Hammering Out A Living

Fold Forming- Pleats-plaits-tucks-rolls

2011-11-23T11:26:00.000-08:00

Wow. It's been a while since I wrote in the blog. My apologies. I'll offer you a bribe of sorts to make up for my lack of writing. Consider this your Thanks Giving present. Yes I'll have one for Christmas for you also, but that's next week. I do all ready know what it is. Let me say this. I love Thanksgiving. Giving thanks is a wonderful idea, we should do it more often. But I love this holiday for two other reasons. First of all there's a parade! Secondly there's a concept us country kids understand. It's about looking at one thing and seeing something else. Turkeys are pretty disgusting, stupid critters. But to look at a turkey and see a feast is an amazing thing. That ability to look at one thing and see something else gets into fold forming a little bit. We are going to work with some metal but we're going to do it by thinking about fabric. This you've heard of a pleated skirt. you've seen accordion folded curtains. Here's a link that will fill you on on the terms of the pleat world.
http://blog.suitupp.com/2010/06/14/what-are-pleats-what-kind-of-pleats-are-there/

Your present is a demo! Pretty soon you're going to want something to hang on a tree. How about something fold formed? caption

You're going to need some things. A straight edge, scissors or a sharp knife, maybe some tape, perhaps a few paper clips, and most important fingers..Oh and a roll of aluminum foil. Hey it's metal!


I've taken an 18" by 36" sheet and box pleated it the long way,


	It was then accordion pleated-folded at 90 degrees. I cut this into two sheets 9" long.


	With a little unfolding and finger work it should look something like this. But we have to join the edges together.

Here comes the epic fail part of the demo..I got a better idea. I at first thought I could use a slip tab A into slot B approach..Bad Idea..Didn't work. Every good demo I've ever done had it's epic fail moment. Such is life.
Instead of doing that do this. Another type of pleat! A rolled pleat as the join.

Much better join. Push this area inward creating a valley fold. Now comes the fun part!

This pic shows a mountain fold. The dots show areas where metal has been trapped by the box pleat. We are going to pull 1/2 of these trapped metal areas open. That's how we create our form!

Fun part! ( understand we are going to open the mountains not the valleys)

Work all the way around the form opening 1/2 of each side then the other 1/2 until it looks like this. Proceed to open up the others.

These are the two forms I created during this demo. Could you do them in copper? Sure, just find some copper foil. I had too many pleats to get ball shapes. You'll figure it out. I used 3/4 " spacing..too big for ornaments? For thanksgiving you recieved the gift of seeing a possibility, Enjoy!

Doing It All Over Again.

2011-09-20T09:38:00.000-07:00

     If I had it to do over again or more likely if I had to start all over again there are a few things I'd do differently. I suppose we can all say that. I'm not saying I wouldn't have the second margarita or that I wouldn't seek the warm sandy beaches, somewhere. Let me try to explain.

     When I opened my first store the landlord suggested strongly that If I had an engraving machine I would get all of his companies presentation plaque business. A thousand dollars later I had purchased an engraving machine, five fonts and various jigs for it. A few hundred more bucks and I had a stack of little brass plates to put on my landlords GD plaques. I purchased engravable items and offered them for sale. This business looked like this I purchase ID bracelet, Sell ID bracelet at 2x mark up, engrave it for free! Sometimes we spelled the name wrong, sometimes things slipped in the machine. Mary did all of our engraving, Mary was one of the nicest people I ever met, she was a devoted grandmother. Engraving turned her into a mumbling, grouchy person. One of the happiest days in my jewelry career was the day I gave another jeweler, in an other state, my engraving machine. So if I had it to do all over again, I'd have the second margarita and skip the engraving machine experience.
   My current projected business model takes into account more of me than just making jewelry and doing metalsmithing. Step one acquire some land 3-15 acres. Rural setting. House 1000 to 1200 sq ft. build it if I have to. Shop minimum 24x24 that's a 2 car garage size. Build a greenhouse connected to the shop 20x 40 to start. Use the greenhouse to do aquaponics, ie. raise fish and food. Produce organic vegetables. Sell excess. Use a combination of solar and grid provided power. Wood heat. Goal is to become a self sufficient small farm.
     This approach makes it easier to do the art side of things. It removes the have to sell jewelry aspect to survival-prospering. Almost all jewelry marketing would be done on line or at two large by invitations at the farm studio events.

A copper fold formed deep flower, "Fantasy Flower"Add caption

There is an amazing thing that happens on purpose with aquaponics. The fish eat plants, algae mostly, the plants enjoy the nutrient the fish produce, the water stays clean. There is a certain synergy created. It's that synergy I want to be a part of. I'm seeking a balance. The fact that most of it happens in a greenhouse is an added blessing. No engraving machine, no grouchy people. Enjoy Food for thought for some of you.

The Changes In Doing It.

2011-09-15T06:53:00.000-07:00

Aluminum has potential as a jewelry medium. These pieces are resting on a sheet of textured aluminum stock.

"I found time to learn the night sky, so that it was calendar, clock, & compass. There are knots to learn, puzzles to solve: how does one reckon the tides? Need a sundial? The arithmetic of ratio & proportion are at the root of trigonometry & algebra, whoso can reckon in fractions has a firm grip of all else. All of these were in the reach of folk in days gone by, if they bothered to learn them. There is nothing like going for a walk, to loosen the bindings of habit, & so open one to new thoughts & feelings. Learn your surroundings: one can figure the direction & distance of a sound at night, especially a branch falling from a tree or the like, if one has taken in his surroundings. If one looks at what is over the hill, or around the next bend, they are no longer unknown territory; one can picture what is going on from the sounds made there. It is good sense to know that this or that can be found here or there, one may need it at a moment’s notice, even if, until then, it was only stuff. Every day holds something new, or gives an answer to an old mystery; when it comes to living without the plugged-in things being switched on: when boredom calls, it calls for change; so make a change." The preceding long quote is from a writing by Christopher Ellis titled "Somethings on what to do when everything is turned off"
     Today you and I are facing what seem to be ever increasing precious metals prices, increasing energy costs and higher food prices. Today I'd like to suggest some methods- techniques we may find ourselves doing as a result of these changing times. "it calls for change, so make a change."
    I think PMC has an advantage when it comes to copper and brass clays. by combining a glass approach called miliflori or caining. it's not mokome but it's cool looking stuff.
    The process of filigree uses surprisingly little metal. learn about a tool called a millgraining tool.
    Casting is still an excellent method to produce multiples, But so are photo etching, and die cutting.
    Electro-plating uses very little metal. Electro forming is a little different.
    I highly recommend that any of you wanting to have a career in jewelry become gemologists. The value of most $10,000 pieces comes down to a mounting less than $1,000 and $9,000 for the center stone. The profit is made on the stone. Put your knowledge where the profit is!


     c

We Can Do It!

2011-09-14T08:13:00.000-07:00

It just wouldn't be right if I didn't include the most famous "Do It" person, the American icon, Rosie The Riveter in a series about "doing it" The painting by Norman Rockwell is now the property of Walmart and hangs in their gallery in Benton-ville Arkansas. I did almost forget to include her. I was joking with a friend yesterday, she by the way has a striking resemblance to Rosie, about never being able to find a screw driver. Though I know for a fact I haven't made all of them into chasing and repousee tools. I must confess I really don't use screw drivers very often, It all goes back to Rosie! Rosie the famous riveter needed holes to put rivets in. The tool of choice was a hand held power drill. One of the other things you could do with this drill was to put a screw driver bit into it and have a powered screw driver! Rosie's of the day were known to take their drills home with them to use for home fix it jobs. A market for power tools for the home owner was discovered. The maker of those drills was Black and Decker, amazing. When I was a kid I learned about the power drill. Today my power drill is battery operated and I have fifty screwdriver-bits to fit almost every situation. Thanks Rosie, for bringing the tools home. If you are a lady-smith consider Rosie as a roll-model. A can do it American girl.

Doing It The Wabi-Sabi Way

2011-09-09T07:32:00.000-07:00

Well yesterday was an experience in frustration. I wrote and typed the blog for the day twice. Each time it failed to post. This is the third attempt. Believe me when I say that this version is almost completely different from the other two attempts. My thoughts seem clearer.

    I’m not going to pretend to completely understand the Japanese concept of wabi sabi. I have a western view of the world my understanding may be limited by my perspective. I do like what I see and hear. The concept draws me in. Here’s a long quote from Wiki, I find useful. "if an object or expression can bring about, within us, a sense of serene melancholy and a spiritual longing, then that object could be said to be wabi-sabi." "[Wabi-sabi] nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect."
^{How do these three realities help us? They help us by providing a focus on the natural. They ask us to meditate on an object rather than just glance in passing at an object. As makers of objects we have to understand that subtle changes become areas of wonderment for the viewer. That area of wonderment has transformative power for the viewer of the object.
   The westerner will simply say "I don't know anything about art, but I like it." Others will say, "This piece speaks to me."
Some days it's as if through some happy accident, a serendipity, I discovered I could speak a language I didn't know existed, And I just discovered there are people that understand it!
     A synergy has formed.   Enjoy}

The Doing It "Advantage"

2011-09-07T08:46:00.000-07:00

aluminum fold formed pendant concept.

Copper Fold formed boats. upside down ear ring design

Became a pair of Fold formed copper earrings

Fold formed coils about the size of a nickle

Unfolding is the best part of fold forming!

One of the Doing It Advantages is that all of the play is my property. I get the benefit of having done it. That benefit is the next ideas and concepts.
I know you have probably never heard of Union Whiten, Iowa. Let alone Dows, Iowa. If you're not from Iowa you've never heard of March Madness. If you are from Iowa, you know about Girls Basketball, and Cinderella State Basketball Championship Teams. For a good many years the state championship could come down to some little school that was hardly on the map VS one of the large cities. Denise Long was the star of the 1968 Girls Basketball team from Union Whiten. She scored 111 points in that game! There's a park in Whiten in her honor. Yup, the park has a basket ball hoop! Why do I mention that now? Because it's about this time of the year, when the nights get a little cooler, that the girls in Iowa would hit the driveway courts, dust off the basketballs and begin practicing! You couldn't pay people to do that! But you can't stop them either. It's their advantage, and they know it!
Tomorrow I'll some more things for you to consider. Enjoy

Doing It Against The Odds

2011-09-06T13:53:00.000-07:00

A series of "Evidence"

     If you have considered starting your own business, jewelry of other wise, no doubt somebody has informed you that four out of five small businesses will end in failure within their first five years. That's a staggering failure rate! If that were the whole story no one in their right mind should ever want to own their own business! We should accept it and move on. But wait a minute, It's not the whole story! What about that 1 in 5 gal. Well the odds are pretty great that she was a 4 out of 5'er at lease once and pretty high she was a 4 out of 5'er twice. What happens is each time she tries is she learns more about what works and what doesn't work. There's another thing that happens. I got my first bank loan, in my name, no cosigner, when I was twelve years old! I bought two pregnant sows, Raised the pigs, kept two more sows, bread them, raised the pigs and sold the rest. By the time I was sixteen I had a dozen sows and semi truck worth of bacon and pork chops. I sold out of the hog production business! Had I failed as a hog producer? I was a solid 4 out of 5'er. I just lost interest in farming.
     I watched a family owned liquor store set up a barbeque grill, out their back door. It didn't take long for a barbeque catering and wine tasting company to spin off. They basically became their own best customer. I watched their Bingo Parlor transform into the catering business. Yup they would have qualifies as 4 out of 5'ers. So I'm going to tell you what they never do. If you've tried and failed, ponder a while and try again. The odds are changing in your favor. One of the things we need to do is stop believing the "sort of" information people keep giving us,
    I spoke to the plant superintendent of rather large electronics company a few years ago. He said that in his industry people are only accurate about half of the time. I was pretty shocked with his 55% figure. He went on to say that anyone in his industry anyone that was accurate 85% of the time would be considered genius level. I started thinking, There is no way I could be wrong 15% of the time and still be in business. You won't be able to either. Here's how to get your accuracy rate up. Most people fire back answers at questions like they have a machine gun, professionals at automatic fire, fire in short bursts. We are going to add a pause and a question from us between their question and our answer. Goes something like this. Your kid in the back seat of the car says, "Dad, Are greyhounds yellow? Instead of your usual fast all knowing answer of "No" you respond with "Why? Your son says"'cause if that's not a Greyhound, then it's a schoolbus coming directly at us." Pause, clarify the question.
    I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Very few people, just a couple of close employees and imediate family members, know this about me. I'm really two people! There's the amazing can do anything at the jewelers bench guy, according to the standing behind the counter talking to a customer me. And there's the "Holly buckets of grease Batman, What have you gotten me into this time? How cheap am I going to have to do this little bit of wonderment?" guy, when I'm seated at the bench. I swear my IQ goes up ten points when I sit at the jewelers bench.
   This week I'll blog some more on this making it-doing it stuff. I'm pretty solidly in like with destination marketing, selling directly to my own retail customers and a synergistic approach to being artist-designer-craftsman. Hope you enjoy

Sometimes I Do It For Grins and Giggles

2011-09-02T08:45:00.000-07:00

Look I'm going to be honest with you. I've worked for free. I've worked for 85 cents an hour. I've worked for apple pie! I've worked for exposure and I've worked to keep warm. I've watched other people work, I kind of enjoy doing that. I was very lucky during my college years to be able to watch two guys work.. The first was Jon Coiner, potter. the second Don Mattingly, painter. Ok so their real job title would have been professor, They would like my descriptions. Both became good friends of mine. They did not know each other, they taught at different schools hundreds of miles apart. Do you remember "Winnie the Poo " Christopher Robin and ti-double- gr-r, Tigger, too? These guys were Tiggers. They didn't just walk places, they bounced! If you watched them go through the snow drifts you would see them bounce above the drifts every couple of steps. They would hit the front door of the building whistling, and bounce up three flights of steps. They were infectious. Both confided in me that they did their teaching jobs for "Grins and Giggles" That phrase stuck with me, kind of had special meaning.
So when the Superintendent of Schools came to me and said. "For "grins and giggles" I'd like you to do a lecture for the Social Studies Classes.." I knew it was time to get my bounce on. There were five social studies teachers. Every kid in the high school was taking social studies, they couldn't escape it. That school used a large group- small group system. What this really meant was I was going to give a one hour presentation to 150 kids then turn around and do the same thing over again to a different group of 150 kids, five minutes later. Ok It's American Art History time in 60 minutes. It wasn't just me,,it was me four slide projectors, A film strip, two super eight short films, one segment from a movie, background music, remote controls all over the place, five screens, a motorcycle, and me. Hell it was choreographed!

Beads for which

I was paid

in grins

and giggles.

A piece titled "Inside Herself"

Around here we know her as "Pretty Full of Herself"

So why am I telling you this? Because a rather unusual thing happened, twice on the same day! Students applauded! Gee I guess I've worked for applause, then? Not my goal but nice any way. That presentation was done for grins and giggles. What if?
Ya I know you make jewelry. In fact you're good at it. What if you made some of it for grins and giggles?

Doing It Constantly

2011-09-01T08:18:00.000-07:00

Bracelets can take on many forms.

On Fridays Things get bigger.

100 feet of flattened braided copper wire!

      My guidance counselor in high school insisted that if I wanted to be a jeweler I would have to become a watchmaker. He was wrong! My wrestling coach, he would go on to become the athletic director for the University Of Iowa, had two absolute rules to live by. "Never ever back up" and "shoot" Oh that college kid that came over on holidays to practice with us in the wrestling room, the guy that never stopped skipping rope, yeah, that kid. That was Dan Gable! I only mention that 'cause sometimes we are surrounded by greatness and we don't know it. I listened to them!
   I'll bet that right now you can't name a single famous watchmaker. Jacques Cousteau was not a watch maker, Where do you come up with this stuff? But you will know these two, your parents will know them and your grand parents. Richard Warren ....... was the son of a blacksmith-wagon maker and a watch maker. He hired an excellent watchmaker, Alvah Curtis ...... to repair any broken watches they sold. The two of them would create a retail revolution.
A lot of mom and pop jewelery stores started from the watchmakers bench. The repair work paid the bills and then some. They took the excess and purchased all kinds of other things to sell. Perfume, razors, electric razors. new fangled toasters, clocks, all sorts of dustable things and jewelry, as well as watches. Those stores were amazing places of wonderment. The word entrepreneur hadn't been invented yet. They followed the "six at the bench, two away from it" rule. I learned it from a watchmaker. It is a key to surviving. Times change, I discovered I could hire watchmakers, then that I didn't need to mess with watches, at all. My bench is a jewelers bench. Oh those two famous watch makers, your kids will only know of one. you'll know them by their last names. Sears and Roebuck What you do during your two hours a day is extremely important.
   In order to get to have your two hours a day you have to make the most of your six. It's a choice!
Let's look at the ear rings they represent slightly over 1/2 of that weeks production. They are my lowest selling point item. they represent slightly more that 1/2 of my gross annual sales! First of all they are all very simple. This batch all started as various sizes of disks. I can wamp out several hundred disks in fairly short order. I use a system of thought here: I'll call it jewelry through unit construction. I need a lot of units. I might pre-texture several sheets of metal ( material units) and make those into disk units. Then I start playing. I love my job. But ear rings are a pain in the ;okuh 'cause you have to make two matching things...That's a lie! They have to share very similiar design elements but they don't have to be mirror images of each other. I saw a pair of ER yesteray that illustrate my point. Circular disks on one it was stamped " In One" it's mate said "Out The Other"
     I have a tendency to make things complicated. I fight with that. I try to simplify, I'm getting better. I must confess that after a couple of weeks of making ear rings I can get pretty sick of them..After all you make two things but they are only counted as one thing, bummer! So I switch to pendants for a while.No No No you don't get to only make just 100 pendants, I have thought of that.
     The most frequently asked question by people that actually get to enter the studio part of my shop is. "Why is there a naked lady manikin in your bathroom?" Now the answer to that is this, "This is a jewelry store! We make jewelry here! We sell jewelry here! If I wanted to own a gallery or museum, I'd fill it with naked people statues and charge admission!" My right hand person saw her and said, "99 to go?" My wife said, "I'm cutting your allowance!" My mom brought her a hat! I never get bored. Enjoy

Doing The Fun Stuff

2011-08-31T08:28:00.000-07:00

But on the fifth day I continue making things A fold formed tray.

