Michael David Sturlin - Day 2

I am feeling marginally less like a walking zombie tonight after day 2 of Michael Sturlin's workshop at Beadfx but still my brain feels pretty full of new information and ideas. I'm not a goldsmith and don't have a burning desire to work extensively or exclusively forming objects out of metal (no offense, Michael!) but I do find it interesting to know some of the basics and I especially like the idea that I can possible make my own clasps and findings, instead of buying the same ones that are available to everyone else. Today, we worked with silver wire and flat metal and there were handouts about working with a jeweller's saw, which I am sure will be very useful in the future.

I found taking a workshop from Michael to be especially interesting because of his work with mentoring other artists. As well as being a master goldsmith, I believe he also spends time working as a life coach, so in spending a couple of days with him, one is treated to several nuggets of advice and inspiration gently provided in a way to make you think about what you are interested in and what you might want to accomplish, both with your art and your life.

Here's a picture Rosemary took of our class group. I really like this picture because we're all laughing (I had just made a joke about how we're not supposed to call MDS "Mike"), although we had to take a couple more shots after this because hello! There is a lamp in front of my face in this shot! I am so going to have to call my agent, I should not have to put up with these conditions. (Kyle, if you're reading this, I know you're going to ask, "why did we need to include the water cooler in the shot??")

And here's a picture of Michael and me, just so I can say, hey, I met Michael David Sturlin!

Michael David Sturlin - Day 1

I am taking a 2 day "Quick Clasps and Findings" workshop at Beadfx with Michael David Sturlin. Day 1 was very exciting and I'd love to tell you all about it but after an eight hour day of class and then dinner with Michael, Marg (the owner of Beadfx) and a couple of the other ladies in class, I am now so very tired and my brain is complete mush. You know that feeling of "my brain can't possibly absorb any more information today and please don't ask me to make conversation because I would only sound like a babbling idiot if I tried to put words together in any kind of logical sequence, but if I could just sit here quietly on the couch in my pyjamas watching the TV with a rather glazed expression on my face for a few minutes before I fall into bed, I'm sure I'll feel much better in the morning".

In the meantime, here are a few photos to tide you over until tomorrow night, when hopefully I will be slightly more awake and able to blog in more detail about the wonderful time we are having and what a great teacher Michael is. The top photo is Michael at the bench - I didn't realize the block was standing up so you can't see what he is working on - the middle photo shows the shepherd's hook, figure 8's and S hooks we made this morning, and this bottom photo is a toggle clasp we made this afternoon. At the moment, we learning with copper wire - tomorrow, if we're feeling particularly brave, we're going to make the same components out of silver wire.

Boy, it's windy out there!

Phew! I am finally home, after heading downtown on the subway after work to get my hair cut. Of course, afterwards I had to do a little shopping as I need a new pair of leather gloves, having never heard back from Air Canada regarding my beloved raincoat that I foolishly left on the plane on the way home from Milwaukee back in June, which just happened to have my leather gloves in the pockets (haven't missed them all summer but now that the weather is starting to turn, I need a new pair!) Since they were having a sale, I naturally had to pick up a new scarf and a pair of wool gloves at the same time. Then was desperately in need of some dinner, so I hit the food court. Eventually headed home on the subway, and only had to change seats once, as I was sitting beside a rather portly gentleman who seemed intent on consuming an entire bag of cashew nuts in 5 minutes or less, while chewing with his mouth open - ew. When he reached for a banana, I knew it was time to change seats. Made my way out of the station to my car and headed home, only to realize en route that I needed some groceries in order to have food in the house for breakfast tomorrow, which meant a stop at the grocery store which meant that my beautifully styled hair ended up looking like I had just pulled my head out of the blender because did I mention it is raining? And really super windy outside? The kind of wind that blows the right right into your face, making it especially hard to see if you wear glasses, as I do. And oh yeah, it's cold. And dark.

