Vitreous Enamels on Copper 101--AKA Learning to Use a New Medium!

Yesterday, I was hopeful I could somehow import photos to here from my iPhone to post on Blogger...it didn't work.  So I'm looking into an app that will let me blog from my iPhone as I'm not near any wifi or a big computer...just my little phone & 4G most of the time this summer!

So below is an overview of my summer exploration into vitreous enameling on copper...part chemistry, part magic, and definitely trying to "paint" with powders and crumbs of glass under fierce heat in a kiln.  Pretty exciting, actually!

 Copper shapes on trivets and a wire tray, either going into or coming out of the kiln.

 A lot of larger glass bits, of the correct melting point to use in the system of enameling that I'm using. (Apparently, different glasses melt at different temperatures....that's a bit beyond me yet!)

So I turn the crushed glass bits into my "palette" in order to use some of these bits.  Finely graded glass powders are used to cover even areas of the metal with a fine coating to fire as a smoother coating.

 

 More copper pieces, either coming out of or going into the kiln.  My pieces seem to require a minimum of 6-7 individual firings between 1400F and 1500F before they may or may not be "finished" to be cleaned up for use in earrings, pendants...and soon to come-tack pins and other wearable items.

Due to all the steps involved, I tend to work on several things at one--in this case, pairs of earrings.  I seem to learn new things almost every time I work in this new metals studio at the old campground, and as noted in my post yesterday, I've been posting "blow by blow" photos and info on my new Instagram page @WillOaksStudio in case you'd like to check it out and/or follow along!! 

OTOH, if I CAN figure out how to blog from my phone, well shoot, I can add more goodies right here too!!  To be continued!!!!!  Thanks for stopping by--Karen

Summer Art-making--With a Twist!

I'm not blogging here much this year, but I have started a whole new "blog-like" project over on Instagram.  I don't have a computer connection to the internet except when I "go into town."  But with a phone & Instagram-I can document all sorts of things & post them pretty fast.

I've moved back to the old campground for awhile--but with a twist:  we're not open to the public, I'm not running it as a business, and best of all, I created a small metals studio & installed my new little kiln....& so I've been trying all kinds of new things!!

All the cats & my new rat terrier, Nellie, are with me here in the camper/cabin--and it's been a beautiful summer!!

Please come find me here on IG @willoaksstudio.  There are wonderful landscapes, bugs & butterflies, animal antics, and a new art studio with new work coming along on a regular basis!!  Come say hi--& if you're also on IG, let me know so I can follow you too!!!

Go, go, go!! Lots of work.....

I'm not sure where the past month went, but I do know that I've been working pretty hard on orders, including some very challenging special orders.  It's also that time of year to finish all the accounting, file taxes and close the books on 2013.  I'm very close to being finished, yay!

I did write a blog post I was invited to submit to the website Birthstone Central as their "Shop of the Week."  Please hop over there and take a look!  http://www.birthstonecentral.com/willoaks-studio/ 

The idea was to give an overview of my work and how I got there....I had a very good time writing it and an even better time creating photo collages to illustrate some of my work with pearls.  Here's a little peek

I was invited to submit my story by Jayme, one of the artists involved with this site.  Jayme has a shop on Etsy and the main page for Birthstone Central is here http://www.birthstonecentral.com/   Jayme's Etsy shop is sports related things for kids....and I also learned she lives in Alaska--which is neat because I lived up there for around 8 years until the economy tanked locally there, and surviving as a working artist became too difficult for me....but I miss the place and hope I can visit this amazing state again some day.  Meanwhile, it's always fun to connect to folks up there in little ways....isn't the world wide web just amazing?!

Have a great weekend!

Enchanting Emerald Green

While I was thinking about "green" I came across this collage I made a few years ago, with samples of some of the many shades of green that grow at WillOaks Farm.  I decided that for some of us, tired of looking at white snow and gritty melting scenes, it might be a soothing, hopeful image!

