On the Bench

On the bench today are some earrings in process; I'm working on the silver to fit white topaz and garnet stones with different dimensions. Also on the bench is the fork tine I need to shape in order to set the stones. And at the top of the picture are some pieces of silver I cast years ago. Interesting pieces; I found them while looking for an opal triplet I created years ago.



I wonder what I had in mind for them - if anything. I might have just been playing with the pink sheet wax to see what I could do. Now I have an idea for them to be used in a bracelet. The two odd pieces out will probably become earrings.

Office Vignettes

As I slowly take back my office from my own 'stuff', I've kept a few spots that remind me of my inspirations, and created a couple more spots.

The angled ceiling gives me room to grown my photos up the wall to the left some more.

In the meantime, I've put placed more of my photos on a bulletin board along with a painted silk I picked up in St. John. Yes, that's my leg in a photo taken by someone else, and that's me with the turtle and sharks.

The final vignette consists of other mostly people's work, includes photographs of turtles, paintings, and a funky lamp, a dive shop's biz card, a postcard from my friend Steff Korsage, and a necklace I made out of toys while some good friends and I played at the Museum of Craft and Design in SF late last year. I even finally hung up my design award and a HS XC award. These items are all below my framed degrees which used to fit my office space better back in the days of me being in the engineering world. One of these days I'll get that plaque of the patent and hang it up also. Sitting nearby are boxes from Brasil and a Cuban cigar box being used for storage. 

Making Molds

Using the yellow molding rubber, I'm molding a bottleneck ring and also a custom order signet ring. I'd like both rings to be a little bit smaller than the originals are. 

Inside the mold on the left is an earring in pink molding rubber that will become a pair of earrings set with clear topaz. I'm using the pink rubber for this mold because the earring being molded was made to fit the stones, and the pink shrinks less than the yellow.

Surf's Up at Sunny Cove

In my first step down on the beach I found some seafoam green bottle glass that had been worked a bit by the ocean. Bonus. The ocean air and 79 deg F plus weather were the main treats.

I spent some time reviewing Ernst Haeckel's "Art Forms from the Ocean" thinking about some new designs....

What was in the Boxes on the Pallet?

This!

Well, the table. The rolling mill was moved off the garage workbench to it's new home. Now it can be bolted down.

The vacuum caster will join it when we can figure out why it leaked after we tested it out (it's a used Rey-Master Cast 5804. If you have a manual for that model, or for the very close Vigor 5803, I'd be happy to see it!) 

The inspirational map (islands of the Pacific) was bumped out of another room to make room for a world map; it's now in a very good spot.

First Harvest of 2009

The first harvest of 2009 (or final harvest from 2008's garden) is hot hot hot

yum

Ever seen a delivery come on a pallet configuration like this? I can be sure that nothing heavy was lying on top of these boxes

More random photos from last weekend

Bronze & Copper Toggles

Last night I spent several hours with my good friends Pat and Kathleen playing with Bronze and Copper metal clay for the first time. They are prepping for a hands-on workshop on Feb 8th in Los Gatos for the local metal clay group (SFBASCG.) 

Both Pat and Kathleen had played with the new clays already; in fact Kathleen has made many many pieces with the bronze clay. As for me, well - I have now opened, and used, the free sample pack of bronze I received last summer!

One of the toggle clasps might look nice with a hand knit copper bracelet that's been sitting on my bench without a clasp for quite a while....

As a bonus, I talked with Pat's newly certified diving husband about his first dive trip. We also talked about places we'd like to go diving; our lists are both long. :)

Kathleen has kindly offered to fire my bronze and copper (product in development by Hadar Jacobsen) pieces for me in her charcoal setup. We'll see if all the bronze flakes I managed to get on the copper make a difference.

I was reminded....

As I looked through the blogger gadgets the other day, I ran across the Miro gadget (see it -> below on the right). The gadget's Miro images reminded me of a visit to Fundacio Pilar i Joan Miro on Mallorca. The studio space was amazing, as were the views. The property is on a hill, overlooking the bay. The foundation holds print making workshops in one of the studios, displays the participants' results, and also exhibits the works of other artists. When we visited, there was an exhibition of Louise Bourgeois' work. You can see more pics of the foundation here.

Surprised to see a photo so far from a beach? Why was I on a trip and not diving? On a trip where the intention was to visit somewhere I wouldn't be drawn into the water, I didn't dive on this one. At Sant Elm, we saw a group heading out to dive (you can barely make out the dive zodiac below), and that made me want to head underwater.



And, from a bluff on another spot on the island we could see fish in the clear water below. More temptation!



Happily spending time on land on Mallorca, we enjoyed the abundant public art. Here's a pic of some of the scenery: a ceramic mural by Miro at Parc de la Mar in Palma de Mallorca.



Closeup of part of the mural

Peridot Ring - Flush & Prong Set

A fresh iteration of the "Bottleneck" ring design. All peridots. Four flush set and one prong set. The ring is 'fresh' because it's less than 2 hours old. :)

Please pardon the hot spots and other issues with the photos. I'll take a nice photo for the website someday....

Knitting wire in front of the TV

While watching TV these past couple of weeks, I've also been working on some new combinations in knitted wire chain. I tried mixing copper and fine silver wire at the same time, copper only, two strands of fine silver, and increasing and decreasing the size of my loops.

I'm seeing a funky bracelet in this sampler piece. Now it's time to create the sample where I pull the chain through the drawplate to see how my double strand pieces look once drawn....