Tucson Botanical Gardens

I went to the Tucson Botanical Gardens for the first time this weekend with my sister, and it was really pretty and very relaxing to spend the day there! It made me really get in the mood to pot some new plants in my little garden on my patio. There was a special feature they had on Wicked plants, which was pretty interesting. They were scattered throughout the gardens, and were "wicked" for different reasons, such as the venus fly traps that eat insects, hot peppers that are really spicy, or different plants that are poisonous to animals or humans.

There was also the Butterfly Magic show going on, where they had an enclosed area with tons of butterflies. They were all over, and would land on people, but not long enough for me to get a photo. :) There were many interesting looking ones that I was able to get images of though:

 

I hope everyone had a great weekend!



New work

Here's my most recent work, just finished this week!

Cell brooches

The enamel pieces inside move!

New items in Etsy

I just posted some new earrings in my Etsy shop! Take a look here!

I also posted two pairs of earrings in the ASU Metals Club Etsy shop!

Sneak peak

A sneak peak at something I've been working on lately...more to come soon!

Yuma Art Symposium

A couple weeks ago I attended the Yuma Art Symposium. I had a really good time, and saw some interesting artist talks while there. Here are some of the events that took place during the symposium:

The Silent Auction:

The ASU Grad students made a collaborative piece that we donated for the

silent auction to benefit the Yuma Symposium, and it sold for $160!

In this photo: Me, Lynette Andreasen, Victoria Altepeter, Ellie Richards and Katie Poterala

One of the presenters was Michael Dale Bernard, who gave an awesome

presentation and a demo on powder coating:

The Saw, File and Solder Race:

This was my first year participating in the saw, file, solder race. It was fun, but also nerve racking! Participants get into groups of three to race for the fastest group to make a ring that fits the finger of one of the group members. Katie Poterala and Leon Nash, both metals grad students at ASU, were on my team. The trophies are made by artists, and were really amazing this year. Unfortunetely, my team did not win. We were disqualified for not following the rules. (Mainly me, I just didn't understand the rules in all the chaos) There was also a trophie for best style for the team that dresses up the best. The following photos were taken by Tiffiney Yazzie, a photo student at ASU.

Me sawing

Photo by Tiffiney Yazzie

Photo by Tiffiney Yazzie

Katie filing

Photo by Tiffiney Yazzie

Photo by Tiffiney Yazzie

Leon soldering

Photo by Tiffiney Yazzie

Photo by Tiffiney Yazzie

Bob Ebendorf was the judge

Photo by Tiffiney Yazzie

Photo by Tiffiney Yazzie

Disqualified!

Photo by Tiffiney Yazzie

Andy Cooperman workshop

A couple of weeks ago, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to attend a workshop by metalsmith Andy Cooperman, who is someone I greatly admire. The topic of the workshop was "Bench Tips and Tricks" and he covered a lot of information on how he experiments and creates his work in his own studio. It was a really good workshop where I learned a lot!

Melting and fusing:

Shibuichi:

 

Flex Shaft Tricks:

Ninja Soldering (soldering something with a component that cannot be heated,

and wrapping that component in a wet paper towel to protect it):

If you want to see Andy Copperman's website with his amazing work, click here.

There was also a great video created by Arizona Designer Craftsmen

on Andy Cooperman's workshop that is on youtube here.