Emerald green was a "Pantone Color of the year" in 2013.  I wasn't too sure how popular this might be, but since I just love green in ALL her glorious moods, I went ahead and used the color in a few pieces last year.

This year, I came across a box labeled "St. Patrick's Day" in my studio (I'm still unpacking and organizing things here.)  Inside, I found a small collection of bits with that deep, emerald green that I think is perfectly perfect....in my imagination.  So the following collection, to honor my idea of the Irish and the Emerald Isle, came together.

Around the same time, I realized that I have a small collection of clip-on earring findings--parts I've used over the years for some of my customers by request because they do not have pierced ears.  I decided to try a few, and will try to remember to add this variation to other earrings that I make in the "drop style" because I just haven't been organized enough to DO this until now.

So St. Patrick's Day is March 17, which is a few weeks away.  If you know anyone looking for jewelry to mark the occasion, or need a gift to commemorate it, please consider browsing my studio on Etsy.  This link (click here) will narrow your looking to things I have made up in the "emerald green" color of green.

Other shades of green, which is a color I adore and use often, can be searched in my studio via the "local search" box on page one of my studio, using the lower box.  Or you can use this link to "just" look at 4 pages of pieces that use some kind of green.

And I'm not the only one here that loves green!  I've discovered a way to help my cats continue their transition to being mostly indoor cats by helping them get access to "good greens."  It's wheat grass!  I found a local grocery here the sells lovely growing pots of this grass for $2.99.  We make this last for just about 2 weeks, and maybe it's one of the reasons my cats don't bother all the house plants I tend?  This grass plant is much tastier (and probably safer, too!)  The only down side is when they really "need" the grass, eat a lot, then turn around and upchuck (& I hope to find it and clean it up before I step in it)...but that's just cats for you.  The good, the bad and the icky =D

Have a great weekend, everyone and thanks for dropping by!

Or "D"-None of the Above?

I'm just excited about this sort of unusual and accidental new necklace.  Last summer, I found these smooth clear crystal rondelle beads of Cubic Zirconia but wasn't sure how to use them.  I adore cubic zirconia but was only familiar with the faceted style, which look and feel like gemstones.  So these smooth ones took awhile to get used to.  After fiddling around with them on and off for a few months, I finally tried stringing them together with larger satin finished sterling silver beads and voila!!  I was enchanted by how soft the look was, despite the fact that this was a mix of metal and very hard crystal.  By putting this mix on fine oxidized sterling chain, I added just that shot of contrast that I thought was needed, and I'm very happy with this simple, yet elegant, new design.....

Back to your regularly scheduled broadcast......

When things slow down a little.....

....there are a few things I'd like to spend more time exploring here:

1.)  Cooking experiments
2.)  Orchid growing in the Northern Climes
3.)  New works in Emerald Green

I'm struggling to wrap up some other projects right now, so can only give a quick peek at some promising photos that I've begun for these ideas...and hoping that over the coming weekend, I can dig in a bit deeper!

And a weather update....frozen conditions turn to flooding conditions.....but maybe not for too long as it's going to turn really cold again, so then, we'll have icy conditions I guess?

Have a great Friday!

Bingeing on Earrings.....

When I began my "adventure in metalwork" last summer, I gravitated to pins and pendants because whenever I DID try to create earrings with this approach (to formed and forged wire), the results as earrings seemed clunky.  But I kept trying and about a month ago, I was finally creating some shapes and forms that seemed more promising....I was so excited!  I think it's just been taking a LOT of practice to get this approach to really work for the "precise" ends I want to achieve, so today, I'm so happy to show of few of these new pieces that I decided did work well enough to put into my shop on Etsy....happy day!

Black Pearl plant shapes.

I have resolved two different designs so far.  The "leaf" or "plant" shapes are like many of the pins that I made earlier, the materials are just finer and smaller.

