A Facebook friend listed the following video and luckily I clicked to see it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK8yelalFcI  I have always admired the works of Alexander Calder and this video features an exhibition of his wire jewelry. While speaking at a conference on gifted education in Indianapolis one year, a couple of artsy friends and I snuck out and went to the children’s museum where there was a special showing of Calder’s work. Since it was a children’s museum, there were plenty of interactive centers. I recall manipulating vibrant red, yellow and blue colored pieces of vinyl to make a picture on a magnetic wall board. There was also a center for exploring the making of things with wire. Little did I know that I would later be so infatuated with bending wire into jewelry.  I was completely captivated by the exhibit and at one point I simply lay down on the floor to look up at the huge mobiles hanging from the high ceiling. The wonderful part was that no one thought I was weird! I guess I need to visit a children’s museum again!

Whether you are a Calder fan or not, I think it is interesting to note that he did not go to school to become an artist. He received a degree in engineering. We can certainly see how his training in how things work might have influenced his artistic endeavors, particularly his mobiles and large sculptures. There are many days when I wish that I had a better background in physics. As I recall, however, my engineer husband had to help me get through the basic college physics course required of elementary education majors. I got out with an A, but I think he deserves the credit.

Calder’s change from engineering to artistry reminds me of what I know and have mentioned before about so many gifted individuals. They don’t always stay with their initial focus or occupation. In the teacher’s gifted education classes that I held, I often had women come up at break to say they finally understood their own husbands. When these men mastered one occupation and reached the pinnacle of success, they dropped everything to move to a different occupation. It can be quite upsetting for the family, but may be totally necessary for the person. (I certainly cannot complain about anyone when I’ve been a piano teacher, school teacher, studio manager, piano salesperson, professor, consultant, teacher trainer, writer, rancher and jewelry designer. – I wonder what will be next – sure hope it isn’t wheelchair tester.)

In honor of Calder (I guess), I listed two wire bracelets in my etsy shop today. While the designs are not completly new for me, each piece is a bit different from the one before. It’s a good thing I’m not attempting to be a factory since I can never get even the bracelet armatures to turn out just the same. Do you think that is true artistry or just inability? Hmm . . let’s don’t even go there.

Both these bracelets are listed at $36 in my etsy shop. (www.dreamcatcherdesigns.etsy.com)

Doesn’t that sound like a great day? I have visions of riding along the California coastline with the top down in my son’s convertible. The weather would be nearly perfect and the scenery glorious. We actually did this once on a visit to see him and he allowed us to borrow his car for a few days for driving down the coast. Was is the fact that we reminded him of what we shelled out for his Rice education that made him let us take it? I really doubt it. He’s just a nice guy.

Regretfully, it’s not that kind of top down day here at the ranch. Instead it is that dreaded day ever few months when I start at the top (ceiling) of our timberframe house and clean the dust all the way down to the floor. If you haven’t been in our home, that probably doesn’t sound like a big deal. A timberframe home like ours, however, has a good deal of exposed wood and a very high ceiling that catches considerable dust. The following link shows a photo of this type home. this is NOT our house, but you can get the idea. (http://www.timberframe-houseplans.com/gallery/Lindsey.shtml ) By the time I have been on the ladder and worked my way down, I am pretty much covered in dust, but feel good about getting it done. I can only work on top down when the puppy is ousted to his pen with the other dogs outdoors. Bruno likes to take my broom by the head and go raising down the hall with it. Cute – - but annoying! At any rate, I’m finally finished and ready for some design time.

The photos of what I finished last night are more or less top down as well. This picture shows the very first sterling silver free form bracelet that I have made. I finally got the nerve to use this more expensive wire and managed not to mess it up.  This is a dimensional cuff with amethyst, sugalite and pearls. I just put it in my etsy shop for $42 and we’ll see how it goes.  http://www.etsy.com/listing/52292709/sterling-silver-gemstone-bracelet

The second bracelet shown here is copper (I’m stretching to say copper is “down” from silver). I’ve been trying to develop a new bracelet that would incorporate a cabachon in a bezel. I think this might be a winner and will be especially nice when I get up the nerve to make it in sterling silver. This copper one retails at $30.  If you have been reading this blog, you know that soldering bezels is new for me, but it is getting easier. Perhaps when I try this one out of sterling silver, I’ll really go to the top and also use a turquoise cabachon.

