A Peak

Another sneak peak at pieces that went to the Danforth Gallery. If you're in Livingston Montana and can go to the show please send me photos - I'd love to post them here! 

Complete

Work for the gallery show went out the door on Saturday and I was left with a feeling of considerable accomplishment. I pushed through some design ideas and I learned a tremendous amount and I love that feeling. 

I sent some already completed pieces and quite a few brand new ones (like the big Constellation ring below). 

Livingston Montana's oldest non-profit art space, The Danforth Gallery, will be hosting a three week long wearable art show that will include jewelry, clothing and accessories by artists from the region and across the country. This fifth annual show is a fundraiser for breast cancer awareness in partnership with the Livingston HealthCare Foundation. The Park County Friends of the Arts will be raising money for Livingston HealthCare’s Mammogram Program, which offers screening services to uninsured and under-insured women. So its art for a great cause! 

The opening reception will take place at the gallery during the last Livingston Art Walk on Friday, September 27^th from 5:30-9:00pm . The show will run through October 19^th. This year’s opening night kick-off event will include cocktails, appetizers and surprise entertainment. (Sadly I won't be at the opening despite the fact that Livingston's proximity to Yellowstone made it sound like a great field trip opportunity!) If you're in the are and go to the show please send my photos! )

Participating artists will include: The Pigment Project, Little Pitterpat, Dawn Josephine Jewelry, Cabin Lil’, Gwen Strachan Jewelry, B.Handmade Design, Sarah Homans Design Jewelry, Karen Sorenson bison fiber textiles, Jibby and Juna Jewelry, Exit 330 Design Jewelry, Intrigue Ink, Salty and Sweet jewelry, Super Jenny Love hats, Astea Jewelry, Gingersnap Knits, Christine Shanafelt Grohusky jewelry, Wee Stitchery, Deana Albers Lloyd Jewelry and more.

For information please visit the website at www.pcfadanforth.org or call 406-222-6510.

Scramble

Its a scramble here at the end but I just about have the pieces ready for the gallery show. I have several pieces to resolve and photographs to take and I'm fighting some sort of camera problem - the main fear being the sensor has given up the ghost. (Cha-ching.)

Reworked some ring ideas and building processes that will allow me to make big rings. Yeah, big rings are good. 

Working...

New work, work in progress, work being prepared for a gallery show at the end of the month - my work table is full!
I ought to be careful throwing the word "work" around. As my youngest son once asked "Mom are you working? Cause it looks like your playing."

Still considering the order for this necklace

These are interchangeable earrings - more complicated versions of the project in the book 

Home

No, I have not dropped off the face of the earth. Five days at sea, 24 hours in Cape Town, 23 hours by air...and we arrived home from Saint Helena, safe, sound if not exhausted on August 13. The gap from then to now is as a result of the re-settling needed...right now home feels a bit foreign. (Photos of the end of the trip coming soon - it was an emotional goodbye and we spent a good bit of the homebound journey talking about how soon we can go back.)

My studio got a new, even bigger, skylight while I was away (thanks Dad) so I'm doing some cleaning and re-organizing since things were moved and covered for the construction process and I am back to work with a big project on the horizon.

While looking for ways to better organize my time especially during the school year, I discovered a good way to leave things out while protecting them from dust and bugs and bits.  I covered my whole work area with cling film/plastic wrap. I sometimes work 1 hour here, 2 hours there and this will be so much better than cleaning up all the time. Anyone already do this? Sorry to sound so dippy but this was quite a eureka moment for me!

A very special book and postcards arrived not long before we got home. My mom carries a stash of the postcards in her purse to give out to people.  Its like putting the painting from K-garten on the frig times a million for her, I think.

Yes, the book! There are a couple pages of polymer history and solid polymer basics, 13 projects and lots of images of polymer work. (Its heavy on images - only the contents page and the page with basic polymer directions are all text.) But the things I like most about Cynthia's book is its focus on the artists (even though I hated having my picture taken) and the section titled "Assessing your work" (page 18). I love the "what are you doing and why?" being addressed by people working in polymer. Lets have more of that!

I'll be donating a copy of the book to our library (our library currently has NO polymer clay books!) and teaching a 2 hr. class there on the morning of October 6. Details forthcoming.