I look forward to trying this dangle design with different beads, different materials, different colors and different colors of metal.

Digging through my stash of older pearls and stones to find ovals, which has been fun, and of course, round shaped stones and beads are plentiful.

White pearls and this pair has already sold, yay!

But I had another "break through" in forms that seem to work with my metalwork, too!  Yesterday, I wrote about my "hoop" obsession, and guess what?  Hoops don't HAVE to be round!

This idea took a lot of tries to get all the parts to be as they should and to land where they must, so I need to keep working with it.  But here are a couple of ideas that seem to be going in the right direction.  They aren't very heavy at all, they seem to be very sturdy, and, well, it's kind of exciting!

Silver gray peacock freshwater pearls on hoop earrings

So of course, I keep going back to pearls because pearls are right near the top of my favorite materials of all.

Feather dangle earrings with purple amethysts

And in honor of the "earrings" section in my Etsy shop, which today reached the 100 mark, I also added a new version of my very popular "feather earrings" for women to wear when they are feeling just a little bit hippie or bohemian (showing my age, I know.)  I did an earlier version of this design in shades of turquoise and greenish blues with all natural stones and they have been quite a hit....so I thought I'd try them in shades of purple--natural amethyst--highlighted by some pretty amazing labradorite marquis, which have some surprising "flash" to them.

Finally, it DID snow here all afternoon so I'm hoping to try some snow photos tomorrow, since the word is our temps will get a little bit warmer, perhaps as hot at 27F....everything is relative....

Thanks for dropping by!

She's Gone Hoopy on Me.....

I've been making hoops for a long time now, and wrapping them with all sorts of things like beads, crystals, metal and stones for just as long.  But somehow, I don't get tired of it and when I launch into one of these "hoop fits" I tend to do several, just to see how they will look....

Red coral beads on gold filled hoops, small

 Sometimes, it's just that I've found such cool small beads that I want to try out each type, including recent finds of red coral, tiger eye and natural amber.

Natural Tiger Eye Stone beads on gold filled hoops, small

But recently, I invented a new design that reminds me of a zipper or a zig-zag.  It requires really small beads, 2 mm or smaller, so I don't have a big range of colors and stones available quite yet, but carnelian, garnets and adventurine have given me hoops in scarlet red, deep red and cool green to date.

Tiny Carnelian Stone beads on sterling silver hoops, small

Normally, the base for these hoops is forged of either sterling or gold filled to a size of between 1 and 1 1/4" diameter, and then the beads, etc. are bound to the hoop.  It's a design I like to wear because they are secure and don't fall out easily in winter, when I'm usually wrapped in a scarf (even in the house) or pulling on a coat or jacket (when I dare venture out, given the extreme weather we still endure here, mid February.)  So rather than complain about the new snowstorm due to start again here in the morning, I'll just close with a small collage of recent hoop designs for now.

Click this image to find a whole hoop collection in my Etsy Studio!

Happy "President's Day" to one and all and hope your weather is better than our weather!

How to Survive Winter.....or not?

I may have selective memory, but I don't recall this many days below freezing without a break.  We're into the zero and subzero realm again here, and the very basic tasks such as taking out recycling and garbage, or bringing in groceries, are a challenge, especially when the wind is blowing.  I'm impressed by how high the snow bank has gotten next to our walkway here-our little path to the garage and the dumpster.  I try to remind myself that February may be the longest month of all, because it follows the two before that were more of the same weather--we're talking about a full quarter of the year here!  No wonder it seems so long...

My spirits could be higher if I weren't facing these piles of accounting work, tax prep and other paperwork that's important, but oh so boring.  I need to knuckle down to be free of it (AKA get it finished already) so at least I can have a free mind and spirit to carry on with my new adventures in the studio.

I'm still experimenting with different shapes, colors and materials for my formed and forged metal pins and pendants.  I've just begun a new batch of earrings, rendered in this style, which should inspire me to clear the decks of all the "have to finish......" stuff so I can focus and keep this new thing going!!

