Most of my drawings have been still life's so I was challenged in class to draw from life. I have wanted to do this but have been a bit scared because, even though I am getting better, at times I don't the the perspective or proportions correct. So I went through my phone and found a good close up of Boots' nose and asked if that would be acceptable and I was given not only a resounding YES but an awww.  The teacher said I could grid the picture and my drawing paper to assist in getting the proportions and scale correct.  The other thing that helped me was that over the past two weeks we have been working in charcoal to get all shades of white, gray, black and everything in-between.  I was going to use just colored pencils only to find out I did not have one that was black. I ended up using the water color pencils with and without water, some colored pencils, and a bit of water color paint for the whiskers in places. The 3 most prevelent colors are black  for her fur and black plus gray for those those transition areas.

The last image is Boots' response to her portrait as posted on FB.

Here are sketches/drawings/paintings from Studio I. We have to do two sketches each week, as homework and show them in class the following week and some pictures are homework for over the weekend from an in-class assignment. On the left is the image to do, on the right is the result. They are not in the order they were done or assigned.

I am back from a 15 day road trip (more details here) but I did take an unplanned side trip to Colonial Williamsburg JUST to visit the silversmith shop; I did this because Liza Nechamkin suggested it because I would be nearby when visiting the Shop Elf's brother.

Turns out it was less than 5 miles away so after breakfast I went and arrived just as the shop was opening. I went in, introduced myself and said "Liza Nechamkin says hello and that I needed to visit!"; well, after that we were immediate friends (just kidding). We started talking about WHY Liza sent me; then what they were working on and more. Preston started as an apprentice in the early 80's and is now a journeyman; I did not find out when he can become a master. He showed me trays, bowls, ladles, spoons, tea pots, etc. Then we went into the other rooms - the amount of hammers and stakes was amazing and sadly many needed the rust and grime to be removed; yes I volunteered. I was even taken on a "behind the velvet rope/curtain" tour to see all the tools, stakes, and equipment in the basement; into the other workshop, a back building, where tasks like spinning a ladle handle on a lathe is made, plus other modern equipment is used to finish pieces.   I was ready to move in and clean everything for free!
​
I did buy myself a pewter spoon because the silver one I wanted was over $400. 

As I was driving back to my brother-in-law's house I realized I was very excited about going back to school and had a renewed sense of enthusiasm for learning and making things. 

Now that the studio is clean and organized I am actually making things, to get my mojo back, since I have not done any sawing, soldering, stamping/pressing, or finishing for quite a while.

I am making sample impressions of all the dies I have for the hydraulic press as this gets me using the rolling mill for thinning metal or to use the pattern plates to texture on the metal. With the hydraulic press I am using the pancake dies to cut out the blanks for trays and to form the tray. I am also figuring out how to impress, in the metal, deep and shallow impressions to get all the detail.  Once that's done I do any sawing, filing or other cleanup at my bench with the flexshaft. If needed I use the belt sander to debur and clean up edges along with the JoolTool to figure out how to do the same and what wheels to use;  and then it's over to the JoolTool to do final polish. I am also using the belt sander and JoolTool to clean up and polish the impression dies that have uneven and marred surfaces

I, unintentionally, made a bit of scrap on some impression dies and trays. On a die, the metal was probably too thin, and I split the edge; on another tray I didn't get the impression back in the die and so I have a bit of a ghost image from the double pressing (gryphon) and then I positioned the tray crooked and it came out skewed;  on another tray it shifted in the silhouette die and the dish didn't have a rim on one side and on the flower tray the impression die was a bit domed and had machining marks which transferred to the tray so I ground the top surface flat and then polished it.  

BUT not all was lost. From the scrap tray I made myself a pair of earrings. I then made a good tray, several mini-dishes, another tray with a soldered-on impression, and several small wall vases; all of which are presents for friends when I attend my 50th High School reunion in a few weeks. I also cut out, from a thick impression that I was given, a bat and made a key ring for a friend. 

oh, and lastly I must say my soldering skills will take time to return; I have lots of clean up to do on the 3 wall vases.