. . . Dreamcatcher Designs jewelry? It struck me today, that I’m often asked where my jewelry can be purchased. While I need to put a permanent link on this site, for the moment I’m just including a list:

My Etsy shop: www.etsy.com   seller: Dreamcatcherdesigns (all one word)

Dovetails of Wimberley, Wimberley, TX

Main Street Boutique, Johnson City, TX

Marilyn’s of Fredericksburg, Fredericksburg, TX

Paper Bear, San Marcos, TX

Salon 101, San Marcos, TX

Nature’s Nest, Luling, TX

Her Alibi, New Braunfels, TX

The Parlor, New Braunfels, TX

Theo B Camisole, Camden, Maine

If there is anything you see on this blog that interests you, please write and ask about it. There’s no obligation for asking questions and you’ll find my prices pretty low in comparison to others.  If you are in the area of San Marcos, I can arrange a private showing if you are looking for something in particular or just want to browse. I also work with customers via email when they request a particular stone or design. After it is underway, I send photos to the person until the design is finished and satisfactory.

My intent is to keep this blog as friendly conversation, but there’s no reason to keep hiding the fact that I do sell things from you readers.

No, I’m not Marie Osmond even though that’s her song.  How do you get to be country? Country speaks to me of time outdoors, gentle wind and farm ponds. When I was young, my father was the soil conservation agent in Medford, Oklahoma. As such, he helped local farms put in and stock their farm ponds. Later, he was allowed to fish in those ponds. I loved it except when the mosquitoes were out in force. My dad even used these country ponds to encourage his then “new” son-in-law to take up fishing. This country ease later gave way to boats with big motors and some small tournament fishing for my husband. At least it started out as country!

Another part of country that I enjoyed as a child was picking sand plums. We used to load up in the pickup and drive somewhere to find sand plum bushes. It seemed like I picked forever before my little bucket would be full enough to stop. The mosquitoes weren’t so much the problem as the bees in the bushes. One country problem with sand plums was that there was often sandy loam to traverse to get to the fruit. We carried a big board in the back of the pickup because my dad had a propensity to get stuck. Luckily, we were usually prepared for the inevitable. We brought sand plums home and Mother made great jelly from them. That’s something else I consider country even though city folks sometimes make jelly and do canning also. I think you could say I WAS a little bit country growing up.

Thinking about being country naturally leads me in to thinking about being western as well. My dad always wore a western hat and boots. I still have his last felt hat in a box in my closet just in case a need to rekindle a memory. It’s interesting to me that after all these years of living in major metropolitan areas while my husband was with Procter and Gamble, I grew up to be both country and western. Our ranch endeavors have certainly helped add a western bent to my life. Although I don’t wear a hat and boots, can’t ride a horse and don’t rope any steers, I can help round up the cows with the jeep, help down at the barn and save the life of a calf with a needle and fluids. Does that count for country-western?

I think a person’s art form takes on the style of who they are. Certainly your life, past and present, influences the things you like and therefore your style. While I continue to be a bit unsure about my own art style, I keep trying various types of designs. This week, I’ after country-western. So here’s the question, what does it take for a piece of jewelry to be that style? Western is somewhat perplexing. I’ve perused the web and been in several “western” stores, but am particularly dissatisfied with the store offerings. While the pieces carry a hefty price tag, they largely appear to be made of plated silver, large stones, magnesite dyed to look like turquoise and flashing beads, crystals or rhinestones. Since I haven’t been to a rodeo in about a 100 (slight exaggeration) years, I don’t know if this is what cowgirls are wearing. I envisioned more authentic turquoise, pure silver and less bling. I have several photos of pieces below that I would call western. See what you think.

This cuff has a brass layer on the bottom and the top is fold formed copper. I wired the turquoise stones to the copper and then attempted to rivet the two pieces together. Since that didn’t work, I finally used leather to lace it together and just riveted the ends.

The lapis, coral and carnelian necklace shown here has bone horses strung in it. I’ve done several of these before and have even sold a few  as far away as a store in Maine.

The sunstone necklace is composed of an array of shapes of sunstone beads with a peach sunstone cabachon bezeled on copper for the focal. I hoped the copper shape would look western.

Finally, this necklace contains Native American fetishes made from various gemstones. They are strung amid picture jasper chips, turquoise and carnelian beads.

