Another week gone!

And probably forgotten! Okay, not all of it forgotten, but I’m sure I’ve forgotten lots! It’s just what I do! I had a great class on Wednesday night – super fun group of students! One of the gals even brought us some yummy brownies (no, not ‘special’ ones!) and a big carafe of coffee. Another lady made us some fudge. We were certainly spoiled that night! It was ‘Melting’ night – pour casting, broom straw casting, water casting, cuttlebone casting – you know, just melting stuff! It was fun, but raining a bit, so getting the larger quantities of silver to melt got a little difficult. I must remember to bring the big tip for my torch for Monday night’s class.

This weekend, I’m hosting a Surface Texture class at my home studio. I must say we had a great time today! We prepared lots of metal for acid etching tomorrow. We played with the rolling mill (I have a feeling there are a couple of rolling mills finding new homes soon! LOL!). I’ll grab some pictures tomorrow of the stuff we’re playing with. We’re not making nay specific projects, just creating textured pieces of metal for future designs. It’s a great way to kick start your creativity.

Speaking of creativity! I made myself a hollow ring this week! As much as I LOVE the tourmaline one in my previous post, I wouldn’t wear it very often (art is lovely to look at, but not very practical for those of us who have meat hooks for hands!). So I created one similar to the amethyst ring – a little lower profile, using two bicolor stones (clear on one end, colored on the other). The one stone is a very pretty pink tourmaline, the other a lovely amethyst. Just a happy coincidence that I had bicolors of each in the same size! Who knew?! Anyway, here it is!

It looks so cool from my point of view when I’m wearing it – and I can wear it purple side towards me or pink side towards me, depending on the day! And from the top, it looks VERY industrial (happy accident! LOL!).

I love it, I wear it all the time (24/7!). It’s been a long time since I made a ring that I like this much.

Now for the gratuitous pictures of family and stuff – okay, so not the two legged family, but the four legged variety! This is George, a green iguana (one of two we have). They’re both about 3 feet long, and not exactly friendly though at least we can feed George by hand – the other one (Wong) is just plain evil! LOL).

And as spring is well upon us (and the stupid heat has backed off enough to make it really nice outside!!), my lilacs are in full bloom and their fragrance is breathtaking!

My dh (‘dear husband’ this weekend!) pressure washed the deck chairs, table and umbrella. I’m not so sure I want the umbrella on the deck as it blocks the view. No, not the view of the yard, the lilac, mock orange, and golden plum tree all do a nice job of that, but the view of the sky! When I sit in one of the chairs, lean back as far as I can and look straight up, I can see the leaves, branches and lots and lots of sky!! Here’s what it looked like the other day ….

These are the branches of the golden plum tree that grows up from under the deck. It has grown so much in the nine years we’ve been here – the perfect privacy screen between us and our next door neighbors! We love it! And the bonus is all the yummy plums later on in the summer!

Well, I am certainly chatty tonight!! Guess I had best get back down into the studio to prepare for tomorrow’s etching class. I’m also bound and determined to finish a couple of pieces of jewelry that I have in the works. I do so enjoy my ‘job’! LOL! Cheers!