Happy Veteran's Day

Got this cartoon in my email this morning.  I though it was worth sharing. 

Happy Veteran's Day to all my fellow veteran's out there!



May we all have a great day enjoying our freedom today!

Janie

Dauphin Island Art Trail Photos

I have some photos to share from the Dauphin Island Art Trail we had October 15th at Dauphin island, Alabama.  It was an interesting and fun event.  Read all about it in this post.  My booth was at the Sea Lab Estuarium.  I thought it was a great fit because a lot of my jewelry is nautical or Island related.  Thanks to all the folks who stopped by!

Here are some of my displays:

And we had some great booth mates!

Deb and Steve Garst of The Dog House Studio were our booth mates.  Each business on the Island hosted just two venders each.  So, it was just us two at the Estuarium.  They are wonderful people and they both are fabulous artists.  Hope to see you guys back for our next art show!

We couldn't have had better weather for this art show.  The butterflies came and flew around us all day.  Here a few shots of them, the entrance to the Estuarium, and the area where we were set up.  I didn't get to take many pictures because we were actually very busy most of the day. 

And here's a photo I took from the back of the Estuarium.  An ultralite flew by with a flocks of birds that were flying with him! 

More photos of the things around us that day.  They say that if you're lucky enough to live on an Island, you're lucky enough. I think I'm even luckier...look at where I got to set up my booth!  And they told us we could set it up anywhere in the area we wanted.  Not to many artists get to do that at an art show.

Click on the photo below to see a larger view.  It shares a little bit about the life that lives in the salt marsh.

One of the crew boats coming in from the oil rigs.

All in all, it was a great event.  I hope we get to do it again next year. 

Have a great day!

Janie



Art Trail, Dauphin Island, Alabama

We are having an Art Trail October 15th, 2011 at Dauphin island, Alabama.  Each of our local business' will host artists.  We will set up booths at the business that hosts us and give them 10% of our sales.  I will be at the Sea Lab Estuarium.  That should be a good fit for much of my jewelry which is nautical in style.

At the beginning of the trail, each participant will be given a ticket or card.  A drawing will be held at the end of the trail.  Grand prizes will be awarded to those who get their cards stamped at all nine places.  The flyer below shows which places you need to visit.  So, mark your calendar and come see us!

I hope to get some photos taken of all the new work I've been making to get ready for this.  So, check back here soon for that. 

Have a great day!

Janie

The Finished Silver Sea Turtle Pendant - Final Update

     This is a final post in a series of three.  The first post begins with the creation of this Sea Turtle pendant.  The second post ends with it being tumbled.  And, todays post shows the final result.

The Final Result

     My fine silver Sea Turtle pendant is all finished.  It's been tumbled, patina'd, and polished.  I decided to go simple and hang it on a black cord.  I didn't even use a bail to hang it on.  I just looped the black cord through the pendant itself.  It just seemed to call for that.  I'm pretty happy with the end result.  I think it will be a good pendant for a man or a woman (or me!).  Take a look and let me know what you think....

     Thanks for allowing me to share some of my silver jewelry making process with you. If you would like to see this pendant in person, come to the Sea Lab Estuarium on Dauphin Island, AL, the 15th of October.   I will have a booth set up there for the Art Trail we are having on the Island.  More on that later...  Until then, if you would like to see other jewelry I've made, you can check out my Etsy shop or Art Fire shop.  I probably won't be listing anything new online until after our Art Trail.  However, if you see something you like here, there, or on my Flickr album, just contact me.  I'm sure we can work something out.

Have a great day!

Janie

Silver Clay Sea Turtle Pendant in Progress Update Post Firing

      This is the second post of an in-progress report on a new silver clay Sea Turtle pendant that I am making.  Please see yesterday's blog post to see how it all began.

     The Sea Turtle pendant fired beautifully.  I wire brushed it after firing, and it is now in the tumbler being tumbled to work harden the metal.  I took photos after each step.  The way it looks might surprise those of you who have never seen silver jewelry in this stage of construction.  It comes out of the kiln almost white.  It takes a lot of work to get it to the silvery shiney state that you see it in when it's ready for purchase.  And, this small in-progress writeup that I'm doing here doesn't show a lot of the work and steps that most of my pieces require.  Most of the time there is a lot of sanding and polishing before, during, and after.  And, it takes many grits of sand paper, polishing papers, and/or power tools. 

The first photo below shows the pendant fresh out of the kiln after firing.

And the next photo below shows the pendant after it has been wire brushed.  This is done before it is put into the tumbler.  The tumbler will work harden the metal and give it an initial polishing.

And here it is in the tumbler.  I will tumble it for an hour or two and then begin polishing.  After it is polished, I will use some liver of sulpher (LOS) to give it a patina.  And then finally, I'll give it a final hand polishing. 

I hope you'll feel free to leave any comments or questions here for me.  I'm happy to answer any questions about my processes.  I will post back here with a final photo once the pendant is out of the tumbler and I have completely finished it's patina and polish.  Hopefully I'll be able to have it finished by this afternoon.

Have a great day!

Janie

Silver Pendant in Progress Photos

I'm having fun with my silver clay this morning.  I'm working on a pendant that will be part of my inventory for an upcoming art show on the 15th of October at Dauphin Island, AL (more about that later).  I took a couple of in progress photos.  The first photo is a little mystery.  I want you to try and guess what it is going to be:

Can you tell?  I know by looking at the photo, you probably can see that it will be a pendant...It is a flat base and has a hole at the top.  Notice the texture in the middle?  That's the major clue to it all.  But wait, there's more..........  The next photo should give you a really good idea.

Baby Sea Turtles!  The texture on the flat piece represents their foot prints in the sand.  Baby Sea Turtles hatch as eggs in the sand.  At some point after they hatch, they will make their way back to the water.  We've recently had some hatch where I live, at Dauphin Island.  We're very happy about this, since the events of  last years oil spill by BP in the Gulf of Mexico.  The new baby Sea Turtles are what inspired me to make this pendant.  It's been in my head for a while.

Are you wondering how this pendant will turn out?  You'll have to wait a little longer, because it's at the stage you see right here now.  I still have to finish it and fire it in my kiln.  Stay tuned, and I will post a photo here after I have fired it in my kiln.

Have a great Day!

Janie

Update.......
The Seaturtle pendant is in the kiln firing right now.  Hopefully tomorrow, I will finish it and show photos. 
If not tomorrow, then Friday.

New Silver Pendant

I'm toiling away getting ready for three back to back art shows.  Here is a silver pendant I finished up yesterday.  It has a blue dichronic cabachon as it's focal point.  It's not finished though.  I still have to decide how to hang it.  I'm toying with the idea of a multi stranded beaded wires with blue aqua and green seed beads.....but I'm not sure yet.

Have a great day!

Janie