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PMC Classes

Several of my students in Delaware have asked about it, and today I called Connie at Sparkles (to talk about something else) and she asked if I would come teach PMC.

I’ll probably do 3-hour workshops; one or two sections of PMC Basics (depending on how many are interested) and hopefully another workshop for an intermediate technique like rings or stone-setting. Spots will be limited, so please let Connie or me know if you’re interested and what you want to learn.

I’ll post updates here or on my Events page.

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Certified

I just finished up my long-awaited PMC certification, which was from 9-5 for three days straight. That’s not to say we actually stopped at 5, though. When I’d leave for the day (at 6 or 7) my brain would be spinning with ideas, applications, technical details, and questions to ask the following day. We were all given the same assignments, each geared toward a different aspect of the product (paper clay weaving, setting stones, gold overlay, hand-polishing to a mirror shine, etc). The back side of the leaf lentil can be seen on my YOJ Week 7 post. Tim McCreight is a sweet man, not arrogant at all (although he has every reason to be), a little crunchy, a little edgy, and very helpful. He was pretty talkative, but with good information that will help me especially with the technical part of PMC (understanding the molecular structure and when to use certain firing times and benefits and drawbacks of the various forms of the product). He doesn’t eat beef, he makes new wedding bands for himself and his wife each year, and yes they have indoor plumbing in Maine.I got way more than information out of this course, though. My classmates were 14 amazing and talented women whom I loved to listen to while we worked. Tiffany and Teresa, it was especially a pleasure getting to know you. You’ve not seen the last of me!

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Break

Steve and I spent Christmas with his family in upstate New York. All 7 of the kids and their peripheral people were there, so we had a full house and a lot of fun. Good travels, good company, good food, and a white Christmas! Before we left I was in Frantic Mode trying to get gifts wrapped, orders in the mail, and all the last-minute things I have to do before leaving on a trip so it took me a few days to unwind and feel relaxed.

Now that we’re back home and Christmas is over, I want to address a few back-burner things like my horribly messy house and studio and projects that are unfinished (or even unstarted — Have I mentioned that my sewing machine is in a box from the move?) I love getting letters telling about how my friends are doing and how their kids are growing, as long as it doesn’t sound too perfect. But December is a crazy month for AnneMade and I never send Christmas cards any more. So this year I’m hoping to send New Years cards so I can actually devote time to it.

Other things I have put off are getting my lampworking studio set up (thanks for the inspiration, Kerry!) and working with PMC before my certification course. So if I don’t write that much for a while, forgive me for doing what I actually ought to be doing. Happy 2008 to you all!

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Viking + Squiggle Bead

A lot of people have asked how AnneMade Jewelry has been affected by the recent move from Delaware to Virginia. In short, I am no longer teaching 4 classes a week so I have a lot more time and energy to do other things. A lot of my jewelry orders are via the website or email, so that part is unchanged, as are my wholesale accounts. So, aside from my addiction to buying furniture on CraigsList, I have been working some new jewelry here and there as my muse leads. Here is my latest piece, a handwoven (viking knit) front with a PMC slider bead. My goal was to make something that would go with everything, yet be creative enough to be obviously handmade. Still needs to be oxidized to bring out the detail, but I wanted to get a picture up before I forgot.

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Jewelry (oh yeah)

I realize I haven’t posted about jewelry in a long time, so I thought I’d give you a peek at what I’ve made recently. I’m hoping to get pictures posted on the website soon, but it’s quicker and easier to toss the new stuff on the scanner. I’ve been teaching a bunch lately and haven’t had a lot of time in my studio, so a lot of this group was made in class.

I’ve gotten a lot of questions about what I’ll be doing with myself after the move. I would love to focus on PMC and lampwork more than I have this past year. I’m open to teaching classes or privately if I find interested students, but I don’t expect to have the kind of bead store relationship I currently have with Sparkles. That’s going to be hard to beat!

Delaware-area students: feel free to email me if you have questions or want to learn something in the future. I’ll be just a few hours away, so there’s the possibility of doing workshops at Sparkles here and there. I’m also planning to put together kits with all the supplies needed for certain projects, so stay tuned for those.
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Riveting

Before reading Passing the Flame, I didn’t know how to encase a bead so that the inside layer doesn’t leak out (called a “white heart”). Side note: I decided to celebrate my birthday in July instead of January this year, and Steve got me that book AND a memory foam mattress topper. Isn’t he the best? The first picture shows two examples of really bad white hearts. The ivory and lime green cores, respectively, have leaked out over their clear encasement, more than what a bead cap will cover (these beads are each over 2cm in diameter). So, I made big honkin’ bead caps out of PMC, leaving the edges irregular to give a more organic look. I see now that the green cap could have been bigger, but PMC shrinks when it is fired so it was kinda hard to judge how big to make them. I could have just stopped there, but then I tube-riveted the beads & caps together. This being my first time riveting, I am pretty pleased with the results and may sleep with these guys under my pillow.

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Busy weekend

The Lapidary Journal’s Jewelry Arts Expo was this past weekend in Fort Washington, PA. In addition to feeding my addiction to buying lampwork beads, I took an all-day PMC ring class with Celie Fago on Saturday and a wire pendant class with Connie Fox on Sunday (pictured). It was my first time learning in person from industry celebrities, and a lot of fun to be the student in a class instead of the instructor. I didn’t quite finish my projects in class, so I’ll post pictures when I get back to my bench.

After class on Sunday, Steve, Riley and I drove up to Boston for business: he was visiting clients and I was buying beads. Our hotel in Cambridge overlooked Boston and the Charles River, offered huge down pillows, and allowed pets – great spot to stay. On rainy Monday morning we watched rowing crews and scullers on the river (pictured), and I now realize just how many groups use this water to train. Driving home yesterday was like driving forward in time because we were heading south, where spring had already sprung. One of my favorites is seeing white dogwoods with their greenish bracts just beginning to unfurl.

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Signature style

People often ask what my signature design is and I’m usually at a loss. I don’t like to be pigeon-holed into a “label” because I tend to go through phases. I’m I’m not usually gung-ho about any one thing for very long, so for me to still be working within the same genre of creativity is a first for me. One of the things that keeps my job interesting is the variety of materials I have available for designs and all the different techniques. Stringing, wirework, metalsmithing (forming and soldering with a torch), stained glass (cutting, grinding, & soldering with an iron), PMC, lampwork, the list goes on.

That being said, since we moved to Delaware I have used a lot of sea glass in many of my designs. I especially like to use this stuff in the spring and summer because it reminds me of beach vacations. I started out by wrapping it in wire, then learned to bezel-set (which is labor intensive but I’d like to get back to that). Later I figured out how to drill holes in it and now Steve does that for me (sweet man). My favorite colors are Coke bottle green and cobalt blue, but I also like beer bottle green because it’s more common and really stands out against the sand.

One of my favorite designs that I have been doing for a few years is the pavé pendant, a mosaic of beads embroidered across a wire frame. Pavé means “paved” in French and is a traditional stone-setting technique where a surface is covered in small stones.

Another signature of mine is wirework, whether it’s hair-thin wire crocheted into a delicate chain or heavy gauge wire manipulated into swirls and links. I never get tired of learning new things with such a basic medium.

So to answer the question about my signature style, I usually bring up the fact that my designs are each one-of-a-kind on purpose because my style is fluid and always developing.