my web site

I have finally updated my website with lots of new designs. Check it out at www.idigitdesigns.com

I'm not really blogging anymore. Just using Facebook and posting stuff to a page I set up for I Dig It Designs.  Also, no more etsy either.

That's all for now :-)

The aspens have turned and the leaves are falling...

I haven't posted in quite a while although I have been busy creating lots of new things, traveling and celebrating a birthday (a big one...) So I will have to backtrack a little and post some fun pictures of my birthday bungee bash and my fabulous trip to Paris. But for now, I will just post some simple things!

With fall coming fast here in the mountains, our aspen trees are bright gold and it is time to collect my stash for winter so I can keep on making aspen leaves throughout the winter. Below is a little necklace made of bronze and copper aspen leaves with pearls and chain. Each leaf is one of a kind. After firing they are hammered to give then a little curve. Then I let them patina naturally. Some have tiny holes prepared so that I can add tiny Swarovski crystal chatons for a little sparkle!



Hearts Wings and Stars

I made a bunch of new designs last week using Copper Clay. I created some different bails using rolled out snakes of clay and attaching them to my pendants with little round balls. The problem I discovered is that when the copper clay shrinks (and it shrinks a lot), my little bails pulled away from the pendant. One of them actually broke off (winged heart) and two separated on one side but I have repaired them. I'm slowly learning about some of the limitations/nuances of the copper. Shrinkage does weird things!

Getting ready for shows, classes, workshops

I have spent the last couple of day getting ready for a variety of things that all seem to be snowballing! Even though I have known about all of these upcoming things, I guess I sort of put them on the back burner thinking there would be plenty of time and then suddenly time is running short. This week I have prepared jewelry for an upcoming show at the Center For the Arts Evergreen, our local art center. I've inventoried about 16 pieces for that show. On top of that I have also framed three new paintings for the same show. And, of course because I don't have a lot of time left, I almost ruined one of the frames by drilling right through it! Fortunately, it was repairable. I still have time for this show except that all next week I will be in a workshop. Oops! Didn't quite have that date in my head. So after finishing the jewelry and framing I had to get everything ready for my workshop with Richard McKinley. He's one of my favorite pastel painters and it's so wonderful that he's coming to Denver to teach a workshop. But that isn't all, I also found out that Monday is the deadline for Winterfest - a local holiday arts and crafts event. So I had to prepare 4 photographs to be presented along with my application for jurying into the show. But wait .... there's more (I sound like a late night commercial) I also found out that I had missed getting in my class proposal for teaching at our local art center. Oops again. Jonathan at our art center was kind enough to accept my very late proposal (along with a photo and updated bio...). Is that it?  Well, maybe for today.

So, I am posting a couple of images that went along with me Winterfest proposal. I wonder if I will get in? They are not professional photos, and I did spend quite a bit of time this morning trying to give them nice, neutral, white backgrounds. But in the end I used my artsy images. I think the pieces just looked better in a little bit of a setting. I could be wrong... we shall see.

Copper birdhouse

Fine silver pine needle pendant on silk cord with freshwater pearls

Oh my gosh, I think got befuddled...

Yesterday I decided that I was getting a bit overwhelmed with all the new metal pieces I have created. I had put several for sale in my Etsy store and also put some in the gallery in Georgetown. Plus I had a bunch that were labeled for other things/projects/shows. Very confusing. Too many little bags with too many labels. So I decided I better go through everything and make sure I had everything in the right pile. To my surprise, some of my Etsy pieces made their way to Georgetown! Yikes. So, now I need to take a ride up to G'town and switch things out.

Does anyone else have a problem tracking inventory? When you have paintings, it isn't quite as confusing. When you have jewelry and components, it's a whole other world!

I wish a had a better tracking system than piles...

Turning the new pieces into wearable art!

It's so much fun to make my new metal clay pieces, but honestly, I have a lot of pieces right now so it's time to turn them into little pieces of wearable art. I've experimented with several different designs using cord, leather and little beaded embellishments. Most of my beaded jewelry is about the beads and stones, these are all about the focal piece, and the necklace becomes part of the supporting cast!

Here we have a couple of birdhouses and a piney pendant. All the pendants are made from bronze metal clay and the little pine cone charm was made with copper metal clay. I have them haning on silk cord, knotted, faux-silk cord, leather and crocheted silk with pearls and goldstone. They all have that nice woodlands feel to them with the brown and green colors and knotted cords reminiscent of pine boughs and tree limbs. Fun! I will be listing some of these in my etsy store and others will wind up in my gallery up in Georgetown, Colorado.

My page at the Colorado Mountain Art Gallery
My Etsy Store

Before, during and after

I've been working with copper and bronze metal clays for a couple of months now. I finally bought myself a kiln so I could work with these metal clays. So far the copper has been a dream, but the bronze clays have been giving me a bit of trouble! I've worked with the (slower) BronzeClay and also with the Fast Fire BronzeClay. But really, the fast fire isn't as fast as the directions say! Maybe it's because I live at 7800 feet, or maybe it's because I use a ceramic firing vessel in my kiln, but I've had a hard time getting the firing time right with the fast fire. But I think I'm getting closer! It's such a beautiful product that I'm bound and determined to figure it out.

The other thing that's been weird is the regular bronze clay looks quite different from the first to second package. The color was much darker on the first package of clay, but in the end, everything seemed to fire about the same. I do like the original bronze clay because I haven't had the problems associated with the fast fire, but the fire time (9 hours) is sort of a drag. When I first started using metal clay I only worked with PMC3 and fired it with my torch within just a few minutes. Just spoiled I guess.

Original BronzeClay - but look at the darker pieces! They were from a different package...

My pieces before firing

Here they are out of the kiln (notice 2 of my leaves split)

Here they are after tumbling. Everything came out great except those 2 little leaves that split. I'm not really sure why since I think 3 cards thick should be OK. But I'll have to experiment a little more. I do want some of my aspen leaves to be thin.