list of things to get done before sunday.

This is a list of all the things that I will have to get done before Sunday. Sunday because that’s when my three best friends in the whole wide world fly in from soggy Seattle to spend five days here with me in the sun. I can’t wait! I’m so happy to get to spend part of my spring break with them.

I have four projects due right after spring break. FOUR. It has become clear that CCA views spring break as just a week where you don’t have class, so there for you can get even more work done on your projects…fun…

I’m trying to get as much done before my friends get here, so that I can spend time with them and not doing school work. That means I’m going to have late nights every day this week.

There is some good news my proposal for three necklaces have been accepted for the CCA American craft council (ACC) show that takes place in SF in August. The ACC show is a very high end craft fair, this is a great way to help get my name out into the art world. I will be making these three necklace over the summer here’s the drawings that I made for the proposal.

List of school work to get done before Sunday.

Top priority- link project necklace, this will be a necklace made out of silver with small white pearls set in, here’s the digital sketch I did of the necklace. Will post a photo when it’s done.

Lesser projects that still need to get done.

Math homework –wright a program code using everything we have done so far in class.

History homework- read chapters 10-11 and questions (I just took the midterm for this class last week and he did let me take it on the computer so that’s good)

School to market class – finish booth design project, we were given a 10by10space and $500(fake of course) to make a craft show booth.

Finnish $50 dollar price point jewelry samples- they are cute little pendent necklace and earing pieces I will post a photo when they are done.

Extra things that I want to get done.

Finnish grandpa Edgerton’s silver ring, its almost done there was a malfunction with the solder right as I was finishing the cleanup but that’s fixed now so I’m back to the last stage of clean up.

Work on portfolio web site design.

Okay so that’s a lot to get done but there’s that popular saying. If you want to get something done, give it to someone who’s busy. I better sign off now and get started.

Fifteen notes on Power Rangers.

I watched power rangers for the first time in a long time today, it wasn't my choice you understand, if i had chosen to watch TV i would have picked something a bit more adult (or maybe the disney movies that have just started to appear on netflix!) but i was babysitting to there i was watching power rangers.  as a child I saw it on TV but i never really got into it. as a adult (hey i can vote, even if i can't drink...) the child was nice enough to start up at the first episode and i noticed a few things this time around that i had not before, maybe because I was focused on the flashy weird outfits. if you're a power ranger fan please don't bite my head off. *oh it looks like i was watching Power rangers samurai - this is the one I remember from my childhood too so...

One) my god what horrible dialogue. I mean i know its a kids show but can the dialogue be any worse, how did the actors keep a straight face.

Two) thoughts power ranger things that keep the round disks that go on the end of their weapons look like a makeup compacts.

Three) you can really date the show by the cell phone design that they use to power up or whatever - i mean remake the show now and it would be launching an App on there Iphone.

Four) wouldnt you get tired of wearing the same color all the time? i mean the pink power ranger must get sick of Pink, and who made Red the dominant color anyway.

Five) well at least some of the power rangers are girls - even if the pink ones a air head and the yellow one is all airy fairy.

Six) i see why kids like this no need to really think about there are bad guys and the colorful ones are obviously the good ones.

Seven) like always (or mostly) the bad guys are written better and are more interesting.

Eight) the best time to attack the power rangers would be when they are doing all that posing on top of stairs.

Nine) that thing where you kill them and then they show up in a bigger form is really a cheap trick for getting the power rangers to transform AGAIN, into that big robot thing.

Ten) when they are in that robot thing where are they? are they inside? that battle room would not fit, so did they shrink to fit inside?

Eleven) thoughts big weapons would more get in the way then anything else, although when they catch fire thats cool, however having a weapon that is a fan is completely sissy (way to give the pink girl the worst most girly weapon :|)

Twelve) when he summoned all the other people, the Pink(?) power ranger was working at a childcare place - I hope she was able to give her job notice. thirteen) the Blue one is the only one that seems anywhere near normal.

fourteen) All the actors must have been picked for three reasons, Holding a straight face when saying thought horrid lines. Looking really good in there certain color. and how good they look in thoughts silly outfits.

