Holiday Letter 2010

For many years I have included an annual “Holiday Letter” with my holiday cards. In spite of the fact that these letters are usually self-promoting in the extreme, I decided that I would still compose a holiday letter to bring our friends and relatives up-to-date with what happened in our lives during 2010, but I also decided that I would offer it as a voluntary read, i.e., on my blog, on-line. Thus, it is a more environmentally friendly holiday letter, and I will work on minimizing the self-promotion aspect of the tome as well.

To start out with some basics, Jim and I celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary this year. As always, we are amazed at our longevity as a couple. We work well together, and we fight well together, and in spite and despite all, we care deeply for each other. Thus, we push through the bad times and concentrate on the good ones.

Jim shoveling snow during our Blizzard of December 11.

My personal Nanuk of the North.

Jim’s father is 92 now, and still in great physical condition. Of course his life has slowed down a bit, but he is just as mentally spry as he has been for many years and we are delighted that he is still here to spend time with. Jim drops by every morning to say “hello” and check up on him, and he helps him out by shoveling his snow and doing some errands for him as needed. I look forward to spending another Christmas with the two men in my life.


Our snow for the early part of the year was almost non-existent. But our snow for the end of the year has more than made up for that with more than 20 inches in less than ten days. Our snow blower has been non-functional for a few years now, so we are getting our exercise by wielding our shovels while clearing out driveways and walks.

Stormcloud's store front in warmer days.
The store is still there and functioning. It has been a hard year for us, as it has been for every small retailer, but we are hanging in there and hope to end the year on an up-note. There are so many aspects of the store that we love, and we have the best customers in the world, so we are reluctant to do much more than discuss retirement at this time. Even though I would love to do my art on a more full-time basis, I really need to interact with others and, I suspect, I would still get a part-time job even if I wasn’t working at the shop.

BFAC 2011 Jewelry Box - top.  Handpainted and beaded silk.

As always, I have spent whatever time I could creating my artwork. This year I prepared a two-layer jewelry box with hand-painted beaded silk and etched copper work on the lid. This was made for Beading for a Cure and will go up for auction sometime in March/April 2011. It is my hope that it will bring high dollars for the charity. I also had one of my bronze clay earrings published in a book on bronze clay by Yvonne Padilla. It was a thrill to have a project of mine in print again.

BFAC Jewelry Box - Interior.  Two layers and a pull-down
ring holder.  The plaque translates the Tengwar that is on the
round disc on the front. 

I attended Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee in June, although I shortened my usual stay to five days. And I attended the Precious Metal Clay Conference at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana in late July, driving to Kentucky after the conference broke up to attend a two-day workshop in torch firing enamels at Thompson Enamel Company. I still love working with my kiln and enamels, but had little time to spend with it later in the year. I hope to return to it in the New Year.

The King and Queen on their Wedding Day meeting some
of their Royal subjects. 

We had Season Tickets for the Minnesota Renaissance Festival again this year and attended each Sunday of the Fest. We truly love being out there, away from the walls and roofs of our normal lives. My BFF Sharon came over from Denver again for the Labor Day weekend. We attended the Minnesota State Fair with her and took her to the Renaissance Festival for the King’s wedding ceremony (very posh). And, as usual, we had a terrific time sharing our space with our friend again. Our door is always open to her.


It is our sincere hope that all of you have a peaceful and joyful holiday season and that 2011 is a year of expanding possibilities, love, and extraordinary beauty for each of you. We wish you happiness with your families and careers, and the hope that you will achieve your goals. Thank you for your patience with my annual Holiday Letter, I promise you won’t have to read another one from me until next year.

Sandra and Jim

Stress Can Kill

Stress. It seems to be something that we are all dealing with now in various ways. I usually am pretty good about letting it slide off me, trusting that all will turn out well in the end and that we are all watched over in a fashion. I still believe that, but obviously my body didn't get the message that my head did. So I have a stress-related illness that will annoy me for the remainder of this year and I'm not happy about it.

But, I really don't have the time to deal with crap like that. I have holiday gifts to make and design and larger projects to get going with. So, enough pity talk - back to creative talk. It makes me much happier!

