patrikkusek

I spend the past few days working with Rio and Chris Darway. This is the first time I’ve been to Rio’s Education in Motion at the Tucson Gem Show. It’s very exciting. There were too many things to see and learn. Rio puts on an incredible event. Not only are there workshops on, soldering, engraving, […]

Finally got my act together to figure out how to transfer the episode of That’s Clever on to my computer and turn it into a Pod Cast! Click here to see it!

I love seeing my friends in print or on TV! My friend, noted designer and TV host of DIY Channel’s  “Fresh Coat” television show, Shannon Kaye is giving tips in this months Sunset Magazine! A couple of years ago, Steven and I met Shannon when the Fresh Coat Show did an all paint makeover on

One of the things I miss about living in San Francisco is the good sushi! One of the places that me and my friends would frequent is Isobune in Japan Town. The sushi is served on little floating boats that float down a “river”. Around and around until someone picks up a tray and nabs

Feverishly working on getting some new work completed before the KPFA Music and Craft Fair on December 13 and 14. Always a little crazy, but before every show I take stock both literally and figuratively. It’s a time to review my work and my artistic direction. This is especially true during the holiday season because

Often times I miss living and working in San Francisco, but there are times when living in the suburbs has it’s benefits. One of those times became clear to me the other day when we decided to pop on over to Domain Carneros, owned by the Taittinger Family of Taittinger Champagne. The famed wine country

Often times when I’m looking for inspiration I head into the garden. I wasn’t expecting much, it is after all it’s the middle of November and Thanksgiving is only 3 days away. To my surprise, not only did I find this beautiful bird of paradise but I found that quite a few of my roses

In an effort to learn new things. I purchased a water filter and learned to INSTALL it myself. Or should I say “taught” myself to install it. What seemed like a simple task, turned into a learning experience. While I’ve done some minor plumbing in the past, one should never underestimate what one “doesn’t” know.

Well it had to happen sooner or later. I had a fire in my studio! But luckily, it was a very, very minor but stinky one. I have been experimenting with polymer clay in my designs. Having only used polymer clay once, the last thing on my mind was how to “fire” it. I labored

After the Holiday Party for the guild a few of us went to the Museum of Craft and Design on Sutter Street in San Francisco. There were a few exhibits “The Thinking Body” This exhibition will consist of a unique body of work created by contemporary American and European metalsmiths whose work considers the body

Spent the day with the gals from the local guild. Every year we have a holiday party and this year was at the Beach Chalet in San Francisco. Yummy food, and good to catch up with everyone. We usually have demos during our meetings and it was good to just be able to talk with

One of the fun things about teaching is meeting great artists. Like minded individuals who share a passion for the art form that has chosen them. At my BronzClay Workshop at Art at the Ranch I met several of them. One of them was Ronna Sarvas Weltman. She primarily does polymer clay but WOW is

I organized a workshop for our local metal clay guild with Robert Dancik. We explored Faux Bone. Those of you who know Robert know what an incredible artist and instructor he is. We learn so much and Robert went above and beyond the call of duty to show us so many new and interesting techniques.

After about 4 weeks of life getting the way, I finally got a chance to get back into the studio and start seeing how far I could push BronzClay. The bracelet above looked great when before I fired it. However, when I got it out of the kiln it had warped during firing. I fired

Susan Shanihan and I organized the display for our local chapter. It was great to see everyone’s work together. It really showed the vast and diverse range of talent from the Bay Area.

At the PMC Conference BronzClay was being introduced to the general public. The workshop was with one of my jewelry heros Celie Fago. When I was first exploring PMC I stumbled across her work and she opened my eyes…”Oh…THIS is what you can do with this stuff!!!!” Until then most things that I saw were

I went for an evening walk along “Celery Bog”. I became obsessed with this bog that I could see from my window in my hotel room. Although the thought of a bog doesn’t really sound appealing, I was captured by it’s striking green color during the day. In the earlier evening it also came alive

A fun thing at this years conference was the Tech Expo were we could attend demos on various topics. Here are a few of what I saw.