Art

The Hubster and I are out the door early this morning to get a move on seeing a few pieces of property --- yes, the cabin hunt is still on! It’s just that I haven’t been home for any weekends lately at a time that it would work for him to go ---and so, we resume. We’ll be headed up towards Boone, checking out a couple of places in the remote corners of Purlear, West Jefferson, and further up

No player in the 20th century has won more games in his final season in the majors than Sandy Koufax.  Koufax wrapped up his big league career in 1966 while winning 27 times for the Dodgers.

Welcome to Studio Saturday! Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you'll leave comments! As an incentive we offer a free prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard. The following week we choose a random winner.This week's winner is Pam of Klassy Joolz! Congratulations, Pam! You have won your choice of a mushroom pendant or a pair of yellow tulip charms from Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori Trovati Jewelry! Send Erin PH an email with your address and she will get your prize out to you soon!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~This week we visit the studio ofErin Siegel of Erin Siegel Jewelry~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here is my current studio space! I realized I've never ever shared my actual jewelry studio here on Studio Saturday! Mainly, that's because it is usually in such a disastrous state that I wouldn't wish to show anyone on a good day. Recently, I received a much needed reprieve when the grandparents took my 2 1/2 year old daughter, Nora off my hands for a weekend. What did I do with my rare freedom from motherly duties? I cleaned out my whole studio from top to bottom. Obviously, you can clearly see where my priorities lie. As soon as I get a moment to myself, I go straight to fixing up my studio! Oh, and deciding to take on that task was not that fun, mind you. There were huge boxes upon boxes of stuff piled up under the desk, items and paperwork that I had been avoiding dealing with for over a year and a mish-mash of beads and findings in every corner that had been thrown every which way. In my defense, I did have some help with the beads going everywhere part. There's a 2 1/2 year old cutie pie around here that loves to play with Mama's beads. ;) Even with all that work, there is plenty more I would love to do with my space, but at least it is clean, the top of the desk is clear and I can work in there once again. It was all well worth the effort. So, let me take you on a mini tour!In the top picture above, you see my main work surface where I create my pieces. Here is where I keep some of my finished jewelry and favorite displays, a few bead storage units, my essential jewelry-making tools and some bead bowls and baskets. I love the colorful art piece on my wall. It makes me happy to look at it. I would love to hang more art on the walls soon!My materials wall.This wall is directly behind the desk and chair. The pegboard expands across almost the entire length of the wall. Over the years of making jewelry, I've learned I work most efficiently when I have my supplies out where I can see them all the time and can get to them quickly and easily. My pegboard wall holds materials and tools I use on a regular basis: metal gauge wire and beading wires, rulers and measuring tapes, scissors, hammer, metal and leather punches, bead stops and misc. tools, silk knotting cords, leather cords, suede lace, hemp, cotton and Irish waxed linen cord, silk cords, dupioni ribbon, sari ribbon and fibers, glass beads, gemstones and wood beads. I've had a few people ask me where I have acquired some of the items I have in my studio space. In case you are wondering, too, I have provided the following handy list of resources! I hope you enjoy the links and information. If you'd like to know about something that is not on this list, just ask me in the comments!Clear-front Multi-Drawer storage unit: The Container Store Small Ceramic and Metal bowls: Sur La TableHandcrafted Driftwood Necklace and Bracelet Displays: Miss Fickle Media on EtsyWoven Silk Easel Necklace stands: Fire Mountain GemsHemp Pedestal Necklace stands: Michaels Arts & Crafts StoresNatural Linen Earring displays: Rio Grande White Pegboard, pegs, hooks and accessories: Amazon.comClear Plastic boxes for bead storage on pegboard: Fire Mountain Gems Studios and organization is such an interesting t

What a fun and busy day we had yesterday! I sent out a quick newsletter to those who are on our Mailing List announcing the updates we made to the site and spent the rest of the day cutting out my Christmas box, filling orders and corresponding with customers. I must say that is was one of the busiest days we have had on our site, as everyone really loved Keith’s new plaques that I featured here yesterday. It feels really great to have some of our new stuff received so well. I know it was a big boost to Keith because so many people jumped on getting these new patterns. It is nice to take the time to do something like that and have people appreciate it so much. Both of us are really grateful! I am almost finished cutting the Christmas box, and I should be done today. I hope to have some finished pictures of the nativity keys too in the next day or so, and the finished box. Once I am done with these two projects, I can move on to some more things for the site, as most of the deadlines will be met. I am going to keep today’s post short, as there is lots to do and I want to get started. But I also wanted to wish everyone a happy Memorial Day weekend. I hope you have fun and stay safe and take a bit of time to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. Have a great weekend! FL102 - Forest Leaf Eagle Plaque

Dear everybody, I didn't know Kathreen in real life. We weren't regular online correspondents, either. But I felt I knew her. Her voice was strong and clear. Her writing on the Whip Up blog was smart, fair, kind and...

