coat of arms

Slowly but surely I will post some homemade holiday gifts from this Christmas.

Here's one.

I designed a shield pendant for my sister with our surname scrolled across. I wanted it to be very simple—no fancy coat of arm frills—just a bit of texture. I have always been a fan of checkers, probably from my punk days, and strips seemed to go well with them. I guess I wish I had a little more time with it and could have done some sort of family heirloom on it, like if the checkers and pin strips actually meant something in my family's history... my mom's a cab driver and my father's in prison... just not the case, next time.

This is the original piece I made to have cast.

I made the actual shield shape out of clay, punched the name with one of those old school labelers and created the embossed texture with small pieces of the plastic label material.

And the back of the piece, with a loop for hanging and my "K" hallmark.

There's the back after it was cast in silver. I was amazed at the detail the mold picked up. You can see the glue along the wire, something I have to keep in mind for future pieces.

Along with the shield, I had a sharp dagger cast in silver and one of my drip gems in solid gold. I added a little color with a single ruby. Melissa was very pleased.

holly pins for the holidays

Yesterday a group of us at work gathered together for a little crafting party. We had all fell in love with these adorable felt holly brooches from the December issue of Martha Stewart Living and thought a nice way to kick off our Christmas break would be to make some pins for our families. They are so simple to make and so extremely satisfying that I made some for my girlfriends yesterday and today made a couple more as little favors for the nurses at the hospital where my Yiayia (Grandma in Greek) is. I packaged them up in cellophane bags and have a couple ready to give. My mom is trying to convince Yiayia to come over on Christmas—she's 93 & a bit weak— so either way, if we pick her up or just visit, it will be nice to bring some holiday joy into the sterile walls of the hospital. The pins are warm and fuzzy and who could resist a little bit of tinsel! I encourage you all to make some right now!

All you need is some scraps of felt and tinsel garland, a piece of ribbon, a couple beads or maybe a cute mini vintage ornament, a pin back or a safety pin will do, an iron and hot glue gun. Once you start, it's hard to stop!
Happy Holidays!

del kathryn barton.

I received an email earlier today from one of my best friends who bravely traveled around the world, about a month ago, solo, to Australia. She sounds like she is having a marvelous time, so in honor of Amanda and her not being here for Christmas :( I wanted to share with you a contemporary Aussie artist that absolutely amazes me and will maybe fascinate you as well.
I first discovered Del Kathryn Barton when I was in school and came across a story about her in some art magazine. I tore the spreads out and have cherished the pages ever since. They were the only images I could find of her work at the time and only until 2008 when she was awarded the Archibald Prize has there been much info on her out there that I could get my hands on. I was initially drawn to work for it's line aesthetic (similar to Egon) and style, but her abrupt smuttiness certainly caught my attention. I have had the first picture below in a frame for quite some years now and you would be surprised how many people look at it and see right pass what it going on in there...

I believe many of the above paintings were done before Del had children or perhaps while she was pregnant. They have titles like, "As my own suckers began to swell & ripen I was anxious to learn from the other mothers" and "I was a little surprised to observe the mid-wife drive up in a hot-rod" and "the little one had become aware of the baby's presence".
Below are some works from her exhibitions at the Karen Woodbury Gallery.

And some more randoms... Oh I wish I could show them all! When is she going to publish a book? I would die to see the whole collection of her works, heck I might have to go to Australia just to see her work in person...well that wouldn't be so bad...

Merry Christmas Minger. ox

A little green to warm up the Christmas cold

I got home late tonight from a work holiday gathering and Pico is ignoring me. She is mad I left her alone all day—little does she know, she was all I was thinking about as I sipped on my one comped drink at the bar! Here's a little green video Ashley shot of her when it was warm outside...

Oh how I just love her!

14k gold plating

Jewelrymaking is a craft that can be a lifelong triumph. There are many fine skills that must be mastered and all the elements of the trade take years of experience and practice to conquer. The understanding of metals and knowledge of gems seems explicit when one is introduced to all the tools used in this craft. There are hand tools of course and then there are the power tools. I am limited to what I can accomplish at home with my files, saws, mini torch, crock pot and Dremel with all it's various attachments. There are certain things I want to make (and maybe someday will have the tools to do myself) that I need to outsource and that is when I hop on my bike and ride up to 47th street, the jewelry exchange. Within one block's length is a metallic world of jewelry heaven—you have the salesmen in the storefronts and the makers above and below, stacked one on top of the other. Each and every craftsman specializes in a different skill—there's the contractors, the mold makers, the casters, the polishers, the stone setters... it seems obvious, it just might be impossible to do it all!

One of my absolute favorite masters is Zaven. After 40 years in the exchange, he certainly knows the ropes. You buzz through 2 locked doors to enter his tiny studio, crammed with all the equipment to get any job done. Today, he is gold plating my sterling silver faceted drip pendants. He gave me a little lesson in how it's done.

Zaven Sarafyan

I was amazed to discover that 14 karat gold liquid is purple!
And everything is electronically charged through this machine.
Here's Zaven's full plating setup.
First step in preparation to gold plate my pendants was to string them on copper wire.
Zaven cleans and activates them in a chemical solution.

Then he rinses them with a quick steam bath.

Then they are shaken around in the 14k solution for about a minute where they bubble and fizz a bit.

Here they have just been pulled out and are magically gold!

Zaven whips out his little portable hair dryer and blows them dry to prevent any water marks.

And they are beautifully plated! When the base metal is sterling, like these are, and they are coated in gold, the fancy name is vermeil.

Every little drip of any of the solutions that Zaven uses, he saves and disposes of correctly. He really has his system down pat!

Thanks Zaven for my lesson in plating and for always doing a wonderful job with whatever you touch!

Quilling

I came across this artist and wanted to share her amazing paper work with you. Yulia Brodskaya's aesthetic and the inclusion of typography in her work is distinctive to others in the quilling world. She has a clear graphic design sense and skilled crafting hand and together, her work seems flawless.

A thrifty Christmas, something we should all consider.

A quilled Hermes