Tick, tick, tick...

I noticed that my intro on this blog says I'm 50 something, which is only going to be correct for a little over 9 months. Then I'm going to have to change the clock to 60 something and start the count down to 70 something.

Actually, I'm a little excited about 60. My 50's were fraught with changes. I'm leaving my 50's with my thoughts turned firmly to the future. That great wide open plain of possibilities, sprinkled with leaping antelope and grazing bison, circled by tall mountains and sheltering trees waits for me, beckoning.

This new year is so delightful already, what's not to look forward to?

Much fun!

Lots of projects going on, some completed, some still in progress. I've left it all to travel around the SW, visit some family, see some sights, wallow around in Granddaughter land. 

I love organic shapes in jewelry, flowers are the best. My Imaginary Garden keeps blooming in one way or another.

The Petal series has shaped itself into something that I'll explore much more.

Here are the blanks, cut out of fine silver sheet. I textured the ends that will show.

 

These three show the gradual forging of the metal to make it curl into itself.

Then I turn it over and forge the edges so they curl backwards.

This shows the batch of earring and pendant sized petals, ready to enamel.

It still seems so strange to me that the enamel powder turns from white to yellow and even reds. This second pic shows the strange contraptions I come up with to keep the pieces from sticking to the trivets in the kiln. I want these smooth and sleek.

Here are a few of the petals plus some other things in progress.

 Here are the stamens getting soldered together.

And then inserted into the petals, ready for the final additions.

I'm very happy with these pieces, more to come.

Soon I'll be heading back, taking plenty of time to explore New Mexico and Colorado. I think about three weeks is all I can handle before I miss my private space and workshop way too much.

Always...

Enamel Adventures

Sometimes I drag my feet a bit but luckily I have a good metalsmithing friend who is always up for something new. It works beautifully when you don't have to go out and buy a bunch of material just to try a new technique.

So, the first foray into cloisonne enamel happened and I decided I like it alot. I have to shove all those visions of uptight, ridged, old school enamel and let it bubble around in my toolbox of creativity.

I also wanted to try setting an enamel piece in a metal basket, here's what happened.

Here the enamel pieces are finished and the design of the basket setting is in progress. I have not a clue how to actually do this so it's going to be a bit of trial and error.  Maybe mostly error, (chuckle).

The first time I did this I didn't plan prongs, thinking I'd just bend the outside spokes to hold the piece, but that's not good, prongs have to be fairly close to hold a piece securely.

So here I'm adding the upright prongs. This is some tricky soldering but a small hot flame seemed to do the trick.

Then I soldered the radiating spokes to the top piece.

I thought maybe I'd leave balled up ends on the pieces but I didn't like the look and it added to the weight, which was already pushing the limits.

Clean up in progress, how long do those prongs need to be? We shall see.

Getting there. I think this is where I broke a prong off and had to go back and solder on another one. I also cracked the edge of the enamel piece and had to send it back into the kiln.

Ta da! They are a wonderful pair of statement earrings, just a bit on the heavy side, not something I'd want to wear all day. They might make a nice couple of pendants too, but for now they're good.

Reflection and Projection

I love doing a yearly recap. I sift through the old year and ponder which parts will influence the new. What did I do right that I want to continue? What things do I never want to repeat? What needs to be tweaked a bit or maybe revisited in the future?

Well, this year I learned to love myself. It was probably one of the most profound and difficult and yet inspiring times of my life. What's that song? "Looking for love in all the wrong places?" Yep, that was my theme song. I knew that I needed to put me first. I did a few times, in between him and him and him and so on. The scary place inside I managed to avoid, it was so dark and alone.

Finally, I said Basta! Enough! Stop! No more! I realized that my last partner left such a huge hole in my heart that there was nothing left to share. I quit looking and started to spend time with myself. One month and then two and finally four and more and now it's over nine months (yes, I'm still counting, who's perfect?) and I've made it to a New Year, happy and fulfilled and eager to get up and drink coffee in my hot tub, wondering what sort of interesting things I can get into on this great day?

I found friends, good friends, people I cannot wait to talk to on any given day, people I find endlessly interesting, women of strong character with equally strong creative streaks, women and men who make me laugh and don't mind that I'm driven and that I tend to forget the world exists and need to be lured out of my obsessions every now and then. That they seem to like me makes me a little uncomfortable and bashfully giddy. I know I'm worthy but often have to remind myself.

I love my work. I love the beauty that comes from my creative mind and talented hands.

