Crazy-busy Season

Life tends to get crazy-busy this time of year, for multiple reasons, some of which I’m sure you can imagine and others would take too long to explain. So I’m just going to list a few events you may want to know about should you be interested in seeing some of my work in person:

• November 30 – December 7: H*liday mART at Sweetwater Center for the Arts, Sewickley, PA


• December 5-6-7: Holiday Gift Shop at the Wilkins School Community Center, Swissvale, PA


• December 5-6-7: Open House in my Studio, to coincide with WSCC’s Holiday Gift Shop


• December 13: Open House at the Hoyt Center for the Arts, New Castle, PA


• December 13-14: Open House in my Studio, to coincide with an Art Studio tour in Regent Square (Swissvale, Pittsburgh, Edgewood, Wilkinsburg), PA


• For other venues, please see the list of Ongoing locations down the right side of this blog.

If you find yourself missing any of those, no problem. Just get in touch with me: leave a comment on this post, or message me via Convergent Series page on Facebook (and, while you’re at it, a Like there would be very much appreciated…). We’ll find a way for you to explore my creations!

I’m not sure how much else I’ll manage to post this month. But I have new designs in the works, new workshop pieces I’m testing out plus, of course, new variations of ongoing favorites in both those categories … and lots more for 2015! I look forward to posting about all of those in the New Year, and I hope you’ll enjoy reading about them too.

Merry Christmas to All!

This is a slightly belated “Thank You!” to everyone who braved the weather to head out for this year’s Art Buzz tour. Whether you faced the sleet, snow, and ice on Saturday, or more ice and biting cold on Sunday, your support of independent, local artists is much appreciated, perhaps more than you can imagine.

And, to those of you who are the recipients of gifts or gift cards purchased during that event, I hope you are as delighted with them as your gifter appeared to be while making the purchase.

For anyone trying to find my schedule of upcoming classes, I’ll be working on that later this week. I hope to have it posted on my website the first week of January (and I’ll announce it here). If you need info sooner than that, let me know, and I can give you some preliminary (but subject to change) information.

In the meantime, I hope all my blog-readers are having a very Merry Christmas, and enjoying everything about this holiday season.

2013 Art Buzz Tour — This Weekend!

Have you heard the buzz? Six sites! All in the Pittsburgh area’s “East End” this weekend: Regent Square, Swissvale, and Squirrel Hill. And my studio is one of the locations on it again this year.

I’ve got lots of jewelry on offer, plus a handful of other small adornments.

I also have aloe vera plants that need a new home, babies that i repotted from some of the big ones I keep around. (I do work with hot metals here!) BONUS: small ones are free with a purchase of $35 or more (or a discount can be applied to the price of any of the larger ones if that’s what you prefer).

Plus you’re welcome to share some of my cookies and hot mulled cider. (I also got the makings for cranberry-orange frosties but, with all the snow that’s falling, I’ll save that until there’s a request or I run out of cider, whichever comes first.)

Happy Holidays to all!

This Weekend (and Next) at my Community Center

Once again, it’s time for the Holiday Gift Shop at the Wilkins School Community Center. Do come by this weekend if you get the chance: 7-9 pm on Friday evening (great opening night party, and it’s free!) or 10 am to 7 pm on Saturday and Sunday.

I’m letting WSCC do the selling for me at this event because, with everything else that happens this time of year, I’ll be in and out all weekend. What I have on offer at this venue includes a number of class samples and workshop demonstration pieces. FYI, I recycle earnings from those into buying more materials to use in refreshing my memory on next year’s classes (the samples) and in making pieces as I illustrate the processes during classes (the demo pieces). They’ve expanded the event this year, from two rooms to three on the main floor of the center, so there should be lots of goodies on offer from a number of different vendors, for gifts or for yourself!

