Artist Reception Saturday night!

I’ve got my gallery reception tomorrow at Art on Broadway, 6-9 pm. Champagne, chocolate fountain, and wonderful, wonderful art and gallery artists! My work will be showcased along with Bert Cohen’s in our month-long show. 12570 Southwest Broadway Street Beaverton, OR 97005 Come have a fun night out and get something for your special valentine!

Crunch Time!

The amount of different work I have this week is staggering. To me, anyway. Drop off for the duo-show at Art on Broadway is a week from today. I also need to make sure I have inventory for the Celebration of Creativity in March, which isn’t that far away. Some inventory will come from Art on Broadway, some is being made now.
Also, I have been invited to another gallery in Portland to discuss them carrying my work. I need to bring work for them to see, work that they can have, meaning NOT work for Art on Broadway, or Celebration of Creativity.
Hectic, yeah? The timing is just all ooky. But I will get through with a smile on my face, it is nice to have so many places wanting my work, or wanting to consider my work.

The reception for the show at Art on Broadway is on February 4th, 6-9 pm. Here’s the blurb:

Cohen & Kruse – Contemporary Designs In Jewelry
BEAVERTON, OR, January 9, 2012 – Silver, copper, glass and brass will be the star players in the jewelry created by Roberta Cohen and Carli Kruse to be featured during February at Art On Broadway Gallery, 12570 SW Broadway Street, Beaverton, Oregon. The gallery will host an Artists Reception on Saturday, February 4, from 6 to 9 p.m. in honor of both artists and their latest work.
Cohen says her process is always evolving and her current pieces will focus on wire wrapping and metalwork. Silver, copper, and brass – along with sea glass – will be evident in the jewelry she is presenting. In addition to some single metal pieces, Cohen will feature a number of mixed metal items.
Glass is the star of Kruse’s work – flame worked glass to be precise – with silver and copper taking on supporting roles. Kruse, who makes her own glass beads, says, “Glass behaves like water when molten, and while you can shape the path of a river with stones and sticks, the water eventually makes a decision on the direction of its journey. A final piece is a melding of my own vision and the journey the molten glass chooses to follow.”
The show opens on February 2 and runs through March 3.
Art On Broadway is located at 12570 SW Broadway Street, Beaverton, Oregon, within walking distance of the Max stop at Beaverton Round and just a few doors west of the Beaverton History Center. Open Tuesday through Saturday 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

So yes, that is a lot going on this week. I also am very busy with my glass straw orders, and building up inventory for the Gathering of the Guilds show in May, and working hard on ramping up for Thomas Dolby’s 2012 Time Capsule Tour. It is going all around the United States in March and April. If you haven’t heard his music lately, or ever, this is a fantastic time to catch an intimate show with this multi-Grammy nominated musician. There’s lots of work to be done on his website and social media sites, so I am very busy with that as well. Add in also being a Mom, and being the web person for my son’s preschool, and working on the one for the gallery, and for another band, The Shanghai Woolies. Plus the usual housework, errands, and wanting to hang out with my husband and…..

Yeah. PHEW. It is going to be a VERY busy Spring.

Those transparent pressed beads came out great!

These will be come a necklace for the Art on Broadway show, once my final findings arrive.

Solved?

I’ve had an issue for years with one certain kind of bead. Transparent glass in a mold. I get strange, football-shaped bubbles right against the mandrel. I’ve spent years trying to figure it out, I have a thread on one of the lampwork communities that I started in 2006 about this issue.

I had a little Facebook discussion with Jill Symons the other night. Her url doesn’t match her last name at the moment, I am going with the url for now. =) Anyway, she gave me some ideas, and I tried it last night, and I THINK it worked.

I used a press that is not the worst at making these strange bubbles, I will try that tonight. But, I will take a photo of the successful beads once they come out of the kiln.

I’m about to be SO busy for the next couple months. 2 shows, which overlap, meaning I need separate work for each of them. One more big show right after that. One weekend class soon after that. And lots of computer work as well, which I will get into in a future post. I need to get a piece ready to go into The Museum of Contemporary Craft downtown at the end of the month, as part of a Portland Open Studios exhibit. And I have a large custom piece to get working on. It’s just…. a lot. Good, but a lot of good.

wip necklace

Working hard, getting things ready for a gallery show and reception next month. This one is from a how-to I saw in a magazine, I need to go try to find it to link it. I am just playing, doing it from memory, so I hope it ends up with a style all my own by the time I am done. The colors remind me of the desert.

