2022 Holiday Open House!

Merry Christmas to you, or Happy whatever-other Holidays you may be celebrating this season! I’ve shifted to Second Sunday events this year, and it’s finally time for my Second Sunday Holiday Open House!

If you’re looking to shop for some art jewelry or other small adornments this month, whether to give as gifts or as a treat for yourself, come on over to my studio this Sunday, December 11, from 1 to 5 pm.

If you’re not one of my studio regulars, know that you can come find me upstairs, over the front door, at the Wilkins School Community Center (in Regent Square), 7604 Charleston Avenue, 15218.

Even farther “behind” that usual as I write this on Thursday, I haven’t even begun to turn my workspace into a sales venue, but somehow I’ll get that done by this Sunday…  

If your schedule is crazy too now, and you can’t get there on Sunday afternoon, reach out to discuss what days / times after that would work for you. Alternatively, I’ve still got pieces in my usual retail shops: find those (with addresses and open hours) on my website.

For now, here’s a little peek at one of the many pieces I’ll have available in my studio. (This is the “other side” of the piece that was in the recent Pittsburgh Society of Artists Show.)

Carol & Convergent Series Return!

If you subscribe to my very-occasional newsletter, you have a clue as to why I’ve been quiet for a while. Overall, the reason isn’t important. What matters is that, beyond simple pandemic issues, I’m slowly getting back to business, with some new, upcoming events!

My First-Ever Solo Show!

Throughout September, 2022, I am so honored to be Cranberry Artists Network’s “Glass Case Artist”!

• Cranberry Twp Municipal Center, 2525 Rochester Road, Cranberry Twp, PA.

While the show is running all month, I encourage local folks to join me for my Artist’s Reception. While you are welcome to just show up, it’d help me to have a clue if you’re planning to attend (since I’m trying to figure out how many light refreshment treats to bring!).

• Tuesday, September 20, from 6:30 – 8:30 pm

Studio Sessions Return Next Month!

At the moment, I’m planning them as mostly-Second, now-mostly-Sunday events in my studio in the Wilkins School Community Center in Regent Square. These are times when I set up a little mini-show – I have only a handful of things on display but if there’s something in particular you’d like to see, let me know a day or two in advance and I can be sure to have that sort of thing to show you. I have one table set up so I can work on some chores, and students from my previous classes are welcome to come by and use my tools to do something of their own (as long as I have a couple days notice!). These are the dates I have set up so far:

• Second Sunday, October 9, 1 to 5 pm
  (I’ll likely be cleaning up pieces I’ve brought back from the display case in Cranberry.)
• Third Sunday, November 20, 1 to 5 pm
  (Can’t be the second one: see classes, below)
• Second Sunday, December 11, 1 to 5 pm 
  (I may well extend the time for this one as we get closer to the holidays!)

New Classes Coming!

Regular readers here will know I’ve been involved with The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh for years now. They sell a good share of my pieces for me, and I teach classes there on how to make pieces along the lines of many of the ones I offer. They moved from Mt Lebanon to Carnegie early in 2020 (what timing!) and if you haven’t made it over to check out the new facility, you should! Here are the workshops I have set up there for this fall:

• Sunday, October 23, Noon to 3:30 pm
  Textured Reversible Silver
  (pendant or earrings)
  Register Here

• Sunday, November 13, Noon to 3:30 pm
  Tiny Silver Pendants 
  (make several: pendants-earring pieces-charms, for yourself and/or as gifts!)
  Register Here

Beyond These?

Who knows?! Let’s enjoy all of these for now, and see what happens next!

2019 Holiday Happenings!

Merry Christmas to you, or Happy whatever-other Holidays you may be celebrating this season! If you’re looking to shop for some art jewelry, colorful glass ornaments, or miniature pottery this month, whether to give as gifts or as a treat for yourself, this post will list the times and places where you can find items I’ve created!

All of these events are have for a while been on my public events page, and on the “blogroll” down the right side of this blog (when viewed on a computer). But I thought I should also list them all together here, just in case you (or your mobile device) didn’t catch them in either of those places…

You should be able to find me in person with many of my creations on these three Saturdays:

• Dec 7 from 9 am to 6 pm: Arts & Crafts Fair, C.C. Mellor Memorial Library, 1 Pennwood Avenue, 15218.
• Dec 14 from 11 am to 5 pm: Second Saturday Holiday Open House, WSCC, 7604 Charleston Avenue, 15218.
• Dec 21 from (probably) 1 to 4 pm: Third Saturday Holiday-Extra Open House, WSCC, 7604 Charleston Avenue, 15218. (Note: If, at either of the first two events above, I get requests to change the time for this day, then I will.  You can confirm any modifications to that schedule on my public events list a few days ahead of this one.)

Here are other places where you can find some of my creations, listed in order by end date. 

• Dec 6 – 8.  Stop #41 on the Lawrenceville Joy of Cookies Tour, 3100 Penn Ave through 5600 Butler Street, Pittsburgh (10-5 Fri-Sa; 10-4 Su — the Steel City Craft Emporium* is the tour-stop closest to downtown!)
• Dec 6 – 8: Portage Hill Gallery* Open House, 6439 Portage Rd, Westfield, NY 14787 (10 am – 5 pm on those days).
• Nov 23 – Dec 14: Holiday Artisan Market at the North Hills Art Center, 3432 Babcock Blvd, 15237 (10-3 Mon-Sat plus 7-9 Tues).
• Nov 8 – Dec 20: Season of Joy Show in the Cranberry Township Municipal Center, 2525 Rochester Road, 16066 (10-8 M-Th; at least 1-4 Fri-Sun).  One enamel on copper show piece with bronze accent: It’s in the Middle of … Where?!!
• Nov 23 – Dec 22: jewelry plus ornaments in the extended Holiday Collection at the Hoyt Center for the Arts*, 124 E Leasure Ave, New Castle, 16101 (11-8 Tu-Th; 11-4 Fri-Sat). 
• Nov 11 – Dec 23: Pop-up Shop of The Artsmiths** of Pittsburgh, 329 E Main St, Carnegie, 15106  (Fri-Sun, 11-4). 
• and through Dec 24: The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh, 1635 McFarland Road, Mt. Lebanon, 15216  (Mo-Sa 10-6; Su 12-4).

* My works will be available in the sites marked with this asterisk even after the “special event” noted in this list, although the open days and hours may vary at other times of the year.
** Artsmiths will be moving from Mt Lebanon to Carnegie early in 2020, and my creations will continue to be available there (daily!) after the move.

I hope I’ll get to see you in person at one or more of these events. (And while I’d be thrilled if you chose to make a purchase, there’s no pressure to do so. I’m always happy just to see familiar faces and catch up a bit!). But, even if I don’t see you, please know that I wish you all the best for 2020!

2018 Holiday Season Events!

It’s that time of year again…!

Even though I haven’t been able to post much here lately, these are the major events I have planned for December!

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Where you can find me in person:

Arts & Crafts Fair, Saturday, December 8, 9 am to 6 pm, curated by the C. C. Mellor Library in Edgewood, PA. Find me and dozens of other local artists in the festive Edgewood Community House adjacent to the library.

Studio Open House: Saturday & Sunday, December 15 & 16, Noon to 6 pm on Saturday (probably more like 1 to 5:30 on Sunday), in my studio at the Wilkins School Community Center (WSCC) in Regent Square. Since this is where I make my creations, this is the place to see the widest selection of my offerings! Please note that my Saturday event runs right up until WSCC’s Sustainable Neighborhood Holiday Potluck, and you’re welcome to stay and join in on that too!

UPDATE — A (very rare) SALE!
In my studio (Dec 15-16 only), select class-demo pieces will be 10% off!
I don’t mark my prices up just so I can later offer them at a discount… But in classes, I often make smaller, simpler pieces to illustrate a technique or concept, or to answer a question, ones that I later finish and offer for sale.  This will be your chance to purchase a few of those at a discount!

