The Decatur, IL, Art Guild gave me quite a nice gift...THIRD place award in Jewelry! And, there were 21 other jewelers in this nice art fair. A nice check was sent and I received it today. Thanks so much...

The 2 green ribbon are patron purchase awards, which means the attendees pledge to the art guild that they will buy some piece or pieces of artwork. Then the artists get that money plus a green ribbon. A great system.

A beautiful place for a show!

This past Saturday both Steve, the artist husband, and I had our work at our first one woman/one man show! We set up side by side at the Weldon Springs State Recreational Area, Clinton, IL, at the boat dock. An absolutely beautiful day gave us a wonderfully relaxing show. Neither of us have ever experienced a "relaxing" show, so it was great!
This is our view from inside our booths........Wow! Steve is a leather artist, doing hand-tooled leather pictures...thus his studio name is "Leather Scenes Studio". His website: www.leatherscenes.com.

Lincoln Art & Balloon Festival

This weekend is the annual Art Fair in Latham Park, downtown Lincoln, IL. The hot air balloons will be lifting off at the airport, but there's a couple on display downtown in Scully park, along with the flea market.

http://www.lincolnillinois.com/ABF.aspx

This is always a fun show to take in. I've not shown here myself, but Steve, the husband artist, has done the show many times in the past. Lincoln is such a friendly, welcoming community, it is a pleasure to be there. And, for a wonderful change, the weather promises to be Great!

Maybe we will see you there...........

Washington Fine Arts Festival

This weekend, August 14 & 15, the 3rd annual Washington Fine Arts Festival will be held in Washington Park, Washington, IL.

This link has a map for those of us not familiar with Washington:

http://washingtonfinearts.org/uploads/eMailPromo.pdf

My booth number is #43. I'm sincerely hoping for a shady spot!

I've just received the Fast Fire Bronzclay. I'm still trying to work out the firing schedule, as the first two were not successful. Next week I'll try a kiln temp of 1550, but continue with the fast ramp, and 2 hour hold, otherwise, what's the point of a "fast fire" formulation! The first attempts crumbled, practically no sintering. Looking forward to success, as the color is wonderful golden bronze, with little shrinkage, and no blemishes.

Hope you all stay cool and dry and happy with life!

A new email address has arrived

Frontier has managed to acquire Verizon here in Central Illinois. My new address is simply: artjools@frontier.com.
However, I will continue to receive Verizon emails through the end of December.

I will be once again in downtown Bloomington for the Farmers Market this Saturday. It will be a very interesting day for all as this is the day Bloomington/Normal has scheduled for a sesquicentennial celebration of Abraham Lincolns' birthday. Since Mr. Lincoln had many ties to B/N it will be spread around town, but many events are taking place downtown at the old courthouse museum, around which is the market. The best band of B/N is scheduled to play: The Old Men Boys! Terrific group.
Hope you can make it down.........
Martha
Oh, this piece above is a silver metal clay pendant with 23K gold overlay in the Keumboo process. What do you think of it?

Metal Clay Class

I have had several requests to teach metal clay classes. Most are interested in learning to work with and create Bronzclay jewelry. I would be available now for either a small group of 2-3, or individual classes. This is going to have to be in my home, as the resource I'd had last year for larger classes has disappeared, unfortunately.

Classes typically are for 4 hours...completely depends on the working pace of the student/s. Remembering that firing must take at least 4 hours, that means it will either require a return to my home to pick up the pieces for finishing here or in your home...or a return the next morning for that finishing process. I'll leave that up to the student.

Cost for the Bronzeclay class is $65 for each student. This includes 30 grams of clay, my instruction and tool/kiln use. 30 grams will make 2 or 3 pendants and earrings. If you need jumprings or earwires, I would include those. I can either leave the choice of design to you, or come up a design for you to make. We can discuss it when you contact me.

I think the best way to handle this is to have anyone interested contact me at home during the day or evening at 309-473-2013 (Heyworth, IL), or email to artjools@verizon.net. I am available on the following days:

July 26, 27, 28, 29, and August 2, 3, 4th.

After that it is getting into my really heavy art fair schedule, and I'd have to put off classes until October or later.

Or you can stop by my booth at the downtown Blm. farmers market this Saturday and the 31st to make arrangements.

The market was a good one this past Saturday, lots of interested customers, as seen in that first photo. Many people saw my work in the Sugar Creek Art fair, and stopped by the market too. Sugar Creek was great...hot, but great!

I hope to publish a post in the near future on the coral trade, or lack thereof, and the endangered coral reefs being harvested illegally for jewelry coral. I was asked by a visitor to my booth to stop using coral, due to the disappearance of the reefs. I have been told by all my suppliers that the coral they sell me is not the endangered species, so I need to research further.

The other photos are of 2 new Bronze pins, one with dichroic glass, the other with lab-grown bismuth.

Please call or email for classes if interested..........

Martha

Sugar Creek Arts Festival

This annual art festival is the biggest and best of McLean County and Central Illinois (arguably, of course). It returns this year to the uptown streets of Normal, IL. The past 3 years part of the festival was placed on the shady, grass-covered ISU quad. The uptown merchants have felt ignored apparently, and need it back there. Unfortunately, due to the nearly total reconstruction of the uptown streets in Normal, there will no shade whatsoever. This link shows a previous festival with several lovely trees. Ignore those. http://www.mcaart.org/mcac/html/sugarcreek.html

I will be setting up quite near the Normal Theater. I will have many new pieces, hope to see many of you there!

Take care in this heat!
Martha