A fold formed copper bowl Add caption

And I assembled a bouquet.

More of the 100 pair of earrings

All in all that's 30 hours of labor. using less than $30. worth of materials for a total of salable product valued at a minimum of $2,750.00 Notice a couple of things. None of the pairs of ear rings are the same. They are variations of one or two common elements. Each piece is a hand crafted original. Notice something else, to me, my week just keeps getting better. I enjoy the free flowing creativity of the ER's but I can get excited about the bracelet forms and I love making vessels. At no point in time does the concept of making a one off product ever cross my mind. It just happens, hundreds of times! There is a difference in my approach from most other people. For instance: how come I said on the fifth day I assembled a bouquet? Because on previous days I made 100 flowers bodies, 100 stems 300 leaves Hint: each flower has 10 parts! Here's the part no one will tell you! I get to work 6 hours a day because I'm there 8 hours a day. One third of the time I'm not producing product! That's pretty much average to better than most. An aside: One of the most enjoyable things I ever purchased was an employee to, among other things, answer the phone!
       Now Do the math. Fifty two weeks in a year. E gad that's 140,400 dollars worth of product a year! Let's look at some possibilities. in two years I could produce 10,000 pair of earings, no sweat. Would the ladies be interested in a store called Ten Thousand Earrings....you bet! Suddenly I have some options! Suddenly somebody better sell something! What about that girl answering the phone? What about me there are two hours a day I'm not working?
     Here are a couple of mistakes I 've made over the years. It's easy to make them.One is the idea that, I'm young I can out work the competition. Rather than doing for 8 hours a day, I could do it 12 hours a day...Rather than just doing this for five days a week I'll do it for seven. Those are real bad ideas.
    Here's another subtle lie the world will tell you. Go look at your calender. What month is it? Calender says it's the end of August, Brad, Is this a trick question? Yes...Because though the calendar says it's August, you better be thinking December. You better be producing for December. right now! You need to change your thinking from reactive to proactive. Remember yesterday I said the only two people that made money at the Art Faire were the promoter and, even though he also paid to be there, the hot dog vendor. The hot dog vendor knew something and took some proactive action. He knew there would be a crowd of people at the event and they would want his hot dogs. If your jewelry business is like most other jewelry businesses 30 percent of your annual sales will happen in December! It's December baby!! heat up those buns!

Still Doing It.

2011-08-30T08:15:00.000-07:00

I'm a firm believer in every blog having pictures, These are more of the 100 earrings

The question then becomes on the next day would you make 30 fold formed bracelets?

You get to make the display , also. I'm getting older I only work 6 hour days.

Two thoughts for today. In my college years I the only grade I ever received in an education class or an Art class was an "A".....Except once. I remember it well. Changed everything. I got a "C" in my first jewelry and metalsmithing class from Edgar. John and I waited somewhat patiently outside Edgar's office the next morning, about as patiently as two angry pittbulls could be expected to wait. Edgar was friendly as he greeted us with "Come on in guys, I've been expecting, both of you." He reached into his desk drawer and took out two small boxes, each with our name on it. Then he said this, "If I had graded each of you on a curve with the rest of the class, you two would have hands down received "A's" in this class. That isn't what I did, because I think you two deserve more from me. What I did was grade you in comparison to what you to what I think you are capable of doing! If you'll accept the challange to become as good as you have potential for becoming I have a present for each of you. If you don't, so be it, I'll change your grade to an "A" I just want a promise from you that you will never take my classes ever again. We both took the presents. The presents were Engraved Keys to the studio and office! Jeff got a key a few days later. Between the four of us that studio was open almost 24-7 for the next three years! Lesson learned:
You are not in competition with them, you are in a competition with you. Hint: it's not a sprint race it's a marathon.
     Second thought: totally business related. I have come to the conclusion that there are two types of people in this world. Brilliant Brad...er boys and girls. short and tall. have and have-nots. lol and wtf No Either you're a party thrower or a party goer. Business observation: party throwers attract a crowd and make money. Party goers follow the crowd and spend money to keep up. Walk around an Art Faire. Notice something: the Artists paid to be there. The hot dog guy paid to be there, too. So how come the only two people that made any real money, for more than a days work, are the promoter and the hot dog guy?
New song for you, perhaps it will become your mantra. I'd rather be a thrower than a goer
                                                                                     oh yes I would, if I only could
                                                                                      I surely would.
                                                                                      Cause I'd rather be a thrower than a goer.
Third thought: perhaps related, more of a question, How long will it take some people to realize that there never was a box to think outside of?

Doing it!

2011-08-29T07:45:00.000-07:00

If you had to, would you make 100 pair of ear rings in three days?

Cathy asks: "so then I'll ask you that same question. How do you handle the "making a living "aspect versus staying true to your craft and taking "as long as it takes". I'd like to know because I would love to move in that direction, but unfortunately I MUST sell my jewellery or quit making it. Right now I sell a lot of jewellery- but my customer base (through the stores I'm established in) are in the $100 to $350 range. Can't work weeks on a piece and price it at a retail of $300."
My response was: "Cathy no short answers to your question. Ill blog on it next week. Short answers. Don't do what everyone else is doing. Do better work than most of your peers. Do more of it. Invest your money in the things that stand the greatest chance of... showing the highest percentage of return. Buy the tools of your trade. Concentrate on the dollars not the pennies. Making money and making art are not the same thing. making a living is a hell of a lot easier. Own the store. I retired about two months ago. Now my fun can begin."

I once asked a similar question of a couple that had just moved their retail art supply ceramics business to a new location. The new location would open in another couple of days. Vic and Mary Ann were my seniors by about ten years. Both had degrees in art. Both were very good. I think I was a senior in college at the time. Their short answer has stuck with me. They were both on ladders painting the store. It was really funny at the time because they answered in unison, "By doing what ever it takes!

I know that's another short answer, heck it's almost a cliche. I'm sorry about that. Let me state this a little differently. Vic and Mary Ann answered in total single minded agreement, with a staggering amount of determination, they would succeed. (that probably sounds better in four part harmony) Buried within their statement was a passion and a belief or realization that if this current plan didn't work they could and would create a new improved plan. Most people wash out Right Here. And it's ok.
I'll blog on this everyday this week, 'cause there are no short answers. Your question deserves a greater answer.

From The Press

2011-08-25T08:29:00.000-07:00

Conversations of late have turned to the hydraulic press and it's use. Thought I'd have a little fun and show you some things that have come off my press. First there is the lid to the current Tea Pot. The bottom shot is an interior view. It's pretty much a 1/4 sphere. Pretty basic.

Oh but things can get more complicated.Here are a couple of lid ideas I've worked on.

When I'm not working on Tea Pots I play around with some other possibilities. The experimentation finds it's way into finished pieces. The base to Super Bowl "Bowl of Bowls"is the result of press work also.

Let's get back to tea pots.

2011-07-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

It is my habit to place pieces in progress on top of the television so I can observe them a little while. Well the current tea pot found itself perched on tI like the spout, I like the lid, I like the form. I'd move it around some. Look at it from a different angle While I like the fold formed handle that was balanced on it. I just didn't feel it was right for this piece. The previous handle, above.

The wire represents the outside of the new one. By hammering only on the outside of curves they get tighter.

Still a long way to go This is made from a rather heavy piece of copper pipe flattened and split.

Much of the mass has been removed and the line fold opened.

It's just resting in place. It needs to be annealed and fit.

The blend at the bottom brings the forms together better this time.

On to more careful fitting from here. To be done: the fabricating, drill holes in diffuser, make lip and hinge also for diffuser.

Oh Happy Day ! ISHPAPT

2011-07-20T08:30:00.000-07:00

It’s once again time for the monthly Blog-o-sphere Think Tank to combine our blogging efforts. This month’s topic is our favorite summer time meal or food. Be sure to check out the other bloggers. I always excited to see what they come up with. This months bloggers are Andes Cruz: http://www.andescruz.wordpress.com
Brad Severtson: http://hammeringoutaliving.blogspot.com/
Kathleen Krucoff: http://mysticalmythicalmetalwork.wordpress.com/

Barbara Donovan: http://barbaradonovan.blogspot.com/
Shannon Koochin: http://thebassplayersdaughter.blogspot.com/
stephanie clark: http://thethinkingsofacoldweathergirl.blogspot.com
Laura FLavin : http://modernbirdjewelry.blogspot.com
WATTO: http://www.wattoonline.com/news

Oh Happy Day ISHPAPT
This is a day I’ve been waiting for. This morning my wife announced to me, as we were having our morning coffee on the patio, that the money is in the bank! I am now officially retired! Oh Happy Day! I shall have pie and ponder this. I’m so excited I may even shave. There shall be a brief intermission while I go shave. I recommend you have a slice of pie and a cup of coffee. It’s summer ya know there should be pie.

I decided earlier this year that I would write a daily statement about pie. My daily status on my Facebook page has pretty much done that. While others always mentioned their bacon or posted pictures of their cat, I would write something about my favorite topic pie. Pie is not only something that always pleases me. Pie is also my favorite metaphor. In a small way pie has become my personal meme. Seems almost everyone can relate to pie. What’s fun is pie is a universally pleasant concept. There’s enough stuff to get gloomy about. There enough pressures in a day. There are enough motivational posters on the wall. I began my pie posting with this statement, “This is the first piece of the rest of the pie.” People responded…They liked pie stuff. We could agree we were all seeking a larger slice of an ever shrinking pie. Now considering the diversity of my friend base on FB getting them to agree on anything is monumental or at least note worthy.
My friends and I have had lots of fun playing pie games, sending each other cyber pies at times. Calming each other with pie thoughts, (why peach, Thanks for asking) while even suggesting congratulatory pies at appropriate times. Sure there have been birthday pie wishes.

We’ve had our poetic moments as we considered the sweet aroma of pie wafting from a kitchen. We concluded we needed to learn to waft. There were misconceptions associated with pie. The major one being pie are square. We cleared that up, pie are round cake are square! We suggested a more intimate relationship with our readers, when we said “Let them eat cake. We shall have pie when they leave.” They once had a creative challenge to come up with 100 anachronisms that the letters PIE could represent.

      People have sent me pictures of their travels that show they have found the pie. There have become pie disciples; there is a church of pie. There are pie makers, (some of my favorite people by the way) There are those that agree that pie is the perfect business model.
     My latest pie comments seem to fit a bit of a formula. I call them pie ponderings. Pie ponderings conclude with, “I shall have pie and ponder this.” ISHPAPT in text speak…ISHPAPT was used for the first time yesterday. People understood it!
       Ah you ask but which pie is my favorite? I love the one I’m with. ISHPAPT

Yes I'm still working on the fold formed tea pot. I changed the handle, because I just didn't feel good about it. More tea pot process coming up in a couple of days.

Just for fun

2011-06-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

It's once again time for the Blog-o-sphere Think Tank to gather here in cyberspace and share our blogging efforts. This months topic is " a past time activity or something we do for pure enjoyment" This months participants are Andes Cruz www.andescruz.wordpress.com Kathleen Krucoff http://mysticalmythicalmetalwork.wordpress.com/ ... Mary Spencer (WATTO) http://www.wattoonline.com/news Stephanie Clark  http://thethinkingsofacoldweathergirl.blogspot.com/ Shaun Young http://shaunyoung.ca/ Beth Cyr http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com/ Shannon Koochin http://thebassplayersdaughter.blogspot.com/ Brad Severtson http://hammeringoutaliving.blogspot.com/ Wendy Kelly http://www.wendykianakelly.com/
I'm looking forward to discovering what they do for fun.

     I'm currently working on a copper fold formed tea pot. It's coming along nicely. I'll get back to posting the progress on it towards the end of the week. There are a number of things I do for fun. I'll go for a walk along the beach to watch the sunset or go to a near by game preserve to escape the city and see the alligators or watch the pelicans..I have a new found appreciation for these weather prediction birds. To an Iowa boy a pelican is a wonderment.
    Most of all, when I'm not observing, I'm making. I enjoy the challenge, I have fun doing it. It provides me with my escape from things in the world that drive me crazy, those large issues we can't do anything about. I make things..For a couple of years now those things have been copper things. The piece I'm going to show you today is one I made a few years ago. It's made from just two pennies and a glass bead I made. I found it in my stash. I hope you can see the magic of the making as two pennies become a magic wand. Making a magic wands is serious business, ya know. If the piece is about any thing, then it's about the "fluididity" of the materials..( It's my blog I can make up words if I want to) besides fluididity sounds magical. I hope you see the "fluididity" of just pennies really and glass.

Pennies begin to change form and become.

Sometimes I get to take the undervalued, the seemingly insignificant, the overlooked and transform them. It's magical. You did know you can click on the pictures and make them bigger?? Why who would have known? Pennies aren't just copper anymore. Blow up the pics and fine the "fluididity". of "Penny Wand" Enjoy

Progress continues.

2011-06-14T11:20:00.000-07:00

Two of several FF handles considered. Handles will get decked so they appear to be solid.

I like these but I just didn't like them with the tea pot.

Spout is just taped into position.. It's actual shape is a diamond form. What were once wings now flow into the form.

Everything is just sitting in place. While I work out proportions and position

Whole bunch of fabricating to do, pretty soon. Still not sure about how the bottom of the handle resolves to the tea pot...I'm looking and pondering..

Tea Pot Parts

2011-06-06T08:19:00.000-07:00

Most of the work on this Tea Pot last week was in this part.

It server as the lid to the tea pot and the diffuser for the tea.

It begins as this small raising. View is from the bottom. The do-nut area will be drilled with many holes.

View from the interior. This will receive a triangular lip and be hinged to it's cover.

That cover needed a knob. These are fold formed pieces that were either considered or were the inspiration for the knob.

This project is based on 12 some of these pieces are based on five

This one is based on six..it works with this project.

Top view diffuser in place.

Side view pieces are just resting in place.

another view. At this point I'm beginning to consider possible contrasts in surface and color. There have become two interiors to consider. Work this week will include getting rid of the wings on the body of the pot, some fabrication on the diffuser. Three large portions exist on paper, the carrying handle, the pouring handle and the spout. It is time for them to get into 3D It's almost hammer time.
It's also time this piece gets a name....or at least names begin to suggest themselves. Feel free to suggest one, if you like.

the process Fold Formed Tea Pot

2011-05-31T06:33:00.000-07:00

The following are process shots for a tea pot I'm currently working on. It starts as a 12" disk of copper. Well really it starts with an idea then a paper pattern.

The paper pattern.. Based on 12

The foot or base is worked into the 12" disk..There will never be a better time or another time to get the base.

The base is a concave you are looking at the outside of the teapot. anneal

First folds

Close up first folds.

second folds

exterior 2 nd folds close up

interior second folds

The form begins to come in exterior from bottom

interior as the form closes in.

It's beginning to become a teapot. I'm working on the lid more today. spouts and handles too. Basic form is there. I'll post more as this piece gets completed...Much more metal work to come as we get back to metal and away from all of the writing.

