You can fool the fans - but not the players.... John Cage

Ideas to action and fruition

All the while I worked on the wedding decorations the bench sat idle but my mind was still mulling over some ideas. I did get into the studio a few times to try out some techniques and make some prototypes, but only now am I finding the time again to explore these ideas more completely.

 

Southern Charm clued me into a new way to suspend my sheets of brass while engraving and I love the simplicity and how well it works....

 

I wrapped a rectangle of styrofoam (recycled grocery store meat packaging) with masking tape, sticky side out and then pressed the brass on to the tape and put it upside down in the etching solution. The styrofoam floats and keeps the brass from sitting on the bottom of the container, making for better etching. Brilliant, simple and effective.

 

I'm then using the etched brass to make the end-pieces for these cowgirl cuffs, which I am so excited about. These are made with hair-on cowhide, but I'll also make some out of solid leather for a different look.

All weekend I've been sneaking down to the studio whenever I can to make these happen. My goal - in the etsy shop by Monday!

New Directions - no, not from "Glee"!

After finishing the last batch of charms I decided my next studio session would be devoted to trying out some new ideas. And so it was.

First, I had to try the circles again. I didn't much like the first batch I did and chalked it up to the learning curve. The next time I was in our local hardware store I picked up some 1/2  or 3/8 inch pipe to cut. First, it was much easier to get some thin cuts out of the smaller pipe, second, it made for a much more delicate charm once soldered to the base.

 

I ended up with these. MUCH better. I can't wait to finish these. And they have room to add dangly pearls and crystal beads.

There were two ideas I wanted to try before I forgot them, even if I only had time to do the most rudimentary prototype.

 

The first one I picked up from Stephanie Lee's Handbook of Elements class I just took, stamping into solder. I've determined that it requires just the right stamp, just the right amount of solder, and just the right amount of pressure. The cool thing is that you get a couple of trys when doing this, as you can heat up the solder once or twice before it develops a skin and is done.

 

I am quite excited about the possibilities with this technique and will be working with it some more over the weekend as long as I can squeeze out some studio time.

The third technique is still a work in progress, but has to do with more stamping, this time using metal letter and number stamps to make lighter pendants and tiny charms that can be worn alone or added to a larger assemblage of elements.

Now that I have a little bit of stock it is fun to have the freedom to experiment with some other ideas - and that's the way Ride & Shine will grow into a truly unique company. Next, more silver wrapping and my first round of cowgirl belt buckles!

Thursday post - random things

There are times in a blogger's life when she gets up, logs on, and wonders what to say. What on earth could I say this morning that might be slightly interesting to others?

It must bee the 'tween time - the season we're in. The glorious leaves are gone, leaving limp, lifeless hangers-on on the trees. There's a dusting of snow on the mountains but not much happening down below. It hasn't been cold enough to freeze the ponds for ice-skating. 'Tween time.

 

I'm struggling to find time in the studio since there is so much to be done for the wedding. This week I've been on the phone with the cupcake lady, one of my favorite caterers sent me some menu choices for our pre-wedding soire at the house, we went looking at a house we probably can't qualify for, and just the thought of moving before the wedding blew my mind.

 

I'm teaching a little class this afternoon on how to make felt wreaths, so I've been cutting up some of my sweater stash. There haven't been many wool sweaters this fall in the thrift stores and I'm working from last year's felted stack. For my sample I'm choosing cream, brown and this lovely sage green - and this morning I'll have to rip up some fabric into ribbon to take along for embellishment.

 

It is time to start thinking of holiday baking and how to squeeze that in. Thanksgiving is just a week away and you know what that means - Christmas is right around the corner. Typing that just struck a panic note in my chest.

The invitations have been on my mind - I have a plan now but no paper or envelopes. Thanks to Lori's suggestion I'm going to sew the invitations on to the prints - and perhaps I should just go online and order some today. Get it done.

It's just too much.

