Cabochons at my house!

My stone dealer friend, Anne Kennedy, will be at my house Saturday the 21st from 10-2:30 selling her wonderful cabochon stones! She has polished stones such as Carnelian, Labradorite, Jaspers of all kinds, Petrified Sequoia,carved Mammoth Ivory, Druzy, Amazonite, Banded Agate, Kunzite, Meteorite from Russia, Dendritic Limestone... the list goes on and on! Her prices run from around $5 up to $100 or so. There should be a little something for everyone. And if you just want to come drool over stones, chit chat and munch on tidbits then join us!

More New Things

After being inspired by cool polymer clay beads by Shipwreckdandy on Etsy (see post below to view some of her work) I made some polymer clay beads of my own last night. Check em out! They look like bones.

I'm REALLY excited about making clay beads now... can't stop.
And thought I'd share that I will be teaching at Valley Ridge next October. I made this Steampunk Santos as an inspiration pieces for a class there. She's kind of a work in progress there's a lot still I'd like to do with her.

New Etsy Items

Go see the new work I put up on Etsy here's some samples:

Inspirations

Winter is a time of reflection and creativity for me. I adore winter. Maybe its the mature woman in me that loves the temperature, but I adore cold these days. You can see a great collection of snowflake images here. With a break from the community college I get to rest up and rejuice. I have done a lot of surfing Etsy this season and have fallen in love with these artist's artwork! I just can't get enough of the ingenuity with materials they exhibit. Very refreshing to see people play with materials and come up with such cool pieces.

First up we have Shipwreckdandy

I purchased some of these beads from her and Oh! am I in love with them!

Next we have Nusquam.

And next we have Sparrowsalvage.

And finally for today I will share some of Fancifuldevices work with you. Enjoy!

Ken Bova in Wilmywood

So! Ken Bova will be teaching his chopstick hammers (and more) workshop for Cape Fear Community College's Metals Guild on Saturday Nov 5th from 10-5pm. It is open to current metals students and I will have a 5 extra seats for non CFCC students at a nominal fee of $60 for the day. If you are interested email me and I will sign you up. It will be first come first serve so don't wait! Ken is a wonderful teacher and it should be a fantastic day. We will work and then break for lunch and then work some more! Fun will be had by all!

Ken is currently teaching at ECU and you can view his site here.

Winner!

Sorry for the confusion about the comments with the "Destination Creativity" book giveaway. I have to publish the comments. They come first into my email and sit there until I publish them. I was away all day yesterday doing an enameling demonstration at a festival. When I got home and, finally unpacked the furniture and tools out of the car around 7pm-ish, I was just too pooped to even open the computer. I ate, drank some "Shotgun Betty" hefeweizen(nice bottle cap btw), watched an old Steve McQueen movie ("Tom Horn" it was so-so), and my habitual episode of Star Trek Enterprise and fell asleep. So I have published the comments now and draw the name out of a bowl.

The winner is: JB!

JB email me your address so we can send you your book! Or if you prefer email Ricë Freeman-Zachary on her blog as she will be sending it to you.
Congratulations!

Book Give Away!

I have raved about Ricë Freeman-Zachary on my blog before. So, many of you may have visited her blog. I met her over a year ago. It was quite a treat as I have been a fan of her writing and her art since I first saw it in Rubberstamp Madness Magazine back in the day. I always thoroughly enjoy talking with her and treasure the times I have been able to socialize with her and EGE at retreats. Her new book "Destination Creativity: The Life-Altering Journey of the Art Retreat" is a wonderful journey to nine of these UBER inspiring art retreats all over the US. You can follow along from your cozy armchair! Today I will be choosing a winner to receive a copy of Ricë's book. Just comment on this post by midnight on October 8th PST to be entered.

I have a necklace project in Destination Creativity. I thought I'd share a little secret! This tip was brought to my attention by one of my friends Kathy James who joined me in San Diego this summer to make the little charms on this necklace. Kathy found out that her disc cutter will cut the mica perfectly! Now why didn't I think of that! Thanks Kathy if you're reading!

A bit about disc cutters. I now have a Swanstrom disc cutter from Rio Grande (though other folks sell them too) after going through a Harbor Freight one (don't bother!) and a Pepe tools (it's fine if you can ever get one!).