These westernish pieces are missing the bling since they don’t display any rhinestones and the turquoise is real. This is my style country-western. A couple of these will probably go in my etsy store and we’ll see what others think about them.

I’m a little bit country and from my roots in Oklahoma to my anchoring here in Texas I hope the care I take with my art will reflect who I am!

I have great customers! The boutique owners who buy my jewelry are all unique and offer different styles in their stores. Yet, sometimes this presents a conundrum for me as a designer. I may really be doing well producing the colors, the size, and the overall style that is right for one boutique. Then I call on another store and realize the pieces I’ve brought with me don’t fit well at all in the second location. While one store owner wants mainly unique copper pieces, someone else is looking for western style jewelry. Although the pieces I usually make are largely for women 30 and over, one of the boutiques I visit has teenage and 20ish women customers. Therefore, my “usual” just doesn’t work. This boutique requires a very different type of jewelry.

The greatest thing that can happen is for the store owner or customer to be specific regarding what she does and does not like. It’s often hard to get people to talk about this since many fear they will hurt my feelings. In the beginning, I did feel low when someone didn’t like a design. Now I see discussion of likes and dislikes as a real plus. The store owners are a huge help when they share this type of information. Not only can I often adjust my pieces based on what they like, I get many design ideas from what they say. Working with the various styles allows for cross over and mixing it up within the designs.

An example is the use of chain commonly combined with vintage or feminine elements in the designs for younger women. This dainty rose necklace is mainly strung with metal beads and includes chain. Although I didn’t consciously plan it, when I switched to working on western jewelry today, some of the feminine style went with me. You can see the use of chain again in the mahogany bead necklace below.

Mixing styles may not always work, but it does seem to add interest to the pieces. I think the trick it to keep the piece from losing its identity. The other trick is to remember which boutique owner likes which style and to keep up with where I’m going on which day.

It’s very much like spending time with friends. There are those with whom one of your personality traits can be strong, while that same trait may need to be more subdued with another friend. While one friend appreciates your blatant honesty, another is recoiled by it. Just like with the jewelry, it’s important to keep those friends straight and remember who you’re with! Don’t get mixed up!

A series of short articles I recently wrote for Magpie Gemstones (www.magpiegemstones.com) on creative thinking in design instigated several new necklaces. If you have interest in this topic you can find these at the following addresses:

http://www.magpiegemstones.com/creative1.html

http://www.magpiegemstones.com/creative2.html

http://www.magpiegemstones.com/creative3.html

http://www.magpiegemstones.com/Creative4.html

In making these necklaces, I was trying to apply creative thinking techniques to my preexisting skills rather than coming up with a new element to add. The question was “In what ways might I create interesting pieces through relatively simply techniques?” The first piece is a simple strung tiger eye necklace. I added small wire flowers that I had been making as earrings and used them as spacers.

I seldom use a single color or type stone in a piece, but this one seems to work OK.

The next photo shows a simple strung necklace using glass beads. The easy pendant is made from a filigree piece to which I attached a small flower bead.

While the next necklace was more complicated, it simply combines processes I already knew. By the way, as we learn in creative thinking training, I used happenstance with regard to the copper “sticks” on the back of the bezel. They were not planned, but when I was trying to torch two straight pieces of copper wire, they fused themselves together. So I went with this mistake and used it in the design. The last photo shows a simple piece derived from thinking “what if?” I  just kept adding things to the basic piece of etched copper and ended up with a very long pendant. Although you can’t see it in the photo, there is a flower etched on the copper portion of the pendant. This pendant started as a bracelet and ended (at least for the moment) as a necklace. I think “resistance to closure” which is also practiced in creativity training worked well for this bracelet/necklace.

I guess the message I’m trying to send today is that easy methods can produce innovative designs. While I will continue to practice newly learned techniques, applying creative thinking skills to those that I have previously learned is another positive avenue for innovation. I hope you will read the short articles at the above addresses and apply them to whatever form of work you are doing. Have fun, laugh often and create for life.

Today is Bruno’s .5 birthday.  If you haven’t read older posts, you might have thought that Bruno was a baby. Yet, at our age, he’s the only resident baby permanently around at Dreamcatcher. While his picture is not the best since a six month old puppy does not sit still for photographing, you can get the idea of how he has grown since the mid January photos with his siblings and the April 29 photo in the bluebonnets.

