Crafting on Sonoran Living

Life is good! I’ve been invited to get crafty once again with the supercalifraglious Terri Ouelette on her Arizona morning show Sonoran Living. I’m going to show how to make some fun metal mixed-media charms in minutes. I’ll also be showing how to add some color and texture to metal. These charms can be used for jewelry, home decor, as embellishments for scrapbooks and cards or any myriad of handcrafted goodness. Of course, since the appearance is less than 72 hours away, I’m in my studio right now making samples. But here’s a butterfly charm where I used Iced Enamels so you can get an idea of what I’m talking about.

If you’re an Arizonan, please take a moment to set your DVR for Sonoran Living Live this Friday, May 17th at 9 .m. For those of you who follow me from other parts of the country, the station is really good about getting links up on their website within hours of the show broadcast. I’ll be sure to post a URL when I have one.

Here’s wishing you a truly Artful day!

Shout out to B’Sue

 

Detail shot of my Textured Circles necklace from my book Making Metal Jewelry.

Just a quick post today as it’s my mother’s birthday and we have a fun day of lunch, shopping and a movie ahead of us. I wanted to give a public shout out to my friend Brenda Sue Lansdown, the owner of B’Sue Boutiques.

I met Brenda Sue just over two years ago when a friend of mine told me about her fab online jewelry supply store. I was in desperate need of some hard-to-find brass charms and chain for a workshop I was teaching. I was frantic because my supplier went out of business. I called Brenda Sue on the phone and we had the most amazing conversation. Our connection was so instant, it felt like I had rediscovered an old friend after 20 minutes.

I’ve continued to buy from Brenda Sue for my kit supplies. I also took the time to learn about her background in the jewelry making biz and found her story inspiring. She even helped to illustrate a recent business advice column of mine in Belle Armoire Jewelry. She recently bought a signed copy of my book Making Metal Jewelry, and today she did a review of it on her blog. She wrote such a great review that I had to give her a great big shout out for her support!

Here’s the thing about B’Sue. She’s all about her customers and she tells it like it is. If she doesn’t like a new product — even if it’s been developed by a fellow artist friend — she will not recommend it. People know that when she gets behind something, she’s put it through the paces and believes in it. She has a great reputation in the jewelry community. To know that she liked my book and found the advice helpful, honestly, means a lot to me.

Also, this is a good time to tell you about her community of peeps to love to make jewelry and share their experiments, triumphs and failures with their work. If you are new to making jewelry, the B’Sue Boutiques Creative Group on Facebook  is a great online place to connect with other people who are more than happy to answer questions and share. I try to pop in whenever I can.

Textured Circles and Creativity

Textured Circles is one of the workshops I’m teaching this year. I designed this workshop as I was writing my book, Making Metal Jewelry, because I’m wanting to teach some beginning metalworking classes that are fun and simple, but absolutely in line with the fundamentals one needs to learn when first starting to work with metal.

I’ve thought a lot about the silversmithing instruction I received at my community college. My instructor – a 4th generation goldsmith – developed his classes using the exact same learning methods that his father, grandfather and great-grandfather employed. Not that there is anything wrong being a purist, in my humble opinion, other than it sucks the life out of creativity. There is definitely something to be said for starting at the beginning and honing one’s skills. However, my overriding problem with this type of traditionalist instruction is that it’s boring. Plain and simple. BORING! The other problem is that traditional silversmithing instruction often has haughty air about it, which can be intimidating to beginners.

Again, it’s my humble belief art shouldn’t be intimidating. Creativity is spontaneous, joyful, free, introspective and unfettered. Even when writing about the visual arts a decade ago, I choose to interview artists whose work had something to say. The expression of art has always been more important to me than technical perfection. This viewpoint would often put me at odds with gallery owners and other art critics who continued to voice acclaim for the same artists; the ones whose technical skills were refined but who, again in my opinion, failed to reinvent, or even push, themselves. What good is a perfectly technical painting when it’s been done over and over? What exactly does it say? How does it inspire? What does anything that tightly controlled make me feel other than reminding me of my grandma’s girdles from the 1940s?

Even though I don’t express these opinions outright in my book, those who know me understand that making art accessible is one of my main missions in my teaching and publishing. I certainly want to create work that is inspiring and joyful, but I also want to be the kind of instructor who stands up in front of the room and sets the tone by saying, “Let’s have fun! You will learn more than you think you will and you will walk out of this room today with some beautiful things to wear.”