Second-round Studio Shopping, by appointment only, again in my studio at WSCC. For those who come at one of the above times, and someone you’re with expresses interest in something, and you’d like to come back without them to see if it’s still available for you to purchase as a gift, but can’t get there at another official event-time … I’m still happy to try to help you out! Schedule an appointment for Dec 17, 18, or 19 at a time that will work for both of us!

Other places where my art jewelry,
colorful ornaments, and more
are currently available for purchase:

• The main floor shop at The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh Arts and Cultural Center in Mt. Lebanon, PA, ongoing.
• The H*liday mART at Sweetwater Center for the Arts in Sewickley (Nov 24 – Dec 9).
• The Holiday Artisan Market at the North Hills Art Center in Ross Township (Nov 17 – Dec 8).
• The Gift Shop at the Hoyt Center for the Arts in New Castle, PA, ongoing. (Consider combining that with a trip for their 7 pm Holiday Concert with the Pittsburgh Cello Quartet on Dec 6.)
• The front room at the Portage Hill Art Gallery in Westfield, NY, ongoing. (Consider stopping there on if you go on the Mayville Merchants’ Holiday Open House tour, Nov 30 – Dec 2.)

And I’m honored to have entries on display
(and for sale!) at these current art shows:

Cherry Blossom Botany (below) is in the Cranberry Artists Network’s 2108 Holiday Show (Nov 8 – Dec 20, 2018) at the Cranberry Township Municipal Building, 2525 Rochester Road, Cranberry Township, PA 16066.

Random Rainbow #2 (shown in my previous post) is in the Pittsburgh Society of Artists 53rd Annual Exhibition (Nov 9 – Dec 7, 2018) at the 3rd Street Gallery, 220 3rd Street, Carnegie, PA 15106.

Looking for a class or workshop?

Private / Semi-private lessons. If you want to make something special yourself, the only times I still have open for the remainder of this year are the afternoons of Dec 17, 18, or 19 (Mon thru Weds). Contact me for details.

(mostly) Second (mostly) Saturday Studio Sessions will resume on Saturday, January 12, 2019. These are for students who want to come and use my tools and equipement while I hold my monthly mini open house and / or work on my own projects. (I’ll answer questions but don’t hold formal lessons during these times.) It’s first-come / first-served, so just let me know if you want me to hold a space for you (or put you on my waiting list) for that date.

My next workshops will be in 2019. The first one I have scheduled for next year will be on Friday, January 18, from 6 to 9 pm, at the North Hills Art Center. Petite on Posts will involve a fine silver project where you’ll learn how to make a pair of post earrings (or, if you prefer, small lapel pins). Registration should open on their website by the start of January (maybe late December) and I’ll (try to remember to) update the above link then. I’ll post news about other 2019 classes early in the new year too.

The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh Art and Cultural Center!

I’m a month late in sharing this news about the Artsmiths of Pittsburgh Art and Cultural Center, but I’m still delighted to re-post their announcement.

As one of their first instructors (having started teaching way back in their previous incarnation as Koolkat!) I knew this was coming, but at the time of the official announcement I was up at Chautauqua on vacation and just missed it.

Why is this great news? While nothing has changed regarding location (they’re still in the big, now-green, barn-shaped building at the end of Banksville Road in Mt. Lebanon, PA), the non-profit status with APACC now provides a wider range of options both for what can be offered and how that can be promoted, especially regarding classes.

To keep these opportunities coming, of course, we’ll still need folks to:

• visit Artsmiths and explore the shop offerings from hundreds of local artists;
• browse their class and workshops offerings, then sign up for some;
• encourage friends and family, when possible, to both shop and learn too; and
• just generally share Artsmiths’ information from their website or social media sites including Facebook and Instagram.

I’m affiliated with several arts organizations in my local area, and I enjoy them all in their own way, but I am particularly impressed with the combination of both breadth and depth of support that Artsmiths offers to the local community. I hope they will continue strong, with more new opportunities, far into the future, and I’ll hope you’ll help in that effort too! 

Many other arts organizations are really struggling these days. Regardless of where you may be reading this, if there are any near you that you like, whether they are going great or struggling to survive, please remember to support them in whatever ways you can so they remain available to you and others!

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I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention that I have a workshop scheduled for Artsmiths, on making silver “Shadow Box” pendants, this coming Saturday afternoon, and as I write this several seats are still available!  This is an amazing and versatile project: you can complete a gorgeous, reversible piece in one afternoon (I’ll see if I can add a photo in the comments), but we’ll also consider ways you could, if you want, continue to develop it after class, such as stringing your creation with interesting beads, adding sculptural wire elements, and/or even filling it with something interesting and colorful (e.g., resin, enamel, concrete, polymer clay, etc.).

Will you cross a river for a class?

While I work in both precious metals (silver, gold) and base metals (steel, bronze, copper), my classes tend to feature silver. In response to requests for more base metal lessons, I have two bronze workshops coming up at the end of this month.

Reversible Draped Bronze (pendant or earrings) Friday, July 27, Noon to 4 pm at the North Hills Art Center more information register here	Reversible Domed Bronze (pendant or earrings) Sunday, July 29, 1 to 4 pm at The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh more information register here

Knowing the local lore of how hesitant some ‘burghers are to cross rivers, I thought I was being clever when I scheduled both of them for basically the same weekend. One north, t’other south. The thing that happened is that some people have signed up for each and, between the two, there are enough people to run a class …. but not quite enough yet to run each of them individually!

If you really want to take one in particular, please sign up for it now! (If it’s cancelled, you’ll get a full refund.) BUT, if you could take the other one, please let either me or your second-choice venue know. My understanding is that registration for each of them will close on Monday (July 23): at 10 am (firm!) for North Hills and a few hours later for Artsmiths. If your first choice is cancelled but there are enough to make the other one run, we’ll let you know that and accept your registration there after the “official” deadline. (That’s why there are deadlines: so we have time to scramble if necessary to keep as many people happy as possible, and still give me time to organize (and, if necessary order) all the tools and materials we’ll need!)

After that weekend, I’ll be back to offering workshops in silver for the next few months. (And using silver, steel, bronze, and/or copper in the pieces I make for (lots of) fun and (a tiny bit of) profit.) If you want to learn about any of those metals, of course, in addition to my pre-scheduled small-group classes, I’m always happy to schedule a private lesson with you in my studio!

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Update: Good news and bad. The bad first: the Friday class at NHAC was cancelled. The good (yay!): The Sunday one at Artsmiths is running! Since most venues (including these) don’t share participant names in advance (just the count: I get the surprise of seeing who shows up at the start of class!), I don’t know (yet) if that’s because new people signed up after I posted this, or whether some NHAC folks did decide to go to a class on the other side of some rivers from their site. Either way, though, I’m delighted to be looking forward to a great class this weekend!

This weekend, and next!

If you haven’t been over to The Arsmiths of Pittsburgh to see their great Instructors Show yet, you still have two more chances, this Saturday or Sunday (July 7 or 8). Not only does the show include a range of different styles from the various artists who teach there, but Artsmith’s proceeds from this show will be targeted specifically to support their great education programs!

If you’d like to talk with me in person, I’ll be over later in the afternoon on Sunday. (I should get there at or very soon after 2 pm, and I’ll stay until the closing, at 4.)

Whether or not we manage to connect in person this weekend, we’ll have another chance next weekend! You’ll be able to shop some of my creations and / or talk with me about any of my upcoming classes (at four separate venues), when I’ll hold another Second Saturday Open House session in my studio. That’ll be Saturday, July 14, and I should be there from about 1 to 5 pm. Stop by any time!

Next weekend’s bonus for one or two of my students: If you’d like to come over and use the tools & equipment in my studio during the Open House, I can have part of one table set up for that on the 14th too. Because I’ll have a few of my own projects going too, for students it’s really best if you reach out in advance to be sure I’ll have a spot for you.