I got notification from Lark Books last night that a pair of earrings I made for an upcoming book's "Gallery" section was accepted. I'm very happy about that - now to find the next thing that I can make something for and try again. You don't get anywhere without trying, and this month I'm batting 500 - LOL. One rejection, one acceptance. Not too bad :-)

Favorites? - Carnival Blog

This month's Carnival Blog asks the question "What is your favorite technique?". Now, I do have to state up front that I am a completely unofficial member of the Carnival Blog. The Carnival Blog is a small group of jewelers and metal clay fabricators who answer a posed question once a month. It is an interesting group of creative people, and more importantly (for me) the questions are usually of interest.

I have a real problem deciding my favorite technique. It's probably the major reason that I have enamel and BronzClay on my workbench in-process, a painting project in my carryall, a cloak on my mannequin, an etching project to the left of my computer desk and a beading project to the right of my computer desk. The problem is that I love all of these items, and I also love metal fabrication which takes place at my workbench at the shop since I need the torch and the flex shaft (as well as other tools) for that. In the past I might have been considered a type of "Renaissance Man", but looking at myself I consider myself more of an undecided voter - LOL. I do see all of my artwork consolidating to two major platforms, the use of color and the use of light. I combine these two elements in my use of glass in glass beads and glass enamel. The use of enamel requires a metallic platform for the glass and some way to display the finished items - thus the benchwork metal fabrication in sheet as well as metal clays. My painting is a bit odd man out, but I use those techniques in my enamel work also. The cloak? Well, I will admit that the sewing is most certainly not part of my artwork. But it is something that I have done on-and-off for most of my life and I need a new cloak for this season's Renaissance Festival. I will never stop beading - I have done it for more than 40 years, am an accomplished and recognized artist in the media, and I enjoy it. But I don't pick my needle and thread up as often as I used to.

So what is my favorite technique? All of the above. Playing. These are all components of Sandi's sandbox and I'll sit there with my shovel and pail and a little water and build the most wonderfully colorful translucent sand castle you'll ever see :-) Give yourself permission to play today. Drop by the park, swing on a swing, play on the merry-go-round, or indulge by visiting a Carnival....a creative carnival.

Product Envy.....Or Not

Bill Struve, the inventor of BronzClay, has fashioned a copper clay variant. Last year I had really wanted Bill to include me as one of his beta testers. As it turned out, I was not chosen. But I am finding that I am not minding this. Although I really enjoy metal clay, and although I will be one of the first to admit that some wonderful things can be created with it and that in many instances it can minimize the work needed to fabricate an item, there is something really fantastic about holding a hammer and torch in my hands. I do plan to play with the copper clay when it becomes commercially available later this year. And I plan to continue playing with my BronzClay and Silver Clay. But I also plan to continue to increase my traditional fabrication skills because I am, at heart, a free spirit and I will use whatever media will allow me to succeed at my project in the best fashion.

Today I will work on making color strips for my enamel colors. I want to continue with my project for Beading For A Cure and some enamel pieces are a part of my vision for the end product. Therefore, I need to make sure that the colors I purchased will actually work with my beads. Here is another Beading for a Cure auction item for you to look at. Be sure to check out our weekly auctions on eBay and bid. I have already been out-bid on several items . Think creatively!

Wednesday - The Usual Crowd

As usual, I have too many things to accomplish on my "day off" or, as I think of Wednesdays, my "studio day". I got the front and back coats enameled onto my next group last week and will continue that today. But, I still have to do 2-3 loads of launday, turn on everything at the shop, drive to Minneapolis to drop off a jewelry repair that is beyond my skill to do, drop by Harbor Freight to get more of an item that I use in my jewelry, and take a quick trip to Barnes & Noble if I can fit it in. That's not counting my normal 2-1/2 hours of Emails, the Wednesday trash and recycling, etc, etc, etc..... Get the idea? I need a day off to get over my day off - LOL. What ever happened to lounging around in a hammock with a cool drink and a good book? Probably the same thing that happened to warm temperatures (today's HIGH will be below zero degrees F [that's minus 18 degrees C]).

