Time for my teaching session, held in Hraç Arslanyan's "Mahrec Art House" workshops.

Hraç Arslanyan is an amazing jeweller, working with…

Call for Papers

On behalf of the Jewellers and Metalsmiths Group of Australia (Queensland Chapter Inc.), we invite proposals from emerging artists and practitioners, postgraduate students, educators,…

I recently found out that merry renk passed away and feel an obligation to say something in fitting tribute. In a time when yesterday is so often considered "old hat", it is wonderful to know that merry renk lived long enough to see her jewelry from mid-20th century recognized in major museum exhibitions.…

Okay, I've officially given up on catching up to my 4PAM posts, so I'm going to venture forward, and hope I can make up for the missing posts as I go along. So,…

It is probably an open secret that I am a huge fan of Lawrence Northey's metal figures. I just can't get enough of the humorous characters he creates. When I found out that…

Okay, okay, so I didn't catch up in time. That means the next two weeks I'll be posting two processes in an attempt to make up for last month. My recent blog and 4PAM slacking isn't apathy related, I've just been juggling lots of…

I'm running behind... again.... I'm starting to think that this state of perpetually playing catch up is my normal schedule, which means I'm not behind but rather right on time, ha!…

All Furniture Society members are invited to submit to the Members Gallery at this year's conference. Design, Community & Sublime Conference will be held at Maine College of Art from June 14-16,2012 in Portland Maine. The exhibition is a wonderful opportunity to show one's work to your peers and other conference attendees. We encourage all Society members to participate.

There is no fee to submit to Members Gallery, inclusion is open to all Furniture…

Hellooooo Fellow Makers!

I'm trying to get some answers, and you can help.  At some point in our career, we all go to a conference, fair, or symposium.  There are a lot of different reasons why we choose to go to an event, and a lot of reasons why we don't! 

Regardless of your medium, and regardless of what you attend (or don't attend), I'd really appreciate hearing from you!  I'm part of a group that's working on evaluating the content, format, and structure of…

I knew absolutely nothing about enameling when I started this process 3 weeks ago. The techniques I applied in this exploration were gleaned from the wonderful book"…

One of my other "hats" is being the video editor at Metal Clay Artist Magazine but I've been a little lackadaisical with producing videos for our online library, so,  I'm going to try for two birds with one stone. For my last process installment of the month, and a much over due MCAM video, I thought I would introduce another one of my favorite homemade metal clay tools, a bail drying rack.…

I usually sit down once or twice a year, draw up a bunch of designs, then make photopolymer or rubber texture plates. All in all it's a pretty laborious, time consuming process, and I end up trying to plan out a whole year's worth of work all at once.…

Original silver metal clay, 99.9% pure fine silver, just doesn't have the density or strength to survive as fine piercing work in the context of everyday wear and tear...  at least not in my opinion. Last December Mitsubishi Materials released the much anticipated PMC Sterling Silver Clay, to the excitement of the metal clay community. I decided to put this new material to the test by creating a pretty traditional ring you most often see casted, the pierced knot work Claddagh. The main…

The Craftcast™ "I Love Tools"event coming up this Wednesday got me thinking about my other beloved metal clay tools, particularly of the homemade variety.…

For the last 4 Processes a Month installment of January I catalogued the construction of this kinetic, hinged metal clay box with interchangeable tiles. It's coming in at the last minute because of some computer issues I encountered last week, fortunately all is well. Enjoy and thanks for watching.

http://crafthaus.ning.com/video/the-making-of-gallery-box…

This semester I am taking an independent study which has allowed me to further explore the medium of enamel. I have been fascinated and inspired by really beautiful drawn and painted images on enamel so I thought I would give it a try. This is just a work in progress but I am really loving the medium I am working with. I would also love some feedback on the piece itself or even tips when working with watercolor enamel.…

As mentioned in the fist tutorial, for the second installment of my 4 processes/projects a month (4PAM) is about how to keep kinetic metal clay components from fusing together in the kiln. If you aren't familiar with metal clay, in order for the clay to sinter, burn off the binder, and become solid metal, the temperature will range from 1100F to 1800F. Often this means touching components won't move after firing, or the surfaces where they were touching will be marred. This simple solution…