(Since I’m still getting questions about these sessions, let me repeat that they are not the same as my private lessons or small group classes: I’m not saying I won’t speak to you at all, because I’ll help as I can. But they’re meant as an opportunity for students, working pretty much on their own, to continue or follow up on projects they’ve already learned how to do … but without having to invest in the great range of tools and supplies I bring to my workshops!)

This Saturday, and next!

This Saturday, June 9, is a “Second Saturday”! So I am, once again, planning a little Studio Open House. For more reasons than it’s worth listing here, this month I’m shifting the time a bit later than usual: 2 to 6 pm. I’ll have pieces for sale, along with information about the various workshops I have scheduled for this summer or might still add to the calendar.

The main reason for the slightly-later time is that the Regent Square Civic Association’s Second Saturday event will be at my building, and that’s scheduled for 4 to 7 pm. So I tried to plan my Open House to overlap: you can visit me from 2 to 6, if you’re able to come later in that range you can check RSCA out too, and I can still join them from about 6 until 7.

Follow either link above for a little more information on what each event offers. Stop by for the full effect!

Next Saturday, June 16, is my first workshop of the summer, where The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh will offer my reversible hollow silver bead class.

Some people call these “lentil” beads, because their underlying shape is similar to a very oversized lentil. Others call them “saucer” beads, though I never imagined flying saucers that looked quite like these. Long-time readers of this blog will know, however, that I love making lentil beads, and I think they make a great class projet too. The photos with this post are meant to show that even a complete beginner can master the making of a relatively simple one that is still impressive! Those with some prior metal clay experience can work a few more advanced techniques into their designs, but you’ll have to come to class to see some samples of those!

At Artsmiths, we will cover ways to make yours so it can be worn all by itself as a pendant. Or, if you’re into beading, we’ll cover ways that are ideal for stringing it with a bead selection of your choice. Hint: the pieces in the photos here are designed for beading, but can be worn alone as pendants, as shown. Follow the class link, above, to see some more basic samples and to find out how to register for this session.

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And one miscellaneous musing…

Again, I’m really sorry I haven’t been posting much here lately. (I’m apologizing both to myself and to you!) Facebook is such a thought-sink! I’m not talking about how it can be a general time-sink; I miss all sorts of posts because I don’t spend much time browsing there. But I do spend some participating in a few relevant groups (on specific techniques and on art and jewelry in general; not all the possible ones, but a few!) where I oten find myself anwering questions or making comments there that, pre-Fb, I would have written up as posts here or on public blogs by others.

This bothers me: the class-link above goes to a public page I’ve written, while the two event-links above go to publicly-available Facebook-page events (perhaps with an annoying banner asking you to sign in / up to Facebook, but at least visible). But there’s no way for me to link here to something I’ve written in a “closed” art / jewelry group. I do understand the use of “closed” groups to help reduce the risk of spam, trolls, etc., but I’m still struggling with the idea of spending my time writing up useful information that is then limited in how far it can be shared.

If I’m going to write it up, I want it to be available to anyone who’s interested! Well, of course, I could copy my comments and post them here, but they’re often part of a thread, and I wouldn’t feel comfortable copying all that from a private to a public space; so that would mean re-writing everything to build up my own context. And that’s just more effort than seems worth it when I’d rather be making than writing in the first place!

Have you solved this dilemma? Do you know anyone else who has? Your thoughts (comments, links, pointers, whatever) would be much appreciated!

So many happenings on Saturday, May 12!

It’s Second Saturday time again! My studio will be open for last-minute Mother’s Day shopping, and more, on Saturday, May 12, from approximately 9 am through 1 pm.

I had to shift my usual Second Saturday time earlier for a variety of reasons:

1. The Regent Square community-wide yard sale will be that day, from 8 am to 3 pm.
2. To coincide with (1), the Wilkins School Community Center will hold its annual spring fundraiser, this year called Books, Beer, Plants, and Dogs with
   • WSCC will offer used book ($1 each) sale from 8 am to 3 pm,
   • Coffee and sweets will be there from 8 to 10 am, then
   • The offerings will switch to raft beer and hot dogs from 11 am to 1 pm.
   • Local farmers will offer veggies, herbs, and flowering plants, also from 8 am to 3 pm,
3. As soon as I’ve done a bit of shopping at (1) and (2) I will head up to Room #25 and open up my own art/jewelry show!
4. But I’ll have to leave by about 1 pm, so I can dash over for the opening of the Artsmiths of Pittsburgh’s Instructors Exhibit! There are a dozen of us in that show, which will run through July 8. I’ve got (count them!) sixteen different pieces in it, illustrations of the kinds of things I have taught or will soon be teaching there! They’re all for sale, and all of Artsmiths’ proceeds from the sale will go towards support of their instructional programming!
5. With all the to-ing and fro-ing, I’m sad that I’m going to have to miss the Pittsburgh Center for Creative ReUse’s annual spring ReClaim! event! That runs from 11 am to 6 pm. (Why sad: because at previous Reclaim! events I’ve picked up hundreds of little bits of design samples that I’m able to use in the process of making my jewelry creations! It’s not like I need more: it’s what treasures might I be missing out on!!)
6. I am going to try to also get off to the opening of another show that will feature two of my art-jewelry pieces, one each in steel (with enamel) and silver (with a cubic zirconia). They are in the the North Hills Art Center’s Spring Regional Show. The opening reception is from 7 to 9 pm on Saturday and then the show will continue whenever the Center is open, for the rest of this month and then through June 8.

Finally, please accept my apologies for not yet having gotten around to posting my upcoming teaching schedule! Well, I did post it: there’s a printed copy of my next six classes hanging just outside my studio door, and I will be delighted to discuss them there! And the Artsmiths Instructors’ Show is set up so that all of us there will have the chance to talk about those upcoming classes. If I make it up to North Hills, I can talk about my offerings there too. And I will try to post more information online in the next few days….

I do hope that lots of folks will be able to join me, at one or more of these events!

December Events!

Folks on my mailing list should know about all this already, but here’s what I have happening the rest of this month:

• Where you can find me in person:
  • Studio Open House: Saturday & Sunday, December 9 & 10, 10 am to 4 pm, in my studio at the WSCC in Regent Square. Please come upstairs and let me know what you think of my new designs! I will, of course, also have plenty of old favorites too! (Also in WSCC that day, downstairs from me, La Dolce Vita Boutique will have all sorts of Italian imports for sale. And just up the street, the Environmental Charter School will be holding their Fair Trade Market!)

  • Guest Artists Show, Saturday, December 16, 10 am to 6 pm, at The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh in Mt. Lebanon. (I’m thrilled to be one of several Artsmiths Artists invited to bring a larger variety of items than we normally have in the shop. If you know me only from there, do come see what else I’ll bring! Or, if you’ve not yet been to Artsmiths, use this as a reason to check out the whole shop + gallery + classroom facility!)

  • My last workshop of 2017 will be at a new location for me! In my class on Tuesday, December 12, at the Appalachian Rock Shop & Jewelry Emporium up in Harmony, PA, we will be making reversible, hollow, “lentil” style fine silver pendants or beads! (If it’s too late for you to sign up for that aone, I’ll be back there again in March of 2018 with a Woven Silver workshop!)

• Other places where my art jewelry, colorful ornaments, and more are currently available:
  • The main floor shop at The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh in Mt. Lebanon, PA.

  • The Gift Shop at the Hoyt Center for the Arts in New Castle, PA.

  • The Holiday Artisan Market at the North Hills Art Center in Ross Twp. through December 9.

  • The H*liday mART at Sweetwater Center for the Arts in Sewickley through December 9.

  • The Cranberry Artists Network Holiday Show in the Cranberry Township Municipal Building , through December 20.

  • The Pittsburgh Society of Artists 52nd Annual Exhibition, in the underground gallery at the Artsmiths of Pittsburgh through January 12, 2018. (Rounding out this list back at Artsmiths, I’m thrilled to be one of the artists to have had a piece juried into this show, PSA’s first time showing work here.)

I hope I’ll see local folks at one or more of those! If I don’t see you, no matter where you’re from, please know that I’m wishing you all the best for this holiday season and beyond!

