the Rio class.
This is the saucer bead project. I left the strips longer and hammered them down. On the backside (not shown) the surface is filed in various directions, making it almost look like hammering on the metal.


This is my double fired ring using mold pieces and texture plates:



I also used to watch my brother and his friends who were part of the Markland Society make their own chain maille from scratch. While they made theirs for armor, I've fallen in love with using it for jewelry. I also do the typical stringing and beading.

So that's me, the nut, in a nut shell. You'll find I'm a major goof ball.