Fifteen) Finally, how much destruction is caused by one of these battles, I mean what's the figure on the property damage? I mean you can't have giant battling monsters without knocking down some building.

Short update

Hi everyone, I thought I would just post a quick update to prove that I have not forgotten my blog.

I'm dealing with mid-terms, CCA's midterms are not short things and really go on for about three weeks, this is week one.

my mom and aunt came for a quick visit, it was lovely to see them and I hope they had a good time. even if I was a bit stressed out and snappish.

I finished my first real project for jewelry 2B tonight and im happy with how it turned out. im more pleased then I thought I would be. so that's good. however time wise I cut it really close, like half a hour before deadline close. not ideal but I guess better then late. ill be doing a big entry on this piece and the process for making it soon. its mostly written already and only needs some last details, a bit of editing and some photos.

for now ill leave you with a photo, its a hair pin btw. not supper practical but I liked that better then making it into a pin.

Dealing with school to market and other less important classes.

Hi all - I am sitting in class right now and trying to type quietly. Oh my gosh, the fourth week of school is almost over!

Everything’s settling in. I have been to all of my classes now at least three times. Out of all my classes the only one I have not mentioned is my “School to Market” class. This is a new class (this is only the second time its being held) an interdisciplinary class, and on top of that it’s a upper level class, so all that adds up to hard. This class is luckily run by one of my favorite teachers and a second teacher I have never met before from the textiles department. I want to pause for a second and talk about the textiles department.

For one its not on the CCA campus, the whole department is located up the street behind a plain looking door, next to Blick. Blick is the local art store - its the closest we have to a kind of school store. Anyway, so you get to this plain kind of sketchy door and head up equally sketchy looking steps to an alarming door because on this door is a huge coded lock - you know the ones with a number plate for a code and then the handle. You put in the code and tightly grip the handle and turn it because the door is super heavy and there is no actual door handle. Once you’re actually in the building things are quite nice, lots of windows, large tables for unknown textile-ly things. I think if the jewelry department was to have a sister department in just sheer amount of similarities it would be the textiles department. Both are about the same size with the same amount of facilities and the feeling of the studio is quite similar. This is my first class there and since I have no real interest in textiles so this will probably be my only class in the space so I thought I would talk about it now. Ok, well anyway back on point...

The class has two main focuses; One is the application for the ACC SF craft fair - this is kind of a big deal craft fair, CCA has a big common booth that is run out of this class - it gets a bit complicated because the show takes place over the summer, so  I will be part of planning and (hopefully) have work in it but I won't actually be present at the show as I will be back home in Seattle. The whole first part of the class is just getting your proposal for the ACC show ready. The second focus that really happens after the ACC thing is all about how make a body of work and how to get that work sold, part of the class is making a website and pursuing a second way of sale. This most often takes the form of a working Etsy site. I’m quite happy to do both of these as I have meant to for ages. They also have a bunch of guest speakers coming in. I can see this class being a communication problem, the few things we have done in the class there seems to be a lack of communication about what they want and what we know to do. I have found this in all the classes that I only have once a week, I’m not sure why, but its always been the case.

My history teacher, he is proving to be quite dull. He repeated the same lecture we had the lesson before. It was still boring and still dull and still in some ways out of date and objectionable in a way I can't quite wrap my head around. He has acquiesced to let me use my tablet to take notes. We didn't really take about midterms but I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

We have started our first real assignment in Jewelry 2B - this class  teaches three main techniques. The  first two are  chasing and repoussé, they go together and deserve a whole post (I'm working on it right now, should come out around the end of the month) its a complicated concept and takes a bit of explaining to wrap your head around. The second thing we learn is links,  we have a big project that  is called “the links project” (ok, so the names not very original) the goal is to learn as many ways as you can to join, link and combine things together. I'm really enjoying this class. Its different than my other jewelry classes - up until now my jewellery classes have been fairly unstructured, sometimes we would have demo’ s sometimes we had studio every now and then we would have a crit. 2B is a bit more structured with weekly assignments due, and samples made and checked off. The teacher was intimidating because of this at first but I think that i have gotten over that a bit. As most of you know I like structure, so no complaints there.

