Tomorrow Will Be Done

Tomorrow I will  be done getting ready to leave for Milwaukee. I can’t pack my car until Monday morning. I’m going to make sure my Oxygen and Propane tanks are filled today at the welding show before I go so we don’t run out in class. I will have to post a picture of my car loaded up. I’m sure it will look ridiculous. I feel ridiculous with all the stuff I am bringing.

This is a picture of what I wanted to do with the feather… It’s done! Yippeeee! I love it. Here it is on my fake lady….

One last pic of the Ancient Roman Glass.. This was a custom order for a lady in Canada that already has the necklace. It’s a summer beauty! I am going to make an ankle bracelet for myself like this one. 

Art Show Crazy Weather

Wow, nice black sky! This was the sky at 8am on Sunday and here are some of the tents that made it through the night and the following picture are some of the tents that did not make it through the night. There were several tents that looked like this one and after the breezy day there were several more. I saw a few people breaking the legs up of their tents and putting them in the garbage. I saw one tent actually tumble over and hit a man – he was ok….It rained like this until about 10:30am. After that the day was fine but very windy. You just never know especially when you are near a big body of water… it seems to escalate the weather.Besides the crazy weather it was a great weekend. Sold several large pieces and acquired a handful of new customers that will be regulars! A Big Thank you to those people! Saturday the show was very busy and Sunday after the rain was gone I had steady traffic of customers until after the show was over. I also won a ribbon and some prize money. My kids had a blast on the beach, playground and playing tennis. I think they were in my tent helping me for a total of 10 minutes the entire time. Would have been a stellar weekend with no storm. However, if you are going to do a show that you leave you tent up over night buy a really good tent: Trimline or Light Dome. Yes, they are $1000. It’s worth every cent. I had a glass blower next to me. If my tent lands on their tent I would break everything they have. Also get insurance. If you cannot afford it for the entire year just get liability coverage for your shows…. it’s really cheap!

New Things For Show This Weekend…

Just a couple new pieces I finished last night and this morning for up coming show this weekend…TGIF!Sterling Feather is finished! I am going to add one of these to a stone necklace I am making as well.Labradorite and Alexandrite Gemstone Hinged NecklaceSonora Sunrise Stone With Hand Made ChainHope Everyone Has A GREAT Friday and wish for good weather on the Door County Peninsula! See you at Sunset Park Sturgeon Bay WI Sat 10-5 and Sun 10-4

Copper Bangles

Forgot to show you these! This is what you can do with a bunch of huge copper that can be purchased at your local hardware store. This is 8, 6, 4 gauge copper grounding wire (91 cents per foot) from the hardware store and some 10 gauge square copper wire from Rio Grande. I used my rolling mill to roll the wire flat, annealed, hammered, dolled up with some silver accents… and awesome, super chunky, heavy chevy, fun, mix and match bangles. I am going to blacken them all and polish up just the silver details. One of them is already blackened. You can see it in the middle of the pile. Standard Bangle of this thickness is an 8.5 inch piece of material.. a little large ladies hand is 8.75 inch and a little smaller ladies hand is 8 inch. Go ahead and make some! You need a super hot flame to heat this kind of material up. A hand held butane torch might not do it.

Door County Show, Messed Up Silver

Went to the beach on Sunday with my husband and kids… We are so close to so many beautiful beaches, state and national parks, private parks and gardens…. we are spoiled. Wisconsin has very high state tax. I think they are in the top 3 most expensive state tax brackets in the nation: however, they spend it well… our parks are beautiful and our water is beautiful and our woods are beautiful. Keeping it all up does come at a cost.

I have a show not far from me this weekend in Door County Sat and Sun at Sunset Park in Sturgeon Bay. It’s a nice show with friendly people running it. My kids will go and play on the beach all day and pretend to help me being salesmen at the checkout, playing ‘store.’ But this is how they learn.