And, while I’m writing, I’ll mention another event, next weekend, when I’ll have my studio open (upstairs at WSCC) from 10 am to 4 pm on December 14 & 15, and a little bit of everything will be on sale then (my full range of jewelry and other small adornments, information about workshops and home parties, gift certificates, …). I’ll be one of the six stops on the annual Art Buzz Tour, so you can even just grab a map to all the other great sites.

I hope that my “local” readers will be able to stop by, one weekend or the other. I really do appreciate all your support!!!

Double Double Duty

I love it when I can save myself some time, effort, and / or money by getting “double duty” out of something. It’s great whenever it happens, but it’s a special treat at this time of year. (That is, as anyone in any aspect of retail sales know, during the time when the holiday-sales season approaches, schedules fill up, and spare time simply evaporates!)

So the reversible fine silver pendant with a lab-grown pink corundum stone shown with this post was a real treat:

• I made the “base” piece as part of my demos during a recent beginner’s workshop. I fired it with the student pieces, which got that out of the way quickly too. Then, I added the bezel cup and “sapphire” as my part of my demos during a session on adding a stone to a finished piece. Two classes that were lots of fun and one piece that worked for both. Double duty.


• But the double-double comes from the fact that the piece is now done, and into inventory for one of my pre-holiday shows! It’s going out to the H*liday mART at Sweetwater Center for the Arts (November 30 – December 8). I hope it will go home with someone else who falls in love with it there. But the timing is such that, if it ends up coming back with me, I can offer it again at my studio, with all the other pieces I’ll be saving specifically to offer there during the Art Buzz Tour (December 14-15).

While the making and placing of tags is nowhere near as much fun as is the making of these pieces, I’ve found I can overcome the boredom of that by imagining the people who will attend such events, and imagining those who may connect with one (or more) of my creations. I hope you’ll be among them, for real.

Thanks for stopping by!

Just a quick note to say “Thanks!” to everyone who (a) came to EcoFest at WSCC today and (b) came upstairs to visit me & my studio! And, of course, a double-thanks to everyone who left with a purchase…!

For those who could not make it over today, the photo with this post shows what it looked like, as I converted my studio / classroom into a little showroom for one day. The worktables were cleaned off and draped. Display stands were pulled out of the cabinet. Inventory was brought in from its usual (secure) storage area. A few seasonal decorations even appeared … courtesy of a delightful Harvest Dinner that I attended on Thursday evening, sponsored by the Edible Gardens program at servePGH. I was lucky enough to win the mums (table centerpiece). And a fellow-gardener, Bertha, collected some gourds that she shared with me. Perfect timing!

For now, though, it’s time to stash the extra inventory again (leaving out just a few pieces to keep in the studio, ones that I want to use as examples for upcoming workshops), pack up the displays, get out all the tools and such, and get back to making things!

My next Studio Open House will be during the Art Buzz Tour which, this year, will be on December 14-15 (10-4 each day). Mark your calendars now, if you’ll be in the area then. I’ll post more news about that as the time approaches. (Hint: I’m hoping to have a few great additions to tell you about!)

If you are interested in doing some shopping between now and then, of course, feel free to stop by and see if I have anything on hand that will suit your needs, or let me know what you’re looking for and I may be able to dig out some other possibilities before you come over.

2012 Art Buzz Tour — This Weekend

Have you heard the buzz? It’s even louder this year! Over forty artists! Seven sites! All in the Pittsburgh area’s “East End” this weekend. And my studio is one of the locations on it again this year.

At WSCC (where I’ll be), the Holiday Gift Shop will still be running downstairs, and I am pretty sure that Daviea Davis will have her glass mosaic studio open too, upstairs across the hall from mine.

If you’re in the area, I sure hope you can stop by. To say, “Hello” and “Happy Holidays” at least. If, for some reason, you can’t get yourself there in person, how about leaving a holiday greeting as a “comment” on this blog post. Even having you say just “Hello” or “Happy Holidays” would be much appreciated!

I look forward to seeing / hearing from you, dear readers, so I can extend my best wishes for this holiday season to you too, in return, in a more personal way.