Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Forever inspired


Faux bone & brick ring


Fold formed copper & agate cuff bracelet

Steel wire trapped sea glass pendant
Enameled heart pendants



































 Just back from Milwaukee where I attended the Bead & Button show. WOW! So much good information from some of the countries best teachers.
I started with Robert Dancik’s faux bone class and it was AMAZING. You can carve it, shave it, cut it and ink it. My ring looks Frank Lloyd Wright meets primative stone. The embedded a worn piece of brick was found in Seattle while at Artfest. It’s a truly unique nontoxic pvc product. For someone so organic, I find myself in love with pvc now ;] The 9 hours we spent with him were fun. He started the class with a singing bowl, filled it with fun & knowledge, and ended it with compliments. What an interesting guy he is.
Next on to Kim St Jean’s class where we hammered the crap out of metal! How fun. Fold forming, texturing and annealing was on the menu that night.
And then there was steel wire wrapping with Brenda Schweder. LOVED THIS CLASS! Since I Work with so many found objects, Brenda trap and capture techniques are something I’ll use forever, as I can literally suspend anything (here I trapped a piece of sea glass also found in Seattle).
Last but not least was Melissa Manley’s enameling class. Ahh, the possibilities with enamel…(and the palette of colors) What a beautiful soul Melissa is. I liked her from the start and ended up chatting with her over lunch. Maybe I’ll see you in the NW one day.
New friendships were formed and I ran into my favorite teacher, Susan Lenart Kazmer, always a pleasure. With so much new inspiration, there will be lots of new pieces flying off my workbench in the next few weeks. Don’t worry, I’ll keep you posted.

Peace, Jomama

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

June is approaching

June is approaching and the Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee is on my mind. I love learning and have signed up with some of the best forging and emaneling teachers.
Along with my necessary tools, I'm also bringing along an aluminum hairspray can and tin cans to experiment with. I'll be learning techniques to manipulate metal with hammers as well as emameling glass onto metal. Oh, and a class working with faux bone. How cool is that?
Being a child at heart, I'm excited for this adventure and the new friendships that will form. Besides that, what new jewelry designs will I come up with next? Stay tuned...

www.shopjomama.com

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Many hats




 In my world, things sometimes happen in an unexplained sequence. I wear many hats and I think I wear most of them well. As a Indie business owner and jewelry designer, I am my photographer, web designer, graphic designer, production line, social media, etc. I’ll hammer metal at 8 am and pour resin at midnight. I’ll blog from a waiting room and design business cards from my laptop. This is how I operate and also how I keep from being bored.
Lately though, I just want to get my hands dirty, I want to make things. Lots of things. My new found love for working with metal, particularly recycled metal, has been so exciting! I recycle, repurpose, and have an eye like a hawk for found objects. I brought home a suitcase full of rocks from Seattle which will eventually be rings and necklaces.
So, the question is, which hat will I wear today? Don’t get me wrong, I love hats, but somedays, I’d like to retire a few…

www.shopjomama.com