Well let's get my project out of the way first, and then to the exciting news.

Texture really is my thing.  Lately I've been playing a lot with metal corrugation, especially mixed with foldforming.  These copper earrings are corrugated and then folded/compressed up the middle.  They are about 1.75" long, and super light (about half the weight of a penny) but also rigid and strong because of the folds.  

The Lewton-Brain Foldform Award 
CALL FOR ENTRIES: The Lewton-Brain Foldform Award

The inaugural juried competition with 3 awards and some fine prizes. 
DEADLINE! June 30! No exceptions! Take your pics now!

What to send: 
1. Send images of up to three entries of foldform pieces in jpg format, maximum 300 dpi to lewtonbrainfoldformaward@gmail.com
2. You may include up to two jpg images of each piece so the judges can see more than one view. 
3. Title your image files with the name of the piece (i.e. Birdsnest 1, Birdsnest 2) but do not include your name anywhere in these files.
4. Attach IN THE SAME EMAIL a word file with your name, email, phone, address, the photo file names, and a sentence or two about the piece. Send as a word doc file. No docx, or pdf, sorry.

Judging Criteria:
1. The piece must be your own work (although other materials, i.e. findings etc may be incorporated into the piece). The foldform may incorporate found objects and purchased objects, if they further develop the folded form.
2. Judging will be based on excellence in execution, originality, and/or innovative development of a foldform family. These are awards for the well-executed work, the beautiful form, or the fresh idea that earns an appreciative nod of “Well-done work”.
3. Winners to be named on August 6, 2012 at the Fifth Annual Charles Lewton-Brain Conference, Center for Metal Arts in Florida NY, and online at http://www.centerformetalarts.com/blog and Facebook/Center for Metal Arts.
4. The entry may be either a folded form or a fully finished work, although a fully realized piece may have more wow power. Your call.

Prizes:
To be announced, but we think you’ll like them. A lot.
------------------------------------------
http://centerformetalarts.com/ (click Upcoming Seminars and scroll down) 

After bragging last week about my incredibly organized studio, it's only fair for me to share the first piece I made afterwards... especially since it demonstrates that I will never be completely organized!

This is a large copper foldform pendant using a technique called "chased on air" on one side, with texturing and a small sterling silver flower soldered on the other side.  At least that was the plan.  

After the piece was all assembled, I began cleaning it up with the usual light sanding and polishing.  Can't seem to bring up the silver in that darn flower.  Can't figure out why it's so yellow, even with all the buffing.

Yellow.

Yellow.

OMG.  I suddenly remember making a tiny 14k yellow gold flower and setting it on my workbench a few weeks ago.  This isn't a sterling silver accent... it's 14k gold. On copper.

I'm all about mixed metals but I'm not ready for gold on copper when gold is $1550+ an ounce.  The colors aren't even dramatically different enough to justify it artistically.  So you can bet that little flower is coming off.  Its true destiny? An accent on a yet-to-be-dreamed-up fine silver pendant where the color contrast will be soooo much nicer.

For some reason I think it's fun to share mistakes...  When I make a mistake I get mad, but when I share a mistake it makes me laugh...   Anyway, a little more organization is obviously still needed in my studio :-P

Don't laugh but I'm a little afraid to work in my studio today.  Have you ever organized something to the point where you're afraid to move or even breath?

My studio is CRAZY organized right now.  I was watching Restaurant Impossible last week (for some reason we're hooked on that and Chopped in my house.)  They go into failing restaurants, fix the problems, and re-open.  One of the issues they're always fixing is poor kitchen layout.  It finally hit me that I needed to launch a Studio Impossible project because my layout was a disaster.

I didn't take "before" photos.  Not that I didn't think of it; I just couldn't bear to preserve that nightmare.  But I have some "after" photos for you.

The first photo shows an older workbench that I made myself.  Don't be too impressed because my husband Kevin had to reinforce it later.  It's kind of a semi-dedicated flexshaft station now rather than a free-for-all.  (A flexshaft is a power tool with a gazillion uses and attachments.)  

Notice all the open floor space.  Take my word for it; that's new.

The main problem was the mix of tools with paperwork, photography, and laptop all in the same room.  I decided to move everything OUT that isn't specifically used for art creation.  Because three of my four girls are grown up and out of the house, I had another under-utilized bedroom.  I moved anything related to office, business, photography, or show/display to that room, where it fits nicely (sorry, guests, it's going to be a bit cramped in there.)

Then I bought a sweet 6' wooden work bench from Harbor Freight.  Thanks Sam, Kathy, and Kevin for helping me put that together.  If you need a bench, look at this one  http://www.harborfreight.com/60-inch-workbench-93454.html .  It would be a steal for its regular $229 price but I had a coupon to make it $149.  It's so gorgeous I almost hate to hammer on it and scuff it up.   

My daughter Lindsay should note the presence of a new grease board to track my projects, as per her advice -- empty right now because I forgot to buy markers, but soon it will help preserve my sanity.  Lindsay, by the way, has always been my organizer when things got crazy.  She will be so proud of me :-)

I do have before and after photos of a broken lamp because it was a stroke of genius ;-)  

A couple more messes-turned-organized...

