Jewelry: the latest obsession

So last winter I took a jewelry class for credit; I have been fiddling with metal ever since. June 14 the ArtWalk on Division Avenue commenced. I destroyed a lot of hard work by accidentlly spraying the jewelry with white enamel instead of clear coat. [sheesh!]

I frantically scrubbed the jewelry with hot soapy water so the paint would not cure; then with acetone; panic! Next I soaked all the jewelry in mineral spirits for over two weeks in an effort to salvage some of it. No avail. Now it just stinks of mineral spirits. Even my teacher/mentor David Huang could not think of anything other than burning the paint off. Finally I dumped several of my copper cable pieces into a patination process. I salvaged three pieces. Better than nothing, live and learn.

BTW, I have gotten behind updating but . . .
for you Grand Rapidians out there; don't forget the ArtWalk Season is underway!

Dates: July 12, August 9 & September 13 2008 from 4-9 p.m.
Where: Division Avenue between Weston & Cherry.

My jewelry is on display at: Heartside Gallery
48 S. Division Avenue

See You There!

DIYhipster - finally

I have been a member of DIYPlanner.com for thrity-five weeks and one day. I was a lurker for much longer. I finally came up with my own functional version of the DIYhipster. If you do not know what any of this is referring to, jump over to their site and take a look.

On that day [35wks + 1 day] ago when I became a member I published a photo of the WBF "no-plan-might-be-a-plan" mess. Somehow that photo does not survive, here is the format I finally settled on:

Waiter's Folio; portrait oriented, fits almost anywhere






4x5 4up weeklies; from which I make a little folio with one
week showing & blank dailies inside

Blue six-ring thing; staggering my punching allows the top of the next two week folio to show

A stack of recycled quarters; for notes, et cetera.


All this organizational craziness started for me when I was a child. {doesn't it always?}
My father had a desk filled with cool things that fascinated me. There was nothing like it in my toy collection. The vicious cycle begins; I cannot stop wondering what the desk contains, he forbids me to mess around in it, naturally I cannot resist. My father finds out or catches me fiddling around in the desk, life gets pretty miserable all of a sudden. Around and around it went until someone, probably the [sainted] Mother figures out that three quarters of the fascination is the stuff in the desk.

One magic Christmas, under the Christmas tree with my name on it, was a package that rattled in a most unfamiliar way. As it turns out it was an old fashioned metal album case. But oh what it contained . . .
pencils, colored pencils, a sharpener, an eraser all by itself, pens {which I had never been allowed to use before} all kinds of paper, coloring books, paper clips, glue, rubber bands, new crayons, scissors, a stapler, shiny metalic stars {there was no such thing as a sticker collection}.

The metal case probably had lots of other things I can no longer remember, including some recycled office supplies from both Mom and my father. Ever since that Christmas and the fascinating metal box, stationary stores, office supply stores, gadget stores have all been irresistible to me.

Maybe someday I will wax poetic on the subject of family history and the Scrapbooking store . . .