2011-05-20T08:05:00.000-07:00

It's Blog-o-sphere time again. It's a meeting of the blogs. The following are doing a little bit of blog sharing. Check them out. This months theme is a favorite quotation. Good people good stuff I look forward to reading them.
participants:
Andes Cruz: http://www.andescruz.wordpress.com/
Brad Severtson: http://hammeringoutaliving.blogspot.com/
Kathleen Krucoff: http://mysticalmythicalmetalwork.wordpress.com/
Wendy Kelly: http://www.wendykianakelly.com/
Mary Spencer:http://www.wattoonline.com/news
Stephanie Clark: http://thethinkingsofacoldweathergirl.blogspot.com/
Barbara Donovan: http://barbaradonovan.blogspot.com/
Laura Flavin: http://www.modernbirdjewelry.blogspot.com/
Beth Cyr: http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com/
Thomasin Durgin: http://metalriot.blogspot.com/
Shaun Young: http://shaunyoung.ca/
Kathryn Cole: http://www.kathryncolejewelry.blogspot.com/
Natsuko Hanks: http://jewelrybynatsuko.blogspot.com/
Andrea Bell: http://feathersfreesiasandfishingtackle.blogspot.com/

I’m a member of the first generation to grow up with television. Consequently television has always been important to me. I remember seeing the Beatles for the first time on the Ed Sullivan Show. I remember having a crush on Annette Funitcello of the Mickey Mouse Club. My heroes were Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. I can sing “Happy Trails to You” I can also sing the theme song to Gilligan’s Island. You should let me tell you all a story about a man names Jed, poor mountaineer barely kept his family fed. My addiction continued. I have the proof. My generation brought you the invention of the couch potato and the TV dinner, “Thank you, very much” Elvis said that if you didn’t know. From my formative years, the 1950’s, comes a quote that changed the lives of many a boy and girl. By that I mean it caused then to wear a cape and jump off the garage roof.

Favorite quote!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8x7mZf0kLE

"Faster than a speeding bullet.
More powerful than a locomotive.
Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Look! Up in the sky!
It's a bird. It's a plane. It's Superman!

Yes, it's Superman - strange visitor from another planet who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. Superman - who can change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel with his bare hands, and who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, fights the never ending battle for Truth, Justice and the American Way."

That's a long quote. I honestly know it by heart. I'm likely to break into it at a moments notice, I know it so well. I did not jump off the garage thinking I could fly. When I fell off the garage it was years later when I was trying to shingle the roof, that's another story. I do know many kids, then, that did think they could fly. I have no delusions about being Superman.

No, what always fascinated me were the possibilities. As a kid I'd wonder, today I ponder and have pie. I'd play the game of "what if" I think my generation did. What if we could change the course of rivers? What if we could leap buildings with a single bound? What if we could bend steel with our bare hands? Might those thoughts lead to other things like, What if we could go to the moon? I don't know if there really is a correlation. But that's not the reason I love the quote.

Changing the course of rivers is a bad idea. The Army Corps of Engineers has discovered that. I've traveled up the sides of tall buildings with a hydraulic lift. I can bend steel with my bare hands when I'm at the forge. But I'm not Superman. I've heard the beat of a babies heart before it was born. I regularly communicate with people on the other side of the planet. But I'm not Superman.

Let's look at the quote a little closer, You'll see why it sticks with me. Though I'm sure some of the people I meet on a daily basis are "strange visitors from other planets" I can't prove it. But it is a convenient theory. There were times when I was growing up that I felt like a strange visitor from another planet. I can relate.

What still holds my attention to this very day is the phrase, "and who, disguised as Clark Kent mild mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, fights the never ending battle for Truth, Justice and the American Way." Lois, Jimmy, Mr. White and all of the other people never figured out Superman's disguise! That's amazing!

I'll leave truth, justice and the American way off my table for the moment. This blog is getting long enough. Clark Kent has them all fooled. Horn rimmed glasses, being mild mannered, wearing a suit

and a tie concealed his identity. Perhaps because they never looked for greatness beside them.

Over the years I've come to notice something. The Clark Kents concealing Supermen and Super Women aren't that unusual. We just don't make such a big deal about it. We don't give out medals for the usual bravery around us. Take this example for instance. Two cars traveling towards each other at speeds in excess of 55 miles per hour miss each other by a mere three feet. It happens at an astonishing rate on a daily basis. As a people we are really very good at it. We don't consider it heroic. We don't give medals for just arriving or surviving the journey to the grocery store. Perhaps we should. What if we gave medals, for common acts of personal bravery. What if we started accepting the possibility that Superman might be the guy or gal just over there? What if we discovered Clark Kent when he-she was younger? I think we just might find Superman if we spent more time looking closer to home.

When we find them we'll have to keep their secret. Heck they might not even know how super they are yet or how super they will become. We can acknowledge their potential. We can award their efforts.

What if we gave an award for opening your eyes underwater? I'll bet Clark Kent would get one.

Sterling silver from a long time ago. "For Opening Your Eyes Under Water"

Should I light my torch with a disposable lighter?

2011-05-09T08:32:00.000-07:00

This is a striker. It is the first tool people need to learn how to use before they can begin silver soldering. It's pretty basic. You squeeze the wire handle and a flint is scraped across a file like metal surface causing sparks within the cup. It's possible to adjust the tensioning of the grip so that it reguires very litle hand strength to opperate it. It also has replaceable flints available for it. New ones of these are priced between $2.00 and $10.00. Every other garage sale will have at least one for sale. They are so available that rather than buying a package of flints, that I'll never be able to find. I collect strikers. I found four of them in my tool cabinet. I know there are a couple at the jewelers bench. There is another at the casting bench. Many welder will wear one from a clip on their belts. There is a hook to the left of my bench pin that holds my striker. I've used it every day for years. I don't have to look for it to find it. I don't have to look at it to use it. I don't have to look at it to put it back. It has become a tool of habit. It is an extreemly safe tool. Necessary.

This is a cigarette lighter! In fact this is a very cheap lighter. You may feel free to take the meaning of cheap in the previous sentence to mean poorly and quickly manufactured. I am an old school jeweler. My instructors would wrap me upside the head if they caught me using this at the bench to light my torch. I follow this old established method of teaching. You signed the waver!
   There is an urban legend about these disposable lighters. It seems, the story goes, that railroad welders would carry these to light their torches. Sparks from the welding would ignite the lighters. As I heard the legond they explode with the force of a stick of dynamite. Workers were killed and or severely burned. I did a little bit of research on the legend. Seems that there is no proof this ever happened. There was proof that the lighter manufactures would settle out of court and require silence about the matter as part of the settlement.
I have dropped these and had them explode. I have seen them spontaneously ignite on the dashboard of a hot car. The ones I have had explode created a rather nice bang and a small fire ball. I suspect that the legend was created to scare the beginner into using the correct tool. This might be a better teaching method. My teachers did not however believe in this teaching method.
There are better disposable lighters on the market...They are still cheap, still plastic. There are very expensive butane lighters on the market. There are other fuel lighters available. I don't want any unexpected fires at the bench. Use a striker.
   There are nice tabletop automatic igniters on the market. They are battery operated spark producers. They will run in cost from about $25.00 to $45.00. They are an alternative. Frankly I'd rather have an ounce of silver. But that's up to you. I don't want anything else that requires 2 AA batteries. I suspect I have some of them some where. Perhaps the replacement flints to my strikers are in the same drawer.Get a striker and get good at using it. Enjoy

Silver is driving me Crazy, not

2011-05-06T06:57:00.000-07:00

“The exchange member raised the margin to 17% to discourage buyers. They want to obtain physical silver for themselves. I would suggest keep buying. Even if it keeps going down, consider it cost averaging. It will go back up.” Alan Zee this statement was in my Facebook traffic this morning. Silver has just fallen from an all time high. It really doesn’t matter what the numbers are! I’ll explain this in a moment.

First of all let me say this. A good many of the people I know that make jewelry from precious materials, silver and sometimes gold, do so as a hobby. They use the materials and their acquired skills as a release from their days stresses. They will tell you that making jewelry is their therapy. Rising metals costs do affect their production of jewelry. The effect is much the same as rising theater tickets or higher popcorn prices at the movie theater effecting how many movies they get to see annually. I suspect rising or falling metals prices affect the entertainment or therapy columns of their budgets. OK I’m cool with that. I’m not a therapist and I don’t consider myself to be in the entertainment industry.

Now if you on the other hand have some desire to make these skills you’ve acquired and the use of precious materials your occupation, your principle method if producing an income. Buying metal in a volatile metals market can drive you searching for a therapist. This blog is about hammering out a living not about driving yourself crazy.

Alan’s statement contains the wisdom necessary to survive and prosper in a changing market. First observation: The market price is a measure of what investors are willing to pay for the commodity. You and I have little if anything to do with determining its value. This market price, in these times, has little if anything to do with the actual use of the commodity. But you and I want to produce a product from this material. It’s in our best interests to purchase it at the lowest price. Here’s where we drive ourselves to distraction. We can avoid the distraction by changing out goal. Suppose we intend to purchase our materials at the annual average price. We can do this by continually buying.

This might look something like this… We have an actual demand for 1000 ounces of silver. We could attempt to purchase that amount at the lowest market price. It will never happen intentionally. We could however buy in this changing market at a rate of about 80 ounces each month throughout the year and have avoided the annual high. In a volatile market the method used to preserve sanity is to purchase smaller amounts more frequently. In other words buy going up buy coming down. There’s good news to this approach. You will never be stuck with over priced material.

In previous blogs I’ve said don’t over buy. If you have a market for 1000 ounces don’t buy 2000 ounces. I’m going to rephrase that statement with this analogy. You are pretty much faced with this decision play roulette or play chess. I prefer chess. I prefer a game of strategy. The commodities market player is a gambler armed with what he considers inside information. I don’t have a crystal ball. I doubt he does. We have the ability to take an ounce of silver or gold and through the application of our skills, time and abilities increase the value of that material by 2 to three times. The advantage, the likelihood we will prosper is ours. We need to have the advantage of time on our side.

With a purchasing strategy the daily price of a commodity has a lesser impact on our emotions, as business men. Enjoy

How To Take A Thoudand Kids Fishing On The 4th Of July #2

2011-04-25T08:28:00.000-07:00

     You get what you think is a perfectly marvelous idea. Happens all the time you say. Why, I had a marvelous idea just yesterday.
      I wrote in a previous blog the very beginnings of the story of taking a thousand kids fishing on the morning of the 4th of July, between the hours of 7am and noon, and loving every minute of it. You can see that I've shortened the title of the story. I should warn you that the lessons learned from this adventure would later be applied to an Annual Father's Day Car Show, just a few craft and Art shows, a few big wheel races, a couple whole town promotions and even some major fund raising efforts for Muscular Dystrophy. I'm getting ahead of myself. I do want you to understand. This is about taking a thousand kids fishing on the morning of the 4th of July, loving every minute of it and so very much more.
     I'd like to say that this part of the story happened the day after the first fishing contest we attended. It probably didn't. I'd like you to understand the sense of urgency we felt to organize the next contest. I am sure that this part of the story happened while it was still July. We came to the conclusion that if we wanted to do a big contest it was going to take some capital. We didn't have any. We could have put our own money into the pot. That wouldn't have amounted to much. We set out with one major rule. "I can not do this by myself"
We needed $100.00 to get things rolling for a contest a year away. It was going to take money to ask fishing tackle manufacturers for donations!
   My little town had two banks, a S@L.and a new comer large bank, from the big city, had just opened a branch bank. Banks and bankers were in the news. Since there were four of them I decided I could raise the $100 in four trips. My promise to them was that they would appear on all of our advertising as sponsors of the event. This represented a bargain signature ad for them. I went to the S@L first because they had plenty of free parking. Ten minutes later $25.00. I next went to my bank..Another $25.00..The hardest ones were to come. I stood in old skin flint bank waiting to talk to the old skinflint himself. The man from behind the walnut desk listened as I explained the fishing contest. He understood the value of the offer to his advertising and of the event to the community..He made this deal with me. He would double any donation I received from the new comer bank. I asked a vice president of the bank to witness the dare and agreed that if I got nothing from the new upstart I wouldn't be asking for any of skinflints money.
     I trudged down the street. I dusted off my blue jeans, straightened my collar and opened the door to the branch bank. It was all or nothing at this point, I might have even straightened my hair. I met the branch manager, nice young all business lady. I told the of the marvelous fishing contest idea. She liked it. She liked the value of the advertising concept. She thought her kids would love the contest next year. As she was writing the check I told her of the dare from the other banker. Her eyebrows raised. She said this is her community, too. We are here to stay! She wrote the check for $100.00 without telling me. I really didn't look at the check. I was back in skinflint bank handing the check to Mr. Skin himself. He called me a SOB but did write the check for $200.00 I was in shock!
The president of my bank beckoned me to his office when he saw me opening a new account for the fishing contest. Seems my story of the fishing contest interested him..He had a good laugh about my mornings fund raising activities. He had something on his mind. At that time dues to the state, national and local Chapter of our he Izaak Walton League were $25.00. He signed up all of his employees as members right on the spot. We had just doubled our chapter membership! That morning we went from having zero in the bank to $600 in the bank. The first monthly news letter came out about a week later. But that's another story.
     You get what you think is a marvelous idea. Other people may think it's a marvelous idea., Ask them for their help. Always remember to say thank you...even if they call you a SOB...lol. Oh there's so much more to the story. Notice how other people caught the vision, the marvelous idea, then proceeded to contribute far more than I was asking. I hadn't fully convinced myself of the power of the marvelous idea , yet.

Blog-o-sphere My favorite book

2011-04-20T07:58:00.000-07:00

It’s once again time for a view of the greater Blog-o-sphere. The following have once again linked to each other and written on the same subject. This month topic is our favorite movie or book. I look forward to seeing what they’ve written about. Be sure to check them out. Andes Cruz: http://andescruz.wordpress.com/
Kathleen Krucoff: http://mysticalmythicalmetalwork.wordpress.com/
Brad Severtson; http://hammeringoutaliving.blogspot.com/
Beth Cyr: http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com/
Stephanie Clark: http://www.thethinkingsofacoldweathergirl.blogspot.com/
Wendy Kelly: http://www.wendykianakelly.com/
Andrea Bell: http://feathersfreesiasandfishingtackle.blogspot.com/
Barbara Donovan: http://barbaradonovan.blogspot.com/

Back in my gold and diamond days, also the days of my first computer, my monitor was as large as a small television. This monitor took up most of a built in desk, next to my jewelers benches. My computer connected me with a couple hundred other jewelers, gem stone and diamond dealers, and jewelry stores across the country and around the world. It was down right handy to roll my chair from my bench to the computer screen. There was a slight problem with the arrangement at first. The monitor was too low. I had to hunch over to read the monitor. The problem was solved by four important books. They became my monitor stand. These books were two issues of the Jewelers Circular Keystone Jeweler’s Directory, 1985 @1986 if I remember correctly. Each of these was about 1 ½ inches thick. It’s curious to note that my present computer does away with the need for thick jewelers directories. The top book in the pile was my copy of Roydale’s book on composting. This book forms the foundation of the organic gardening movement. I also have their book on mulching. The composting book is important to the pile because it added over two inches in height. The foundation of this pile was one of those very large, in a presentation box, family Bibles. It was a King James Version if I remember correctly. This great volume added a little over three inches to functional low tech approach to raising the monitor. It was good.

I suspect that when this topic was proposed they had more of a book report in mind. I should be writing a “My favorite book” sort of article. I am. Well the functional monitor stand contained my favorite book. Even though my name would grace the pages of a couple of JCK directories they were never very useful other than raising my monitor. The Roydale books on the other hand would become responsible for my creating huge piles of organic manures, bushels of vegetables and wonderful flowers. You have no idea how close I’ve come to writing about the composting book. There’s a cynical side to me that cries for release. I’m sure no one would object, if I did. I’m also sure that my choice will offend some of my friends. That always confuses me. I don’t mean to offend.

That great volume would, years later, be donated to a small church that needed a pulpit Bible. They enjoy having it. I found that one to be just a little big too big and difficult to read. It’s thou’s and thee’s left me lost in some foreign language. I would prefer a NIV version of the same literary work. I should explain something. I had owned many copies of the book I like so many other people had never read it. I owned it but I did not possess it. I’ve know people that have read it cover to cover. I find their endurance amazing I can’t imagine reading it from “In the beginning” to the final blessing, page after page. I do know that I have read it. In thousands of sittings, verse by verse, chapter by chapter with a marker in hand underlining things that struck me. Writing in the too small margins highlighting areas that bothered me, is my proof that I’ve visited the pages.

Don’t for one minute believe that I know all of the answers. I’m still working on asking some pretty good questions. I do have the basic story down, mostly..

It’s not an ordinary book. If you have the desire to read it, I suggest you start with Matthew. Then read Mark, he’s sort of the cliff-notes of Matthew. Read it marker in hand.Discover over time you've marked up the whole book.

Maybe the book gets a bad wrap because it’s often used to beat people up. That’s sad.It shouldn't be used that way..A better use than that is to prop up your monitor.