I always enjoy seeing slightly different designs in old bar clamps. These two were found on eBay. The top one looks like the seller put the moveable stops on the wrong way though. Wait, Stops? Plural? I guess the seller really doesn’t know and put two stops on one clamp. The bottom one reminds me quite a lot of the pair I made a while ago. If I could make wooden threads, maybe I’d go into manufacturing these, aging them and putting them up. Shipping would be murder, plus most of these don’t even get a bid.

It used to be that the only place animation could be screened was on a rectangular screen, be it a large theatrical screen, or more modest TV and computer screens. Things are changing though. Today, animation is projected onto irregularly-shaped three-dimensional buildings and trees in nature. It’s painted on subway tunnels where it can be viewed from a moving subway car. And now, thanks to MonkeyLectric, animation can be seen on bicycle wheels: Over the past few years, the small Berkeley, California-based company has developed a number of prototypes. The Monkey Light Pro Bicycle Wheel Display System is their most advanced product to date with over 256 full-color LEDs on each wheel. Their system allows users to upload approximately 90 seconds of animation in a variety of media formats including AVI, MPEG, MOV, Quicktime, and FLV, and to display it to the public while riding a bike. To start manufacturing the Monkey Light Pro, they’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign with a funding goal of $180,000 by July 21st. They’ve already raised over $68,000 during the first three days of the campaign. The lights aren’t cheap—prices range from $495 to $795 per wheel depending at what stage of the campaign the product is ordered—but that’s a small price to pay to advance animation beyond the rectangular screen and share it throughout the city streets.

My son called me couple of weeks ago and asked if I would help him construct a jewelry box. He wanted to make a gift for a friend that was graduating college. Since we didn’t have a lot of time and he had never really used any of the machinery this had to be something relatively simple in both design and construction. Simple, sure. Just like painting the bathroom. It may be the smallest room in the house but it still gets all the same prep and work that a larger room would. So I searched for some plans and found that U-Bild offered a freebie plan on their website. After looking at several designs we both agreed the U-Bild project was the one to go with. And it just so happened that the current issue of Wood magazine had an article on boxes which gave us the idea of making the feet instead of using molding along the bottom edge as the plans suggested. We used pine both to save on the cost and also if either one of us made an error it would be relatively easy and inexpensive to replace. The main portion of the box is premium pine and the lid and tray is a lesser quality but I was able to find a piece that matched the grain of the box. As it is we made 3 lids altogether. I didn’t realize that the first one bowed a bit after I clamped it while gluing and the second one was cut to size a bit short. The 3rd one came out much better. The inside tray was a 1 by resawn on the band saw to get it to the correct thickness. The feet are poplar. Finish is gel stain followed by 3 coats of shellac using steel wool in between coats. Final step was 2 coats of paste wax on the lid and outside of the box itself. We both had a blast working on it and he gained a lot of valuable experience using the tools and machinery in the shop. Some of the prep and grunt work I did myself since he was still at school. But he did most of the work himself when home while I supervised. Working on this was a lot of fun and great way to spend time together. And from what he told me last night, she loved it.

Father's Day Gifts GIVEAWAY | One (1) person will win a $100 credit towards Father's Day GiftsFather Day gifts from MintedMintedMinted. ABOUT MINTED | At MintedMintedMinted, we love the idea that our products will find their way into your most personal celebrations, and we don’t take that honor lightly. That’s why we only use fine paper stock, rich inks, and crisp printing methods. We guess you could say that quality is an obsession for us. We stand behind our products with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. We are proud to offer a stunning and exclusive assortment of holiday cards, Christmas cards, and wedding invitations sourced through our global community of indie designers. Whether you’re looking for non-photo or photo cards, modern or vintage designs, Minted allows you to customize a design to be uniquely yours. CONNECT WITH MINTED | Pinterest | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram TO BE ENTERED into this giveaway please leave a comment below (if you are reading this post on Facebook please come to my blog to leave a comment). Comments will be closed at 8pm Pacific on Sunday, May 26th. The winners will be announced shortly after. Please be sure to check back or subscribe (click here to get posts delivered to your email box) to see if you are receiving one of the items.

Honoring the victims and Canadian survivors of the Holocaust, the National Capital Commission, on behalf of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, is inviting teams of professional artists, architects, landscape architects, and other design professionals to submit their credentials and examples of prior work for the first stage of a two-phase competition to create a national Holocaust monument in Ottawa, Canada’s Capital. This monument will ensure that the Holocaust continues to have a permanent place in our nation’s consciousness and memory. The RFQ document is available now until September 4. To obtain the competition document, and for more information, please visit here. Request for Qualifications: National Holocaust Monument Competition originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 25 May 2013.send to Twitter | Share on Facebook | What do you think about this?