So now the question is when will I bring myself to disturb this little haven of organization?  And even more to the point, will I put my tools away?

April 26th was "Take your child to work" day here.  My 11-year-old daughter Kara didn't have far to go.  She spent the day with me in my home studio and we had a blast.  At first she was going to make a boat, but halfway through Kara decided it would make a perfect sushi plate.  This is a photo with the heat patina still on it-- so rustic and pretty at this stage. We did remove the patina and shine up the copper so that it could be used for food.

The original copper was a flat 4x10 factory cut sheet, so the only cutting necessary was to round the four corners.  I did the cutting and annealing (torch work) but Kara did 99% of all the hammering (shaping, texturing) and finishing (filing, sanding, burnishing.)  Not bad, I think!!

Last year was Kara's first "take your child to work day" in my studio and that was equally fun.  She made this copper and gemstone necklace.

For the necklace, the jump rings were already cut but the connectors holding the beads were not.  Kara cut the wires, loaded the beads, and learned to loop the wires / connect the chain.  By the end of the day Kara was a pro and all I needed to do was go through and tighten up some of the pieces.  Kara also cut the circle, dapped it (made it concave) and stamped it.  

It's funny, she is really into metal work on these school scheduled days -- really had fun -- but during the year it's not on her A-list.  So it's doubtful she'll be following in my footsteps, but I know we'll both look back on these days as some of our best times together.

This is an 8" long copper serving spoon with a leafy foldformed handle and three fine silver rivets (although the pieces are also soldered.) I've been wanting to make a spoon.   Sometimes an idea just won't go away, like a song you can't get out of your head.  This one may or may not cure me-- not sure yet if it's out of my system or just the first of a series of (hopefully improved) spoon trials.   I don't want to rain on my own parade but there is room for improvement.

The other day I bought some crazy things in a thrift store to use as forms and stakes for shaping metal.  One of those things was a wooden Mancala game board.  If you're not familiar with Mancala, click here to see what the board looks like.  When I saw it, I thought "spoon!" and so I paid my two bucks and that's what I used to form the bowl portion of the spoon.

This is the type of shopping I love to do.  It's a kind of MacGyver shopping viewpoint where the intended function of an item is moot, and all you see are shapes and raw materials.  If you aren't old enough to know about MacGyver, a link probably won't help.  Suffice to say, it makes any shopping trip a creative adventure.

Maybe next week I'll be back to posting jewelry.  Thanks for sticking with me to find out :-)

Last week I posted a half finished piece and here it is finished, as promised.  It's hand cut copper with a thick sterling silver bezel to frame a corrugated metal "stone."  The bottom is finished with wire-wrapped moss agate.

This week I'd like to get back into some serious fold forming, so my goal is to have something fun to show for it on next week's post.

A little exciting news.  I'm scheduled to demo foldforming at the Columbus Arts Festival on June 2, 3-4 p.m.   It's a huge outdoor event (so wish us good weather!) If you're local, I hope you'll save the date and find me there.   I'll post more about it as we get closer.

That's about all I have for today... make it a great week!

After a few days of downtime this week, I'm back in gear.  But let's not get crazy.  I caught myself trying to rush-finish a piece today so that I could post it in time.  Well guess what?  It's not March anymore, and I can post a half-finished piece if I want to :-)

The middle section is a piece of copper corrugated in multiple directions.  It's sitting inside a sterling silver, textured ring (literally a ring band that I made a couple years ago but never used.)  The long, skinny piece at the top will be a bale of some type soon.  I have some ideas for the rest... I'll post the finished piece next week and hopefully catch some natural lighting for a better photo.

I've done a few bangles too, if you'd like to see some finished jewelry.  

I had a blast with the 2nd annual One-a-day jewelry challenge.  The best part was having so many lovely people visiting to see the pieces; I really enjoyed your interest, comments, suggestions, and good wishes.  During March, readers visited from (ordered by visit frequency) United States, Canada, Italy, United Kingdom, Greece, Russia, India, Egypt, Venezuela, Brazil, Croatia, Australia, France, South Korea, Portugal, Sweden, Austria, Columbia, Germany, Hungary, Kuwait, and Lithuania -- with an average visit duration of 59 minutes!  That is pretty awesome.

If you enjoyed this event, I hope you will help spread the word by "liking" my facebook page and liking / sharing the YouTube video recap  (you can scroll down to view the video here, too.) Every little bit helps!

Also PLEASE scroll down and vote for your favorite piece from the month.  You'll be helping me more than you know!

And now, the giveaway... 

And the winner is...
Katie Thompson!!!
 

Katie, I will contact you for your mailing address. Your prize choices are days 2, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 14, 17, 21, and 25.  You can click on those days to view full posts OR scroll down to see the entire month's photos.  The giveaway choices are shown with an asterisk (*) by the caption.  

Please post your choice in a comment on today's blog entry and explain a bit about why you like the piece :-) And thank you so much for participating, both in 2011 and 2012.


Everyone please vote!
I hope you will take a minute to cast your vote telling me your favorite piece from the month.  You're welcome to leave comments below, too!  All feedback appreciated.  I will leave the poll open forever :-)

I post on Wednesdays, so please stop back -- and THANK YOU for your support this month!