Kiln Disaster

I guess it had to happen sometime. I was opening the kiln with my normal "kid on Christmas morning" excitement. Then it turned to dismay. I'd heard about exploding items in the kiln. I made a mold for draping clay, let it dry for 2 weeks, and it looked bone dry...

Opened the kiln to see this:


So, once I cleaned it up, I got it ready to fire a new batch. My very popular hand-carved linocut magnet/window decoration has been recreated in a smaller pendant size, along with some other designs. They don't look so great going in, but hopefully they'll look awesome coming out :)

A Bevy of Bluebirds

Just thought I'd share - my bluebirds of happiness earrings fresh out of the kiln :)

Oh right, I have a blog!

Just thought I'd dust it off and try blogging every day for at least a week.

This week I am trying a vegan diet. Combined with having 75 food sensitivities on my ALCAT results, this could be challenging. I am at the point where I can start rotating in those items that are mild sensitivity (like corn) but I can only have them every 4 days.

I had avoided kale like the plague all my life because I just remembered it as being horribly bitter. I bought a cookbook the other day - You won't believe it's vegan! and tried a miso maple syrup salad dressing. Cane sugar, beet sugar and aspartame are all on my list, so I'm trying to avoid all of those if possible. This dressing is a bit on the sweet side, but I found that it is fantastic on raw kale. I actually like kale! :)

I went with an unimaginative beans and rice for lunch today. I'm thinking baked tofu and kale salad for dinner. :)

Cate

I made the front page of Etsy and didn't know it :)

I just found a screenshot of the front page on Earth Day.



That's so cool! The ring shown here uses a cabochon from the lovely Tara at Combustion Glassworks.

Of clay and puppies

Okay, it has been way too long since I posted :)

I have moved into a new area with my jewelry. The biggest thing I hate about metalsmithing is the lack of solid, permanent color. I can enamel, but honestly, it's not really what I want. I want to be able to really play. So I moved into porcelain. Right now I have a few earrings in my collection, and am working on larger pendants and making porcelain pieces that can be integrated into my metalwork.

My yard is filled with red clay. My puppy Diefenbaker just adores getting muddy, so it was just so right to name my new shop after her - dirtypuppy.etsy.com.

Now, if only I could get the Caldera to stop throwing error messages and actually work. Apparently Paragon tried a new design and quickly discovered it was a mistake. I am the recipient of one of those kilns. It's been limping along for about 2 weeks now, requiring extensive resetting to clear error messages and failing firings. Maybe someday I can get them to actually fix the problem. In the meantime, I am now facing clearing the TCL error yet again when I get home.

Meet Gaea

I'll be glad when we get Claire's photography studio set back up and she's better. My picture taking isn't the best!

This beauty is made of a face cabochon (handcrafted by Dottie Hoeschen) mounted on a sterling silver back. The sterling has been pierced and copper wire threaded through and styled as hair. The hair is kinetic and moves slightly.

She tends to a row of small kinetic garnet and rainbow moonstone "flowers" that dangle gently on a sterling shelf below her.

Apatite and rainbow moonstone are woven into a flower crown on her head.







She is available here on 1000 Markets.

New toys!

I had a great Christmas. Besides the obvious reasons, I had a great day playing with my new toys - a book about bookbinding and toys to practice with! I tried some mockups with cardstock and regular paper and then made a coptic book using strathmore drawing paper and one of my postcards as the cover. I can't wait to sketch on the way to work!



I need a paper cutter - I can't cut by hand very well. LOL

Practice longstitch book (cardstock and printer paper)






Coptic stitch - cardstock, my postcard, and strathmore paper