Winter / Spring 2014 Workshop Schedule

Well, another busy season has come and gone, and it's time to start off 2014 with some metalsmithing fun!  Below are your chances to get in on a class or workshop with me this Winter and Spring.  When possible I've linked directly to the sign-up for each workshop, but keep checking back because we're firming up more classes in the late Spring!

Metals/Jewelry : Enameling 
Enameling is an ancient process where glass is fused to metal through heat. Students will experiment with enameling on copper and are encouraged to explore the possibilities that this process allows. Annie will introduce a variety of enameling techniques such as sifting, stenciling, sgraffito, and basse taille. Students may apply these techniques to everything from pendants and earrings to decorative home items. No experience necessary. Most materials included in the fee.

Sawtooth School for Visual Art : Winston-Salem, NC
Section A (Winter)
Five Tuesdays
January 14 - February 11
6:30 - 9:00pm

Section B (Winter)
Five Tuesdays
February 18 - March 18
6:30 - 9:00pm

Section A (Spring)
Five Tuesdays
April 8 - May 6
9:30am - 12:00pm

Section B (Winter)
Five Tuesdays
April 8 - May 6
6:30 - 9:00pm

Etching Workshop
Etching is a fabulous way to add design and texture to your metalwork! Learn different types of resist methods to be used in the etching process, including paint pen, stamping, and heat-applied print resists. We will make samples in copper and explore both traditional acid etching as well as electro-etching processes. This is a great pre-cursor to the Champleve enameling (etching recesses filled with enamel) Workshop to be offered in the Spring!

Sawtooth School for Visual Art : Winston-Salem, NC
Saturday, February 1
10:00am - 4:00pm

Taste of Art : Enameled Pendant
Taste of Art is a wonderful new program at Sawtooth School for Visual Art.  Spend a fun evening learning something new, socializing with friends and create a lovely piece of jewelry to take home.  Perfect for beginners and anyone who just wants to spend a fun Friday evening out being creative with friends!  Students are always welcome to bring beverages and snacks, but all supplies and tools will be provided. In this class we'll be making an enameled copper pendant!

Sawtooth School For Visual Art : Winston-Salem, NC
Friday, February 28
6:00-8:00pm

Exploring Enamels Weekend Workshop
Enameling is the process of fusing powdered glass to metal. Focus on basic techniques such as sifting and kiln firing, and learn additional techniques such as Sgraffito (scratching through enamel) and Basse Taille (using transparent enamels over textured metal).  Beginner - Intermediate.

Visual Arts Center of Richmond - Richmond, VA
March 14-15
Saturday 10:00-4:00, Sunday 1:00-4:00

Taste of Art : Copper Earrings
Taste of Art is a wonderful new program at Sawtooth School for Visual Art.  Spend a fun evening learning something new, socializing with friends and create a lovely piece of jewelry to take home.  Perfect for beginners and anyone who just wants to spend a fun Friday evening out being creative with friends!  Students are always welcome to bring beverages and snacks, but all supplies and tools will be provided. In this class we'll be making an enameled copper pendant!

Sawtooth School For Visual Art : Winston-Salem, NC
Thursday, April 3
6:00-8:00pm

Metal Forming for the Jewelry Artist

Students will learn to use thinner gauge materials to create voluminous and structurally sound metal forms.  Techniques covered include synclastic and anticlastic forming as well as shell forming – all on a  miniature scale. We will create small, delicate forms that can be used in jewelry and a variety of other  applications. All tools are provided. 

Visual Arts Center of Richmond : Richmond, VA

2 Day Workshop
Saturday, April 5  - 10:00 - 5:00
Sunday, April 6 - 1:00 - 4:00

Metals/Jewelry : Forming

This class is designed for students who want to bring dimension to their metal work. Learn how to bring volume to pieces by shell forming with hammers and stakes, or by using the hydraulic press. There will be demonstrations and plenty of time to develop your skills. Good for beginners and beyond. Materials available for purchase in class.

