Enameled Bits

Some new enamels I made while at PV. Not sure what to do with them just yet.

Arrowmont Pt. 3

I know I'm ping ponging a bit, but I do want to show off some of the work I made at Arrowmont. My first workshop was Plastics and Resins for Jewelry with James Thurman. I have to admit, I'm not a plastics kinda gal. I tend to develop an uncomfortable skin rash as a result of working with most plastics. I also kinda hate the feelof most plastics. Give me stone or glass. But, I was interested in the mold making aspect of the workshop, and hoped to learn about some different resin products that I might not be allergic to.

We experimented with several casting resin, Rio's Colores system, two types of silicone mold materias, and made soon to be pateted Thurmanite; layers of paper held together by layers of industrial airplane resin. We went over the basics of how to turn our plastic components into jewelry, and some studio set up. We also had the best Tuesday night kareoke ever that week.

I, of course spent the week making plastic rocks from model train rock molds and molds I made from rocks I found. Which, as it turns out are pretty convincing as real rocks, leading me to believe that my only real talent is the parlor trick of making fake rocks out of anything. I also made some rosary components with air dry paper clay and the Colores System. I was pleasantly surprised that they turned out exactly how I wanted them too, seeing as I'd never worked with those two materials before. I'm pretty pleased with the finished rosary too, it's perfectly sparkly and oceanesque. Sorry I don't have a picture, but the white/turquoise pieces are the reject components.

I really enjoyed the Thurmanite also. The cutting/shaping isn't super fun, but I really like the results. I just wish I knew what to do with it.

James was super great also, super knowledgeable and super high energy. The class produced a TON of stuff. I probably produced the least, because I was concerned about my skin allergy (which did start to pop up by the end of the week). It was still a great workshop, even if I don't think plastics will ever be my thing (did I mention that I also hate being sticky?), but it's still a good set of skills to have.

Now what do I do with all those plastic rocks?

Italy- Day 14 Cinque Terra

Our second day in Cinque Terra, we took the train to Corniglia, and picked up our hike where we left off the day before. Linda had told us about a church in Vernazza, that was right near the water, so that was our goal. The hike started with 300+ stairs. Here's a view from part way up:
We had heard that the hike between the last two towns of Cinque Terra were a lot more difficult than the first between the first three towns. Some of the girls had hiked the entire thing the day before and said that it wasn't so bad. They were lying. I think this was the hardest hike I've ever done in my life. Not, that I've hiked a whole lot, but this was pretty brutal. Beautiful, but brutal.

A shot from the trail. We kept going up. And up and up and up!

One of the few level parts of the trail.

Going down wasn't much better than going up.

The path was narrow, with a steep drop off to one side, for most of the trail. I think it took us almost two hours to get to Vernazza.

Fianlly we made it to the church. It was right by the rocks and the water. It was small, and simple and beautiful. I really loved this church, I think it might be one of my favorites. While I was sitting in the pews, contemplating, an honest to god crazy man came in and started yelling at all of us in Italian. I'm not sure what he said, but I'm pretty sure he called us fascists.

After that was swimming on the rocks outside the church for awhile and then back to the beach in Monterosso for more swimming and rock collecting.

Italy- Day 13 Cinque Terra

Cinque Terra is made up of five small towns along the coast. You can either take the train from town to town, or you can hike the Via dell' Amore, between the towns. We got up early and took the train to the first town and began the hike. He's me in my "geologist" get up:

The rocks along the walk were amazing. To one side were these huge, layered cliffs, that would fold you in like a womb.

The streets and trails were so steep. We actually hiked straight up these terraces a little ways, looking for an olive oil museum, which we didn't find. But the views were spectacular.


Manarola (I think)

I couldn't get over the color of the water.

We made it to Corniglia, which is about in the middle of the whole long hike, then hopped a train back to Monterosso, for an afternoon on the beach.

Considering

Italian Spoils

I'm going to cut right to what I'm sure you're all just dying to know. What I brought home from Italy.

I know it doesn't look like much, but let me tell you, it sure felt like a lot of rocks when I was lugging my suitcase around. I also put all this stuff in one of the front pockets of my suitcase, which caused it to not stand up on it's own anymore.
The tan rocks are from Tuscany and the smooth gray ones are from the beach in Cinqueterra. Some of the smaller stuff to the left is from Murano and includes some glass chips.


I did buy some glass on the island of Murano even though it all looked the same and it all looked exactly like what you find in the states. Sorry to sound cynical, but Murano kind of broke my heart a little. The little bag is full of murini, which I'm going to use in my enameling.


I found a rock shop in San Gimignano where I bought the black tourmaline and the three araonites. I seriously love me some aragonite. The four smaller stones were given to me by a jeweler in Castalina in Tuscany. He had a bunch of damaged stones that he couldn't use and when he found out a few of us were jewelry students, he gave each of us a few.


