Creation

It's rough. It's unfinished. But it's a start.

I am taking a beginner metalsmithing course in fabrication. We start with a piece of sheet metal and saw it, hammer it, texture it, shape it, solder it, rivet it, file it, polish it, buff it and make something useful from it. It has been a wonderful new experience for me so far. My first project, a small copper box, is still a work in progress. As you can see from the photo, it's not the prettiest object you could lay eyes on. But to me, it's beautiful. I still need to rivet the lid pieces together and then create a hinge for the lid and attach it to the box. Before all that, I need to file it more and then polish it up. The solder is not especially tidy, but, hey, it's my first soldering experience. I'm just thrilled I soldered successfully! I am learning a lot and, in time, hopefully my abilities will grow. Every class scares me a little bit and humbles me a lot. Learning new things is challenging, often intimidating. But it's good to do things that scare you sometimes, make a few new synaptic connections, gain some experience and WAKE UP your brain! I'm lovin' it.

"Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely."- Auguste Rodin

"Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned."- Mark Twain

Rambunctious

I just want to prove that my little furry friends are W.I.L.D. They like to tear things up. They live to create mayhem, mischief and merriment. They are a force of nature, unstoppable and irrepressible. I have two Bengals and one tortie. The Bengals are incredible cats. They look like little leopards, slinking through the house, stalking helpless geckos. The tortie is a feisty, spicy kitty- ready to pounce and always a purr away from cuddling with me. I went cat-less for ten years. I've had these guys for ten months and my head is reeling from the change. I have had to alter many things in the last few months. I can't leave ANYTHING out or I risk kitty curiosity. They can't help themselves. Cats are voraciously curious, Bengals especially so. My standards have completely changed. As you see in the photo, they are frolicking on my dining table. I have tried EVERYTHING I can think of to prevent this. Just when I think I have it licked, I come in the door and find one or more cats chillin' on the table in a languorous sprawl. Disinfectant wipes have become my constant companion. I wouldn't change a thing.

"Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air..."- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A little neglect may breed great mischief."- Benjamin Franklin

"When you're curious, you find lots of interesting things to do."- Walt Disney

Zachary

This is a test of the emergency glass-testing system. This is only a test.

Such fun! Testing some glass colors from Creation is Messy, one of my favorite glass companies. So many glass colors seem to crossover from one company to another; but CiM (Creation is Messy) has some truly unique colors that I don't see in other places. Case in point, the CiM color, Zachary. It is a lovely shade of rich powdery blue. At first glance, it almost looks like the Periwinkle color you can get from most glass companies. But it most definitely is not Periwinkle. It is lighter and lacks the purplish tone of a true periwinkle color. Really, I would describe it as a true baby blue. This is a terrific base color and had some nice reactive qualities.

As you can see in the photo accompanying this post, I tested this color in various ways to see how much you could play with it. Some of my observations are as follows:

1) Zachary topped with a silvered ivory stringer leads to very organic reactions. I really liked the dark lines that popped out!

2) Zachary rolled in Effetre intense black frit led to an interesting reaction. I usually use intense black with ivory and get a very webby look over the ivory. On the Zachary, the intense black had a tendency to sink in and minimally web out on the very edges of each black spot. Actually, the intense black turned out more of a deep, deep purple against the Zachary. And, around each black/purple spot, the pretty powdery blue blooms out; but the background turns a grayish-blue and does not look like the original Zachary blue. Interesting! I can see using this combination to achieve an animal print look.

3) Zachary rolled in Raku frit- not particularly outstanding. The Raku changed color a bit; some soft peach and yellow tones popped out which look nice against the Zachary blue. Dark reactive lines hardly presented themselves at all. Using the Raku frit is a good way to achieve a soft, pastel accent on the Zachary, but nothing too exciting. Very quiet effects.

4) Zachary looks quite pretty encased in clear. I imagine this would etch beautifully, though I did not do an etch test.

Overall, Zachary is a very nice color to work with. It is described on the CiM site as an opaque baby blue and is part of their regular glass line. I highly recommend it!

Patience

It is often said that patience is a virtue. Indeed it is. I am not flush with copious amounts of patience, unfortunately. It is a quality that I struggle with at times. Despite the struggle, I really want Patience to win. She deserves it, after all, being such a mellow gal.