Sawtooth School for Visual Art

Six Wednesdays
April 9 - May 14
6:30 - 9:00pm

Taste of Art : Enameled Pendant
Taste of Art is a wonderful new program at Sawtooth School for Visual Art.  Spend a fun evening learning something new, socializing with friends and create a lovely piece of jewelry to take home.  Perfect for beginners and anyone who just wants to spend a fun Friday evening out being creative with friends!  Students are always welcome to bring beverages and snacks, but all supplies and tools will be provided. In this class we'll be making an enameled copper pendant!

Sawtooth School For Visual Art : Winston-Salem, NC
Friday, February 28
6:00-8:00pm

Champleve Enameling Weekend Workshop
Champlevé is an enameling technique in which troughs or cells are etched into the surface of the metal and filled with vitreous enamel. The piece is then fired until the enamel fuses, and when cooled the surface of the object is polished. Learn the process of creating beautiful enameled pieces to use as jewelry. You’ll get hands-on practice and learn the process from beginning to end. Materials included.

Sawtooth School for Visual Art
Saturday & Sunday, May 17-18
10:00am - 4:00pm

Seven Days, Seven Jobs

For me, one of the hardest things about running a creative business is finding the most productive way to manage my time.  I have a lot going on.  And there are only seven days in a week. 

I am realizing that lately I have let myself get confused about the difference between being productive and bringing in an income.  It's easy to look at these two things as one and the same, but in reality, when you're running a creative business, being productive may not necessarily mean bringing in immediate revenue.  A lot of the time, it actually means setting yourself up to bring in future revenue while you work diligently with no immediate payoff. 

Ideally, if I could spend my whole week making jewelry with occasional teaching thrown in, I would be a happy girl.  But right now, I have 7 jobs.  Yes, SEVEN.

1. Making my own artwork/portfolio/gallery pieces. 
2. CopperTide (production jewelry work)
3. CopperDog Studio (etched copper dog tags, ornaments, etc. with 10% of proceeds going to animal rescue groups.)
(And let's not forget the marketing of all of the above, but we'll just include that as part of each of those jobs.)
4. Teaching (regular weekly classes at Sawtooth School for Visual Art and occasional weekend workshops traveling elsewhere.)
5. NC Black Co. (tool fabrication and design, and sometimes I teach with them as well)
6. Apprenticeship/Assistant to Betty Helen Longhi
7. Helping unpack/organize art, ship orders, refurbish machines for Art-o-Mat

While the last four provide more predictable and immediate income, it's the first four that are the most important to me and make the me the happiest.  Not that I don't enjoy the others or appreciate the opportunities afforded from each one.  It's just too much.  On top of the new-old-house that we bought a couple of months ago, with all of its new-old-house issues that must be dealt with, mostly by me, plus home chores, cooking, etc.  I don't get a lot of studio time to work on those first three.  So I know I need to adjust and not overextend myself into these other jobs that aren't focusing on my work.  But can I afford to lose the immediate income?  Will it pay off in the end if I can focus my energies properly on my work and marketing it well?  I'd like to think so.  But right now, I have bills that don't really want to wait for future payoff. 

So what to do? 

Well, leave it to Megan Auman at 'Designing an MBA' to have the perfect post!  "Making Multiple Revenue Streams Work for Your Business."  She's a clever girl, that one. Her first piece of advice in this post is to think of yourself as one business with multiple components.  Even though you may have very different facets of your work, if you think of them all as one package, or your one brand, it becomes easier to work with the natural ebb and flow of the business(es) and focus on the aspect of the business that needs the most attention at the time rather than trying to fit it all in and do everything at once.  Seriously, go read her post if you can relate to anything I'm talking about here today.  It's amazing how much you can change just by changing the way you look at things.

