I've got a few minutes before I rush off to the next thing, so I thought I'd post a little about the Symposium. I had a really great time this year. Partially because I didn't have to do any of the work, but mainly because there were more hands on activities as well as more presenters over all. I think that we all learned at last year's symposium that the workshops we had were just
too full. By adding more workshops, each workshop had a more reasonable number of people in it so you could see more and do more.
One of my favorites was
Amy Tavern's workshop on just making something, anything (well, a piece of jewelry) out of the materials you have on hand. She provided us with leather, fabric, cardboard, staples, tape, string and a few other things and told us to get to work. We had an hour to make a piece of jewelry.
These are some photos of one of my pieces (courtesy of Amy). I knew as soon as I saw the slick, glossy paper that I wanted to use some of that! I'd had a book technique that I'd been wanting to try rolling around in my head, so I started with that and just kept folding. The overall shape I came up with is a little too similar to the shapes that Amy uses for me to feel comfortable with it, so I tried to make it more my own through the mark making.
I also really enjoyed some of the conversations that came out of this exercise and hearing Amy talk about her work habits. She talks about how easy it is to get distracted, which I can totally identify with. Amy said that she'll tell her self to just go work for an hour, go sit at the bench for an hour and then she can go do something else if things aren't working out. I found myself doing something similar, yet opposite. If I just work on this job application for an hour, I can go play in the studio.
The recurring theme that I kept seeing pop up at this symposium was making something everyday. Renee Zettle-Sterling spoke about it in her keynote lecture, and Amy discussed it in her workshop. I've heard more than one person, post-symposium, say that they were going to implement this practice into their own lives. I'd been thinking about trying to make a book a day, once I'm back at Linda's where I can spread out, but maybe I'll open it up to just make something, one thing every single day.
After a slow start, it was a pretty productive week for making. The first few days were devoted to making collage examples for my Art Appreciation class, but I did manage to finally get my accordion book content sorted out. I'm pretty happy with my final results. By Thursday afternoon, I found myself with no pressing deadlines, so I took time to make some pins (not pictured) and start some pieces to ultimately sell at the Trunk Show at SNAG this spring. 
Saturday, which seems to have replaced Friday as my hard core studio day, was super productive. I made several charms and finished several pairs of Mica earrings. I fired up the kiln and spent some time enameling, which I hadn't done in months. After a few more found object brooches, I even got some time to just relax and watch a movie.
Gearing up for another jam packed week! I'll be subbing metals classes for my dear friend Autumn Brown, while she's rockin' it out at the Yuma Symposium!
Well, it was another crazy week, and another one is coming up, but I did manage to make everyday this week. Still playing with the bottle caps, I made this charm yesterday. I'm fairly happy with this one, but I'd like to buy an antique tin to cut up and use before I put this whole tin as a material thing to bed.
I made a bunch of these found object brooches this week, mostly because they're quick, and come together in a few minutes. I like making these and I'm considering for using them for the pin swap at the SNAG conference. 
I also made a couple books this week, including an X book with pockets out of an old map. This was trickier than I expected, since the structure wanted to follow the existing creases in the map, and not the creases I'd made. The creases are also only 3/8 of an inch apart, so I kept confusing which was which. It took me a couple days to complete the blue book, and I started an altered book, which I now can't find. I'm having trouble coming up with the content for the simple accordion book. I know the theme I want to use, but I'm not sure about the imagery.
Well, lots to do as usual! Happy weekend!
Wednesday was the deadline for Hot Under the Collar, and I got COMPLETELY swamped with emails and entries. I'm still going through them. I did manage to make some sunprints (not pictured here). Thursday and Friday. . . . I fell off the wagon. Already. I didn't make anything either day. Work at the museum and dealing with the show just crowded everything else out. I've decided not to beat myself up over it, and just keep trying.
So yesterday I was off and after a few errands in the morning, I spent most of the day in the studio, doing both metals and book stuff. Many of my friends use tin in their work and after watching Marlene True's workshop at the ECU Symposium, I'd been wanting to try my hand at the material myself. After all, I've been saving all these bottle caps. So I made two bottle cap charms, start to finish yesterday. While I like the look of tin in other people's work, I doubt I'll ever be part of that club. I also threw together two more charms out of stuff I had laying around the bench. You can find all of these charms for sale in my Etsy shop.
The other night I made a new sketchbook with the help of my friend Lisa Beth. She taught me how to put a cover from an existing book on a prepared text block of blank pages. I picked up this old Jesus book at the my favorite antique/junk store, and knew it would be just perfect for a sketchbook for my next body of work. I tend to get a little sloppy with the glue no matter how hard I try, and I glued in the end pages after the fact, when I know that there's a more proper way to do it. But I'm pleased just the same. The pages are watercolor color paper and some old bad prints, so the book looks really thick but I'm already worried about not having enough room. I suppose I can always make another one.
