Summertime!
…and upcoming MWPAI craft show
The first week of summer has really been a boon to my gardens, with abundant sunshine and abundant rains, heated up afternoons and cool evenings and early mornings bringing out all the ‘hot’ colors covering the spectrum after a decidedly yellow beginning, and I’m loving the brilliant red, yellow and orange lilies in bloom here.
It’s always the rainy days that get me focused – this time, on preparing for an upcoming show at the Munson Williams Proctor Arts Institute’s “Arts Festival Invitational Crafts Show.”
This show coincides with their 2015 Arts Festival, with its well known Sidewalk Art Show, with local musicians, the current Impressionist Exhibit, and all the rest. This craft show features a variety of local artisans, (local being defined as living within a 40 mile radius of Utica) – and we’re truly honored to have been invited to participate in this outdoor event, our first outdoor show, on Friday and Saturday, July 3 & 4, from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm each day. And, I’m also excited to meet the other artisans who were invited to show their wares, whose listings can be found at the MWPAI website here.
Keum-boo
…and latest inspirations
So for this show, I jumped back into the studio to try a new (to me) technique, “Keum-boo”, which involves the fusion of 24K gold foil onto Fine Silver, aka “.999FS” – which is the most pure form of silver – as opposed to sterling, or “.925” silver. This ancient oriental technique has been made much more accessible in recent years; I’ve taken advantage of the newly developed ‘Ultra-Lite Kiln’ to try out this process. Check out the New Items page.
The Keum-boo tradition often uses oxidization and matte finishing to highlight the contrast of this fine karat gold as it becomes part of the silver. In many of the gold and sterling ‘appliqué’ pieces I’ve done over the years, I use matte finishes to the same effect. Of course, I’ve taken a distinctively ‘Lily-ish’ approach in my new pieces, as you might expect, using some dark oxidization, as when I played with my ‘Black & Silver’ pieces last fall.
Here, I’ve also been adding gemstones to some, and doing some light etching on some of the gold for a little more depth. I’ve also left off the oxidizing on several pieces because it seems right to my eye. Several recently acquired rose-cut gemstones make their appearance in these pieces, too, so come to the show if you’ll be around town next weekend, and see for yourself what we’ve been up to – as always, there’ll be something for everyone’s taste and budget!
The Arts Festival itself begins Tuesday, June 30 and runs through Sunday, July 5. Both the Festival and this show are FREE to the public. Hope to see you there and best to you all!