Well I think I really need to get on with taking some notes now and should probably go now. Thanks - Katie

The 50th Post!

Thats right blog post #50- you have now read, I have now written and my parents have now spell checked 50 of these. Well, I had a nice weekend and I hope you all did too. For me a good weekend is one where I get everything done that I hoped to get done and still had some time left over for fun stuff like painting my nails or writing blog posts.

So far everything is going well, school’s still warming up, hence my nice relaxing weekend - I'm liking my classes for the most part and I’m thinking that this semester will be a bit less stressful simply because of the type and schedule of the classes I have. In two of my classes they moved up the final project, this may not sound like a good thing but it really is, it allows for better time management in the last few weeks of school. In fact I'm realising that even though the work may not be too much for me, it would be super easy to just completely forget about the work for a class, because most of my classes only happen once a week.

So now that I have been in the Bay area for a while, I feel that I can now more accurately make some observations about living here. First off, the people here seem to take something to the extremes, if you're a hipster you a REALLY a hipster. If you're a crazy artist you are REALLY a crazy artist. I think the reason for this is because you will always find other people here who do or believe just about the same thing you do. Somewhere in the several cities in this very small geographical space there will be other people for you to get to know. If you want to be one of those people who tries to eat local, waste nothing and keep your carbon footprint really low, and for that reason you only take a shower once a month and you only wear natural hemp fiber clothes, there are people here who think you are completely sane, and will point out that really cool store that sells cool woven hemp bags to carry your natural produce home in.

Point two would be that because the weather is almost always good and never very extreme, just about everyone has an outdoor hobby. In Seattle it’s rainy and cold for at least half the year; it is a dedicated runner who runs a few miles in the rain and is prepared to do that the next day. In the Bay Area six out of seven days a week are nice, so everyone runs, hikes, is in an outdoor club, gardens or does something outside.

Point three, if the weather is bad its a MAJOR topic of conversation. I think it’s because the weather is always kind of mild, when something out of the ordinary happens people will talk about it for months. No, I'm not kidding, I'm still asked whether I was here when there was all that rain. It was a lot of rain, but come on! The weather’s moved on and so should conversation. The natives seem genuinely shocked by what they think of as exceptional weather. In Seattle some one may comment on the rain, but really only so they can say something to break the ice.

Point four, people dress better here, maybe its because of the nicer weather or simply because the people here take a different attitude to clothes then we do back in Seattle. People look more polished here, moms wear heels while chasing after her kids (or at least fashionable tennis shoes). People have nice fitting coats that are up to current or near current standards. I don't notice this as much on the CCA Oakland campus, maybe because everyones in dirty, semi-dangerous studios all day, but you notice it on the street, and you really notice it on the SF campus. The kids over there are design majors and the majority of their time is spent at desks with paper, computers and exacto knives (the tool that draws more blood than anything else, on both campuses).  They can wear dresses and flowing scarves without the danger of getting pulled into a sander.

Point Five, its not like Portland, you can't point out the weirdos. People may be a bit to the extreme but it often doesn't show to the point of staring, when everyone's a bit odd, no one stands out.

With that I think I will sign off, but I will give you two photos I took this past week around the CCA campus.

Here is a gold sewing machine I found sitting on the ground on my way home one night, I have no idea what that is all about.

Here’s a nice photo of some water art on a wall the next day (its made by finding a warm surface, wall, sidewall, whatever, and then taking a plastic water bottle and poking a hole in the cap so that when you squeeze you get a fine stream of water which they use as a drawing tool.)

Thats it for now,by next post we will be back to classes.