You all have a great day, I'm going to sign off and start freaking out.

What weekend?

I admit it - I am spoiled. I work at home, I live in a beautiful place, and I am steadily working my way towards goals I have dreamed of. There is a studio filled with materials and tools downstairs, dogs lounging around under my computer desk, and horses just down the road. So every day is practically a weekend, right?

Well, I wish it felt that way, but the days fly by and there is always something that needs to get done that doesn't get done, the house always has piles of projects and "to-do"s, and I wonder how did I ever manage to work outside the house? And when work calls me away from home... it is probably actually a good thing. I tend to be a hermit otherwise.

This past weekend was truncated by work - good work, but work nonetheless. JC came home and was on his own mission to organize everything he brought home before returning to his winter job today, this morning. Then there was the time change. Did we even have a weekend?

 

I'm beginning to work in more of a production mode, and it is working pretty well with the way metalwork has to fit into all the other obligations of the day. I started out by cutting many rectangles and squares of brass, not just a few.

 

I took all those out to the bench grinder for one session of smoothing corners and edges. Working this way allows me to get into a "zone" of concentration and learn how to better my techniques as I'm working. It doesn't calm my impatience the way making just a few at a time does, but I think as this progresses there will always be materials in various stages of completion so that I get the satisfaction of the finished product.

It is easier to fit the work into my day this way, too. It is more focused. If I have a couple of hours to work there is a pile of material to work with. I don't have so much opportunity to spin - wondering where to start.

 

My work on Saturday took me to the "big" city of Ridgecrest, which sports a couple of big box stores including Home Depot. I went in looking for brass strips and came out with a length of copper pipe and a new pipe cutter. We'd learned how to make round bezels in one of Stephanie's classes but I hadn't yet incorporated it into my own work.

JC helped me cut rings from pipe - it isn't as easy to cut nice thin ones as it looked when Stephanie did it! And I developed blisters from turning the pipe and the cutter - agh! Physical labor.

 

I carved out a little time last evening to work with circles, again setting off the smoke alarm numerous times despite having cross-flow ventilation with two windows open AND the ceiling fan on.

 

But I am liking the round bezels with the ball chain accent!

The time change does one big thing for me - it gives me longer evenings inside. Summer it is so hard to get in early since evenings are the most beautiful time to ride and be outside but winter, winter is all about long evenings, music, fires in the woodstove, dinners with JC, and studio time.

In keeping with more of a production mode mentality I finished off the work session with prepping some pearls for adding later. Copper pearls with sterling silver wire... beautiful...

 

I still don't know where the weekend went but here it is Monday and work, responsibilities, routine, chores - all are calling with a mighty voice. At least I am up early.

A flame, a little brass and copper... bezel and book-making

I am busy this week juggling work, a stack of projects, a monthly commitment, and a one-week online class taught by Stephanie Lee. The class is about non-traditional book-making using soldered metal (brass or nickel) for the covers and creating pages from plaster and binding them all together into thick, palm-sized treasures. I try not to miss an opportunity to take a class from Stephanie as she is a favorite artist and a fabulous instructor. Last year she started offering classes online and although live is always better there is nothing like the flexibility of an video based class that you can view and work on whenever it fits your schedule.

You just never know what you'll learn in a class that will contribute to your own art - it might be the whole kit and kaboodle, or it might just be one or two elements. I am interested in these books, of course, being the journal fanatic and handmade book enthusiast that I am, but I am also interested in where I might apply it to the jewelry I'm making and how it can improve my soldering, spur my creativity, and push me off into new directions.

 

This has kept me up too late a few nights this week already - because night time is the only free time. I pay for it in the mornings, but it is oh, so great when the music is going and I am in my studio feeling in the creative groove. Makes me think back to college days when I would spend hours in my painting nook in the big school studio.

 

These are the two book covers I've started - cut, smoothed, flooded with solder and bezels attached. I've also dragged out bits of old jewelry from the stash to experiment with.

