Kat’s Arts Blog

I’ve just updated the gallery here with a couple of images of my latest copper jewelry creations. (Click the image below to see the whole gallery.) I finally fired up the new flex-shaft tool to cut the jumpring coils made with the Pepe Jumpring Maker described in an earlier posting, and everything worked just fine. Not only did I have no problems with the flex-shaft tool (in spite of its being a cheap knock-off of the Foredom product pros recommend), I think it may be possible to use the foot pedal controller that came with it to control my Dremel 395, since it works inline between the tool and the wall socket. The final verdict will have to await further testing, but I can’t see any reason for it not to work.

Meanwhile, enjoy the new pics. They’re in the album called “Beaded Jewelry” under “Copper” even though they aren’t actually beaded. They are pure copper, though, and today I restocked my wire stash with a trip to the hardware store, so expect to see lots of copper things in the future, especially if it is made from jumprings.

I just read a very disturbing blog post about a situation in classes at a craft show I had considered attending at some point. Follow the link to see the details, but in essence a knowledgable, responsible craftswoman was dissed by show management and city officials for trying to encourage them to correct an unsafe condition caused by firing PMC kilns in classrooms full of students. I certainly will not be going to that show to learn how to use metal clay!

One of the design requirements for our proposed workshop in our new house has always been to have adequate ventilation and a place to operate a kiln away from combustibles, and even with strong vent fans I’ve thought it might be best to use my kiln (which I don’t have yet) outdoors in the courtyard instead of in the shop. It’s very sad that people who are supposed to be leaders in this field, and professionals, can be so cavalier about what ought to be common sense safety precautions, especially when they are purporting to teach work procedures to paying students. How many of those students go home to follow similar bad practices because “the teachers said it was ok”?

In my last post I mentioned that Phil and I are planning to build a house soon. Naturally, as an inveterate blogger, I plan to write about the process, but aside from one entry on my techie blog that mainly discusses how I generated a presentation of our plan, I have not yet started to discuss it online. For one thing, I have had a hard time deciding which of my blogs would be a suitable venue for such content, or maybe should I start yet another one? That would be really excessive since I can’t keep up with the four active blogs I have now. And since architecture and decorating are after all arts, I decided to write about it here.

The things I plan to write about include the house, workshop and garage design, including the xeriscape landscaping we have in mind, the “green” building techniques and materials we are considering, and everything else that goes into planning a new home. In case you haven’t been following my comments on Twitter about it, I should mention that the home site is in the Texas Hill Country, near Canyon Lake. In light of the flash flood here last week, one of the design decisions to cover might well be how to plan to prevent damage from similar events in the future. And while floods and xeriscape design might seem contradictory, they really aren’t. Both semi-arid and disasterously wet conditions are possibilities here at various times, so they have to be taken into consideration.

I won’t be neglecting the other “arts” included in this website. For one thing, there are already photos of our building site in the gallery’s landscape section here, and as for jewelry design, that has to be done somewhere. Designing a really practical workshop with areas for various craft techniques is certainly one of the aspects of this whole enterprise that has me excited.

Along with expanding the scope of this blog, I’m adding another element to the website: ads. I’m working on a policy statement about them that will become a permanent page on the site, but don’t be too surprised to see ads for a lot of home decor products, and possibly more. They do not constitute paid endorsements — I should be so lucky! But it is possible that we may use some of the products advertised here and if we do, I may write about them. When that happens, I will be sure to follow the FTC’s recent directive to inform you, my reader, about whatever commercial relationship exists between me and my advertisers, so you can judge for yourself whether I can be objective or not. While I think it highly unlikely any vendor will be willing to pay me enough to actually affect my judgement or comments, if you know about what’s going on you can make up your own mind. At this point, I feel like I ought to use the phrase “fair and balanced” …. Sorry, this isn’t a political blog. I just got carried away.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the addition. Please feel free to leave comments and suggestions anytime.

It’s funny how one thing leads to another…

I was just browsing one of the email lists I subscribe to when I came across a mention of a Ning network I hadn’t previously found, Copper Wire Jewelers Magazine. The site founder, Lois Linquist, is also the founder/editor/publisher of the eponymous electronic magazine. Since I enjoy using copper in my jewelry-making, and also have a long-standing interest in electronic publishing, this was a perfect fit. The magazine is published through a site called Issuu – You Publish. If you are interested in either copper jewelry or electronic publishing, you’ll enjoy these links.

This week we’ve been in Tucson for the extravganza centered around the famous Tucson Gem and Mineral Show (TGMS). However, my primary interest is in materials for casual beaded and wirewrapped jewelry, not fine gemstones, lovely as they are. The bead shows and polymer clay (PC) workshops have been totally worth it, even if some of the serious gem merchants may think they are just a side show. To me, they are the main event.

I’ve acquired a good collection of semi-precious stone beads, and a lot of ideas and tips from the PC artists gathered here. Even my husband has gotten interested in the possibilities and fun of polymer clay sculpture after attending a class and make & take PC party. Christie Friesen, the clay sculpture class instructor, was both informative and a whole lot of fun. Her enthusiasm is as inspiring as her originality and skill as an artist and teacher. I have a feeling we will look her up at future events around the country as well as visiting her website and buying her books. She has a chatroom on her site that she says is very active, so once we get our internet connection squared away I will check that out.

As we put our new knowledge to work, and create new things with the skills and supplies obtained here, I’ll post pictures of them in the gallery.

Welcome to Kat’s Arts blog. This side of the site (the blog) is where I’ll write about what I’m doing that will eventually wind up in the other side (the gallery). I created this site to have a home specifically for things I make, to avoid cluttering up my other blogs, and to organize them (or try to).

Right now my creations in the gallery fall into two main categories: photography and jewelry. The photos are themselves subdivided into simple snapshots, and smaller versions of images I will be offering in my online shop as prints, notecards or other wares (coffee mugs? t-shirts?). The latter will be identifiable by the watermark intended to deter misappropriation by casual web-snatchers. I do understand that it’s not a perfect solution to piracy, but what is? Anyway, I will do my best to make sure the watermarks don’t interfere with your enjoyment of them while preserving my intellectual property rights. If you do want to use one for something, drop me a line, or just link back to this site from the lo-res copy you take.

A warm shout-out to my friends in various social networks who found this site through my shameless self-promotion! I’ll be adding links in the blogroll to those places as soon as I can.

Above all, enjoy!