First Bagues-Masriera International Enamel Award

I just found out that I have gotten into my first international exhibition. Pineapple Vessel is going to Spain! The show will open at the Reial Academia Catalana De Belles Arts De Sant Jordi in Barcelona. Dates for the exhibition are not available yet, so I will post them when they become known.

Update: No word yet on exhibition dates, but I do know my piece has made it through Customs and is at the Academy.

Reassembled: Kent State Alumni Exhibition

Kent State is celebrating their centennial this year and the Art Department is holding an Alumni Show for the students of the Jewelry, Metalsmithing and Enameling program in the Downtown School of Art Gallery. My piece, White Ring (an image can be found in older posts and at flickr- click the badge to the right), will be on display. Please stop by if you're in the area. The opening reception is Saturday, October 2nd, from 5-9PM.

New Crochet Works and a Light at the End of the MFA Tunnel

I have finally gotten around posting images of my new work from last semester to a few of my different sites. All of the new images can be found at my DeviantART page and flickr page. My main website probably won't be updated until the holiday season as I have a relatively involved re-ramping of the site in mind. Above is Ring V and Wire Ring III is below.

I've begun my last year as an MFA candidate, so updates might be more infrequent until I have defended my thesis; however I will continue to post information on shows as my schedule allows.

Emerging Artists At Ohio Craft Museum

The "Emerging Artists: Ohio Connections" exhibition at the Ohio Craft Museum opens this coming Sunday, July 11th. The show will feature artworks by young Ohio artists. Two of my pieces, Untitled Necklace and Doily Vessel, seen below, will be on display. To see some of the other works that will be at the show, check out the Ohio Craft Museum's website.

Threadknits Contest

Bouncing around on the web, I randomly came across this contest for Threadknits. The idea is to crochet or knit an item of some sort based off of a printed Threadless design. I thought it might be a nice change of pace to crochet something from yarn for once and take a break from all the wire. So much easier on my hands. Image of the finished product below and more can be seen here.

A warm and cozy hooded scarf. And probably this year's Halloween costume.

Argentium Silver Jewelry

My program was given a trial run of the argentium silver that is now available through many suppliers. Below are the results from my experimentation. I like how the argentium crochets, but trying to clean it following the methods recommended online and other from other sources (like heating it in the oven to make it anti-tarnish) were not successful. One piece, Untitled Necklace (below) was definitely tarnishing. Thankfully, it liver of sulfured beautifully.

Both of the crocheted elements in the pieces are the argentium, with the chain and stick pin created from traditional sterling silver. Untitled Brooch, below, maintained its untarnished state. I'm unsure at the moment if I'll consider argentium in the future for crocheted works.

These and other shots, as well as images of more new work, are now up for viewing on my flickr page. Or click the moving icon in the upper right hand corner.

Ohio State Fair

For my first post, I'm happy to write that my piece Pineapple Vessel has been excepted into the Ohio State Fair.  The piece  is pictured above and other shots of it can be found at my Flickr page (click the badge to the right of the blog posts).  Pineapple Vessel was created with crocheted fine silver wire and enamel.  The enamel is suspended within the openings of the crocheted wire in an enameling technique referred to as plique-a-jour, which causes the enamel to appear transparent, mimicking stained glass on a much smaller scale.