Back from San Francisco!

So I'm back from San Francisco and I had a fabulous time! I have lots of picture your you to look at on Flickr. I made the earrings in the picture. I will give a detailed account in another post about how they were made. In the meantime I have lots of jewelry orders to catchup on, so go look at the pictures of the very beautiful city.

H

I have pictures!

View from my classroom window.

View of protesters of the something I don't know what - from my classroom window.

4 rings and 4 'sketches'. That's the practices pieces in the front.

All the rings I'm working on here are very sculptural in shape.

Round wire into square just from hammering.

Taper into upright taper.

Round into flat taper.

Sorry these aren't my best pictures. I'm trying not to take too much time with the camera because there is so much to learn. Now I have to get ready for more! Have a wonderful Sunday!

H

Having a great time!

Well I'm having a great time! But I still don't having pictures to show you! I have some equipment issues - like being able to download the ones I'm taken. Got a little rained on today but I'm in San Francisco so that's to be expected!
Its a little cooler then I planned for but all the walking is keeping me warm.

So about the class - today and tomorrow is forged rings. Wow! So much to learn and so much fun! I made 4 rings today. All in copper just for practice but tomorrow is all about the fine silver. All of these rings are forged and there is no soldering so lots of hammering. There are 11 people in the class so you can imagine the noise with all of us hammering away on metal.

Tomorrow is a continuation of what we did today and working on a few of the more difficult designs.

Monday and Tuesday are no class days for me so I will be able to explore the city and get some pictures. Its suppose to be sunny and warm - for San Francisco!

Well I'm so very tired so I'm off to bed. Have a wonderful Sunday!

H

Well I might as well tell you... (maybe Life is Funny Part 3)

So I'm sitting here in the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport waiting for a part to come in for the plane I should be on. (Say the following in a sarcastic voice) I love air travel! My plane was suppose to leave for San Francisco but they had us change planes and the one they gave us is having some issues. Well now I have issues! I didn't intend for this to be Life is Funny Part 3 but it seems its turning into that. I mean if we didn't laugh about these things we'd go crazy right? Right!

Why am I going to San Francisco you ask? Well I was going to post when I got there and include a picture of this beautiful city but since I'm here I'll tell you now and give you some pictures later.

I'm headed to SF for some training at the Revere Academy. I'm taking a class in Forged Rings, Quick Clasps and Finding (say that 3 times fast!) and Fabrication. I hope to be able to take pictures as i go through the classes and see the progress but I'm not sure yet if they will let me. I'll keep you posted.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

H

Life is funny (part 2)

Just lost 2 front teeth (Sam)

Okay so I don't have any stories to write up here but pictures of my family. I find them all very funny. So this is what I find funny this week!

Holly & Hayley (They are just not right!)

Jaxon is air born! He is dancing to the music that's playing.

His Aunt Heidi gave him this! Fantastic!

Jax is pretending that he's being attacked! NICE!

My father - maybe this is where we all get it from! That's a hat with a blonde wig attached to it!
Real pretty Dad!

She has grapes in her cheeks!

Well as you can see my family is crazy but so very funny! Have a wonderful funny day everyone!

H

Spring is just around the corner

This time of year I'm reminded of how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful place. We don't go through the seasons like the rest of the country does but I'm not one for snow so that's just fine with me.
Yesterday I was walking to pick my daughter up from school and I could smell the most wonderful scent all around me. I started looking around and then I looked up and saw where the scent was coming from. The orange tree! It was in full bloom. I love that scent. It reminded me that spring for us in Arizona is here and its beautiful! Its also just around the corner for the rest of the US.
Look around in nature today and see if you can see spring starting to show. Have a wonderful day!

H

Making It Personal

You know when you see those little kiosks that have everybody's names and you go to look for your name or someones name that you love and you just can't find it? Well that happens to me all the time. I have a nephew and a daughter and 3 of my 4 sisters that I can never find their names! (Dates are good for these too!) Everything is more special when its been customized.
I have some custom charms to make your wedding extra special as well. I talked about these in a previous post. During the wedding they can be tied onto your bouquet and then after your wedding you can use them as ornaments on your 1st holiday or Christmas tree.
So I think I might have solved the problem, at least a little. In my collection 'Make it Personal' I make everything to order so no names or dates are left out! That means that Jaxon and Bailey can have their names, or at least their Moms can have their names on something special. Now no one is left out.
How are you going to make it personal?




Have a wonderful week.

H

Where Are you Going?

