Copper beads before firing:

Beads after firing and after tumbling:

I like the rich brown color of these without doing anything to change the patina., but I also used a polishing pad to see what would happen:

I’m anxious to try some verdigris patina and some russet red on these babies. Currently, all of my supplies are in little piles scattered through the basement. Bruce is building a new bench for me in my basement studio so I’ll have room for a second torch for some glass/enamel work. Right now all of my soldering, rock drilling and patina applying activities are on hold.

I like the primitive look of this little design I made on the scratch foam. I can’t wait to make a necklace using these beads.

Holly told me not to order any scratch foam myself because she had just ordered more than enough for the two of us, from Dick Blick. We had it on our list of things to try during our one day studio get-together in April, but we ran out of time. She gave me a bunch of the scratch foam sheets to take home. I got around to trying them last week, starting with some simple earring designs. Thanks Holly!

I had my usual “I-can’t-draw-for-beans” paralysis when I tried to think of what to do first with the foam. You literally draw on the stuff with a ball point pen. The indentations will come out as raised patterns when you press metal clay into your foam texture sheet.

I plan to make a whole batch of saucer beads in silver, bronze and copper clay. I’ll be applying patina to the copper after it’s fired. The high spots from this kind of texture will show up really well against the patina background.

I was drawing a blank on ideas for the beads when I started with these earring designs. Probably the best thing I could do for myself, to keep moving forward, would be to make a bunch of large circles in my sketch book, and start making doodles within the circles. Eventually I’ll come up with the design I’m looking for.

The one-hole bead on each fine silver earring is suspended from a wire with a balled end. The two sides of the beads have different textures. Because of the pivot action on the wire, the beads on these earrings move around a lot as you wear them. Fun to play with when you wear them, but even if you don’t touch them, they like to fidget on their own!

They’re in the mail right now on their way to Red Dot Gallery on Deer Isle. Opening for the season on Friday, May 18.

It was interesting to see how different background colors and prop colors  affected the feel of the photos, especially when the pieces were more colorful. (as opposed to being all silver) Here are just a few of the shots I took today:

Translucent Pardo polymer clay, colored with alcohol ink, embedded silver.

Stick or plexiglass rod? Which do you think works better? I waffle….

More translucent Pardo with embedments.

Same plexiglass rod, but different background colors. Bronze and copper metal clay.

Seaham Beach sea glass, fine silver PMC beads, Sue Kennedy lamp work beads:

Cedar print fine silver PMC beads on silver plated Beadalon™ with sterling silver and nephrite jade:

Bruce usually doesn’t ask, but this year he said, “Well, do you have any ideas of what you would like because the guys and I are drawing a blank.” (Last year my husband and sons gave me a new 3 speed bike for the island. That’s a hard act to follow!) I was actually prepared, thinking of something I might not buy for myself, but that would be great to have.

I wanted really good lights and a pop up photo cube so I could set up an area to take photos of my work. I have managed to do okay so far, with a variety of arrangements by the large window in our dining room, but it would be great not to have to wait for the right kind of sunny day to take photos.

Thanks Bruce, Fritz, and Robin. No more chasing sunlight through the house, or frustrating myself by waiting until too late in the afternoon to start taking photos. I have to confess it took me a week to unpack the lights. I get a little stuck by my lack of self confidence when I face a learning curve.

Tonight I gave everything a try and I know these lights will make a big difference. Just being able to set something up and leave it to resume tomorrow, regardless of the weather, will be a big improvement in time management for me.

I started with photos of earrings I made from some of the translucent polymer clay components. I didn’t think I would like the plain white background that came with the photo cube, but with the colors in the polymer clay, it seems to work the best. (Good thing it detaches. I’ll take an iron to it tomorrow.)

So much to learn, but at least I got started. The ability to take photographs at night, instead of stopping work to catch the light in the middle of the day, is a birthday present I’m going to enjoy for a long time.

When Sue Kennedy posted a challenge on her blog last week, I thought, “Sure, I’ll add my name!” and I crossed my fingers to be picked. I check quite a few beady blogs every day and the generous jewelry designers who write these posts often have giveaways or challenges. Leave a comment on the site and your name goes into the hat for a chance to participate. In the case of a challenge, those who are picked come up with a design using the chosen beads and then post a photo of their piece and the links to the blogs of the other lucky participants. It’s known as a blog hop.

Hmmm…..earrings, necklace or bracelet? I’m still mulling it over while I work on other deadlines. The reveal for this challenge is May 26.

Thanks Sue!       I love Sue”s beads. You can check out her amazing stuff for yourself at her Etsy shop.

On Saturday we drove into the city to attend the 15th New York SOFA exhibition at the Park Avenue Armory. SOFA stands for Sculpture Objects & Functional Art. What a collection! A feast for the eyes!  Some of it puzzling and some of it awe-inspiring. It was hard to take it all in. There were two artists whose work really stood out for me. One was a woman named Sue Lawty. From a distance her pieces looked like large paintings made with small gray dots. Nice, even soothing maybe, but not so spectacular at first. Then Susie said, “These are all tiny rocks!”

Calculus, 2010     natural stones on gesso           78.75; x 118

I took a closer look at her work from several angles. Fascinating! (And, in case you don’t read more about Sue from the link above, you should at least know that “calculus” is Latin for “small stone.”)

The other work I really liked was by a glass artist named Steffen Dam.

The shapes, colors and translucence were a perfect follow-up to inspire more polymer clay experiments. I could have looked at his pieces for a long time.  Though I took very few photos, I can look  through the images of sold art on the SOFA site to be reminded of many of the pieces I saw and liked, and of several  I could not imagine anyone buying! There was a lot of interesting jewelry, too,  but strangely no photos of the pieces that were sold.

I had a great trip. On the way home I spent the night with my son Fritz and his girlfriend Meg and their dog Rocky, in Portland. After stopping to stock up at Trader Joe’s, picking up some fish for dinner in Ellsworth, and dropping off a new orchid plant during a brief visit with my mom, I made it back home on Tuesday’s  3:30 boat.

I love going away, seeing good friends, and doing different things, but coming back to my home on the island is the best part of any trip.

Holly worked with circles.

I went for leaf shapes.

Holly’s daughter, Maia, joined us and inspired us with some of her own ideas.

Neither of us knew that leaving an edge of clay around the wire was called a “shadow cut,” until Maia told us. Her design of the tiny beads inside the wire, with a shadow of  clay around the outside, was my favorite of the day.

Of course the day ended too soon, even though we worked into the night. We’ve taken workshops together, but this is the first time Holly and I have been together, in one of our studios,  just to bounce ideas off each other. We had a blast. We each ended up with some ideas about translucent polymer clay that we’ll continue to explore. Thank you my friend! I can’t wait to see what you make next. My own explorations will have to wait until after my visit with Susie in N.Y.

Holly’s cats, Cocoa and Yeti, know how to open the door to her studio by reaching up and hanging onto the door handle to pull it down. So far they can only do this while standing on the floor. They are deterred by the stool. For now, they can’t figure out how to open the door from a higher perch.

Something tells me they won’t take too long to figure it out…