I wanted to include a picture of some metal that I pretty much ruined. I was annealing (heating them up to a dull red and putting them in cold water to make them soft) several pieces of silver for pendants and doing it systematically. I was quenching them and not really paying attention to when and how I was doing it because I had about 20 of them lined up. I normally count to 10 after I anneal something and then quench it in water. Well, I did not do this apparently with this piece and this is what happens ~~~~ Wow! Nice Stress Fracture! I have never seen this before in sterling silver. This happens from quenching the piece too soon and stressing the molecular structure to the point of breaking. It happens easily with Argentium Sterling. So, this piece will end up being punched into little tiny discs that I use for detail work. I was surprised though… jeez… taking my silver for granted…….. I will pay attention to my 10 second count next time! and not quench so fast that I completely damage the crystalline structure so badly that the pieces fractures like this! 

Really looking forward to the weekend and talk to everyone next week which will be Go Time for The Bead and Button Show in Milwaukee. My class has 16 wonderful students in it and we are ready to make everything we can in one day The rest of my 6 days there will be as a vendor and that will be an adventure for me because I have never done a vendor show before let alone one of that size. I am ready though. Could leave tomorrow if I needed too.

Above photo is of the beach at Bay Shore State Park in Southern Door County. We visit there often to find rocks and make sand castles. It’s beautiful park and often enough during the week there is no one there, bonus! Our own private beach and hiking trails.

Getting Ready

Here is one box of goodies getting ready for the Bead and Button Show. Thanks to Katie this looks great! Katie is a big help in the merchandising department because she just seems to know how to make it look organized and professional. Thanks Kate!This is another of Tammy Rae’s beautiful glass beads. We are sharing our booth spot so I am trying my best to showcase her work with my own. We have less than a month left to go and I have about a zillion more things to do. Not sure how I am going to get it all done but one step at a time and in the end we will be in Milwaukee.

Feather

Just making a feather and this is the beginning. I draw what I want and make a photocopy of it incase I mess up or want to use it again. I keep the copy in a drawer with lots of other drawings. Better yet save it on your computer and be able to edit it larger or smaller…I rolling milled the center piece and filled it to a point and soldered it on…  and embellished the rest with an engravers punch and some really small doming punches. Notice I have taped the feather down to the anvil. I pretty much tape everything down to hammer it. Saves your fingers. Double sided tape works ok too for small items like hammering little jump rings. Then I soldered on some other little details and wrapped some silver around the end. This pic is the feather pickled but not done yet! I finished it today (it’s really pretty!) but can’t show you the rest until I have more done. I will be hanging the feather from an entirely different stone setting. More to come but it’s gonna be a little wait. Have much to do first. The feather is about 3.5 inches long.

Madison Show

Got home from Madison last night. I learned a lot at this show. Funny how you know things about yourself and it takes something like this show to just verify it. I really like being outside and I am an outside kind of person. I really missed being outside at this show. I had not ever done an indoor show and it really changes everything. I missed the elements, the noises, the breeze, the festival atmosphere of being outside. Nothing to do with the show itself…. I just did not really like being indoors.

I did learn that the ‘Square’ credit card payment app on my iPad is awesome. Worked like magic… not kindling… magic. The people loved it too. They were instantly emailed a detail receipt with my photo and logo on it. It also has a feature to text the receipt to their cell phone number. Loved it. Loved it. Loved it. Took two seconds to check a person out and send them their receipt.

Also my indoor sign and booth set up was awesome. Very dynamic looking on a corner. At this show it stole the show hands down. That is really rewarding because I have worked really hard on my display being original and completely handmade by me. Had a computer software company want me to make them a sign out of barn wood like my sign. I declined the offer but gave them detailed instructions on how to make their own in a similar fashion. It was for a some special room in their building with a theme to it….

Good to be home and looking forward to doing an outdoor show in the sun shine.

Labradorite for Lin Done

Heading out to Madison show… Finished this pendant for a customer who wanted a Labradorite stone necklace on a hinge with a funky chain.

 

More Beautiful Structural

One of the bees in the flower sculpture… there are several bees.This is the underside of a stainless pool…. the framework that would normally be concrete. The first pic is of the sidewalls and the next of the floor. The pool is above.