It felt so good to take some time away last weekend to play and think about creative ways to get the juices flowing. I attended a Sourcing Material for Artists and Writers workshop at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts last Saturday. It was taught by local sculptor and painter, Kat VanHammen. Kat has a Masters Degree [...]
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Copper Gratitude Bookmarks – Step By Step
See my last post about the inspiration for these copper bookmarks. Now – go behind the scenes into their creation! Thanks to Karen Horneffer-Ginter for the inspiration and the motivation to create these little beauties! It’s been a fun project! Best of luck with Full Cup, Thirsty Spirit, Karen!
Gratitude for Creative Process
A year ago my husband gave me the book Arts and Crafts – Metalwork and Silver by J & Seelen M Wissinger. I was immediately enthralled with all of the beautiful works of copper from the artisans of the Arts and Crafts period. I was especially intrigued by some of the “personal accents” presented – including [...]
Petoskey – A Unique State Stone
The Petoskey Stone became Michigan’s state Stone on June 28, 1965. Let’s take a trip back in the time machine to July 1966 with Michigan Conservation magazine, the one year anniversary of the Petoskey Stone’s coveted status. Two unique facts pointed out in this article. First, the Petoskey Stone is unique. It is a fossilized [...]
Stone Polishing 101
A very fun event I had the pleasure of being a part of earlier this year was teaching some elementary aged children all about hand-polishing beach stones. They certainly had fun with it and they got closer to the stones of the Great Lakes through their work. Of course, that is something that I love [...]
Slag Glass is Beautiful Trash
Slag glass is another very interesting industrial by-product that is making it’s way into jewelry of late. And it’s getting rarer and rarer to find. Michigan’s iron ore industry boomed from the mid to late 1800s. This was fueled by the discovery of ore and the availability of trees via the lumber boom to make charcoal [...]
Monday Feature – Copper Firebrick Revealed
In my mind, copper is truly a Michigan metal. Obviously, copper is found in many other places in the world. Michigan’s native copper, however, found and mined in the Upper Peninsula, is a rare form of copper. Up until the point that native Michigan copper was discovered (around 1837), according to E. William Heinrich’s ” The [...]
Latest Jewelry & Metalwork News
I’d like to thank everyone who came out and visited me at Art on the Mall. The weekend started out chilly, but ended with one of those amazing Michigan summer days in more ways than one. I wanted to share a big announcement that my jewelry will be for sale at the Nature Connection of [...]
Spring Break Stone Hunt
We just got back from a Spring Break Stone Hunt weekend up in the Traverse City are of Michigan. This is in Northern Michigan (kind of by the pinky finger if you use your left hand as a representation of Michigan). I always like to try to find new beaches to explore. The weather was a [...]
The Creative Process
“Culture doesn’t really beg people to pursue a career in the arts. I think you decided every single day – when you wake up you just decide you’re going to do it. Because there are so many reasons not to do it. Every time that you go into the studio and you make something, every [...]
