I am so frustrated with the piece I am making. I want to smash it. I haven't even had any "incident's" yet. "Incident's" happen during just about everything I ever make...they include melting, un-soldering, gauging, fusing, general mess up's.. or of course injuring myself.
I think I'm going have to do a re-design of this thing...or start something new. I don't think I can handle starting something new right now, so a re-design seems like the most likely thing to happen. I am not going to touch it today...if I can help it...unless i get all my cleaning and grocery shopping done. Since I had a very lazy crappy day of headache's and sleeping..it probably won't happen. I feel like the ultimate procrastinator at the moment. Good thing I got all of my errands and laundry done yesterday.
Oh..and the Flower show window won "Best Use of the Poster"...which was awesome. I received two tickets to the flower show. Now to find someone to bring that loves flowers as much as I do.

I picked up the piece from my casting guy this afternoon. I'm not going to post photo's of it until it's done though. I'm fairly happy with it so far... It IS a little weighty, and the details aren't exactly how I wanted them...and there isn't enough contrast in color in the whole thing over all.. ARHG. This is why I wanted to carve it in wood. Maybe never time I should just cast it in bronze.. then at least I would have that color difference that I want. I might do some more spot oxidizing to emphasis some dimensions. *sigh*. I'm too hard on myself sometimes, but it will pay off in the end I think.
I made a tiny little sterling and diamond ring as well tonight. I just did it as a little excersize since I haven't done any settings in a long time. I lost the first diamond. I'm sure it's around somewhere..oh well. The second one I got in there fine. Sterling is much too mushy for this kind of ring. Now I know that if I want to make more, they will have to be in gold.
I sold the rabitt foot necklace on Etsy Monday night. I sent it out this morning. I made up this little gift box for it...made a few actually. Hopefully I'll get to use them!
I'm super sleepy and need to go to bed now. Haircut at Juju salon in the morning!

so remember that piece I started in uh....November? Well I finished the wax tonight. Took long enough...shoot. I haven't worked on it in a few months, and tonight I got all obsessive over it. I kept on having to add in wax and subtract wax and blah blah because I was going crazy and not liking it. It's really hard to make an accurate judgment on the shape and surface when none of the colors match up. SO, I decided to just go as far as I could, then do most of the outer shape defining once it's in metal. I'm still trying to decide if I want to cast it in brass or silver. The fabricated frame will be silver, and I like the contrast of materials and colors...and it will be cheaper to make in brass. I'm also going to get a mold made of it so I can do some duplication in the future. After all of that time making it, I would like to be able to expand on it.....and ya know, not have to dooooo alll of that carving agaaaiiiin. So here are the photo's. It looks cruddy..but it's awesome I swear. There's also a picture of a bit of the everglades that I took when in Florida. A nice contrast between the tortured mouth and the serene water.

Tonight was the opening reception for the Heart to Hear Art Show. There was quite a large turnout, but not as much art as I was anticipating. The fashion show was pretty great, and there were some amazing outfits showcased from a handful of local shops that sell handmade goods. Topstitch and Vagabond being two of them. My piece got a lot of great feedback, and everyone seemed to really love it. I felt very weird about showing it, but I'm glad I did. I'm not sure if I mentioned the requirements earlier, but here is goes. We were all given a large quantity of these red rubber hearts, and asked to do something with them. I played with a few idea's before reaching this point...but this one seemed to be the thing I needed to do. The piece is called Severance. It's carved wood, felt, tacks, part of the rubber heart, and brass. It's a wall hung piece.
It is for sale. E-mail me if interested. (melody@goldencalfdesigns.com)

So I have quite a bit of work ahead of me. I am making a hamsha pendant for Henry, a heart-peace sign pendant for Jane, and a custom Home Sweet Home necklace of some London Row Homes for Linda. I'm really excited for the row homes, because I was trying to work out a design for South Philly row homes..and the London ones that I designed look pretty great.
On top of all that, I was just asked to be one of seven people from the Metals department to participate in The Art and Design @ 50 Expo/Sale/Gala at the University of the Arts. 1 person from the 2005 class, 3 people from the 2006 class, ME from the 2007 class, and 2 people from the 2008 class. All work will be for sale, and half of the proceeds will go toward student scholarships. Pretty exciting! Even though I am needing some financial assistance myself with paying off school, I am super excited to possibly help out a potentially awesome new art student. It will be a really great opportunity to gain exposure and hopefully sell some work.
The work will be on exhibit to the public on March 18th, and there will be multiple formal openings for collectors and trustees, friends of the University, critics, faculty, staff, alumni, students, their parents and friends on the 19th.

Time to get to work!!!

More publicity!

A lady by the name of Laura Draper approached me on etsy.com, and asked if she could write a little article about me. YESSSSS...here it is!

http://www.examiner.com/x-3706-Philadelphia-Arts-and-Crafts-Examiner~y2009m2d17-Shopping-local-on-Etsy--Goldencalfdesigns

-melody

Last night on Etsy, I was up on the front page!!! It caused me to get a TON of hits and a bunch of people to add me to their favorite list. It didn't generate a sale..but I'm hopeful. Super exciting!!!

I was already in bed and about to go to sleep, but I remembered there was something i needed from the living room, and got up to get it. The bench was calling. I have been thinking about a pair of earrings I wanted to make, so I sat down to make them. It turned into making 2 small necklaces that are a bit different from the earring idea. I will still be making the earrings...maybe when I get back from Florida. In the next two days I must put my jewelry aside and focus on getting the piece for the Heart to Heart Art Show done. The work is due during the time that I will be on vacation, so I need to get it done and submitted by Sunday. It's coming along at a steady pace, but I need to kick it up a notch so I have time to fuss with the details. It's a mixed media wall hanging piece made mostly of carved wood. There are wood chips all over my studio, and the cats have been rolling in it. I need a dust buster.. Well I mean it's not that I don't have a vacuum... it would just be nice to have a small sucker in my work area. Blah blah blah. Speaking on studio equipment; I am super excited about some new stuff I'll be purchasing soon! I'm going to set up a copper electroforming bath. That mean's I'll be able to make multiples of some of my previous pieces, and continue on with those trains of thought.
Well, It's time to go watch a movie and pass out. It's been a long day. I'll post pics of the necklaces and the piece for the show by the end of the weekend probably.

I made another necklace today. I've been stuck on the two dimensional graphic work that's I've been doing.. welcome the lucky rabbit's foot necklace to the collection!