Some words come to mind from the book, I'll have to paraphrase them. I' can't tell which verse or chapter to find them in, sorry. You'll get the picture. Imagine the calves being released from the barn yard into the new spring pasture. Imagine them kicking and dancing for joy in total celebration of the moment. Happy Easter everyone. Enjoy

Bench Made Cross-Lock Tweezers

2011-04-14T12:21:00.000-07:00

Ever so often it becomes necessary to make a tool to do a specific job. These two pair of bench made cross-lock tweezers will work nicely to hold larger parts together, better than the store bought variety.

Parallel jaws about an inch apart with a light touch.

Need to place a small part on a larger plate? Say a head onto a shank.
These have the advantage of being made from materials at hand. Coat hangers become cross-locking tweezers. All in a day's fun. I make my own copper tongs. too.

Observations

2011-03-31T06:12:00.000-07:00

Flower forms and things in the garden bring surprises to my eyes. We are headed to some flowery things.

Butterfly Farmer !

2011-03-25T10:11:00.000-07:00

Back some time ago on another bat channel I posted a blog called Butterfly Farmer. I found it, I thought I'd lost it. I thought you might enjoy reading it. From deep in the archives. I still get involved in butterfly farmer conversations. I still do some fold forming, too.
Where can I learn about fold forming? SO " Butterfly Farmer"
Well you started here. How about staying here a little longer? Many of us here do some fold forming, with a wide variety of results, viva la difference. There is much to learn. Hang on here we go! Over the years I've referred to myself as Artist, Jeweler, metal-smith, craftsman, and goldsmith. I've earned those titles. But always found them to be a bit pretentious, Real conversation killers and not very accurate. There needed to be a better term. I found a name for my career field quite by accident. I am a butterfly farmer. It's a difficult career choice to get ones head around. But basically I take something the rest of the world doesn't even see: an egg on the backside of a leaf, a caterpillar, or a piece of copper and I watch it change. When it becomes something cool, beautiful I release it. It's very hard work, but I've found it very freeing. Should you decide that you too are a butterfly farmer then here is my suggestion. Rush (it's the last time you ever have to rush) out and buy a spray bottle that will make a mist. fill it with water. Use this to spray your forehead, arms, upper body before anyone sees you working. It helps. Ah you laugh. That's good. It's easier to see and learn when we stop taking this stuff and ourselves so seriously. Promise me right now that you'll never tell any one how much fun this is. It's work. Remember that. It's important, you know? For your first lesson you will need a sketch book, If you can't afford that, find a paper bag. The weight of the paper is important. Some Chinese take out food delivered to you in one of those paper containers. The biggest sheet of copper you can buy. Not a foil but just thick enough that you can still bend it with your fingers with a little effort. A pair of scissors and a tin snips are also handy to have. Has the take out food arrived yet? Ok in the mean time we can get started. Make your self a stack of papers about 4" sort of square. Fold one of the sheets in half, open it up easily lay it on the table in front of you and stare at it until you see that it's not flat anymore. Make two folds on another sheet parallel is good, open it up. Bring two edges together. Observe that from flat (bad) and straight (bad) you have made curves good. Take a break..Eat the Chinese food if you must. I don't care I want you to see the paper container that the stuff came in. If yours came in a Styrofoam thing that's vacuum forming and will not be covered in this class. Reorder until you get a box thing. Stare at the empty box thing pick it up let your mind digest it. Make one out of paper. It's a 3D solid it's a cold construction, it's origami. Origami is not where we are going. Make yourself some copper rectangles squares circles ect. 3" sort of. Fold one in half. A hammer is a good thing, a mallet good.open it up..That's origani not where we are going Yet. Take one of your pcs of copper Long rectangle is best. fold it in half lengthwise. Hammer the folded edge. don't straighten it out you want it to curve.
open up this fold. resist flattening it out. Straight Bad curve good flat bad. Stare at what your hands have done. Repeat with a new pc of copper this time hammer the folded edge only until you have a real curve a circle maybe. open it up. Did the fold crack? You can prevent this if you like by annealing the copper before you open it. But from here on the condition of the metal is important. Annealed folds react differently from hardened folds when they are opened. Try it.
Reaching that point is the beginning of fold forming metal. Watch your hands watch the metal..every time your hands make the metal do something cool stop set it aside. This evening I want you to ponder those forms you created. You have made "line folds" basic line folds. You've also discovered that you have the ability to declare things cool. That's power! At this point you should use the spray bottle mist only. Take a sheet of paper square,fold opposing corners together to create a rectangle with a folded x gather the triangle shaped areas together so that the folds are on the outside should look like a folded x shape.
Do this in copper...pinch the triangles to the center. Forge those folds so that they curve. anneal forge, anneal forge..each time your curve should get greater.
The metal move more. Open it up declare it cool. do it with a circle an oval ect. We love pictures. ponder more. Get that take out Chinese food container. What would happen if? The answers to that question become your personal repertoire.
That concludes lesson one. next time T folds stay tuned there are many teachers here. Brad Butterfly farmer Might have a field trip.

How to Take a Thousand kids Fishing On The 4th of July

2011-03-20T08:20:00.000-07:00

Wow It's the 20th of the month. It's once again time to open up this blog to the greater Blog-o-Sphere. This is what happened if you are just joining us for the first time. There's this jewelry maker friend of mine on FB she has this wonderful idea. What if a group of us bloggers got together and wrote on the same topic each month and invited our readers to enjoy the resulting blogs. So I gave this project my blessing, "This will never happen, it can't be done, it's impossible, you're crazy" That will make some sense in a while keep reading. You're going to want to check out the other players in this project.
Kathleen Krucoff http://mysticalmythicalmetalwork.wordpress.com/
Laura Flavin: http://modernbirdjewelry.blogspot.com/
Wendy Kelly: http://www.wendykianakelly.com/
Stephanie Nocito Clark http://thethinkingsofacoldweathergirl.blogspot.com/
Brad Severtson: http://hammeringoutaliving.blogspot.com/
Andrea Bell: http://feathersfreesiasandfishingtackle.blogspot.com/
Natsuko Hanks: http://jewelrybynatsuko.blogspot.com/
Shaun Young http://shaunyoung.ca/
Pal Gooz http://pmgart.blogspot.com/
Beth Cyr http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com/ Andes Cruz: www.andescruz.wordpress.com
Andes started this project. Thank you Andes.
   So How do you take a thousand kids fishing on the morning of the 4th of July between the hours of 7 am and noon and love every minute of it?
   About thirty years ago two Iowa boys anchored their fishing boat in a quiet cove, on a nice sized lake, in Canada. The cove was about ten miles from the cabins the group had rented for the week. The two Iowa Boys started catching walleye. That's what they were there for. It didn't take very long to limit out, so we switched to catching bass and perch. Mostly we watched the bald eagles feed their young. Mostly we talked about how we got there. I made an important decision in that cove. I would open my first jewelry store within a couple of months. It was May s I remember. The store would open in September. We didn't realize it yet but come the 4th of July we were about to take a thousand kids fishing.
    Flash back five years. to three Iowa boys going to help Mike at his fishing contest. Mike was about twice our age. He had been hosting his small 4th of July kids fishing contest for a few years. He asked us to help him, you see he just couldn't do this by himself. I suspect there were about 25 kids at the contest. Not bad for an event his store was footing the bill for. The kids, we might have counted some twice, had a great time. The Fred, Ron and Brad fishing club held a meeting that morning, along the banks of the Iowa River.
Fred was the other guy in the boat back in Canada. Any way we thought this fishing contest thing was a pretty neat idea.We could see it getting a lot bigger. Mike had told us that the contest wasn't just his it had really started as The Izaak Walton League fishing contest. The chapter was just about defunct. That morning it's membership quadrupled. BF@R became the Hardin County Chapter of The Izaak Walton League of America. We had one goal take a thousand kids fishing on the morning of the 4th of July from 7 am til noon.
At that time we didn't know what we had just jumped into. Mike thanked each of us that morning. BF@R
blessed the event with three statements we had often heard before. "That will never work. It cant be done and it's impossible, you're crazy. Since we had often heard these statements, we came to expect them, in fact things just didn't interest us much unless we heard them.
    Mike the old master mushroom gathering fool, (my ass) had managed to pass along his dream. In the statements above are the keys to taking 1000 kids fishing. Find what you think is a perfectly marvelous idea. It doesn't have to be your idea it just has to find you. Most people will think your perfectly marvelous idea can't be done, that it will never work and that you're crazy 'cause it's impossible. Get over it. Things are about to get interesting. I can not do this by myself. Understand for a moment Mike said that. It's not that there aren't things I can't do by myself. I could take two kids fishing. It might take 150 guys to take 1000 kids fishing. It did. The more times I can get the other guys to take ownership of the fishing contest the bigger it will get. If I teach them to ask for help because they can't do this themselves. 1000 kids get to go fishing. Mike did one more thing that morning. He thanked each one of us for our help and invited us back for next year. Saying thank you is a skill. If you're ever going to look for something to get real good at make it saying thank you.
   There's one more thing. Mike did. Mike purchased some green baseball type hats and sewed the Ike shoulder patch onto the front of the hats. At the next fishing contest he passed out those hats to our helpers. That's when BF@R got theirs. Hats were earned by the members. You couldn't buy one. They were earned.
Each time we signed up a new member and accepted their dues monies the chapter was actually investing $5 in the new member. Invest in your people and they will give back far more than they recieved.
    I've been threatening to turn this bit of writing into an E-book for years. It can get into some fine detail, all of it's fun. There's so much more to the story, There are lucky hooks, the every kid is a winner concept. The smallest fish caught won a prize, hot coffee would be nice, what if the radio station did a live remote, you gotta chum the river and could I have your old pantyhose? your tackle boxes are here. It was a five year adventure. The news paper is going to run the winners photos as a double truck. How many times can you raffle off the same canoe?
I was the president of the chapter for five or six years, R and F held other offices. My job was to write the monthly news letter, and arrange the speaker or program for the monthly meetings
During that time I was given the national Izaak Walton League award as the recruiter of the year, only because they couldn't put three names on it. The chapter won the distinction and the National award for being the fastest growing chapter in the country. Cool plaque.
BF@R had one other rule. If ever we found ourselves the only guys at one of our meetings or events we would go fishing instead. They had fifteen minutes to show up. Never happened.
    Flash forward back to the eagles in Canada. Fred gave the new store the ultimate blessing that afternoon. "That will never happen, it can't be done, it's impossible you're crazy! "
   Little did we know we were about to take 1000 kids fishing! Didn't know that store, just a dream then, would go on to sell over a million dollars worth of jewelry in the next five years.
   Back to the present, I haven't been fishing in years. Enjoy!

The silver market game

2011-03-01T10:44:00.000-08:00

     The following are three pieces of homework I think you should do to have a greater understanding of the silver market. Your estimated costs for these bits of knowledge will vary. File these costs under continued education.It's important that you actually purchase the items, because you will learn if you actually have skin in the game.First purchase a cupie doll or stuffed animal at the county fair, state fair or any carnival. second purchase a tomato plant, your choice any variety you desire. Just make sure it's a healthy plant. Thirdly purchase a one troy ounce bar of .999 fine silver. It's not too important the order you do these lessons in. It's only important that you do all three.
     What you mean the guy at the state fair won't sell you a cupie doll or stuffed critter? Try the county fair or a carnival in your home town,.or you could play his silly game. Select one you have a history with. If you are good at throwing darts-cool. Shooting hoops, fine. shooting a squirt gun or tossing nickles. Maybe you'll decide all of these games are easy and you'll go for the skill game that has the finest cupie doll or stuffed critter. It's ok go for it.You have time, it's not a race. If you lack the ability to make a decision, allow your girl friend or mate to make the decision based on the fantastic stuffed animal he-she saw being carried around by some previous winner. After all that guy won one you should be able to, right?
    Well congratulations or my condolences, some people actually run out of available cash just when they were so close to having the largest stuffed critter their girlfriend ever had a desire for, today. I know, but it happens. Most of you did get the stuffed critter or at least a stuffed critter. Let's do a little bit of cost analysis.
I'll bet you feel you overpaid for the stuffed critter. I'll bet you didn't follow instructions. I said purchase one,
you decided to play a silly game for one. Here's the right way to purchase one from the guy at the fair. Offer the gentleman ten bucks for a stuffed critter you are sure would cost you a dollar at Wallmart. It would have been fast and sweet. You would have missed the entertainment portion of this part of the lesson. Let's look at what happened. Was the game rigged? No The game wasn't rigged or at least it doesn't have to be. You were rigged. All of your past experience and knowledge worked against you. The darts you used weren't like your darts at home. The distance you were throwing from wasn't the distance you usually throw from. Your muscle memory and aim were off. The seller sets the price of the goods. The faster you learned the new game the cheaper you won the cupie doll. There is another way to do this lesson. Observe your brother-inlaw do your homework for you. That's secondhand education, you won't remember it. It's fun though.
     Well I have no idea how the first lesson turned out for you. Let's begin the second lesson. This one takes time but doesn't require much effort on your part. And you do get to enjoy your tomatoes. The goal of your purchasing a tomato plant is to make the tomato plant pay for itself and put some cash in your pocket.
Besides it shouldn't be too hard to do, right? A tomato sells for about a dollar right now at the grocery store. A small plant capable of producing many tomatoes sells for about 2 to let's say five bucks as the season progresses. The sooner you start the greater your chances will be of succeeding in this lesson. Cheating is encouraged! Just remember to record all of your expenses. I said all! First of all that plant is not going to survive outside right not, sorry. The pot is too small, too. So repot it into a bigger pot and bring it inside to live with you for a while. Remember to water it. Sure you can feel free to fertilize the plant, I recommend Miracle Grow. You did remember to use a sterilized potting soil, right? You may talk to it if you desire. Ok time progresses, congratulations you have a bountiful crop of tomatoes, Bravo! Even though you did have to buy some insecticide to prevent the bugs from eating your crop. That was optional after all. You've done so well at recording your expenses pat yourself on the back. Let's sell some tomatoes! It shouldn't be too hard. If you dilly dallied around as usual you didn't get started ahead of everyone else in your neighborhood. So what happens is this. The day before you decide to sell some tomatoes your neighbor lady drops off some extra ones she has from her garden. Damn it just about everyone has tomatoes to give you. So you start eating yours. They are sweet, they are awesome! They combine two rare qualities, they are both priceless and worthless at the same time. Perhaps you could market your product in a different neighborhood. Perhaps you could open an Esty store? Even though you would be eating your profits, perhaps you should just enjoy your tomatoes. The supply of an item determines it's selling price.
     Your third lesson involves buying a one ounce bar of .999 fine silver. since the markets are up right now This shouldn't be that difficult. Should cost you about $30 to $35 dependent partly on today's spot price for silver. You may have to pay a bit over spot price, when you add shipping and handling. Get a pretty one.
Got it? Record your cost, write it down..The complete cost.
   Here's the fun part. Look at it. enjoy it's beauty. Appreciate it's rareness and the efforts that went into the creation of it. Watch it turn black if you like. Polish it if you like. Here's where today's lesson begins: Sell it!
Or rather attempt to sell it. Let's take it to the guy in town we bought it from. Silver has gone up up up..What he's not buying? What do you mean he's not buying? Let's take it to the bank, they'll buy it? Nope. Let's take it to Wall Mart they certainly know the value of fine silver? How about the guy at the pawn shop or the jeweler in the mall? They will buy it, correct? Yes they will. They will not pay you what you paid for it. but they will buy it. They will explain to you that they are always buyers for silver. at a percentage off spot price. This is their business. They do this to make money. They intend to resell your silver at a profit or they aren't interested in purchasing it. Take it or leave it. Well what if you sold it to a refiner? Short answer you don't have enough silver to make it worth their time. You do have another option, You could drill a hole in it and hang it around your neck. Will you need a chain? How about one of these nice bezels to put around it and a chain? Your choice?
      Is it possible to buy silver and make money doing it?. Sure. Find the buyer before you make your purchase. Buy the silver for less than you have it sold for. Good luck with that one. Hint: learn to make the bezel or the chain. Invest in the knowledge, acquire the skills and purchase the tools.
     Have pie and consider these things, enjoy. I purchased a grossly over priced item but had fun. I grew my own tomato. I enjoyed doing it. I now own a one ounce bar of fine silver, it's pretty. I like it, it's valuable ya know?

Don't over buy!