Reflections...on the rest of the first week back

Reflections…On The Rest of the First Week Back Hi all

OK so I have now had all but one of my classes that I will have this semester. I’m equally excited and nervous for all of them, except one, but I’ll get to that… On Wednesday I had kind of an insane day. I had my first jewelry class with a new teacher (new to me, not the program). I’m not going to lie, this teacher is the most intimidating jewelry teacher in the program.  I think this is just because I don’t know him or haven't gotten used to his teaching style, which seems to be a bit tougher and a bit more hands off then I’m used to, but with only one class it’s hard to say for sure. The more exciting thing on Wednesday was the Reflection jewelry show. This was a gallery show that celebrated the CCA Jewelry/Metal program that is turning 100 this year! The Jewelry department worked really hard to pull this show together and it’s a great show. There are jewelry or metal pieces from almost all of the faculty in the program over the past 100 years, and also a few pieces from graduates over the years.

The opening was great, the whole department was there plus lots of people from the SF Jewelry community. We are really one of the only jewelry schools in the area, so almost all jewelers in the area have had some contact or connections with CCA – so that’s a lot of people. I was introduced to a ton of people, it was great networking, one of the things that make CCA’s Jewelry department so great is the large community and the connections that come with being part of that. For instance, I was very briefly introduced to the head of the Velvet Da Vinci gallery. This gallery is one of the best most elite jewelry galleries in the WORLD. If you make it in there you have made it as a jeweler, and lucky for me the gallery is located in SF and the head went to CCA as a undergrad.  So that was insane. After the opening there was a lecture given by Jack daSilva about the history of the teaching at CCA and the Jewelry Program. If you're interested, here is a link to a page that talks about the show and the slideshow images. Overall a fun Day. On Thursday I only have a history class in the evening. Looking at the course outline it looks like a straight up standard European history class, in fact it sounds like AP Euro but less cool. The teacher is this older guy with blond highlights and “young” jeans. He talked a lot about the Western vs. the Chinese point of view. Everything was fine, I was liking the class until he announced that he did not allow computer use in his classes… Um…I have never had a teacher tell me that at CCA. I talked to him about it after class he was really reluctant to allow me to take notes on the computer, he demanded I bring him my disability form when I get them next week. It looks like the notes won’t be a huge deal after I give him the paper, however he is currently denying me the right to take the midterm and final on the computer, he just can't seem to wrap his head around the idea that he does not have a choice. Both exams are essay based. I have never in my whole school career handwritten a history essay test, I took the SAT on a computer, both of my AP exams on a computer and even the WASL once on a computer. Its in the paper work, he’s just going to have to deal with it, but it means this whole class is going to be a uphill battle. I’m not sure if its worth it, I’m looking into switching out. On Friday I have a six hour class called “Intro to Interactions Designs”. I tried to take this class two semesters ago and had to drop after the second class because I just had too much to do. So this class this time around was a basically a review of everything I did two semester ago, so it was easy. This is a computer based class but different than the last one I took, it’s going to focus a lot more on design then on the electronic side. I will be using Photoshop and Illustrator quite a lot in this class which means I will (hopefully) be learning some skills on these programs. That means there is only one class that I have not been to, and that’s my six hour class on Monday; School to market - I’m excited for it but I think it will be a really long class. Ill be sure to tell you more about this class when i know a bit more about it. This semester I’m going continue to work on keeping my diet healthy, and I’m hoping to start working out on a more regular basis, I think I may sign up for a yoga, pilates, dance, or some other kind of class. Its going to depend on what I can get to easily, fits into my schedule and fits in my budget. On the food side I’m going to start trying to pack my lunch (and sometimes dinner) for when I’m in school. This will be healthier and WAY cheaper as I’m not eating out at the few places around that I can eat at (all expensive) so I’m going to start making Bento – this is a type of Japanese style lunch, similar to a kids packed lunch but more grown up, better tasting and healthier  (they also have all kinds of really really cute boxes) to really understand the process and jump start my food making skills I bought what is one of the most well reviewed books in the community, The Just Bento cookbook.

Wish me well on my new lunch box adventure!

Art School Math...

