Anyone can fall in love

I had a whole day in my new studio today!  What bliss! And with all that new space, I managed to work in silver clay, bronze clay, aluminum, and wax - all in one day!!  What a happy Ruthie!!!

Working in wax again was great. It is the first time I have tried it at home after learning about it in San Miguel. I bought all the kit - not much needed actually - and made something inspired by a piece of my jewelry.  Recognise anyone??? (hee, hee!!!)

Yes - it's "Anyone can fall in love". I thought it would be good to give "anyone" a try in wax! Not quite finished yet...a work in progress, but it went pretty fast.

It was a different type of wax than I'd tried before - a little softer and I liked it.  It meant I could do a little more with my fingers rather than just tools.

Happy Ruthie and Happy Anyone. :-D

New Studio!!!

Yippee-yi-ya!!  Today I started moving into my new studio!!!!

While we were in San Miguel and I was trying all these different media, we decided that we just had to get me some more space for my studio! It's well over time...and we've been trying to figure out how best to do it for ages now, as I've been expanding from my little attic room into other rooms and generally taking over lots of places. 

So we've jiggled some rooms around and now I have a much bigger space! And much more light.

Today was the tough day of moving things.  My "old" studio is accessed only by a little attic ladder. Just climbing up and down it is quite precarious but when you are trying to carry loads of things - it's is even more dodgy! Luckily, John, my hubby was around all day to help!!!  Let's hope he is tomorrow too :=D

I have more to move in tomorrow and need to buy another couple of work surfaces like you see in the above photo.  My goal is to have 4 work surfaces in total. One for metal clay and one for finishing jewelry (those are the ones shown above).  Then one for aluminum and one for wax sculpture and anything else I might try! Then there is a soldering space and a space for my photography. 

And my birdies began to move in too. They took a liking to a spot, just their size, by the window seat!

 

If you are in the neighbourhood tomorrow and feeling strong...do stop in! 

5/52 - Bird a week - A bird in the hand

Time for another "bird a week" (- my little challenge group where we make a different bird each week using whatever media we like).

This week, my birdie is based on a phrase that means a lot to me - "A bird in the hand." If you read my blog regularly, you'll see that each Saturday I write a "bird in the hand" blog post which lists the things I'm grateful for that week, as I see the saying "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush"  is all about being grateful for what we have.

This is my first wax sculpture. The hand is life size.  The two pieces are going off to be cast in bronze.  My first bronze sculpture! I'm quite excited by the prospect of it.

The photos are from different stages along the way and not the final pieces.  We'll wait until they are in bronze to see how my final refining and details came along.

The pieces will remain separate - not connected - so that you can pick them up and change the position etc. 

I loved working with the wax.  I really like how the hot tools just glide into it...how you can add and take away easily - and how you can add so many details. I learned under Rita Torlen, here in San Miguel. She is the same teacher that I had for my "girl with the bird in her hair" clay sculpture.  I've so enjoyed my classes with her.  They all called me "the bird lady" in class!

Doing the bird was fascinating. With most of my jewelry, I like simple designs, not much fuss or texture, but with this bird, I thought I'd try something different and put all the little feather patterns in. It was such fun to do.  And doing something life size was a welcome relief after all the tiny jewelry sculpting I do!

I know I will be doing more bronze sculptures when I get home, using the wax for models.  Here in Mexico, the price for having it cast in bronze is very reasonable - can't say the same for the US ...but maybe I'll just ship them back down here.

 

There are a good group of us doing the "bird a week" challenge so I hope you'll take the chance to look at some of the others by following the links below.  Hopefully those in the challenge will add their blog post link or flickr photo link. If you would like to join us in the challenge, you are most welcome.  Click on the flickr group link for more info.