This summer I moved into my father’s old blacksmith shop.  No one has spent a great deal of time in the building in years so I was living with lots of bugs and mice and other things that go bump in the night.  I can say now that there were a few nights when I was sure there were very large animals crawling around in the walls and ceilings and they made ALOT of noise and gave me a good scare.  Since I felt home for collage I have mostly lived in a city and so it was strange to be back in the quiet of the country and yet it was nice after an adjustment period.  

I was in several art fairs in the early part of the summer and had a lot of fun and met some great people.  I saw some great work with Precious Metal Clay (PMC) and really want to give that a try soon.  I learned a lot from some of the artists who have been doing the art fair scene for years and made some good contacts.  My favorite fair however was right in my town of Bloomington and benefited the Middle Way House and so I plan on definitely doing that again next year.  Not only did I do well selling, and made new friends, they had great entertainment close to my booth that made up for the sometimes slow traffic.  

On a sad note my grandmother, my last living grandparent and the only one I really had a chance to know as an adult, died this summer.  I was very lucky and we knew it was coming and so the family was able to all come to town and spend her last few days with her and each other.  She was an amazing woman who has been a great support for me especially in the last year and I still miss her a lot.

I was in California for a few weeks this summer visiting Bob and his family.  I was lucky as my cousin Tyler who I had not seen in several years (due to him living in China for the past 4 or so years) was in San Fransisco interviewing for a job and so Bob and I drove down from Davis to see him.  It was the 4th of July so we tried to see the fireworks but unfortunately SF being one of the foggiest cities that didn’t work out well.  However I had a great time because it was one of my few 4ths outside of Indiana and as we stood on a pier and tried our best to see though the fog I was listening to the people all around us and most of them were speaking on other languages.  It seamed kind of perfect to me that we were standing in one of the major port cities in a country founded by immigrants and I couldn’t hear one voice speaking English on the anniversary of our independence.  

Back in Indiana a group of other Brown County artists and I formed a group and opened a shop in Nashville called Hand Made in Brown County.  Unfortunately I had to leave before it really got off the ground but I hear its doing well and I cant wait to get back and see all the new work that has been added since I left.  My work is on display for sale even though I’m currently out of the country so  if your in Nashville stop by and take a look.  Its located across the ally from the court house.

Bob came to Indiana at the end of August and helped me get things squared away before we left for…PARIS!  I have wanted to go to Paris since I was 12 years old and I finally got to do so!  We stayed for a week on our way to Cairo and it was AMAZING.  I loved it so much I’m trying to talk Bob into living there at some point in the future.  I don’t have any pictures posted here yet but Bob has them up on his so you can see them here.  These are both of our photos so there a a lot, and for some reason they loaded last to first so the first pics you will see are of our last day.  

I have been back in Egypt for almost 2 months and have lots to tell about that but in the interest of not turning this post into more of a novel than it is I’m going to stop for today.  I am going to leave you with one more link to photos on Bob’s blog. Last week we went to the Harvest Moon Autumn Ball at the British Embassy and it was wonderful!  I will tell about it later but for now…here are pics!

I also want to say that Bob and I are going to be working on this site some so if you have any critique or advise sent it my way!

I know this seems like a strange topic but its something I have been thinking about for a while and I thought I would share.  Thats all for now!

Also I found this handy list of 50 things to do to save help save the earth…like wash your clothes in warm or cold water to save energy on heating water.  I like #17 in particular.

When I was in the 6th grade we had a school trip to Chicago and I raised the money to go by selling hand drawn greeting cards.  This time Im going to be selling earrings.  So I will be posting pictures on Etsy tonight of some earrings I will be selling to raise money.  Please buy some earrings so I can go it Italy!

On another note IU has this amazing program to study in Venice, Italy in the summer that I have applied to.   Unfortunately not very many people have applied and I have heard that this may be the last year they will do this wonderful program.  I hope that I get to do it!  I wont know for another few weeks if I got in or not, but the lack of applicants makes my chances  a lot better!  Then all I have to do is come up with a ton of money!

I found this pic online today…hope I get to see it in person!

I just uploaded new pictures in the gallery.  Some of them are of old work that needed better pictures, and some are of new work.  I also reorganized the gallery some so hopefully you can find what you want to see better!  I have a ton of ideas for things to work on this semester so Im looking forward to getting started.  Unfortunately I just found out that the price of silver just went up alot!  This may limit how much silver work I may be able to do which is disappointing but a girls got to do what a girls got to do.

One of the projects we are doing this semester in the metals program is a piece inspired by a faculty member of the school of fine arts.  I chose a prof I had for a book arts class a few years ago.  I totally fell in love with book arts and really enjoyed the prof, so Im looking forward to getting started on that.  We are having a show Feb. 22 at Fuller in the McCulla building on 10th and Indiana so I hope you can all come!  I will post more about this as I have the info.

   Im going to leave you with one of the new photos I just posted…please take a look at the rest!

This will be quick as Im swamped with work I have to finish in the next week but I just posted some more of my watercolors (some of which I actually like) and my artist’s statement.

Earlier this week I had my first critique as a BFA and I was very nervous, but it was great. I got alot of really great feed back and am looking forward to using some of the input I got in my work. Im going to spend the next few days scrambling to get all of my pieces finished, do about 7 more watercolors, and study for my math final…so much fun!

Well I probably will not post in the next week or so…unless I use it to procrastinate (like now) so Ill talk to you after this insanity is over and I have recovered!

I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather so Ive been sticking close to home, i.e. not going to the studio like I should. However that has given me time to work on my final project for my watercolor class which is a series of flower paintings. I think Im going to incorporate shadow into all of them as well. November 2nd was also my anniversary with my boyfriend and he sent me a beautiful bouquet of orchids which some of my favorite flowers. Ive done three paintings so far from the flowers and greenery and plan on doing several more this weekend.

I finally got the supplies I have been waiting for to work on my new jewelry desingns a few hours ago and hope to get working on that tomarrow. Im so excited to see how that turns out!

I also joined Etsy today but have yet to list anything. Im hopeing to get listed on the EtsyMetal site as I think that makes it easier for customers to look for hand made jewelry.