2011-02-28T07:37:00.000-08:00

    "Don't over buy." were words of wisdom I heard from suppliers years ago. Those words were frequently followed by the phrase, "you can always come back and get more with the profits you've made from these". I always liked that advise. Implied was a certain amount of stability, and logic applied to the system of distribution
that I was a part of. In fact they were telling me to consider how many widgets I could sell before I made my purchase. It was their goal as well as mine to have a rapid (or at least acceptable) turn over rate of the items I bought and sold. There was some comfort in knowing we shared a common goal.
    Let me give you a real world example. At one time my company purchased portable cut off machines. I purchased my first ten at a cost of $50.00 each. They arrive I'm pleased. We sold five of them the first week
they were available to our customers. We realized something we hadn't expected those machines ate up the wheels that did the cutting. I was preparing to reorder machines. I needed to order wheels for the machines.
Cool as a company we liked selling items that were consumable. We had found an unexpected one. My second order was for five more machines {purchased from the profit of the sale of the sold five}and a box of 10 wheels. What I receive is ten new machines and five wheels. I get on the phone! I explain the problem to the supplier. What he says is this. "What if I continued to pay the shipping and instead of invoicing you $50.00
each I invoiced you $35.00 ? Would you still be able to net these out in ten days? Sounds good to me. At the end of the conversation I order ten more wheels. What happens next is amazing! in a couple of days I receive ten more machines! No wheels! ARGH. I get on the phone! "Houston we have a problem!" Sam proposes an interesting solution. "Suppose I continue to pay the shipping, invoice them to you at $35.00 and give you 90 days to pay for them, with no interest on the open account. I'm armed with some information he doesn't have. My company had sold All of the original order, but better than that. we had sold all of the second order. My response was quick, "Sam I like buying these at this price. Please listen carefully. If you'll accept all subsequent business at net 90 and hold this price on these machines to me through the year. I'll take ten more machines today! I don't need any wheels." Sam understands me, his lights have come on. he says "you should buy 20. Why don't you need any wheels?" "Sam my company has become a distributor for 3M I can now sell them to you. Make the order twenty!"
   There are lessons here. The only reason I'd ever "over buy" is if I could receive a lower price or better terms. Those two conditions could remove some of the risk of stocking an inventory. But good price isn't the sole determiner of weather of not I'll change my buying numbers. The real determiner here was I knew how many my company had sold. Sales and projected sales determined my purchases. There's more to the story.
My company shared the savings with our customers and our sales people. There would come a time when the dollar volume of sales of wheels exceeded the dollar volume to my company of machines. We were positioned for that to happen early. There was never any fear that the price of machines would go up tomorrow. Absolutely none of my companies purchases were fear driven. None! We found that communication with the customer was our most valued asset.
     Years later I wouldn't be selling cutoff machines, the company still did. I sold it. I found myself selling diamonds, gold and silver. Based on lessons learned, from a gentleman who frequently said, "Don't over buy."

!

The Pickle

2011-02-20T05:43:00.000-08:00

In the interest of bringing you something a little new, I have decided to join in other bloggers in a light hearted bit of blog sharing. Each month on the 20^th of the month we will all write on the same topic. It should prove interesting to gain the perspective of others from all over the country. Here’s the the list of this months players: Andes Cruz: www.andescruz.wordpress.com
Stephanie Nocito Clark: http://thethinkingsofacoldweathergirl.blogspot.com/
Kirsten Skiles: http://www.kaskiles.com/
Natsuko Hanks: http://jewelrybynatsuko.blogspot.com/
Shaun Young: http://shaunyoung.ca/
Brad Severtson: http://hammeringoutaliving.blogspot.com/
Wendy Kelly: http://www.wendykianakelly.com/
Beth Cyr: http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com/
Kathleen Krucoff: http://mysticalmythicalmetalwork.wordpress.com/
Kathryn Cole: http://www.kathryncolejewelry.blogspot.com/

This month’s topic: "Your favorite winter meal/ recipe?

Those of you that know me from face book will expect me to write something about pie. I could. I try to keep my pie statements on open Facebook pages and not bring that metaphor here. That leaves me in a bit of a pickle. I live in Florida not far from the beach. I could type about my favorite cheeseburger in paradise. I almost did. But O' Mattie's is full of snow birds this time of year I just didn't relish the concept of going there right now. Besides O' Mattie's serves their cheeseburger with a slice of pickle and unless I remember to say hold the pickle to the waitress I get that juice on my fries. I admire Heines and his 57 varieties of pickles He makes great Ketchup. He can keep his pickles in his pocket. I can not be fooled into eating cucumbers.

All of this thinking leads me to discover a common thread. The common thread even has a direct tie in to the world of metal smithing. How cool it that? Not only that but I was out of fresh noncontaminated pickle.

Here's how this goes. I hammer on some copper. All of that hammering on the copper forces the molecules of copper to get tightly packed together, we call that process work hardening. In order to get the molecules to relax I heat up the metal, a process called annealing. That gets the copper all covered in oxides and other stuff., dirt. The process used to clean the metal is called pickling. The stuff I make to pickle in is called, ( You'll never guess) pickle! I could clean some copper with a solution of vinegar and salt, Same stuff minus eleven herbs and spices that I could to mess up a cucumber. I could clean some copper with Taco Bell taco sauce. Same basic ingredients. My personal opinion it that it takes too long that way.

I annealed some copper pieces.

I made some dirty copper pieces. I want to clean them in pickle. I could use hydrochloric acid or muratic acid. That's way too fast and the fumes are not so good to breath. I could pick up the jewelry supply stuff catalog and order some commercial pickle. I did that once, a long long tome ago. At that time I read the container. The stuff is sodium bisulfate. I don't have to order it. I can just go get some at Home Depot.

All nice and pickled, now. Nothing is ever quite that simple. I usually mix some distilled water and the sodium bisuflate in my crock pot heat it up to about 125 Fahrenheit and chill out for a while. However these things are too large for my crockpot.

I'm not that easily defeated. Sure I don't get to use heat as a catalyst for the chemical reaction, fine with me.
I'll take this time to show you what to look for in Home Depot

That's the stuff..Some of this into some distilled water, instant pickle. My favorite kind. Now that I have my work done I can go enjoy my cheeseburger in paradise. Check out what the other bloggers wrote about this month. I'll bet they didn't write about pickle. Enjoy

Wordsmith?

2011-02-17T07:29:00.000-08:00

She’s a Wordsmith

She’s a wordsmith. Wordsmith?

Yup that’s what she be.

She’s sittin” at a keyboard

bangin’ those keys.

Kinda like a blacksmith

Under his tree,

‘cept she’s forging words

to feed her family.

This ain’t no clickety clack,

on some railroad track.

She hammers on words,

till the meanings come back.

Sometimes the light might flicker.

In those times she just types quicker.

Her passion can’t be denied,

as she adds a little zing to a classified.

In the ho hum, humdrum

get some got sum,

she’s looking for truth

in all of the flotsam.

Finer words have never been heard

Spoken by the politician as he gave his word.

She just smiles, looks him in the eye

Knowing she’ll get to write his “survived by”

She’s a wordsmith

That’s what she be.

She’s hammerin’ out syllables

settin’ words free.

Maker of things

2011-02-15T10:22:00.000-08:00

     My father was a maker of things. While in the 8th Air force he was a carpenter. During that time he built barracks, officers clubs,.things for bombers and parachute packers. As a child I watched him remodel and build houses. I was reluctantly drafted into service on these projects. He provided the after school and summer vacation entertainment for me. Thinking back on it now it was wonderful. I'd come home from school to find he had half of the house on jacks and was going to replace a portion of the foundation to the house. I got to use a shovel. I later used the same shovel to mix concrete. He would decide things, like the barn needed a new door, roof or an addition and he would solve the problem. I came home once to find he had gutted the kitchen and we were going to build cabinets. I remember turning the chicken house into a farrowing house. I remember standing in the front yard of our house when he began driving stakes into the ground. He had decided that was the new house was going to go. Thinking back it was always a little frightening and fascinating whenever my father grabbed a bunch of stakes and told me to bring the sledge hammer. From my father I learned about possibility thinking.
     My father's day job was selling tools to farmers in the northern half of Iowa. For many years he worked for a company as a commissioned salesman. In later years he owned the company. His desire to see people own the tools they needed grew into his owning his method of earning a living. Owning the tools you need and.owning the company you work for were important concepts to him.
Today I'm making stuff of my own choosing. My boys make stuff. It's just what we do.

Progress, completions and concepts

2011-02-07T11:12:00.000-08:00

When last you saw the bottle she was 8" tall 4.5" at foot

Then 8 1/2 tall 3.75 at foot

Now 9" tall 3 5/8" at foot getting taller

Two shots of bubble bowl

Urchin bowl, flame painted.

Three concepts I'm playing with for teapot spouts handles and lids....

Getting taller and urchin thinking

2011-01-24T06:10:00.000-08:00

Getting taller developing the body

Gained an inch in height between these two shots. lip now 4.5" height 8"

In perspective it's beginning to look more like a bottle. The shallow urchin bowl is beginning to take shape. If you haven't figured it out yet I never work on just one piece.

Step Away From The Computer, Now!

2011-01-21T06:48:00.000-08:00

     My wife frequently gets phone calls from friends experiencing computer issues. Calls range from, Help I think I've just deleted Windows! to How do I move these photos to? Most times she get's called when the friends have reached their frustration level. " Step away from the computer, now." has become kind of a personal joke around here. I've watched her talk people through some pretty complicated stuff, She does this with grace and ease, it's amazing.
     I rely on her for technical support. I'm more into the social networking side of things. Lately I've had several FB friends throw up their hands, pull out their hair and cry on their keyboards. Comments have ranged from "Are any of these friends my friends? Who are these people? Does anyone read this stuff? Why an I smoking more and enjoying it less? The household statement comes to mind, Step away from the computer, now. Social networking can become addictive
     Here's an analogy. I hated high school. Mostly I hated an educational invention called "Study Hall." Everyone had a one hour study hall every school day. Study hall was sold to the parents as a way for students to work on their homework during the day. It's real function was to solve a scheduling problem caused by over crowed class rooms. To me it was prison. I usually solved the problem by going to the library. My approach worked well for a couple of years. Until one day I discovered I had exhausted the resource material on the things I was interested in. Something wonderful happened my senior year. I got a permanent pass from study hall to the Art Room. I had one hour a day to make stuff, sometimes alone in the art room. All of the years of (research?) were about to pay off. People liked the stuff I made.

It's easy to loose hours in a library, most of the time. Research time is valuable. It can not however replace the making stuff time. Step away from the computer, now. Come back show us what you made. We love pictures! Here's some stuff to enjoy...Go make some!

2011-01-17T04:57:00.000-08:00

High on Mommas want list

Getting taller

2011-01-12T06:59:00.000-08:00

This one is going in a different direction, It's going to get taller. It's now about 5" tall and 5" at lip.

6 6/8" tall still about 5 1/2" lip

7 1/2 " tall, 5 " lip These pics show the same piece through three courses of raising. I'm using four different stakes and several raising hammers. Some thoughts: This is about the most difficult and time consuming way I could think of to make a funnel. The neck of this form is almost an inch tall now and 3/8" in diameter. Whoa I've never made copper pipe before. This is teaching me about how far I can push the material. There will be a brief pause while I make a couple of longer stakes. I'm expecting the finished bottle-vase form to exceed 10" in height, have a largest diameter of approx. 3" to have a lip of larger than 3/8" and a foot of less then 2 1/2" The actual foot will be soldered in. This piece started as an eight inch disk of copper. Visions of raised spouts are beginning to occupy my thoughts for other pieces. I'm currently working on a sea urchin bowl, more on that another time.

Know the competition.

2011-01-06T08:24:00.000-08:00

     It's easy to think of the other jeweler down the street as the competition. Also easy to consider the other guy offering jewelry for sale on Esty or Art Fire as the competition. Are the other pieces in the display case with yours in the gallery that sells your jewelery the competition? Let me attempt to change your perception for a moment
     When Mc Donalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut, and Kentucky Fried Chicken look to locate their stores they would prefer to locate near other successful chains. The theory being they intend to offer hungry people a different dining experience than the others. They may share the same customer base, they might not. The concept is; offering the customer more variety is beneficial to each of the establishments. Food courts in malls are a good example of the power of offering diversity to the customer.
I once opened a new jewelry store in a town of about 15,000 people. My store made the third jewelery store in the community. There was an unexpected result to my opening that 3rd store in town. I would have expected to achieve my 1/3 of the possible jewelry sales, in other words my slice of the existing pie. What actually happened was that total jewelery sales for all three stores went up, the pie expanded. Both of the other existing stores reported increased sales! I gave this considerable thought as I purchased inventory for the next year. I came to this conclusion. The collection of retailers in the community was suffering from a considerable leak in retail sales to other communities. By increasing the selection of jewelry available and by increasing the awareness of the jewelry and services provided within the community we had begun to hold our customer base. My goal then became to increase the holding and drawing power of the community of retailers. Realizing it would be to my benefit to be beside the best little book store and the best bakery in town would begin to occupy my thoughts. Somewhere along the journey I stopped thinking about the other jewelers and retailers in town as competition and began to think of them as colleagues.
     It was kinda of funny really when people discovered the three of us were friends. This shouldn't have beena surprise, after all we had more in common with each other than we did nearly anyone else. We faced similar problems, had the same expectations of the products we sold and knew many of the same people in the industry. There are humorous stories of us interacting. I once supported one of them running for Mayor of the city. Each of them did things I didn't do, each of them had a specialty, and an area of expertise. I would always make time to talk to either of them and they for me.
   I once wrote an article comparing the numbers of vacuum cleaners given as Christmas presents and the rise in the divorce rate across the country. My tongue in cheek article pointed out expectations of the receiver of the gift. Though I've never seen a time when vacuum cleaners were in hot demand, as this years must have item, I'd be among the last to suggest you shouldn't have one. Nor would I suggest giving the newest phone on the market is a bad idea. I remember when vcrs or Ninetendo games blew off retailers shelves. I remember when digital watches were a hot item in the jewelry store. I suspect Amazon sold many a Kindle this year. Those seasonal must have items are the competition for the public's disposable income. Imaging the difference in the reception when she opens the package containing her new Blackberry and the next present is the diamond ring she's bee drooling over. Suppose your card says "This year I thought I'd get you things that ring." We don't have to back away from the major competition for the customers disposable income, we can embrace it. We do after all have wonderful things to sell.
There is an almost unseen competitor for your customers disposable income. Let's look at the daily expenses of lots of people across the country. They go to work five days a week and average $7.00 a day in gas to get to and from work. Their yearly fuel bill for the commute is about $2,600. If gas prices rise a little per gallon, it wouldn't take long for the daily commute to cost $10.00 a day. What that means is that your customer would have $800.00 less disposable income annually. If that's not insulting enough consider the fact that they would have pumped the gas themselves, cleaned their own windshield, checked their own oil and purchased air for their own tires. Don't mention they conduct these transactions after waiting for the Lotto ticket purchasers to get out of the way. Of course they could conveniently purchase an over priced gallon of milk during the process.Gone are the service stations, welcome to convenience stores. But sadly gone is a share of the disposable income you and I prosper from.


.

New beginnings are continuations

2011-01-05T08:32:00.000-08:00

Building forms composed of more elements.

Gaining height and volume

These are mow about 10 inches tall

This one has a long way to go. It's now about 5"x5" headed to a bottle or vase form goal >10" tall

In another direction, 100' of 12 gauge copper wire flattened and annealed

To do more explorations in line required making these double coils, they help prevent tangles while braiding.
There is a bunch of prep work that goes into this stuff that gets unmentioned. Slight changes in form can represent hours of work. Forms suggest other forms, new concepts begin to take shape.

Please don't celebrate the other guys sorrow.

2010-12-21T06:22:00.000-08:00

http://www.avclub.com/articles/thomas-kinkades-new-christmas-cottage-is-a-califor,49286/
I'm writing this here because I can. I could have just made a comment on a Facebook post and let go of my thoughts. Problem is, it probably would have just provoked an argument. I'm not looking for one. Thomas Kinkade screwed up. He will receive the punishment for his crime. DUI is a serious problem across the country. Alcoholism is a serious problem. Those things are true statements. They aren't why I'm typing. I'm typing because when I originally read the news story the comments were " Awesome, Made my day, best news I've heard today." And attacks on the artists work.
Thomas Kinkade is known as the painter of light. You have seen his artwork probably more than you realize.
He is a fairly successful contemporary artist painter.
     I can remember back to my college days when I was taught that the works of Norman Rockwell and Currier and Ives weren't art. I can remember that the works of M.C. Escher were frowned upon during their time as being illustration and not art. It doesn't come as a surprise to me when the art world turns it's back on art work the public appreciates. It took a few year to recover from my education. My mother helped me recover by honestly liking the paintings all of the above.
    I've learned not to put people on pedestals, not to try to build one for myself and not to be all that surprised when artists that I admire screw up. There is nothing awesome or wonderful about the other guys misfortune
People will after all, be people.
    I worked in a prison once on a Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It's not an easy place to try to bring some Christmas joy. I'll tell you the hardest part for those kids, inmates. They felt as if they had nothing to give. I had a friend in prison ministries he was very involved in a project called Angle Tree, (Google it) The project gives inmates an opportunity to give gifts to their children.
    In so many ways Mr. Kinkade is just one more of the thousands of people that will spend Christmas in prison. I hope he finds something to give, again.

