The World's Greatest Studio Tour and Art Sale!

It Was Great!

I'm looking forward to next year. Saturday was a bit of a bust. There were many things going on in town and I had a slow morning. I got to thinking about my mom and sister, and I got really lonely - so I closed up and left a note on the door that I would be back at 2:00 Sunday. Low and behold, Sunday afternoon, I had people coming in the minute I opened the doors of my studio. I was busy the rest of the day and it was wonderful. I met so many great people and had friends stop by that I hadn't seen in such a long time. And, of course, who doesn't love hearing compliments on the work they do and take pride in. Such a joy!!!!

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Here are the descriptions of the artists who participated.

And - last on the list - but hopefully your favorite - #19!

My studio at 1909 Lyda - the street behind Rafferty's - watch me make silver bracelets and sterling silver wire rings. Free necklace and also several pairs of Earrings for give-away. No purchase required - just register

Breast Cancer Awareness Celebration - Kentucky Monthly

What a day we had ! ! ! !

I was contacted several months ago about being interviewed as a possible breast cancer survivor for the October issue of Kentucky Monthly magazine. This is a wonderful magazine that promotes the wonderful things and places that Kentucky has to offer. It's full of articles about little shops, eateries, old hotels, small town wonders and artisans of our state. I thought, what an honor - so, I said, "fine". I didn't think about whether there would be other people or not, but later I learned that pretty much the entire issue was going to be devoted to breast cancer awareness. Wonderful!!!

I make a line of jewelry for BC Awareness as a fund raiser for The Kentucky Cancer Program. It's always available - but I really push it for the month of October, so that was another reason to do the article. Later, I learned that there would be a small group of us and they would be featuring all our stories of survival.



We all arrived around noon on Saturday and were whisked off to "E-clips" for a mini-makeover in preparation for our photo shoot. I hope to have a few snapshots of that event a little later. the stylist who did my hair said, "I see you as spunky and spiky." I wasn't too sure about that, but I just went with it and let her have her way. I will say that I definitely have an interesting hairdo. Needless to say, the whole day was a hoot. Pink was the color of the day.

The magazine had ordered black tee shirts with a bold pink word on the front of the shirt. Amanda Hervey, the author of the article had asked us to think of one word that seemed to symbolize our experience. I thought it was amazing that we had all experienced the awfulness of cancer - and all of our words were positive. Faith, strong, humble, sisterhood, growth, blessed, love - how interesting - I don't know if that says something about all cancer survivors - or just about this particular group of women. I chose growth - that was the first word that popped into my mind. I wish I had chosen something that sounded really profound, but I just went with my first instinct. My experience forced me to grow in so many ways; my faith, my emotional stability, my inner strength, my faith in myself and my abilities - and many more ways.


The photographer took individual photos of all of us and they were put with our articles. Amanda interviewed us separately, but she was amazed that there were great similarities with all our feelings.

There were a few tears shed during the interviews - Amanda could put Barbara Walters under the table in bringing your sensitivity to the surface. She has a way of putting a question to you that causes you to sort of dig through your feelings. It was a bit like a therapy session. Amanda can be seen below - she's the only one without a WORD on her chest.




Our photographer made us all feel like top models as he put us in various poses for that large individual picture. "Give me that dreamy look" - - - "Look right into the camera", "That's perfect", "Let's do one more really good one". Vogue, here we come!!!!




Time for a quick group hug and then it was off to dinner at the fabulous Italian restaurant the staff had picked out for us. This dinner was not only for us, the survivors, but we were joined by Steve Vest - the editor of the magazine - and his beautiful wife Kay. They wanted to be a part of the celebration and that served to make it even more special.


All in all, this was a most wonderful experience and I've since heard from some of the other ladies in our group. I'd love to add updates to this section of my blog as I hear from some of the other women who were part of our group. We all thank Kentucky Monthly and most especially Amanda Hervey for her professionalism in the preparation of the article and to Steve Vest for making it all possible. We all thank you, and we hope and pray that all the positives in the article will be an inspiration for all women who are in the process of diagnosis, treatment and/or recovery from the treatment. This, too, shall pass. Thank you, Kentucky Monthly.