Art School Math Class and impressions of being back on campus I only have one class on Tuesdays and that’s a class called “Math, Programing and Art. Me and this class started out on the wrong foot before I even reached campus. See, the class is scheduled to take place in somewhere called SCTR. I have never heard of SCTR, this campus is small and I have been in every building on it so I had to ask someone in the Irwan hall (the admin. building on campus) turns out I was standing in SCTR, apparently they renamed the building last semester and didn't really tell anyone. The SC stands for Student Center and I'm still not sure what the TR Stands for but, at least I found the class.

An art school math class is going to be one of two things; Its either going to be really really intense for the crazy smart artist who are probably in some computer major where they get to do math for fun or (and most likely) its going to pretend to be a math class so that people will be able to pass it and still get credit...because, well, lets face it, you don't come to an art school for the math class, (or any academic subject) and I was partly right, it counts as a math class but its really a straight up Computer coding class. The class will be teaching processing and it turns out its on the interaction design program so I'm one of three or four non-majors in the class. Its a bit intimidating but I’m sure I’ll learn a ton. It’s not going to be a very easy class though, I have done a bit of programming in the past and always found it frustrating and very hard but I was mainly trying to do it on my own and maybe being in a class with set assignments and dedicated tutors will help.

Tomorrow is going to be a big day, not only do I have my first jewelry class with the one teacher I have never had, there is also a major jewelry gallery opening for the centennial of CCA’s Jewelry program. There’s a lecture after that, so that will be exciting, but a lot to do. I’ll let you all know how it goes but I may not post for a couple of days while I try to get adjusted and everything.

But enough with school, I'm going to say that the best thing about being back in California is unsurprisingly the weather, now I'm not in shorts or anything (this is the bay area, not LA people)  but I am sitting outside with only one coat and my fingers have not turned numb yet. I mean for January thats pretty great.

-Katie

Back for Second Semester (Spring 2013)

Hi everyone,

well I’m really sorry I never managed to get a wrap up post for the end of last semester up. but now that we are all the way up to the start of the new semester I feel its better to move forward and stay current (well as close as possible) so I’m just going to say I’m glad its done and I managed to finish with all A’s.

I had a great winter break, my winter break is really really long I have been hanging out in Seattle for just over a month! I have managed to do just about everything that I planed to over the break and got plenty of sleep. Christmas was wonderful, it was great to see the whole family (well almost all the family) and I have always loved the holiday time. I got to go on a nice and short Christmas cruse, (with no sea sickness Yhea!!) and a lovely Denmark themed Christmas eve dinner (the duck was great) 

I had a great time seeing all my friends that I have missed so much! in fact I was having so much fun I never took any photos! almost all mu friends started school on the 7th so I have about two weeks all to myself where I could get everything I had wanted to get done over the break (well not everything but just about) I re-arranged my room, sorted out the families tech problems, made some great gluten free food, did some much needed shopping, set up a Pintrest account and started pinning, and finished two sets of cuff links and stud sets for my dads birthday.

I also got some good and bad news from my doctor. I don’t have celice, I’m just highly sensitive to all gluten grains (that would be wheat, barley, and Rye and Spelt) this is a big relief as it means that my body just doesn’t get along very well with gluten and not actively trying to destroy my small intestine. I had a big allergy test taken as even with cutting out all Gluten I was still having some problems and the results were a bit surprising, they showed that I’m allergic to all forms of Dairy (including goat) which I knew. the gluten of corse and surprisingly eggs, Mushrooms and Hazelnut.  its not the worst news I could get but it adds a third complication into my already completed diet. On the advice of my Doc. I am going off eggs completely for six to eight weeks to see if my symptoms improve and then I will see if I can tolerate any eggs at all (I have a small tolerance to dairy depending on the dairy and more import the amount) so I’m going to guess that I have some tolerance to eggs too. Since its the start of a new year and a new semester I’m also going to renew my efforts to work out, but then again I think just about everyone says that so… 

goodbye eggs, and I was just starting to like you

 I will be heading back to Oakland on Monday(today) and school starts on Tuesday, I’m cutting it rather close but then again I don’t start classes until Tuesday afternoon and really I don’t have a ton to do there anyway. I am taking five classes (like normal) this semester and I’m not really anticipation things being any easer this semester, but I think the class timing will be better and since my classes are all in Oakland so I won’t have to worry about checking a shuttle to SF every week. they are listed here starting Monday and working through the week.