I have been able to immerse myself in learning new things and you'll often find me laughing out loud in huge, joyous, explosive bursts of happiness. Dream it, plan it, do it, love it and then back to the beginning, how much better does it get?

I know it gets a lot better. There is so much to do. And so little time, hopefully thirty more years if I'm lucky.

Of course, there have been challenges. In constant pain I gave up on my hip and set in motion a replacement until I met an outstanding Orthopedic Surgeon who helped me get my fighting spirit back. Now, with some dedication to physical therapy and pain management I'm working on getting stronger and if it has to be done down the road I'll be ready, both physically and mentally.

I think the best lesson I've learned this year is that I really do come first and that's not a selfish thing. I have to take care of myself. I am able to see the value in that for me and for others. I backslide pretty quickly but bounce back and work harder to stay on track with that strange notion.

The stronger my foundation gets the more I feel ready for adventure. I don't have to stay in any one place forever. While I love this area I am feeling more and more that it's time for me to move on. I'm looking for new places to live, the Southwest is calling, maybe New Mexico, maybe Colorado. Will it be a condo in sunny Santa Fe? A mountain retreat in southern Colorado? I'm so excited thinking about a new adventure, new places, new challenges, new venues for my jewelry, new people to meet.

The doors are wide open. I only have to step through them.

Peace

Christmas Full Moon

How much better does it get?

Hanging with my son in the hot tub, drinking wine and tequila and philosophizing the time away under a full moon?

This time is so precious with him as well as watching him interact with the older generation, knowing he's storing up memories. I'm doing some memory saving of my own.

Walking the Tribute trail on a cool and crisp sunshine and shadows day, happy dogs bounding ahead.

Convincing my family to sit and play a simple dice game.

Slowly conquering the hideous flu I contracted almost ten days ago.

Thinking about new projects brewing in my studio.

Big changes ahead this year as my need to wander kicks in.

Life is always so good.

Stay tuned.

Always.

The day after...

Still in the post Thanksgiving stupor, but enjoyed it nonetheless. My dear family collaborates to cook a great meal with the single exception of their inexplicable love for nasty mass produced pies. The good thing about that is absolutely no temptation to serve up a plate of pie covered in whipped cream, save on some calories and then there's room for more turkey and dressing.

Life is lovely and busy and full of friends and family and endless incredible hours of burning metal. This is the latest and one of my all time favorites, golden rutilated quartz in sterling silver.

It's called the Clouds pendant, the holes in the back plate let the light through and look like bubbles through the stone. I'm very happy with this one and plan on a small series of pendants and earrings.

Staying home this holiday, the first in several years, might have to string up some lights.

Always

Turquoise and Lace

A few process pics from my newest ring. Of course, I forgot to take pics during most of the crucial events but you get the idea.

I'm having a serious brain lapse on getting my Riverwoman stamp on these pieces. I'll have to sign them by hand. I sweat soldered my name tag on this one and managed to melt the crap out of it and had to unsweat solder it. Jeez, if I could just remember to stamp the ring shank...

The beginning, the bezel is already cut and soldered, the architectural elements are stamped, cut and sanded, and still trying a lot of different sized silver balls.

On the soldering bench, the bezel is soldered to the backplate first and then the extra elements are soldered on. I managed to get all those little pieces stuck on at the same time without melting anything, yay!

Polished up and ready to saw off the extra part of the backplate

Sawed the backplate around the piece. Now it's ready for the ring shank. This part I forgot to photograph. I made a wide band, sawed it it three parts, spread them out and refined and then soldered on the side elements before soldering the two main parts together.

 Here it is, cleaned up before adding the Liver of Sulfur patina.

If this was my ring I'd leave it with the heavy patina on. It wears off pretty quickly but I love the blues and golds you can get with carefully applied LOS.

 Polishing off most of the LOS leaves a ring with depth and character. This is a pretty piece of natural Royston Nevada turquoise. It is heavily backed, but that helps cushion the stone and lets me use the high thick bezel I prefer.

Always...

Sgraffito

The Italian word of the day.

Whew, just finished up the grueling two week stretch of the Open Studios Tour. It was a circus (in the best way possible) at my house these weekends. The four of us had the best time, talked ourselves silly, sold a bunch of  beautiful things and laughed a lot at the same time.

I do demos most of the day and about day three I was tired of hearing myself talk about the same processes. So I tried out a new enamel technique called sgraffito, which is basically scratching a design into the enamel and firing it. Of course, there is more to it than that but you get the idea.

