Fun meeting at Mimi's! She demo'd a spiral bead stitch- it was hard! We all gave it a try. Pictured: (l to r) Sharon, Karen, Bodil, Ellen, Mimi, Barb, and Jodi. (Dana taking shot)
Great meeting- talking, eating, looking at recent work, trying a new skill.

Ellen's little bowl- perfect size for rings at the end of the day.

Made of thick sterling with pierced and cut out designs, and tube-set gems.

Bodil used Deco oil-paint based paint pens (extra fine) as a resist and used nitric acid to acid-etch hearts and her daughter's name is this terrific pendant.

Bodil framed some Roman coins in gold for these cool earrings.

Sharon set this red jasper and handmade the chain and clasp.

Jodi's gorgeous enameled pendant.

Barb knows her way around the clays! Polymer clay framed by silver art clay.

Another gorgeous piece by Barb- polymer clay insert into silver clay.

Barb's large chain in nu-gold and bronze.

Karen's loop in loop balled chains in silver. One regular, one irregular.

Dana saw a penny chain in one of the magazines this month and had to try it. Pierced an sawed-out, every other link riveted. Even the clasp is made from a penny. (use them before 1982 for solid copper)




Great meeting- see everyone again!

Early Spring Meeting

This get-together at Dana's house included some AWESOME show and tell and also a Viking Knit Demo! You won't believe what everyone's been working on:


This large starfish pendant was created by Patti, who JUST started taking an enameling class. Pretty amazing for a first project!

This is Mimi and her AMAZING metal paper-doll series- a work-in-progress created for an upcoming show. Mimi has a studio at Vis-Arts in Rockville, Maryland.

All of the drawings for this series were created by Mimi and then acid-etched using PNP paper onto brass, copper and silver. All will stand and have many outfits to choose from!

These are still being worked on, but you can see the amazing level of thought and design that went into each creation.

Each outfit is designed within an inch of it's life

Can't wait to see the finished project during the show!

Just too cute- a raincoat.

No body bothers me! (No body bothers me either!) (Omigosh I'm dating myself....an old commercial for martial arts....)

Finally, these spiral-stitch creations by Mimi are a hint at the next meeting- she's invited everyone over to learn how to do this- with #12 needles, Nymo thread and #11 seed beads. She has supplies so we can try it out! Looking forward to seeing everyone!

January Get-Together- Recent Work

Today's get-together was the first of 2010. We hadn't seen each other for a while- everyone had some really interesting work! This is Bodil's experiment with Colores Resin (from Rio Grande) in Red. It looks like glass, doesn't it? It's very lightweight and framed with a fine silver bezel. She pushed an old Roman coin into Silly Putty, then poured the Resin into this mold for at least 24 hours and viola! An old Roman glass artifact! Great for earrings, too, because it's so lightweight.

Colores comes in MANY different colors. Another thing to experiment with and spend money on! (Great for kids, too??)

This is Patti's ring using a bead set in a cuttle-bone cast shank. Pretty cool!

These are Karen's cuttlebone castings. She carved the bone with dental tools after sawing the bone in half. Then she wired the 2 halves together and poured in the molten silver.

This is Bodil's fold ring. It was created by sawing a pattern in 16 ga. sheet. She then etched the sheet (top of ring around stone) and folded it to produce the shank. The only soldering was the gold bezel to the top.

This is Karen's fold ring- a work in progress. She, too, is cutting away from sheet and will also set the stone using the tabbed prongs.

Karen's been going chain-crazy! Various chain types made by fusing the ends of wire loops together, then using a mandrel to form, hammering, and folding.

Detail of one of Karen's 18 ga. chains. She uses a tumbler to polish.

Dana's viking knit chain. Using 26 ga. sterling wire with a rustic pendant to match.

These could all lead to workshops so we can learn from each other all these techniques and benefit from each other's experience. Fun! See you next month...

Keum-boo Workshop

We had a great October get-together and workshop today. Keum-boo! Bodil demo'd, Sherry and Dana tried it, Christine, Mimi and Karen watched. Thanks to Bodil for the demo and instructions. Fun!

Thanks to all who came (l to r): Karen, Mimi, Sherry, Caroline, Christine, Bodil (and Dana, taking pic).

Caroline's studio in Falls Church worked perfectly for us- she recently returned from Italy and collected wonderful beach stones complete with fabulous graphic lines.

Caroline tried gold-leafing one of her stones and may drill a hole or bezel-set it. Nice experimentation!

Gorgeous Italian beach stones above.

Bodil demonstrating keum-boo.

Sherry's applying thin gold foil (keum-boo) on top of reticulated silver- full of texture.

Dana's ring after keum-boo. I like it!

Dana's ring after liver of sulfur patina (maybe a bit too long??) and with opal set temporarily. Love the colors! The technique seemed easy! If you're interested, order Celie Fago's book from Rio Grande or email Bodil for instructions!

Yesterday's show and tell

I had a wonderful time meeting everone and hanging out at Mimi's wonderful home yesterday.

I just wanted to quickly post the cufflinks that I tested out with the new resin Mimi introduced us to. I love that it doesn't take hours to cure like the 2 part epoxy resin and is non toxic. I've just ordered some from the online store and look forward to playing with this some more.

Thanks again, and looking forward to meeting up again in October!

P.S. here's a li'l video i took of Mimi's cute bird...haha
had to share

Kick-Off Meeting for the New Year

We started another season of get-togethers at Mimi's house. She treated us to fruit, cake and coffee and we also got to see results from the 5 classes she took at Bead Fest Phily this past summer. Thanks for hosting, Mimi!


These images are captured between 2 pieces of class and then soldered (stained glass technique) and loops were added.

This is a metal clay ring Mimi created and then added the resin "gem" in layers.

This copper flower was covered with Jax patina (from Metaliferous) and then colored with Prismacolor colored pencils. The class was held by Debra Weld- she's known for this technique. It will be finished when it's riveted to the metal clay base beneath, complete with loop for hanging.

These pieces were done in a resin class. The collages were covered over by a powder resin called Amazing Glaze and baked in a toaster oven at 275 until melted. We got to try this technique! The powder was like embossing powder, but non-toxic. All the resins were very safe to use. Feel free to contact Mimi for any and all information regarding resins, techniques, hand-outs, and other information.

This is the collage, set in a brass pre-made commercial bezel, covered over with Amazing Glaze.

Finished pieces cooling after being heated to 275.

Laura adding the powdered glaze to her piece.

(l to r) Bodil, Laura and Deana in Mimi's studio.

Lucia and Mimi in Mimi's studio.

Bodil applying a heat gun to the finished piece to remove any remaining air bubbles.

This was a fun get-together! We got to make stuff! Mimi's final word on these classes, specifically the resin workshop, was that it was a bit "crafty". But they're great for ornaments, keychains, etc... especially for the upcoming holidays. And it was fun to get some creative juices flowing.

See you next month at Caroline's studio on Oct. 20th for a keum boo workshop!

June Meeting- Drilling Rocks, Shells, Glass

l to r: Laura, Mimi, Karen, Caroline drilling and chatting. Dana's taking picture!

Using a diamond bit l to r: core drill bit, 1/8" bit for hole and for carving.

These holes went thru like buddah.

June 3rd we met at my house (Dana) and hung out on my porch drilling rocks, shells and glass. How fun! Caroline, Karen, Laura and Mimi came and brought a TON of stuff to drill. We used diamond bits under water(slightly, so as not to electrocute ourselves) and had success with most everything except some really hard shells which will take quite a while to drill through.