A lot of thought and preparation went into my workshops this year. For example, although the sample pics of my Textured Circles class looks rather minimalist, students will learn punching, dapping, doming, texturing with hammers and also a new high pressure rolling press called the Artisan Xplorer, annealing, quenching, pickling, filing, shaping and patinas (including our brand new cold enameling). All of these metalworking fundamentals are tightly packed into this 3 hour workshop. It’s metalworking 101 in a fast-paced and totally fun learning environment.

I’m teaching this workshop three times this year (four actually, as I taught it in Tucson in February); CREATE Orange County, the Bead and Button Show in Milwaukee and Art Unraveled in Phoenix. If you happen to live close by any of these retreats, or if you feel like jumping on a plane and coming to meet me in person, it would be an honor to see you and have you in my classes. Also, be sure to check out all the other amazing instructors at these venues. Wowza…talk about creativity being unfettered!

Here’s wishing you a truly Artful weekend. Go have fun! Life is too short to be boring.

Iced Enamels makes my creativity soar

My Creativity Soars with sheet metal, Iced Enamels, Susan Lenart Kazmer Media Mixage by Spellbinders bird blank and hobnail bezel and ICE Resin.

I wanted to show you a necklace I made for the Spring Belle Armoire Jewelry article where I was featured as the issue’s Designer Showcase. I turned in a lot of work to Cynthia, the editor, for the feature, but this particular piece is one of my favorites. I think it really shows my artistic voice and what I do with metal and resin and fibers and, now, our crazy amazing Iced Enamels.

I began this necklace with a sheet of 24 gauge nickel silver (didn’t bother using sterling because of the expense and because I knew I would be applying color to the metal anyways) and cut it into a crescent shape with my wonderfully sharp French Shears. I filed my edges and texturized my metal with the ball peen part of my hammer, creating hundreds of dimples in the metal. Then I put the textured crescent into my large wooden dapping block and began forming the edges to give it a three-dimensional shape. Making this crescent base is a QR code video in my book Making Metal Jewelry. Check out the link on it over at the F&W CreateMixedMedia website.

Then came even more creative fun! I applied our Enameling Medium to the metal — this medium is especially formulated to adhere the enameling powders to metal — with a paintbrush, putting on just a thin coat. I sprinkled Relique Turquoise on one side of the metal crescent and then covered the other half in our gorgeous German Silver and melted it with a craft heat gun. I added Relique Ivory onto the adorable bird blank, torn some text from an old book for the bird belly window. Then I took one of the sweet little Susan Lenart Kazmer Media Mixage hobnail squares and added the word “frisky”.  I have no idea why I chose that word, but it just struck me at the time so I tore it from the book. A little side note on this: I no longer over think my image/word choices. I go with my very first instincts and run with them. I’ve learned over the years to trust my instincts, as my art always looks better when I do.

I mixed up some ICE Resin from our handy dandy plungers and painted on a thin sealer coat over the Iced Enamels. The addition of ICE Resin, which is a glasslike surface when dry, is what makes our new Cold Enameling program. Without a sealer coat, any color you add to metal jewelry will wear off over time as your pieces are worn. Here’s another little trick: I layered all the components together while the ICE Resin was wet so they would bond together stronger than glue as they dried, causing a cold connection that’s inseparable.

After the pieces dried, I cold connected the bird to the metal crescent with an eyelet rivet for additional strength. Then I wired up the crescent with an organic knot on either side and added fibers to one of our sterling silver tassel bezels. I created a connection for the fiber bundle and made a clasp from sterling silver wire. The other side of the necklace is vintage rosary chain that I bought from a friend at last year’s Art Unraveled that I LOVE. All in all, this necklace took some work and some steps to complete, but, as I said, it really is one of my favorites.

Here’s hoping this provided a little inspiration today. Now, get into your studio and start playing — hopefully with the brand new Spellbinders Media Mixage line designed by Susan Lenart Kazmer and our brand new Iced Enamels! These components are da’bomb!