 

This one was very straightforward. I incorporated an old earring of sterling silver.

 

This one was more interesting. The butterfly had abalone shell in the wings and when I went to imbed it into the solder the abalone burned, smelled awful, and then just flaked out. Which was okay with me as I like the empty wings better anyway. I haven't started my plaster pages yet, since we are going through a bit of a cold snap right now and have had a cold north wind blowing the last two days, but will as soon as it warms up a tad.

 

While I'm at the bench it seems a shame not to be creating new work of my own, and I wanted to work with ball chain on these bezels.

 

It is more of a challenge than I thought it would be and I set off the smoke detector more than once! But I love the look of the ball chain around the bezels.

 

These are far from finished but already I can see that adding the ball chain will give the whole piece more shine. I can't wait to patina, collage, drill, resin, and hang pearls, crystal beads and bits of frayed silk from these...

 

I just love what I am doing these days. These will be joining the others in my etsy shop before too long.

Studio time! When "Ride & Shine" takes off.

It is closing in on a year since I finally got the hang of making bezels with a butane torch and some solder and brass without completely cooking the metal... and my skill level has come right  along (although there are plenty more hours to put in). The last batch, the batch I took to Art & Soul, was well received and I'm ready to dive into making and selling handbag charms and pendants. I've even got some new ideas I'm ready to develop.

 

This holiday season I'll be setting up shop at some shows and developing more of a web presence. Etsy is a great marketplace but it is also a crowded marketplace and I'm not sure how to break through the noise. Having a website of one's own is probably the way to go, especially if ordering right from the website is an option.

 

We spent quite a lot of time in Portland talking small business - how to keep your focus, how to find your market, how to manage your time- and Southern Charm gave me lots of good, solid advice. On the plane home I played with words, brainstorming a better name for my line, and came up with "Ride & Shine" with the tagline "Jewelry for your inner cowgirl".

I'm keeping the western theme, which happily can include initials, and will certainly do custom orders.

 

And I'm so excited to have the beginnings of a "look" to my virtual and physical shops - leather, old traincases and suitcases, bits of vintage ribbon, pearls and crystals.

Southern Charm and I are both signed up for Stephanie Lee's Handbook of Elements online course starting next week and she will be loading us up with more techniques and inspiration that will only add to "Ride & Shine".  

If you are reading this and you want something special for the holidays - let me know and I'll happily pull out the torch and the resin and the wire and get to it.

Prelude to a weekend (and still working on the "other" thing)

Not taking too long to get that "other" thing rolling has been on my mind - so as I continue to work and take care of daily life stuff, I'm conscious of not wasting time and transitioning into whatever that turns out to be. Yesterday was a fine example of juggling the many demands of a day that felt productive and satisfying.

Sitting at the computer for 4 hours instead of 8 is easier on my shoulders and hands (and I am SURE just healthier in general) and I am able to be more productive, focused. Never in my life have I had a job that required so much sedentary time and despite the timer, despite the ball chair, despite all the efforts to mitigate the effects of sitting for 8 or more hours - I could feel my arteries hardening, my body degenerating. People need to MOVE!

It was a very domestic, wonderful morning. I even squeezed in a trip to the thrift store after our vet appointment.

 

This is part of my haul - Bausche pottery and a couple of nice, large, heavy beer or ice tea glasses. I've never seen Bausche pottery but bought what was there because these are great platters in perfect condition, and I like the robin's egg blue of the cups and saucers.

 

Once home I did a litle research on them and found out that Bauer and Bausche are almost synonomous in mid-century California pottery.

 

This speckled glaze is the "Al Fresca" line and I like the spots on the bottom where the pieces rested on the kiln supports... I like it all, really. I'd have a whole set of this if I could find it. Especially the blue.

 

It always makes me wonder when just a few pieces show up - what happened to the rest? Most likely this was someone's set at one time - did it break piece by piece? Is there another box in the back of the thrift store with the rest? Usually I have to be content with just the few random pieces that I find. And somehow integrate them into the rest of my mis-matched china / pottery collection.

