Sketch for brooch

A sketch for a new cameo style brooch. The bezel will be similar to the one I made for the resin dome a few posts back although I think I will make this one in sterling. I plan to use several types of material for this piece including license plates, paper,and fabric.

Come on in the store.....

It's been awhile since you've been in. This year we had a fun color scheme of purple,turquoise, and lime; then on top of that for our big outdoor windows we threw in a spacey Jetson's theme. The Jetsons christmas special is running on a 24 hour loop.

Here at the crown center store we wanted to tie our mannequins in with the spacey theme and came up with these glasses and ears that we painted glossy white, they look like they really are part of the mannequin!

Sure wish mac were here to see these, he would have flipped over them! I had given him a pair of these glasses for his birthday this year which is what made me think of them for this window.



This garland runs on two levels of the store and is decorated on the inside and outside of the railings. We didn't drop a single ball this year, yay for us! The poor men's dept.(lower level) gets showered with a lot of glitter though.

This weekend

This weekend i finished this ankh necklace for my friend Carol. I did some extra texturing on the edge that I think looks really great. Carol does some amazing ceramics, mostly black and white work dealing with saints and milagros. I own several of these and don't see my collecting of them slowing down at all.


Here is another friend of mine Tammy with her new Citybird necklace. You can see this in progress a couple of posts back. If you haven't been to her site Homemade Circus yet hop on over you will be delighted!

This is my newest piece from her, the Trapeze artist. Isn't she beautiful! I'm trying to think ahead as I plan where to hang her because I know that I am going to add to this when she comes out with the other circus folk.



I also worked on the guitar a bit more. This will be done by this weekend,Yay! Everywhere that you see a drilled hole will be a sterling solid wire rivet which is what will connect all layers of this piece together.

Amuck at Latteland

Bryan and I set up a show at latteland on the Plaza this week with our friend Dick Daniels. So, if you're in kansas City head on down for a latte and peruse the artwork. I think Mikey and Sugar need the POOPY painting (Yes, I buy artwork for my kitties).

Bird and skull brooches are brand new this season. I've been sporting my bird pin on my hat.

New Retailer! Christopher Park Gallery

Our newest retailer is Christopher Park Gallery in Greenville,SC. You can check out the gallery here.

what I'm working on

Trying out something new. When I made the resin windows for my rocket ship last week I poured a few extra domes and filled them with tiny pieces of street signs. These are itty bitty little disks that have been punched out of larger pieces where I make my rivet connections. I save all my scraps in hopes of coming up with a new piece that I can incorporate them into.

Tonight I went down to the studio and cut the copper piece that will house the dome and got it mostly soldered. Almost never get a bezel soldered all the way in one shot. The evenings sure fly by quickly, I could've stayed down there a lot longer tonight.

I think my favorite part of this pendant is the back. I love how you will be able to see into the dome from the backside!

I also got a bit more done on this bird necklace for my friend Tammy. It's going to be quite lovely all in black, white, and grey.

Shopping and Inspiration

Wanted to pass on some sites to check out for tools, books, and inspiration. Enjoy!

TOOLS:

Small parts
Thunderbird supply
Metalliferrous
Rio Grande
Cool Tools Love the liver of sulfur patina gel

Some basics that I used in the demo last night were a 4 inch jewelers saw frame, Powermax full flush cutters, chasing hammer, brass head mallet,bench anvil, dapping set, and a tubing cutter jig.

Books:

1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse by Garth Johnson(Barnes&Noble on the Plaza purchased extra copies, so definitely available there)
Making Connections by Susan Lenart Kazmer
Fabulous Jewelry from Found Objects by Martha LeVan *we will be in a book by Martha LeVan that releases next June called 30 Minute earrings, you can see it listed on the Lark books website(our piece made it on the cover, top right corner)


Inspiration:

Cold Connection group on Flickr
Etsy Metal
Objects and Elements (Susan Lenart Kazmers blog)
Extreme Craft (Garth Johnsons blog)

Sterling Guild

Bryan and I wanted to say a quick thanks to the KC Sterling guild for inviting us to do a demo on cold connections and recycled materials, we had a great time. We will be putting together a list of interesting sites, places to shop, cool tools and books and posting them here later today.

Demo this friday p.m.

