PMC... I love you!

A few months ago I decided to take a class in Precious Metal Clay (PMC). This stuff is nothing short of miraculous. It's made of tiny bits of ground up silver in a clay-like binder that leaves fine silver (.999 silver) after firing by torch or kiln. The first class pretty much turned my world upsidedown. After a decade of working with fiber and beads using color as my main focus and inspiration, I was suddenly without a palette. Texture and form would have to become my new muses. I was overwhelmed with the possibilities and I struggled with learning how to manage this material and not wash it down the drain.

I'm currently taking another PMC class taught by Alicia Fink and this time I came prepared. I read some books and articles by CeCe Wire (yes, that's really her name) and Barbara Becker Simon, and found much inspiration by seeing the amazing pieces that they and others have created. I learned that I can make the shiny metal jewelry that I love to wear, but still add color with stones, patinas, or enameling.

Tonight I decided to try my hand at torch firing. (Note: These are made from PMC3. It's my understanding that only PMC3 can be torch fired.) As pictured, it was like breathing life into little lumps of clay. Never mind that I partially melted at least 3 of the 6 pieces. Fortunately they are small and had a funky texture to begin with so no harm was done.

The best part is knowing that I'm just beginning and imagining what I'll create.

Time to Excel

I've fallen off my schedule of completing 1 woven item every 2 weeks. The wedding shawl is still on the loom, and will probably stay on another week. It would have been completed yesterday were it not for the intense upper back pain I was experiencing and 40 minutes of weaving aggravated it quite badly. Reluctantly I realized I could not finish it off.  I had to leave the house though, or else I would have finished it, back pain or no, and probably made a sore muscle into a muscle spasm. Today it's still sore and I haven't dared to weave, but I will try again before I sleep tonight.

One possible source for a stressed back muscle is the sawing I've been doing in my jewelry class. Two weeks ago, I completed the first project, a simple brass ring, and I couldn't wait to move on to the next. Last week  we started a sterling silver ring which will have a cabochon (flat backed, domed stone) on it.We had learned to pierce and saw out during our first class so I wanted to apply that to this ring. When one of the other students noticed I had pierced and sawed out a design in the shank of my ring rather than keeping it solid, she dubbed me "Ms. Fancy Pants". I was amused!

I have to say that this jewelry making class may have changed the course of the rest of my life. I have read about people having moments of clarity, enlightenment, or epiphany and this is as close to one of those as I have ever experienced. I talked a classmate about my struggle in deciding what to focus on. I explained that with my energy going in so many different directions, I felt that there was a limit to how "good" I could get in any  medium, and that I really wanted to do exactly that.  "Time to excel?" she said.  Past time to excel. Way past.

My Stuff's on Etsy!

It has begun! 5 items listed tonight, the rest to follow in the next 10 days!  I can do this, I can do this...

Inside the Box

Boxes seem to be something of a theme this week. Starting with Songs From the Silver Box by Roger O'Donnell, currently my favorite weaving music.

I'm my own worst enemy when it comes to planning projects. I don't plan more than I absolutely have to. Consequently, I don't always stretch myself artistically as much as I should or could. In fact, I think I have woven myself into a box! This last week is the perfect example. But admitting you have a problem is the first step, so consider that step taken.

I needed to select a pattern/structure for the lovely wedding shawl warp. The weavers among you who plan every detail before even thinking about touching yarn might be asking,"Why/how did you NOT already decide that before making the warp?" The answer is simple. That would take time--something I have precious little of (pardon my grammar). Plus I would have to think.  Much faster just to get it wound and on the loom and then decide. I'm one of those weavers who just wants to get to the weaving, to see cloth forming before my eyes and beneath my hands. I've heard that there are weavers who weave the cloth almost as an afterthought. Their greatest joy comes with calculating, problem solving, planning, and anticipating how structures will work. My tent is definitely not set up in that camp. I'm all about the color and the process of weaving itself.

Back to the dilemma of deciding how to weave this shawl. After some thought, I decided that huck lace might be just the structure to use. A little lacy but still sturdy with a nice drape. I've done very little huck lace weaving, but I have done it with success at least once before.  I found a pattern I wanted to adapt, only to discover that while the threading and treadling sequence were coded but decipherable, the "treadling template" was completely in another language. Only with no letters or numbers.  And after referring to at least 3 other weaving references I still could not figure it out. I did give myself a crash course on huck though, enough to be able to do what I want to do. But I'm going to have to ask a weaver who actually understands weave structures what it means if I want to have any hope of really understanding this. Yes, that will be a priority,  right after I get this shawl woven....... in block twill!


I know, I know...block twill? What am I talking about? What about huck lace? Well you see, yours truly  *didn't plan* for huck lace, didn't calculate the set of the warp for huck lace. I calculated for twill because twills are what I always do! God help me I'm in a box of my own creation, and if I didn't know it already, this project has made it painfully evident. If I threaded it in huck, the set would have been so different that the width would have increased *significantly* from when I wound on. I didn't spread the warp far enough apart in the raddle to accommodate a plain weave set. Without thinking, I "planned" for twill. 

Deciding to weave this shawl in block twill was like the ultimate cop-out. Yes, it will most likely be gorgeous, drapey, and luxurious. But it will not be a departure from anything I've done before. And as much as I want to produce goods for sale, I also want to evolve as a weaver.I swallow hard in saying this, but for all my technical ability and color sense, I am severely, embarassingly deficient in weaving theory and understanding how many structures work, how to create pattern drawdowns, how to look at a piece of cloth and work backwards to decipher the threading, treadling, and tie up. Probably this is due in part to my non-Math brain, but much more it is a side effect of my lack of formal  instruction in weaving.



