Pierced!!

Well, it's been a while since I posted, and have I been busy!!! My first jewelry teaching gig is behind me, and the next is coming up fast. I am so lucky to have found Meredith and Cherie, at The Garden of Beadin', our local bead shop (if you're in the Poconos, that is). They are warm and friendly, just great to work with. Cherie's lovely little shop is a perfect place to take classes in jewelry making. My classes in cold connections for jewelry have been warmly recieved. I can tell I'm going to like it here. Our first class, held Jan 10, was a piercing class. It covered the basics of using a jeweler's saw, and piercing a pattern into metal by drilling a hole inside the pattern. Students learned how to thread and hold a jeweler's saw, how follow a pattern, and how to use a light touch. I am so proud of them! Conversations, questions, and amazingly few broken saw blades, an incredible feat for a first experience. I was very impressed as dragonflies, trees, wolves, and more emerged from under their saws. Everyone walked away with a copper or silver pendant to be proud of.

Our next class will be held on Feb 7, and I will be teaching basic forging while we make bracelets and neck rings to hang our pendants from. I really enjoyed teaching the class. It's quite a different experience from being a student, and I can't wait for the next class. I have posted a few of the pieces that I made as class samples. Before class, I readied another pendant that had a scattering of viney leaves on it. I pounded it with a rawhide hammer to help harden the silver when it was complete. Well, my wonky, misshappen hammer hit that piece at some weird angle, shot it off the workbench, and I haven't seen it since. Oh well, some day in the future a beautiful, dusty, viney disc will appear from out of the sawdust, and I'll be back in business, ready for a new groupof students!

Finally, a Show!

After 2 years without a show, I have finally taken the step to get back out there! As a member or PSG (the Pennsylvania Society of Goldsmiths), I had the opportunity to join some outstanding jewelry artists this past weekend for a jewelry trunk show at the Delaware Center for Horticulture. This was a great time for me to pull my work out of hiding, and to begin to develop the new displays that will take me through my shows next year. A big change for me was in not including most of my bead items, which tend to be better sellers than my silver alone. But I did it, and now that I have started, I know I'll keep the momentum going.

There's so much still to be done. Prices need to be figured and tagged (I hate ugly price tags, isn't there a better way?) Chains and neck wires need to be added to the pendants, some color has to be added to the display. And I am determined to create some silver pieces that will use beaded components, so that my beads can come to the shows with me! Lots of work ahead, and it felt so good to take the first step. Too bad that the five pair of silver ginkgo earrings, perfect for a horticulture show, are still sitting half formed on my bench!

One of my favorite parts of this weekend was joining a wonderful metalsmith, Maggi Dabaecke, in her home. Maggi was gracious enough to invite me to stay with her during the show, and what a pleasant evening we had, sharing stories over wine and some fine Italian cheese from her recent trip to Italy. Her home is absolutely beautiful, and her work shop - be still my heart! Bright, airy, modern, and the size of a small classroom.... I still have chills! I was fortunate enough to have taken a workshop with Maggi several years ago, and her work is always exciting, different, and most of all, fun! She has expanded into the realm of enamels, and I can't wait for the workshop she promised us in torch-fired enamels this spring. That's Maggi, on the upper right, with some of her jewelry sculptures - pins and pendants so special, they have a pedestal of their own!

The biggest benefit of this weekend, for me, was in joining the amazing group of artists that is PSG. Experiencing everyone's work was an absolute joy, and provided instant inspiration. The work I saw was full of shape, full of color, complex and dimensional. It was certainly well above the artistic level of the jewelry I see at many craft shows. What a pleasure it was to share the weekend with such craftsmen! In between customers, we had the opportunity to talk, compare ideas, share notes, and trade information. I came home with my head so full of the beautiful work I had seen, that I can't wait to see the effect it has on my own creations!My thoughts are awhirl with images of texture, color, metals, and shapes. Who knows what the results might be?