Design Journal

Today I spent the day with my new friend Ronna Sarvas Weltman. Ronna is a polymer clay artist, writer and now author! My experience with polymer clay has been extremely limited but Ronna’s work has opened my eyes to the possibilities. We spent the majority of the day playing in her studio and she showed […]

I met my friend Lynn at the PMC Conference in Purdue in 2005. We became fast friends and meet up often at conferences and workshops. One of Lynn’s passions is making glass beads! Today was the day I was going to take her up on her offer to show me how to make glass beads.

Nikole and I spent the afternoon seeing the Chahully exhibit at the Botanical Gardens. It was raining a bit but decided to chance it and check it out. I had seen the exhibit when it was at the De Young in SF and expected it to be the same thing, BUT on the contrary it

Took the day off and spent it with my close friend Nikole and her husband Alex. Alex is from Bulgaria and we that evening we had a fantastic Bulgarian meal, who knew Bulgarian food was so yummy!

Spent the day exploring the vendor booths at Rio. One great booth/demo was by Kate Wolf. She was giving a demo on wax carving. She also makes her own tools which Rio sells. Although I have done a small amount of wax carving, I was fascinated on how expertly she used her tools. What at

The talk was that the Holidome was the place to see great things and good deals. I spent the day with the girls from my local guild shopping at the tent city that made up the Holidome. There were so many tents it was confusing, but found some great deals of gem stones. Check out

Met up with some of my friends from my local PMC Chapter. I met Cindy and Adea at my Rio Rewards Certification Class 5 years ago. They were kind enough to show me around to some shows at the Gem Show. The Tucson Gem Show is the largest gem show in the world. It seemed

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