Green Jewelry

On Saturday I attended the Green Jewelry class at the Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts in SF. The day was full of interesting information that ranged from how metals, diamonds and gemstones are mined to what we can do to help with the environmental and social issues due to mining. We learned tips about rethinking our studio practices in order to help the environment. And, we were treated to three live demonstrations and were shown images of work created with found objects.

The instructors were very enthusiastic about the topics, very knowledgeable and very friendly. Jennifer Horning is one of the original founders of Ethical Metalsmiths and has experience in mining law. She also creates jewelry. Christine Dhein is the Assistant Director at the Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts, incorporates found objects in her metal work, and authors articles and DVDs on a wide range of metalsmithing topics. Christine Dhein authors the Green Jewelry newsletter, which you can subscribe to by emailing her.

If you have an opportunity to take this class, or to listen to a shorter lecture by Ethical Metalsmiths, I highly recommend it. The Metal Arts Association of Silicon Valley is working with Ethical Metalsmiths to arrange a lecture in the fall of this year. Keep an eye on the Metal Arts Association of Silicon Valley's website for more details, or sign up to be on their mailing list using the link on their home page.

Below is a photo I took on the way to the Green Jewelry class. As you can see, it was a beautiful clear day in the city.

 

Christine Dhein is thinking about creating a blog where we can access her past newsletter articles. In the meantime, here are a few more ecologically oriented art blogs for those who are interested (there are some different ones listed in my blog links at the right):

Eco Art Blog

RSA Arts and Ecology

The Green Museum

Sea Glass Hunting

As I head out to hunt more sea glass today, I hope my glass to plastic/foam ratio is higher than on my last two trips. 

I know - ewwww - it's better I pick it up and sanitize my hands than leave it for birds and other creatures to eat.

Flaming Parrot Tulips

I love the shapes and color variations

The Low Hanging Fruit

Jewelry: the zine

I received my copy of "Jewelry: the zine" by Catherine Witherell and Deryn Mentock and immediately was drawn into this graphic and photo rich publication. I took a quick look at my three articles ("Creation / Inspiration", "How to Start an Arts Organization", and "Accessible Patinas") then moved on to the easy-to-read articles and all the pictures (of which there are many.) 

The zine contains bonus 3D content and will keep you engaged, so set aside some time to spend with it. You can tell the zine is a work of love by the very creative team of Catherine Witherll and Deryn Mentock, and it's unlike any magazine you'd ever purchase because of the handmade pages by many of the authors; and the zine itself is put together by hand.

The Table of Contents is below.  You can click on the title of this post to get all the information, including larger images of the Table of Contents, at Catherine's blog.

"Jewelry: The Zine" is 128 pages and includes 17 how-to projects and idea pages, specialty pages and it is chock full of inspiration in full color and hand spiral bound.   It is a limited edition and when they run out, they are gone. By FRIDAY the 27th AND Monday, March 2nd more copies of the zine will be bound and up for sale. Pre-orders for these production runs are being taken now.

 

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To purchase this zine, the particulars are:

Cost: $40

Ships in a big padded bubble envelope

Priority shipping to anywhere in California and Oregon and vicinity add additional $6

Priority shipping to Washington State and Idaho and vicinity add additional $7

Priority shipping to Texas and vicinity add $8

and anywhere else/further out in the US and further than Alberta in Canada add $9 for Priority shipping

Shipping to Europe is about $28 extra for the fastest shipping but the creator will gladly ship it at a slower pace.

Australia add $14 for shipping via parcel post which is about 5-7 days or add $31 for priority, about 4 days.

If for some reason you don't want that kind of shipping, please find out how much the shipping you want costs from California to where you live and add that amount and tell the creator what you decided.

You can now preorder it because it is on rails!  Please  PayPal the creator to account name      cathwitherell@comcast.net       and make sure your mailing address is correct.  If you don't do paypal you can email catherine (the creator) from the link under her photo at the top left hand side of her blog and to discuss payment options. Catherine's blog is at http://happydayart.typepad.com

On His or Her Own Terms

The cat walked along the beach - when it wanted to walk; and sat it when it wanted to sit. :-)

Tidepools in the late afternoon

Pigeon Point Lighthouse

A photo from last weekend shows the lighthouse during the recent storms, and another photo shows the lighthouse on a sunny day.

The recognizable structure was shown yesterday during Versus' coverage of the 2009 Amgen Tour of California.

The Glades

Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park grasslands in the Florida Everglades (above) and, the big Cypress trees in the strand (below.)

Here's a short story about why there don't seem to be any walking trails in the strand. I was taking the above photo when I noticed a butterfly (below.)

I then walked to the other side of the road to see a white bird in the swamp (below.)

When I returned to my original spot on the road I looked down into the swamp right next to the road - feet from where I was standing. The last picture shows you what was looking up at me.

Here's a closeup:

Victoria Park Balconies

Balconies in the Victoria Park neighborhood of Fort Lauderdale reminded me of the balconies in Culebra and Vieques.

Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach

Below is a closeup of plantings in the interior courtyard of the Norton Museum of Art where we saw the Ansel Adams / Georgia O'Keefe Exhibition and the Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism Exhibition.

Art Deco

Two art deco hotels in South Beach

Wish I Could Go....

Modern silver artist Agnes Seabass is being featured in a one-woman show and sale in SF on Feb 13th. Ms. Seabass will be at the event.

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