Covergirl…

Belle Armoire Jewelry Cover March/April 2013

Remember when I said there were A LOT of big things in the works last year that I had to keep quiet about? Well, I finally can tell you the last of the secrets! My work is being featured in Belle Armoire Jewelry as the March/April issue Designer Showcase. The issue — with my necklace from my book Making Metal Jewelry on the cover (!!!) just arrived in subscribers’ mailboxes today and I’ve heard a resounding positive response from soooo many of my artist friends.

To say it’s an incredible honor to have my work featured is, truly, an understatement. I know there are people who will think that it was a natural fit for me because I write a business advice column for this magazine every issue, but the truth of the matter is that being a “regular” with the Stampington publications can actually make the selection process tougher. I liken it to being a mother and not wishing to play favorites to any of your children.

ICE Resin bezel by Jen Cushman in Belle Armoire Jewelry 2013

The editors go out of their way to judge every piece of art work that comes into the magazine based on some pretty high standards. That’s why I’m always impressed when I meet someone whose been published in Belle Armoire Jewelry because I’ve seen the editors at work during the selection process. It takes a considerable amount of thought and consideration on their part each month.

When Editor Cynthia Levens emailed me to say that she wished to feature me, I jumped up and down in my studio and couldn’t help but have a big smile from ear to ear. Then she told me what I had to do. Not much, just submit 25 pieces of jewelry (!) for photography and then catch up with Ricë Freeman Zachary for her to do the interview. I’ve known Ricë for a few years now, but it’s always nerve wracking to be interviewed, particularly for something as wonderfully big as a Designer Showcase profile.

Belle Armoire Jewelry Jen Cushman profile

I could not have asked for a better person to interview me. Ricë is a very accomplished mixed-media artist and independent writer/author. She’s been in the trenches teaching and selling her work. She knows when people who are being authentic with her and she can spot from a mile a way when someone is being politically correct..aka saying what they think they’re supposed to say rather than speaking their truth. I love talking to Ricë because she’s real and ensures people respond accordingly. I knew I’d have some tough questions, but that was part of the fun. The article is wonderfully written. After reading it through for the second time, my favorite part is this (page 23):

She (meaning me) turned her focus on the most salient detail of the life she wanted: learning to value her creativity and skills enough to give them the time and space to flourish, and then learning to value the concrete results of the process enough to share them with the world instead of putting them in a drawer.

I know I pulled this out of context, and I do hope you find the time to read the whole article, but every time I read this paragraph that Ricë wrote, I get chills. It’s an incredible thing to feel that someone “got me” and she really, truly understood what I was trying to say as a human being and an artist.

Thank you, Ricë and Cynthia and Christen for your faith in me and my work. This Designer Showcase is a major highlight in my life. Also, as always, my incredible appreciation to Susan Lenart Kazmer for making such gorgeous and high quality hobnail bezels and creating ICE Resin so myself and millions of other artists can explore their creativity.

Happy Friday everyone! Thanks so much for all of you who checked out my blog and took the time to enter the giveaway for a signed copy of my new book, Making Metal Jewelry. I really enjoyed reading everyone’s comments about what kind of jewelry they like or want to make. I also want to give a shout out to Kristal for taking the time to tell such a sweet story about why elephants are a sacred talisman for her. It really touched my soul. I truly believe every human being in the world has a story to tell, and that its through the sharing and telling of stories that we connect with each other on a deeper level. I also want to send a quick thanks to our amazing ICE Resin Creative Team members who shared my giveaway on their Facebook pages — Jen Crossley, Cindy Cima Edwards, Lexi Grenzer and Pamela Huntington. These ladies inspire my soul with their gorgeous creations and I’m so blessed to call them friends.

So the winner of an autographed copy of my book is Yoli! Sent to my blog for the first time from Lexi. As you can see, I used randomnumbergenerator.com and the winner was 22. I counted backwards in the order they appear  from the first person to comment to the last one. Yoli, I sent you an email and need your address. For those of you who didn’t win, keep an eye out on the ICE Queen eZine (our company blog). I will be sprinkling signed book giveaways here on my blog and also there on the company one too. To learn about it, be sure to read the blog and “like” our ICE Resin Facebook page.

