ZestyBetsy

I'm pretty excited to be teaching a jewelry class mid-May! A new shop ~ Oak ~ opened up on Gloucester St in Boston & she's offering space for classes.

Ohhh ~ so how does a bracelet & earrings sound? I'm having fun packaging up supplies & beads for a funky fun cha-cha style; ordered new tools for students, and have been writing up some information for handouts.

To sign up please e-mail Oak at Bostonartisans@gmail.com and she will confirm your spot.

Here is the description:
Jewelry making with wire and bead techniques (Do the Cha-Cha)
May 18th, 3-5pm. $60 ($35 if you have your own supplies)

Introduction with a hands on lesson in the fundamentals of jewelry making with wire. The class will cover instruction in the tools, wire and beads. You'll have time to practice wraps, links and loops by making a beaded cha-cha bracelet and matching earrings. Required tools and materials included in materials fee.

I'd love to see you there.

Posted by Betsy at 04:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A little while ago, I wrote about saving stuff, storing it, etc....my little cave office in the city is crammed full of stuff. I can't follow my own advise it seems. Containers, boxes and baskets stacked up and over flowing ~ Even to covering up the window since the sill was so wide. I couldn't open it up and with summer coming I'd roast in there without putting in the AC. I had to do something drastic.

So I went out and purchased some wall mountable shelving. Now I have to look in the boxes before I put them back on a shelf. Shoe boxes are my storage container of choice, some of the clear stacking storage type, some from real shoes, and some boxes just about, but not quite the same size... they are large enough to hold a small project or bias tape cards...Over the next week I'm going to go thru them and list more de-stash on Etsy to clear things out ~ I found a missing book, some clothes pins, and was able to open the window. There is a birds nest out there!

Posted by Betsy at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This is pretty funny

I remember learning about haiku in school from Mrs Marchand. She was my favorite teacher ever I think.

Childhood recollections are odd...but I think she was tall and wide. She wore a thick headband over dark straight hair ~ every day & maybe even used it to hold a wig more securely? She gave me extra books to read, and one precious one to keep... instructed Brian with early acne so he didn't get scars, helped Carlos with self esteem (only boy in a family with 10 sisters.) and taught nearly 2 class rooms of multilingual poor inner city kids in one room. Covered everything from math to tooth brushing.

Posted by Betsy at 04:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Some friends had a baby last week. A little girl.

Grandma and Auntie have spent some time making sure the wee one has a new sun~dress or sailor outfit for every day this spring and summer...


So, um, yeah....I got a hat & mittens from Butterfly Design on Etsy. And the little book that goes with it.

Butterfly Design is Rebecca, and she is a howl. Her stories are sidesplitting. Knitting is something to keep her hands busy; but she is one of the sexy librarians by day and Harry Potter fan by night.
She has a couple of other book themed hats, a bunch of fruit (reminds me of fairy hats) like blueberry and strawberry, and little baby animal hats ~ the little bunny hat is adorable. Her new line is really kicky, very fun ~ I love this look for little girls

Posted by Betsy at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I studied Architecture in school; it holds a place in my heart. I've run across a couple interesting articles/things recently about dying towns & community.
I live in the city of Boston there is always something the urban planners tried, the city is planning,or the community says they want ~ and then there is an empty lot, a townhouse that serves as a refuge for feral cats, a scrap metal junk yard on the corner ~ it's especially a fascination to see how space/homes/stores/parking are planned then used & live there and travel on the streets myself.

So what...well Boston (maybe any biggish city) seems to have some parts dying, some growing, others maintaining ~ whole neighborhoods, or just a specific lot...but other towns in contrast just stop if some business or feature is removed and never recover or they struggle for ages to regain the loss, places like Youngstown boom, then shrink but have a different approach.

Architecture Week covers a revival in Charlotte It is revival? or are they tilting at windmills?

*Aside*
Town/subdivision planning as a cube farm?
Why plan it out like this?

Even Walt was more organic

Posted by Betsy at 01:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

While adding up all the figures to finish up my taxes; I'm still busy experimenting.

