11. September 2009 by Kathy.

While we were all in Los Angeles I did basic enameling with the girls.  While using a torch is a bit scary they all did GREAT.  I need to take some photos of their pieces to show you.  But here are some pictures of the crew at work!

Laura just prepped a piece and is getting ready to torch I think.

Suzanne putting on the enamel powder (and in a newly acquired find from the Garment District):

And I think this is Emily holding her recently enameled frog?

Thank you it Art Unraveled 2008 and Richard for getting me hooked again.  All of them LOVED it I think.

And we did some basic earring making also.  Don’t they look like teenagers here humoring their aunt?  They are very good teenagers…

Posted in family, class, jewelry | 1 Comment »

5. February 2009 by Kathy.

I signed up for Robyn’s class this weekend (Sunday) at Piecemakers.  Great class, great store, great teacher!  While I took Sally Jean last fall for soldering you would think I would have confidence but since I managed to burn my hand pretty bad in class (and not on the project or the soldering iron mind you!!!) - I haven’t really worked on soldering jewelry since then.

The best way to get myself going again is to sign up for a class!!!!  And this looked great.  I had high expectations and Robyn surpassed them.  For now here is a photo of the class at work soldeirng outside on a gorgeous day in Southern California…on February 1!

And some not great shots of Robyn’s work but glass is hard to photo because of reflections (at least that is my excuse).   Robyn does really great work with tiny bottles and she enhances them with buttons or such on top!  She explained how she built the box around the Charlotte on the left side also - I am going to try to make it more “fabric” oriented, although I do have some charlottes small enough to do that I think!  And notice those dice on the bottom!!!!

Posted in class, favorite store, jewelry | 2 Comments »

5. February 2009 by Kathy.

I am in an online journal making class taught by Sue Bleiweiss at Two Creative Studios  called Journal Making for the Fiber Artist.

Its a lot of fun.  I have finished the first project and am working on the second.  I think I am supposed to post these in the yahoo group or such.  That will have to wait until this weekend.  In the meantime here is the first journal!  Way simpler than I thought too, or else Sue is great at written instructions or perhaps both?

I love this journal!  First - the fabric is one of my favorites - it reminds me of Dad’s measuring ruler, right down the the color.  Then I used one of Superior Threads great threads - this is one their Rainbow series.  Don’t you love the way it flows through shades of yellow/gold?

Best of all I now know what a SIGNATURE is.  I learned that last summer in Josie’s classes at ArtUnraveled.  And that is probably where I got hooked on making journals too.  And here I had only signed up for her two classes to learn soldering and metal etching (one journal had a glass soldered cover and the other had an etched cover).

The next journal is great also because the ’signatures’ are removable/replaceable.  Oh - perhaps I should state that a signature is a group of papers, usually folded in half, and stitched in the middle to the book.  So as a rank beginner it seems that the # of pages in one signature might be 6 to 12 range (after folding), and that the hand made journals I have worked on or looked at might have 3 to 5 signatures in them.

Posted in class, book, fabric, ezine | 1 Comment »

5. February 2009 by Kathy.

So my 16 year old niece (well not quite 16 then) and I took a class at “International Quilt Festival” in Houston last fall.  Why do I keep putting it in quotes?  Because her friends kept texting her before/during/after the class and could not believe she was a the “International Quilt Festival”.  They thought she was making it up.  So here is some proof she was there…

Here are some candid shots after she had thought out her design, cut it out, attached it to the silk screen, taped it down and finally printed it for like the FIRST TIME.

And then her finished product.  It was a great class by the way.  I would only change one thing - well add one thing to the supply list - prewashed cotton t-shirts.  It could be optional for sure.  But this way Suzanne walked out of the class with 3 or 4 shirts already printed with her design (see below).

It was a small class by Quilt Festival size and three of the students were under the age of 18.  Well truthfully Suzanne at 15 was probably the oldest.  This is a sign that Quilt Festival needs to cater more the soon to be customer base such as these three.  I would have probably brought one other niece if the cost had not been so high.   Maybe Quilt Festival should offer a rate for teenagers instead of requiring the full registration costs.  Maybe just paying for one or two classes (without the registration fee) would be enough.  Also to run more classes like this one where they can leave with a finished product!

So the next day was Laura’s birthday celebration.  Suzanne designed a t-shirt for Laura with the baseball player on the front and the back saying Peterson with an 18 - similar to a baseball jersey.  Since Laura turned 18 it was perfect.  Suzanne can really come up with some very creative ideas!  And Laura knew instantly what it was.

We were very lucky that the teacher gave us tons of paints to take home because while I have almost every supply imaginable they were in Nevada not Texas.

Posted in class, painting and dying, fabric | 3 Comments »