It's a most colorful time of the year

2010-12-16T07:24:00.000-08:00

A little Sterling fun

Gorilla Marketing Tips

2010-12-03T07:05:00.000-08:00

     Here's a few gorilla marketing tips for you. This tip is good for some free exposure and perhaps a free lunch!Take a look at your community from the standpoint of how many community service clubs it has.I'm betting your community has a chapter of the Lions, Elks, Rotary, Junior Chamber of Commerce, BPW, Kiwanis, maybe even an Izaak Walton League. The list can be expanded to include Masonic Temples, Shriners, Red Hatters. Your community has such groups, right? Here's something to think about, most of these groups meet at least monthly. That means they are looking for this months program or speaker! That might be an opportunity for you to gain some exposure next year.
    A good many libraries are also looking for next months display or exhibit. Combine that with a speaking opportunity and the publicity they will provide for the event and you have a win win situation.
   Empty store fronts still dot many retail communities. Some of these empty store fronts still have high traffic and great visibility. They might present an opportunity for you to set up a passive display. They might also be an opportunity for you to offer to build such displays for other people. Such places can also be bargain locations for an event, say an invitation show of your work. At the least these locations present a possible place for some bizarre signage.
    Remember Burma Shave? These small in the field, along a roadway signs were cheap advertising that captured peoples attention and built brand name recognition. Works for Wall Drug.

Twelve

2010-12-01T08:51:00.000-08:00

     I received an invitation this morning from one of my Facebook friends to attend an on going event called "Pay it Forward." This story I'm about to tell will give you a way to anonymously pay it forward, really help someone in critical need, and do so through out the year to come. This might become a bit long, so refresh your coffee get comfortable, here goes.
    This story actually begins with an invitation to join a mens Bible study group. Two deacons from a local church invited me to attend services at their church. At the time that was about the last thing in the world I would have ever wanted to do. I remember them sitting in my living room as one of them began criticizing my bow hunting. I found her technique to be an interesting approach to evangelism. The gentleman began telling me about the mens bible study group he belonged to. Seems the dozen of them met every Saturday morning at 8:00. I laughed inside as I said I'd give the mens group a visit. I'd made a promise to myself, "If ever there weren't a dozen guys there I didn't have to ever go again, in fact I intended to never go again". The cynical side of me would catch that guy in a lie. There was no way a dozen guys would ever get together on a Saturday morning to study the Bible. So armed with my personal promise I went. I went for two and a half years!
     One of those cold snowy Saturday mornings ( I was sure a dozen guys wouldn't show up that morning, I was kinda looking forward to sleeping in.) I found myself to be the twelfth guy. Our pre-study conversation found itself to how nasty the weather had been yesterday morning. I related how I had given some kid a ride and a pair of gloves yesterday in the snow storm.
     The story begins. Six of us in the room had helped that kid that morning totally unaware of the others. Here's what happened as best as I can piece it together. One gave the kid a scraper to scrape his windshield before the kid left his driveway, no big deal he gave him an extra one. One gave him a ride to the closest gas station. He found out the kid was on his way to a new job and had run out of gas. My friend was also on his way to work he did what he could to help the kid. Another bought the kid a cup of coffee and a roll at the gas station. Another had purchased a gas can for the kid, another filled it up. I gave the kid a ride back to his car,
a stocking cap, a scarf, and a pair of gloves, just extra stuff from my truck. The sixth guy smiled. He had heard the story told from a different perspective. He thought he had seen that ridiculous scarf somewhere before. He had provided the job the kid was trying to get to that morning.
   Here's the real cool part. The other six guys in the room had heard the story. After study group here's what they did. They agreed to purchase three gas cans, tape an envelope containing ten dollar bill and a note to each and place them at three gas stations in the area. The note just says, "You're welcome. Repay us, by helping the next guy you can. 12 "
     To get twelve to attend regularly really took a larger group. So it wasn't always the same guys each week.
Those twelve guys, from that morning, know the story. I share the story occasionally as do the others. I can't remember which 12 guys were involved exactly. It wasn't a big deal, it wasn't a burden, it wasn't a large sacrifice. Anybody could have done what they did. They will tell you that. It's just that they each did what they could.

Walls get vertical !

2010-11-24T06:51:00.000-08:00

The tools of the trade

Forms now have vertical walls. Yes I do angle raising but I also do a some crimp raising to speed things up a little.

I get to play with fire, too. This has been another update on these six raisings. From this point on they begin to take on more individual character. I'm thinking about lids, lips, spouts and handles.

Now the lips are 4" 5" and 6 1/2"

2010-11-10T08:01:00.000-08:00

Next course will bring the walls to vertical. Some planishing is in order soon. Possibilities are presenting themselves. This is the 3 rd course of raising. Forms are getting deeper, too.

6's, 7's, and 8's 2nd course done

2010-11-04T08:35:00.000-07:00

Second course finds pieces getting deeper, lips beginning to close. At this point I begin to anticipate the walls getting to vertical. The lines are ink and will burn away in annealing. The lines serve as guides to raising each round. There are usually two or three rounds between lines. Off to anneal.

6s, 7s, and 8s first course done

2010-11-03T06:32:00.000-07:00

The first course of raising is complete, pieces gained depth, lips shrank in diameter slightly. Colors are a product of contact with flame, heat patina or flame painting. The pieces go through a wide variety of changes, with many moments of pretty along the way. I could turn these totally pink in the pickle. My pickle is a little diluted..

6's, 7's, and 8's nesting

2010-11-01T09:45:00.000-07:00

sinking done, about to be annealed these 6's, &'s, and 8's nest on the bench for a little while.

Late in November

2010-10-29T09:26:00.000-07:00

I t was early in November, as I remember when I was invited to have work in the galleries Christmas show. Don't ya know? I was pleased and excited to be included. I was making my mark on the world I concluded. All be it a small mark, I call it my hallmark, but people would come to review it. If I hurried my works were prejuried. with no preinspection, there's no fear of rejection. So with a smile, I said that I'd do it. You can imagine my composure as I read the disclosure, of the rules. Five works, in my case in copper, in their possession tomorrow, no problem thinks me. The gallery charges a forty percent fee! I regain my composure and consider the exposure. I must pick up the unsold next year, for sure. Oh happy day, and oh by the way, I'll get my check on Valentines Day! I almost said screw it, but I said that I'd do it.and I am a man of my word .So in my frustration, I bookmarked the occasion, They were in heaven, when I sent them seven. Oh the things that we do. It's been years ago, but again I'll forgo my membership in this years Christmas show. Oh what the heck I might cash the check. It's from a Gallery. ya know!.

new work

2010-10-28T08:52:00.000-07:00

Forms start to come together

A couple of fold formed trays

Seven Fold

The materials we use.

2010-10-27T10:29:00.000-07:00

I just did the math on the purchase of a rather interesting material. I do not work in this material. I have many friends that do. Here's a quote I found this morning from a friend on Face Book.

One mystery solved: PMC Pro, which will apparently be available next week, is 10% copper. At WLW, the launch price for a 25-g pack is $56. Looking forward to hearing what folks have to say about this metal clay.

Ok That means that the actual silver in this material is sold to the customer at a rate of $ 71.00 per troy ounce fine silver. The actual trading price of fine silver today is $23.50. In other words the cost this material is almost 3 times the value of the metal.

I work in the metal using direct metal techniques.

Drill bit marketing

2010-10-22T07:40:00.000-07:00

     If you go out into the world and attempt to sell drill bits using the traditional approach, you will starve. The traditional, acceptable, method of marketing drill bits is to display them where people can see them and wait until people someone comes along, makes their selection and final purchase. In other words the marketing approach of drill bits is no marketing at all. Even worse are the places that keep their drill bits out of sight and only available to customers with insider information. In other words the educated customer has to ask for a specific item to purchase it. Selling lots of drill bits is about a different kind of thinking than the traditional supply company uses.
Selling lots of drill bits is more about teaching, counseling and providing solutions to everyday problems. This gets to be kind of fun because almost no one wants to be a salesman. Most people believe they can't sell anything. They are probably right. However these same people can really get into teaching, counseling people and providing solutions to real problems. Go figure. I think the confusion arises from the difference between clerks and sales people.
      The ability to sell a significant quantity of drill bits requires a shift in thinking. Selling drill bits is about holes, all kinds of holes in a variety of different materials. Provide the world with the ability to make clean holes of differing sizes, in a variety of materials, in a clean and efficient manner and you have some thing the world will be very interested in. Holes are necessary. Holes were and are one of the keys to civilization. A wheel isn't a wheel until you can put it on an axle. That action requires a hole! Civilization advances once stones get holes in them and man no longer has to attempt to tie a rock to a handle to make a hammer. The hammer making materials change over the years. The necessity of being able to make holes increases in demand and complexity. This isn't rocket science or brain surgery, though neither rocket scientist or brain surgeon could get very far without holes. Holes are very special things. Necessary, useful and in high demand.
      Do you know there is demand for square holes? There are machines and drill bits that produce them? These square holes are 1/2 of the concept of mortise and tendon joints in wood working. There is also demand for holes in unusual materials, beyond but not excluding wood, plastics and metal. Concrete, stone and glass present their own challenges. Scale also influences hole making Very large holes require different tools than very small holes. Ice augers can't drill pearls. There is another element to hole making to consider.
Let's consider standardization. Holes can be of variable sizes that's significant. But suppose I desire to have quantity of holes that are consistent in size. Interchangeable, standardized, uniform holes are very useful.
     Holes can also be self filling. Imagine a tool that becomes a fastener as well as making it's own hole, The self tapping sheet metal screw is an example. Holes can be a deep subject, well? Holes can go all the way through things but some would be useless if they did, oil wells. Sorry for the puns.
    Selling a lot of drill bits is about providing people with the ability to make holes where they want them. Empowering the people is a noble thing to be doing.
   Ok So just how is this relating to my selling my stuff?. First of all don't let your product be represented by clerks. They don't sell many drill bits. They don't know the world needs holes.
Selling drill bits-selling your art work equals figure out what real need your product answers. That's the whole of it

But I hate typing

2010-10-15T06:31:00.000-07:00

     I hated typing class in junior high school. Primarily the problem was and still is I like to watch what my hands are doing. We were expected to have our eyes on the thing we were copying and not look at our hands. Our progress was measured by speed and accuracy. Here's what happened. Words were defined as any five characters correctly placed on the paper. When time was applied to the the equation and you could arrive at words per minute rate. If you "misspelled" a word it was counted against your wpm. It became possible to type at negative words per minute rate. I usually typed at a negative thirty words per minute. I was getting faster, as time progressed, some times I could get the rate up to negative 35. wpm. One day the instructor in her wisdom decided we would be graded on our improvement. The ones showing the most improvement would get the best grade. Light bulbs came on. I typed one word accurately in that minute test. To go from negative 35 wpm to one word per minute is a large percentage improvement! Boy was the teacher POed about that one. The principal agreed with me.
     Bob on the other hand, a class mate of mine and still a close friend, only showed a dismal improvement of five words from his rate of 35 wpm to 40. Bob would go on to greater things. His typing would prove to be an important skill. Bob owned a printing company and had ghost written a couple of books before he took the job as a Navy reserve recruiter. He was assigned to a base in the middle of Iowa. I always found that to be somewhat humorous. I'd frequently ask him where his ship was. He never found that amusing. I think because not having a ship was part of the problem. Bob started recruiting sailors by doing about the only thing he could do to increase awareness. He started writing. He wrote articles of all kinds. about being in the Navy. Then he started submitting the articles to newspapers and magazines. The articles got printed and taken seriously by professionals of all kinds. Dentists and doctors found his message useful as they considered their careers.
   Bob explained it to me this way. People in the news industry have a serious problem. They continually face a deadline. They have a limited amount of time to produce a quality product. When he presented a well written article to them he was making their daily job a bunch easier. They love it. Bob's career blossomed.
Bob had the almost unlimited ad budget of the Navy Reserve behind him yet the articles he was writing were proving to be effective. Toward the end of his career he had many people under his command all of them could type better than him. I will continue to salute his uncommon thinking.

The care and handeling of the media

2010-10-14T06:46:00.000-07:00

My father was a carpenter in the Air Force during WW 2. He was stationed in Peterborough, England. It's there that he met my mother. Dad built barracks mostly during the time period. Dad never got over building things. Even though his career was built on selling tools and supplies to farmers. Dad built things ie, houses, barns, garages bedrooms and kitchens. There were no do it yourself centers, there were lumber yards. There was no do-it-yourself movement. Being the kid of a man with the ability to do it meant he would do it himself. That really meant the kid would help. I learned to do those things, mostly out of self defense. It should come as no surprise that by the age of three his grandchild would have a hammer collection. That kid now has an MFA in metalsmithing, no surprise.
   Most Do It Yourself centers have really become a strong argument for the concept of hiring a professional. I have a contractors hat that I wear in the DIY center, mostly to get the people that have no clue, to get out of my way.
     "I design and make custom gold and silver wedding bands" was the classified ad I ran weekly in the newspaper my last three years of college.(I wrote it myself) That single ad was my total advertising and media exposure during the time period. There was an amazing thing that happened at the end of the time period. The newspaper people began to know me, they became customers. They gave me a graduation gift. They gave me a double truck story about my little business. The article was the bridal edition of the paper that year. It's funny how it all came about.
   Placing my ad became a weekly thing to do. In part because I had things to deliver you my customers there and because there might be new thing to make. It was no surprise when the editor of the paper called me into his office. on one of those trips. I built pieces for his wife. This time he had something to present to me. His paper was going to do a story about me. I had to do some things in preparation. I had to write the story and plan the photo shoot. They weren't going to use the story I would write. Their writers would do that and their staff photographer would actually do the shoot. I had to be prepared for the interview. Here's an interesting side bar. The pieces I built for the people at the newspaper more than paid for the ad I placed with them! Because I was prepaying months ahead I got a great rate for my ad.
   My professor had the two full page article on the door to his office the day it came out, The head of the art department had it on his window. All my professor had to say to me that morning was, "Brad you can't buy advertising like that."   More coming on this topic.

It's a trebuchet kind of thing

2010-10-12T05:44:00.000-07:00

Let me explain a gorilla marketing approach to getting some exposure. The example begins with the building or making of a trebuchet. Trebuchets were siege weapons used to tear down the walls of castles. They are similar to catapults except they add a sling to increase the throwing ability. I've built several of them over the years. The last one was built using 2x6s for the frame and man hole covers for the weights. This was a rather large project. We built it it's own trailer. The treb could throw stuff. bowling balls, pumpkins, type writers or bags of flour. The local news paper thought it news worthy that I would build a trebuchet in my back yard. Renaissance
Faires and pumpkin patch events paid us to bring the Treb to their events. Local news papers found . pumpkin chucking to be news worthy. People loved seeing it fire. People would pay to see it chuck their stuff. Small computer monitors, etc. People purchased small trebuchets from us as well as plans for larger ones.
    Do you see a difference between setting up your stuff at the local craft show with a hundred other people to gain exposure and getting paid to show people your wonderful interactive kinetic sculpture. One of those two approaches is going to get your picture in the paper = real exposure.
    Sounds pretty simple doesn't it. Just make something real cool and let people see it. Here's the trick. It's not a big secret. But it's the part that most makers don't do. Write your own press release. Take pictures
   Tomorrow I'm going to write about the care and handling of the media.

Expose yourself

2010-10-11T08:53:00.000-07:00

     I love this time of year. The kids in the neighborhood are back in school. They are off the streets. I can't hear then complaining of nothing to do. They seem to have a sense of purpose, things to do, places to go. The soccer moms are out in full force. There are high school football games and bands playing marching tunes. It's the Sousa time of the year! I was raised a Midwesterner so sound to the rustling leaves beneath my feet is a pleasant memory. Our Florida home doesn't see the foliage change color. We are however beginning to see the snow birds arrive. But the best thing of all are the festivals. My up north days this time of the year had pumpkin patches, corn mazes and hay rides. Harvest festivals and great big picnic type parties fill the weekends.
    My role as one of those back stage makers of stuff people was often to be part of the group that organized these kinds of events. Quite often these events were things I did to expose myself, or my work to a larger number of people. Artists spent time exposing themselves. To hear some people tell it we do quite a few events for the exposure. Exposure is very different from cash flow.
It came as no surprise as I walked a local side walk craft show this weekend to find out most of the vendors at this two day event were doing the show for exposure. It was a nice show with some very nice product for sale by some very good people, It is a juried show. What we call a white tent affair here. What did surprise me, or rather made me smile was the comment from one of the jewelers. What she said was. She does this show every year. It's a time when she gets together with other crafts people and a few established customers. She's been doing this show for the exposure for several years. She doesn't care if she breaks even at the event. Her sales in her Esty shop have been real good, her website is seeing increasing traffic, her search engine optimization is working and the street team marketing is kicking in. She was quick to give people her card with her web site on it and an invite to her newsletter.
    I'm going to write more about the exposure issue this week. I'm gong to type about trebuchets tomorrow.