Oh sure, we get wind and rain and dark in the summertime too but somehow, it's harder to take in October and November because it's starting to get so darned cold. Cold and wet is not good. Cold and wet and in your face is worse. And no, I didn't have my umbrella because of course, you can't carry groceries and an umbrella, it simply can't be done.

But at last, I'm home, finally, a little bit damp, a little bit tired, with my hairdo slightly askew, although it is a testament to the skill of my hairdresser, Teresa, that my hair still looks pretty darned good now that it is drying out, because it is such a good cut.

So while Winnie the Pooh might have enjoyed his blustery day, I cannot, in all honesty, say that I enjoyed all of my blustery evening.

Mistaken Identity

The Toronto Bead Society has a section on their website called "Member Links", where members can post their website or blog addresses for others to view. I had submitted my blog address when I renewed my membership in the summer but hadn't visited the website until a couple of weeks ago, only to discover they had the wrong link posted for me.

They had posted this link by mistake: http://cynfulcreations.blogspot.com/. It's the blog of a woman more than half my age with a young child who only has about a month worth of blog topics (which mostly seem to be about the topic of blogging and her efforts to find a part time job) and she hasn't blogged anything new since April 2008.

I knew this blog existed when I created mine, which is why my name includes the word "Canada" in it. Knowing we were focused on different subjects (I'm not sure what it is she is creating but it doesn't appear to be jewellery related), I didn't think she would mind if I shared the name.

I have since found another blogger with "our" name: http://cynful-creations.com/blog/. She is a photographer named Cynthia Fletcher, who appears to have set her blog up since I did, but she too hasn't blogged for a while (since March of this year) and she only has 2 blog postings in total, so again, probably not too much of a conflict.

As far as the TBS mixup, it was an easy fix. I just emailed the TBS website editor to let her know there was a problem and they corrected it right away.

I had someone send me a message the other day through Facebook, asking me if I had lived in New Rochelle, NY in 1969 and attended a certain high school. Needless to say, that isn't me either (I hadn't even graduated from public school in 1969!) but it's interesting to know there are other people out there in the world with your name, living completely different lives. Sometimes I Google my name to see who they are and what they're doing in their alternate universe, just for fun. You should try it, you might find the results to be very entertaining.

Getting Published

The October meeting of the Toronto Bead Society featured a panel discussing the topic of "Selling Your Designs for Publication". The panel consisted of Maria Rypan (http://www.rypandesigns.com/), Marilyn Gardiner (http://www.marilyngardiner.com/) and Carla Canonico, the editor of Needle Pulling Thread magazine (http://www.aneedlepullingthread.com/). (BTW, I hadn't read this magazine before but I won a copy at the meeting and quite enjoyed it. Mostly focused on needlework and quilting - the photos are beautiful - but they do have a couple of beading designs as well.)

Maria had her first design published in Bead & Button magazine in 2003 and has been featured in several publications since then. She is currently appearing in the October/November 2009 issue of Beadwork magazine with a design call "scythian gold" (must be a typo, should be "Cynthia's Gold", don't you think?!!! Actually, "the name relates to one of the original habitants of the Ukraine, the Scythians, and draws inspiration from troves of ancient gold jewelry excavated in the country's royal burial mounds", according to the write up.) Her comments on the panel were very informative from a designer's perspective.

Carla, as an actual editor of a magazine, gave pointers from the perspective of the people who receive submissions from artists and consider them for inclusion in their magazine.

Marilyn is a jewellery designer and teacher who has done quite a bit of self-publication, mostly of her own patterns and designs.

It was an interesting discussion covering a variety of topics, from the importance of good photographs to send with your submissions to the need to be multi-tasking (teaching, designing, operating a website, blogging) and networking all the time in order to keep your product (i.e., you) in the public eye to the necessity of creating instructions that are easy to follow. It was interesting to hear that your design doesn't have to be complicated to be chosen but it does need to be unique. It is very important to read the submission guidelines for each magazine (often found on their website) but often, it just boils down to the fact that you happen to submit something at a certain point in time that matches the criteria of what the editors are looking for at that time.

