Welcome back!

If you clicked through the link on my old blog or Instagram feed, you have now – I hope happily – found the new home of my original Materialsmithing blog which originally appeared (and still lives for a time) on WordPress, and which I began many years ago in another lifetime. The interesting thing about creating content is that sometimes it has a life beyond the moment you created it in - and I am touched that there are still faithful readers out there who read what I wrote so many years ago, and who still keep in touch today.

In this new home for Materialsmithing, you will find the “Best of the Best” of those old blogs, and I hope to get in the practice of writing and posting new content and new artworks here more often than in the past, but as you all know, life gets busy for a busy working artist, so no promises, eh?

In the works are a new book idea, adding a shop to this site, and a new group of object-making classes and workshops that are currently under construction. I will do my best to keep my word.

Anyway, enjoy, read on (again), and keep in touch.

Another dispatch from the jewelry making frontier

Wow. Just wow!

I was extremely honored to present a demo at the prestigious AGTA Gem Fair for the MJSA Journal and my bench there was generously loaned by Gesswein Tools, so thank you, thank you, to Roger, Lauren, Lindsay, Rich and all of the support staff at AGTA for helping me get this content out there to the folks who want it. And thanks for coming if I saw you there!

Originally published 2-8-2023

I just got home from the Tucson Shows and, yahoo, we had a blast! I taught mostly full classes at the glorious Casino Del Sol/ Colors of the Stone Event and the weather and experience couldn't have been more perfect. It was great to catch up with old friends, meet new ones, and restock my classroom supplies after 2 long years of not going out west to treasure hunt. I found so many inspirational materials to incorporate into demo objects and kits for my upcoming classes in 2023 and I am so stoked to make new work.

I was also very honored to present a demo at the prestigious AGTA Gem Fair for the MJSA Journal and my bench there was generously loaned by Gesswein Tools, so thank you, thank you, to Roger, Lauren, Lindsay, Rich and all of the support staff at AGTA for helping me get this content out there to the folks who want it. And thanks for coming if I saw you there!

The motto for 2023? Never Stop Learning.

On that note, you might want to quickly and decisively take peek a my upcoming workshops page, because my upcoming classes are filling fast - as in so fast that they are selling out before I get a chance to tell you about them.

I am SUPER excited about my next class in March: An all-inclusive mixed media creativity retreat for Artists Rising. This is a fun switch-up for me and I have been flexing all of my artist muscles for this one! Basically, this is a fun format for incorporating any non-traditional jewelry media you might be interested in working with that will ultimately be appropriate to be cold mounted in a 2x2-inch brooch or pendant box. We will paint, sew, weave, collage, embroider, resinate, pastel, color, print, draw, and/or whatever floats your boat with an eye toward turning your creative expressions into wearable works of art...

Sometimes, I like to break out of the jewelry maker box and create other kinds of artwork, so this class is a good way to mix it up a bit with a loose plan for eventually bringing your efforts back toward a wearable (or not). Below are some in-progress shots of what I have been up to, so enjoy, get inspired – and sign up for the retreat if you've got the winter blahs and need a creativity jump start and for someone to take care of you with great food in a beautiful, peaceful place with loads of creative fun for a few days!
We. Will. Have. Fun.

I promise I will post again shortly and with more workshop updates and sign up info. Go make something!

It’s getting better all the time!

Originally published 10-17-2022

Wow, summer 2022 just flew by! I had a great summer camp silversmithing gig in Maine and the girls made some beautiful jewelry! I am so happy and so proud of them.

BeadFest was terrific in a new location in lovely Lancaster, Pa., and my classes were mostly full, so thank you for attending and thank you for restoring my faith in the world. And, I just finished teaching a tremendous week-long Cold-Connections class at Snow Farm with an awesome group of students combined with gorgeous Autumn New England weather plus great food – the experience really lifted my spirits. Happy, Happy, Happy!

Dare I say it? Life for me seems to be returning to normalcy with a side order of crazy rather than the other way around in this brave new COVID world, and it feels nice to not live in an anxiety-driven state 24/7. I hope it’s the same for you!

In the near future and into 2023, I’ve got a nice group of Tucson Winter workshops on the horizon at the To Bead True Blue Show at the Casino del Sol Resort, plus a couple potentials in April, Snow Farm again in May, possibly a return to summer camp, BeadFest again in August and Wow! Life is looking good!

Catching up

Change, they say, is as good as a rest

Here’s me adding some wax-injected mold parts to a tree. Casting is a process I don’t have much experience with, so it’s nice to try something new. Truly, it still bugs me to work with so much stuff in the way, like masks, safety glasses, etc. but as a teacher and responsible and logical adult, this is the way.

