Sunday Workshop Wrap-up

On Sunday, the last day of the workshop, I showed the guys how to saw their own leaves out of copper and shape them into pendants. Man oh man, did they surprise me! They just whipped right through those pendants, getting anywhere from 2 to 4 gorgeous copper leaf pendants made. Take a look.

Click on the photo titles, listed below the photo block, for larger size images.

1. texturing.jpg, 2. shaping.jpg, 3. shaping a pendant.jpg, 4. student pendants.jpg, 5. student work.jpg, 6. my own demo pendant.jpg Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

All in all, a fun workshop- 1/2 day of tooling, 1-1/2 day of forged leaves, and 1 day of sawn and hammered copper leaf jewelry.

students working.jpg

students working.jpg, originally uploaded by knitsteel.

Wish you were here! Two students are making a forming stake while another works on a leaf. It's a gorgeous day for making art in Southwest Minnesota.

demo leaves.jpg

demo leaves.jpg, originally uploaded by knitsteel.

We spent our first morning preparing stake tooling and dressing hammer peens. I made these leaves as demo pieces throughout the first day of the workshop. The series of 3 leaves at the bottom show a step by step progression. I brought the acorns along for myself, to finish up into ornaments for my shop.

repousse hammers.jpg

repousse hammers.jpg, originally uploaded by knitsteel.

I'm teaching a 3 day leaf workshop at Tunnel Mill, near Stewartville, MN. Our talented friend, Nathan Robertson, left me a gift of 4 gorgeous handforged repousse hammers, as thanks for many hammer referrals we send his way. He didn't have to do that! But you all know that I'm absolutely thrilled. Please contact me using my email address (in rt sidebar) for Nathan's contact info. He makes fantastic hammers.

Driftless Festival this weekend!

I think I'm ready! for the Driftless Festival this weekend in Soldier's Grove, Wisconsin.  I've been stocking up on leaves all week and will be preparing my booth and paperwork today and tomorrow.

Leaf-o-rama

   

 

  

When I'm not hammering leaves, I am listening to my stations on Pandora internet radio and dancing on the anvil.
 
ok ok, I was really teetering on the anvil.

If you live in Southwest Wisconsin or the tri-state region here, I hope to see you at the Driftless Festival Saturday or Sunday! 

Ducks, Leaves, and Knitting

Yay!  I did get the ducks done on Tuesday. 

In this picture, you can see the front side on the right side duck and the back side of the left side duck.

I had planned to mount the ducks in the railing back-to-back, but I really like seeing both sides.  So I may stagger them in the railing, so you can see the front and back of each duck. 

I also started working on loads and loads of leaves, for the upcoming Driftless Festival in Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin.

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Some of you might remember that I knit and crochet.  Now that the weather is cooling off, I felt the urge to knit up a hat.  I used some of Whimzypinzy's handspun and dyed silk cotton blend yarn to get started on this beanie for my daughter.  It has one purl stripe of a fuzzy caramel mohair.
 
I should get that finished up tonight or early tomorrow morning.

must stay in hyper mode for the next 3 weeks....

What I really finished

So I did NOT finish the ducks.  You know I'm not enthusiastic about the duck project, but they will be done Monday or Tuesday.

I had an order for steel bracelets, so I finished up a bunch of steel and copper bracelets.

I finished up my little silver Oak Leaf and Acorn chasings into sweet rings.
Click on the photos for more details on each ring.

now available in my Etsy Shop.

I got a myspace page going.  There's no need to visit if you are already read my regular blog.  I simply cross post the same information to myspace.

I downloaded new music and updated all of my playlists, for my studio listening.  I had to take two trips to the studio to take along all of my techno essentials yesterday.  I was laughing at myself.  Look at all of the things I bring with me now, just a short distance to the worskhop!
I used to only take coffee!

I need my mp3 player, a landline for local and potential school calls, a cellphone for business and long distance calls, a bluetooth headset (so I can leave the cellphone in the one spot where it picks up a signal) and my coffee of course.

Look carefully and you will see my tiny travel laptop sitting up in my tool chest.  I like to have my messenger programs open, for a little bit of chat while I work.

Yes, I do need to be surrounded by my distractions in order to actually focus on my work.  Don't try to tell me that doesn't make sense. hee hee

Someone please tell my husband that I need a serious sound system for the studio for Christmas.  I want something that will work with CDs and my mp3 player, with good speakers for loud music.  And if my husband doesn't listen, go tell my MOMMYYYYYYY!!

Late Summer

It is late summer.
I've painted my short dirty fingernails with gold glitter and got myself some glitzy gold Doc Marten boots.
 

I've let the houseplants die, and sought out the lush colors and forms of late summer.
in the Mississippi backwaters
 
 

and in the yard
 
 

In the studio, I alternate between steel ducks and small pieces of jewelry.
 
By Saturday I will have completed both.

New Greenman and Acorn Bracelet

 I've been slowly working on these pieces through workshops and finally finished them.
My latest leaf/green man

and my latest Oak with Acorn Cuff Bracelet

both in bronze.
Please contact me if you are interested in purchase.  I will have them listed on Etsy by mid day Tuesday, or sooner.
School starts tomorrow for the kids!  Hooray!  That means I get lots more studio time.