The Etsy Update....

And the other "box of the week" was my extremely shoddy DIY light box which I created for about $2 thanks to some guy's blog who I should credit but forgot to bookmark. Because of this box, I'm very proud to announce that *all* my jewelry stock has been photographed. By me. And let me tell you, I have a whole new respect for the upper body strength and steady hands of talented photographers. Also a new-found appreciation for proper full-spectrum lighting and tripods. My next task is to write up the descriptions of each piece. With any luck the first batch will be in my store by the end of this weekend!

"Got the time tick tick tickin' in my head..."

Scarf in 8/2 Tencel. 8H plaited twill variation.

I forgot last week that I did actually make a resolution that I...um...forgot to mention. Nonetheless it's one I am committed to. I've made it my goal to finish at least one woven item every 1-2 weeks. So far, I'm keeping pace. First item came off last week, an 8/2 Tencel scarf. As many Tencel scarves as I have made (if I were to guess, that's probably about 25-30 of them but I really have no idea) it just doesn't get old. It's not an exaggeration to say that I *love* this yarn for weaving. Strong, shiny, soft, machine washable and dryer-able (although I don't) it's probably my signature fiber.

I nearly had a nervous breakdown trying to get the warp for 2010's second woven project on the loom. I was up against the clock and my natural inclination to get sidetracked by going to the store (pick a store, any store!) instead of focusing on my weaving. I had a deadline to meet: wind warp and beam it by 9:30 pm. So my day went something like this:

8:00 - 2:30 Took down tree and xmas decorations. Had lunch, went to run errands and to the store.
2:30 Start selecting the yarns I wanted to use
3:15- 4:15 Wind warp. All goes well until I realize that the 2 balls of white/silver Knit-Cro-Sheen are not the same white. Perfectionist tendencies take over. I decide I have to go to the store *again* to get another ball. I'm so good at wasting time, it's not even funny.
6:30 Store doesn't have white/silver. Stare at available color combinations for 20 minutes while holding a ball of white/pearl KCS. Do math calculations in head to make sure one ball is all I would need. Satisfied that I can alter my design to include this color, I finally leave. 7:45 Finished winding the warp. End up using both balls of white/silver as well as some of the white pearl. When it's all done, I don't think there will be any noticeable difference in the two white/silvers.
8:30 Finish dinner and realize I still have to repair broken apron cords on the back beam before we can wind on. Adam is my assistant for winding on, and he has to leave at 9:30. By this time have one hour left to get this done. It's looking like I am going to be getting a sore back because I don't think I will be able to get it ready by the time he leaves. Nonetheless I press on.
8:30-9:00 By some miracle of my pack-rativism, I have lengths of linen rug warp (probably leftover from a past weaving project) already cut which somehow are cut to the exact length that I need.
9:10 Husband starts hovering nearby, pacing and looking at clock. Ok not actually, but mentally I know he was. I yank on the bouts and tell them not to act up on me. Suddenly, everything is in place. I don't think Adam could believe it. He took one look at it and said "Is that going to work?" Going to work? Going to work? Hell yes, it's going to work! It's going to work if I have to get under that loom and wind each end on separately. Of course, it doesn't come to that. Not even close. We wind on, everything goes like clockwork.
9:26 Waving to Adam as he drives away.
9:30 Celebratory dancing to a middle eastern song on The Indestructible Beat on WITR 89.7

So here it is! This will be a shawl for a wedding or special occasion. It's made of 5 yarns, all cotton or Tencel in white, cream, blue and with a little bit of silver metallic from the Knit-Cro-Sheen.

A Blog By Any Other Name

Right. So here we go. As a girl I kept a diary, which at some point in high school became a much more exaulted form of a diary, commonly referred to as a "journal". In college I kept my diary on my word processor. Then life intervened and I stopped keeping a diary, journal, or any other written documentation of my life.(Ok, I posted a few entries on MySpace, but that doesn't count.) Fast forward a decade, and here I am once again, poised to once again record my life in print, and this time I'm bringing the  world along for the ride. Allons-y, mes amis.

I would like to say I have some clever plan for this blog, like weaving every sample in A Handweavers Pattern Book (aka The Green Book) within  a year, a la Julie and Julia.  Alright, yes, I admit that for a brief moment of madness and "I can do it too"-ness, I considered this option. Fortunately my eternal pessimism won out and I decided to limit myself to attainable pursuits. So what is your blog about already, Miss Beauty In The Eye? Oh sure, *now* they tell me it has to have a point, be cohesive, witty, interesting, hip, edgy, and fun. To get to the point, this blog will mostly focus on the things I love most:  beads, yarn, jewelry, weaving, fiber arts, color, and creativity. All of these components are wrapped up in my fledgling business, Beauty In The Eye. I create handwoven and loom-knitted textiles, as well as beaded jewelry. Right now I'm playing with PMC (Precious Metal Clay) which is *so* cool, and next week I'll be a student in a real honest-to-goodness jewelry making class with tools, torches, tools, and did I mention tools?  I will provide updates on my progress, ideas, sales and exhibits of my work as well as what's coming down the line next. One day, I may even have stuff on my website http://www.beauty-in-the-eye.com/  Right now it's just my completely fabulous logo designed by my friend, graphic artist Kristen Taylor. The girl has skills, does she not? And I can't forget about my Etsy shop, curiously devoid of merchandise but I did update my bio and shop announcement.

For now, this is me signing off. I'm new to this so "give 'em a BRAKE" as the signs on the snow plows say.