The Saga of the Keys

Fantastic Stress Reliever~

I'm so happy to have one of the greatest constant stresses of my life discontinued!

Losing My Keys!

You can't imagine the constant irritation of always stressing out about where I've left my keys

- - - or, maybe you can!

Maybe you even have the same problem. If so, read on - maybe you'll find the solution!

Nine times out of ten, when I'm ready to leave the house, I can't find my keys. Even if they are in my purse, I still have trouble finding them amid all the little zippered compartments - and the dark recesses in the bottom of the bag. My panic moments have been so lessened - and all it took was a fork. Yes, a FORK!

Here it is!

Above, you see the fork as it has been re-purposed into a great key ring. First, I use my torch to anneal the metal. This softens it so I can bend the fork in half and curl up the center two tines to hold the key ring.

After attaching the keys to the ring, I simply slip the fork, aka "key ring" over the edge of my purse - always ready to use and never to lose again. Now, if I can only keep up with my purse!!!!
You can find my silverplated key rings in my etsy shop or at The Gallery at 916 on the square in Bowling Green, KY. At only $20 these will make a fabulous stocking stuffer this Christmas, which means you probably need to get two! . Ask Lynnn or Melissa to see the "keyrings by Kay" and they will show you how great they work.

While you're there, check out the other hand crafted jewelry. I will soon be taking some fantastic hand forged silver pieces that will make a very special gift for someone special. My silver can be personalized with hand stamped names or special words and phrases. Here's an example of some of my hand stamping on hand forged jewelry.

This collection of cuffs and ring demonstrate the rustic style of hand stamping. The one on the bottom is my personal cuff which has become my constant reminder to end WORRY! It says, "pray over all things, worry over nothing". The ring says "hope peace love". But you can choose your own words! Wear what you want to say! See more of my jewelry at www.kzoretic.etsy.com.

Calling All Pet Lovers

A New Etsy Artist . . . for Your Pleasure

If you love your pets and want something special - check out kidesign.etsy.com. I am now the proud owner of paintings of my two adorable "grandpugs", Lily and Channey. Actually, I only get to enjoy them for a couple days and then they are on their way to Georgia for a birthday present. Christi is the artist at kidesign.etsy.com and she has been doing a number of types of painting for years, but recently embarked on pet faces. She does emarkable work - and I wish I could see my son's reaction to his birthday present. Both Bill and Paula will love the paintings of their cuties - I just know it! These little paintings are on 6" ceramic tiles and she furnishes the easels as well. If you have pet lovers in your family, bundle a grouping of pictures and email them to Christi. She has a fast turn-around time, but she really likes to have a large grouping of pictures to get a good representation of your pet in the painting. I expect her to get really busy before long - these will make wonderful Christmas presents.

Always keep an eye out for the interesting and wonderful on etsy and let me know when you find something special. I love helping promote hand crafted items - especially those from Kentucky.

Check out kidesign.etsy.com and see some of the other examples of Christi's work. She has also saved lots of old windows from certain death in landfills by reclaiming them and painting on them - providing beautiful wall art and saving room in the landfills for some of the non-recyclable items. That's a double good thing!!!!

Another of My Favorite Etsy Artisans

Speaking of special - another special etsy artisan is Linda at poppypatch.etsy.com. Linda makes a great variety of hand sewn items. She does wall hangings, credit card holders/wallets, Christmas Tree skirts and table runners - but my favorite of all are her "baby blocks". These are fully washable (in the washing machine) fleece blocks rangeing from 3 " to about 6 ".

These are wonderful for encouraging the early crawler. Baby will crawl to get the block after he/she flips it away.

This charming little lady is holding the 6 inch one.


