Wrap-up Follow-up

Yep, the Parkway East is closed this weekend for Greenfield Bridge construction, but I’ve decided to have my studio open for another little Open House from 12 Noon to 3 pm both Saturday and Sunday, December 10-11!

I say it’s just a little one because I’m not turning the whole place into a shop again this weekend. I’ll keep one big table to use for trying to get some work done, but I’ll have the other big table, a couple little ones, and the big sideboard all set up for shoppers. (While out holiday-shopping, I bought a few new storage containers, so my “work” goal is just to sort, label, and reorganize my supplies for several new directions I’m aiming for in 2017. That’s all perfectly interrupt-able and, in fact, I’ll appreciate taking breaks to chat with visitors!)

If you don’t make it to Regent Square now, then you’re welcome to come and find me next weekend: I’ll be back out in Mt. Lebanon at The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh. I’ll be there for sure for a few hours on Friday (mid-afternoon to closing, at 6), and all day on Saturday (10 am – 6 pm) for sure. I’m not yet sure if those of us having Trunk Shows will be back on Sunday but, if we will be, I’ll post a little update on that on the Convergent Series page on Facebook.

In both places, I’ll have (my usual array of new) jewelry items, plus (items I only offer for sale at special events, such as) my colored glass ornaments and miniature pottery. If you haven’t seen me in a while, you may be in for some surprises!

Button Class Reminder

Thanks to Cosy for posting this on the Indie Knit and Spin site. If you want in on the fun next Saturday morning (Feb 6), please sign up as soon as possible!

Note: this is a basic “intro” session so, if you want to make a pair of earrings or a few little charms instead of buttons, that’ll be fine too!

Indie Knit & Spin

Don’t forget to register for Carol Scheftic’s Button Making Class! Learn to make your own silver buttons. We need at least a few more folks for this class to happen. More information can be found here. We need registrations in by Sunday evening so Carol can order clay.

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Silver-artists etch copper!

I wonder about people who are able to write several posts each day: what’s it like in the rest of their life that they have the time to do that? I’m always busy. That’s meant neither as a complaint nor as an excuse. Without consciously trying, I keep busy. And I do prefer that to ever letting myself get bored! Even if that means it sometimes takes me a while to get around to writing posts that I have on my mind.

Which is exactly what happened with regard to the last meeting of the Western PA Chapter of the PMC Guild. I still don’t have time to write a complete narration (especially after having side-tracked myself with three recent posts on tumblers and more) so I’ll first just annotate a few of the photos I took, and end with a few comments on the most surprising outcome.

We met on a Monday night in September in Springdale, PA, where Barbara helped everyone with etching copper. This photo shows Susan looking over Sharon’s shoulder as they discuss design issues:

Lois wasn’t sure if she wanted to draw her own design, so Barbara helped her consider the pros and cons of various stamps that she had. (In the end, Lois did draw her own. More on that shortly.)

Clockwise from the left are Ann, Susan, Lindsay, Donna, and Sharon at work, all at different stages in the process:

From left to right, we have Ann, Donna, and Lindsay from a slightly different angle:

I did not get a shot of the sample pieces Barbara shared with us before we started. Then, she spent her time helping everyone else. (Thanks so much!) But here’s a photo showing the pieces made by Ann, Donna, Lindsay, Lois, Sharon, Susan, and me:

We spread them all out, and compared notes. Of course, there were some “obvious” differences. Beyond variations in both our goals and our basic drawing techniques to begin with (Charlie: the talisman I promised you at your last birthday is in there! I just put it in the mail for you but, until it arrives, can you spot it from its symbols?!) we also used a range of different finishing techniques: some people used Barbara’s polishing wheels, others used her torch to heat-patina the pieces, and so on. Some observations were curious: we noted both the appearance of and differences in patterns of “extra lines” that showed up in some of the designs.

But the result that I think we all found the most interesting was the one we didn’t realize was a surprise until Lois pointed it out. (You may have to click that last photo to get it large enough to really see this in the tall piece at the far right.) The “dots” at the end of each branch on the tree were NOT deliberately drawn by her. At an autumn meeting, she had just felt inclined to draw a tree that had already lost all its leaves. So the “dots” must have been the result of holding her pen such that a tiny bit extra ink pooled at the end of each line, making the metal just a tiny bit more resistant to the etching solution! Though unintended, we all agreed that this was a very pleasant little surprise.

And we wished that the meeting wasn’t about to end: It seemed that just about everyone was eager to start another piece in order to try the “Lois’ Dots” technique!

Ahhh, memory is a funny thing….

This note fills a spot from July 2 that had had some information about the Metal Clay Demos that Donna Penoyer and I offered at Art All Night this year.

I’d been feeling frustrated as I tried to write the follow-up, because I was sure I had started writing something about that part of the evening, and just could not find any notes nor the draft. Only after I’d posted a relatively brief summary did I notice that the reason I couldn’t find the draft is because that’s the one complete item I had already posted in early May about that event. So go back and read that one, if you missed it. The rest of my report from this year is here, in early July…

Sigh. It’s really been one of “those” weeks….

WSCC Holiday Gift Shop time approaches

Silly me, I really thought I had taken a photo of this display board outside the Wilkins School Community Center last month, when they had a lovely poster welcoming me to the site, including photos of about eight pieces of my work. But, ummm, I can’t find it on either camera or phone disks, so I guess I thought about doing that but somehow got distracted.

Oh well, it’s now been replaced with a poster advertizing the Holiday Gift Shop. Which is fine. And, if you’re ever trying to find my studio (e.g., if you’re coming to the meeting of the Western PA Chapter of the PMC Guild that I’m hosting there this month), this does still give a clue about the building you are looking for (which is why I’d wanted to now post that photo I thought I had taken…).

Cheers!
-cs

From one Metal Clay Fan to Another

That charm is my contribution to the Charms for Charity fundraiser for this year. Proceeds go to either the American Cancer Society or the Bone Marrow Foundation.

Happy Valentine’s Day