And finally, in the heat of the day, I got into the studio for awhile.

 

Found images for the most recent charms and now they are ready for resin...

 

Made this beautiful pendant out of sterling wire and pearls....

 

And worked on my scrapbook of jewelry inspiration... when I'm in the studio and I just don't know what to make it'll be something I can turn to for a spark.

All in all, a very promising start to the weekend.

No excuses now

I had this post almost finished when Firefox suddenly crashed. And I lost it all. So it might be better this time around or it might not... sometimes when you are in the groove and in the moment it is hard to recapture one's thoughts.

Here goes....

 

I have no excuses for not being in the studio now. After months of thinking, waffling, discussing, procrastinating.... I am down to half-time at my full-time job. Still teaching, but at least 20 hours a week just appeared. And the studio waits patiently.

 

Bezels already made, just waiting to be filled with collages and resin...

 

The small and mighty butane torch waiting to melt metal...

 

This beloved gift containing western and cowgirl elements to incorporate into new pieces...

 

Pearls, ribbons, bits of rusty metal, beads, chain, silver, brass and copper...

 

The possibilities are endless and I can't wait to get into it.

But first, I ride, because I also have a beautiful mare ready and waiting for attention and a steadfast gelding that patiently endured summer while I spun in circles around my computer. Priorities, please.

Time to straighten those priorities out and also motivation to make the jewelry work as a business - a new beginning to the making part.

Choo Choo Swap Meet just isn't the same without a friend....

It has been our habit for a few years now, meeting for coffee and then meandering through our local bi-annual swap meet fundraiser for the Laws Railroad Museum. Once on awhile one of us will miss it and I don't know how it is for KA, but for me, it just isn't as much fun. I still go, but I miss the coffee and the conversation and the looking at stuff together. Yesterday I was in and out of that place in two hours - very focused and scanning the booths instead of really going in and investigating. I found a couple of good take-homes but I hope the next time it rolls around we're back to coffee and shopping together. It's really just a good excuse to make a morning of it.

 

I know, I KNOW! I know I just bought those Mason jars last weekend for our wedding, but I couldn't pass this one up. Only $3 and this lovely blue. And I passed on, but probably should've bought, a large, blue glass insulator. It was on the first row, though, and truthfully, I didn't want to haul it around. It was heavy and it was ten bucks. So I just walked away.

Not a lot of cowgirl stuff or horse tack this year and I was thinking how a cowgirl, western focused booth / shop would do well around here. Especially if it had an online presence as well. I was on the same circuit and pace as another couple of women and I could tell that one of them had similar taste as me - our eyes would light upon the same merchandise and she was spending... she could have been my best customer in my imaginary shop. This has been an idea floating around for awhile now and while I don't think I'll ever open a storefront I could see on online store and also a corner of the resort store - Cowgirl Corner. An eclectic mixture of things that no self-respecting cowgirl would want to pass up.

These were too blue to pass up. I'm not sure what I'll do with them but it will probably involve working them into another piece. They are just very pretty and I love that shade of blue. Like ice, like snow, like the sky, like a mountain bluebird.

 

And a frame - I thought I found the perfect frame for our thrift store, Andrew Wyeth inspired painting. Alas, I got it home and it is just a little bit too big.

 

I've got it in the frame and on the wall but you can see the gap at the top and I am racking my brain for how to fill that gap.... any ideas out there? A thin piece of wood? Top or bottom? Or just keep looking? I do like that I have the painting on the wall now.

I seem to be noticing trailers more these days, and it could be because we had a Holiday Rambler parked on our front lawn all winter, but I am loving what people are doing with vintage trailers now. All kinds of repurposing going on.