Super score, we found a flea market in Florence! All the same kinds of stuff I look for here in the states, only in Italian and way cooler. Boxes of vintage postcards, lace, little cards of the saints, old photos and letters. It would have taken all afternoon to go through it all. I got postcards, saints, lace, a small scoop, a lace weaving bobbin, and a small jar.


When in Florence, buy scarves. Seriously, I think everyone in the group came home with at least one. Also, when you're me, of course you buy books. The Alchimia book was given to me when we visited the school and I bought the "I Journey With You Here" book because that tiny exhibition was one of my absolute favorite things I saw the whole trip.


I'm not Catholic, but some of my family is and I've always been kind of fascinated with rosaries and the Saints. So, of course more books, a rosary that came with a small booklet that explained the praying of the rosary, and a nicer rosary from the Vatican (blessed by the Pope!). The little Virgin Mary is made of tin and the black book is on the Scientific Instrument collection at the Bargello. It's in Italian, but the images are good.

Some go to Italy for the high fashion, some go for leather, some go for fabulous shoes. I, of course, went for the paper. Some of this is from Florence and some from Rome. I bought a lot of paper stuff.

And, or course, I bought a TON of postcards. I even managed to mail off a few, which made me pretty proud of myself. In many of the churches and museums, you weren't allowed to take photos, so postcards were a great alternative. Although, it's my personal opinion that if an institution isn't going to allow photos, it should have a postcard available of every piece in its collection. Really, I don't think this is too much to ask. Also, museums shoudn't have postcards of pieces they don't actually have in their collection.

I also bought a dress from the Street Market in Florence, some excellent food and snacks, bad lemoncello, slightly better lemoncello, and a few little things to stick in my sketchbook. My best deal was 20 postcards for one euro in Rome. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with my purchases and finds. Although I wish I would have had room for more rocks.

Meditations

So I went back to these.

I have 75 that I've made in the past few weeks. They kinda feel like cheating, because they work up fairly quick and it's something I can sit and do while I watch a movie, as opposed to actually being in the studio. At least that's what I've been telling people when I tell them how many I plan on making.

But looking at them all spread out and thinking about what went into making the forms, manipulating the forms, enameling the forms, collecting the rocks, sorting though all the componants, deciding what goes with what, coloring the string with pigments (in some cases), then wrapping and tying the elements together so that they stay together, it actually begins to feel like a lot! Looking at all 75 spread out on my floor, they almost feel like an accomplishment.

Looking at all 75 spread out on my floor makes me want at least twice this many for my thesis show.

Quote of the Week

"Everything begs with the silent rocks for you to be flung out like light."

~ Rumi Light Over the Plains

Process Shots of the Week

Ok, these are from last week. Most everyone was away last weekend, so I pretty much had the studio to myself for a couple days. I really love the people I get to work with everyday, but it was really nice to have a little totally focused uninterupted studio time. I made about 10 of those rock forms and am working on stitching some beach stones in fabric to go with them.

The little book I started in my book arts class last week and stitched together last night. We're also doing a slightly larger version, with wooden covers that's pretty cool. I still have to finish stitching that.

My pins for SNAG are DONE! As are my business cards. I'm trying to save money any way I can these days, so I made my own business cards out of scrap card stock and address lables with my info on them. Each card has a different little sketch on it. I figure they'll be ok for the pin swap, and I can keep my free, more professional looking cards from Moo, for people who warrent a more professional card. Does that make me a buiness card snob?

New Work

A couple pieces I finished up for crit on Tuesday. Actually, I finished the slate piece a few weeks ago, but just now got it photographed. A big, big thanks to Jennifer Wells, who was kind enough to model for me.
As always, more here.

Process Shots

Some shots of my bench. Necklaces in process, and a necklace completed. Though I'm not sure how I feel about it. Also, a shot of the wall in my new space.

Rock Pins for Mini Swap

The annual SNAG Conference starts tonight, and after I thought long and hard about it, I decided to sit it out this year, mainly due to finances. I'm a little bummed to be missing all the fun, especially the pin swap, (one of my favorite events), but I'm not the only one stuck in Greenville. A few of us have decided to get together tonight at our favorite bar and hold our own little pin swap. This is what I came up with this afternoon and I'm pretty excited about them!

I hope everyone has a great time and the conference and swaps for some great pins tonight. If you're interested in one of these, I'll happily swap by mail.

Check back later to see what my comrades come up with!

Before and After. . .

Well, more like a during and after. These are pics of a piece I just finished. It's fairly simple, just rocks and spool knitted thread, but with a personal twist. These are the rocks that my friends used to decorate my birthday cake, instead of candles this year. At first I set out to make a piece just for me, using those rocks, but as I was working on it I kept thinking about issues of time and rocks as indications of time and history, and how this was marking a piece of my history. Then I began to think about some things that were mentioned in a critique this past semester about knots in string and ways that people used to mark time and how each rock acts like a knot in the string, marking one year of my life. It all just came together and it kinda tickled me. It's not the most involved piece I've ever made, nor is it the prettiest, but for now I'm pretty happy with it. The top pic is of the piece steeping in tea to dye the thread.