I've been keeping busy in the studio most afternoons getting ready for The Port Clinton Holiday Makers Tour. It's December 2nd from 10-4. It's been something that we at Blueschool Arts have been wanting to do for a couple of years. There are five businesses participating this year - Abundant Earth Fiber Mill, Blueschool Arts (of course), Island Nosh, Make Whidbey and Whidbey Glass Gallery. This is our first Makers Tour. It is happening the same weekend as the Clinton Winter Market, which the Clinton Chamber of Commerce organizes. We really hope The Makers Tour is something that will take off and bring awareness about the growing arts community in downtown Clinton. For more details, click here for a map/flyer that Karin Bolstad, one of my Blueschool pals, designed. It's pretty cool!
In addition to pins, I've been creating all sorts of new earring designs using painting enamels and acrylic enamel with the sgraffito technique. I like how the combination of these two materials has taken me in a fresh, new direction.
I am also playing with prong setting some of my enameled cabochons that I made during my silk screening class. Here is an example of one I did yesterday. I embedded the silver wires in the soldering block, tight up against the silver ring I made. It really made the process pretty simple. Practice makes perfect. I can hear my mother saying that. Soldering is something that takes a lot of practice. There is so much to learn about how to hold things together and how much heat to apply and different types of fluxes, but that's for another post.
