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.

New Jewelry .... Yea

Finally for the past couple of days I have made some new jewelry pieces. Most of these will be listed for sale soon on my ArtFire studio but a couple of the earrings are for a special order. I've been playing with my hobbies for so long that I decided it was time to do a re-do in my studio of the jewelry that's for sale.

These first two necklaces are already for sale. Lots of chain and crystals what could be better.

These pieces are made of either sterling silver or fine silver. I really hate to use my supply of silver on pieces that people may or may not like since it is so expensive. I guess the important thing is that I like them. The Bubble pendant necklaces are my favorite. I was just playing around with some extra links and decided to solder them together in a random pattern. They look really cool on.

I'll be making a few more new pieces tomorrow so we shall see what special things I come up with.

What Would We Do Without Hobbies?

I don't know about you but my craft room is overflowing with stuff. I organize and put things away just to get it all back out again. I have a wonderful table that is quite large for the very small room (we put it together in the room) and I seem to only have about 12" of space to work in. I guess when I had the smaller table I had even less working space but really. I do have a ton of hobbies stored in there (room is only 7x9) from all but business jewelry making stuff to my sewing machine, plastic totes of fabric, sewing notions, gem trees and supplies, ATC stuff, rubber stamps, altered art, crochet books and yarns, beads, beads and more beads along with torches, firing bricks, hammers and all those metal working tools. When I think about all I have in that small little room, I'm kind of amazed I have any room to work at all.

I was hosting an art charm swap with a 4th of July theme and those all got mailed this morning so I was able to organize it a bit more. Here are the few jewelry pieces I made out of my stash of charms. I'm sure I will wear the earrings and necklace more than the bracelet but I like the look of the bracelet and after the holiday will hang it on the wall with one other one.

I also started working on some ATC's for a swap with the Red Lead Yahoo group, I haven't swapped with them before and am looking forward to it. I love ATC's as they are little works of art that you can store in a book if you don't want them out. Most of mine I keep in a sports card collectible sleeve in a binder as they are the same size as the baseball or football cards. These are the ones I finished up today.

Now to go and clean up my mess yet again. Maybe this time I'll actually put the boxes away in the cupboard where they are supposed to be versus on the floor.

I guess one of these days I'll have to post some of my jewelry creations with you. I do have some special orders to work on so I better get crack'n.

Hope everyone is having a fantastic week.

What's Up With These Bags?

Today I made a bunch of these little bags. It seems that every time I make some I end up making a ton. These are special bags which I can't tell you why as some people may be reading this blog and I really want it to be a surprise. Oh wait, if I wanted it to be a surprise I shouldn't have posted it right? Probably, but I wanted to post it anyway.

All of the fabric I used commemorate an upcoming holiday. Can you guess which one? Man, was it that obvious. Well hopefully the receivers will like them.

This week is just flying by. We have our contractor here to finish up some of the remodeling and handyman fix it jobs this week and boy is the varnish to the wood floor making my sinuses act up. I'm glad I took the dogs to grandpas house for the day. I can just imagine little doggie varnish footprints all over the house....not going to happen let alone what the fumes would do to their sensitive noses. There is only three places where he put varnish on the floors today but that's enough to smell up the whole house. I did open the windows and doors and turn off the heater...yes, I did say heater and yes, I do know it is June but it is still chilly here. I'm not sure Spring is going to come let alone Summer.

Well time to put a sweatshirt on and plan dinner. Humm, eating out is sounding like a really good idea.

Fun Day Today

Each month I try to schedule a gem tree class at Shipwreck Beads in Lacey, WA. Today was the class. I had 7 students all ready to learn the mystic of twisting together wire to create a tree. What fun, but I always have fun teaching and sharing the hobby. Here are a few picture of my students, their finished trees or working on their trees.

Everyone finished their tree and either glued it to a rock or piece of wood. Some great trees were created today and to look at them you wouldn't know that this was their first gem tree.

If you are interested in taking a gem tree class, the next one I have scheduled is July 2nd. I'll be teaching the Pine Tree style. Here is the link. Pine Tree Class.

I'm still working on my art charms for the Patriotic charm swap but I've painted them with acrylic paint on both sides, resin on one side and spray poly on the other. I still have yet to drill holes in them and then add the jump rings. Since I'm hosting this one I wanted to make something special to send back to the charm participants and I'm leaning towards a small drawstring bag made out of Patriotic fabric that could be used to store charms or another piece of jewelry. I should have them all finished by Monday so I'll post a final picture then.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. Tomorrow we are off to mom's for dinner so I'll probably bake a pie to take with us. Humm, I think that means ice cream too. Yummy.