The last thing to do, as part of getting the studio in order was to organize all my hydraulic press tooling and make sure was all documented in the Tool(ing) Tracker Web Application that I wrote and put out there two years ago.
My plan was to put it in the rolling toolbox I inherited from the Shop Elf but first I had to clean it. It was empty it; vacuum out the dust and other schmutz; then start the tooling inventory.
IT TOOK THREE DAYS.
I organized the tooling by type on the counter and would carry a few items to my desk where I could verify it's existance in the Tracker. Next was to use a vibrating engraving pen and mark it. I then put it in a drawer which was labeled with the tooling type. 
I had some tooling that I had no sku number for nor were they marked so I went to the hive mind in the PotterUSA Facebook group for assistance and they came through. 
Everything is now in the toolbox and I just have a few things to put away today and I AM DONE with this task and organizing the studio; I CAN NOW PLAY IN HERE

When the pandemic started 2+ years ago all my creativity went out the window and making things in the studio stopped. I went into the office portion of the studio every weekday because I was working from home but that was it. 
Then I retired and we decided to get the rooms in the main part of house in order and then I would do my studio and we would do the Shop Elf's workshop.
We had started on the house and then the shop elf passed away (1.5 years ago) which of course presented a whole set of new tasks to be taken care of.  Eventually I got back to sorting the house and then did the workshop; that alone took several months. 

As for cleaning the studio I had to do it eventually because I applied to Texas State San Marcos for the B.F.A in Studio Arts but until I knew for certain; I wasn't in any rush. Then one day in mid-June I just/finally went into the studio and started.  

I started with my office and then went along the wall starting at the hydraulic press by removing stuff from each block of upper and lower cabinets and the drawer, emptying cabinets, dusting, vacuuming, sorting and putting things back. I also had to clear the floor of old packing materials, the table of a warp for my table loom and all the hydraulic press dies. 
Lastly, in the next few days, I am cleaning the rolling tool box and then I will mark each hydraulic die and put them in the rolling tool box.  Along the way I removed the polishing, grinding, and sanding machines and replaced them with newer equipment; along with taking the rolling mill which was on a small table that was also too low (no pictures). I put the rolling mill on the counter where the polishing machine was, I put a new JoolTool where the grinder was, and set up a new belt/disk sander too. At the soldering station I set up my new micro torch that uses oxy/propane.

The pictures show before and after for each area. 

I am NOT killing off The Adventurous Silversmith!
As a matter of fact, it's going to come back with gusto.

Here's what's happening but first the back story
When we moved to Texas, I looked into Texas State - San Marcos (TXST-SM) which is 30 miles up the road and they have a Metals program in the Art Department; it's part of the B.F.A in Studio Art program. I could go but it would best if I waited a year to qualify for Texas state residency to save a lot of money for the tuition. In addition to working, going back to school would have to wait until I retired.  I also found out that I could take the classes as a non-degree student but I would have the lowest priority when registering for classes. 

Then I forgot all about this idea. I retired and then the Shop Elf passed away and my life was taken over by many other things that had to be done.   

Several months I was in the studio, which was a disaster area, to start cleaning it and I found the file that had the information and I decided to look into to program it again.  And here's what I found

1. I could apply to get a second Bachelors
2. Some of my course work would (math, science, english/writing) could transfer over so I would not have to take those Core classes again
3. Texas as a program called College for All and adults over the age of 65 can get 6 credit hours for free if there is room in the class - PER SEMESTER but it only covers the base tuition not any of the other fees. This works out as the equivalent to 2 classes.

So I applied; I had my transcripts for my B.S. in Engineering and M.S. in Manufacturing Management sent to the admissions office. This past week I was accepted!! 

Now I have to take New Student Orientation, schedule and meet with my department Advisor, register and pay for the Fall semester classes. I start classes at the end of August

AND CLEAN MY STUDIO 

After 15 years I am shutting down The Adventurous Silversmith in June 2024
I will still do some metal work though not blogging about it here.
​Thanks for following me for so long.

