A Cracked Gingko Leaf, My Next Enameling Project, Earrings for the GBK Golden Globes Celebrity Gift Bags, Free Jewelry Crimping Tutorial, Bracelet Giveaways, And MORE

Is It Worth Repairing?

I’ve only made one thing since I’ve been home from Berkeley (my Golden Globes earrings took priority).

Here it is (before and after brushing), copper and bronze, but the bronze cracked a bit during the firing so I’m going to see if I can repair these and refire.  

I have to admit I’m not a fan of trying to repair cracks in a textured or patterned area of the clay, but this just gives me more time to try to learn to do it.

Inspirational Photo

Here’s a sunset we had the other night.  

I’m thinking I’d like to do some enameling like that with an oxidized silver saw-pierced pattern over it.  I’ve always been a fan of bright colors beneath a silhouette.

I’m afraid my enameling has taken a definite back seat this month.

Production Earrings

In my last post, you saw me mid-production .  Here are my Golden Globes earrings (click here for more photos):

I’m participating in an invitation-only luxury celebrity gift lounge hosted by GBK Productions on January 10-11, 2014 at an exclusive location in Beverly Hills, California, in honor of The 2014 Golden Globes Nominees and Presenters. All attending celebrities will receive a pair of these earrings in their swag bags.

Those earrings are featured in an upcoming tutorial, but I’m still wrapping up some December commitments before I put the finishing touches on the tutorial.

My Free Online eClass on Jewelry Crimping (and bracelet giveaways)

In the meantime, I think I forgot to mention that a couple months ago I posted my first (free) tutorial(s) on the CraftArtEdu site.  My class was supposed to be about the basics of crimping, but being the over-achiever I am, my instructions ended up being longer than would be appropriate for one class so it got broken up into two classes.

If you like to view these free eclasses, click here.

And, if you leave a comment on this blog before my next eclass goes up, you will be entered into a drawing to win either of the bracelets demo’d in the class.

Featured in the first class, “Jewelry Crimping: Basic Toolsand Techniques”, we’ve got a bracelet of totally cool Jasper disks with sterling silver.

Featured in the second class, “Jewelry Crimping: TroubleShooting and Variations”, we’ve got a bracelet of sterling silver, peridot, and lapis.

From the Internet (snippets I collect as I go):

So here’s an article called, “The Career Benefits ofBoycotting Charity Art Auctions”.  It starts off, “There is a tradition of auctioning original works of art donated by artists to raise money for charitable causes. There are many good causes that hold such events. No matter how good the causes, though, I have come to the conclusion that artists must stop donating to every single one of them…”  To continue reading, click here.  Post a comment on my blog to share your opinion.

Here’s a cool resource for people who enjoy learning.  800 free online courses from the world’sleading universities.  “This collection includes over 800 free courses in the liberal arts and sciences. Download these audio & video courses straight to your computer or mp3 player….”  Click here for more info and to see the courses available.  I gotta tell you, I love that some of these are podcasts.  I’m always looking for interesting stuff to listen to while driving.  So far it’s only been books on tape and NPR Science Friday podcasts.

Here are the ones I’ve bookmarked and will download when I have time:

• Photography
• The Elements of Drawing
• Existentialism in Literature & Film
• Creative Writing: A Master Class
• A Romp Through Ethics for Complete Beginners
• Heidegger: Being and Time
• Introduction to Astrophysics
• iPhone Application Development 
• Modern Theoretical Physics: Quantum Mechanics 
• Cognitive Neuroscience