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p.s., Sorry for the big gap in posting! I have a slew of articles started, in draft form, but for one reason or another (e.g., I may not have photos to illustrate what I’m trying to say; or I have photos but haven’t written the words yet…) I just haven’t managed to get any of them finished and posted. Most of them should still appear eventually!

A Quick Workshops Update

Well, I managed to get three posts up last month as I traipsed up and down the west coast, even though I got little jewelry made and did very little teaching. (The few exceptions will get their own posts eventually!)

Right now, I’m putting together my fall teaching and show (sales) schedules for September through December. I’ll post full details once I’m sure of all the dates various but, since several folks have asked for updates, the general plan goes something like this:

• Single Session Workshops: a mix of topics, mostly at either the Artsmiths of Pittsburgh, or in my own Studio;
  
• Multi-Session Classes: one series using precious metals (four meetings using either sterling or fine silver; Sept – Oct) and another series using base metals (five meetings using mostly bronzes, possibly accented with some copper or steel; Oct – Nov) at the North Hills Art Center;
  
• An Open House (with both demos and pieces for sale) in my studio during the community center‘s big fall open house day, and another Open House to coincide with Indie Knit & Spin (aka IKS).
  
• Because of the IKS-day Open House, I don’t plan to hold either type of button-making class at that event this year. But for those wishing to make buttons, I will be offering two separate classes on that at NHAC this fall.
  
• There will, of course, be pieces out for sale at all my “usual” locations, Artsmiths, the Hoyt, and Portage Hill.
  
• And I’m hoping to have pieces out for sale at various other market-places, though most of that may be more in the Thanksgiving to Christmas range … with details to follow!
  
  
  
• Then in the new year, I may try to tweak the plan a bit for winter into spring, swapping some multi-session classes into Artsmiths and my studio; and then offering some single session ones at NHAC.
  

But in addition to just offering a heads-up about what’s to come, there’s another reason for this post. I have a one-day Easy Earring Extravaganza project scheduled for next week, on August 16, and the deadline for you to register is looming!

Although I promote it as being a chance to make several pairs of earrings, what is an earring but an charm or a small pendant or other such element, where the maker may have just put the hole in a different place! Most of my other sessions go into depth on a particular technique applied to one specific design, but the Earring Extravaganza is different: with that one the goal is to help you go a bit more free-form for quantity, where you produce a number of simple pieces, whether that’d be to give yourself a little treat or to grab a chance to get started on holiday-season gifts.

Now, officially, the deadline is a week before the start of the first class, which is a week from the day I’m posting this! So if you want to join in on that one, please register right away!!! Technically, registration should close at the end of the day on Wednesday, August 9, but I think they’ll hold off closing it until early on Thursday morning. As long as I have the count by 10 am on Thursday, I can still get my order for materials in by that vendor’s 11 am cut-off for shipping, and we’ll be fine. Should you happen to try to register later today, or very early tomorrow, before I have to place the order, and for some reason you can’t get the form to work, please just call or email me on Thursday morning (best time would be between 9 and 10 am), and I’ll be glad to help you!

Yes, Trunk Shows contininue again on Sunday.

Whew, what a day. Today, Saturday, started out with all news outlets stating, “If you don’t absolutely have to be somewhere this morning, please stay home. Don’t even try to go anywhere for several hours and, if you can wait, then please do wait until late afternoon or even tomorrow.”

Well, I was out the door before 9 am, heading over to The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh to finish setting up for my Trunk Show that started when the place opened at 10 am. And I sure do want to thank everyone who did venture out to Artsmiths today! All the ‘Smiths Shop artists, and especially those of us holding Trunk Shows downstairs, really, really do appreciate your support.

Four of us have decided that we will go back again on Sunday, in case folks whose schedules were mangled by this weather would appreciate a second chance. We’re already all set up, so why not?! Several of the others who were there today already had different plans for Sunday and have already left, but Paula Nettleship, Samantha Bower, Larissa Graudins, and I will all be there. Since Sunday wasn’t actually advertized as a Trunk Show day, if people don’t come down to see us, we may decide to leave a little early. Artsmiths is open from 12 Noon to 5 pm on Sunday, though some or all of us might start packing up a bit early. So, if you’d like to come find us, I’d suggest you try to make it to Artsmiths betwen 12 Noon and 3 pm. If you want to come later (i.e., after 3 pm, until about 4:45 … to allow at least a little time for shopping until 5), then please just contact one or more of us (or Artsmiths itself) to let us know you’re coming. Any or all of us will be happy to stay as late as the upstairs is open, as long as we know you’ll be coming to join us!

For now, I include one very quick photo of one of the last pieces I finished up last night, a super-simple design but in my usual make-reversible-designs approach, what looks like the top of a lock from this side, actually shows as a heart on the other! It’s still out at Artsmiths so you could hold it in your very own hands tomorrow…and maybe give it as a gift to someone you hold dear in your heart later in the week?

Wrapping Up 2016…

Yes, we have a whole month left! The title of this post contains a bad pun … but I’m hoping you’ll wrap up some of my creations as gifts, or receive one wrapped up for you!

Here are places where you can find my art jewelry this December (and you can find me—in person, with extra treats—at those with an asterisk):

• Holiday Sparkle Art & Craft Market at the North Hills Art Center, now through December 10
• Holiday mART. Sweetwater Center for the Arts, December 2 – 11
• Holiday Open House, Hoyt Center for the Arts, is on December 3, 2016, 11 am to 4 pm, and then special holiday sales will continue throughout the rest of the month
• Studio Open House *, in my studio at the Wilkins School Community Center, December 2 (6-9 pm) and December 3-4 (10 am – 5 pm)
  I’m not promising to be back in my studio all day the following weekend (Dec 10-11) but I’m likely to be there for a few hours at some point. If that’s the only time you can make it, please let me know so we can agree on a time to meet there!
• Trunk Show *, The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh, December 17 (Officially I’ll be there myself just that day, but check with me if you’d like to come out on either Friday (16th) or Sunday (18th) as I may be there part of those days too. And I have a smaller, but still great, selection in the ‘Smiths Shop year-round!)

And, finally, I’m honored that, as a member of the Pittsburgh Society of Artists, I was able to have one of my pieces selected for display (and for sale) in The New Collective show at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. The show runs from November 18, 2016, through February 26, 2017, and I sure hope you’ll be able to get over to see all the wonderful artwork that’s been included. To find my entry, first head upstairs and then turn right, and right again, and then head down the last gallery on the right. My Bronze Bead Shelf is at the end of that, on the left. Since it’s framed for display in the show, so you can see only one side there, here’s what it looks like on both sides:

I hope to see you, or to at least have you see my work, at one or another of those events. If I don’t see you in person, there or somewhere, please know how much I appreciate your interest and support, and that I’m wishing you all the best!

Carol’s Fall 2016 Workshops at The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh

To help my local reader or potential visitors with planning their metal clay adventures, here’s a summary of the next round of workshops I have on the schedule at the wonderful Artsmiths of Pittsburgh.  The link at the title for each one takes you to the registration service for it.

For the rest of September and on into October, I’ve chosen to offer a mix of classes where you can learn to create pieces that make a definite statement, or elements to use in more complex designs of your own.