Meanwhile, a peek at local coping mechanisms to survive the long winter:

Red Kitty believes he's a jungle cat!

Mariah loves to attack paper and shred it to bits

Purrmeister proves he's NOT afraid of that old vacuum cleaner, even if it is too loud

And Karen just keeps messing around with silver and copper and pretty beads.....we will all find a way to survive winter for a few more weeks.....

Thanks for dropping by and stay warm!

Orchids in the Winter

I've tended an orchid collection for around 8 or 9 years now, and as a long time gardener, this species of plant has the best, the very best, record for very lovely and welcomed flowers in the dead of winter.  Ironically, Pantone named "Radiant Orchid" as the 2014 "Color of the Year."  Lovers of shades of purple and fuchsia should be well served this year, when it comes to fashion and decor.....and I've always loved purple (I painted my room purple when I was old enough that Mom let ME choose, in grade school!) and using this color, in all its glorious shades and variations, has always suited me just fine.

So it's the dead of winter here, and one rather interesting discovery I've found about my new place is this:

 Yes, that's a skylight.  In fact, it's the skylight that I depend on for my photography here in my new set up.  And I've learned it's not actually very reliable when it snows too much, something that's been a simple fact of life here this winter.  I'm very happy when the snow melts...I wait it out when it's really dark up there (more on that at a later time...like how a plant collection that's also dependent on the skylight is faring up there....)

 Yes, it's been a long winter.  I wish I could send some of our precipitation to my friends in California....

 My orchids have their own little humidity area, tented shelving and trays of rocks and water, except when I bring them out to do their blooming.  They are in one of the brightest north windows here, at the patio door.

In fact, the orchids, in winter, enjoy this view!!  Except today, I think the snow is at least a foot deeper than in the photo here.

But the orchids seem happy enough to be blooming for me, and the show is just beginning for Winter, 2014!

It's my experience in growing orchids, that the flowers actually come in a pretty wide range of colors, besides purple.  But yes, there are plenty of variations on the pinky-purple, fuchsia, purply pink range, such as is close to the Pantone color....

So, naturally, I'm happy to oblige.  I have a fairly big collection of pearls and other gems in this color range so as my adventures with wire proceed....

...it's as good an excuse as any to use it!

If you'd like a closer look at this series, visit my studio here.  If you'd like to examine any of the pieces I'm including here, click on the image to go to their page in my Etsy studio.

Hope you are all finding ways and means to keep warm and happy this winter!!  Thanks for stopping by!

Taking the Wire a Little Further.....

As a working artist, I would explain my process as some mystical (tortured?!) fusion between a basic concept (idea or direction) and using the chosen materials.  Both sides of this equation tend to pull apart as often as they pull together.  So my current work with wire and mixed materials is a good example of this process.

On one hand, I started with the wire and a specific "need" in mind for a finished form...but this original impetus was abandoned as the wire itself, as a material, took its' own lead. 

As I began to see what might be possible, I began to see how I could gain more control and get the metal to conform more to what I'd like.  So while it's still give and take, there are two possibilities that are worth examining.  One is where the materials gain the upper hand and really do dictate the outcomes, sometimes pieces emerge that are nicely surprising.  The other is when I insist on getting to a certain outcome--sometimes it takes a few tries, but this is where persistence pays.

On another topic, the weather is a major current issue up here in the Midwest this winter, and in particular this week where we are below zero, again.  In my new place, I have a strange phenomena where what SHOULD be one of the warmest areas of this place....has skylights overhead!  So when temperatures are so far below freezing, all that heated air that floats up to the second floor is negated by the interior air that is cooled up in the skylights, is heavier, so floats downward, and so right now, it's kind of chilly up there.  Which explains the cats, all tangled together on their cat chair (which is under the skylight) doing what they must to keep warm. 

