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100 Medical Procedure Silver Earrings
I have begun my 2025 100-Day Project, titled 100 Medical Procedure Silver Earrings. The idea for this project came to me a few years ago after undergoing a colonoscopy. Inspired by the experience, I crafted a pair of silver earrings that depicted the procedure—specifically the lassoing and removal of a polyp during a polypectomy. To prepare for this ambitious project, I created a list of potential medical procedures I could sculpt in wax. My jewelry-making process relies on the lost wax technique, where intricate wax models are first designed, then encased in high-temperature plaster to create a mold. Once the...
Top 10 Reflections of 2023 and Looking Ahead to 2024
What a remarkable year it has been! As I reflect upon December 31, it not only marks the conclusion of my first full year as a full-time studio artist but also celebrates my 59th birthday. This period has been a whirlwind of experimentation, trying on new hats, and venturing into uncharted territories. While I have yet to draw my retirement pension after a 32-year-long art education career, I've successfully maintained financial stability by focusing on generating income through the studio and other avenues, keeping both the studio and family accounts in the 'black.' Over the past 12 months, I've gained...
Quitting the Day Job
I quit my day job last June. After 33 years as a public school art teacher, it was time to move on to my next adventure. Having already built and established the Silver Beehive Studio as a creative space to nurture and grow my creative ideas but with no real focus on profitability, I had to shift my thinking. How to make income from the creative things I love doing? I have been experimenting with generating income streams from a few different avenues. Sell my jewelry at shows. We did 5 shows last year and learned a LOT and sold...
Mycelium Jewelry Development, Creative Experimentation Continues
Production of mycelium jewelry forms has ramped up in the studio lab in the past few months. I have created over 50 plastic molds of clay models that the inoculated substrate material can be cast in, which has allowed for greater variety and quantity of experimental mycelium jewelry forms. Mycelium is the parent organism of mushrooms and is everywhere around us, mostly underground quietly eating dead organic material. . Most recently I added an incubator to create a more consistent grain spawn colonization environment. I also discovered that you can buy tight-fitting plastic covers for the aluminum sheet pans that...
New Jewelry Material: Mycelium, Growing Green Adornment
For the past 11 months, my studio life and creative time have become consumed by mycelium. Mycelium is the vegetative stage of what we know as mushrooms, it’s the white fibrous stuff you see under a rotting log in the woods or under wood chips around your home. A year ago I read a book that mentioned ‘the largest living organism on earth’ which is a patch of honey mushroom mycelium (Armillaria) growing in a forest in Oregon. This fascinated me, so I followed my curiosity. I began to read articles and watch videos and learn about all aspects...
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