Some of the key tips were: don't submit the same piece to more than one magazine at a time, don't be discouraged if your piece isn't accepted (it doesn't mean it's not fabulous, it's just not what they need right then), submit work that is different, unique, innovative and well put together, play with designs and always, make pieces you truly believe in instead of just something you think will "sell".

Speaking of being published, I am incredibly excited to advise that I am featured in the latest issue (Winter 2010) of Bead Unique magazine. A photo of yours truly making glass beads at the torch (taken by Dwyn Tomlinson) appears on page 41 of the magazine, as part of an article written by Jennifer Keil about one of my favourite beading stores, Beadfx in Toronto, as the topic of their regular column, "I Could Just Live Here!". I look a bit like a bug with my protective didymium glasses but as Marg Yamanaka, owner of Beadfx, describes it, I am grinning like a cheshire cat, obviously happy to be making beads!!

As far as being published in a beading magazine, hey, a girl's got to start somewhere!! :)

Funky Ring

The subject of last week's Bead Crazy Advanced class was the making of this funky ring. It was a very simple design and very easy to size to fit on your finger. I am looking forward to making several more of this design in the days to come. The choices of beads are endless.




The first two photos show the ring made by our teacher, Katherine. The second photo is especially good for seeing the side detail of the pattern. The third photo shows how dynamic this design looks in a blue colourway. The fourth photo shows the ring I made in class - yes, I actually finished the project! I'm not overly keen on the colour combination or the beads themselves but my selection was limited at the time. As I say, the future possibilities are endless and will hopefully be much more striking.


This ring makes up very quickly, using both ends of the 28 gauge wire on which the beads are strung. However, I'd also like to try making it with thread and two needles, or possibly with that super fine beading wire called Soft Touch that is thin enough to be threaded onto a needle.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to track down the source of this pattern. The instructions we received don't show what magazine it came from, but I can tell you that the designer's name is Martine van den Bussche of France and that the article appeared with this very funky photo (which unfortunately is not very well reproduced in the photocopy we were given) of two Barbie dolls wearing several of these rings on their various limbs. Rather an unusual photo choice for a beading magazine, but also rather clever, if you ask me!

Pas de Francais Ce Soir

No French class tonight. I feel very much like a kid who has woken up to find the world covered in several inches of snow and realizes that means there will be a snow day, the delight of the unexpected freedom. But I'm also a bit pissed off that we didn't find out that the class was cancelled until after we'd sat waiting for the teacher for 25 minutes and only after one of the office staff tracked him down by phone. The good news is, our teacher had not suffered some unforeseen calamity, had not fallen and could not get up, was not stuck in traffic gridlock. The bad news (for him) is, he is apparently very sick. Unfortunately for us, he was apparently too sick to remember he had a class to teach or to call in to let the office know. Not that I would have rathered he called to say "I can't talk long as I'm in the emergency ward and they don't like people to use their cell phones, but still, it amazes me that a professional teacher could not give some consideration to the 20 students waiting for him to show up. A little common courtesy is all I'm asking. Especially since he probably realized long before 7:20 p.m. that he was too sick to teach tonight.

Ah well, what can you do? As the Monty Python song says, we must always look on the bright side of the life. I am glad to be home early and not to have been exposed to any more germs, and I am relieved that I don't have to strain my brain with a class that is very much like work (as compared to my two artistic classes, which are much more like fun) on a night when I am still very tired from yesterday's exertions.

So instead, I will share with you the very beautiful French themed locker art from the very talented students who attend one of the high schools at which I am taking a night school class. I give you - the artists Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec and Gaughin, and the characters from French literature, Le Petit Prince, Le Petit Nicolas (of whom I had not heard of before, I had to Google him but if this artwork is any indication, the illustrations are amazing!) and of course, the infamous Caillou.