from my scrap pile

in may when i got back from my vacation i was feeling particularly inspired to work but didn't have much in the way of materials. i challenged myself to work with what i had already and made jewelry with all the samples and scraps that had collected over the past year. i used all of them, every single piece, altering some and combining others in new ways. i also added cotton cord and some bits of fabric and string. this was a fun challenge for me because i had to rethink things and i enjoyed designing in 3D. i just sent them off to be photographed so i'll have some pro-shots in a few weeks.



this is just a sampling of the pieces - lots more on flickr.

thanks for reading.

earrings galore at heidi lowe gallery

a new earrings show called "earrings galore" opened at heidi lowe gallery recently. i made 5 pairs of spray painted earrings in a color palette based on a glass decanter and plastic cups some friends of mine own (thanks allisyn and jason!). i've been wanting to work with these colors in some way for years and finally saw a great opportunity in this show.

the exhibition is open until july.




detail images posted on flickr.

thanks for reading.

gallery lulo

here are a few images of the pieces i made for my new gallery, gallery lulo, in healdsburg, ca. i completed these pieces in may and worked on them for a long time, mostly because my ideas were just not happening. now i think the trouble stemmed from what i did during the winter: a lot of thinking instead of making. i had a lot on my mind after those 4 months and it got "sticky" in there, as i've been saying to myself. i had much to sort through and it was hard for me to get going again at the bench, to switch gears from thinking to making. but when i got back from my vacation mid-may, things started to click and this group just came together. now i find the best way for me to work through the thoughts is to just keep making things.


more images on flickr.

thanks for reading.

enameling part 10, finale

for my last post on enameling i thought i would share some images from a walk i went on with helen carnac. i took her to spruce pine to explore one saturday morning and we just wandered, talked, and took pictures.

now two weeks after the end of the class, i'm working on other things, but i think about what i learned a lot. i'm curious to see what happens when i try out some of the marks and layering i did in enamel on my spray painted pieces, i'm wondering about the orientation of my marks--almost always along one side, and i'm thinking about why i love white or the lack of color so much. hmm...(it was such a great class!)

more images on flickr.

thanks for reading.

enameling part 9

i really liked the limited color palate of the liquid enamels but felt i should at least make a few color samples using the powered enamel. i stuck with greens and blues mostly, sifting them over stencils and also sprinkling directly onto the surface (which i then manipulated with a tiny pizza cutter-like serrated tool). both of these samples have a 80's feel to me, a little nod to my childhood.

more on flickr.

thanks for reading.

enameling part 8

one of the treasures found at the scrapyard was the door of an old dryer. it was covered with a layer of white enamel and pretty beat-up, scratched and dented. the surface can be manipulated with a variety of tools, drawn on with pencil, and/or more enamel can be added and then the piece can then be refired. adam whitney, the penland metals coordinator, cut the door up into pieces using an angle grinder and everyone who wanted to experiment with it could grab a piece. i scratched the surface with mine with a stone and then scribbled allover it with graphite. next i rubbed the graphite in and washed some of it away to create a subtle "stained" effect. next i drew the outlines of some favorite shapes and refired it. once the piece had cooled i scratched the surface some more. this was such a fun and exciting process. i loved it! the enamel refires beautifully--it melts like butter and so evenly--and now the graphite is a permanent part of the surface.

i like this technique so much i wanted to do some more of it, so i also played around with one of the pre-enameled steel plates given to us. the effect is the same except the color is black which gives the overall look a different feel.

more images on flickr.

thanks for reading.

enameling part 7

at one point during the session several students took a trip to the local scrap yard to find discarded, but usable steel scraps and objects to enamel. they brought back several buckets just full of treasures and everyone got to pick and choose some pieces to experiment with. after enameling just a few of my pieces, i got really excited: this was serious instant gratification for me. i then enameled some more and after enameling all of them, went to my own studio to grab a couple rusty objects from my collection. i tried powered enamel instead of the liquid as i thought they would be the perfect vehicles to try out color. the plan was to work in layers, starting with a pale, nearly white shade of blue. i thought i would add bits of color to each piece in a second round of firing, but after seeing how lovely they were as is, i couldn't bring myself to go further. these pieces will become jewelry, too, at some point in the future. i'm thinking i will add color with some kind of fiber...



more details of the individual objects on flickr.

thanks for reading.