Thanks for stopping in and wherever you are, do keep warm!

Drawing With Wire

One of the first ones, 2013

Actually, maybe these started more as "doodles with wire" as I was preparing to begin to learn Copper Enameling, had no idea what I'd be doing WITH the enameled pieces I was hoping to create.  I got this brainstorm about some kind of "pin-thing" that I could sort of dangle pieces from.....

Ha!  I never got close to doing this (yet.)  Instead, I got hypnotized with this act of bending  and moving the wire, and bending it more, and hammering on it, and on and on.....So as I mentioned in the post before this, I was caring for Dakota, prepping to leave for Maine, and running the campground even as I was fooling around with copper in preparation for my trip to Haystack.  And from the start, I was enamoured with this sort of zig-zag pattern.  As it evolved, I've come to call some of these pieces "rustic filigree" because of the lacy quality they can get, once there are a lot of loops.

But really, for some of these, I really think there was something about drawing (or doodling) with the wire.  I started to add pearls and other beads pretty early so eventually, I was making the "doodles" with an eye on fitting certain beads or other materials into some of the "loops."

I'm putting some images of the early efforts here....later, I'll show where this has gone since I've started this detour (or is it?  Hard to say when you're in the middle of something....) If a piece happens to be available, it will link to the listing.  If not available, please visit here to see what is new!

Not finished or resolved yet.  Kind of a break out piece but future unknown.

Thanks for stopping in and have a great day!

"We Are At Zero...."

Declarative statement made today, meant as an achievement, on the local radio station.  "We are at zero...."  If I think about it too much, I go down paths I'd rather avoid just now.  So suffice it to say at least it jogged a little "something" so I'd start a new post here on my poor neglected blog.

Zero is a temperature reading--everyone knows that much.  Well zero is also my current dog quotient as, I'm very sad to report, Dakota has departed.  She went over the Rainbow Bridge in late September and I'm still feeling the loss.  She was a good companion and was my last living link to my dad.  So in classic Karen fashion, I buried myself in new work (a pattern I have finally figured out I've been doing for decades now, to cope with heavy losses.)  If I'm immersed in a new project, new work, a new series, I don't brood...quite as much.....

Dakota, Summer, 2013

So the back story is this.  After I posted the post below, Dakota continued to slowly, very slowly, fail all summer.  A few times, I thought "this is it, she's giving up now," but I'd manage to coax her back.  She got a terrible infection that was very challenging to heal (although I did learn to fit her with a T-shirt to keep her off the wound--a very nice alternative to "the cone of shame.")  I resorted to buying fresh roasted chicken for her, to bribing a friend to cook beef for her, anything I could dream up to keep her eating.

But it was getting harder, she was having trouble navigating the area, the step up into the camper, the deck--her eyes and her balance were failing.  We all finally realized it was time, and her wonderful doctor helped me help her to a peaceful ending.  I have her ashes here.  I mean to scatter them around the farm and the campground, and on my dad's grave.  When the weather improves, I'll take care of this.

So around this same time, the end of the summer, I was contacted by the Haystack School of Art to learn that there was a cancellation in their faculty retreat in early October, and that my name had been drawn to fill the spot..."Are you able to come to Maine?"  I basically moved heaven and earth to get there...I needed that proverbial "shot in the art" that only comes through a group of artists acting like kids.  And I had a mission, too...I wanted to get back into that metals studio on campus there to see "what's next?"  In my mind, I wanted to experiment with vitreous enamels....and what this has also come to include is working more directly with metal, too.  Copper in particular, but silver might be good too.

It was wonderful to be at Haystack again, to see old friends and meet new ones.  I postponed grieving for Dakota for a couple of weeks....it hit me when I returned to the campground and realized she wasn't sharing my camper anymore...most of you know this drill....the profound sense of loss.....

