Torch Song

Cell Phone video (looks better smaller) of a classmate torch firing enamel. The results are below.

Another cell phone photo of completed pendants that were torch fired. Aren't they awesome? I really love this! It's not my work, but it certainly is inspirational to me.

I made some very experimental beads out of copper tubes that weren't done when I took these pictures. Taking classes from college students reminds us that experimentation is to be embraced! I strongly encourage anyone who has access to a college/university that offers art classes to the community to take a chance and stretch. You'll learn as much from your fellow students as you will from the instructors.

I've been wanting to learn how to enamel for a long long time. I'm no longer afraid of a torch. I intend to purchase some enamel and a torch and play this summer (don't have a work bench set up in the basement yet, but that's on my list!)

Today's quotation comes from one of my favorite women of all time, Eleanor Roosevelt: You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.

NOTE FOR MILWAUKEE AREA READERS: UWM'S Peck Center for the Arts is offering their intensive metalsmithing classes again this summer. http://www4.uwm.edu/psoa/outreach/jewelry.html