Big Night!

with my gallerists, Karin and Rene

(check out the brooch I'm wearing, a gift from Linda Savineau)

The opening reception for my solo show "Observation/Translation" happened on Thursday, September 6. It was a fantastic night with lots of people in attendance over the course of four hours. Many Belgian jewelry friends came and it felt fantastic to share the evening with them. I still can't believe I have a solo show in Belgium! I am so grateful and honored...it was an amazing night!

 Karin Vanmol, Ria Lins, and Linda Savineau

Thanks for reading.

Progress with Help

Linda in her studio

I met this awesome lady at the SNAG conference in May. Her name is Linda Savineau and she's a metalsmith who lives just outside of Antwerp. She's also a very generous and helpful person. A few weeks ago she invited me over to her home to see her studio and to borrow tools. We had such a good visit and I left with a couple bags of stuff including a Dremel tool, dapping block and punches, a bench light, soldering accessories, ring mandrel, pickle acid, liver of sulfur, flux, a 

B & S gauge, and more. She also loaned me a few books from her library. Since then she has been a great resource for finding tools and materials in the city. She even brought me sterling from her stock and a delicious lunch. Oh, yeah, she makes some pretty great things, too. Big thanks, Linda!

 spaceship piggy bank

 studio

library

ethnic pieces collected while traveling

 plastic necklace

collections in shadow boxes

traditional Flemish asparagus

You can watch a great video Linda made for the SNAG conference about her work and the materials she uses. It even won an award!

Thanks for reading.