• Monday, September 26, Noon-5 pm: Sparkle-Dome: Make a Hollow, Reversible Pendant with Bling!
  As mentioned in my last post, “lentil” beads are always gorgeous, and now you can learn to make yours even more special by adding a sparkly cubic zirconia in a simple yet elegant way!
• Sunday, October 2, 1-4pm: Wrap A Straw in Silver and See What Happens!
  Simple tools can be the best: We’ll texture some silver clay and explore different ways to wrap it around a straw. The end result will be a large, stunning “tube” pendant-bead … unless you’d prefer to make a whole little collection of smaller ones. (The latter make great earrings, but they also pair perfectly with the mini-beads from the October 11 class!)
• Tuesday, October 11, Noon-5 pm: Mini-Beads: So Cute You Can’t Stop at Just One!
  Another session making lentil beads, this time learning some of the extra tricks for making little minitature ones! These are great for beaders, or earring-makers, of all sorts. Making these little beads is easy and addictive, and you will find so many different ways to use them. (Hint: they fit wonderfully with the little-tubes you could make in the session on October 2!)
• Thursday, October 20, 6-9pm: Lovely Silver Nests
  Tiny silver balls are easy and fun to make. They’re a great way for beginners to get a sense of metal clay, and they’re a wonderful way for others to use up bits of clay that’s left at the end of a session. And once you have such a collection, one fun thing to do with them is to collect them into a little “nest” design. (Or, if you prefer, spread them along a coiled “track”!) Explore the possibilities.
• Thursday, October 27, 12-4 pm: Simply Stupendous Cylinders
  Whether or not you’ve ever made a tube bead before (which you could have done on October 2), this is the afternoon when you can practice making one or two more and learning how to close one end, which will let you hang them in any of several different ways. (The ones shown in the photo can rotate the whole way around!)

Then, in November, I’ve chosen to focus on sessions were you (yes, you, even if you are a total beginner at this!) can quickly make several simpler pieces … where the emphasis will be on making items you can give as gifts in the coming holiday season:

• Saturday November 6, 1-4pm: How Charming!
  OK now, the Holiday Season will be approaching, and you’ll be thinking about gifts, won’t you? But why spend an afternoon shopping, when you can spend it making several adorable little silver charms, ones you can hang from a bracelet, zipper pull, fine chain, earwires, etc. They make wonderful gifts … if you can bear to part with them!
• Thursday November 17, 6-9pm: So Precious!
  Once again geared for gift-giving, the idea behind this session is to make a very special pendant piece (or two, depending on how carried away you get with embellishing your first one!).

Beginners are welcome at all of these, while the projects are designed so that those with some previous metal clay experience are still likely to learn some new techniques with each one.

Note: the links on each session will open a new browser page where you can read a bit more about each class and register for the session. You may notice some minor discrepancies between what’s shown here and what’s there. Having tried (without success, for technical reasons not worth going into) to set up some the sessions I offer in my studio using the Eventbrite system, I have a LOT of sympathy for the several folks at Artsmiths who worked on setting up the registration pages there. It is not easy! The thing I will say is that the descriptions, date, time, price, etc., on the Eventbrite pages ARE correct. It’s just a few photographs that got mixed up, and a few titles that somehow got changed, from what’s shown above (here is what I submitted for these sessions). So … look at the titles, photos, and summaries here, then click the link and get the full description and registration information there. I hope to see you before autumn has passed!

Make a Lentil Bead with Extra Sparkle!

Registration has closed for my class on making silver buttons this week, but if you missed it, don’t worry.  I’ll be offering that one again, in my studio, in November AND I’ve got one on making bronze buttons on the studio schedule for February.  Those dates are set to coincide with Indie Knit & Spin, which is a great event that happens in the building where I have my studio.  More on all that next month … because I’ve got several other great classes lined up before those.

The next one will be at The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh, this Monday, September 26, from Noon to 5 pm.  We’ll make hollow, domed, reversible, silver “lentil-style” beads—one of my most favorite basic shapes to work with!  If you want to add some extra bling to yours, you’ll learn a great way to set a lovely, sparkly cubic zirconia too, using an easy technique that lines up the top of your CZ  with the top of your bead in a very elegant design.

If you’d like to sign up for it, details on how to register are here.

Should you arrive early, consider having lunch at the Koolkat Cafe. You’ll want to start out well-nourished, from there or otherwise, so you’ll be ready to have lots of fun for the rest of the afternoon! During our session, there will be no specific time designated for everyone to take a break at once, but each person will reach stopping-points now and then where it’ll make sense to relax briefly.

The beads shown here are all just under an inch in diameter. That’s a good size to start out with: somewhere between 3/4 and 1.25 inches across.

We’ll be using a silver-rich version of sterling silver!

In class, I’ll help you understand the major differences (both advantages and disadvantages) of fine silver (99.9% silver), standard sterling silver (must have at least 92.5% silver, with the remaining 7.5% usually copper), and our class-clay (which is 96% silver and a mere 4% copper).

This class makes a great introduction to metal clay: the very first piece I ever made with the stuff was a lentil bead! Then again, if you already follow any metal clay discussions online, you’ll know that this “960” sterling silver is still relatively new in clay form but working with it is being explored by many metal clay artisans.  This will be a chance for you to work with it yourself!   Until recently, I taught classes using “999” fine silver; I still use that for a lot of my pieces and classes, and choose among brands and formulations according to which seems to be the best one for the various designs I have in mind.  But I’m thrilled to have a number of “960” versions available now too, as yet another choice, and I’m selecting projects to offer as classes that allow me to highlight the advantages (or avoid the disadvantages) among the many wonderful metal clay varieties that are now available.

I’ve  been doing some additional behind-the-scenes testing of the various forms of 960: don’t hold your breath waiting, but know that those results will appear here eventually too.  In the meantime, besides that testing, I’m keeping busy in this part-time activity of mine through teaching some private lessons, planning for a guest lecturer session next week on metal Art Jewelry for the Costume Design (undergrad) and Costume Production (graduate) programs in the Drama Department at Carnegie Mellon University, and trying to build up inventory for the holiday-sales season.  And the ‘net connection at my studio still varies from wonky to non-existent.  I do have some great 960 information in the writing-queue, and I am trying to get it in condition to be posted!

Metal Clay: how can beaders and fiber-folks use it too?

What with all the ‘net-connection issues and photo-sharing dilemmas I’ve been going on about recently, I am waaaay behind in posting about upcoming workshops: sorry! I actually have a bakers-dozen on my schedule already, and I’ll write about the bulk of them as soon as I can. For now however: coming along soon are two metal clay workshops that are not my typical stand-alone jewelry-projects!

Funny thing is, I really didn’t get into this metal clay arena because I wanted to go off making pendants and earrings and bracelets and more. My original goal was simply to find a relatively easy way to make an array of different elements because I couldn’t find ones that I wanted to use in my other creations: bead caps and clasps for my bead-work, buttons for my fiber-work, etc. If you are anything like I was, you should know that my first two classes this month harken back to those beginnings!

	Thursday Sept 8, 6-9pm, Make Your Own Unique Silver Bead Caps This one is especially for Beaders: Learn to make your own fine silver bead caps, designed to go perfectly with some of the favorite beads in your stash!
Thursday Sept 22, 6-9pm Silver Button Originals! This one is especially for Fiber-Artists of all sorts: Hand-made creations deserve hand-made buttons, don’t they?! Whether they will be functional or simply decorative, they might as well be your own hand-made sterling silver treats!

Click on the title of each workshop, above, and it should take you to a page where you can sign up for that particular session. Beginners are welcome! These are fun ways to add both decoration and value to your lovingly-made creations.

Along with my other ‘net- and photo-woes, however, for some reason the folks at Artsmiths who’ve been setting up those registration pages have been adding the sessions, then changing, fixing, and again changing … the names of my classes. Some are showing the names I gave them; others show something that does fit but is not what I was calling them. Who knows? Problem is, the session name shows up in the URL I need to use to add the links! Not to worry, though, I think I’ve (finally!) found a way to add reliable links above but, should they fail, you can also get to them either of these ways (these will require an extra click or two, but they should be more stable…):

• from the Artsmiths site itself, scroll down their list of classes:
  http://ArtsmithsPGH.com/classes/
  or
  
• from the Eventbrite site, scroll down a list of my upcoming classes (it may help if you first click to sort them by date rather than Eventbrite’s guess about relevance…):
  https://www.eventbrite.com/d/pa–pittsburgh/scheftic/
  

I hope I’ll see you there! Then again, if you’re just learning about these now, and the notice is too short for you to make it work with your schedule, let me know!

• I can find a time to schedule the Bead Caps one again, either at Artsmiths or at my studio. I’m also happy to do one in my studio on making your own toggle clasps: as soon as enough folks tell me they’re interested, I’ll email you about picking a date that will work for everyone.
  
