I’m excited to announce that I’ll be at the Cupid’s Gems show in Lenexa Kansas on February 6th. This is my first year to attend this juried all-jewelry show featuring over 30 regional artists and a variety of media including 18-karat gold, sterling silver, hammered silver, semi-precious stones, antique buttons, pearls, and quilled paper.
After looking at images of the Lenexa Conference Center Thompson Barn, a recently restored space, I’m quite excited to see the building, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed I’ll get a space in the main floor of the barn. It’s beautiful.
I have love for vessels. A whole shelf in my tiny kitchen is stacked with hand thrown bowls, gathered from art fairs and shops. My collection of cups, baskets, and wooden spoons spills out of the kitchen and into every other room of our apartment. It would only follow that this soft concave form would find a place in my metalwork. I’m quite delighted with a new addition to my tools: a dapping set, comprised of a 2” square block covered in half circles, with twenty-four steel punches with ball ends. A flat piece of metal is placed in a cup in the block, and the corresponding punch is hammered into the metal, gradually shaping the piece into a hemisphere.
After playing a bit with scrap metal (shown in the image above), I combined one of the small 3/8” diameter recycled sterling silver cups with a small handmade copper bead and a curling ear wire. The finished piece is around 1.5 inches long and beautiful worn front or back.
We have survived the holidays and winter weather, and enjoyed an easy afternoon (because we slept through the morning) watching the lazy snow outside and contemplating the responsibility of a brand new decade. A habitual list maker, I am duty-bound to create a collection of new year’s resolutions. True to the scale of my weekly lists they show an inflated optimism with my time and abilities. I will not bore you with the particulars, but share this one: I resolve to be more generous in the new year; generous with my time, and money, with my patience (with myself and everyone else), generous with love, with laughter and food, generous with forgiveness and kindness, generous with thanks.
Thank you all for your support and encouragement. I hope your new year is one of abundant happiness.
