Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Wishcasting Wednesday - Heart's Wish

Today for Wishcasting Wednesday, Jamie Ridler asks "What is your heart's wish?"


...in case of you are wondering, of course you can have it all. What are you going to do? Everything, is my guess. It will be a little messy, but embrace the mess. It will be complicated, but rejoice in the complications. It will not be anything like what you think it will be like, but surprises are good for you. And don't be frightened: you can always change your mind. I know: I've had four careers and three husbands." - From Ephron's 1996 commencement speech at Wellesly College, her alma mater.

Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.
Nora Ephron

 
My heart's wish is to embrace the mess and rejoice in the complications. Enjoy the surprises, not be frightened and change my mind. And...my deepest heart's wish is to be the heroine of my life.
 
Thank you, Nora.
 
(Lisa Kewish)


Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Did you know we made a video?

A couple years ago we made a short video on "granulation." We have received several emails of people thanking us for making this short, clear and concise edu-vid on one of the processes used by metalsmiths. It has received 4.5 stars!

I thought it would be a good time to do a re-run! Enjoy!


Are there any other kinds of techniques you would like to see? Let us know down in the comments here...  :)

A short re-cap of our Art Fest weekend can be seen here.

Art Fest 2012 High Hand Nursery

I had a great plan to takes LOTS of interesting pictures ... and then the Kewish Designs "store" became busy! This is a very good thing, but it left me with few pictures! Here's a nibble of the weekend...


Entrance to the nursery with the rising sun shining on the sign!

Garden cottage...


 Question; which came first, the tin roof or the tree?

I found the resident kitty. He was checking us out as we waited for the doors to be unlocked.

Artsy shot of "Resident Kitty."
 
Our store front set up with the very cool paintings of Kermit serving as a nice backdrop.
Our neighbor, Kermit.
 
Unni Stevens, her paintings and our earrings. Her husband bought her the earrings after she admired them!
 
Josh contemplates the next featured stone!

2012 Art Fest at High Hand! I love how eye-catching and bright Jewelry by North's booth is!
Our other neighbor, Karsten Mouras, and her amazing colorful paintings was a delight! I didn't capture any shots of her, or her work, but she can be found on Facebook! Go look for "Artist Karsten Mouras" and "Like" her page!

For more on the various artists that were at Art Fest, you can go here.

It was a wonderful event! Very successful for Kewish Designs! We are looking forward to doing more events at High Hand!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Wishcasting Wednesday

Jamie Ridler poses the question,

What do you wish for this summer?

And my mind goes on overdrive. Wave after wave of ideas and possibilities. Desires, dreams and needs. Yes, but what do I wish for this summer?

I wish for a summer filled with fulfillment of my ideas, dreams, desires and needs. I wish for a summer filled with possibilities that manifest. I wish to allow myself to go ahead and just unleash this bounty of creative impulses and have no expectation of outcome...just let things bubble up and let them be born and let them fly.

I wish for a summer of pure creative energy.


Saturday, June 16, 2012

High Hand Recon Mission

We are doing Art Fest 2012 at High Hand on June 23 and 24, 2012. I had heard about High Hand, but had never been. So, on the hottest day in the area thus far, Josh and I headed out to check out the scene. Sometimes it is good to know what you are getting involved in, before the involvement!

We LOVED it there.

If you go to High Hand - you can plan on spending a lot of time there.


High Hand offers the Nursery (from their web site): "High Hand Nursery offers a unique shopping experience. Tour our greenhouse, the home of High Hand grown plants. Unwind in a world of unusual plants, pottery and inspiring garden art. Relax next to the koi ponds and wander through uniquely landscaped venues.  High Hand Nursery also offers a full range of landscape services. 

The Conservatory: "Purveyors of hand grown, hand crafted cuisine, the conservatory offers brunch, lunch and dinner derived from the finest flavors Placer County offers, including fresh grown produce from our own garden. Located on the grounds of the historic High Hand fruit sheds, this inspired conservatory offers a unique dining experience." 

The Fruit Sheds - from the art gallery to the candle shop...there are plenty of places to explore and shop!

Here are some pictures from our adventure!

The High Hand Fine Art Gallery is operated & supported by a collaborative of professional visual artists. As usual, I do not take photos of art work! There are some beautiful pieces in there!
The room that fills up with rows of artists working and displaying their work during Art Fest!

I'm a sucker for old sewing machines!

An old couch! A real fixer-upper!

The Vintage Bricoleur was a neat store!
 
I had a half order of the chicken salad sandwich with zucchini salad! Delishesness...and a half order was plenty of food...Josh had a half order of the hot pastrami sandwich, but ate it before I could take a picture! :)

We shared dessert. Blackberry and lemon cobbler with ice cream.

All gone!

The view from our table!

Koi pond! Friendly little guys.

Places to sit and relax.

View while relaxing!

I climbed to the little "island" and caught Josh communing with the koi!

Gorgeous nursery!









Definitely worth a trip. Whether it is just for spending the day in this gorgeous place, OR to check out an event (Like Art Fest!!).