Bruno is an Australian Blue Heeler (cattle dog) who already enjoys barking at the bulls and riding in the topless jeep. Notice his feet. They are twice as big as his mother’s and he already weighs nearly 40 pounds. I hope we can keep him in dog food and am glad we don’t have to buy him shoes!

Happy Half Birthday Bruno.

Don’t you just feel that Fall crispness in the air? No . . .? Unfortunately, I don’t either. It’s rapidly approaching 100 degrees here in South Texas and I’m wondering why in the world I am working on Fall design pieces. Could it be because the summer merchandise is rapidly clearing out of the boutiques and the Fall clothing will start arriving in August. If I don’t start thinking Fall right now, I’ll be behind. So, here I sit with the Fall color predictions on one side of me and a boutique’s Nomadic Treasures clothing brochure indicating what she has purchased on the other. I’ve also turned the ceiling fan in the studio on high and am trying to think about cool weather and darker colors. (This is a BIG stretch!)

Since I’ve been making the etched cuffs, it was a fairly easy transition to use more Fall-like designs on them. I used a Fall leaf stamp to make this copper on copper bracelet.

Sticking with the metal, I also finished a copper leaf pendant shown below. I torched the metal until it was black and, following cleaning, the leaf offered a beautiful red color. Then I soldered the little dragonfly on to one side. The challenge came in digging deep into my bead drawers to find the right Fall colors. This was made easier by spending time at a boutique yesterday.

There, I was able to match the colors to a Fall wool vest that was in stock. I find it much easier to design with a garment in front of me.

Both of these pieces are currently available on my etsy shop @

www.dreamcatcherdesigns.etsy.com

Fall is definitely here in the studio and I should be ready when the real deal comes along outdoors. Think COOL.

Last month, our wire workers group committed the meeting to Steampunk style jewelry. Steampunk might be described as a combination of technology and romance and in the case of jewelry this could be vintage pieces combined with mechanical parts such as cogs, wheels or watch parts. The bulk of my customers have just looked at me strangely when I asked if they liked Steampunk jewelry and when I described it, they were pretty sure they didn’t want any. Yet, trying to learn from every new opportunity, I tried to make a Steampunk necklace. It wasn’t bad and although I didn’t have any watch parts or cogs to use in it, the vintage parts came together nicely and on its first trip out to the stores, it sold. Unfortunately, I didn’t take a picture of that piece.

Today, I decided I should give Steampunk another chance. The first necklace shown here is based on the theme of flowers and is quite eclectic. The second piece wasn’t planned as Steampunk, but rather influenced by it. I didn’t have any beads that specifically matched the bezeled cab I made, so I let my experience on the first necklace free me to use complimentary beads rather than perfect matches on this second piece.

  I applied this same “almost anything goes” approach to the meatloaf I fed the men at noon and it turned out pretty good as well. A little of this with a little of that covered with plenty of barbeque sauce and it was fine. Yet, I think I should drop this approach immediately since I preparing to do some etching. Playing with adding just any old chemical to muriatic acid would most likely spell disaster. I think I’d better follow the right recipe for this process.

Months ago, two kind souls in our Faux Bead Society showed us how to etch on copper.  I enjoyed the experience, but was involved in learning other things and didn’t do any further etching. Then, last month, a nice friend in the group brought me some mordant, the solution used to eat away the copper in the etching process. I brought it home and couldn’t leave it alone. I was itching to etch.

I’d been trying to develop a new cuff bracelet and the etching seemed a good option to try. The first bracelet, not pictures, was done on 20 gauge copper and although it turned out fine, it was extremely difficult to cut that gauge copper sheet by hand. Layering the metals seemed to be the answer. Initially, I tried to solder the two metals together after etching the top, but was not very successful. Therefore, the layers of the three bracelets pictured first are held together with cold connections (rivets). 

The next day I worked on another set of bracelets and was determined to get them to solder. My stubbornness paid off and these held much better. I also put rivets in each end of these bracelets.    

Following the soldering and riveting, these bracelets spent about three hours in the tumbler to both clean and work harden them. The soldering process also annealed the metal and the bracelets were very soft prior to being tumbled. Now they retain their shape.

Etching was very messy and I was pleased to finish the bracelets and several other pieces today so I could put away the etching supplies. I guess you could say that the itch has been scratched for now. I shall see what my customers say about these pieces before I decide whether or not to get messy again. What do you think?