I’m Inspired!

I have started to work through Polymer Clay Inspirations: Techniques and Jewelry Projects for Creating Successful Palettes, and am quickly becoming obsessed with what this wonderful book by Maggie Maggio and Lindly Haunani has to offer.

I decided to limit myself to Premo in order to limit my choices and because that’s the clay I usually use. I completed the package color testing exercise and made a value sorter.

This was getting interesting. Terms like tint, shade and value started to make more sense. I read about pivot tiles and made six of them.

I was so fascinated by the color shifts that I made six more pivot tiles with different colors.

Then I made clay plugs from the leftover colors this time, extruded them and made canes.   Since each cane started from the same pivot color, they all work on some level.  Now I am hooked.  To pivot beads and beyond!!!

I found a neato color test you might want to try.  Go to the Pratt and Lambert site and find out what color personality you have.

Twenty Five Years of Mural Art in Philadelphia

Happy Birthday to the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program which is 25 years old this month and still going strong.   I feel lucky to live in a city where I can see beautiful paintings on the sides of buildings where ever I go.  I get to walk past two of my favorite murals on my way to work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The mural at Hahnemann Hospital on North Broad Street is near my workplace.

  

The mural of former mayor Frank Rizzo is near my home in the heart of South Philadelphia. Some people loved him and some people hated him, but he was always larger than life. And so is his mural.

Here’s to the next 25 years!

But wait, there’s more! 

Wall Watching is an invitational photography exhibit of showing the murals as part of the city landscape instead big paintings.  The exhibit is free to the public and runs to November 13 in the West portal hallway of City Hall in Philadelphia.  You can even  follow the mural program on Twitter!   And check out Art in City Hall  to get information about the many other interesting art exhibits scheduled there. 

Shades of Blue Earrings

You can read my newest project article on how to make these cool drop earrings  in the November/December issue of Step By Step Beads. You probably know that SBS Beads will cease publication  with the January/February 2010 issue,   The good news from the Interweave site is that it is being merged into Beadwork Magazine, and that Step By Step Wire is still going strong.  I had a clasp making article published there earlier this year.

What’s Your Favorite Color?

Adobe has a neat, free on line tool called Kuhler (pronounced cooler) that lets you play with color. After you open a free account, you can even upload pictures and pull palettes from them. See my picture below.

Here’s a good tutorial on how to use Kuhler.

What got me on this Kuhler/color obsession? Lindly Haunani and Maggie Maggio’s magnificent new book, Polymer Clay Inspirations: Techniques and Jewelry Projects for Creating Successful Palettes. This winter, a friend and I plan to work our way from one end of the book to the other. When we come up for air, maybe I’ll have something new to show you.

Bargain Tool Discoveries

Harbor Freight sells a steel shot filled leather pouch used to repair dents in cars. It makes a great noise-deadening surface for your bench block and the price is right at  $2.59. They also sell a flint striker for $1.79  which is great for lighting torches. This cheap model works better than the “high quality” one I bought elsewhere. I also got a small bolt cutter that I use to cut cable and heavy wire, a  bargain at $3.99.    I plan to use their digital pocket scale for weighing resin and hardener. That way I won’t mix more than I need and I can pour out equal amounts more easily.

I confess, weighing resin is not my idea; I read the tip in Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist. But it makes sense.  Serious bakers weigh their ingredients because the measurements are more accurate.

And for all you tool lovers out there, Toolmonger is a blog you shouldn’t miss!

The Most Important Creation

 

Connor Samuel,  born September 23, 2009. Congratulations to parents Leigh and Max.

Make Mine Mosaic Too!

As promised, here are pictures of my finished counter that I posted about in July. I attached the pieces to the counter, grouted them with sanded grout and sealed the grout after it dried. This project was a lot more work than I thought it would be, but I like the results. I don’t use this counter for food preparation; it’s just a bright place between the dining room and the kitchen.

Frit Experiments

A few weekends ago, I took a polymer clay recycling tip and separated my broken beads and tiny stringer remnants by color. Then I smashed them into frit. What you see below are my containers of frit and some of the beads I made with it.

I have an unorthodox method of using the frit; I melt the end of my Moretti Rod, dip it into the frit container, introduce it slowly back into the flame and melt the colors in. I repeat these steps a few more times then I wind the glass onto the mandrel.  

Here’s Lampworker Tom Wright on YouTube showing how he adds frit to beads.

Madame Butterfly-The Philadelphia Connection

Giacomo Puccini’s opera Madam Butterfly has a  Philadelphia connection. John Luther Long, a Philadelphia Lawyer, wrote the original story in Center City.  You can read more about  it here.

There’s also a recent  Philadelphia connection.  The two 12 foot high bronze statues below, currently on display in City Hall courtyard,  are on loan from artist   Jun Kaneko  to mark the Philadelphia Opera Company’s  upcoming performance of the opera.   Kaneko originally created brass heads for the  Opera Omaha’s spring 2006 performance of Madame Butterfly.     See more of  Kaneko’s breathtaking set designs  here.

 

Brass Heads in City Hall Courtyard

Here’s a portion of the Philadelphia production.

Bob’s Urban Garden at the End of Summer.