Hen party at studio of Linda Blondheim

Here's some of my random pictures from my hen party at Linda Blondheim's studio on August 6. Thanks everyone who stopped by!

Scrabble tiles on their itty bitty racks.  Just an assortment.  (The snowflake pendant in the lower left was some wishful thinking on my part.  It was HOT outside!)

Elvis did not leave the building with anyone.  Surprising.  I always sell an Elvis at every show.  (until this one anyways)

In the couple of weeks before the event, I saved my mixing cups.  I loved the assortment of bright colors it made.  They look wet, but trust me, they're dry.  (It's a good way too for me to check to see if the resin is curing okay.)

A close up of one of the cups.  If it looks familiar, it's because I use dram medicine mixing cups.  (Like the ones you get on top of children's liquid medicine.)









Now, I will show you some pictures from Linda's studio.


This is one of Linda's "mini" paintings.  Fits easily on a desktop.

 

Linda's loft studio gives the feeling of your own living room.  Very comfy.











She's got a nice assortment of sizes of paintings.

Linda also has a recipe exchange.  Bring one, take one.  Lots of good ones in there!

What shopping excursion wouldn't be complete without a bargain bin?  Linda's got several paintings in her browse bin.  Great way to start collecting her art.

There was also handmade soaps and knitting at the hen party.

More paintings.  Lots of beautiful Florida landscapes to choose from.

This is the view as you go up the steps to her studio.  It's in the back of the store.

A personal invitation awaits at the bottom of the steps.

And what event wouldn't be complete without some tasty treats!

It made for a perfect afternoon in the loft. 

We all loved it so much we're doing it again!  Mark your calendars for the Friday and Saturday before Thanksgiving, except this time there will be cake! 

Details forthcoming....

Fall art show - Gainesville, Florida

I happy to announce my official acceptance to the Art Festival at Thornebrook.  The art festival is Saturday and Sunday, September 24 and and 25, with a show preview, Friday night, September 23. 

(and just a reminder for all my favorite blog readers, I have my one and only sale every year in conjunction with this show!)

See you there!

Your invitation to a jewelry open house in Gainesville, Florida

Join me at the loft studio of Florida landscape acrylic painter Linda Blondheim for a HEN PARTY.  Her studio is upstairs at Paddiwhack, 4128 NW 16^th Blvd., Gainesville - next to Fresh Market.  (Just walk to the back of the store and look for the neon sign.)  The event is on Saturday, August 6, and runs from noon to 4 PM.  I will be there beginning at  1 PM and will have my scrabble tile jewelry, along with my new resin and pewter jewelry.  I'll be there to answer questions, demonstrate  some jewelry techniques, and maybe pick up paint brush -- only to look at.  I will have small resin jewelry gifts for attendees (until they run out), so get there early!  Other artisans will be there sharing their handmade soaps, washcloths and handbags. 

Did I mention there would be music by guitarist Bob Brounley from 1 to 3 PM along with light snacks? 

RSVP's appreciated, but not required.  (By the way, the guys can come too.)

The butterfly garden at the Florida Museum of Natural History

The gift shop at the Florida Museum of Natural History recently started carrying my resin scrabble tile pendants with the butterfly designs.  It's a very family friendly place here in Gainesville and I took some pictures when I was there delivering pendants last week.

When you first walk in, there's a large mammoth skeleton to greet visitors.

While the admission to the museum is free, the butterfly garden requires paid admission.  This is a full display of encased butterflies that grace the wall on the museum side of the exhibit.

The butterfly exhibit is a large enclosure.  Visitors actually get the chance to walk amongst the butterflies.  During the visits my kids and I have taken, we have had a few of the blue morpho butterflies land on us!  During the winter, warm air is pumped into the (normally) tropical exhibit.  In my opinion, the best time to go to see the butterflies at their most active is during the extreme heat and humidity of the summer.  It's like the butterflies are crazy!

There is an area on the outside of the exhibit where you can watch butterflies hatch from their cocoons.

For those who want to try to attract butterflies at home, there are almost always some "butterfly plants" for purchase.

In case you go and want to buy some of my resin scrabble tile pendants, they are in a basket by the cash register.  If you don't see them, I'm sure one of the friendly staff will be happy to help.

Uptown art hop, a festive shopping experience

Just in case I missed seeing you this past Friday night, I thought I would share some pictures from the Uptown Art Hop.  The art hop is a collection of art related businesses in the 2400 block of northwest 43rd street in Gainesville, Florida, that open their doors once every three months or so for a night or arts and entertainment.  I demonstrated some of my resin jewelry making techniques at Gifts of Avalon (also the same place where I teach classes). 

I took an assortment of the sterling silver and resin jewelry pieces to show.

