Hurricane Sandy II

What does one do when the power is out and the sound of the storm is remarkably frightening?

Divert focus away from the howling storm and work by candlelight.

 

Our household is one of the very fortunate 1.2 million in Pennsylvania that lost power- ours came back on a short while ago.

My thoughts are with those who sustained property damage and personal injury.

Hurricane Sandy

Living a bit southwest of Philadelphia, I am unfortunately in the predicted path of Hurricane Sandy.

It's hard to pull myself away from the continuing coverage of the storm as it advances even though it only increases the feeling of dread.

Great....the pressure is dropping which I now know means that the storm is getting stronger.

It's hard to focus on anything, so of course I'm baking scones.

 

To anyone else in the path of this storm....best wishes, be safe!

Yes, I Love Etching

This past week included more etching.

I love the results that I can get using ferric chloride and brass.

For this batch, I cut 1" diameter discs of brass and etched them with sections of text.

After neutralizing the ferric chloride with baking soda and scrubbing the discs with a brass brush and soapy water, I heated them with the torch and then lightly sanded them to highlight the etching.

I love the look of these oxidized discs, and while I could sit and gaze at their loveliness, they need to become something else.

I do work hard at keeping my pieces of jewelry unique, so similar components are used in a variety of ways.

This time, I cut out 3/8" discs off center and domed the discs in my dapping block after drilling holes at the top and bottom. 

Hanging below are sterling wire wrapped dangles of garnet, pearls and crystals.

The discs hang from sterling ear wires.

I will ponder the loveliness of the remaining discs while I consider how to put them to use.

 

 

Copper Sticks Necklace Revisited

I've had requests for more 'Copper Sticks' necklaces, and I decided to revisit that necklace from a more delicate and refined perspective.

This variation is made with sterling silver, pearls and prehnite.

Segments of heavy gauge sterling wire were hammered to create paddle shapes at each end which were then drilled for necessary connections.

Faceted prehnite rondells were attached at the bottom of each section of hammered sterling wire with light gauge, balled sterling wire.

Each section is connected to sterling chain with a sterling jump ring.

Small, freshwater pearls are wire wrapped onto the chain..

 

I'm liking this more refined version, but once I saw the necklace on the display form, I thought, "hmmmm....maybe needs some more pearls along the chain; maybe some tiny crystals too."

It's sometimes hard to know when I'm done.

October 22, 2012

 

“It's so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone.”
  J. Steinbeck



You Guessed It.....More Cuffs

My acetylene tank was just recently refilled, and I'm slightly obsessed with making fold formed cuffs.

I love that I can take a simple strip of copper and transform it using heat and a few tools.

Texturing the above, I used a dapping punch, a ball peen hammer, an old chisel and a center punch.

This one....another dapping punch and a decorative floating seed steel punch.

This one....the old chisel, a circle punch and a decorative star steel punch. 

I sometimes get on a production kick, making pieces because I want to keep exploring different, creative possibilities.

The thought of who, if anyone, might actually buy any of these pieces is something I concern myself with after the fact.

Lucky for me that these cuffs have captured the interest of more than a few people.

Whew...I can keep having fun exploring the possibilities.

The Up Side of Not Caring

Almost a year ago, I began oil painting one night a week at Wayne Art Center.

It remains a real struggle for me to capture on canvas the images that I can so clearly see in my mind.

I'm in a Portrait Painting Tradition class, so of course, I'm painting landscapes.

When I went to class last week, I brought 2 canvases with me.

One was the painting of the farm field across the road from Chanticleer which still needs at least one more session before I could consider it finished.

The other was the beginning of a landscape that I started at home.

With that second landscape, I violated one of the basic 'rules' that our instructor, Georganna Lenssen, has taught us.....always refer to something real (actual setting, a model, a photograph) when painting.

No, me of questionable skill decided to go off the grid and paint that image that was just in my mind.

I didn't photograph it, but that initial session yielded a pretty dismal beginning of a landscape.

 

When I was deciding what I would work on for the class, I found myself too afraid to to work on the farm field.  I'm liking that painting and fear that I might ruin it with additional work.

That fear made me look at my loser landscape, thinking, "What the heck....it stinks.  What harm can I do?"

What a liberating attitude. 

I decided to try something different and painted using only my palette knife.

I would never suggest that this is a wonderful painting, but it is definitely a wonderful improvement.

Not caring allowed me to trust my instinct and allowed me to learn by trying something new.

Yeah...I'm still too afraid to work on the farm filed.

I've got to work on that fear thing.