Monday/Wednesday from 12 to 3pm I have Jewelry 2B with a teacher I have never had before so it will be a new experience. 2B just means that its a continuation of Jewelry 2A. I think 2B focus on chasing and recusay, I’ll tell you all what that means when I have a better idea of what it means.

Monday form 7:15 to 10:15pm I have School to Market witch is co-taught by one of my farvout jewelry teachers, and one of the textile teachers (who I don’t know) It should be a interesting class all about the art selling system (how to get in galleries, how all that works) and a bit on business and marketing. its going over all the things that you should do the day after you graduate, its largely self directed so that will be a bit of a change but also a welcome opturnity.   

Tuesday from 12 to 3pm  I have math, programing, and art – its a math class that’s going to try to use computers and art to teach us, I’m not holding out much hope for it to be interesting but we will see.

Thursday from 7:15 to 10:15pm I will have a class called Modern Western Outlook. I think its history but not really sure of anything more then that.

Friday from 9:00 to 3:00 I have Intro to interaction design. this is the class I tried to take last spring semester but had to drop as I was taking to many classes. it should be interesting and I’m looking forward to it but I’m also a bit hesitant because I’m coming into the class with a completely different skill set then what most of them will have (this could be good or bad but either way its different.)

none of my classes start before 12 except the Friday class at 9, and only one meets more then once a week (Jewelry 2B) this means lots of the work will be self directed (and that getting up on Friday is going too be hard again.)

the semester is going to start will a bang in the jewelry program, I think I have mentioned it once before that this year is the 100th year that the jewelry program has been running at CCA and therefor they are doing a bunch of cool sentinel things, this semester will open will a gallery show of jewelry made by graduates and past and present jewelry teachers at CCA. There will also be a series of lectures about the program and the future of jewelry and CCA starting off with a lecture about the history of jewelry at CCA on Wednesday, I’m sure it will be interesting.  

I will be trying to update the blog once a week (that’s right once a week) they will be shorter but more frequent. I hope you will all stick with me and follow along.

November Update!!

I have been so bad at updating, I’m really sorry. i'm sorry I have not been blogging but everything has been so crazy! my class’s this year have really ramped up in the amount of work and effort needed. its a weird pattern i noticed sophomore year is always hard it was in high school and so it is in college. however i would like to give you an update on my classes and projects and also relay some observations on the second year of Art school.

so Halloween have now past, it was quite quiet. I got to carve a pumpkin, see some of my classmates in crazy costumes and go to the allergist. Supper Supper fun. Here's my Pumpkin and here are the crazy eyelashes i put on in lieu of a costume.

Its a bit odd but art school is seeming a lot more normal. Now that I have been here for three semesters its all just seeming normal. I no longer blink a eye at the guy in the top hat, or what about the girl in huge combat boots, fishnets, and a leopard print vest. this kind of makes me wonder however if i should blink a eye on the one hand, you can not deny the strangeness, but strangeness is not really wrong. we should not be judged on our strangeness although i don't think i was judging before, more making a note. Whatever the reason i was noticing and now i don't really, i see the person and then i let it go. I also find myself looking past the random art projects on campus, to be fair there have not been a lot of random art projects and two I’m not on campus as much and three, seeing the random art projects whall really fun and a nice surprise it still takes time (something i never have) and energy (see the note on time) . I marvel at how my classmates seem to find the time to party, and then spend the rest of the next day hung over. how do they have the time! because I sure dont between school work, feeding myself and keeping up on chores and housework. I want a chance to look at their schedules to see where they find the time, maybe they don't sleep....that would give me more time...

class wrap up!

