Say it on your wrist

Come on let it rain, let it rain down on me
Let the rain touch my hands, let the rain set me free.

Since finding them, these words from Melissa Etherbridge have really resonated for me. When I took another class this week at Fusion Beads, I knew these would be the words I’d use.

The “Say It on Your Wrist” class with instructor Lindsay (thanks Lindsay!) creates a stamped sterling cuff bracelet. I love using words in my art and I’ve stamped into metal for some time now, separate from jewelry making purposes. It was interesting to apply this technique in a different way, and I learned much, about the character of really, really thick silver wire, antiquing, neat tools for punching holes and for bending metal. Silver is such a beautiful metal to work with. I could totally see wearing a whole stack of these bracelets, each stamped with a different quote, a child’s name, favourite words, inspiration. It was a fun class, and one that Fusion Beads offers regularly, if you are interested.

The lure of molten metal

I took a class last week in something I've always been interested in trying - soldering. Yes, soldering. There's just something about molten metal... Perhaps it began those long evenings decades ago, in the summer job spent partly in the foundry at General Motors.... Liquid, silvery metal, running like a river.

Well. Here's what I ended up with.

The metal really does melt and run silvery. Very cool. Also rather hard to control. I have a lot of respect for artists who incorporate this technique into their work. I don't think you will be seeing soldered items in Bumbershoot Designs too soon, since it would require technique development and right now we are focussed on continuing to load inventory into Designs and to get our Supplies shop open.

However it was a good evening out at Fusion Beads, with a great bunch of folks and fine teacher, thanks Sam! I've been so busy with Bumbershoot Designs, I had almost forgotten how good it is to take an evening off and do something just for fun!

So much fun, I'm going back for another class tonight. More on that later...