Why do I mention patience? The last few weeks of glass bead making have been IMPOSSIBLE! I am in the midst of my first official glass testing experience and everything that can go wrong, has gone wrong. Exploding glass, torch head with flames shooting out the sides, sooty and blackened beads, wonky beads. It's as if I have forgotten how to work the glass. Ever had that happen to you? Good news is, I finally discovered why so many difficulties. One glass-exploding day a few weeks ago, some shards of glass took up residence in my torch head. It never occurred to me to check the torch head. I just realized it yesterday. So now I know why almost all of my beads have come out all smoky and gross. I have since cleaned my torch head and, finally, I am back in business. Sigh of relief.

Patience also has come in handy for my current metalsmithing class. Last post I mentioned the sawing difficulties I had been experiencing. Well, I put in a little practice time, watched a few tutorials posted online by my instructor and, I can truthfully say, my sawing has improved. A lot. Yay for me! I did learn one valuable lesson in class last week. Actually, two valuable lessons: 1) Never, EVER, get your finger(s) in the way of the saw blade. It may be teeny-tiny, but it can do some serious damage. No, I didn't need stitches and, yes, I left a blood trail on the way to get a bandage. 2) Never, EVER, get distracted while sawing. Save the chat session for those less risky moments in your life. That being said, my biggest concern that night was whether or not I got blood on my project. I didn't. I was elated that I was able to finish my sawing for the class that night! And my finger is mending nicely. It should be good-to-go come time for my next class!

The following may seem like a complete change of subject but, trust me, it ties in to our subject today. In the last several months, I have been busy bonding with my three new-ish cats. They are still technically kittens, but getting seriously large now. Two of them are Bengals- a fascinating breed of cat. They are part Asian leopard, part domestic cat (usually Abyssinian) and completely unique. I was told they would be "playful", "kitten-like all of their lives", a bit rowdy, good jumpers. These cats are anything but ordinary. They could be in the circus! They are incredibly acrobatic, full of grace, rambunctious, obsessive, sweet, skittish, somewhat destructive, and totally loveable. They keep me on my toes and require a large dose of PATIENCE to live with their non-stop antics. Not to be overlooked is my one sweet tortoiseshell shorthair domestic cat- just a garden-variety type of cat, looks-wise. Personality-wise, she is a force of nature, up to the task of garnering her share of our attention. (Photo in this post is of my male Bengal, nosing the camera lens!)

"One moment of patience may ward off great disaster. One moment of impatience may ruin a whole life."- Chinese proverb

"Patience is also a form of action."- Auguste Rodin

In Absentia

"In absentia" is a lovely Latin phrase. It literally means, "in the absence". This phrase conveys the thought of not being present, perhaps when one should be. Macabre as it sounds, I think it appropriate to use a dead language to define the idea of not being physically present. I also think the term is apropos to explain not being virtually present. I don't like to make excuses because they sound lame at best. So I will simply get down to business and write this post!

This year has been beyond busy for me due to circumstances beyond control. Finally, the dust is settling, things are sorting out, breaths can be taken. At least until the next time. In the interim, I have been as creatively productive as possible. Currently, I am taking a metalsmithing class. Just getting started, actually. I must say that I have a whole new respect for metalsmiths. Sawing metal is my biggest challenge so far. I had no idea that jewelry sawblades are so very thin! My sawing technique has a L-O-N-G way to go. The first night of my class, I broke eight blades. Eight of them. Meanwhile, the students on either side of me were doing an incredible job of sawing. One cut out a cute little flower shape. The other cut out a sweet little bird. And me? A misshapen oval and eight broken blades. I should note, however, that I am typically a slow learner when it comes to crafty things. But I do sincerely hope that I can reach a point where my technique does improve. Practice, practice, practice!

I remember when I took a glass bead class for the first time. The torch was absolutely terrifying to me. The hot glass wasn't my favorite feature, either. I was living on the edge! But I eventually got a feel for it. Interestingly, the torch in metalsmithing holds fresh terror for me. I didn't expect that. I am so accustomed to using a torch when working with glass. But it's all different with metal. One of the torches in the metal shop is nicknamed "Big Bertha". It is used to anneal large pieces of sheet metal. "Big Bertha" is intimidating. She breathes fire. She is potentially explosive. My synapses are firing away as I learn to wrap my mind around it. It is a comfort to me that the metal shop is full of ladies using hammers, saws and torches. Not a man in sight. The only men in the building are in a pottery class next door. Huh.

I am also an official glass tester for Creation is Messy! This is the first time that I have had the opportunity to participate in the testing process. I received my package of glass ( a boxful of rainbow! ), sorted it out and got started playing. I have to say that I am a huge fan of Creation is Messy glass, a.k.a. CiM glass. They have colors in their glass line that are completely unique, with more streaming out constantly. They are particularly interested in pleasing their many customers, a wise business practice. I will be reporting some of my CiM glass observations in future posts.

