FeedBlitz Subscription Service Added

Since I don't post daily, I thought it would be good to have ways for people to subscribe to this blog. Once you are subscribed, you will receive notification in your email program when I post a new entry. There has been a Feedburner link since I started the blog. You can subscribe using a number of services, including Yahoo and AOL. I haven't used this one.

This week I added a FeedBlitz subscription button in the sidebar on the right (scroll down to the section below the archives). Where it says "To receive email notification of a new post, enter your email here and follow the directions," you can enter your email in the FeedBlitz window. I have used it, and I found the directions clear. You can email me at "art at judithhoffman.net" with questions if you have a problem.

Stopping versus quitting

I have an on-going discussion with my dear friend Wendy. We talk about many aspects of life, but art is the biggest single topic. Recently we talked about why we were not in our studios making art when we wanted to. Wendy says:

"I like Art & Fear -- Bayles & Orland don't
make the stalling out to be pathological. "Writers
even have a phase for it-- 'the pen has run dry'-- but
all media have their equivalents. In the normal
artistic cycle this just tells where you need to begin
cultivating the next new idea. [...] Quitting is
fundamentally different from stopping. The latter
happens all the time. Quitting happens once.
Quitting means not starting again-- and art is all
about starting again." "

By the way, Ted Orland also has a new book out called The View From the Studio Door. I find it every bit as refreshing as Art and Fear.

I thought I stopped a few years ago, not because my brush ran dry, but because I had to make some major changes in our house when I got allergies. It has been hard to get started again. I think too many other concerns have filled the time that used to be dedicated to art. My habits have changed. Now I am trying to re-vitalize my old art-making habit.

There are parallel issues happening with the blog right now. My original idea was that blogging would make me think about art more, and so I would be more inspired. I have begun to wonder if I should be putting my time into making things in the studio instead of blogging. Should I quit, should I slow down? Well, I have slowed down, due to a combination of being sick, my parent's health problems and other issues. At the moment it looks like I will try to continue at a slower pace for a few months. Barring some huge disaster, I will announce it here if I decide to quit.

Blog comments and a question about making charms

I can see in my web site statistics that readership is up since I announced my blog. I am so pleased to see that people are enjoying it. It surprises me that there aren’t many comments, but it also fits my personal pattern on blogs. I only comment if I think I can add something no one else would know about.

In my first entry, I said I thought the blog would be good for my students. I hope this doesn’t convey the impression that other people can’t ask questions, or weren’t invited to participate. Anyone who wants to ask about things is welcome to.



Nancy Rushton emailed me and asked if I know how she could make charms like these from Wells Ware.

If anyone out there has ideas for Nancy, please chime in. If you’re more comfortable emailing me directly, that’s fine. I’ll post it in the blog. Let me know if you want to be completely anonymous.

Here are the possibilities that come to mind:

1. They look like they're soldered with low temperature solder (using a soldering iron). I might be wrong about that. I don't teach low temperature soldering, but I don't think it's hard to learn. I use what's actually called braising (jewelers usually say soldering when they mean braising), and it couldn't be done with glass in place. It's much hotter than low temperature soldering.

2. You could make a bezel, assembling it with braising, drop your image and glass in, and fold over the edge to hold it in place. You would make a “sandwich” with layers of glass and the photo image, and then bend the bezel around it to fit.


Here the bezel is being bent to shape. Normally I form the bezel around the object I want to hold with it. This is from Liz’s Jewelry Bench. She has a bezel making demo on her web site. Most bezels have a solid metal back, although you could cut a window in the back.

3. To make a two-sided charm, you could use fine silver bezel wire. It comes in long strips. You would have to bend it to fit, and solder or braise the seam. Then you could fold both the front and back edges over to hold your glass. This method assumes you want a two-sided charm. You would also have to solder on a ring for hanging.

4. Another way to sandwich glass and a small image would be to use metal foil tape around the edge. It's very low tech. You would have to embed a wire for your hanging loop. I have seen metal tape in copper and aluminum, but don’t remember where.

5. Another possibility would be to buy a bezel cup and drop everything into it, then fold over the edges.

These bezel cups are from Monster Slayer.
The sides on these look too low for your needs. I thought Rio Grande had a big variety of shapes and depths. Now I can’t find the bigger, deeper bezel cups in the Rio Grande catalog. A local jewelry supply place might have some. Make sure you know the depth of your “sandwich” when you go. You would have to cut your glass to fit the pre-made bezel cup.

I am assuming you can cut glass. You could also use Plexiglas, which could be easily cut with a jeweler's saw. Of course it would possible scratch over time. But you could scratch a design in it if desired.

The next two ideas depend on the baking temperature of the materials, and the tolerance for heat of the glass or Plexiglas and photos. I don’t know anything about this.

6. Fimo or a similar material might work. I think you could embed a hanging wire, too. I don’t know much about Fimo, but when I use it, I don’t bake it in the oven that I cook our food in. Never mix art materials and cooking. I do know that Primo bakes at 275 degrees.

7. Precious Metal Clay might work. It’s basically silver (or gold) made somehow into a Fimo-like material and is baked in a similar manner. I assume it also has the same gas producing quality when baked, so you might not want to bake it in your household oven. I’ve never used this stuff, but it’s become very popular.

When you find a solution, I would love to hear about it. They are “charming” charms.

News and Notes

News:
Work is going slowly on 7 Extinction Events. The tests for the landscaping didn’t work out well. I like the clarity of the foot impression in the clay, but it’s too fragile. So I made some little pads with footprints on them from Primo (very much like Fimo). I will have to incorporate them into the creek bed. The weather was so mild today, I spent the afternoon pulling a huge stack of weeds and pruning.

Notes:

The brush with the water in the handle referred to in the Image Transfer Accidents post is a Niji water brush. They look very useful. They are available here and here. (Thank you Diana.)

And thank you everyone who wrote to say they like the blog after I made my big announcement. All your comments were very valuable and appreciated.

Am I selfish?

Why a blog? I have been thinking about how to put some tips on my web site for awhile. It occurs to me that a blog might be the best interactive way to get the information to people, and give them a chance to ask for clarification or to ask questions. If you have taken a workshop or class with me you know I always tell people they can contact me at anytime with questions. A blog seems like an easy way to make that possible.

Who are these people I expect to read the blog? Mostly my past students. We often have interesting discussions in class about how to solve a particular problem. Sometimes an idea pops into my head much later. I can’t always remember who was trying to solve the problem. There is always something new to learn, some trick to add to a technique.

What about the selfish aspect? Well, I am also, of course, thinking of myself. I would like to have more people coming to my web site. I would also like more contact with fellow artists. At the moment I can’t go to the BABA meetings, and it’s been hard for me to get to the meetings of a critique group I would like to join. I am hoping I will be more motivated to get into the studio and work if I’m going to have to report to (even invisible) people, that I have been working. And hearing about other’s struggles with getting time and motivation might be helpful for me.

How often will I post? My plan is to post a tip a week and to post one other time in the week about the work I’m doing and how it’s going.