After spending the weekend at Touchstone immersed in techniques to use images in metalwork, exploring a jewelry and photography exhibition felt pretty perfect.  It was a beautiful exhibition and MAD was a very cool place.  I loved so many pieces in this exhibition but the ones that captivated me the most were a collaboration between jeweler Karl Fritsch and photographer Gavin Hipkins who have found a unique way to combine their mediums.  Here is a photo of their work from Ocula.com

Thank you for Sharing my Creative Adventure - Patsy Kay Kolesar, 2014 Touchstone Center for Craft Workshop Scholarship Recipient

Welcome to our newest crafthaus members:

Ashford O'Connor, Fresno, CA

Cara E. Siegel, Urbana, IL

Daniel Valencia, Washington, DC

Danielle Straub, Providence, RI

Katrina Barnett, Minneapolis, MN

Marina Shaltout, Normal, IL

Peter Antor, Edinboro, PA

Teresa F. Faris, Madison, WI

Maker Faire at the White House

As part of a weeks-long emphasis on the economy, Obama was promoting the use of new tools and techniques to start up new businesses, to boost manufacturing and to strengthen science and math education.

"We've got to make sure that more Americans have the skills and opportunities to land a job in a growing industry or to create entire new industries," he said. "That's why I'm declaring today a national day of making."

Two Presentations in Three Days!

Blog by Dauvit Alexander, UK

What a week! Not only have we been finishing off with the students for the year - and sometimes for ever, really - but I've been doing my best to help Karen Dicken to get the "Handmade By Machines" exhibition and symposium together. I have to confess that I rather fell short on that one as we had far too much work to do for the marking of the degree students, but I was able to volunteer the services of our excellent technician, Iain, just visible in the white shirt at the end of the above shot.

Forlane 6 Studio - Underwater Sculpture

Water is the tool that allows us to transform ordinary objects inside a transitory and suspended space. When immersed in this element, materials can be displaced using their buoyancy, currents or air pressure. The movements of the sculptures participate to its metamorphose and recalls natural qualities.

Mexico City – Sin Título meets Part B (or at least one straggling representative of the latter…)

Blog by Melissa Cameron, USA

Saturday, April 12th, my last full day in Mexico, I got to hang out with Sin Título, (the name means Untitled, in Spanish) a jewellery collective from Mexico City. Once again I met with Alberto Dávila, Cristina Celis, Raquel Bessudo, Holinka Escudero, Zinna Rudman and Fernanda Barba, hot on the heels of our first meeting at the opening of Joyaviva. Together, along with Kevin Murray (and you might spot TurboNerd in some of the pictures too) we had a chat about life in the trenches for jewellery artists, and what they have been up to, as a group, to raise the profile of ‘our kind of jewels’ in Mexico.

Medalta International Spoon Show - Open to all media - Deadline June 30th

When will I be satisfied?

Blog by John Lunn, USA

Now that I've admitted and conceded that, despite all my interests, I am a bridesmaid to the flute first and last, I should come to terms with it and mold the future I want from the history it has given me. When I first set sail in business on my own, my intention was to make a great flute and compete in the market like any sensible manufacturer. Making a great flute was easy - I had a sensible business plan, talented employees, and the requisite skills to succeed. Finding a place in a very competitive market? Not so much. A quarter century gone by and it appears I’ve found my niche - working alone to create a legacy flute, a work of art and music that stands apart in the crowd. A flute to perform through generations of players, become part of musical instrument history and family heritage. Of course, history, not I, will decide if that succeeds. But there is no reason a well made and cared for flute can’t be played for hundreds of years.

The Earring Show 2

Blog by Velvet da Vinci, USA

The Earring Show 2 celebrates the publication of New Earrings by Nicolas Estrada. The exhibition features the work of 35 international artists and presents a snapshot of the current state of the art of the earring. Organized by Galerie Noel Guyomarc’h, Montreal, and Velvet da Vinci, San Francisco.

Do Good Social Practice Residency

Blog By Red Lodge Clay Center, USA

The DO GOOD-MJ Wood Memorial Short-Term Residency is an underwritten residency intended to support ceramic artists who wish to develop a body of work with a socially-conscious spirit and a strong sense of community engagement. Through a competitive application process one candidate per year will be selected to work at the Red Lodge Clay Center Studios with a full waiver of the residency fee. An additional stipend may be available for selected projects to assist with travel and/or production costs during residency.

Michelle Taylor - Broken Memory

The starting point for my art practice is influenced by a personal childhood narrative of maternal loss. The need to repair and restore the damaged and the broken in order to preserve memories and existence of paramount in my work.

The last word....

The Museum of Bad Art (MOBA) in Boston

Located in the basement of a theater, the Museum of Bad Art (MOBA) is a unique institution dedicated to the celebration of artistic effort, however misguided. The Museum of Bad Art: Masterworks presents a pulsating collection of more than seventy never-before-published pieces of artwork from MOBA's permanent collection.

Comprised largely of canvases found discarded on curbside trash piles or obtained for a pittance at thrift stores, this innovative compilation occupies a niche previously ignored in the international community of art collection, preservation, and interpretation. If the subjectivity of art appreciation were ever in doubt, this astonishing assortment of artistic commentaries will fan the flames of controversy. It is clear that many of these artists suffered for their art; now it's your turn.