Today I'm trying some of the 'recipes' I've seen online for a copper patina.
I don't have miracle grow, or ammonia in the house...but I do have salt, vinegar, bleach, dry cleaning solution. And just to reassure you, I won't try peeing on it, even if it might work.

If anything turns out OK, I'll post some pics.

Posted by Betsy at 05:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The footsies don't get quite as much attention in the fall and wintertime ...you're not wearing sandals, or you're standing around all day at craft fairs. And you have the full heavy sock boot treatment to protect them from the cold and wet snow. The temperatures have been pretty spring like over the past week or so ~ Now is the time to get them into shape.

I always thot it peculiar that my mom would soak her feet...seemed old fashioned and a little eww ~feet~ but sometimes old fashioned isn't bad, and they are MY feet & I want them to feel good! so I've concocted a scrub form kitchen ingredients that I love. It smells yummy, scrubs and smoothes my feet and I always have the ingredients on hand...

Spring Foot Bath
find a nice big fluffy towel, perhaps a smaller one to help rinsing, and a both~foot~sized tub/bucket
Fill tub with hot water and add an orange, lemon, or lime peel and rosemary garni
(I dry or freeze the zesty peel for other dishes)
Fill the tub about 1/2 way full, it should cover your feet to the ankle
add the garni and citris peel to the hot water

Mediterranean foot soak scrub
1/2 to 3/4 c regular or kosher salt
about 1/4 c olive oil more or less to dampen salt
pinch of zest if you have any left
mix in a small plastic bowl

Soak your feet
When they feel relaxed and soft
Scoop a generous fingers/palm full of salt scrub and massage into your foot ~ get your toes, heels, ankles
Dip back into the foot bath to rinse
Massage and scrub the other foot.
I don't save any of the scrub; so if there is still some left over I go over heels again.
buff feet with fluffy towel.

Caution reminder! Salt will sting and hurt if you have a new cut.

Posted by Betsy at 02:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I purchased some steel mesh at the local hardware store so I could make some tray like trivet stands. These would be like cookie trays, but not for cookies ~ for moving, cooling and keeping the metal off the kiln floor for the enamel work I'm planning. The trays are only 3 or 4 dollars from the jewelry supply catalogs ~ but a 4 ft tall 15 ft long piece cost only 10...

The catalogs sell stainless steel; I found galvanized steel. Can't be too much different right? Galvanized is just not shiny? No so.

Factoid: galvanized steel is not much like stainless steel really.
Galvanized steel is coated with zinc and this changes the structure so that is is highly resistant to corrosion & rusting, even in salty conditions ~ and it's melting temperature is about 785 degrees Fahrenheit. No good for kiln trays. phoey.

Stainless steel on the other end of the range, melts at about 2700 degrees Fahrenheit.

I'll have to find the receipt to return it.

Posted by Betsy at 02:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In gushing about my new toy...ahem tool; my little gears started whirling...I could show off some other tools too!

This is the rolling mill. Isn't it a gor-gus green?

It is useful for pulling wire, or I can use it to change the shape if I want square wire. The picture shows the regular flat plates ~ where you can also change the thickness of metal ~ really useful if you want to try kembu. I love to use it to squish stuff and get a texture on the metals.

The copper goddess earrings in my Etsy shop are made with the mill.

Posted by Betsy at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

With glass, the kiln starts cold. It's raised to about 1000 deg & kept there for about a half hour. Upped to 1300 degrees for 20 minutes or until the edges of the glass start to look soft, then pushed up to 1500 degrees for 10-20 minutes depending upon one how much fusing you desire and they type of glass.

My kiln (hee hee *my* kiln) has a manual controller for setting the temperature; so these experiments have helped me figure out the tool, while messing around with a fun project. And ummm....If anyone needs random glass cabs for jewelry or mosaics, let me know ~ I'll list them.

Cool down is important too; Do not just remove the glass from the hot kiln.
No, no, no.
A heat soak on the way up then annealing on the way down the temperature scale. (it's a little like chocolate that way.)

