Show Musings

Today isn't my typical clean house and laundry day as that is normally tomorrow but Summertime is a busy time for us and on Thursday we leave again for yet another Gem and Mineral Show. We were at Tenino, WA last weekend and had a wonderful time. I demonstrated soldering copper and hubby did gem trees. Gem Trees is always a big draw and on Sunday I abandoned my copper for teaching tree design along with him. Sometimes we have shows where kids or even adults want to learn and some just look, this one was quite busy with 2 students on Saturday and 5 on Sunday. It was just a little bit more on Sunday than what hubby is used to dealing with. Teaching always gives us a sense of satisfaction and of passing along the knowledge that someone else so generously gave us. We have found that at these shows we teach for free if we have the time, these free teachings usually get paid back to us 10 fold of which we are so grateful. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of us teaching but I did get a pic (with my phone) of hubby at the table.

Here is another demonstrator, Robin, who was showing how to carve soapstone.

I can appreciate what she does as carving one piece of stone takes her about 4 times as long to finish as one of my gem trees or several pieces of jewelry. She worked on this fish all weekend.

Here are a few copper pieces I finished on Saturday. The mix of circles will be a bubble pendant after I construct the bail. As some of you know I usually work with fusing fine silver but with the price of silver I really didn't want to just sit and play so switched to soldering the copper. A bit messier with the flux, solder and pickle that you have to lug around but I'm able to create much the same styles with the wire.

I wish I could say this was a relaxing week but yes, we are once again getting ready for another show. This coming weekend is the Northwest Federation Gem and Mineral Show in Chehalis, WA at the Lewis County Fairgrounds. This is a new venue for the show and hopefully one that will be successful for the sponsoring club. I still haven't decided if I want to demonstrate just trees with hubby or take my copper along also. I may e-mail the organizer to see what they think. I'm sure the more different types of hobby related crafts the better.

I think after this show we will be finished for the Summer before the couple of shows we have scheduled for the Fall start up. Maybe a few weeks breather.

I do feel that anyone that donates their time to demonstrate or teach for free at any show deserves to be congratulated on your selfless generosity. I know of several wonderful craftspeople that would not be so willing which is a shame to keep all that knowledge to yourself and not share with the world. I do know that a lot of us paid for classes to learn what we know and others are self taught but others are not so fortunate. Thanks to Tony, Kari, Robin, Chuck, Paul and Sandy for so taking time out of your busy life to share a weekend of knowledge with so many.

If you want to get out and do something a bit different this weekend, come to Chehalis at the Lewis County Fairgrounds, Friday-Sunday. You'll find us at one of the demonstrator tables.

A Little Bit More

Have you ever wanted just a little bit more or needed a little bit more? More time, more money, more stuff, more food, more dogs, more family...okay maybe not more family, especially with the holiday and all those parties behind us. Hopefully everyone had a great holiday and didn't shoot off a finger or a hand with the fireworks. I do know that the dogs are really glad the holiday is over along with all those fireworks. They aren't big fans.

I did get a chance to make a few new jewelry items this week but I really needed to make a little bit more. I have gem trees for the gallery in Oregon to complete and get mailed, some special orders and ArtCharms that are due to be mailed on Monday.

The first project was a wedding necklace for my niece who is getting married next Saturday. It looks like a double strand but they are single strands that you put together in the back with an "S" clasp. I added an extension to the pearl necklace so that it would be a little bit longer but you can wear them the same length together or separate. I thought she might get more use out of a little bit more versatile piece.

This next piece I made using vintage typewriter keys. The keys are glued on to a bracelet with disk blanks. I've tried it on but haven't worn it anywhere yet but am looking forward to wearing it.

This last piece I was playing around with copper wire and copper solder which I had never used before and created the double "s" stations on the side. Added a bit of copper chain and there you go.

Well that's what I've been up to. I do have some ArtCharms I'm working on so hopefully I can get them photographed and up tomorrow so you can see some of the fun things I create also.