I got the set of these for Ryan, the new baby in our family. From what I hear, he loves them - and he notices the sound of the little tinkling bell inside each polyfill stuffed block.


Your favorite baby can have fun tossing the block without the banging or clanging of nosy toys and without the worry of injury. And, how nice to know you can occasionally toss it in the washing maching to keep if fresh and clean.

Saturday in the Park . . . with Art! - continued

Saturday in the Park . . . with Art is over - and it was a great day. Lots of people strolled through the park, the sounds of the water from the fountain sounded cooling, and the weather cooperated beautifully.

A juried art show was held in conjunction with the show and the winners have been selected.

Congratulations go to:

Alice Waddell for Best in Show Mark Whitley - - - 1st Place Kim Jones - - - 2nd Place Bob Brigl - - - 3rd Place

My booth, A Sterling Performance, had an earring give-away and three winners were chosen - and I'll be mailing their earrings to them this week. The Earring Winners were:

Nancy M Neal - Bowling Green
Kay Richard - Louisville
Dawn Wesley - Alvaton

A Sterling Performance - in the Art Show

I did enter a necklace in the art show - I think there is an art to creating a beautiful piece of jewelry. Actually, I think of my jewelry as "wearable art". I hope to someday be recognized as an artist - however, I'm not sure that time as come yet.

Out of Africa

is the piece I created for the show. It features a beautiful bezel set African Turquoise which was cut, shaped and polished by Will Smith of Nashville.

I was quite pleased with the look of this necklace. However, it ended up totally different from the way I originally intended. I always sketch my plans for a design, but somehow, the silver occasionally seems to have other plans. Even though I didn't follow through with my earlier plan, I am very pleased with the way this turned out.

Saturday in the Park . . . with Art!

This Saturday, Bowling Green's (Kentucky) downtown square will see all kinds of artwork - and artists working - in the beautiful Fountain Square Park. A wonderful FREE outing for families where you will see artists working on projects - where you can watch them create, ask questions, and in some instances, even participate yourself!

I'll have many hand forged silver components on hand and I can create personalized jewelry pieces for you. I'll have some "grandmother's quilt squares" on hand just waiting for the letter you want stamped in the center. These are all sterling squares, made to look like a quilt square.

Potters will be on the scene, making hand thrown pots, working on a wheel and making slab pieces, painters will be making sketches, paintings and other visual pieces - so much to see - and over 40 artists participating. Come join us from 1:00pm to 7:00pm. Also, visit Vitrace (next to The Cellar Resturant) to see the juried portion of "Saturday in the Park . . . with Art!"

Back from Silver Workshop in St. Louis

I returned Sunday night from St. Louis and a 2 day class in silver chain making at SIU at Edwardsville. It was wonderful to work in a metal lab with so many versatile and expensive pieces of equipment. I wish I had brought some silver plate to run through the rolling mill to get some patterns on silver. Maybe another time. We first made a chain - I think called the Helm chain - but I prefer to call it the Floating Ring chain. I plan to make it again using 14K gold filled wire as the floating ring. I think that will be striking.

Next we used a wooden started that our instructor, Harold Siegal, made and began construction on a Turkish chain. Are the Turkish the people who had the whirling dirvishes?? That's what I began to feel like as I worked on that chain - really difficult. I finally began to get the hang of it and it was time to go home. On Sunday we worked on a chain that used large fused 16 ga silver rings that we stretched and small sterling silver rings.. Harold was featured in the spring issue of Step by Step Wire magazine with this chain. It does make a very attractive chain. Working on all these made me eager to get home and get to my bench again. I'll post what I accomplished at the workshop tomorrow.

An Alternative to Paypal

April 29, 2008
Many online sellers are subscribing to a new online money exchange program which charges no fees to sellers. Revolution Money Exchange - RME - charges no fees to subscribe along with no fees to send or receive money.

Sellers and buyers - especially from Etsy.com are rushing to RME in droves - to subscribe and also to collect the $25 RME is offering to all new subscribers until May 15.

