…yesterday at Winters Work.
Happy first day of summer!
Today felt more like August than June. I worked in the morning so I could get to the beach to cool off in the late afternoon. Water temperature: a refreshing 53°.
It was also opening night at the Islesford Dock Restaurant. Congratulations on your 20th season Dan and Cynthia!
Bruce tried hard to make the longest day of the year last just a bit longer…
But, like all good things…
10 more weeks of sunsets from the Islesford Dock, coming right up.
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Captain and Grover
Working away to get the next batch of jewelry ready for the opening of Winters Work on Wednesday. Meanwhile, here’s a mini sequence from Times Square:
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Necklaces for West Gardiner
Where can you pull off an interstate highway, get gas for your car, get something to eat, make a comfort stop, AND shop in an amazing gallery of fine crafts?
The service plaza in West Gardiner, Maine of course. It’s where I 295, I 95, and the Maine Turnpike converge. You can be going south or going north and it’s still easily accessible from the highway. Just inside the building, among the usual suspects in the food court, is the Center for Maine Craft featuring juried work from many members of the Maine Crafts Association.
I’ve had some of my jewelry there since the beginning of May and I’m happy to say they need more necklaces. These are from the batch I mailed out today:
All 7 of the flame worked beads below are by Susan Kennedy of SueBeads.
I wondered when I would get around to using these translucent polymer clay discs that I made while fooling around in April with my friend Holly. They just seemed to fit right in with the recycled Indonesian glass and the English sea glass. Old, new, and renewed; linked together by their matte finishes.
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Where the blog have I been?
I’m not sure where all the time has gone, or why it has gone so quickly, but I know I spent 2 days of it in New York…
We had lunch at a Turkish restaurant, went to the theater…
and waited in line at 10:15 p.m. to get 4 seats at Danji, a nearby Korean restaurant that was well worth the wait. We always eat well wherever we go with Dan and Cynthia Lief because they take their food very seriously.
The next day we had lunch at Joe’s Shanghai on Pell Street in Chinatown. Their incredible soup dumplings are a tradition for us at lunch before the big Ubuntu gala at night.
We walked off lunch and checked out lobster and crab prices at a few of the fish markets:
Then back to the hotel for a nap before the big Ubuntu fund raising gala with musical entertainment by Gary Clark Jr. (That’s some amazing guitar playing!)
I’ve been back home for over a week, trying to catch up on everything from getting my garden planted, to writing the Cranberry Report, to working on inventory for the June 20 opening of Winter’s Work at the Islesford Dock, to catching up with people as they return for the summer on Little Cranberry Island, to attending the 8th grade graduation of the Ashley Bryan School. Here’s the cake my sister-in-law, Karen, made for the graduates:
June is a busy busy month and I haven’t taken much time to write about it. I hope to be more regular with the blog posts, but who knows? One thing we all know on the island: This frantic summer pace is just getting started. We know we won’t slow down again until halfway through September, and there is no possible way to “do it all.”
I try to remember something I heard a wise woman say at a meeting a few years ago. “My life is so very busy lately. It is full of really good things.”
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Rondelle challenge reveal!
A few weeks ago, readers of Sue Kennedy’s blog were offered a chance to participate in her enameled rondelle bead challenge. She randomly drew 5 names from the list of respondents and guess who was one of the ones to be chosen? Sue sent beads to each of us and we had about 3 weeks to come up with a design.
This is my first blog hop and challenge. I thought it would be easier than it was. I thought about it a lot and then decided to make earrings. I’m surprised I didn’t wear out the enamel on the beads with all of my attempts to put something together and then take it apart when I changed my mind! I finally settled on making this mix of dangles to hang from the beads. The pattern on the beads is so delicate, I did not want to create anything that would cause a distraction by being too heavy, visually.
I hammered and drilled pieces of 20 gauge Argentium sterling for the silver dangles. I added tiny freshwater pearls and small labradorite beads at opposite ends of silver plated Beadalon. In the right light, the labradorite has a wink of blue that is close to the color of the enamel.
Please be sure to click on the links below to see the excellent work by the other challenge participants. (That is the “blog hop” part.) Thanks for the opportunity, Sue. This was fun!
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Tonight’s reveal…
Fresh pineapple pie with coconut crunch topping. One was a dessert for dinner tonight at Karen and Hugh’s. The other two are for tomorrow’s bake sale to benefit the Islesford Library. And I bet you thought I was revealing my project for Sue Kennedy’s rondelles challenge! That will be tomorrow morning, before the bake sale…
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Work headed to Alone Moose
My friends Sherry and Ivan Rasmussen are opening their gallery Alone Moose tomorrow at noon. This is their 37th season in Bar Harbor. They have one of the best collections of work I have ever seen. Not to be missed! When you go to Bar Harbor be sure to check out all of the changes going on on West Street as you head over to the gallery. My little beach rocks are in very good company at Alone Moose! 
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Copper beads
The results of more scratch form texture plates. I can’t wait to try some different patinas on these. But this has been one crazy week so far and it’s only half over.
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.
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First attempts at scratch foam texture plates
In March, my friend Holly sent me this link to Wanaree Tanner’s blog. I love learning about any technique for creating texture in metal clay and this idea from Wanaree is quick, clean, effective and inexpensive. If you are unfamiliar with her work, take some time to explore her site. You will be blown away by what she makes. I certainly am!
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.
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Barbara S Fernald Jewelry 