• And I plan to hold button-making sessions again when Indie Knit and Spin is on: we’ll be making the same sterling-silver-with-holes buttons on November 12 and, depending on interest, I’ll either repeat that one or lead a session on making shank-style buttons in bronze during their February 25, 2017, gathering. More on those, and other button-options, shortly.
  

Two Day Intro to Bronze Metal Clay

Another workshop I have coming up is one I’m calling Golden Bronze Beauties! It is this week! And there are only a few seats left! (Click the link in the class name to get to the official announcement and registration pages.)

This workshop will offer a simple introduction to working with bronze metal clay. If you’ve been wondering about metal clay, I hope you’ll jump in with this one. Or, if you’ve already worked with silver clays, this will be a great chance to explore a different formula. (Should you know enough to wonder about this, the clay I’ve chosen for us to use in this session is Hadar’s One Fire Brilliant Bronze.)

Everyone will be led through the process of developing your own unique, reversible design for a pendant and / or a pair of earrings, and then working with bronze clay to implement that idea.

This is a two-day workshop! Most of the classes at the Artsmiths of Pittsburgh (at least so far) have been one-session-only events. But I asked for two so I could offer one using bronze, and was delighted when they agreed to try this!

We’ll do all the making on day one. I’ll fire everyone’s pieces overnight and, in the second class, we’ll see how they all turned out, and explore a handful of finishing techniques. With all the base metals, there can be surprises in how they come out of the kiln. On the plus side, your piece may have acquired one of the stunning, but unpredictable, “kiln colors” that, although ephemeral, you may want to try to preserve for as long as you can. Alternatively, it may come out a dull tan or gray color, one that you’ll want to polish off your piece to reveal the golden-bronze color underneath.

Kiln-colors? Consider the photo of three small hashi oki (chopstick rests) that I made several years ago. While the pendants and earrings in the “promo shot” for this class have all been polished to a high shine, two of the three of these rests came out with such beautiful kiln-colors that I couldn’t bear to polish them the same way I did the third one. (I still have these: I actually use them in my studio as dohgu oki (tool rests) to keep brushes and burnishers and other round-handled tools from rolling off my workbench!) I have polished the bright one lightly a few times, but have let the colored ones slowly darken with age naturally and they are still lovely!

Alternatively, on this butterfly pendant with bronze wings (and a copper body), I left kiln-colors in the hollows of the texture, while selectively polishing the high points. That’s the thing with bronze: you can be determined and just polish the whole thing once it’s been fired, no matter what, or you can wait to see what the kiln provides and make your final finishing decisions based on what you’ve been given. Leading you through those options will be the focus of our second meeting this week.

FWIW, that is why all my base metal classes are longer than a single session. If we use just a single metal (bronze, copper, or steel), we meet at least twice: once to cover making and again to cover finishing. And when we start to combine metals, we meet at least three times (more is even better). Mixing metals increases the chance that the pieces will come out of the kiln with some cracking that will need to be dealt with on our second day (i.e., given some simple repairs & refired, and/or otherwise designed-around). Thus, with mixed metals, we need at least one additional day to ensure that everyone can complete their final finishing steps too.

Important Note!

I’m really hoping that this offering garners a good bit of interest! (This, and a four-day one I’ll discuss in my next post: an introductory silver class covering a range of techniques, including several for incorporating some bling that we often skip over in single-session lessons.) If Artsmiths sees that there’s interest in being able to “go deeper” in these processes, that’s what it will take for them to let me offer more like this! If you are interested, and can join us, please do! If your interest has been piqued, but you just can’t make it for those days (or at those hours), please let the folks at The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh know: we can modify the scheduling for future sessions if we know what would work better! (And, if we can’t make the timing work in their classroom, I can offer the same thing at my own studio.)

Summer Workshops Galore!

I’m really excited: The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh has scheduled five of my metal clay workshops in July and August, and two of them are special multiple-day events so I’ll be teaching there for nine days in all during those two summer months!

• Layered Silver on Wednesday, July 13, from 11 am to 3:30 pm
  
• Reversible Draped Silver on Saturday, July 23, from 1 to 4 pm
  
• Golden Bronze Beauties, a two-day class on Wednesday and Thursday, July 27 ad 28, from 12 Noon to 3 pm
  
• Ready-Set-Silver! a four-day intensive on August 5—6—7—8 from 12 Noon to 5 pm each day
  
• Reversible Woven Silver on Saturday, August 27, from 1 to 5:30 pm
  

(Some day, I hope to arrange a lighting set-up that will give me a consistent color background regardless of the time of day when I take my photos … sigh! The shots above show the range from morning to afternoon to after dark at night; and, yes, all of them DID have the same three bright “daylight” bulbs trained on them in addition to the room’s ambient lighting.)

The length of the various sessions does give a hint about the complexity of the different projects, but everything I’ve scheduled at Artsmiths for this summer should be do-able even by complete beginners. The reason I set aside more time for some of them is so that I can welcome even first-time clayers into any of these classes! Folks with some prior experience with metal clay are likely to learn some new techniques, and may well be able to apply their existing knowledge to kick their designs up a notch.

If you follow the links above to get more information and/or sign up for a class, you may notice that the descriptions there often talk about making a pendant (and the corresponding photos show a range of possibilities for how you might construct yours piece). Anyone who’s taken my classes already knows that, while I often demonstrate a pendant design, I’m happy to support reasonable variations on any given project. By reasonable, I mean variations that are appropriate to the materials we will be using, appropriate to the skill level of the student wanting to make something else and, tied to both of those, appropriate in the sense of the amount of support you’ll need to succeed at your idea while also being “fair” to others who are trying to complete the specified project. But I want everyone to make a unique piece they are happy with, so there’s a lot of leeway in exactly what you might make! Get in touch with me directly if you have any questions about that aspect of my classes. Or, just come and make some gorgeous, unique, and (probably) reversible pendants!

Also, if you have time and material left once you’ve completed the main project, I’m always happy to have you make a little something else with what’s left, often a pair of earrings or a few small charms, or even embellishments that you might add to future projects. I’ll fire those along with the regular class pieces.

With my one-day classes, I fire pieces for you after class, tumble-polish them to an even, high shine, and return them to the site of the class in about a week. This time, I’m especially happy about the two- and four-day sessions, because I’ll fire everyone’s pieces before the last session listed and then, on that last day, we’ll review and practice a number of different finishing techniques, ones that often get overlooked in the one-day sessions (unless you schedule a time to come to my studio for a private or semi-private lesson on finishing).

I’m going to try to post a little something about each session in the coming week or two but, given how spotty my blog-posting has been recently, I figured I should get the overview up for you to consider all at once now…

ALSO / alternatively …

Is Mt. Lebanon too far for you? Would you prefer another date and time? I’d be happy to teach any of these classes in my studio (in Regent Square) or at another location (that you arrange). Let me know if you’d like to discuss any other possibilities!

Just one class this month, and it’s less than a week away!

Where did June go?!!  OK, actually, I do know where it went and, now that some of my travels and adventures are over, I’ll relay some stories about that over the rest of this summer.  There’s also a story behind the earrings in this photo, and it will be coming shortly too.

But the important thing today is that these earrings were among a number of sample pieces I made for an upcoming workshop, and I really do need to do my part to get the word out about that now!

Late on the night when I had to get the class description in to The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh, I decided to call the class “Let’s Get Twisted”! The idea is that we will work with clay that remains somewhat flexible even after it has dried, and each person will be able to add some curled, twisted, or braided embellishments to their own uniquely textured pendant or earrings. Another thing about this class is that I think it’s a nice one for wire- or bead-workers, because you’ll be able to make a piece that lends itself nicely to further embellishments along those lines as well. (Artsmiths’ photo (at the link below) shows a couple more of the sample pieces for this class, and I’ll bring more that day.)