Butchers, bakers and candlestick makers

2010-10-09T08:27:00.000-07:00

A few of the hundred earrings I've been working on. all copper with a little bit of enamel.
The industrial revolution brought on the comparison of the monkey grinder and the unseen maker. The time represented a shift from people being mostly involved in farming or related fields to being somehow connected to manufacturing. There was resistance to the change of the time period. There was probably resistance from people moving from being mostly hunter-gathers to domesticating animals and harvesting seed. There is always resistance to change. During the time of agriculture if you wanted something you either made it yourself, churning butter to making nails on your anvil or you found a member of your community a specialist, the butcher, baker or candle stick maker. to do it for you. Most people were makers of something. Chairs, tables, chimneys, cups, saddles, rope, wheels, clothing, blankets, were all things people made within a community. Today the making of those things is often a forgotten craft.
We've made another change, some say. The times might be described as the information age. I'm not sure I entirely buy the concept but I have noticed there are very few farmers. I have trouble finding things made here. Manufacturing moved.

If Twitter and Facebook are the best the information age has to offer, we are in serious trouble! Maybe Google has the right idea? I can remember that the two biggest sources of information I ever got excited about were the Encyclopedia Britannica and National Geographic Magazine. Maybe forums will fill our desire for information, except they keep answering the same questions. No one ever looks through archives. I suspect the information age will be a time of discovering community again. We'll discover our connectedness.to a larger group of people. Makers of things will continue to make things. We may have climbed out of the Tupperware age!

The Monkey and the Grinder.

2010-10-08T06:24:00.000-07:00

I've never seen this partnership except in a few old movies. I doubt this profession exists anymore. In the movies there was a guy down on the street with a music machine. He would turn a crank the music would play, the monkey would dance. The crowd would be delighted by the antics of the costumed monkey at the end of the show the monkey would grab a cup and solicit payment for the show. The monkey always got loose and worked the larger crowd. The monkeys getting loose generated most of the revenue for the show. Having worked that area the monkey would get on the back of the grinder. The grinder pushed the music machine to the next location. When they arrived, the grinder turned the crank on the music machine, the monkey danced, you get the picture. There are a number of metaphors in this romantic picture. We have mostly forgotten them or where they came from. "Working for peanuts".and "having a monkey on your back" come from this metaphor.So do "working for the man" and "being on a short chain." The concept of "nickel man" is similar. " If I had nickel for each time I've been put on, I would be the nickel man. And I'd sing a nickel song" SINGS the MONKEY. The plight of the worker, put on the back of the employer, aspiring to be the boss and knowing he could and would do it better.
That's all most of us ever get to see in this economic scenario. Most of us aspire to be the grinder. We get caught in the daily grind. The unmentioned, vital, character that makes it all possible never gets mentioned. He's the third ingredient. He's the real magic. He's the one that sees the opportunity. He is the maker of the music machine! It's an Art ya know?

A shift in thinking

2010-10-07T07:33:00.000-07:00

"Often people attempt to live their lives backwards: they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be Happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do in order to have what you want." ~ Margaret Young. I liked that quote and the fact that Yahoo posted an article on creating your own job on FB this morning. I liked those two things because they relate to this mornings blog.Remember that high school guidance counselor that said if I wanted to be a jeweler I would have to be a watch maker? He was historically correct. During the late 60's most jewelers had a background in watch making. The shift from being a society based on agriculture to one based on manufacturing introduced a dependence on arriving to work on time. Trains ran on a schudule, Workers were paid by the hour. The question " Do you have the time? " began to mean, Do you possess a machine that indicates the passing of time in a uniform and accurate manner" To the farmer time was bigger, seasons, months, sunrises and sunsets. The industrial revolution introduced new words and concepts. Punch a clock, full time and part time, tardy to mention a few. Minutes and seconds became important. With all of the emphasis on time came machines to regulate it's passing, Pocket watches, later wrist watches, the Regulator on the wall, and the Grand farther clock, kept the time. There were people that made watches. All of the train stop towns across the country had a gentleman that repaired clocks and the portable ones. He had the skills to make parts needed. The curious thing to note is that the keeping of time was accomplished through a mechanism known as an escapement. Watchmakers work on very small machines. It takes a great deal of concentration to do that kind of work. There was a constant demand for services. Most of these watchmakers were mom and pop shops. He did the watch work, she talked to the people. The extent that he didn't have to talk to people during his day became a direct reflection on the quality of his work. Other things happened they discovered that customers would buy jewelery while they were getting their time machine repaired. There are a few famous businessmen that began as watchmakers. J. C. Penny, Sears and Roebuck all started as watchmakers. It took me along time to realise that the reason these entrepreneurs succeeded as sellers of jewelry, perfume, electric shavers, diamonds and thousands of other things came from the watch makers bench. Their ability to invest in things they could sell came from the positive cash flow of the watchmakers bench! I didn't have to be a watchmaker ( that's a good thing because the world doesn't need watchmakers anymore) No, I needed the positive cash flow the work at bench produced! That's statement represents a shift in thinking. The counselor could never understand. He got paid for showing up on time. He didn't create things. I love making things. People like the things I make. Sometimes the things I make speak to people, we'll call that work my art. A positive cash flow became another thing I could make. In fact the better I got at making it the more time I could spend attempting to communicate. Let's give that a while to sink in. Want a much better understanding? Read "Rich Dad Poor Dad"

No Fear

2010-10-06T09:04:00.000-07:00

     I'll let you in on something few people know about me. I have a fear of heights. It hasn't always been that way, I was a bit of a climber as a kid. I've shingled more than my share of roofs, set up more than one set of scaffolding. A skydiver friend explained it to me this way, "you're not afraid of heights, you are afraid of doing something stupid. while your feet aren't on the ground." He gave this bit of wisdom to me as part of the explanation of why he always packed his own parachute. Frankly I've never wanted to jump out of a perfectly good airplane, I'll never understand why anyone would. But his lesson stuck with me. Because I know me, I can and do, do stupid stuff, without even trying. ( I like the way I worked do do into the conversation, never mind that, ok?) I am well aware of my capacity to do stupid things. Some of the stories about my adventures are almost legendary. Such as my wife's favorite story about the time she came back to the store to find I had super glued my thumb and pointer finger to a pearl and my other hand to the bench pin and was forced to watch as my German Sheppard security dog ate my cheeseburger..
    Us farm kids learned to drive at an early age. By age 12, I was driving a tractor. At fourteen I owned my own pick up truck.That was common in the neighborhood I grew up in. There were even occasions when I had to drive the other guys equipment. Here are the firsts two questions we kids learned to ask. How do I shut this thing off?(start it) and where are the breaks? The answers to those two questions removed most of the fear of doing something stupid. Armed with a little knowledge we got stuff done.
    Knowledge is a good thing. That first pickup I owned was a 52 International, metal flake blue, duel exhaust, Hurst shifter with a Hemi in it and baby moon caps. For several years it had no reverse gear. Thing is I learned to compensate or plan for never backing up. Never really became a problem. Having the knowledge that there wasn't going to be any backing up and a plan that became a habit for parking I compensated for "Babies" deficiency.
   Through all of that come some lessons. Yup I am capable of doing some pretty stupid stuff. I prefer to do stupid stuff with my feet on the ground. Good habits and a plan can frequently prevent my doing stupid stuff.
Knowing how to stop removes the fear of proceeding. (keep the acetone near the super glue) and remove the fear of failing by knowing that most of the time you succeed. In other words don't concentrate on having no reverse, instead plan to go forward.
Tomorrow we are going to get to the meat of this being an artist stuff. With some thoughts on the economy of it. I've been mulling it over a little. ( Insider Joke: no banana necessary)

The money shot.

2010-10-05T08:59:00.000-07:00

       Back in the day if you placed an object ball, frozen on the end rail and my shot was from the kitchen. the odds of my making the bank shot to a corner kitchen pocket were about 8 to 1 in my favor, with a house cue. There were people that knew that. To them that shot was a money shot. If we were playing eight ball and I broke the odds that you would never get to shoot were about 3 to one in my favor. If we were playing snooker and I called a three rail bank to the side pocket you shouldn't bet against my making the shot. If we were playing snooker and you followed me the likely hood of your ever getting open was very slim.
      There was a reason why all of the above were true statements for the time period. I practiced, and I always played to win. I never shot slop. I shoot shape. The old guys would watch me practice. Before shooting I would wet my finger and touch the table. That dot on the table would very close to where the cue ball would end up after making the shot. The old guys taught me how. English is my friend.
     The result of practice and good instruction was being good at making shots most people couldn't do. Beyond that was the difference between the house rack cue and my locked up out of sight under the bar cue. I practiced with my cue. I usually played with a house cue. If I ever got my cue out The game was on!
   Those days came before my first jewelry store "The good ol' days" The lessons learned were applied.

Always play to win. Call your shots. Set up the next shot. Play with your own cue. Be very good at doing the things most others can't do. Practice. Don't get upset if you miss a shot. The likely hood of your missing two in a row is pretty slim. Don't forget to enjoy the game. To me a large part of enjoying the game is the experimental, it's the Art part of what I do. These four pieces are the result of last weeks play, problem solving and discovery. Very pressing things. Copper or aluminum

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A ring a day? You're fired!

2010-10-04T07:54:00.000-07:00

     The Florida weather has changed, whew thank goodness. This morning when I stepped out onto the patio it was a pleasant 75 degrees. That's a welcome change from just a few weeks ago when at 6 am the temp out there might have been 85 or higher with the usual 95% humidity. At this mornings temperatures I feel a little bit more like working. This blog is going to take a change of direction for a little while.
   I'm going to be typing about the "good old days." . In the beginning there was a high school art student. He didn't consider himself to be an art student. He just had a permanent pass from study hall to the art room where he spent most of his time casting and fabricating sterling silver jewelery. Time period late 1960's. My principle employment during this time period was a grocery store and the small family farm. There was a fateful decision made during this time period. The high school guidance counselor said I could be a forest ranger, a teacher or a jeweler. But if I wanted to be a jeweler I would have to become a watch maker. I had no desire to repair watches, none. I became an Art teacher, then a jeweler. I should have realized that the logic of the counselor was flawed. I think I did. These were after all the same people that wouldn't allow me to sing in the choir, because my hair was too long.
   Junior College found me employed as the lighting tech person for the drama department and a serious Art student. Those were the years of my welded sculpture. I spent most of my time back stage or in the Art room.
The next three years found me making jewelery to put myself through college.
I was a high school Art teacher for a couple of years. I could not imagine doing that for the next 20 years. I loved it and hated it. The next five years were spent in the family business. We sold tools and supplies to farmers in the northern 1/2 of Iowa. I tripled my teaching income. I purchased much of my studio equipment during this time period.
   This was followed by a five year apprenticeship to a retail jewelery store as a bench jeweler. During this time I also did casting and custom work for the other jewelers in town at home, from my bench. Then I opened my first jewelery store. That store and the experiences from the bench will form the basis for this blog for a while. Those are what I will refer to as the "good old days"
   I've given you a little back ground so that you will understand somethings. This is not my hobby, I do not do this as therapy. I do not string beads, never have. I do not make spoon rings, never have. I do not make peace symbols, never have. I do not repair watches, I hire people to do that. I do not engrave trophies or plaques. I employ people to do that. I will not put a battery in your watch. Have the clerk at Walmart do that. I do not sell watches. I will shorten your watch band, in the blink of an eye, because it's sort of a piece of magic my hands do. No charge. I consider it my community service. During the good old days I worked only in gold.
    Because of my background I do not work on one piece at a time. I work on things in batches or groups of five. I produce more work than others for a couple of reasons. I own the necessary tools to work productively and I make very efficient use of my time. Much more on those concepts to come.
    If all I ever got done was one ring a day I would have been fired years ago. This weeks attainable goal is produce 100 pair of earrings among other things. Those are bread and butter items. That will get this blog started in a new direction.

Hint for the day. Do all the easy ones first. every day!
I still ponder being a forest ranger. Things just didn't unfold that way. They won't for this Monarch either.

The smallest copper one

2010-09-02T09:21:00.000-07:00

While working on raising a spout some interesting forms get noticed. These may lead to a new direction and a change in general form. I'm still headed towards a teapot. I have no idea what the fruit that fell into my yard from my neighbors tree is. I do like the form. I also like the form developing within a form in the new concept lid. I'm not sure where this is going yet, perhaps an egg with a hatch ling will emerge. There might be a flower bud. I'm going to need to do some chasing.

Three pieces I'm working on.

2010-08-19T07:49:00.000-07:00

Thicker and bigger present challenges. Brass, bronze and copper bring on their own metal moving resistance. These shall be tea pots. Thought you might enjoy seeing them develop.

Becoming The Starfish bowl

2010-08-12T06:23:00.000-07:00

The lines we added become the edge where two forms meet. These arcs form the sphere the starfish sits on. This work is done with a small cross pein and raising hammer, over a ball stake. It takes several courses to define the ball. To find rescources on fold forming: to the left of these pictures is an Amazon search panel.
Books Fold forming will yield the best books on the subject. Enjoy

Demo The Starfish Bowl part 2

2010-08-11T07:53:00.000-07:00

By forging only the folds the folded areas begin to curve. I'm only hammering the fold about 3/4 of an inch in from the fold. The untouched valleys will wrinkle, That's OK we have plans for that area. Work all five folds, anneal, repeat this three or more courses to get a nice curve to each fold. Note I rather like the hammer marks on the starfish I want the marks to be on both the right and left sides of each arm. I use a cross pein hammer for this. Anneal before going to the ball stake. The bowl is developed over a ball stake.

demo: Starfish Bowl

2010-08-10T13:52:00.000-07:00

Dividing a circle into five equal parts shouldn't present a large problem. I will frequently attach the paper pattern to the metal. A spray adhesive will work fine for this. The lines will become the folds that create the piece. I'm working 24 gauge copper. That's a 6 inch disk. Close up the folds. This will get us started. Note the related forms fron one of the pics. Note only the folds will be hammered. The valleys do not get hammered.

One Thing At A Time

2010-08-09T12:30:00.000-07:00

It's Monday. It's a day full of beginnings. I hope that I'm going to be able to write from the blog to Facebook. I've many new things to get begin this week. I'll work on one at a time.

Our heritage

2010-03-12T05:14:00.000-08:00

If we don't know where we've been how are we ever going to get any where else? There's a reason Art majors are required to take art history courses. There's a reason why we should read the great poets or for that matter why we should have Facebook accounts.
I realize that many of us are trying to make a living as Artist designer craftsmen. Sometimes it's good to have a pattern a model to look at. Many of you know that I want to build a geodesic dome studio. Guess what I'm building a model. If you are looking for a master to study, a mentor of sorts A hero maybe. Here's a good place to start. He read Emerson, Thoreau and Whitman. You've seen the name and the brand name he created. Check out http://www.pbs.org/wned/elbert-hubbard/ Elbert Hubbard is the man behind the name Roycroft. He is part of the Arts and Crafts movement. Lots of good things to think about here. Much of it relevant to todays artist craftsman.

"Bowl of Bowls"

2010-02-08T05:36:00.001-08:00

"Bowl of Bowls"

2010-02-08T05:10:00.001-08:00

First you get what you think is a perfectly marvelous idea.. Sure I'll take part in a little competition called Super Bowl 2010..The concept of which is to build a super bowl on Super Bowl Sunday 2010.
The marvelous idea was supplied by Wendy Esdal-Kerwin on her blog Hammermarks.http://hammermarks.wordpress.com/2010/02/07/super-bowl-challenge-2010-complete/ You can find the complete story of the event there. To make a long story shorter, I decided to take part in this event. My entry is called "Bowl of Bowls" It's raised copper with a fold formed base. The bowl is 5 1/2 inches wide, total piece with base stands 6 1/2 inches.
I had the contents of the bowl around as inventory before beginning this piece.

Tea pot

2010-01-23T16:13:00.000-08:00

Still a little more finishing work to do, these photos help show me where the piece needs a little more attention.

Listen to this, click

2010-01-12T12:08:00.000-08:00

Well unless I suddenly get a video camera and tech up a little you'll never really get to hear the lid of the tea pot snap into position. It's a delightful little noise, brings me an inordinate amount of pleasure. Click It just makes me smile. I wasn't expecting the lid to click. It's been pickled again, the lugs are done and ready to be silver soldered on. Then comes some more finishing.
The interior is going to be tumble finished. At least that's my thinking at the moment. No patina, think I'll polish it.. later click! he he

get a handle on it!