PayPal is no longer your only way to accept payment for online sales. Revolution Money Exchange is a new and FREE way to exchange money electronically and safely,.

Revolution Money Exchange

• Is free to collect online payments from buyers with MoneyExchange.
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• A transaction fee applies for check withdrawals, check stop payments, paper statements, ACH returns, and overdrafts.
  Account issued by First Bank & Trust, Brookings, SD, Member FDIC and part of the Fishback Financial Corporation.

I'm in the Mall!

Our Greenwood Mall here in Bowling Green is hosting a "Home Based Business" Showcase on May 10th. I was amazed when I heard about this - I think it's amazing that a retail concern would be showcasing home based businesses. And, not only that, they have also set up displays to highlight some of some of the products from participating businesses in the "Centercourt" area of the mall.

I plan to be one of the exhibitors - I need to get some nice things made for the 10th - and I'm also planning to contribute one piece to an "Art Window" that The Gallery at 916. A percentage of the proceeds of any sales will serve as a fund raiser - so it's a worthwhile cause.

Saturday in the Park . . . with Art! will be at the end of May - that will be fun. I plan to demonstrate a little soldering, I'll be making and oxidizing and polishing sterling silver wire rings, making birthstone rings for little girls, and many more things. I may even take my torch and do a bit of soldering. This event gives artists around Bowling Green an opportunity to display their products, but also to show the public how their pieces are actually made. I'll love this!

The bleeding has almost stopped.

Okay, I got the taxes figured, payments are made and my bankaccout has almost stopped bleeding money! (hope the title didn't alarm you). With my concern that silver prices were going through the roof, (and I was right - they did), I bought up a lot of silver last year when it was around 12.00. That was a really good things, right???? Well, the answer is "yes" and "no". Yes, because I have a backlog of silver that will carry me through for a while so I don't have to pay the 18.00 per ounce. But, it's not a good thing in that I have to pay taxes on all the inventory that is unused from last year.
Grrrrr! Upsetting!

Oh, well, the thing that helps when I'm in that mood is to hit the silver bench, grab some silver and my hammer and have at it.

My Southernisms Jewelry is coming along. I keep thinking of new phrases common to us here in Kentucky. I love the color of our language here. More later.

ARTWORKS

I beling to ARTWORKS, a visual coalition of artists in the Southern Kentcky area. We recently held a juried show to benefit the grant program that we will be funding. This will be to benefit young artists in our area.

My Silver Garden was the entry I made specifically for this show. I enjoy making jewelry from out of the orginarl components - and the pendant in this necklace was made from an antique sugar spoon that I hammered flat and added the flowers to.

April 15 - Workshop Coming Up

I am looking forward to going to St. Louis in a couple weeks to a class in chain making. Howard Siegel will be teaching it. I haven't met him, but a friend of mine has taken several classes from him and she thinks he's quite good. I want to learn more about making chain - the only chain I make right now is just standard soldered rings that I use various tools to stretch. I like what I do, but it is limited. I think this will broaden my product line.

Arts in the Park is in it's planning stages. I plan to show this year - it sounds like a really fun day - several artists will have booths in various locations around the park in the square down town. Artists will have items to sell, but they will also be demonstrating their art skills. I plan to take my ring mandrel and holder and make some wire rings - and possibly do some other minimal smithing. I don't think I'll take my torch - it's a lot to haul around and could cause some problems. I'd like to have lots of small items (in the 20-30 range to sell).

Today is the last day for taxes - and I still have to run to the P>O. and get my inventory tax payment in the mail. Nothing like waiting until the last minute.

My First Post - A Sterling Performance

4/5/08
This is a second attempt at creating a blog - hopefully more successful than the last. I would like to document my progress in metalsmithing more for my own information than anything else. If any others get something from it, that would be wonderful, but this is mainly for my own information. I will be adding pictures of my creations along with information as to how they were produced.