Home from Seattle . . .
(See workshop photos at the end of this post.)
Oh, Yes! And a good time was had by all! My week in Seattle with my good buddy, Deryn Mentock, was INCREDIBLE! The city was INCREDIBLE, the location of our bed and breakfast, Pensione Nichols, was INCREDIBLE, the view of the Puget Sound from the commons room at the B&B was INCREDIBLE, the weather was INCREDIBLE, the food was INCREDIBLE, the shopping was INCREDIBLE, the company was INCREDIBLE (thanks, Deryn!) and the Susan Lenart Kazmir workshop retreat upstairs in the Pike Place Market was INCREDIBLE! What more could two gals ask? . . . except maybe a good night's sleep!
Our room was three stories up but literally on the curb of downtown Seattle's busiest street. Noise -- loud noise all night long. Rappers, race cars, garbage trucks, delivery trucks, a bar two doors down . . . get the picture? But since we had the best of all rooms besides the suites, we opted to use ear plugs and sleeping pills to make the place work for us! We were not going to be SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE!!
Spreading Joy: Ode to Seattle (Space Needle)
A cold join, metal, found object ring made in Susan Lenart Kazmir's class.
I used many jewelry skills, lots of new ones, to construct this ring. I started with only a sheet of copper, iron wire, sterling wire, and four found metal objects (the metal for the band, the loop, the hand, and the bottom coin.) I had to anneal, cut, saw, patina, punch, rivet, and wire the rest. The metal loop just under the top lintel piece is loose and will spin all the way around the ring, under the lintel. It looked somewhat like a fertilizer spreader to me -- hence the name "Spreading Joy." The word "joy" is punched into the metal loop and the words "joy" and "gentleness" are punched into the metal just below the loop.
(Click on any image to see a larger version.)
I love, love, love how Susan teaches. She is one knowledgeable, skilled, and creative whiz of an artist. She got the lay of the land when she asked about what each of the 18 of us did in the way of art and jewelry in particular. We selected any projects we wanted - from any class that Susan teaches - including making some of the awesome workshop sample pieces that Susan had made. Then she gave optional teaching demonstrations throughout the day each day. We worked at our own pace -- mine was a snails pace, of course, and Deryn's was lightning fast - that clever, quick little jewelry maker, she! I highly recommend that you tune in to Deryn's blog, Something Sublime, and catch her posts about the trip. She will have several INCREDIBLE pieces of finished jewelry to show throughout the next couple of weeks, I'm sure.
When Susan wasn't teaching, she was helping each of us with design, troubleshooting, and execution of some awesome pieces of art. She selected which demonstrations to do based on what participants were working on and the questions about techniques that we asked. Her tutorials included:
• setting rivets*
• sawing with the jeweler's saw on a bench pin*
• setting eyelets/tube rivets
• attaching metal parts with screws and nuts
• using a tube cutter*
• using a flex shaft for drilling and cleaning*
• using a gas torch*
• making and sealing awesome patinas on metal*
• making a ring band*
• attaching ring elements*
• using a dapping block*
• using a metal circle cutter*
• sewing with metal to create a lintel bezel*
• making piano hinges
• using the torch to draw a bead*
• using the torch to anneal metal*
• using the torch to make patinas*
• designing a journal binding
• making resin papers
• preserving objects with resin
• pouring resin bezels
• weaving metal
and making absolutely every possible non-traditional, cold join attachment that could be dreamed up!
*Skills I used in completing the ring that I made.
Because of Susan's streamlined teaching approach and the aide of her super efficient partner, Linda Larsen who is a talented metal worker and jewelry maker herself, everyone had exactly what they needed - exactly when they needed it! Students made dangles, drops, bracelets, brooches, necklaces, rings, boxes, etc. With guidance from Susan and assistance from Linda, students included in their jewelry pieces, every type of found object from peppers from the market, to pine needles from the grounds, to parts of toys brought from home, to precious items from personal collections. Everyone completed INCREDIBLE pieces of jewelry. Many students had five or six pieces to show at our week's end party over at the B&B Friday night.
Rings of Beauty Workshop(DVD)
Tribal Treasures Bracelet Workshop(DVD)