Here are a few. I'm desperately tired and trying to get things put away here and there.

They'll get better. The first pair sold right away. More later...

Always

Rise up!

I am profoundly disgusted with the recent developments in our governing system. The idjit men in charge have decided to defund Planned Parenthood. What's next? Public school?

Whatever their reasoning it comes right down to allowing a woman to own her body. Completely own it and thus be able to decide exactly what happens to it.

I will uphold a woman's right to choose what is right for her and her body. The vast majority of women make their choices wisely and with considerably agony and forethought and will hold those choices forever in their hearts. Many women are blessed with partners that will support her but those who do not need a safe place to explore their options.

I'd rather that no woman every had to consider an abortion. I want her to have access to sex education and birth control. I want her to have access to STD testing. I want her to be able to get screened for cancer. I want her to feel like she's more than the sum of her parts. I want healthy, happy women to bear healthy, happy babies and to be able to raise them, feed them, educate them and send them off into the world able to contribute to the greater good.

These powerful politicians scare me. I see evil in their eyes. Recently I've been reading a historical fiction book about WWII and the Nazi SS was characterized as men with no intelligence and no skills who only desired power. Given any sort of power they quickly resorted to brutality. They had little humanity and less conscience. They beat and brutalized and murdered hundreds of thousands in their quest for power.

Sounds like quite a few of the current crop of Presidential wannabees. We cannot give that type a foot in the door. It's already too late to some degree but it's not time to roll over. It's time to fight.  I call on women to wake up and realize that we are more powerful than we think. We can still vote. We can vote these bastards out. We can protest and call them on their idiocy in loud voices.

We can make choices for our bodies, our children and their wellness and education, for the health and beauty of our environment, for simple humanity untarnished by greed and the lust for power.

Please look in the mirror and see how powerful you are and how powerful we are if we decide to step up and take that power. No woman would choose to send her sons and daughters to kill other sons and daughters. No woman who has watched her child entranced by a butterfly would choose to devastate wilderness for the sake of oil. No woman would see her elders forgotten in sterile nursing homes.

Think, vote, speak up.

Always.

Summer of Friendship

Meanwhile, back at the ranch/homestead/mountain lair, all is smoky from several gigantic fires in the area, 1000's being evacuated from the Butte/Amador fire. We daily count our blessings and know that it would be so easy to be in the same situation, just one tiny spark. Insanely, our vigilant fire departments are almost daily having to attend to illegal camp fires, thereby proving idiots walk among us. Rain cannot come soon enough.

Photo by Shannon Prieto - 9/10/15

I am naming this the Summer of Friendship. I've been blessed to find myself surrounded by a lovely tribe of geeky metal working, fun loving women and feel for the first time in my life that I'm accepted and celebrated for who I am in the company of women. It's a fine thing and if my life can be compared to a bowl of Salted Caramel Gelato then they are surely the Fudge Sauce and Toasted Almonds on the top.

Do we grow into our acceptance of others? I'm not sure if aging allows us to simply be who we are or if we get better at picking the right people to hang out with. We learn that some people are more like Habenero peppers, they enrich but you only need small doses, while some are more like French Roast, in which a daily slurp is almost mandatory.

I think of the history of my life and marvel that I've gotten to this most excellent place, peace and acceptance, rich and varied relationships, exciting and exacting work, with so much more to look forward to and I cannot help but smile.

Always...

Mad for Leaves...

I've been on a leaf run for a couple of weeks.

These morphed from plain to FABULOUS, even if I do say so myself.

Fine silver, cut into rectangles, folded over, cut into vague leaf shapes, hammered with a riveting hammer, heated to anneal, opened up.

 Starting the shapes.

 Kind of ugly and scary at this point.

 Smoothing the edges, bend a little bit here and there, yowsa, much better. From here lots of sanding and polishing.

 This set got stems, but the next batch won't as I prefer the extra movement a simple drilled hole provides.

Some enamel alchemy, mixed some dark red on top of the gold and got a really successful color.

Hmmm, what would look good with this? Need shiny, some irregular citrine, some Mandarin garnet and we'e good to go.

 Finished, sold the first day out, sent to the Midwest to a very beautiful, vibrant lady.

Here's the next batch, in the polishing stage. Open Studios is fast approaching and I want to have some new work ready.

Always...

Finished and.....Gone!

It feels really good to labor over a piece for days and days and even better when I get it done and it sells the first day.

Edited to add a process pic.

Peace