It has been a busy few weeks recently.  What, with the scurrying to finish the Thorn Brooches, and the immense amount of work I have been doing otherwise.  Let me tell you, it is hard to support a household on one income!  Especially when it's an artist/nanny's income.  Well, realistically, that income comes from 4 families that I

Drawings for the drilling on the backs of the Thorn Brooches Always test your ideas in Copper before moving on to Sterling!  Especially with Silver being so expensive.   Amber acted as Studio Helper today, keeping an eye out for visitors and being cute and chatty. The drawing for the smallest brooch has been glued onto Sterling Silver,

I don't have a whole lot of time at hand to make a video right now, so I thought I would post images and give you all a run-down of my process with these things. My die, prepared, with sides A and B. After annealing the copper, I trace the thorn onto the metal (extra preparation so I

  The day started out rough.  I woke up and felt absolutely compressed.  I cried, wrote a bit, cried some more, all while trying to go about my morning routine.  And then....after much umming and arring and ups and downs (I do this every year, and am so lucky to have a partner who is patient with me)...we

  (Harry S. Chandler and "Shrimp" Ebright, 1970) Pops, Six years ago...it was a Saturday, as well...I was hiking Syncline in the Gorge, thinking of you.There were California Poppies growing, little waterfalls trickling down, and wide vistas of the river, cliffs, and hills.You would have loved it. Six years...how can it be that long already?  The last 5 years