Our local Dewey Beach Business Partnership sponsored the first ever Dewey Beach Arts Fest yesterday, and I will gladly return each year for this event.  I am beginning to learn which shows I do well at, and which shows to avoid.  This one was a keeper.  It had the three most important things any craft show should have if you are a metalsmith.  1.  You can park your van directly behind your booth.  (We metalsmiths are a sickly crew, and we do not like to carry heavy objects for great distances).    2. Free food located close to your booth so that you can eat without loosing sight of your precious creations.  and   3.  No vendors reselling jewelry purchased online from some country employing child labor and questionable  environmental standards.  (Can you say Oriental Trading Company!)

Overall a great day spent petting all the visiting dogs ( and the occasional monkey):

Escaping from the heat

Cute, but NOT as a pet.

So proud.

As I was unpacking the van to set up the booth, I saw two extra boxes in the van – some unused tile from a kitchen project, and a box of items to be sent to Goodwill.  I had a sudden need for height, so I added them to my table setup, threw some extra black cloth over them, and was amazed at how they improved the overall booth look.

Enough to garner me the Best of Show ribbon no less!   Lesson learned – no need for fancy displays, just add some height to your table display, and use the artist’s eye.  Oh – and never return unused tile to Home Depot until after a show!

Chicken Pin

A few weekends ago, I snapped this pic of an unusual pin worn by a lovely woman in a bright yellow jacket.  The pin, it turns out, was made from the remains of an innertube!  A little paint, and a few beads later, and this beautiful bird emerged. With silver prices due to rise to insane levels next month, we can all stand to look around and explore other mediums.  I’ve often discovered that those jewelry “mistakes” sitting on my bench can be reused in another way to create a totally different piece.  Drill a hole in them and dangle them from another piece.  Fold form them and cold connect them together.  If your bronze pieces melt into puddles, connect them together to form a new and completely “organic” bracelet!   Leave me a comment about your disaster that turned into a work of art.

Last night, I quite proudly put a picture of my newest loaf of homemade bread onto Facebook.  Soon after, Linda and I were eating homemade pizza and I was basking in the compliments I demanded on a fairly frequent basis.  After dinner, I put a lid on the remaining bread dough, and put it in the fridge to cool further and wrongfully assumed that the rising would stop.  Little did I know the great power of my bread dough.  Defying physics and chemistry, the bread continued to rise in a chilled environment.  Meanwhile, Linda and I were barely asleep for the night when a fairly large explosion rocked the house.  We hopped out of bed, and could find nothing amiss.  And just as I was commenting that it seemed like an explosion, I opened the refrigerator:

       For those of us who grew up in the 60s, there is only one thing to say to this;

LUUUUUUSSSSSSSYYYYY!

Here’s the final pic of the necklace, with the titanium element and some matching pearls I found in my stash.  It will be in the Etsy shop this afternoon.  http://www.etsy.com/shop/Barkingdoggallery?ref=si_shop

Of course, after you have accumulated enough pieces, you have to actually make a piece of jewelry out of at least one of them.  Apparently, hanging around in your studio turning them over in your hands and mumbling, “my precious….” over and over does not support good mental health.  To that end, this past weekend I signed up for the perfect class – Holly’s class on prong settings and bezels.  For two days, we co-addicted metalsmiths ran our hands over the trays of rainbow colored metals, and tried to listen carefully as Holly taught us some amazing methods for setting titanium.  Alas, my phone was slowly fading, but I did manage to get this pic of one of the trays, and another pic of two of Holly’s stunning pieces.

Holly's work - not to be confused with our efforts.

Shades of gold, blue and purple - Heaven!

I’ll always treasure the vision of Holly leaning over a student’s work, looking over her glasses, and somehow through her hair – and telling yet another student that “You’re almost there.”  Of course, my pic of my final piece will have to await another post, since it is more definitely not there yet.  Thanks Holly – another great class.  We’ll be scheduling the Titanium Anonymous meetings soon!

Examples of her work from her Etsy site.

Now she has posted this great instructional video.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DpVXqDbnb4Po%26feature%3Dyoutu.be&feature=youtu.be&v=pVXqDbnb4Po≷=US

After watching, I only have one question …  How does she keep her nails so clean!