Thursday, December 31, 2009

Lace Necklace

A new necklace, meant to look kind of like lace. Can you guys tell I love to make chain? I do. Its probably one of my favorite things to do...you just come up with a design and then repeat...don't have to think about it, just do it over and over until you have a chain! I like it alot...except for sanding. Finishing chain is not fun. Anyway the necklace is reversible but this is the front:And the back:

You can click on the images to enlarge.

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

SNAG Brochure

My work was recently featured in an advertising brochure SNAG just put out. Look for me under the student benefits section. Here is the inside:and the outside: the student insert (Here I am!):

and the membership insert

Thanks SNAG!

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Snapshots from Christmas

I took 3 days off to go down to Tucson to see my parents and brother for Christmas. We had a great time just hanging out together. We started a new tradition a couple of years back that we make a fire outside and do some dutch oven cooking the day after Christmas. My husband is a camping nut so this is always his favorite part of going to Tucson. He does some dutch oven cooking every time we go down.
This year he made dutch oven jambalaya and it was Sooooooooooo goood!My little brother likes playing with fire too so it works out good for everyone.
My brother also recently got a really sweet digital slr camera so I played with it while they played with fire:)We had a great time...I only wish I had been able to take off more time. Well, Im already looking forward to next year!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas!



Happy Holidays from the desert! I wish all of you and yours a wonderful day spent with family and friends. Thanks for sharing another year with me! I feel very fortunate that I was able to spend the holidays with my family down in Tucson, AZ. This is me and my little brother and my husband. Today was a great day. I love my family!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Damascus

This semester I took a patterned metals class. The first part of the semester we made mokume gane (which I keep meaning to post on) and the second half of the semester we made damascus steel. Damascus steel is a very technical, labor intensive process that yields beautiful patterned and strong steel. We started with two different types of steel, cut them into pieces, welded them in a stack of alternating layers, forged them out into a long strip, and repeated that process until we had a stack of 120+ layers. My billet ended up being 150 layers. A lot of people in the class made knifes, but I just wasn't into the whole weapon thing so I made I made a sheet to work with for jewelry purposes. Its about 10" long and 3" wide, and maybe about 16 gauge thick. I can't wait to work it into something!Photos Courtesy Tedd McDonah.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

New Embroidered Jewelry on Etsy

Just a few new little things in my etsy shop! Embroidered Earrings and two little sewn pins!





Friday, December 18, 2009

New Laser Engraved Ebony Jewelry


Here are some images of laser engraved ebony jewelry I made this semester. Check out the video above to see the laser in action!

These have lots and lots and lots of teeeeny tiny itty bitty solder joints. I hope I'm not blind by the time I'm 40.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

78 Days Left

Until my thesis exhibition...
Yikes! Work must come quickly and bountifully now for the next 3 months. No time to take good images, but here are some new (ish) wall pieces for the thesis show. All made with found antique silver platters, copper and embroidery. The one on top has no embroidery, and the one on bottom has a small container in the middle filled with hair and encased in glass.

Report: Mesa Holiday Art and Music Festival

My friend and fellow grad student, Katie Poterala, and I did the Mesa Holiday Art and Music Festival this last weekend. It was really cold, but overall a pretty good weekend! Thanks to all of our wonderful friends and family who came out and supported us! Here are some images of our booth...
Oh, and I have tons of new jewelry leftover from the show, but with only 78 days until my thesis exhibition (yes, Im counting in days now) Im not sure I will have any time to post it on etsy. Maybe...








Friday, December 11, 2009


Hi All!

I just wanted to let you all know about an event I will be participating in this weekend...the Holiday Art and Music Festival at Mesa Art Center! There will be lots of local and national artists selling wonderful things (great for gift giving!) There will also be lots of things to do for the family, music, childrens activities, food, demonstrations etc. Please see the attached flyers for more info. I would love to see you all there!

This weekend:
Mesa Holiday Art and Music Festival
Mesa Art Center
Saturday and Sunday 10am-5pm



Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Julia Harrison: Woodworking and Finishing Techniques for Jewelry Workshop at ASU

This past weekend, ASU Metals hosted a woodworking workshop with Seattle artist, Julia Harrison. This picture above makes me soooo happy! Everyone who participated had a great time and Julia was awesome! (You can see all the photos from the workshop here.)She taught us all sorts of texturing techniques, carving methods, and we all got to make samples and carve wood spoons from a solid block.Step 1: Make a top view template.Step 2: Make a side template. Step 3: Cut off the top side.Step 4: Start carving out the bowl.Step 5: Cut off the bottom and then cut out the profile.Step 6: Carve away!Step 7: Sand, sand, sand until finished! (I still have a long way to go...)I loved seeing wood chips all over the studio floor...it was so fun!Here are all the spoons we all created that day...all of which are still in the finishing process.
It was a great time! Hopefully I will post more pics soon of the jewelry stuff I made...