Waaay back during the pandemic my niece (a.k.a "The wonder baby") got engaged and there was joy in the family. I thought long and hard about what to get her and her future husband for a wedding present.  And even though they weren't married yet, they bought a house and that resulted in me deciding to make them a quilt.  Since we have very different thoughts on style and even favorite colors I told her that I would need her assistance in selecting a quilt pattern and colors but that the exact details after that were up to me.  

I started the search for a pattern in Jan 2021 and after many exchanges settled on a modernist pattern called Upwards.  As for fabric colors she decided to stay with colors similar to what was shown in the pattern picture.

In May 2021, when things started to ease from the pandemic, the fabric hunt began. I decided I wanted to stay with on fabric manufacturer and pattern so the fabric all had the same design. I found a fabric family at the quilt shop in New Braunfels but wasn't thrilled with it only because the overall tone was more what I like and I was not certain she could like it. I then hit the road and when to a great quilt shop out in La Grange, The Quilted Skein, which is a 2.5 hour drive - each way.   While in La Grange I also when to the Texas Quilt Museum which was nice but I wasn't thrilled with the current exhibition.  Note: They did get married in May so this was perfect timing.

The ladies at the quilt shop were very helpful and I found a fabric family that I lined and I knew she would like too. Now, the largest size quilt in the pattern was a double so I had done the math before I left to get fabric for a square Queen/King which would result in the quilt being 106" by 106". I bought the white, gold, grey blue, and navy blue fabric and the backing would be from "backing" fabric which is 108" wide that would be pieced together since the backing has to be 4" wider, on each edge, to get put into a long arm quilting machine. I also planned on going to the Houston Quilt Festival to find the fabric if/when the pandemic was over. 

I started cutting and sewing the blocks and in October I went to the Quilt Fest and found similar colors for the backing fabric.  Soon afterwards working on the quilt came to a halt  as I had a new job and I was planning a big trip to Scotland so I was training for the walk and gathering my supplies.  The trip was a success despite coming home with Covid... 

I resumed work on the quilt in November 2022 and had the blocks finished and was about to start the assembly when the Shop Elf passed away in January and that put a grinding halt to all sorts of things I had in process.

When October rolled around I was ready to start on the quilt again. I started laying out the blocks to sew the top together and I decided not to use the cut pieced blocks (half  and quarter square triangles) around the outside edge and instead use solid pieces of fabric that make up the pieced blocks. It took about 3 days to assemble and sew the quilt top.  Then I worked on the backing which took another 4 days to design, iron, cut, sew and iron.  FINALLY, I could take it to the quilter. Due to cost I am going to sew the binding on myself; I made the double fold binding from gold, navy blue, and grey blue of the backing material. I now have 12 yards waiting for the quilt to be returned from the quilter sometime around the New Year.

That left me with 11 pieced blocks so what was I to do with them?? I doodled a while with layout and came up with a wide layout that I could piece with solid edge pieces like the large quilt that would be perfect for the back of a couch. And of course because I am an over achiever, I used more fabric from the large quilt's backing to piece together a backing for this quilt which will make it a 2 sided quilt. I took so long to make the wedding quilt and they are in a "new home" I decided that this bonus quilt would be the house warming present.

Today I am starting the quilting on the bonus one. When both quilts are done I will post more pictures but for now, enjoy these pictures below.

There is a Yarn Crawl every October (well except during the Pandemic) in South Central Texas. It is The Best Little Yarn Crawl in Texas.  When I moved here in 2017, I went to EVERY single shop over 4 days in 2 weekends but none since then.  
This year I wanted to go to a new shop in Georgetown, north of Austin, so I invited a knitting friend - Linda along for the ride and after we were done with the shop we had lunch and then for a bonus round, hit one more in Austin. Here are some pictures of the yummy things we saw...

Oh, what did I buy?? And yes I blew my budget!
A collection of 4 colors of a flax yarn which I will use to make a market bag (picture below)
A Japanese silk cone and a mini skein of a Japanese paper yarn to make a scarf
FOUR knit animal kits - Rabbit, Blowfish, Bunny, and Octopus (picture below)