Congratulations, Pat and Susan!

Congrats to Pat Kuehn - she had a beaded piece accepted for publication by Beadwork Magazine later this year. We'll look forward to seeing that. She brought a trayful of gorgeous crystal and beaded jewelry for show and tell - no photo, sorry.
Congratulations also to Susan Silvey - she's a Saul Bell 2012 Award finalist in the Metal Clay category!

We also saw Janice's amazing Leather Pendant with Zentangles, Cheryl's Polymer Clay Zentangle pendant using colored pens and gloss highlights, and more. No photos - Sorry.

If you missed the meeting, you missed a great class in Planning and Design of your work.
Gale Schlagel showed us some of her early PMC pendants and how a lack of understanding and advance planning resulted in pieces that were hard to attach, had no coordinating finishing pieces (end-caps or connectors) or had holes in the wrong places, hang crooked, etc. (note: Gale's mistakes are way above my best pieces, but still....)

• tip: Rio Grande and other metal clay suppliers will buy-back your fired fine silver mistakes to recycle the metal and reduce your loss.

Carol Harder lead us in a review of the Principles and Elements of Design. (We got a 25 minute, condensed version of a 6-week design unit from her art class curriculum.)



Elements of Art

• Line - the simplest form

She handed out 30 inch piece of straight, steel wire with the instructions to use the entire piece and create a pin. No photos, but Cecilia and Janice both finished very cool, wearable wire brooches.

• Shape - circle, triangle, square
• Form - 3 dimensional shapes, ball, pyramid, etc.
• Space - positive/negative, inside/outside  

•  Value - light, dark, shadow, cast shadow, reflection (chiarscuro)

• Color - primary (red, blue, yellow), secondary (green, orange, purple),  complementary, etc

• Texture - important for PMC artists!! You know this one

We also looked at some online resources for inspiration and ideas.

• keep a sketchbook of your ideas for future use - you WILL forget your great ideas
• draw out your idea before you start
• Carol made her students do 10 drawings before starting a project!
• Subscribe to online blogs such as Jewelry Making Daily, Start with Sketches - Save Money, your own Idea Book, Record your Inspiration or check out the many, many books and publications aimed at jewelry artists.