American Craft Council Show - Wonderful!!

Wow!!  So much beautiful stuff to be seen & appreciated!!  The images below belong to the artists mentioned, please go see their web sites (links provided)… this is not my work.

My Favorite: Jennifer McCurdy  - Thrown Porcelain, these images are terrible… please follow the link to her site!!

Coral Nest

Magritte's Flower

Jungle Leaf Flower

One that caught Jeff's attention, and I loved his work as well: James Borden, TimeShapes - large scale beautiful clockwork pieces (yes they move).  Please check out his site.

Intriguing Jewelry: Steve Pflipsen Studio - a husband & wive team create beautiful pieces!!

In The Works

This is a piece of jewelry I was working on today in class, it will eventually be a pendant.


The setting is a mix of Sterling Silver and Fine Silver, and the stone is Lapis Lazuli.

Still Rough & Incomplete

I've got the bezel created, and the decorative wire pieces made (3 out of 4 soldered on at this point).

Stone sitting on top to give an idea what it will look like.

I still need to figure out how to hang this, I may just make a simple decorative wire piece for this purpose. 


The classes are on hiatus for Summer, but there may be an opportunity to me to get in the studio at some point to finish this…

Daniel's other 3 friends...

Daniel didn't just have friends that survived the fiery furnace, he had some other friends as well… friends of the feline persuasion… that's right, the Lions, the ones that didn't eat him… Ok, to the purists I'll say "I know the lions weren't his friends, not sweet & happy felines"… But kids will appreciate these happy little lions, smiling because they're not hungry & have someone nice like Daniel to pet them…

I was asked to come up with a small, portable, inexpensive, and easy to assemble craft project… a craft that would be given to orphans in Ukraine… The group that's traveling over is planning on doing skits of Daniel & the Lion's Den for a few orphanages, and wanted small gifts to be given to the children… this is what I came up with…

I started with some simple & inexpensive items: felt, non-toxic glue, fabric paint, google-eyes…  Grabbed a few things I had lying around the house: scissors, sharpie, cookie cutter, lids, toothpicks… 


I picked some bright colors for the first lion, a purple body, green mane, orange eyes…

I got the body shape from the oval shaped lid, the mane shape from the cookie cutter, and the face & belly shape from the small round lid.  I used the sharpie to trace the shapes, then cut them out… a little glue, some fabric paint, and voila!!


For the second lion I picked colors that are popular in Ukraine (from their flag), a bright blue body & yellow mane, and then I gave it green eyes.

For the final lion I decided to stick with more traditional colors, a brown body & orange mane, and I gave him blue eyes.

Struggling with this one...

I'm struggling with this piece… I've been working on it over the last couple weeks & its just been giving me lots of trouble… I'm trying new things, and combining different methods, and its fighting me!


I tried double-pressing, didn't get the result I wanted, so I tamped & then pressed - that's on the background for this piece (not shown) which is a "cloud" of silver with some bubbles… I still need to enamel that portion & attach a pin to the back - both things I have struggled with in previous attempts (sigh)…

Reminds me of a Picasso Trigger Fish

My latest struggle is getting the bezel to form to the stone, its Fine Silver and should bend/mold easily, but its taking all the strength I have to make any progress, and the enamel on the copper has cracked a bit in the process (though it still looks ok at this point)… Argh!!


Hopefully later this week I'll have a finished piece…  I sure hope its worth the effort when it gets completed… and I hope it doesn't end up being "the one that got away".


I think I'll go back to simpler settings for a while after this one!!  I need to keep reminding myself I'm just a novice & its all part of the learning process…