Yesterday's Bead & Button registration went very smoothly. Looking through the schedule this morning, one of the classes I chose is already sold out. But it seems that metal is still very popular with most of the BronzClay classes either sold out or with limited seating already. I am taking mostly glass classes this time. I already have experience with most of the metal techniques being taught and I have been working with the metal clays now for quite a while. I noticed that their "Kiln 101" and the enamel classes (both vitreous and resin) are also popular. One of these days maybe I'll consider applying to teach again. I enjoyed it when I taught there years ago, but it's a lot of work and attending the show is one of my few vacations away from work. It seems counter-productive to work on my annual vacation, although it can be fun.

I hope that each of you has a productive and creative day. I guess you'll find out how successful I was in achieving this goal when I post tomorrow :-)

Photography and Gifts

I've been trying to be very good about keeping a photographic record of each item that I make before shipping it out. Last night I spent several hours photographing the holiday gifts that I have made as well as "Kinetic", the earrings that I was having such a hard time with earlier this Fall. I'm not going to share the holiday gifts until later this week - don't want to spoil the surprises if the recipients read my blog. But here's what Kinetic turned out like.



The top stones are pear-shaped peridot CZ's, set in copper. There are two small tube-set orange garnets at the top of the peridot. Then there is a shield-shaped piece of bronze clay that swings freely below the peridot which has a small, tube-set peridot piece at the "V"'s internal base. These were quite a challenge for me - a very hard thing to make. It was my first bearing bezel and then I added the bronz clay pieces, which I am finding hates solder. But I'm happy with the end result. I don't think it's at a level of expertise that I would consider putting up for sale, and I would have to charge WAY too much for the pair because of all the time it took to make them. So these are mine. It could be worse :-) Good Yule to everyone!

Studio Day - Playing with Electricity

Last summer I had an opportunity to spend a day learning copper electroforming techniques with Kate Fowle Meleney. We took one of her wonderful lampworked beads, painted on the copper paint that would allow the current to flow, attached the rectifier and started depositing copper onto the paint. It was very fun and quite beautiful. So, over the past two Wednesdays, I have painted several beads by Lewis Wilson, as well as two skulls. I will be electroforming the skulls at least today. I still need a good glass container that I can use for this, so I'll have to check out my local Goodwill for that. If I can't find one there, then Target, and if not there, then my local chemistry supply or kitchen supply company. I have the rectifier and the rectifying solution, the copper anodes, etc. I am hoping that these skulls will turn out to be a great Holiday gift for my DH - something unusual, relatively inexpensive (since I already own the equipment) and I can make a loop-in-loop chain for it. It'll be perfect for his "barbarian" days at the Renaissance Festival next year if I can get this done. I still have one more skull that I haven't painted - just in case these don't work I'll have one more chance.

I am almost finished with my Kinetic earrings. I will be making the earwires today and doing a small amount of graving around the gemstones. I'll try and photograph them today, but it may not happen until next week. I learned a lot making these and they're not perfect - not by any stretch - but they are a huge step forward in my fabrication skills with bronze clay, copper and gems.

So I guess I'll have my day filled again. I only have a short time until the Holiday, no days off except for my Wednesdays, and I have to get to work on the enamel pieces that I want to make. Being poor for the Holidays is making gift-giving difficult. I am hoping to get some enameling time in soon because many of the things I want to make will be enamel. I have to FOCUS.

Good, Bad & Ugly

The good - I found some great Tolkien spin-offs and histories on fanfiction.com (or perhaps .net?). Had a great time reading some of them - enough that I didn't get any of my web work done yesterday.

Bad - It was a day of mis-communication and the understanding that my partner and I simply don't see the same goals for the business. Am I totally selfish for wanting to focus on my personal growth? Maybe. But that's where I need to be right now and I don't see that I'm getting a lot of support from someone who is supposed to support me. So things are a bit rocky right now .

Ugly - I finished three pairs of BC earrings and drilled the holes for the bottom dangles. After working on them for a couple of minutes on Sunday, I realized that I drilled the holes WAY too far into the interior of the earring. I will have to work out a method of camouflage for this and redrill holes closer to the edge for the dangles or things will really look crappy. I had really hoped to be finished with the earrings, instead I have a couple of days worth of work still to do.