Pictured in this post is just one of the sample beads I have been working on throughout the testing process. Beadmaking has been a bit frustrating lately. My bead release (a clay slip used to make bead removal easier after firing) has been failing me non-stop lately! I keep a bowl of water near my torch to "kill" beads that are not working out. The bowl is full of shattered glass right now, with the death toll ever mounting. Perhaps the high humidity we have been having locally is a contributing factor. I don't know. I will just keep trying!

"Never give up. Never surrender!"- from the movie, "Galaxy Quest"

"Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul."- Douglas MacArthur

"Many of the great achievements of the world were accomplished by tired and discouraged men who kept on working."-- Unknown

Fractal

In high school, I took Geometry, as most students do. Up till then, every math course I had taken was not too difficult for me to master. But Geometry was a whole new set of rules, a different brand of logic. Postulates, theorems- nothing could be assumed. Nothing. I had to back up every assumption with proof, show how I had arrived at that proof and make sure all was logical. It was a tall order for a creative thinker. No matter how hard I tried, I simply could not get a better grade in that class than a 'B'. Well, I wanted an 'A'. Badly. I decided that, no matter what, geometry was not going to get the better of me. Not this girl. I worked HARD, harder than I ever had before and, finally, in the last semester of the school year, I got my 'A'. Well, technically, it was an 'A-', just barely. But it was good enough for me.

I got so much out of that class, so much more than I expected to. I have absolutely no recollection of how to solve a geometry problem, but I did retain valuable life lessons: 1) Never, ever assume anything. 2) If something is important to you, the work to achieve it is worthwhile. These lessons have remained with me through out my life. I try to live by them and pass these values on to my own child. Was all that work really worth it? You do the math. I'm done with geometry, no more sweating through tests. However, I, like everyone else on this planet, must daily face conundrums and struggles of various sorts. What to do? Never, ever assume anything. Make sure of the facts and use those facts as your guide to answers. And don't be lazy. Work your little hiney off to achieve your goals. Once reached, those achievements may not be exactly what you hoped for in the end, but they will be adequate to satisfy you if you did your best.

"When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt."- Henry J. Kaiser

(The one thing I still remember from geometry is the beauty of geometrical fractal patterns. They are mind-boggling. They take my breath away.)

(The bead pictured in this post is for sale in my Etsy shop.)

Concoction

When whipping up something new, it is always good to come up with a fresh twist on the familiar. Simple as this sounds, it is incredibly challenging to actually accomplish. I was watching one of those cooking reality shows at my mom's place the other day. Normally, I am not one for reality shows which, as you know, are about as real as a politician's honesty. However, this particular show WAS rather amusing. It was a bit like Project Runway (another "reality" program), but with food instead of clothes. I have to admit that I was intrigued by the chefs' inventiveness. They would be given a theme (like 'Japanese') or a flavor, etc., and have to come up with something dazzling in short order if they wanted to advance in the competition. Well, sometimes pressure can crush a person into dust and, sometimes, produce diamonds. The diamonds make the cut (or, get the cut?). Anyway, wordplay aside, my point is that challenges can spark our creativity to rise to new heights. I recently visited with a jewelry designer who feels somewhat stuck in her work. She was questioning her ability as an artist because she finds it difficult to be innovative in her work. From what I can see, her ability to create beauty is unquestionable. Maybe she just needs a bracing challenge to kick her creativity up a notch, to give it an undeniable "BAM!". Have you ever thought of having your own, private version of a reality show challenge? Give yourself one word, one color, one texture to work with and see what you can come up with. The necklace pictured with this post is a piece I am still working on. My challenge was figuring out how to meld the teardrop beads with the barrel beads in a pleasing manner. I also needed to make the neutral tones of the piece have a little bit of 'POP'. So far, I am loving how it is developing. I added in a lampwork bead that I torched especially to coordinate with these beads. The client is pleased and I am, too.

Custom pieces especially seem to present these types of challenges because the artist has a 'judge' to please (the client) as well as him/herself. The process can be intimidating but, when successful, oh,so rewarding! You just have to be willing to take a risk. After all, what's the worst that can happen? You waste some art materials or time? You have to take your work apart and start again? Well, that surely won't kill you. And, as the saying goes, 'What doesn't kill you will make you stronger' as an artist. Just don't do anything dangerous, OK?

"Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are."- Bernice Johnson Reagon

"Anything unattempted remains impossible."- Unknown