Monthly Archives: August 2009

with all of the storm surge from Hurricane Bill. We had no rain or high winds, but very high tides and high seas.  Everyone on the island was out and about at 1:30 p.m. (high tide) Checking the waves from Gilley Beach, to the Coast Guard Beach, to Marsh Head, to Bunker’s Cove. Most of the fishermen moved their traps to deeper water before the storm hit, but traps an buoys churned around in places no one expected.

There is no way to capture the power of the waves in a photograph. Although I gave it a try. What amazes me in looking at these photos is that the sky is just as wild as the water, but none of us looked up to notice!

The first two photos look toward Marsh head, taken from my Pentax. The next three were taken at high tide and down loaded from my FlipVideo camera.

We were standing in the woods to get this shot of waves breaking well aboverthe high tide mark.

Holly Kellogg and I challenged each other to send in photographs of our PMC  work to the PMC Annual #3. The 2009 edition will be published this fall. A total of  456 images were reviewed by a four member panel to select the 109 photographs that will appear in the book. Participants come from eight countries and 25 states in the U.S.  The challenge was worth it! Both Holly and I will each have photos in the upcoming PMC Annual. We are psyched!

When I looked at the list of this year’s selected artists, I saw that Jackie Haines is the only other participant from Maine. How cool that we were together at the Northeast Harbor Invitational Arts and Crafts Show last weekend. I told her I thought it was fun that we were the only ones chosen from Maine, and there we were in the same little show in N.E.H. Her response, “I got in?” She had not yet seen the list published on the PMC Guild Web site.

I am in good company. I love my growing network of PMC artist friends, and I love that we are going to be published this fall.

Do holes shrink?

In my metal clay world the answer is yes and no. How can that be? I read in one of my books, (but I’ll be darned if I can find the quote or source) that since a hole is a void, there is nothing there to shrink or grow. So how can a “nothing” shrink? But, when making a ring out of PMC, one must account for the shrinkage of the clay to insure a proper finished size. In that instance the hole in the middle of the ring actually does get smaller. It shrinks. But when I drill a hole in unfired clay, to accommodate an ear wire, the drilled hole does not shrink when its fired.  You would  think that the hole would get larger as the clay shrunk in on itself, pulling away from the hole. But that little drilled hole stays the same size. The same with these earring and necklace components. I used a cutter to take make a hole in the flat bead. The cut out piece shrunk, the larger earring piece shrunk, but the hole stayed the same size that it was before firing.

A bezel made of PMC will shrink during firing, but the hole I cut to set the moonstone  below, stayed the same size. I think I need some physics to understand this.

I’m off on the 8:30 boat to set up for the Northeast Harbor Invitational Art and Craft Show at the N.E.H. Neighborhood House. If you’re in the area, please stop by and say hi.

Thursday , August 13,  from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Friday, August 14,  from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Saturday, August 15, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

until the Northeast harbor Invitational Craft Show at the Neighborhood House! For a look at all of the good company I’ll be in, please check the link, lower right.      ( http://nehnhi.blogspot.com)

Stop by and say hi, or feast your eyes anonymously!

Here are three of the necklaces I’ll have with me:

gave a demonstration of her colored pencil technique at the Islesford Artists Gallery last week. Fascinating. The finished drawing is available at Islesford Artists Gallery, along with more of her work. Check the link on this blog for her Web site.

Work still in progress:

During the demo, someone asked Gail how long it took her to make a drawing like this. Her response: “A lifetime.”

I stayed up late on Thursday night to finish a few pieces with gold keum-boo for the Alone Moose Gallery reception on Friday. I made them in honor of seeing Jayne Redman from whom I learned the gold to silver bonding technique. It also gave me a chance to try out the Ott light (full spectrum) for taking photos at night. I usually use natural light coming in through my dining room window, or if I’m really stuck at night I will take photos under my kitchen fluorescent lights and try to Photoshop them into something I can live with.

The hollow formed pendant below is reversible. This was the first time I fired a natural moonstone in a piece. Lab grown stones, set in place before firing, will usually withstand the high temperatures needed for precious metal clay. Natural stones are less predictable. I already knew that sunstones fired beautifully. The moonstones were worth a try since they are also in the feldspar family. I used the auto program setting on my kiln for a slow firing of PMC+.

As for the simulated citrines in the earrings below, I like the idea of the setting, but the color is unremarkable. I think it faded a little with the firing. Green stones are funny when it comes to high heat.

Trying to make the backs more interesting…….

(I hope that’s a poppy seed and not a tick or a flea!)   I have a second smaller clamp on Ott light to use with the floor lamp. I’ll try it the next  time I set up my table top photo cube to take photos, when I am not in a hurry or bleary from lack of sleep.  But, especially for a rush job, I was happy with the quality of the new light.

2009 Saul Bell Award finalists in Silver and PMC, Jayne Redman and Barb Fernald, have coffee at Alone Moose .