Projects?

It occurs to me that I haven't spoken about my personal work in a while. I did get several pairs of earrings ready for final assembly on Wednesday. I need to redrill the holes, drill a couple of other holes, attach Swarovski crystals (because flash is absolutely necessary) and put on the earwires. I'm trying out a new style of earwire and have been figuring out the exact configuration, weight of the wire, and whether or not I need to use a different metal. I think I'll probably go with copper or silver for the metal, although I also have some aluminum that might work well. That's the final step, so I'll finish these off next week.

Pathways are always worth the journey.
Take that first step and don't look back.

I have BronzClay for my pagoda drying. I'm not sure it will come through firing well, and I have other pieces that I need to cut to fit and assemble, so this one is still in process before it can hit the kiln.

I finished the painting for my skulls and got the banana plugs attached to my cable. On Wednesday I will fire up the rectifier and start electroforming on the skulls. I really hope that this works - the guy at Home Depot who helped me with the electronics thought that electroforming skulls was simply the kewlest thing he had heard of in a long time. It made my day that he was so chuffed over my little project :-)

And I did the basting over 3/4 of my cape with the other 1/4 to be tackled one evening this coming week. I am still fighting the neckline so that the cape closes properly and has a good neckline to attach the hood to. I do have some patterns that I can also check to see how they deal with it. But I'm really winging this one on my own.

Lately my head is full of enamel, so I'll probably put my clay aside for a little time to get some holiday gifts made up with my enamel instead. And there are still the two series that I want to make with enamel and Lord of the Rings for myself. There simply is never enough time.

Only positive thoughts are allowed into my life for our first snowy day :-))

Goals and Goal Setting

Tonya posted the following today, and this was my response to the primary paragraph:

"What is it that you want to attract into your life? How can you expect to achieve anything if you haven't asked for it. You are a magnet of energy. If you don't know or ask for what you desire how can that energy come back to you?"

My response to the quote above was:

That's the key, isn't it. To be able to focus on a goal and ask for it. But how to do that? You can ask the proverbial aether, or you can ask yourself to step up to the plate and perform for yourself instead of someone or something else. When you do that, you are often perceived as being selfish, self-centered, and a traitor to the corporate or family goals. The key is to walk this tightrope and get to the platform at the end of it. Only one person can stand on that platform - it should be the platform of your personal artistic goals and it should be you standing on that platform.

Catching that Rising Star

I'm often accused of being selfish because I take the time I feel necessary to work on my art instead of spending all of my time, 24/7, thinking about and working with my shop. But I've found, over the years, that my artistic side HAS to be a part of me. So, having my studio days are absolutely essential to me. Yesterday was quite productive. I got a lot of BronzClay formed and drying for the kiln, I painted a lot of copper-conductive paint onto beads and several skulls so that I can start electroforming them next week, I started working on the neckline of my cloak, and I started polishing a wonderfully layered slice of aggregate stone for the front of....something (haven't quite figured that out yet, but ideas are percolating). I just dove right into it when I got home in mid-morning and didn't come up for air until I left for the grocer in the late pm. And I was happy and have a good outlook on my upcoming day.

Oh, and I started working on my E-newsletter for the shop (Stormcloud Trading). I want to send one out every month at a minimum. It's not quite as easy as I had hoped, but I think I'll be happy in the long run. It's going to take some getting used to the software. I really wanted to have it out by the end of the week, but it will probably be next week before I really have it pounded into shape. If you are reading this blog and would like to be included in the address list for my E-newsletter for Stormcloud Trading, feel free to Email me and request to be added to the address list.

Day Off and Live Action

Here we are - Wednesday again. My list of things to do today is huge, so I know I'll only get about 30% of it finished, but I hope to get some time to make some jewelry today. There are some things that I want to experiment with and I can't do that until they exist in real life.

Speaking of real life, I thought I'd pass along some real wild life. The link is to Pete's Pond. Pete's Pond is a 24-hour live cam in Botswanna, Africa. When I'm on-line at 4:45 am, it is almost noon there. Today I saw a lot of really wonderful herons and other large birds. I imagine it could be excellent to watch around sunset or sunrise. Here's the link:

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/wildcamafrica/?source=email_inside_20081014&email=inside&EID=0063003708

Play well, have fun.