This kiln retains heat really well (I bet most do) ~ opening the door loses heat quickly, but if you put it back, it jumps right back up. (even if the kiln is off)
So I turned off the kiln when the fuse looked ok; open the door (again be really really careful, wear fire proof mits ~ my first pair were singed *eek*, don't look in the kiln directly, wear your goggles.) and let some heat escape ~ down to about 1000 degrees, then replace the cover. And wait. Wait as long as you can for it to cool down to room temperature to remove the pieces. (It's so so hard to wait.)

Posted by Betsy at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The new kiln has got me all a-twitter. really.

Sis uses a ton of Spectrum glass in her art; She had scraps from a few cool projects (Brook Trout! Dragons! Turtles! She kinda has a theme going on there, no?)

Couldn't find my nippers, but picked out similar size pieces or broke with a hammer (Be Careful, please. Wear your goggles; put the glass in a bag if you're going to break it that way. oK?)

Mad scientist time...so some pieces were left alone, some were crushed & sprinkled over/under another piece, others layered next to each other or overlapping. An instruction booklet was included & it has a time & temperature schedule. Figured to give that a try as closely as possible. Course, it's not super clear on some details.

Posted by Betsy at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Lucky search one day brought me to a listing for a little used Evenheat kiln. I've been wanting to work more with enamels, thinking it would be cool to at least try PMC, and occasionally wondering what it would be like to fuse glass and or have the proper tool to anneal glass beads. The previous owner took a class and went all in, but hasn't used her kiln much since then. It came with some furniture for slumping, kiln wash, a brush, instruction and even a video!

Oh I know my torch will work just fine for many PMC and enamel pieces, but it has a couple drawbacks, as you can imagine ~ torches blow, and have small coverage areas. The kiln eliminates that.
I've dug out my sketch book for all of my belt buckle doodle designs and ordered the enamel catalog.

If you know of a good enamel resource, let me know!

Posted by Betsy at 09:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I met someone today who shivered at my Ramen noodle lunch. I've read online of some folks who can't stand it because they ate ONLY ramen in college...

As picky and snooty as I can be with food; I love ramen noodles. I, too, ate them quite often in school. But, I am learning that most folks never embellish this salty comfort food and just go neat! straight up! no mojo! how can this be? no wonder they burn out.

Ramen Etudes ~ simplicity
1 pkg ramen noodles ~ any 'flavor', including flavor
1 egg
some cabbage ~ napa or savoy preferred, but regular is OK
frozen peas
toasted seasame oil (spicy hot! yum)
Chinese 5 spice powder
pepper
water

shred or finely slice cabbage
run some warm water over your peas to defrost
break egg into a cup
add about 3~4 cups water to pan & bring to a boil
add ramen noodles to boiling water
after about 1 minute turn ramen brick over and gently pour egg over noodles
sprinkle egg & noodles with flavor pack
stir water to spin them around
spoon hot water over egg
after another minute
add in frozen peas & cabbage
spin, spin, spin
after one minute add spices & spin in water again

I drain off some broth and pour all into a bowl

Posted by Betsy at 09:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm a few days behind just now, playing catchup ~ which I really hate. I won't get a chance to get ahead of it for a week or so either.

But griping aside; went to the Boston Society of Arts & Crafts CraftBoston event on Sunday at the Seaport Hotel.
There were several artists I recognized from other venues such as Marie Galvin with her fantastic hats, headwear, and facinators, Ananda Khalsa with her delicate asian inspired drawings, and Jaclyn Davidson and her steel and precious metals.

Found some interesting new artists, but didn't find too much in the way of new inspiration for display setups, altho I saw couple I didn't like! Which is helpful to also see what isn't attractive, easy to work with, or makes everything visible.

Oh, not true. One booth used a bamboo rug to help define the space from the conference room floor ~ while many vendors added their own flooring, the bamboo was a different and appealing texture, as well as a different color. It also worked with the feel of the rest of her booth. I found them at Target *shrug* but there are several stores that carry them.

Posted by Betsy at 12:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)