2010-01-09T09:04:00.000-08:00

The teapot is coming along nicely. The concept has changed, evolved, a little with the working of the metal. It's roughly the size of a large grapefruit, The body of the form is raised, hammer texture. It has a lid! Which means it has a lip to fit the lid. There's a knob on the lid for removing the lid. The lid snaps into position, I couldn't be prouder. I'm easily amused. It has a forged handle. Bit of whimsy and a bit of function combined. The fold formed spout is assembled but not attached as of yet. Here comes a fun part, something I hadn't expected to do.
Teapots frequently have two handles. One handle for pouring and another handle for lifting. The handle for lifting goes on the top, the pouring one on the side. Well that lifting handle can get hot.. in other words it needs to be a form that will have enough structure to function as well as have the ability to dissipate heat. This caused a bit of pondering here at the bench. The solution has required learning something new. for me. Viking knit solves the problem. Of course this has meant building a few more parts than I had at first considered. Photos soon as I get it together. I do have a handle on it.

whimsy

2009-12-22T09:38:00.000-08:00

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, well not much like the Iowa Christmases I remember. This is Florida after all. Mostly it's the calendar that's reminding me of the season. Once again I've left the making of the wife's present to the last possible days. Well not really I have done most of the form exploration all ready. It's that I didn't make up my mind what to make until
yesterday. I wasn't positive about it until this morning. The first two courses of raising are done on this piece. I type as I anneal, both the body and the metal that will become the spout. I've a general form in mind, Short and stout, some of the detail, here is the handle here is the spout. I think this teapot should have a lid. I'm not sure of a whistle, we'll see. For this piece I've produced a 16 gauge pure copper 7" disk.. The plan is to incorporate some fold forming into this raised form... Much more later.. Boy do I have some work to do! It'll be fun, a bit of whimsy, I say confidently as I head back to the stake.

I got a new hammer!

2009-12-10T07:23:00.000-08:00

In so many ways my new hammer is just another hammer. Yup a wooden handle with a metal head, two faces to keep polished. It's a Peddington, made in Germany. It's a #375 46 to be exact. I only mention this because some of my friends are hammer elitists. I confess to being somewhat of a tool collector, snob myself so I fit right in. What impressed me greatly was that the local jewelry supply store had my hammer, right on the dusty shelf hidden amongst a bunch of stuff I'd never look twice at. I'll never want a case opening pliers, a crystal press or a mechanical watch cleaning machine. There seemed to be a spotlight on that hammer coming from an invisible source. Maybe I imagined it. Maybe it was just the flicker from the fluorescent lights. I picked it up said, " Mine." Well the store didn't have the saw blades I came in for, were out of the drill bits I needed, no longer stocked silver solder, and didn't carry Batterns flux. None of that seemed to matter, much. Did you know liver of sulphur is a controlled item, requires hazardous shipping? I held my new hammer proudly, as I accepted the news that I wasn't going to find any of this product either. No problem. They didn't have any of the things I needed, just a hammer that I wanted. Needs and wants get confusing anyway. I get amused sometimes by stores offering employment as mystery shoppers, for me shopping for tools in the local shops is mystery shopping. Sure I know what I need to shop for but it will be a mystery what I get back to the bench with! Back at the bench it was time to celebrate. Much like the time I went shopping for a new crucible and came home with a new rolling mill. The above are the result of the celebration. " Five small copper bowls"

Paten, with Patina

2009-11-25T06:53:00.000-08:00

It's curious to note that the root word for patina is paten, Latin for plate. Today I bring you a paten with patina. Visitors to my work often ask if the color on the larger pieces is a patina. It's not a word we use everyday, and it's not a concept our technologically advanced society often pauses long enough to appreciate. Perhaps the poets do a better job of explaining it than metal smiths do. The face of a sailor could be said to have a patina. The surface of an antique piece of wooden furniture might possess a patina. The brass railing, beside a marble staircase, leading up the steps to a public building, has developed a patina. Thousands of hands have rubbed some surfaces smooth, satin, polished and left other areas untouched, weathered. Just as the repeated dusting's, cleanings and touching have given the surface of a wooden table character over time, given it a glow, or luster. The face of the sailor shows the effects of his environment over the years. A patina has much to tell us about the passing of time and the evidences of that time passing. It's not something that's applied. Patina is all about developing character.

A sneek preview

2009-11-19T05:38:00.000-08:00

Here's a sneak preview for you. These candle sticks are coming along nicely. They bring together two of the areas of my work, for the first time. The wire work or braiding and fold forming.
The pieces are just stacked together for this pic. Since this pic the ferrules have been shaped to fit, the candle holding pipe has received a drip cup of 12 gauge (thick stuff), and the fabricating
(silver soldering) is done. They are in the pickle now. Final cleaning, prep for a patina and the threaded rod, custom washers and nuts that holds each together are all that remain to be done.
A patina hasn't been chosen as of yet. I'm leaning towards a Roycroft approach. Plan is to do a demo of this piece, complete with process shots. Brad

Just a few new pieces

2009-11-06T06:55:00.000-08:00

A bouquet of fold formed copper

2009-11-06T06:51:00.000-08:00

While I'm busy working on my suntan.

Copper Hibiscus

2009-10-30T04:07:00.000-07:00

Much of the work I do features a technique called fold forming. These copper hibiscus come from the research in this technique. It's almost impossible not to see a hibiscus in bloom here in Florida. It won't matter which day you come here, We'll be able to find one in bloom. You just have to listen for them! They seem to celebrate the warm breeze. They almost scream "Look at me"

Fold forming is a passion of mine

2009-10-26T07:50:00.000-07:00

I hope you enjoy these fold formed vessels

Latest piece from the bench

2009-10-26T07:30:00.000-07:00

This small copper bowl is the most recent piece from the bench. It's hammered from one sheet of copper. It measures approx. 3" wide and high

"Inside Herself"

2009-10-26T07:07:00.000-07:00

I'm never quite sure if this form is springing forth or disappearing. I'm sure she's free standing,

I'm sure she's both simple and complex. I enjoy the patterns, her fluid lines and find her to be changing before my eyes as she becomes herself.

"Terminations" a wire vessel

2009-09-16T08:52:00.000-07:00

"Terminations" is a wire vessel about 2 1/2 feet tall. It's made from a little over 1oo ft. of flattened copper wire. The technique used is braiding. Forty eight interwoven strands make up the body of the piece. Another Six strands are used for the woven lip of the vessel. The woven lip and the wrapped base are new developements for me in this venue of working, hence the title.

opportunity knocking?

2009-09-13T07:49:00.000-07:00

Lark Books has an artist call open for a new book featuring silver jewelry! Check it out here http://www.larkbooks.com/submissions/artist-submissions

Survival in these trying times

2009-08-20T12:23:00.000-07:00

I've been involved in a discussion about pricing our work lately. I really don't like looking for formulas that relate to our artwork. The things we do have more to do with passion and vision than they do with the MBA's approach to business. Those of us in the discussion finally came to the same conclusion, " Long term sustainability has much to do with creating and filling niches in the market place." It's not an accident that I've lead the topic in this direction. I've been looking to a new paradigm, a fresh, innovative, insightful method of doing this art business. I think I've found it in a site called Trend Hunters. com and in a book not yet released. not yet published. This is fairly significant. The whole concept behind hunting for trends is to be ahead of the crowd and be able to capitalize on that advantage. "Exploiting Chaos" by Jeremy Gutshe
proves to be an exciting opportunity to rethink our reactions to the world around us. Check this out today http://www.exploitingchaos.com/sneakapeak/68

All balled up

2009-07-27T07:00:00.000-07:00

The following are four ways of many possible to make a metal ball form or bead. They represent possibilities. They can be made small and strung like any other bead or made larger and used as scarf ties, or nekerchief slides. Other uses could be, a ball on the grip of a goblet or candle stick, the top of a railing, a ball in the middle of a walking stick. They would all be considered forged forms. Patina and plated options are also endless. Enjoy Brad

2009-07-27T06:55:00.000-07:00

"Evidences: Maria"

2009-07-16T08:05:00.000-07:00

This Piece is the fifth piece in a series called "Evidences". It's only by some quirk of blogging that you get to see the conclusion to the series "Maria" first, if you are a new victim, er viewer. This has been an exploration of evidences. "Maria" presents the scene of the crime, the victims, the criminals and of course the hero, Maria Reiche, It's hoped that you enjoy the earthy quality to this piece, it is after all a self portrait of the earth. Before you join me across the horizon you should check out a couple of places, They will give you lots of background. http://www.labyrinthina.com/mariareiche.htm Will explane our heroen.

http://www.crystalinks.com/nazca.html Will help to give you the real world side of "Evidences"

Evidences: "Influence"

2009-07-14T15:34:00.000-07:00

"Influence" There are evidences of the maker of these artifacts, me, being influenced in his design by other makers of relics. LMD (localized metal deformation) is used to texture areas. The form becomes more organic less geometric. The piece is a reminder of shield forms.

Glyphs

2009-07-13T17:17:00.000-07:00

"Glyphs" is the third in the series Evidences. There's evidence on the walls of of this vessel.

Trio in a dozen parts

2009-07-13T12:09:00.000-07:00

In "Trio" straight lines are formed by the convergence of long tapered cone shapes.

The series "Evidences" Double

2009-07-12T16:35:00.000-07:00

The first vessel in the series "Evidences" this one titled "Double"

Critical mass "five smooth stones"

2009-05-27T07:48:00.000-07:00

Most people operate their lives on a "ready, aim, fire" approach. Maybe we learn this concept from hunters with their rifles or bow hunters. Maybe Annie Oakley said it. I'm going to let you in on a little bit of sharp shooter information. Some of the trick shots are accomplished by shooting bird shot instead of a bullet. I don't mean to take anything away from sharp shooters, some are quite amazing. I do want you to think about things differently than most people do. The problem with the ready aim fire people is most of the time they spend so much time getting ready and aiming that the target or the opportunity disappears. Let me give you a little history lesson about hitting targets. When generals called forth their archers it wasn't to single out individual targets, very often. When English long bowmen fired at the scotsman Wallace it rained arrows. Long bowmen were valued on their ability to rapidly fire the next shot. Robin Hood's ability to telescope arrows was highly valued , If you could find an enemy that would stand still for being shot twice. Let's look at how hitting targets really works. I own a trebuchet. It's a wooden contraption for throwing pumpkins the length of a football field. To hit a target we use the historic method of "ready, fire, aim! The treb is loaded and pointed in the correct direction.That's ready. We fire it. We might hit the target. Probably not. So let's say we miss. We correct our aim and fire again.. Give us three shots and you'll be smelling the pumpkin goo. Artillery men have a history of practicing ready, fire, aim. You've at least heard the story of David and Goliath. Basically a teenage boy slays a giant with a slingshot. Now there are several things that can be learned from this story. One is that Giants should not laugh at their opponents. Two is that David refuses Saul's offer of his armor, because it doesn't fit. There are more lessons here. I can imagine the small shepherd boy practicing with his sling. I can imagine
that he was a very capable shot. Before David goes out to face Goliath he picks up five smooth stones. That caught my eye the first time I read it. Why five? Then I learned about the concept of ready, fire, aim. Five was certainly enough to do the job. More would have forced David to carry extra weight. One smooth stone could have done the job, turns out it did. He took five because there are always things that can go wrong.. David understood ready, fire , aim.
I've been typing about your need to have a critical mass of inventory. For David critical mass to do the job was five smooth stones. There is a surprising thing that happens with the ready, fire, aim approach to life, to selling your art work or to hitting any other target. Failure is removed from the equation. A miss becomes information, The next shot may gather enough information to result in a hit, if not the next one will. Make something, get out in the world and miss a few times. Get the best tools you can afford, enough knowledge to do the job, by all means get ready! By all means fire! Then aim Brad

critical mass

2009-05-26T09:11:00.000-07:00

Critical Mass is a concept I keep having to explain to crafters that are just beginning their art businesses. On one level it's comparable to the question, How many used cars does a used car dealer have to have to be taken seriously as a used car dealer? That amount of inventory is what I'm calling, critical mass. On another level it's that amount of inventory necessary to create the sales volume that I need to survive and prosper. In other words pay my bills. For a family headed out the drive way, in the family station wagon, for their annual trek across America, called a vacation years ago, it's the every thing's ready, " Has everyone gone to the bathroom?" Then here we go. moment. It's what NASA calls, "all systems ready, proceed with launch."
Thing is it's variable. You'll know when it's happened. There are some ways to calculate it.
Or at least get close to calculating it. That's what I'm blogging about this week. Brad

clearly there's an easier way

2009-05-20T13:09:00.000-07:00

Clearly there's an easier way to get a bust to display a necklace on than ordering one just like everyone else's. Here are a couple of ideas. Glass slumping has possibilities. The process involves using a kiln to heat sheets of glass, at carefully controlled temperatures, over metal or ceramic forms. The glass is draped over the form and slumps or melts over the form. Might make wonderful display items. There is a less involved, though very similar process that can be used with Plexiglas. The temperatures involved are in the 400% range as opposed to the 1450 required for glass. Plexi is also available in colors and varying thicknesses. This process can be done in an ordinary kitchen oven. Be sure to have plenty of ventilation. Heat guns also get hot enough to distort plastic sheet stock. Hot plastics are also formed using vacuum tables. Basically if you can create the form you desire in wood, you can from plastics over it. That 'll get your cretive juices going. Have fun. Brad

Twigology

2009-05-12T08:48:00.000-07:00

After a little while the commercially available jewelry display items all begin to look the same. While that may not be disturbing to large chain jewelry stores. It should be to artist craftsman. We make unique hand crafted, one of a kind or limited edition items. Creativity and the unusual are our forte. Our displays should represent that freedom of expression. The object is to present the jewelry in a favorable manner, that should be our main goal. With that in mind, let's set the plastic busts, those trays for pendants and those expensive risers aside, for a moment. We can always pick up the phone and have the little brown truck bring us more, if the muse fails.
Let's go for a walk in the woods for a while. The wild flowers are blooming. Trees are coming into bud. There are turtles and frogs to watch. Let's get Daniel Mack like on this display problem. What if we celebrated that rustic feeling, particularly with willow. Find a willow tree, or a whole low marshy area full of small willow. This material is wonderful to work with. The possibilities for bent willow are endless. Plus the material offers great color and interesting textures. Almost every area of the country has willow. I say that and I have to tell you that right here in St Pete, I'd bethat hard pressed to find a willow. I haven't seen one here. Here I find bamboo. Cool stuff to work with also. These materials have another advantage over buying finished displays. In some cases I've had people pay me to remove willow from areas near fields and pay me to remove bamboo from their yards. Amazing! Check out willow furniture and stick furniture on line. Daniel Mack is one of the artists-craftsman behind rustic. A site called twigfactory.com will be great for inspiration. Who knows you might even find a great chair to think in. For those of you that would really enjoy more thinking time, here's a hint to working with willow. If you wrap green willow branches around a cylinder and let them dry out they will remember that shape. These dry coils of willow can easily become circles. Enjoy

The optimum zone

2009-05-11T06:49:00.000-07:00

As you travel the cereal isle in the grocery store I'd like you to notice something. Notice that the height of the shelving is different here, than from any other isle. The product is displayed at eye level for a different type of customer than you, the adult, the one with the money, the one in charge, the one pushing the cart. It's displayed at eye level for the cart rider. The little munchkin probably influence's your shopping in this isle more than than the nutritional value or the price-value of the item. Notice where the high bran low sugar item is located on the shelf. Amazing it's at your eye level. The placement of the product on the shelves is no accident. That eye level, for the buyer, space along those isles is the "optimum zone." It's the space that product distributors fight for in the isles of stores everywhere.
The optimum zone varies dependent on the customer. The over all look of your booth or store front is the invitation to the party. The optimum zone is the party! It's where customers from a relationship with your product.. We are after customers forming long term relationships with our product. Any good relationship begins with eye contact. Let's make some.
Jewelry stores do this on purpose, too. Notice the height of their jewelry displays, more like counter top, than table top for the most part, right? Some jewelry stores seek a more intimate relationship with their customers and invite the customer to be seated while forming a relationship with the jewelry. Others have a special area referred to as "the diamond room" where they encourage higher-end relationships with jewelry.
How can the vendor at a hand crafted venue use this information? Let's realise something our customers are "standing." Let's get the jewelry in the zone. I realise that doing this has to meet a couple of other criteria to work for you under your ten by ten foot tent, booth, store. Card tables and tables you could have borrowed from the church are just too low to be considered in the zone. Let's define the standing zone to be space within arms reach that if you extended your hand out to greet someone ,would be the bottom and the height of the bottom shelf of your kitchen shelves being the top. Small area isn't it?
Card tables and dining tables can work if we invite the customer to be seated. That just isn't practical for most booths. I consider the counter top to be part of the display. How about making some leg extenders to get those tables up to zone? or putting them on a platform. or creating a platform on top of the table? How zonal is that? Getting zonal doesn't have to come from the bottom up it can come from the top down, too. Enjoy " get zonal " Brad