So my tried and true coping mechanism?  Besides keeping all the "regular things going"  I dove into making stuff.  And somehow, a whole new body of work began and has continued to evolve, in fits and starts, since October.  You can see some of it here Metalwork Pins & Pendants  Since I didn't have the luxury of staying quite as focused as I'd like, it's been slow--I did manage to close down the campground and move back to town during this time....and I did get through a pretty good Christmas season, too.  But when I can get some spare time, I just keep making more of these new pieces....and I give all the credit to Dakota.  It's not rational, there's no direct or obvious link, it's just the way things came together the past 6 or 7 months.  I miss her.  Her absence is noted now that I'm back in town now, too.  But I'm trying to start writing again.  And looks like I just took my first couple of steps!

Little Critters Everywhere!

So many animals call WillOaks Farm and Campground home.  They are mostly charming and I really, really try to be tolerant....but....

There are a lot of cute little chipmunks that have extended "clans" all through the farm.  They are adorable...really...yet so destructive sometimes.  There are some planters and planted areas in the campground that I've "replanted" 3 times now--just over the past few weeks.  Come to find out that chipmunks have a lot of fun clipping petunias off at ground level - really radical pruning I guess.  And when that gets boring, they randomly dig up plants.  This happens both to plantings directly in the ground and to plantings in pots and planters.  I haven't given up....yet.  Petunias are replaced with geraniums and marigolds...surely I'll find something they will ignore, eventually.....

One of the worst hits, unfortunately, was a whole double row of snap peas that had sprouted and were starting to grow strong in our new communal vegetable garden.  I guess the chipmunks had a feast because there are perhaps 3 seedlings left.  We're debating about trying peas again a bit later in the summer to see if we can get a fall crop....maybe....

So I've relented about letting Red Kitty and Mariah out of the camper.  That's right, I'm trying to sic my cats on those destructive chipmunks.....Not sure how effective they will be as hunters....but they sure are happy to be outdoors again!

The raccoons are really active here this summer.  I try to warn tenters to lock up their food, especially at night when the coons are on the move.  These little bandits have taken down and emptied my bird feeders, they have made off with bags of chips, and I have a feeling I've met one or more of them (or their relatives?) a couple of years ago....because they are even trying to figure out how to get into our covered dumpster, again.

Witness all the footprints on the lid?  A couple of years ago, when the wind blew open the lid, I found a youngster sitting at the bottom of the dumpster amidst a bag of trash that was all torn up.  But the poor guy was stuck in there-steep slick metal walls are pretty hard to climb back up.  So I went and got a long board, put it into the "big metal box" for a ramp, and politely looked away while the little guy scampered up and out.  So when I saw the fresh new footprints on the lid a couple of days ago, I realized I'd better keep an eye on this as the summer goes on.  I have a feeling that Ma Coon teaches her cubs "dumpster diving."

And don't get me started on squirrels--they are amazing acrobats and I'm in a constant game to protect a couple of bird feeders here.  Yet when a couple of campers showed up with a "pet" squirrel last weekend, a baby that had been hand raised and bottle fed, I realized that it was probably neat that the little guy was "coming home" to the country woods....though I was a tad surprised when I learned that as the weekend progressed, they decided to let the little guy go.

So I guess he lives here now, too, but briefly, it was pretty cute to see him up close as the woman held him like a kitten and carried him around in a cage.  I'll be curious to hear if he decides to visit with other campers here this summer--he did seem to have a fondness for humans!

Finally, on the totally relaxed and mellow side, Dakota is happy to be the campground dog mascot again, and to sleep on the deck or in the shade or where ever it's a bit cooler.  Because these northern breeds are always too warm in the summer, notice the hair cut she's got?  Hope it helps keep her cooler because it's about to go into the 90's here over the coming weekend!  Push comes to shove, we can always turn on the air conditioning here in the camper.  Because Dakota is 17 years old this summer we're treating her like the grand dame she truly is!

Have a great weekend and enjoy your own local critters!