Rainy Friday

We had a fun, though way too brief, visit from friends from Atlanta. both incredible artists. Susan does pheomenal stained glass and Michelle is a clay artist. So I got a day off!!! Hopefully they got enough of a peak at Seagrove to come back soon and spend more time. And maybe bring our friend Kathy back with them too:)

I've been in a bird state of mind. Today it may be leaves though.

Sushi Making in Seagrove

Who says there's nothing to do in Seagrove?? Many thanks to Hitomi Shibata for organizing a sushi making workshop at our house. George & Mayumi Yamazawa (and Mama-san) came from Durham to teach a group of use to make Maki sushi. Yamazawa-san owns Yamazushi Authentic Japanese Cuisine in Durham and has been learning pottery making in Seagrove with David Stuempfle.

A goup of us gathered to learn just how to make sushi rice and how to roll an authentic Maki roll. This was such a fun day, and it is not as easy as you might think it is.

We practiced pressing and pushing the rice on the granite and then moved on to trying it on the nori. What fun and enlightenment.
 
By the time we were done with our lesson we had many, many, many cucumber and tuna rolls. Everyone also brought an Asian dish to share as a potluck to go with the sushi. It was a feast.
 
I can guarantee I'll be making sushi for dinner at home. And I will so be looking forward to visiting Yamazushi. This is authentic Japanese food with a few exceptions for Americans (dragonrolls, etc), but don't be expecting any cream cheese in your sushi here! And go to the website and see what a wonderful menu they offer. What a great way to start off the week!

Spring is in the Air, but March will coming marching in!

Boy is it difficult staying inside! It is so nice out there. We played in the paddle boat on the pond this weekend and that is just what I want to go and do today!  But I am staying at the bench, the Catawba Valley Pottery Festival will be here before we know it. Well, I might go home a little early. After all you can find a lot of inspiration in playing with nature. Today I have been making bird themes...songbird pins and roosters too. They are in the tumbler and will have patina applied and stones set tomorrow. Pendant and pins have been my mode the past couple of days.

Oh, and how could I forget! I am doing bolo ties now too. I have had requests for them over the years and finally have done some. I will make some women's also. You think western wear will go over in NC??

I have a new look on my website now and I hope you will go take a look and let me know what you think of it. I also have an  up to date page of jewelry currently available to purchase now.

I am hoping my new thermocouple will come. My kiln is loaded with stones I hope to be fitting into my Best of Kiln category. you never know till they come out though. It really stinks to glaze, load and turn on the kiln only to have it not work! So stay tuned for some hopefully really cool stones to be coming out to be new jewelry! Now I am going to look for some tutorials on making images go where you want them on your blog!

Craziest, Most Difficult Customer? Wanna Play?

Anyone Want to Play? Tell  your story of your strangest or craziest customer interaction??

I have one to beat the band (and everything else you can imagine), but don't want to play alone! If you'll share I will and maybe we can write a column or a book!

I have so many fabulous customers-friends out there. I am lucky to have not had many, if any,  weird interactions and I LOVE my customers/clients/friends, and so you all will probably like this one or, at the very least, find it unbelievable.

Just a hint 56 emails! Let me know, this could be fun! Hide the names to protect the guilty too! Here or by email!

Some Tips for Your Silver Jewelry

Sterling silver is 92.5% pure silver and another metal, most always copper is used to make up the remaining 7.5 percent content of a sterling silver mix. Copper makes the silver harder, but gives it a tendency to tarnish.Tarnish is caused when your jewelry comes into contact with sulfur compounds, mainly hydrogen sulfide in the air. Other culprits that will cause tarnish are wool, felt, fossil fuels, rubber bands, latex gloves, rubber carpet padding, some paints and stains, and foods (eggs and onions and foods made with them). Tarnish formation is stronger in a humid climate, which is why why if you are at the beach your jewelry may tarnish much more quickly.

Store sterling silver jewelry in ziploc plastic bag. It will protect it from tarnishing

Add a small strip of anti-tarnish paper in your plastic bag to provide additional protection against tarnish. (I have them available if you need them)

Don't wrap silver in any type of tape, it can leave a sticky residue that is hard to get off.

Don't use rubber bands when storing silver, as they contain sulfur and that will react with the silver by leaving black marks that are extremely difficult to remove. Strong black tarnish marks are a bear to remove.

Keep your silver jewelry away from salt, bleach and other strong chemicals, it can corrode or tarnish it.
Don't use toothpast to polish your jewelry. It often contains baking soda which is an abrasive and will scratch your jewelry. This might be ok if your finish is a scratch finish, but if you have a highly polished piece, it will be damaged. Your best bet is to use a silver polishing cloth. If you have a piece with patina on it ("antiqued" or darkened places) the cloth will get the highlights and leave the patina. A silver dip will take it all off and you jewelry will look quite different.

Silver plated jewelry components are electroplated, with a thin coating of silver that is chemically deposited on base metal- a layer of silver so thin that it can quickly wear off with use. Many people that have problems with earrings and silver, have found that it is the nickel used in these inexpensive findings that are the problem. Always ask to be sure you are getting sterling or fine silver in your earring and necklace components, anything that touches the skin is subject to corrosives in the air and oils and acids in your skin.

Silver prices keep going up, now 650% higher (no not a typo!!) than when I started making jewelry in the late 90's, so take care of your jewelry and it will last a very long time!

A Resolution for Success

One of the best ways to plan to fail isn't just to fail to plan ... You can also plan to succeed so thoroughly, so perfectly, so mind-blowingly that it is absolutely incredible ... and ... inevitably undoable.
Don’t resolve to succeed. Resolve to work at it.

Don’t resolve to know it. Resolve to think about it.

Don’t resolve to know it all. Resolve to learn more.

When you don’t meet with absolute success (and you won’t), remember that you weren’t aiming for absolute success ... You were aiming to learn more. That way, you won’t need to quit because you failed. You can just keep learning more, and that makes you ... a success.

An all-or-nothing mind-set is a fantastic way to abbreviate the whole process of setting goals and making resolutions. As soon as you see you can’t do it all, you can quit!

Instead, simply resolve to make one change and think about it, reflect on it, and go from there. You don’t have to do it all. And you don’t have to do nothing. There’s a lot of good stuff in-between.

Today I will bring all my paperwork up to date so that maybe I can go back into the studio to clean and then start making some more jewelry. The shows will start before I know it!

Happy New Year to all.