If you want to sign up for this session, here’s the link to do so: Let’s Get Twisted! Make a Silver Pendant or Earrings. Please sign up by this weekend to ensure that I will have enough to material for you!

This is a great introductory class for metal clay newbies! Those with some previous experience may be surprised at the working time of this clay! It will be offered on Wednesday, June 29, 2016 from 12:00 Noon to 3:00 pm.

Note: The clay we’ll be using for this class remains reasonably flexible when dry. The little spirals are best made before it is fully dry. Twists and braids can be done either before or after the clay has dried. For those who have heard of (or taken) my class where we actually tie little knots from dried clay, the material we’ll be using for this session is not that flexible. If you’d like me to offer that one again (it’s been several years since the last time!), please let me and/or Artsmiths know, and I’ll get it on the schedule!

Here’s hoping you are looking forward to what this summer will bring as much as I am!

May 12, 18, and 21: More Workshops at Artsmiths!

Happy Mothers Day weekend, everyone!

As I said in my last post in April, I sure had a great time teaching at The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh last month, and I’m thrilled to have been invited back to offer more courses there this May! Here are the three that are on the calendar for this month. Clicking on each course title should take you to a page where you can read a bit more about the projects and, if you want, actually register for the various sessions.

• Earring Extravaganza: An Introduction to Fine Silver Metal Clay! on Thursday, May 12, from 6 to 9 pm
  

  This will be the simplest, most fun, yet easy-going introduction to metal clay that’s possible! In three hours, each participant will create lovely, unique, art jewelry: fine silver (.999) earrings!

  There will be lots of options for texture, shape, and small embellishments, so everyone will come out with their own unique pieces. And, we’ll texture both sides, so each pair will be reversible!

  There will definitely be enough time and materials for each participant to make (at least!) two pairs of earrings … but, remember, since they’ll be reversible, it’ll almost be like getting four pairs from just this one class!

• Reversible Hollow Silver Art Jewelry Pendant, on Wednesday, May 18, from 1 to 5:30 pm
  

  The very first piece I ever made using metal clay was one of these “lentil shape” beads, and it can be the first one you make too, if you want.

  Then again, even if you’ve been working with the stuff for a while, this project involves a few special techniques that are also applicable for a range of more “advanced” projects … which makes this a special (and easy) project on which to learn and begin practicing them.

  I find that lentil-beads always seem to be such fun to make: join us, if you can, and see for yourself!

• Reversible Woven-Silver Art Jewelry Pendant (or Earrings), on Saturday, May 21, from 1 to 5:30 pm
  

  There’s a long story here, not worth going into but, although I’d hoped to offer this class last month, several situations conspired to prevent that. So we simply rescheduled this one for May! I hope that those who had signed up for April will be able to come to this one; plus, there were a few seats still open in that session so there should still be room for some new-comers!

  There are lots of things I love about this woven-silver project. The one I’ll mention here is that this is a great session for people who like to make and / or wear silver pieces that are big! At times, the sheer cost of the materials can seem somewhat intimidating but, because these designs have so much open space, they require far less material. Relative to many other designs or approaches, you can stay small, and keep your material costs down, or go big, and not have those costs skyrocket. Your choice!

As I said last month, there’s no significance to the specifics of dates and times. That is, if you want to take a workshop and those date/time combos don’t work for you right now, please let me (or Artsmiths) know! All of us are trying out different combinations to figure out what will work for folks who are interested in the classes. As long as we know there’s interest, we can work out other day/time combos for future months, either repeating these topics or adding new projects to the offerings. And I’m willing to offer any of them as small (private or semi-private lessons) or group sessions (if enough people express interest) in my Regent Square studio as well as at The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh.

Personally, I think that all of these are lots of fun to make!

April Recap: First Classes at Artsmiths

Some days I think to take photos, other days I don’t. I can find no pattern at all to which is which!

But, whether or not I remembered at any point to stop and take photos, I want to say how much I enjoyed my first month of teaching at The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh!

Our very first class, on April 14, was an easy introductory session, where we covered learning how to texture metal clay, give it some shape (e.g., by drying it over a dome), and embellish it for a bit of extra oompth (e.g., with balls or coils of clay). In all, in three hours, six students completed twenty-one different pieces!

Now, if you’ve worked with metal clays, one thing you know is that you usually should start out with a little more clay than you actually need to make a piece. You’ll roll it out, but then cut it down to the size and shape you want, and trim away the excess. And the question is, always, what to do with the excess? I’ve already written here about this, but the basic options seem to be: make something else (small) with what you have left; get some more clay and add your leftovers to that to make another piece (bigger); or, go to the bother of saving it to do one of the above later on. (Clearly, I lean towards either of the first two!)

And I have to give this group credit for finding ways to use all their clay. First-timer Linda, in particular, kept making smaller and smaller pieces, using the bits she cut out of one piece as elements on their own, and using the final dregs to make tiny ball embellishments.

Everyone’s pieces fired beautifully, but I didn’t think to get a photo of that. No, what I did capture was when, after I’d fished Linda’s last three teensy pieces out of the shot, someone surprised me by pounding on my studio door, and I dropped them back onto the shot. At least, they landed on top, so I didn’t have to search through the whole barrel-full again. Still, can you spot all three pieces in this photo?!! (I think two are pretty obvious, but not the third, which was the center she’d cut out of the little gear/sun-shape.)

Then, on February 21, I taught a “Draped Silver” class. Didn’t take a photo of that group at work…. Don’t have a good photo of all my samples either, but I include here two older pics of two pieces each, one pair in .999 fine silver, and one pair in bronze and copper (because that’s my best one of little “ball nest” embellishments).

In this class, we worked in .960 silver. That allowed us to roll the pieces nice and thin, which is the key to making draped metal clay pieces. It also let us make them fairly thin without having to add a backing or frame for protection.

Several of the folks in this session had taken one of my earlier classes (at Artsmiths or my studio) and had seen a wide range of my textures; for this workshop, however, I took only shallow-texture choices.

The last photo with this post shows the fired and tumbled pieces from this class (though, for some reason I don’t understand, it is not a good representation of any of the colors, nor the textures; though you can see the range of interesting shapes that folks made). The one with wire, beads, and chain (middle of top row) is the one I made as an in-class demonstration. It’s a slightly different color from the other pieces because, before I added the beads and chain, I gave it a very light Liver of Sulphur (LOS) patina and then polished off most of it. But I returned the students’ pieces all shiny-silver, and will let them decide if they want to leave them like that, or if they want to add a patina. I do love patinas but, sometimes, and especially with broad, shallow textures like many of these, I think that pure silver shine is wonderful!

I did have a third class scheduled for April, Woven Silver on April 26 but, as I mentioned before, April was a killer month. (I mean that literally: suddenly, randomly, several friends and parents of friends all died.) It got to the point that I just couldn’t swing that class. I didn’t get a clay order in on time (to get it without express shipping charges) and, even if I had made it to class with clay, it’s not clear where my head would have been. I want workshop participants to know that I am there with them, ready to present, encourage and help! So we rescheduled that one, for May 21.

I’ve got two other classes scheduled for May too. I’m really looking forward to those! More on all that shortly!!

April 14, 21, and 26: Workshops at Artsmiths!

As I mentioned earlier this week, I’m on the schedule to teach three workshops at The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh as they launch their Underground classrooms this month. I feel very honored to be one of the first four instructors invited to teach there, especially knowing the caliber of the other artists in that group!

All of my classes this month are suitable for beginners. Those who already have some experience with metal clays are also welcome to participate and learn new techniques. I’m listing three separate classes here, and you’re invited to take one or two or even all three of them! (Just click on the link for each one, of course, to see more details.)

• Introduction to Fine Silver Metal Clay, April 14, 1 to 4 pm


• Reversible Draped Silver, April 21, 4 to 7 pm


• Reversible Woven Silver, April 26, 1 to 5:30 pm

We’ll make a pendant in each session; if there’s time and interest, participants may want to try making a second pendant or a pair of earrings too. I sure hope that some of my readers here will be able to join us there!

