I really need to get better at this blogging stuff.  I envy those artists who have blogged, checked their Etsy shop, shipped off their sales and are ready to spend a day in the studio by 9am.  By 9am I'm just finishing off my second cup of coffee and trying to decide if I should clean out the dishwasher before heading to the studio or just ignore it. 

The past couple of months have been very good for me.  I submitted work to the Metal Clay Masters Registry and I was honored to be accepted as a Level 1 Master.  I am now working on my level 2 designation.  For more information on the Masters Registry go to www.mastersregistry.com   I was also chosen as one of Crafthaus Artists of the Week in April.  Pretty cool.

With the coming of the nice weather I have been focusing on sandblasting.  My sandblasted pieces take a great deal of time to build but hopefully I will have a couple finished and photographed soon.  Sandblasting is an extremely messy process and you don't want to inhale the blasting medium.  Because of that I only blast outside avoiding contamination of my entire studio.  I have put together a mobile blasting station that I can easily wheel outside when I need to blast.   Takes me about 5 minutes to set it up outside and another 5 to tear down when I'm done.  Unfortunately it takes about 2 hours for the lines on my face caused from the respirator to go away!

 

Sue

 

 

For the past couple of weeks I've been working full time on projects for the Metal Clay Master's Registry.  I have nine of the 10 projects required for submission for level 1.  The 10th and final project I've chosen to do is a spoon with Keumboo embellishments.  I should have it completed by tomorrow. After that I just have to make sure everything is polished up, paper work done, and shipped to the Master's Registry for jurying.  Then the hard part starts ... waiting to hear if I my work is accepted.  I can already hear the clock ticking.

 Working on the Master's Registry has been challenging, taking me out of the little sphere of comfort that I like to exist in.   My work bench is a testment to that, all kinds of weird things are piled on it with one little spot clear where I can work.  I've hammered, carved, filed, broke my hydraulic press, corrugated, tapped, strung and cussed my way through the first ten projects.  And it was so fun!  I truly feel that I'm accomplishing something special.  Of course that's my view at the end of completing ten projects.  If I get accepted then it's on to level 2 and ten more cuss-able and challenging projects.  Probably ought to organize my work bench.

So many great things happened in 2009.  When I think of my work, several things happened that just made things easier for me.  They are just little things but it's amazing how they help me on a daily basis.  Barbara Becker Simon wrote a great book.  It's a great resource.  She also gave me a giant plastic jelly bean that is just a fabulous form to dry clay on and it looks really cute in my studio.   Celie Fago introduced me to an angled paint brush that is now my go-to brush and the wonders of a doll needle which is now one of my most important tools!  Ann Davis talked me into starting on the Masters Registry, a masters program for metal clay where participants have to present for review 50 specific projects.  It's really forced me to experiment in my art and not just rely on things that are comfortable.  They are just little things (well, maybe writing a book is not a little thing) but it's amazing how they've had such a positive effect to my daily life.  So, thanks guys! I think I'm ready for 2010!

 

 

There is an element of magic in what I do.  With a little bit of creative encouragement, tiny particles of silver in clay meld together to form solid pieces of fine silver jewelry and hard, brittle glass rods are transformed into strong intricate glass beads that can last a millennia.  Really cool when you think about it.