Happy Hump Day Giveaway

I woke up on the sunny side of the street today after a terrible stress headache that lasted all day yesterday. There are times when all the different things we’re juggling in the air will collide on the same day and then all I want is to crawl back into bed and fast forward to another day. Luckily, the yucky headachy days are few and far between. Anyhoo…..since I am HAPPY, happy, happy today and because I have NOT been able to get my website re-done as of yet with the back-to-back shows, I decided it was time to finally do a book giveaway on my blog.

If you’ve been reading and following my journey, you know that Making Metal Jewelry; How to Stamp, Form, Forge and Fold Metal Jewelry Designs is out in major bookstores now. (Yippee!) It’s also available on Amazon. But in order to get a signed copy, you gotta come to me. So, please leave a comment about….hmmmmmm…let’s go with a broad category of jewelry. Tell me what is your favorite kind of jewelry, or what you wish your sweetheart would buy you, or what pieces you long to create, or if you already have my book what project is your favorite one. All I’m looking for is something fun to read about one of my favorite art subjects — Jewelry!

Not only will you get a signed copy of the book, but you will also get an ICE Resin plunger and some of our Art Mechanique cold connection micro nuts and screws. I will keep the giveaway up until Friday morning 8 a.m. MST. And never fear, if you don’t win this one, there will be another give away soon over on the ICE Queen eZine while we are teaching workshops at the To Bead True Blue show in Tucson.

The Whirlwind of 2012

Ta-daaaaa!!! Here is the cover for my brand new DVD on making molds and casting found objects.

I know I wrote about filming for Cloth, Paper, Scissors back in November at the Interweave headquarters in Loveland, Colo. It’s hard to believe that my DVD, Breaking Out of the Mold is already available now for pre-order and instant download at the Interweave store. Wowza, let me tell you DVDs move at a breakneck pace as compared to books! I also wanted to let you know that I had the sincere pleasure of meeting another mixed-media artist at the filming; Jenny Cochran Lee. Jenny’s work is incredible. I don’t sew hardly a stitch, so to see her textile work is just jaw dropping to me. I also want to thank Jenny because she did a wonderful post on me and my DVD on her blog today.

There are so many amazing things hitting all at the same time that it’s making my head spin! All of these were in the works last year and I was running as fast as I could to keep up with them all. Seriously, I look back at 2012 and shake my head at how in the heck we managed to get it all done. Finishing my new book with North Light, new product development with ICE Resin, a DVD and a new column with Cloth, Paper, Scissors and also the Designer Showcase next month with Belle Armoire Jewelry in addition to my normal Art Chooses You column for Stampington. When I meet someone and they ask me what I do, I’m not sure quite how to respond so I simply say I’m an artist and a writer.

Life was so busy last year that I really want to take a moment to thank my amazing husband and mother-in-law on my blog (even though neither of them read it. LOL). They were there for me every step of the way, cheering me on and making sure my kids were fed, clothed and happy. I also want to thank my off-the-charts-talented and totally brilliant business partner Susan Lenart Kazmer, who has been going even harder and longer than I have to run our company, while still managing to dream up endless amounts of creative ideas, building two lines (Industrial Chic for Michaels and the new Media Mixage with Spellbinders that debuted at CHA), teaching workshops, running the ICE Resin office and home front, publishing articles and writing her new book, “Resin Alchemy” that is due out in June with Interweave. (Not to mention raising two teenagers and teaching a workshop in France this summer). Then there was the other person who was standing by my side this past year. Kristen Robinson spent 2012 teaching, building her brand new signature line Rue Romantique, publishing articles, doing a DVD for Cloth, Paper, Scissors and writing her second book — as yet untitled — for North Light that’s due out this Fall.

One of the most interesting parts of all of this to me is that the three of us had to keep completely quiet on all that was going on. Sure, bits and pieces here and there were shared on blogs and social media, but most of the time I told Susan and Kristen that it looked like we were all taking long naps in 2012.

Silly me, I didn’t get a picture of me and Susan at CHA. Here is one of us shopping at the flea markets in the South of France this summer.

My father used to always say I couldn’t keep a secret if my life depended on it. I can say now that he was 100% wrong. I don’t really care for keeping secrets because I’m just the type of person who likes to share. The best part right now is that I can finally breathe. The cats are out of the bag. The only thing left to do is tell the world about all our new adventures and hope people see and respond to the kind of passion we’ve put into our first real love – Mixed-media ART! As for my next goal in 2013, it really is getting to take that long nap I keep talking about.