I also had an assortment of the scrabble tile resin pendants.

This was the first time I also had the acrylic earrings with handmade papers on display.  The price point made them appealing for gifts.

One of the shop owners, Rhonda Bergman, was at the store that night.  The other store owner, Trude Spillane, was in travels to a bead show.

There was a modest assortment of refreshments.

I took some of my molds and resin jewelry pieces in progress to talk about.  I didn't pour resin, but did talk to some people about the specifics of working with it.

Did I mention there was a reggae band?  They played live music just outside the front door during the event.  It made the evening quite festive.


I actually have to share with you that I kicked myself hard when I got to Gifts of Avalon that night because I meant to take my video camera to get a soundtrack for the evening.  Drat!

Resin jewelry making pictures

My sterling silver and resin jewelry has been a bit neglected for the past couple of months. The scrabble tile pendants have taken off with orders, and I have been mostly focusing on them as of late. That is changing a bit as we move closer to the holiday shopping season. These are just some random pictures from this weekend of resin and silver pendants in progress.

The resin gets poured in stages.  I only pour one color at a time.













The silver portion of the pendants get "staged" first.  Then I pour the colors.











Can you tell that red and green were my last two pours?  The resin needs at least 24 hours to cure before I pour the next color.

I "overfill" the resin in the silver well.  This will get sanded down later.

When I'm done pouring the resin, I let the jewelry set in a glass pyrex dish covered with plastic wrap.  I will check on it from time to time and make sure nothing is going wrong.  For example, a couple of hours after I poured the green resin, one of the pendants was leaking from underneath.  I was able to get it out and clean up the resin before it made a huge mess on a several pendants.

I hope to have many of these pieces ready for the Downtown Festival and Art Show in November.

Corrugated metal earrings - jewelry making class pictures

I taught another class this past Monday evening on how to make corrugated metal earrings.  Five of the six students had taken a class from me before, so it was fun for me to get a chance to catch up with everyone.


Students for this class got to make two different pair of earrings: one with sheet metal and one with wire.

(These are student Kathy's collection of future earrings from class.)

Everyone had some kind of metalsmithing and jewelry making experience, which helped to allow students to get both pairs made in the two hour class.










We had fun chatting it up too.  It was a great energy in the class.

A little concentration doesn't hurt either.

The general consensus was that making earrings this way is a lot of fun.  Almost everyone purchased extra metal to make a few extra earring pairs for friends and family.

 These are just a few of the finished projects everyone completed in about two hours. 

Chris made these earrings; a pair for her and a pair for her daughter.

 These are Jill's wire earrings.  She couldn't decide on the beads, so she made one of each.

Claudia also made a pair of each.  She admitted she was going to have to do this again. *smile*

A close up of Claudia's wire earrings with the beautiful denim lapis beads.

Cheryl made her wire earrings with brown goldstone.  

Cheryl's corrugated sheet earrings were also the "guinea pigs" for the tumbler.  













Linda decided she would rather have pendants than earrings.  Her four designs are shown here.







I don't know when I will be teaching this class again, but I know I will also be teaching an "intermediate" level metal corrugation and crimping class sometime in the near future. Check my class schedule to get the latest.

Handcrafted jewelry on sale

These are more pictures of jewelry I have on sale between now and the end of the Thornebrook Art Festival. If you see something you want, please contact me to place an order.

In case you missed them the other posts will sale jewelry and bali beads:
Artisan jewelry on sale
Bali beads on sale post 1
Bali beads on sale post 2

Sterling silver and nu gold discs with semi precious stones and glass beads.

Originally $50, will be $20

Semi precious stones on high polish sterling silver loops.

Originally $50, will be $20

Charoite and rhodonite pendant on patterned sterling silver and nu gold

Originally $85, will be $20  (This pendant also includes the chain)

Patterned and pressed sterling silver dome with a red jasper bead accent.

Orignally $40, will be $5

Assorted semi precious stones in diamond and oval shape sterling silver settings.

Originally $35, will be $15

Oxidized and polished sterling silver diamond shape earrings with semi precious stone briolettes.

Originally $50, will be $15.

Glass cat's eye cabochons with patterned sterling silver accents.  Assorted colors.

Originally $35, will be $10.

Assorted color semi precious stones set on patterned sterling silver with glass bead or semi precious stone hanging accents.

Originally $50, will be $20

Sterling silver loop earrings with aurora borealis finish glass chips.

Originally $28, will be $10











Sterling silver earrings with copper and nu gold accents.

Originally $35, will be $10

This fairly well covers everything that will be there.  See you this weekend at the Thornebrook Art Festival, booth 15 (green zone).  For those of you who have been coming for awhile, it's my same spot as previous years.