Ok lets start with the class i have next

Futuner class - the class is going fine. its just... well I have kind of started to dread everything having to do with this class. out of the whole week Friday is the day i get up the earliest to chech the ridiculously early shuttle at 7:10 for my class at 9:00. if this were any day but a friday a separate shuttle would run at 8:20 giving me plenty of time, but the 8;20 shuttle does not run on Fridays so i'm at school almost two hours early. Not the best way to start a friday. and then theres the class itself. for one its five hours long, with a 30 minute lunch. Not Ok. then theres the woodshop itself. I don't really like the woodshop, I don't feel in my element in there. its odd i have never felt as uncomfortable in any studio as i do in the SF woodshop. I  have no idea why this is, it could be that I just have not spent a lot of time there, it could be that i have just felt comfortable in all the other studios and I just don't get that here. i think part of that is that i'm not a woodworker, i'm not bad at it i just don't instantly understand what i should be doing as i do in the jewelry/metal studio. its not all bad though, I really know that what I am learning will be super helpful later on, and im really excited for my table to be done. just look how pretty my wood looks now that its all cleaned up.

I chose to make the table out of walnut. it was the right choice.

this is going to be the wood on the top of the table isn't the grain on these boards just marvelous!

and am I glad that I only had to do three glue ups, unlike some of my classmates who had tons.

English 2 - all’s fine. should talk about the teacher and class some other time, there are some interesting things worth mentioning.

Workshop class- we have dived into the world of  Arduino - you can do a ton of cool stuff with it, but its got a steep learning curve. and we have started the final project, i'm thinking of a necklace that changes color when someone approaches, but its still a idea.

Media History Jewelry Metal - way interesting! just finished the second paper for the class soon. *Sigh* but did you know that a quarter of the worlds gold is in india as jewelry. well now you do. like I said way cool. I should also talk about the teacher of this class soon as he was once described to me as the crazy uncle of the jewelry department. :)

Jewelry 2A - so busy i have been working on my bank project all week but i feel like i'm getting nowhere! we have a progress crit already where i got a lot of good feedback and (thank the heavens) marilyn decided to push the deadline back to the end of the semester and cancel the final project!! so this is it for the sysmaster.

here is one side of my bank project all ready to have amber set and get pin backs - Finally! now I have to do the other side of the project.

Ok well I think thats it for now hopefully i will be able to post again soon. oh and also i will be coming back home for thanksgiving! I'm counting down the days see you then!

A change in the weather...brings me a cold.

So i have a cold i have had it all week and its getting in the way of me getting stuff done *sigh* and the weather's changed. its no longer shorts and sandals weather,  more like jeans and a coat weather. so all thats a bit of a bummer but onto happy things. there are some nice things i would like to talk about. the first is that at this moment i am eating a cinnamon roll, a real cinnamon roll with icing and everything, and i am eating it without fear of a headache afterwards or stomach issues because it has no gluten! (although now that i think about it it probably has some milk but i'm going to ignore that for now...) turns out that a local gluten free bakery is less than 10 minutes from where i live. its called Mariposa bakery.  they make all gluten free bake goods, that are good. they do a really good focaccia. the cinnamon roll is good too and they even do a bake your own set. I also had their tea cookies which were fantastic. so i'm quite lucky and i can guarantee that  this will become a weekly destination.  I'm excited to try all there stuff including their pies and cakes.

we have also moved on in classes, we are really working on the projects i want to be working on. working on something that you really care about, makes a huge difference. the bank box is coming along well I have made the three plant shapes and am starting on setting the amber.  heres a photo of  the amber arranged on the shapes as they will be set in the final piece.

There is also small loops on the end now that is not in the photo which allow a space for a chain . i’m going to start the vessel shapes next!

before the bank project got into full swing just to keep myself amused i was working on two small pieces. which are now finished and ready to be worn. the first one is a kind of fun necklace using up some of the extra pearls from a old project and the second is a ring. this ring will be in the upcoming ring show that is being held at CCA called 360. this ring will be one of (hopefully ) three hundred and sixty rings. thought i would give you a few photos of these too.

my other classes are going well too, I would love to give you update on the table but there is none thanks to the cold. (hopefully I will make some progress this week) I have a essay due next week for english and one for media history a week after that.  so I’m getting my typing fingers ready!

until next time :)