Speaking of Ann, who torch-fires domes.

[The photos with this post were taken before I did any finishing at all of the first piece, and after just a quick, preliminary tumble of the second. I did do some more polishing, and the pieces now look a lot better than shown here. But read to the end of this entry, and you’ll see the main reason why I’m including the photos of these pieces at this stage of finishing….]

Ann (mentioned in my last post) bought some 4mm fine silver bezel cups. I’m not sure why she got them that size but, once they arrived, she realized how small they were. What would she do with them? Well, I had some small blue spinels (both faceted and cabochon), so I traded her a few of those cabs for a few of her bezel cups.

Several days later, at the end of a pack of clay, I figured I had just enough clay left to make this piece (i.e., if I didn’t use any extra clay pushing it into a texture stamp). So I made this piece, fired it, cooled it, added the bezel cup, and refired the whole thing. Though the stone should have survived the firing, I figured it’d be easy enough to set it afterwards.

Then, I decided to open another pack silver clay and make several more lentil beads. Here’s an example:

But, here’s the dilemma. Once I polish any of these further, they’re more difficult to photograph without having my reflection take away even more from the polished area. So I’m displaying the un- or semi-polished images for now.

(That is, in the lower pair, the camera is actually visible in the photo to the right; it is, luckily, sort of hidden in the texture of the one to the left. I did try shooting through a shield that would hide my outline somewhat: but I could not find an angle at which to shoot the first piece, above, that would both show it off well and "hide" the lens in the stone… One photographer I talked with suggested trying to put it in a bowl of water and shoot through that, but I haven’t yet had time for such experiments.)

Congratulations, Ann!

One of the members of our local chapter of the PMC Guild was the lucky winner of an Opaque Enameling Kit from Tonya Davidson’s great Master Muses project.

So this post is to offer congratulations to Ann, with whom I often carpool to chapter meetings. But it’s also to point out that Ann is one lucky woman: she wins things!

Here’s an example of why I say that: on our way home from a guild meeting last fall, Ann and I passed one of the best local bead shops, Crystal Bead Bazaar. I couldn’t believe Ann when she said she had never been there, so we parked the car and went in so she could check it out. It happened to be their anniversary, they were giving away door prizes, and Ann won the one for that particular hour. I’ve been going there for years; And was there 15 minutes and won a prize, a goodie bag full of short strands of a number of different beads.

Maybe Ann deserves such luck because she’s such a generous person. She gave me some of the beads she had won, including some green glass ones that went beautifully with the Russian Jasper beads I had bought while we were there. The photo shows how I combined them with a fine silver "lentil" bead. Thanks, Ann!

Two States Over

Sorry I’ve been quiet for a while. But this Sunday and last, I headed west from Pittsburgh, across the tip of West Virginia at Wheeling, and over into Ohio, where I taught an introductory silver metal clay workshop at Eastern Gateway Community College in Steubenville, OH.

Thanks to (clockwise) Tracee, Martha, Pearl Kathy, Joyce, and Michelle for a couple of "charmingly" great afternoons! And to Lois and Hallie for helping make it happen.