Monthly Archives: October 2010

…to a time when I did not have much experience with PMC, but I knew I loved it. In July, my sister-in-law Karen asked if I would put some gold posts on a pair earrings I gave her a hundred years ago. The sterling posts were starting to irritate her ears. “Absolutely no hurry. Just when you get around to it.”  (Words that always give me way too much time to procrastinate. Things get lost in my studio when they fall into the “no hurry, really” category.) So, now it is almost the end of October and Karen and her husband headed back to Baltimore today. It was the deadline I needed to change the posts on her earrings before she left.

What I love when I look at these is that they were made when I did not know you could smooth edges with an emory board before firing. They mark a time before I had ever used PMC sheet and punches. The holes were made with drinking straws because I did not have any fancy little brass tubes to make perfect cuts. The edges were smoothed and the corners were rounded with a file after the earrings were fired. The hint of gold  in the recessed circles was my first attempt at using Aura 22 before I learned how to keum-boo.

I’ve learned a few new techniques since I made these earrings, but the design still pleases me. When my new batch of PMC arrives tomorrow, I might just have to try a “remix” of this pair.

On Sunday, I took a break from the studio to walk down the road to watch as friends helped raise a wall for Lindsay Eysnogle and Jason Pickering. They are building their timber peg home from island trees they have milled themselves. It was pretty exciting to watch the progress on a snappy clear day in October.

Where the heck is all this time going? Life is moving way too fast! How is it possible that I have not posted something new in 10 days? October is almost over and my head still thinks it is September. Sheesh!

I’ve been super busy in the studio working on inventory for the upcoming trunk show at my friend Val’s house on November 13. (Clicking the “trunk show” link will take you to a tiny image of a PDF file. Click on that and you will have a  poster/flyer in your face.  Sorry for the way this is formatted. I’m too busy to figure out how to make it appear in a more direct way!)

…to catch the 6:30 boat to the mainland, which left the island just before the sun was up.

Had we entered Northeast Harbor two minutes sooner we wouldn’t have seen it peek over the horizon.

It was colder in N.E. than on the island; the first time this fall I’ve had to scrape frost from the windshield. (It took a few minutes to find the scraper from wherever I tossed it last spring.) I was thinking how I was not quite ready for this yet when I was totally distracted by the mist (provided by the same cold temperature I was lamenting) on upper Hadlock Pond as I drove by. My appointment in Bar Harbor was not until 8 a.m. so I actually had time to turn around and pull off the road to watch the sun light the top of Parkman Mountain.

The 20 minute drive just got better and better.

Frost schmost. How many people get to drive through the beauty of a national park on the way to their annual mammogram?! In contrast, the wind is starting to pick up tonight, and tomorrow it will be blowing 40 knots with gusts up to 50, and driving rain.  There is talk of canceling the (ferry) boats coming out to the island and of the power going out. I probably won’t be getting up early…

Browning ferns jumping out from their green hiding place, and winter berries peeking out at them from the leaves they will soon drop. (Click on photo to enlarge. It gives the winter berries a chance to show off.)

After catching up on some work in the studio, I took a little time to finish the piece I had started in Celie Fago’s  “PMC Pendant with New Polymer Inlay Techniques” workshop a few weeks ago. My feelings about this piece go up and down like a see-saw. I like it – I don’t like it.  I’m not sure how much I will actually wear it, but I had fun finishing it. It was so honkin’ big, I figured it could carry a few silver dangles on the bottom. Once I had gone that far, I decided to use some enameled head pins for faux rivets on the side, because I liked their robin’s egg blue color with the polymer.  I wish their color showed up better in these photos. (The enameled head pins are from Miss Ficklemedia’s Etsy shop) The polymer inlay is my least favorite part of this piece. I would definitely make a PMC bezel like this again, but it would be a little more shallow next time. And I might fill the bezel with a collage set in resin, or who knows? I might even come up with a piece polymer inlay I like better.

Fresh from the kiln.

Ready for a brass brush, some liver of sulphur, a toss in the tumbler and a final polish. They might not look like silver at this stage, but that is exactly what they are.  .999 fine silver and nothing else. I love moldable metal!

…BIG mess!

No wonder re-entry was tough when I faced a studio that looked like this. It IS a very small room ( 8′ x 10′),  and when I work I sometimes have to put things on top of things while I am using them. If only I would put it all away at the end of the day. But I keep thinking, “I’ll get right back to it…I might need it again….I’ll forget about it if I can’t see it…”

At this level it is no longer conducive to work. I have piled up enough stuff that I can no longer see what’s on the bottom.

So, I avoided the whole deal for a few more days by drilling rocks, in the basement, where I have my drill press set up. I have finally trained myself to listen to books on CD, so drilling rocks in the basement is much more entertaining than it sounds. It is both meditative and exciting as I think of how I might use each stone. And,  I’ve finished two books already.

These lovelies made me want to clean up the studio so I could get to work on some fine silver beads to go with them. I have much to do to get ready for a November trunk show in Greenwich and two craft fairs in December.

Along with cleaning up I also needed to reorganize tools, to incorporate some new ones among them, to find room to store the new supplies for all of the tear-away texture sheets I plan to make, (ie. where to put all those packages of Studio Sculpey that is being discontinued in December and the pasta machine), and to find a place to store my oil paints and brushes until winter brings more time to use them.

I can not concentrate on a book while sorting through so many little details. Disco is my aural motivator. Burn baby burn!

As one friend said when she first saw my (tidy) studio, “Wow, you pack a lot in here!”  And for now, I know where it all is.