Where are you going? Well I'll tell you some days (most days!) I have no idea, then other days I seem to have a clear vision in my mind where I'm going. When the days are unclear to me and the path doesn't seem to show itself I find myself looking to the past. But not in a bad way, not with regrets. I think you can help define your future by looking at where you've been.
This would have to be why I feel drawn to the ocean and why I put it into my art and daily reminders around me. If you haven't seen my collection 'Down By the Sea' you need to check it out. I'm sure you're asking why is someone who doesn't live by the ocean, is creating art about the ocean? I know you're asking because I've asked the same question of myself.
Well here is a little history of me: I was born on the most beautiful islands in the world! I was born in Hawaii. We didn't live there for a very long time but growing up between Hawaii and California the ocean was ever present in my life. I became a SCUBA diver and have a great respect for the ocean and all it's living creatures.
So I guess that brings me back to where are you going? For me I'm wanting to be back by the ocean. It grounds me. And I guess until I can live near it again, my art (and countless other wonderful artists that adorn my home!) will have be enough for me.
So where are you going?




Have a wonderful weekend.

H

Life is funny (part 1)

A challenge has been put forth and I'm not sure I'm up to it! Wendy has asked us to write about what we find funny. At first I thought this was going to be easy but after much thought, way too much thought, I'm not sure I can do this.
Its not that I don't find funny things in my life all day long because I do. I mean just the other day my 4 1/2 year old came up to me with hands on her hips and toe tapping and asked me 'Mommy why is your breastests (that's her way of saying bra, no I'm not sure the spelling on that because she is only 4 1/2!) hanging in my bathroom?' Well as I'm sure you're wondering as well as I was at this point what in the HECK she was talking about! Then I remembered that I had just washed all my bras and I hung them up in there to dry so they would be out of the way.
So after I picked myself up off the floor from laughter I told that those are BRAS and that they needed to dry hanging up, and please don't concern yourself with my undergarments anymore!
I would have to say if that is what Wendy was talking about for 'Life is Funny' then I could write a book because I get stuff like that all day from her! And I'm not really sure where she gets it from! Anyone? ;)

H
Wendy, this was actually way too much fun! Thank you for thinking of it!

Just for Fun!

What are they going to hatch?

Oh, well it looks they hatched!

Princess of the desert, Bailey!

Sam, looking way too relaxed up there!

And last but not least the fashion poster girl of the week, Bailey in bedroom slippers. Her Auntie Holly gave them to her and she likes to wear them everywhere! Yes, she wore them around town and had to bring that fantastic purse too! I think the thing I dislike the most is the sound those shoes make. She likes to stop and pose with those on too! Lovely!

I hope you're having a good weekend.

H

All the pictures except the last one we're taken at the Phoenix Zoo.

I'm soooo excited!!!!

I was contacted by Modern Bride about my Wedding Charms! They would like them for the Aug/Sept issue. I will be in the '100 Things We Love'. I've been doing a happy dance for the last 24 hours! Here are the charms that I'm talking about.


These are meant to be tied around the brides bouquet. Unless I have been requested these come with blue iolite stones and blue ribbon. They are great for that something blue and something new. They can be used on a key chain after the ceremony or you can hang them on your Christmas tree. Some people might like them for charms on a necklace but for me they are a little big for that. They measure 24mm x 16mm.
Well I need to get back to my happy dance now! I will be sure and post the copy of the magazine when they send me a copy!
The charms are available in my charm shop. Have a wonderful weekend.

H

Update on the Cora Paige Project

We don't have final numbers yet but so far the amount that will be donated for the Cora Paige Project is $13,538.31! With all you help I was able to add $280 to that total. Thank you all so much.

Today is Cora's 1st birthday. My heart is breaking for the pain the family must be going through. Please remember them in your thoughts and prayers as they make their way through this very hard day.

H

Update: We had an update on the total $15,667.93! A few people haven't checked in yet so that total will go up. I'll let you know!

Be Peaceful

A lovely sentiment for the times in which we live. A reversible pendant made of fine silver with a fern on one side and 'Be Peaceful' hand stamped with a custom font on the other side.

This pendant was made using hollow core techniques. I learned how to do this technique from J. Fred Woell. This is an amazing artist that I would love to just sit and learn anything there is to know about metal! I was also blessed to have him teach my PMC certification through Rio Grande.

I'm getting ready to go to San Francisco to take some classes from The Revere Academy on metalsmithing. I'll be there at the end of this month for 10 days. I hope to have wonderful new items to show you. I'm going to be working with gold so I will be adding that to my shop soon.

Thanks for looking today! I hope your week is going well.

H

New Work in the Shop

I've just put up some new work in the shop. A set of fine silver rings, 5 total. 3 light and 2 dark. Of course you can mix that up as well. They are made on a square ring mandrel. The square is a more true shape for your finger and the rings don't turn on the finger as much as a round ring does. I've had a lot of positive feedback on the single ring so I thought people would like some options on other stacking rings.

I have lots of pictures to take of new work but haven't been able to get to it yet, so stay tuned this week for new pictures.

I took 26 packages to the post office today. It was nice to get those little treasures onto their new homes.

The next pictures are just a preview of items needing to be listed in my shop.




I hope all is well in your world.

H