So I'm going to try to consolidate the way I am thinking about my jobs to :

1. My work
2. Teaching
3. Working for other people

And maybe if it's a little easier to wrap my brain around it like this, it will be easier for me to make time to do what I need to do. 

Now... off to the studio!  (And I've got a pretty sweet new space!)

Fall 2012 Workshop Schedule

If you're interested in learning some fun metalsmithing techniques - such as enameling, raising, etching, and hydraulic die forming, then this is the post for you!

I know, this is the second post in less than a week's time - crazy.  But I want to go ahead and post this Fall's workshop schedule, as Fall is rapidly approaching! 


Exploring Enamels Workshop
Students will learn basic techniques in enameling such as sifting and kiln firing. We will also explore fun and contemporary techniques such as controlled over and under firing, inclusions and more. Students will make several samples and will have the opportunity to finish a few pieces to take home.

2 Day Workshop
Saturday, Sept. 15 - 10:00-4:30
Sunday, Sept. 16 - 1:00-4:00
Visual Arts Center of Richmond

Enameling
Enameling is an ancient process where glass is fused to metal through heat. Students will experiment with enameling on copper and are encouraged to explore the possibilities that this process allows.  We will introduce a variety of enameling techniques such as sifting, stenciling, sgraffito, and basse taille. Students may apply these techniques to everything from pendants and earrings to decorative home items. No experience necessary. Most materials included in the fee.

7 Week Class
Tuesdays, Sept. 18 - Nov. 6  (No class Oct. 6)
Sawtooth School for Visual Art

NC Black Co. Micro Raising with Galvanic Etching Workshop
Raising is a process for forming sheet metal into vessel form using the metal's natural response to hammering. This workshop focuses on traditional techniques in raising, but on a small scale. Using tools specially designed and fabricated by the NC Black team, students will explore methods for creating miniature vessel forms. These methods can be used to create sculpture and jewelry as well as vessels.   We'll also explore Galvanic Etching - etching with electricity rather than acid - techniques and apply these to some of our raised pieces.  This is an excellent workshop for beginners as well as experienced metalsmiths who enjoy learning new techniques.  Students will focus on samples in copper, and will complete a raised/etched piece by the end of the workshop.      

This workshop is taught in tandem by Annie Grimes Williams and Julie Brooks of NC Black Co. Two instructors for the price of one means that each students gets more individualized attention from each instructor. All tools provided.

1 Week Workshop
October 1-5 (Registration Deadline August 15!)
Pocosin Arts Folk School

Hydraulic Die Forming in the Jewelry Studio - Part 2
In this workshop, we'll further explore hydraulic die forming techniques, such as texture plates, contained die systems, creating punches, and more! We'll also work with pierced and formed metal in the press, and try different techniques for altering pressed pieces. This is a great follow-up workshop to the beginning die forming workshop in the Spring, but any student who has basic/beginner knowledge of hydraulic die forming is welcome. Supply list available prior to the workshop.

2 Day Workshop
October 20-21 - 10:00-5:00 both days
Sawtooth School for Visual Art

NC Black Co. Micro Forming Workshop
Micro forming techniques are very useful in today’s market due to the rising cost of
precious metals. Using NC Black Co.’s specially designed tools, students will learn to
use thinner gauge materials to create voluminous and structurally sound forms. Students
will learn synclastic and anticlastic forming, as well as shell forming, all on a miniature
scale. We’ll get you creating small, delicate forms that can be used in jewelry and a
variety of other applications! This class is taught in tandem by Annie Grimes Williams
and Julie Brooks of NC Black Co. All tools are provided.

3 Day Workshop
Friday Nov. 2 - Sunday Nov. 4, 9am-5pm
http://jacksonvillecenter.org/2010-classes/metalsmithing-02-by-media/

 


Hope to see you this Fall! 

Please check back - I'm still adding late Fall / Winter workshops to the schedule!