 

This is a vendor's trailer and they not only have the cute trailer but they have a vintage ice chest and other period accessories set up outside and they have developed catchy names for their products. I bought a $5 lemonade from them just cause they were so darn cute and I want them to make it. And the lemonade was actually very good and quite large. Lasted me most of the day. I felt so American nursing a 32 oz. drink. The Magpie Cafe could have morphed into something like this - nothing like hindsight to make one a wealthy and wise business person! These ladies will be at Mule Days as well and I'll probably buy another $5 lemonade from them... and I hope their business makes it.

Another idea I'm stealing immediately is captured on a very blurry iphone photo I took off of Smokin's back that I won't torture you with here (I'll try to get back and take a decent photo) but will translate very well to the resort. Paint the employee trailers. We passed by the back of a row of houses on our ride two nights ago and in one of them was a trailer repurposed into a guest house. It was a smallish older trailer, like a Prowler - not an Airstream (which, of course, needs no introduction or changes beyond restoration), and the owner had painted it a medium green with a darker green stripe going around the middle. He or she had built a wooden deck around it and had two old motel chairs sitting out front. Adorable.

I've been racking my brain about how to fix up our collection of employee housing trailers up at the resort and this is it. Small decks, gallons of paint. Gut them and lay the flooring that we used in the HR. Cute cute cute. Can't wait to get up there and get busy.

And this morning I'm going back up to our walking meadow with my Canon to take photos of the wild iris in bloom. I went nuts with the iphone camera yesterday but the quality of those photos doesn't do it justice and the light was from the west - I think a morning light on all those Blue Flag iris with the snow-capped Sierra in the background will be lovely. Just to show you what I mean, though.....

 

 

And not only iris, but blue-eyed grass, wild roses, flowers I don't know the names of... the meadow is exploding into bloom.

Spring is giving us a wild ride

In the Sierra we are always talking about the weather. And the weather almost always gives us something to talk about. Oh, sure, there are the dog days of summer but that lasts what, about 3 weeks? This winter has given us plenty of fodder, with over 600 inches of snow, but spring is now taking a stab at show-stealing with 60 mph winds, more snow, babies and green everywhere and oh, yes, let's throw in more WIND!

So you go looking for calm in the storm. And sometimes you have to purchase it.

 

These came from Vons, they were having a special on glads and this color was so gorgeous I didn't think twice. I cleaned up the dining room, took all the mail and the stacked magazines and notepads and pens off the dining room table, stripped the placemats and napkins and put these up. Ahhhhh.

 

So now there is a little oasis in my house. A calm spot out of the wind.

 

It was a good weekend overall - things didn't go exactly as I had planned but good things came in and took the place of the original plans. The patio got prepped for summer, the plants were planted, the place is ready for visitors. Grading was accomplished (well, some anyway). A horse was ridden (how we found that window of windlessness I'll never know). And I opened an etsy shop...

 

So that I might sell the things I make. And when things sell, that will spur me on to making more things and I can see that this may lead in a very good direction. Because you have to keep moving when you are in the creating business - you have to keep your hands on the tools, no matter what tools you use, and you have to keep your mind in the groove. Working in fits and starts means that you are continually starting over - back three steps and then "oh, yeah, THIS is where I was going".

 

Opening a shop and putting things up for sale is huge for me. I'm a maker not a seller and the promotion gene is not in me. I have to work at it. But there are a lot of things I want to make and they can't all be sitting around in my studio. They need to go live with people and provide me with the means to buy more supplies so that more things can be made and where ever this is going it goes. And provide people with something they like to have in hand. I have my favorite things and I'd like to think that I can make things that other people would like to have as their favorite things. We'll see.

Anyway, here is is: Coyote&Magpie Studio

I have lots of work to do on the shop - I needed a banner so I made one up really quickly but I'd like to refine it. I will be working on another round of charms this weekend - initials. I will be working on some silver link bracelets inspired by Jil Platner.

The wind is howling outside and the dogs really need a walk. I'm going to take one last look at this

 

jam on a hat, and get outside.