Hangin' on a Limb - 4/3/16

The weather was beautiful on Sunday so Bobaloo and I took advantage and had a few cocktails and some arts & crafts time on the back patio.  This is the second year I made these tree spinners from old CDs to hang in the backyard.  I did the making and Bobaloo did the hanging!

This is an awesome way to recycle your CDs and to use up craft supplies that have been hanging around for a while.  I used buttons, sequins, yarn, stickers, pipe cleaners, etc. and Bobaloo hung them up using twine.  I love these spinners, they add a touch of pizzazz to the yard.

These look cooler when there are leaves, I'll post an update when the trees bloom.

In other way cool arts & crafts news...

I got a workbench to keep working on my metalsmithing! Pretty awesome, eh?  25 buckaroos off of Craigslist.  Thanks Loo for going to pick it up with me.



Keep on craftin'!

Paint Your Pony 3/13/16

This last weekend my brother Kyle and his girlfriend were in town for a visit and to check out schools.  A great time was had with a lot of games, food, drinks, music, and laughter.

I love it when they come out to visit, they're a couple of my favorites.  On Sunday, we took advantage of the nice weather and did some arts and crafts on the porch with some delicious mimosas.

Chelsea loves horses so her project was painting a couple of horse figurines bought at World Market.  She painted them to look like the horses she rides up in Minnesota.

Here they are:

Chelsea.

Adorable!

 

So Metal (Part 2 of 2) 3/4/16-3/7/16

The second project in the metalsmithing 1 workshop was making a pair of earrings.  I made these to give to my mom (she's a fan of the dangly earring).  These were difficult because we had to practice using a handsaw to cut them out and they turned out sort of uneven and much smaller than intended.  Also I soldered one of the posts in a funky way so one of the pearls sits funny.  These were way more fun to make than the pendant!

I think they look a bit like thumbprints.

So Metal (part 1 of 2) 3/4/16-3/7/16

This was my first foray into metal work.  It was an 4-day intensive workshop (30 hours) at a metal arts school.  The days were packed with tons and tons of information.  I usually get really nervous about learning new things like this and started to get butterflies in my stomach as the class approached.  After a couple of pep talks from Bobaloo and Billy I decided to go in with a determined attitude.  My biggest challenge was not being anxious about all of the things I didn't know.

The class was taught by an ex-Air Force bomb putter-togetherer (technical term) and it was very regimented.  I appreciated the structure because I am not always the most focused person and it helped keep me on task.  I was really excited to learn how to use different tools and the instructor was awesomely helpful and corrected my blunders in a kind way.

The tools.

Safety Jill.

Soldered pieces of the pendant.

The dent is from accidentally soldering a T-pin to the pendant. Oops!

Sanding, polishing, closing it up.

The end result (Bobaloo picked out the Lapiz).

Cool Things:

• The instructor was awesome with addressing my safety concerns.
• The other students were beginners and new to metalsmithing.
• I gained a lot of confidence working with a torch.
• I learned how to use different tools (even if it took breaking 6 saw blades).
• Small class size (8 students).
• The projects were really challenging.

Drool Things:

• The course was spendy.
• The supplies were spendy.
• The days got really long and I was ready to shutdown at 2:30.
• I still need to learn how to slow down so silly mistakes aren't made.

Final thoughts:

I loved this class and was so happy to learn some metalsmithing basics. I definitely want to take the metalsmithing 2 course where you learn to make mult-stone bracelets and rings.  Maybe in the fall...