Kristen and me at Winter CHA 2013.

To everyone who has hung in there with me on my blog this past year, thank you. This goes the same for the new friendships I’ve made on Facebook and the incredible women (and a few men) whom I have met at workshops across the country. I really hope that if no other message comes out of anything that I do it’s this one: Dreams do come true. Nothing is unattainable. You don’t have to be the most talented person on the block, or the skinniest or the prettiest or the most congenial. All you have to be is yourself. Oh, and it helps to also link arms with some pretty amazing friends along the way who always have your back in any situation. (grin)!

Preview earring project

Looking for a simple and fun earring project to get you started working with metal? I have one in Making Metal Jewelry and the North Light Books folks have published online to whet your whistle. Take a look at CreateMixedMedia for the instructions.

Chased earrings by Jen Cushman

2013 classes so far

Cold-Enameled Heart Necklace class. Learn all new enameling techniques for adding color to metal and also advanced resin techniques as well.

I’m still working on building my new website. My goal is for it to be up and running by Jan. 10. which is the in-store date for Making Metal Jewelry. The site will have a gallery of my work, my class schedule, an option to purchase signed copies of my books, etc. Since I’ve been getting questions on my Facebook wall about next year’s teaching schedule, I thought I better put it on the blog now.

Susan and myself and many of the ICE Resin team will be at the Craft and Hobby Association trade show in Anaheim Jan. 11-15. Susan and Kristen are teaching sold-out workshops during the show and I’ll be in the background helping them TA since the classes are maxed out at 50 people. This trade show is open only to members of the crafts industry and is one of the big shows we do each year to introduce our new products. We have some amazing new things coming out next year and are thrilled for this show to get here.

Then, a mere two weeks after CHA, we’re heading to the Tucson gem show — To Bead True Blue — where the team is teaching lots of interesting workshops. If you love making jewelry and you’ve never managed to get to Tucson in February, I suggest you put it on your bucket list right now and find a way to make it happen. Anything and everything with gems, minerals, beads and unique objects is found and focused on at these shows. I’ll be teaching five classes in Tucson and registration is going on now.

Feb. 28-March 3, I’m excited to be teaching classes at Linda Young’s event Adorn Me in Houston, Texas. There are still spots left in many of the classes, all featuring metalwork and/or mixed-media jewelry with top instructors. Take a peek at the workshops here. A couple of classes, such as  So You Want to Write a Book, are classes I’m only teaching at this event for 2013.

I’m thrilled to be back for my third year at CREATE, hosted by Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine in Orange County, California. I love this show so much because the event organizers always let me teach both straight mixed-media and also mixed-media jewelry classes. I’m thrilled to be doing a journal, as well as some very cool new classes using our brand-new products and techniques that we’re introducing at CHA and Tucson. Registration for this event just opened yesterday, and my journal was featured on the announcement email. So very cool to see as an instructor! I’m in such amazing company at this event and a few of the instructors are my very dear friends. I get a smile on my face every time I realize I’m going to get to see them very soon.

The last event to tell you about for now is the Bead and Button Show in Milwaukee. This is another one of our annual big shows for ICE Resin. I’ve been at the show the past three years with our company, but this is the first time I’ll be teaching there as an instructor. Honestly, this is an event I never thought I would be instructing since it’s home to many of the best of the best master silversmiths and jewelers. It was kind of a pinch me moment when the acceptance email came in. I’ll be teaching resin, of course. (grin)

There are a couple more events I’ve applied to that haven’t been announced. I’ll be adding those to the calendar as soon as I hear (fingers crossed) that I’ve been accepted. Just a little note on this, I’ll be writing a future column on the teaching application process for those of you who wonder how this all comes to pass. I did write a basic one for CreateMixedMedia last year. If you didn’t get a chance to see it, you can click over to my columns on the website.

For any of you whom are thinking of going to an art retreat for the first time, but are maybe wondering if you can afford it or if it’s worth the time and expense, let me tell you they are! When I fell in love with mixed-media all those years ago, it was these retreats and the amazing, giving and wonderful instructors that set me on my path. It was a journey that’s been life altering for me, and I’ve seen the same story told again and again for many others.

Here’s wishing you a truly Artful day as you head into the final stretch of the Holiday season.