Bryan and I will be doing a short program this friday evening on cold connections and recycled materials. If you are in kansas city you are welcome to join us and the Sterling guild of KC. I went downstairs tonight and cut out a few pieces to demonstrate tabs. We will definitely be showing tube and solid rivets as they are our most favorite cold connection.
If any of you out there are teachers we would certainly love any advice you can offer. This will be a new experience for both Bryan and I.

What I worked on this week

I made a BUNCH of my Fisher Price people necklaces this week for the Cool Stuff show at my friend Maria's house this weekend. Just love them all together! I'll be posting some of these in my Etsy shop soon.

Women in Tubes

My mouth just dropped when I came across these necklaces from artist Kristin Lora. She also has a line of mounted animals that is not to be missed.
Enjoy!

Wee Planets

These amazing little plantes are by french photographer Alexandre Duret-Lutz. Check out the other planets here and get a description of his process to create these.

portrait of Mac

A very cool portrait of Mac sent to me from Jeff Ritzmann.

the rest of the week...

This is a photo of me playing around in the cemetery for my bridal shots. Wednesday was mine and Bryan's 9th wedding anniversary. We celebrated by going to a zombie play called Maul of the Dead, very campy and fun. The next part will be of no surprise to most of you but we then went over to latteland for the rest of the evening.


The mantle dressed up for Halloween. This has been such a crazy year that we didn't get anything new for the yard decorations and just barely got the house decorated. Normally we carve enough pumpkins to line the porch so it was a little lacking this year. Mikey cat was mesmerized by the candle flames. I was a bit nervous with him being next to them but he did really great and sat on the table next to them most of the night watching all the trick or treaters. He even stood next to me by the door a couple of times as I handed out candy. Sugar on the other hand got one look at children and said"im outta here!"




We always finish the weekend off at Latteland. Mac's parents did the sweetest thing and sent us a gift card for the coffee shop. We took this photo tonight. This one's for you Mac!

We've been published!

This is a beautiful new book by Garth Johnson that just came out last week. It is so fun to see just how creative people can be with objects that surround them on a daily basis that would not be an obvious choice for art materials. Bryan and I are thrilled beyond belief to have three of our jewelry pieces in this book. We are on pages 144-145. You can purchase a book here or at your local bookstore.

Can't take my eyes off these..

I am absolutely in love with these and all paintings by Lori Early. Her website is definitely worth perusing for awhile.

Mac Tonnies 1975-2009

Hello again all. We wanted to give you some more info. about Mac and a few more pictures. It was a week ago today that we lost the great Mac Tonnies. He passed peacefully though in his sleep sunday evening due to a problem with his heart. Mac had told us once that many years ago he had some irregular heart beats. Tests had been done then but nothing was found; obviously there was a problem! Also, Mac did not believe in taking up land for burials so his body will be cremated and the ashes spread at Kauffman garden here in Kansas City. It is a beautiful garden located near the art museum and the fact that there is a cat that lives there makes it a perfect spot for Mac. He loved his cats and that was almost always a topic that we talked about. When I got my 2 new cats this year I think he was just as excited about it as I was. When Bryan and I would go to visit the kitties( before we could bring them home) he would tweet to us to take photos.

We put together a collage yesterday to hang at the coffeeshop where we would all hang out.We have been there every night since finding out about Mac sharing stories and just being a comfort to each other. I took these next few photos last night. Dave shared some drawings with us and his business cards that Mac drew for him. The little crop circle figures were part of Macs collection that his mom graciously let us pick a momento from. His parents definitely want to see Mac's most recent book published so rest assured that it will be taken care of. There have been some great remembrances of Mac but I would like to point you to Chris's blog post here because I really think it describes Mac well.





Thank you for all the comments left here. It was most definitely an honor to have known Mac, I will miss his witty comments on my blog and we are all going to miss that great smile of his at the coffee shop! I was teasing the other guys in the group last night that one of them is going to have to start reading up on Mac's interests to keep that element in our conversations. I would like to try and post on this blog the types of artists that he posted on his. He introduced me to several folks I was not aware of. Our last conversation the night before he passed was about art. I had picked up the latest issues of Hi Fructose and American Craft before hitting the coffee shop and we were just sifting through the magazines oohing and ahhing over all the great stuff.