Also, there’s no significance to the specifics of dates and times. That is, if you want to take a workshop and those date/time combos don’t work for you right now, please let me (or Artsmiths) know! All of us are trying out different combinations to figure out what will work. For April, select Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday slots were the only ones being tried, and there were other events besides classes on some of those days (e.g., the SOS_Underground opening I mentioned in my last post). But, as long as we know there’s interest, we can work out other day/time combos too.

Or, for that matter, you can just come out to my studio for a class too so, if there’s something you really want to try out, please let me know and we can find a time that’ll work for us.

April 2: Artsmsiths’ Underground Opens!

The Underground is now open at The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh. The launch was tonight, with a great “SOS_Underground” exhibit by one of Pittsburgh’s oldest guilds, the Society of Sculptors (SOS).

For more photos from the exhibit, feel free to check out the Artsmiths’ album from the show on Facebook.

The opening reception was lots of fun, and the exhibit runs through April 30. Should you go some time this month, it’s possible I’ll see you there. I’ll be heading back down to Artsmiths several more times this month for sure.

Yeah, I probably should admit that what has me most excited about the Underground is that classes are starting at Artsmiths this week!

With great sessions planned from Olga Mihaylova, Nan Loncharich, and Maria Richmond, I’m delighted to report that I’m also on the schedule … to teach classes in one of the underground classrooms on April 14, 21, and 28! More on all that shortly….

Let the Holiday Season Shopping Season Begin … with Small Business Saturday!

I don’t care what stores may or many not be open on Thanksgiving, brick & mortar or online ones, I don’t intend to do any shopping that day! There are just a few small things I may head out and try to pick up on Black Friday. For me, Small Business Saturday is the important day, both as someone who believes in supporting local businesses (both the shops and the local producers of their wares) and as someone who is really, really hoping to sell some of her art in order to earn income towards next year’s looming expenses. (I do love my studio, but I also need to pay for it … and lots more!)

So here are some of the places where you can find my jewelry and/or ornaments! They are listed in roughly chronological order from their special-event start times.

• November 27 – December 24: Ornament Extravaganza (in addition to all the regular ‘Smiths Shop items) at The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh (Mt. Lebanon, PA)
• November 28 – December 6: H*liday mART at Sweetwater Center for the Arts (Sewickley, PA)
• December 4-5-6: Holiday Gift Shop at the Wilkins School Community Center (Swissvale, PA)
• December 4-5-6: Studio Open House at my Convergent Series Studio (Regent Square, PA)
• December 5: Holiday Open House (in addition to their regular Gift Shop hours all the time) at the Hoyt Center for the Arts (New Castle, PA)
• December 12-13: Studio Open House at my Convergent Series Studio (Regent Square, PA)
• I also have jewelry items (no new ornaments) up at the Portage Hill Gallery (Westfield, NY). Their hours are much longer during the summer season at Chautauqua; but Audrey will likely have a few events over the coming weekends too, so if you’re in the area, do check that out.

All of these pieces, and lots more, will be available at one or another of those venues. Please stop by if you can and/or tell others from this area where to find them.
    

(Be sure to note that the Parkway East will be closed December 4-5-6! To get to the events in Swissvale / Regent Square, you’ll have to detour around that. While I understand the necessity, all us vendors impacted by that sure wish they’d announced that closing sooner, so we could have at least tried to plan around it! Please find the detour routes, or try to come out at another time! Thank you!)

The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh holds its Grand Opening!

At last! Though it’s been unofficially open for (exactly!) two months, The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh had its official Grand Opening celebration yesterday. What a treat it was to see the place bustling, with so many people enjoying all the offerings!

In the ‘Smiths Shop, people explored the wide range of artworks available from several hundred artists, all from the local region! Some visitors just browsed. Others made purchases: thank you! Lots of them made notes (mental or physical) about items they may return for later on.

It was great to notice how much interaction there was among various visitors: some conversations were among people who knew each other already, of course, but there were plenty of new acquaintances made as people shared their discoveries.

That was the case not only in the ‘Smiths Shop, but also downstairs during a series of great demonstrations in the spaces that will be opening early next year with more galleries and classroom spaces. (I’m looking forward to teaching there, and to learning from other other Artsmiths!)

There were plenty of interactions in the Koolkat Cafe too, where folks found more chances to chat and share treats with old friends and new acquaintances. That space was bustling all day as people dined and snacked on both regular menu items and specials of the day, and even had the opportunity to listen to a wonderful series of local musicians.

For more photos and videos of this delightful new community resource, feel free to check back to my post from two months ago, the day after Artsmiths’ “soft” opening on August 24.

Welcome: The Arsmiths of Pittsburgh!

Way back in 2008, I was delighted when I was first welcomed into Koolkat Designs’ gallery. Even after they crowded the works of so many artists into their small space that they could no longer host workshops (my metal clay ones, and others), I was still very happy for their continued growth. From the moment I heard about their plans to close Koolkat and reopen under an ambitious new plan, I have been eager to see it launched. When my re-application was accepted, I was thrilled to once again be included in this “family” of artists! And now, although the official “grand opening party” has yet to be scheduled, I am excited to be able to share the news that The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh opened for business on Monday, August 24.

I’ve found two articles, so far, that help cheer the opening, from:

• Next Pittsburgh, and


• Mt. Lebanon Magazine

And, on the second day it was open, I went down this afternoon to check it out myself.

To be honest, at this point it’s just the “main” floor of Artsmiths that has opened: but that contains the ‘Smiths Shop and the Koolkat Café, both of which are delightful. (Isn’t great how the café name helps to carry on Koolkat’s legacy?) At the café today, I had a wonderful lunch of pesto chicken panini with a cup of chai. (Locals may recognize the café treats, supplied by the Enrico Biscotti company.) Back in this paint, print, and photo section, I found a couple unique cards to go with the hand-made gifts I’m making for two different cousins with imminent weddings.

Artsmith’s lower level, with offices plus additional gallery and classroom spaces will be launched later on. (Yes, my dear followers, space for classes again for those of you on the other side of several rivers from the offerings in my Convergent Series studio! Likely not for a few more months there, but it’s coming.) In the meantime, Kate Wagle Hitmar is using the chained-off stairway landing up here on the main level as a temporary office, so she can be on hand to help the new staff, as needed, with any start-up questions. (Both that and, farther back just before I swing around to catch her, the ‘Smiths Shop check-out counter (as gorgeous as the rest of the art, and made from reclaimed materials), are shown in this little snippet of the wonderful sunlit display space.)

One of the things I love about the new facility is how it provides the space to expand the range of offerings. Though I didn’t actually buy anything from this side of the shop today, I did spend time exploring what all there is. The holiday season will be on us soon enough… Here’s hoping lots of folks will be celebrating with and from here this year!

(Though I’ll have to go back at another time of day and see what else I can do about all the shadows and reflections, what with glass cases and mirrors everywhere…) if you head over to The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh and are wondering where to find my Convergent Series art jewelry pieces, here’s the case to look for at this point in time. If you stop by, please let me know what you think, both of my works and the whole endeavor!

The End of One Era Ushers in the Beginning of the Next One…

Do you think Koolkat’s space looks bigger or smaller, now that all the art has been moved out? Here are photos from last December and earlier today:

After turning over the keys to the next tenant, those remaining went outside on a lovely spring evening in mid-May and snapped a bunch of photos that I’m sure they’ll be posting in all the usual places. As usual, everyone was watching out for everyone else, in this case the care was extended to the photographers as they kept backing up into the street to get a shot that included both the wonderful Koolkat sign (that will be taken down and preserved) and the folks in the doorway.

In this one of mine, which I just had to capture from a different angle, Samantha, Katie, Kate, and Paula are posing in the doorway for Jeanne, Elizabeth, Maureen, and Carol Beth.

Though it is sad to be saying good-bye to Koolkat Designs, the mood was one of happiness, anticipation, and excitement as we all look forward to the opening of its reincarnation as The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh (at some date still TBA) this summer!