Making Big Metal Flowers

Making Big Metal Flowers

Well, I have been on a flower binge lately, making big showy ones.  The inspiration to make flowers is always with me as plants are some of my favorite things.  I am endlessly fascinated by the shape, color and texture of flowers and leaves and my own attempts to create metal versions are pretty pale in comparison to what Mother Nature comes up with.  Nonetheless... My original inspiration was from a Craftcast class by Barbara Becker Simon.  It is called "Creating a BIG toggle in Metal Clay with Barbara Becker Simon" and is really wonderful--large, well-done with attention to detail and very stylized.  I took some of her concepts, such as thickening the edges of the form and adding carving and came ip with this copper clay poppy.  I really love it and the addition of the coral, green pearl and sparkly Swarovski crystal makes it really dramatic.  I had to go out and find some clothing to go with it and I wore it to the Governor's Arts Awards dinner in February.


This one wasn't a toggle, I wanted to create an inset toggle but it went to wonky so it is just hooked on the back.  So...I made another with the toggle design...

Then I wanted to make something with Hadar's Pearl Gray Steel pieces so I made a Moth Orchid...I also made a wonderful orchid with Fast Fire Bronze that came out with a fantastic patina, as well as several other larger imaginative flowers, but more on those at a later time.  

Back from a Great PMC Class in Jackson Hole

I got back yesterday from a great PMC class in Jackson Hole at the Art Association. Jackson is about 3 hours away from home (Lander, WY) nestled in the beautiful Teton Mountain Range. The fall colors were wonderful, the mountains snow packed and gorgeous and the weather fabulous (none of which I actually took a picture of). I didn't even get a picture of the giant herd of buffalo I drove through!

The class was small and instead of going into my usual 4 or 5 wrote silver clay projects we did a basic textured piece to get the feel of the material and then everyone pursued a project that they were interested in.

Clint made a great cuff bracelet with decoration in the Fibonacci series!, Robin created silver coinage from her antique coins to enhance her handmade chains, Juniper created gift pieces for all her friend's children, as well as a great ring and set of earrings for herself. Sindy made earrings and pendants to enhance her beaded jewelry that she sells at craft fairs throughout the region and Jennifer made wonderful pendants and earrings that she will be gifting to friends and family for the Holidays, if she can wait that long!

Check out my Flikr site for all the photos I took during the class.

Also, don't forget that I will be offering the advanced class on Nov. 4-6.

Riverfest 2011

Riverfest, our local art in the park event was Saturday. We had a great time and visited with a lot of people and sold a decent amount of jewelry ( sold the necklace on the left, a Labradorite on Hollyhock leaf). My son Sam and his band played a set and they were very good. The event was a little bittersweet for me since I got the event going, along with Nancy Ebbert on the music side and it is getting better and bigger. This was the third year and it will soon become a treasured institution in Lander if the energy can be maintained.

The reports of sales were a bit mixed. I think that the government playing chicken on the brink of default may have had some impact on sales. Also, summer we buy for ourselves, not for others which accounts for the lowered sales compared to the Art in the Afternoon Christmas sale. Also, we must admit that Lander is a small town. 7000 people is not a large basis. We are still working to develop an appreciation for the arts within a larger slice of the population. We do seem to have an inordinate amount of people making art though and that is a wonderful part of our town.

The greenhouse is going great guns (update: installed in early June) with the cukes coming on strong and maybe another week for the tomatoes. Next year we will get the tomatoes in earlier and see what we can do for early crops. Sales have been good in the first two Farmer's Markets with greens, basil and bouquets.