Down, down…..

Silver has tanked in the last couple days. So I bought some more while the price was low. I don’t like dipping into my funds without planning, but I know, in the long run, it will save me money.

On a whim I bought just a foot of half round, to try making a ring. I have never done that before, but what the heck.

Like the last thing I need is another new project, but with my recent sway back towards soldering work, I may as well try.

I’ve shut down for the holidays, but I will try to escape into the studio for a little “me” playtime before we get into Christmas proper. I hope I am not overextended in the early part of next year. Just, more time in the studio, probably at night. Not a bad thing, just… brrr! It’s cold out there, and the glass does behave differently unless I leave the heat on in there 24-7, which is a waste of energy.

Happy holidays!

Dark Days Make for a Brighter Flame.

I am looking out the window and it is raining. A lot. And windy. The leaves fall sideways like smears of red, orange, and yellow paint. I get the yard waste bin full and by the next day it doesn’t look like I have raked at all. I did miss fall while living in California…but living in a place with Fall as an adult means a lot of raking I wasn’t quite aware of as a kid. I just knew how to jump in the piles, then.

Tonight is going to be cold, and I have studio work to do. I will get the kiln running a couple hours early to help warm up the room, and the small wall heater has been on in there since last night. I wanted to do some soldering, but I think I have some other projects to take care of. Soldering and working with glass, for me, involve switching hoses around, so I like to set it up one way when I know I will be doing a lot of something. I need to switch back to glass tomorrow, anyway, for my student.

I am working hard and getting a lot of new ideas. The gallery, Art on Broadway, that I had a piece in during Open Studios invited me to be one of their members/artists. So I put most of the work that I have in there…and I need to make more to fill the holes of what was sold, and to start building up my work for the shows next spring. The gallery is fabulous fun and I love going to the receptions.

 

Anyway, here is a pair of earrings I have finished recently. I am starting to do final work with more detail on things, more polishing, more shine. It is worth the extra effort to make the silver gleam, if I am not oxidizing it.

Yup, tinkering with the website

So that it will soon have an online store. The blog is still here, up on the left! =) It will start to look more pretty very soon.

More in the next couple days, you deserve an update! Much is going on!

Achoo!

I wish I had some new photos to share today, but I don’t. I am in bed, trying desperately to be well. Last Sunday (not yesterday, a week ago,) I started feeling not so healthy, and I still am not really sure I am climbing back out of it. Coughing, goo, huge sinus pressure…I am flying through tissues, advil, Nyquil, and have a very personal relationship with my neti pot at the moment. Aren’t you glad to know all that?

 

I want to be down in the studio making some last earrings for Portland Open Studios, which is this weekend, and next! HOORAY! I know I will be feeling better by then. I need to finish cleaning and set up the items for sale. Do consider, if you are local, coming out to to the event! You can buy tour guides online or at stores like New Seasons. There is an iphone app version available at that online link as well!

 

Thursday I will bring a piece to a fine art gallery downtown to be displayed during the event. I am bringing the piece that one first place jewelry at this year’s Oregon Glass Guild show. I love seeing new galleries in town and am happy to be a part of this one, Art on Broadway.

Midsummer Electroformed Pendant

The summer zenith

Summer! The height of summer!

Here in Oregon, we have skirted the heat that is oppressing so many other areas in the United States. I am grateful to not be blanketed with relentless heat every day…but the cool isn’t doing my tomatoes any good. The blueberries have come out, and are fat globes of juicy summer in my garden. Derek and I have eaten all the raspberries on our vine, which is a very small vine. They spread like crazy, so I have it in a pot to keep it from taking over. Maybe it will expand next year anyway, in its pot and we will have more.

Things are very busy in the studio as well. I am sitting here having a coffee but I know that I have a list of fun things to make when I get back home. I sold the necklace in this entry a few days ago, it will go to a new home tomorrow. I need to make a couple more, there were a few sad individuals that weren’t quick enough on the draw. One of them will be using a lot of black glass, which will be fun. I get in my favorite color ruts, and I would like to work with more bright colors with this design. So this will be a good challenge when I sit down at the torch.

A pair of tropical earrings have their beads made, now it is just the silver work. And a commissioned

personalized sterling necklace, saying “COURAGE.” I love making the personalized jewelry, people have such great stories and reasons to commission the work they do. I feel honored to be a part of the story, even if it is just to capture the moment.

And with that, I am off to the studio shortly.