Friends of Friends of Friends!

May I just say I have the best friends, and friends of friends, and friends of friends of friends EV-VER?

My college roommate Beth and I have the most interesting relationship -- she challenges me, and chews me out, and I ignore and love her for it! (You need to know that this is her way of expressing her undying devotion!) But, besides being a royal (but sweet-in-her-own-way) pain in the ga-zot-nick (my mother's term for a$$), she promotes my jewelry and books by telling her friends how dumb I am for not selling my stuff in every gallery and boutique from here to the lake (and the SI swimsuit issue to boot)!

The funny thing? In a slightly dysfunctional way, her charming ways have benefited me!

Beth turned her friend Mary on to me (as dumb as I am) and my jewelry, and Mary visited my home studio. While here, she purchased my Army Pin necklace (featured in Junk to Jewelry) which perfectly complemented a sweet calico sundress she wore to an outdoor summer wedding. (Mary is a size negative 2, but we'll forgive her since she has impeccable taste in jewelry).

So, I suppose Mary wore her necklace (around her size negative 2 neck) -- and talked about where she got it and this kooky jewelry designer who makes necklaces out of weird things like army pins -- to her friend Joann.

Fortunately, Joann has no idea how dumb I am (the beauty of three degrees of separation in this case) and has signed up for my Steel Wire Intensive Master Class at the Racine Art Museum later this month!

It's amazing how my sassy friend has been a marketing asset despite her best attempts at discrediting me. With friends like Beth, who can do without 'em?

Smiley Face Watch

I've shared this image with my Facebook friends along with a post something like, "this piece just makes me smile." It's true. I've seen some fabulous resin work that traps unexpected things inside (isn't that 90% of what makes us goofy about resin -- the trapping part?) like big, fancy pearls and even a mouse (ewww!). That's what inspired me to try my hand at my own version of freezing stuff in time!

My friend KaKO recently gave me a big box of goodies from her past -- kind of like a 3-D scrapbook of her life. I spied this 80s watch from the middle of the pile. It probably just needed a new battery, but I decided I'd rather not know so I could be fearless in trying this idea. I prepped a frozen food tray with some release and went to town positioning the watch and carefully pouring the resin.

After it cured enough to pop it out of the tray the following morning, I noticed a bubble at the 10 o'clock mark. Rather than ditching the project (I tend to try to save just about anything with even a little potential), I thought I'd enhance the even-numbered hour marks with chatons. (Just so happens my friend Debbi Simon has been working with these sparkly bits lately, so I gave her a jingle.)

Another little glitch worked out as well, after I hit an air pocket (that darn 2 o'clock mark this time) while drilling the chaton divots. After I carefully removed the drill dust, I filled the pocket with resin one drop at a time. Then I used the resin to not only set the other five chatons, but add a high polish to the face of the piece. (I waited until the resin at the 2 o'clock mark set and thickened a bit before adding the last little glitz-bit.)

I learned three things about resin during this work: that it has a longer pour-time before setting than I thought; that matte surfaces can be glossed up with an additional resin skimcoat; and that mistakes are easily repaired with some patience and precision.

All-in-all, this watch-let was a pretty quick project. It makes me smile and feel happy every time I look at it -- a new take on the smiley face watch from the 70s!

Funny How Baby Steps Can Span a Mile (or More)!

Sometimes I just sit and wonder at how simple studio play-time can translate into something bigger and better (and longer-lived) than I would have ever imagined! Take this wonderful chunk of seaglass I received as a barter from a doubly-wonderful client! I was just putzing around one Saturday afternoon, experimenting with how to capture the piece in steel wire. I twisted and turned, bent and unbent (yep, steel's like that -- you can "erase" bends!).

Soon after, I attached the pendant to a funky-found-dog chain-turned-necklace, and wore it to lunch with friend and Art Jewelry Associate Editor, Jill Erickson. It just so happens AJ was planning a green trend issue (see May 2009) and a full-fledged (capture pendant) article was born!

Now, rewind a few years to the debut of my first book, Junk to Jewelry. The fabulous Matt Quandt of Kalmbach got me a podcast gig with Alison Lee's Craftcast to help get the word out! (That was an amazing opportunity that I still have to pinch myself to believe.)

Some full-circle-to-now math: 
    Art Jewelry feataures Alison Lee in their current issue
+ Capture article popular with AJ readers
+ Craftcast interviewees' work used to enhance new article
= More fabulous publicity over a little bit of quality time between me, my wire, and my junk.

Ain't life grand?