Crystals and Bronz

Well, yesterday's work on Kinetic wasn't hopeless, but didn't go as smoothly as I wanted either. I think I'm going to try and remake some of the elements on Wednesday's studio day and also try a few other experiments with the BronzClay. Just need to do it :-)))

We got the new Swarovski colors and pearl color in the shop at the end of last week. We've been selling them since - people seem to love the Dark Indigo. If anyone wants some of these, I have the bicones in 3mm, 4mm and 6mm and the rounds in 4mm and 6mm. Although I don't have a picture of the Crystal Bordeaux pearl color, I have that in 3mm, 4mm, 6mm, 8mm and 10mm sizes. Very pretty. (I can be contacted for business stuff at Beadstorm1 @ aol.com - just eliminate the gaps to get a valid Email address.)

VerLaine is on vacation today. We have store rules - one of which is no Saturday vacation days. I know that's not actually possible in real life, but we do try to eliminate as much as possible because Saturdays are usually pretty busy days. I'm hoping we'll be so busy that we'll absolutely hate her by the end of the day - LOL. Have fun at your Maya Society Banquet, Chickie. And check out the shirt that she designed for the Society. It's based on a plate - very fun. I'm for sure buying one of these T-shirts for myself!!!

Saturday on My Mind

We are absolutely flooded at work. Got three huge shipments of beads and findings in yesterday. These are the last buys for the year - we should be well set for the Holiday season once we get all of these packed up. We'll be working our little fingers to the bone - LOL.

Yesterday was not a great day at the torch . I have to remake the silver piece I was working on - but I'll get good because of the extra practice - LOL. Today I'll work on my bronze/copper pieces again - the top pieces were fired yesterday - hopefully the tubes will have fired up well and will be perfect for the earrings. I'll be pulling the BC items out of the kiln this morning and will take a look :-))

Love her Style & Money, Money, Money!!

Although there are many things posted on Daily Art Muse that I don't like, today she had a winner. Melody Armstrong, a metal artist from Canada, is producing some wonderfully made and very innovative jewelry. There are some great items - take a look at this wonderful sterling tube with gemstone...

Such a lovely sense of style that comes out in this. She is a graduate of design school - it makes me wonder what I could have done with my life if it had gone in that direction.

I did have a good day at the bench yesterday - the silver bezel for one project finally came together well. My torch had been acting up, but it worked great yesterday!!! And on the 3rd try, I got the outer bezel for one of my faceted stones done well. (The first time was too large, the 2nd time was too small. I was starting to feel like Goldilocks and the Three Bears - ). So my kinetic project is progressing. I have my lecture on BronzClay tonite for the Minnesota Metal Clay group. I'm looking forward to showing them what I'm doing in the media. And today is Wednesday - studio time and laundry. It's my sanity saver. My DH is screaming about how I am not fiscally conservative and how I'm blowing through money - he has NO idea how much I contribute to household expenses, and what I buy for my craft. My workshops alone usually run $1000-$2000 apiece. Well, I need to start selling my work to make some of the money back, and that's my goal. I wish I had more than one day for studio time each week!!!

Monday at the Bench

Monday was actually productive - at least before I unlocked the doors for the daily grind :-)) I finished a fun pair of BronzClay earrings featuring Pink Sapphire and resin enamel. The enamel ended up with some bubbles in it, but they actually added to the carefree and happy look of the earrings so I left it rather than redo the enamel. I'll photo them on Wednesday to show everyone.

I also made my first shaped bezel - a pear shape for some large peridot faceted stones that I want in another earring pair. The bezels turned out too large, though, so I'll be cutting them down today and then making the internal bearing for them. It is a learning experience, and fun. I have never made a bearing bezel or a shaped bezel before, so it is good fun. I'll get them to fit properly today. Then it's on to add the next parts to the earring - the tube settings, the overmetal, and the components that will allow the earrings to be kinetic. If this pair turns out, they'll be among the most fun earrings I will have made up to now.