There is a video on the Swanstrom cutter here.
I ADORE my Swanstrom. I would HIGHLY recommend you skip the crappy ones and go right for the top. You will never want for another! Normally you will want to wax the cutting punch but the mica might get all gummy, so I didn't when cutting mica. I also normally use a brass hammer and I hold the punch in place the first two or three taps. This is to prevent the punch from possibly bouncing up and down in the shaft and potentially getting stuck. It's really more of an issue when cutting metal. a colleague of my thinks one should just whack the heck out of the punch, VERY hard so it cuts in one blow. That seems harsh to me but, he's a burly guy... I like firm hard taps until the punch cuts through. With the mica it'll probably cut in one hit. I have not noticed the mica dulling the cutting edge. Also don't forget! Once your punch has cut through, you will feel this, revert to very gentle taps to push it to the bottom of the shaft. Then lift the entire disc cutter up and off the punch which should still be sitting on your table. Don't try to pull the punch backwards out of the shaft. You may jam things up and have a terrible time getting it dislodged. And another thing, I prefer a very hard, firm sub-surface under the cutter for resistance and optimum cutting. In other words no bouncy card tables. In fact, if your work table is not very thick and sturdy put the disc cutter on the floor. It will cut WAY better with a firm surface under it. I use mine on top of my 70lb anvil with a couple of pieces of thick leather under it to protect it, the punches and my anvil's surface.

Well, happy mica punching! And be sure you visit the other artist's blogs who are all participating in this blog hop. Then you may become eligible for a grand prize!
Sunday, October 9th: Deryn Mentock
Monday, October 10th: Jen Cushman
Tuesday, October 11th: Jill Berry
And don't forget to visit Ricë's blog here.

Drumroll

So! I have exciting news... well I think it's exciting! Coming in October I will be participating in a blog hop giveaway. Kind of like a blog progressive dinner. I will let you know more but the prize will be a copy of Ricë Freeman Zachary's

Destination Creativity: The Life-Altering Journey of the Art Retreat.
I have a project in there and I'll be talking about it and a new tip that will help you to make the charms. More info to come, so stay tuned!

Eric Whitacre

I think I can safely say that Eric Whitacre is one of my daughter's idols. My daughter is complex... many 16 year old girls are. She's searching... she's a rocker, she loves loud metal and can rip, she likes paintball and Halo yet loves videos of small cute animals. She's not a prep, not a scholar really, though she's smart and watches stuff like the BBC's Pride & Prejudice series with me over and over again. As a mom you worry ya know? Where's she gonna end up? How will I get her through it all in tact? Well, my daughter found chorus. The chorus teacher at her high school has some sort of magic touch with these kids. Kids from all walks find a common ground and they excel together. Meredith has fallen in with this mottled pack and adores it. I beam with pride when they sing in their black gowns and pearls. She has gone to searching Youtube for "cool, ancient sounding music" She's showed me videos of choirs from all around the world singing Mozart and Bach in grottos, kyrie's in canyons. Through this she has discovered the music of Eric Whitacre. If you haven't seen his Virtual Choir then I strongly recommend that you do. Here's a talk he did with clips of his choir for TED
Hearing his talk about this project always makes me cry. We've come to adore his music in our house. And I dream that my daughter, who wants to be a rock star, will become a composer... or a rock star composer...

JOURNALFEST 2011

Looking for a pick me up this fall? Come take my classes at Journalfest in Port Townsend, WA!
I will be teaching this Roadsign Journal. I'll bring the covers and show you how to attach stuff to it and bind in pages. You bring some pages and some cool stuff to attach, and we'll rock-n-roll. Next I will be teaching how to make this wild little wooden journal

I will supply beautiful maple covers made by woodworker Art Bert in Pennsylvania. We will dye carve and decorate them. Then I will show you how to bind them with a coptic stitch binding that looks complicated but isn't! Fun will be had by all!

Destination Creativity Sneak Peak: Now With More Photos!

Check Ricë's video about her upcoming book!

Artfest 2012!

So its that time again folks! Decisions, decisions... all the yummy classes! Oh the glorious torture of registering for Artfest! I am teaching three fun classes go check 'em out... BUT I am here touting Ken Bova's classes. Ken will be new to Artfest and you just have to check out his chopstick hammer class! So cool! and Ken is such a great person and fabulous professor. These hammers are the cutest EVER!

It's on it's way!

It seems folks who pre-ordered through Amazon are receiving their books! yahoo!

heART space

Read about my pal Kim Wood Beller's studio called
heART space.

New

New etsy pieces! The earrings are made from the beads I blogged about earlier in the year. They are lime and powder blue enamel on copper plated steel. And the shell pendant is a piece that will appear in my book Jewelry Lab coming in September. Both jewelry pieces are available on my etsy site.

Check it

New stuff on my Etsy
just in time for summer!