Originally published 3-12-2022

Quick update: I know it’s been a year since posting here, but I, along with everyone else in the world, have been preoccupied…

So, yeah, Lapidary Journal went belly-up this past fall, and it’s jarring, disturbing, and really quite sad that after writing more than 135 columns, countless projects, articles and briefs over more than 15 years of my life it’s done. I read that magazine for most of my life and it’s going to leave a big hole in the industry for sure.

Then, right after that, my very much-anticipated and desperately-hoped-for 2022 classes in Tucson were cancelled because of COVID for the second year in a row (grrr). Yet another bummer in a four-plus-year run of bummers. So really, I have just been too grumpy to write anything here. Sorry about that.

All grumpiness aside, the current state of bummerness doesn’t mean I haven’t been doing anything constructive, and I’ve been keeping busy and employed with blogging and some social media work for Instagram for the Gesswein Tool Company, and also writing my At the Bench series for MJSA Journal, so it hasn’t been a total wash.

I also joined my local rock club, the Tuscarora Lapidary Society, and have already taken 3 very enjoyable casting and mold-making workshops since the early winter, so that’s made up for some of the lack of human contact I’ve experienced due to cancelled events and classes. And, there’s nothing like learning how to use a ginormous slab saw to chop up some boulders to drastically improve a bad mood.

I don’t want to jinx anything, but it looks like things are inching back to a facsimile of normal, and BeadFest in August looks like a go. Workshop signups haven’t gone live yet, but I have listed my classes on my schedule. I’ve also booked a fall Cold-Connections workshop at Snow Farm. so, it’s getting better all the time. Let’s keep our fingers crossed, yes?

Sorry it’s been so long …

Taking COVID19 seriously at Snow Farm

Thank you Snow Farm for saving me. And probably lots of others, too. Masks, Pleiglas barriers, staggered meals and isolation in our respective studios did not diminish the joy all of us felt to be together making work again.

Originally published 2-15-2021

So, this was the year of COVID-19, and like all of you – I have an excuse. Despite all of my best wishes and intentions, an entire year has passed into a disappointing whirlwind of cancelled classes, loss, rescheduled events, debilitating sadness, fear and worry. If you’ve read my writing for long, you’ve probably realized by now that when there’s a shit storm, I retreat to the sanctity of my peaceful inner world. I step out of the line and go away. I check out. Can’t help it, sorry guys, but you know that’s who I am.

I haven’t got very much jewelry work to show for 2020, because after getting back from teaching in Tucson last year, I became compelled to make my home the safe space for everything and everyone I love and all that is good in this poor, sad and suffering world. I finally did get to teach a workshop for three intrepid students this past October, and all I can say is Bless You Snow Farm, you saved my spirit and got me through early winter. It was the one other good artistic thing that happened for me in 2020.

The work wants to be made and it will find a way to nudge you if you let it!

I started fabricating a new multi-stone bracelet earlier this month.

For the past year, I did “mom” in a huge way – and cooked, cleaned, organized, read dozens of books, took care of cats and kids, grew an absolutely perfect and bountiful garden, purged junk and did my very best to be brave, strong, feel life and keep us all alive and well. We have each other, a roof over our heads, good food to eat and although it wasn’t easy, I’ve kept a stiff upper lip and soldiered on. I always do what has to be done, and the thought of making art during hyper-survival mode just seemed alien and ridiculous. My bench has been idle for months and many months and I could only look at it like a dear friend I had loved so long ago and kept meaning to call but never really made the time for. There was just so much other survival stuff to do instead.

Two weeks ago, something in the universe moved. I was awarded a huge pile of hope and an important reason to get myself back to my bench. I felt a slow change engulf me over the course of about three days, and then really, really good news came from several different places, seemingly all at once. I have no clue how it happened and I always look for reasons because, you know, there must be a reason. The only explanation I can offer is that one morning in mid-January, I woke up and picked up a pen and started drawing ideas that had come to me from dream world. Sleeping through the night has become a little easier for me since November, and I’ve had really vivid and instructive dreams for about a month now. Anyway, something has lifted and cleared away in my psyche and I have been nudged to get to work again.

It’s amazing that once I started to draw again, the Universe reminded me of my path. I truly believe that when you do what you are supposed to do, the Universe will reward you. I feel optimistic again and I really want to work – even though the Pandemic is still raging out there, I am still poor, and nothing else has really changed. The only difference is that the wolf at my door finally went somewhere else. I hope he stays there.