A Day in the Life

Lately I haven't been very inspired to write blog posts.  Things have a way of getting a little overwhelming when you're trying to figure out how to build a business, market yourself without annoying - or worse, boring - your network contacts, figure out how to get things together for a craft show, and make the work itself.  Much less deal with all the other distractions of life - family issues, travel, psychotic dogs....  yes, Mr. Buster is still insane.  But we love him.
Especially since finding out that I had been accepted to a craft show in August, The Watermelon Festival, I have had to break down my days into a schedule to help me use my time more wisely.  I'm sure I will have to stop sleeping soon, but for now I can get in a little.  But it helps to see it written down in front of you, so you can see where you are wasting time, and where you can be more efficient.  So I thought I would share my daily schedule here:

6am - wake up, feed Gabardine (our sweet 18lb kitty who, after 2 years of calling "her" my pretty pretty princess, we just found out is a boy.  oops.), stagger downstairs and sit with Mark while he eats breakfast, make sure his lunch is packed, etc.

6:30 - take Buster for a good walk (because he is neurotic and will have an absolute fit when Mark leaves for work if I don't distract him in this manner.)

7:00 - have coffee and a bite of breakfast while I try to plan out what needs to get done today, make lists, play the rope game with Buster, try to prevent Buster from eating the things in the recycling bin, remote control, etc; sometimes I go running or otherwise work out, but not as much lately, tsk tsk.

8:00 - shower, get dressed, more coffee, Buster settles down to nap until Mark gets home. (yay!)

8:30 - computer stuff: check email, facebook, blog list, sometimes do a blog posting, marketing research, check etsy, update calendars and dry erase board lists of daily, weekly, and I'll-get-to-them-soon tasks.

10:00 - start on the physical work for the day - this might be making work, photographing work, editing photos, posting new work on etsy and my website, packaging and post office run if I've sold something, dealing with other tasks at hand (for instance, yesterday, it took me 2 1/2 hours to deal with buying a plane ticket to Colorado for the CoMA Conference - I'm traveling with NC Black Co. to work the vendor room doing demos and selling tools. By the way, don't EVER use cheap-o-air to try to buy plane tickets.  Cheap doesn't work if the flights they "offer" don't exist or are already sold out.  I probably could have done this in 30 minutes had I gone straight to orbitz or something.  And it was only like $50 more than the cheap-o place "offered."  Lesson learned.)

12:00 or so - break for lunch (my poptart is long gone at this point)

12:30 - back to whatever I was doing or the next task at hand

5:00 - snack and tv break with Mark

5:30 - check email and web things again, wrap up loose ends

6:15 - take Buster, who is now wild again, to the dog park

7:15 - cook and eat dinner (I love cooking and trying new recipes, so sometimes this runs a little later)

8:00 or so - if I cook, Mark cleans up the kitchen - best.husband.ever!  so I'll check email and do web things one more time, other administrative tasks - for example, last night I did an inventory of all the items I have so far for the up-coming craft show. 

9:00 - time to relax with Mark and the pets (if Buster will settle down and let us chill - a  peanut butter-filled Kong often helps with that - a glass of wine often helps me)


So, yeah, I have pretty full days.  And some days I do have to attend to domestic duties, which I usually throw in pre-lunch.  You know, errands (we gotta have food), chores (the laundry doesn't do itself, nor does the pet hair miraculously vanish off the stairs... too bad.) 

Now personally, I would prefer to get up about 8 and stay up until midnight-2am or so (In college, not once did I ever go to bed before 2am, and often I was in the metals studio until midnight - then we'd go out for a drink or something - ahhhh, college...)  But that just doesn't work these days.  Things have to be adjusted.  But I will say, I do love working for myself.  For the most part, that is.  Sure, it's totally stressful and frustrating at times, there's not much money in it (yet!), and it takes a lot of discipline to keep myself on track and not get caught up in that silly movie that comes on tv when I sit down to have a bite of lunch, or to get distracted in Target or Trader Joe's on errand day and fritter away a few hours. 

But it's worth it.