Piercing & Sawing

Tonight's assignment was to use piercing on a 1 by 1 & 1/2 inch rectangle. I made a skull inspired by a Day of the Dead marionette photo I have saved to my computer. I'm pretty pleased w/ the way it turned out, it retained the casualness of the sketch I brought to class. I still have some filing to get it a little more smooth, & I haven't decided how I am going to attach it to a chain,(hole for jump ring,solder a silver jump ring,something a little more elaborate?)but I have time for that decision. The last part of the class was about using the mill to press designs into copper or silver. One of the designs was lace which gave me the idea to try & use lace on the skull next week. I'm also thinking about using the skull to make an imprint on a piece of copper,I'm going to experiment & stack all three(lace,skull & copper) & run it through the mill. I'll report the results next week!

metalsmithing

I started my metalsmithing class last night. We started w/ a basic ring, I used my flat wire because I want to do something a little more special w/ the 1/2 round wire. Soldering w/ the torch was fun, I managed it fairly easily. The teacher seems pretty cool, he said it wouldn't be a problem bringing in books & going off on my own tangents in class, even said he liked it when students explored what they wanted to do.Being enrolled in the class also qualifies me for studio time, so I can go in & work anytime there isn't a class. We have a mill in the studio, so I really want to try my hand w/ that. I was even able to work on a ring I wear daily that wasn't so round any more, I tapped it back into shape, a bonus!

Mucking Out the Beadroom

I've undertaken a massive clean up, house wide. The worst room of all? Sadly, the beadroom (spare bedroom) table seems to be a catch ~ all destination for SO many things. I have actually gotten down to the table itself , cleared over a dozen trays & emptied at least that many bowls as well. Finally a space to work! I've put shelves in the closet to hold things, & even made use of the huge bakers rack I put in the beadroom several years ago.(You really have to love plastic box sets.)Not to go on, but I have papers w/ papers, 'stuff' w/ stuff & ribbons, buttons etc boxed & labeled, a sort of organized chaos if you will.I even moved furniture to make room for a desk, so I have another work space & more drawers. Since all that wasn't quite enough on my plate, I decided this was as good as any time to start this blog I've been thinking about all summer! I went w/ a basic set up to begin with, but hope to work on that as well.