I have 15 people (so far) who RSVPd for my Wednesday night lecture on BronzClay. I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone. I'll go through my "rejects" this morning and see if I have enough available to give everyone a small piece of fired clay. I also have a load that fired yesterday and I can't wait to see what turned out on those. Time to get to work on that next project - LOL.

Sunday - So Fine

The past seven Sundays, I've been up at 6am to get to Ren Faire near opening time. Today was the first Sunday after Ren and I actually slept until 9:30 am. What a luxury!!! Of course, all I dreamed about was this new pair of earrings that are perched in my head. I'm using a BronzClay bottom with a copper-bezeled olivine Peridot and some tube-set 2mm stones (haven't decided on the absolute color/type of these yet, possibly Padparadschka Sapphire). But the kewl thing about it is that I think I've figured out a way to make them kinetic - to allow them to have independent motion. I'm not sure my skills are up to the project, but I am certainly going to try my best. I think they'll look absolutely awesome. And, since DH actually said that I could spend some time working on my own projects today, I got some work done. Got some items ready and loaded for the kiln, got one-half of a pair of sterling silver and incredible Agate earrings ready for soldering, and cut the copper bezel for the kinetic earrings, as well as making the two half more uniform. Unfortunately, I have to work tomorrow. Fortunately, I will have a couple of hours of bench time before I have to work. If I focus on the positive, all is good :-)) And I've also decided I need to start saving for a new, larger kiln. The amount of space I currently have is great for my enamel and silver clay work, but just not enough for the larger BronzClay items that I want to do. So, time to start socking away any extra cash so that I can buy a bigger kiln and hire an electrician to wire it in for me.

Fired & Fried

Opening the kiln on Saturday morning....the ring band was flared - quirky. Hammering it back to a single plane planished the surface and made it rather interesting. I think I like this piece so far. The earrings took FOREVER to drill out with setting burs. I want to set some pink sapphires into them and resin enamel the remainder since standard enamel doesn't work with the BronzClay. The ring top didn't work out at all - I'll have to redo that and I'll saw, cut and pierce the old top to make something else of interest. I made some itty bitty circles to see how much shrinkage I got in tubes. I'll have to increase that size a lot to be able to use them for tube setting. And my minor repairs on my two lentil beads worked well (although one bead seemed to fire in a more oval shape - wierd). Everything went into the tumbler and is nice and shiny now.

Sunday we went to Ren Fest for the final day. I saw a lot of people, got stopped by several customers who were really happy to see me, and saw some wonderful outfits. I'll download the camera this week and post some pics. It was really hard to wake up this morning and realize that the magic is over again for another year. Fall is here, winter is soon to come.

Fighting Formatting

I'm happy with the basic blog look, but I can't seem to get my heading properly placed. It may be this way forever - LOL. I keep looking for gadgets to add - I'll find what I want eventually. In the meanwhile I did find two that I look at every day - the Astronomy Picture of the day and the National Graphics picture of the day. I love sharing these with other people - it's always good to get outside of your personal thoughts and concerns to look at the broader picture.

I'm looking forward to getting to the studio today. I fired some BronzClay yesterday and get to pull it out of the kiln this morning and see how it survived the fire. It's a bit unpredictable so it's rather fun to dig into the carbon and see how things look and how strong they are. I have to remember to bring my stones along with me also, since I should be able to get the settings carved out today also. Fun, fun, fun!!!!

Lentil Beads

So here I am, joining the blog ranks. So many people blogging, and I always have minimal time and don’t keep up with journals well. But I’m going to try and post regularly here to show the items I’ve worked on and the current projects that I’m running through.
To begin - I thought I’d put a picture of my most recent beads. These are made with BronzClay. I need to do a small and very minor repair on one of the beads at the hole where I got a small crack upon firing, but except for that - I’m actually pretty happy with them. I like the textures, the colors, and the fact that the colors actually stayed through the tumbling process. Many of the BC artists have stayed with the look as it comes from the kiln - rather rough in appearance and often very colorful. Although I enjoy the look, I tend to like a more finished and polished look for my pieces and throw them into the tumbler to get a higher polish on them.

Lentil Beads in BronzClay