Not much happening in the studio right now.
It is too hot - we have been near, at or above 100F for over a week now and it is to continue for another week. I might be able to do some chasing & repousse but....

I am too tired - the past few weeks at the day job have been very long and very stressful which means I am a bit metal burned out to think about working in the studio.  I spent last Sunday watching some movies and I did it again yesterday and I am going to do it again today.

Hopefully next weekend my mental batteries will be recharged and I will do some metal work. 

After 2 other cancelled play dates, the etching of the musical cuff finally happened this past weekend.  Lisa, the awesome DBA and muscian, drove the LOoOoonnnNnggggG distance to my house (it was a 50 minute drive, and it really isn't that far!) and arrived at 11 am. It should be noted that she should have arrived at 10am but her day job got in the way.

We got started right away. We walked through the design in Illustrator, the export to Photoshop, import to PS and the inverting of the drawing,  printing on the paper, cleaning the silver and applying the mask to silver.  Oh, trust me I had every thing laid out - silver, iron, hot plate, etching bath, rectifier, gloves, paint pens, tape - all in the kitchen by the sink. 

The first and the SECOND application of the mask did not work but we got it on the third time and then it was the fixing of the mask, applying the electrodes and applying the power.  

IT's ALIVE!, IT's ALIVE!!!

Every 10 minutes we checked the progress and after 40 minutes, out of the etching bath it came.  We rinsed and then found that some of the masking had not taken and had come off during the every 10 minute check when we brushed off the surface with a soft brush.   But we moved on to remove the electrode and tape that masked the back. After cleaning it was then into the garage to do a preliminary polish; trim with shear and sanding sticks; and back to the garage to finish the polishing with the soon to be cuff having many baths in the ultrasonic cleaner in-between the various compounds.  After all the etching, trimming, and polishing Lisa applied some solvent dye to color the bars and notes and then we shaped it for her wrist.   

THEN we popped a bottle of champagne, celebrated and went out for dinner.    Here are LOTS of pictures but not all of them as we took over 143!

The fair opened Friday night and yet the results for the Jewelry competition were not posted until today.
Yes, I chewed all my nails on both my hands and feet off waiting!

And what are the results???

The Squash Blossom & Vine took 1st Place in the Chasing & Repousse category/class.
The Tenacious Tentacle Cuff took 1st Place in the Art Jewelry, Amateur category/class.

The links above will take you to a search page that will have links to all the blog posts about those two items.

For all the results use this link which will take you to the exhibition page and the links to the results pdf are at the bottom.

I would also like to point out that one of the students in my Squash Blossom cuff workshop, Sylvia, took 2nd Place in the Chasing & Repousse category for her Squash Blossom Cuff.  Congratulations Sylvia!!!