Two Thumbs Up with a big grin! :D

for more info on High Hand, click here.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Rehab

Sometimes when all is said and done, it has to be re-done.
Like this druzy. She needed some work.

I loved the piece, but I think that her little "kick" there on the right seemed not right to many people. I've hung on to that "kick" for several years... ARTIST'S CHOICE!!! I have this thing for not quite making things symmetrical.

However, after all these years I took another look at her and yes, the "kick" bothered me...

Black Druzy with fused silver and gold. With a kick.

I took another look at the design...blocking out the playful "kick"...

Better...nice balance!

I gathered up my tools...from my super-sonic Walmart glasses for magnification...and other traditional smithing tools...


Marked the piece with the Sharpie and used the jeweler's saw to take out the "kick..."

ahhh...a better balance, a piece of fused silver with a rose gold granulation ball...and files.

Some buffing, polishing and a nice warm bath in soapy water (best way to clean a druzy...)

and here she is....

Black druzy with stering and fine silver. Two rose-gold granulation balls.

I'm very happy with the results. She will be making her re-debut at High Hand's Art Fest June 23 & 24, 2012!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Cold Connections and New Work

Cold connections. This means that fire/heating is not used for joining metals. Many metalsmiths have a love/hate relationship with cold connections. Some cold connections are easy. You make a hole in each piece of metal that you want to put together and then just run a material like wire, or leather, around and around. One can also use tiny screws and nuts. Rivets and eyelets may be the most commonly used by metal workers.

This wall art has cold connections all over it. From the wire holding the opal in place to the leather holding two large pieces of copper in place. ("Grandmother's Medicine Bag" by Lisa Kewish)

 Another form of cold connection vexes many a metalsmith. Rivets. This means that a wire is fitted between two holes and the size of the holes must be just right. If the holes aren't the right size, the entire process fails and you have to start over. Bonus points, the wire you are using is about the size of this "l" !!! Ok, maybe a tad longer and a bit rounder.

There IS a rivet in there somewhere. On the right. The tiny silver circle. That is a rivet holding a bezel with a stone in place! (Lisa's class project on connecting with rivets)

And then there are eyelets. Eyelets are basically metal tubes that are round and finished around the edge.

Lots of hearts with cold connections using eyelets! Josh has been working diligently on making these very cool hearts!

 Meanwhile, while Josh has been working away at cold connections, Lisa has been putting together earrings!

Sterling silver on copper hoops with beaded dangles! Ear wires are nickel free!

And last, an experiment! I was given a roll of thin copper. It is too thin to use on it's own...however, by fusing pieces together with sterling silver, I was able to create small sheets that I then could shape. I made earrings!

Sterling silver fused on to copper. Hand painted.

Sterling silver fused on to copper. Hand painted.

All these items will make their debut at High Hand's Art Fest on June 23 and 24th! More information on that next week!

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Sacramento's 2nd Saturday "Art Party" at Clubhouse 24


This video pretty much sums up a great evening!

Two bands, four artists, drummers and dancers...One of the best "opening night" art parties I have experienced!

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Now THIS is an Art Show!

"Art Shows" these days are iffy. Many shows are labeled as art shows and one may find a handful of artists surrounded by buy and sell vendors (or "bs" vendors as some call it...). So, I usually approach an art show with doubts and low expectations.

HOWEVER...
I was delighted and inspired by the work at the Art Fiesta at Town and Country (click here to find out more). Yes, actual artists and real art. Work that started my own creative soul panting and longing to get back in the studio...

While I will not post pictures of another artist's work, I am going to post a series of links to several artists that are at this show.

I would HIGHLY encourage you to check these links out and better yet, go to the art show...you only have tomorrow (June 3) to see this work...then you will have to wait until next year!

Jewelry By North (click here).
North does lost wax cast custom wearable art made in sterling silver. She has some new pieces that made my jaw drop. GORGEOUS! (and yes, North, and her wife Sharon, are friends of ours...) :)

Kathryn Finn (click here).
Kathryn makes porcelain adornments that are lovely. After my short experimentation with cold porcelain...I can DEEPLY appreciate the work that Kathryn does.

Gini Crepps Mitchell (click here).
Gini's collage work is not shown on her web page. But WOW on her collage work. So much energy and fun and scrumptious layers of stuff. We had a fun time visiting with her and, her booth partner

Bobbie Pilliard (click here).
It doesn't appear that she has a website...but we did have a great conversation about High Hand and how it was her summer job for several years. I just saw that she participated in KVIE's Art Auction 2011 with this picture that I want... "Here's Lookin at Ya"

Ted & Nat Groves
No website...Ted does fused dichroic glass and Nat does beading. The dichroic glass is amazing. I now have my own piece of Ted & Nat Groves dichroic glass. He does something to create dimensions in the glass that are mesmerizing.

Lary McKee (click here).
I adore Lary and love his art. Period.

Find time, get out, support, go see real art and talk to the artists. It makes for an amazing day!

Cheers!