A Long Slow Peek Behind the Curtain ~ Photo & Word Heavy

Our bench the morning after the 2010 October Guild Fair.

Monday, October 25th, 2010.

Fallen leaves after a heavy rain and, yes,

the Hummingbird Vine seedpods are done for this year.

I've always thought it would be cool to be able to share what it is actually like to be a working artist.  So I hope you'll enjoy this peek behind the curtain into the world of some very creative and very hard working people.  This is a just a little taste of what Pat and I saw and experienced Sunday on the last day of the 62nd annual October Fair of the Southern Highlands ~ the October Guild Fair.  After all, it really is a question of lifestyle . . .

And, please, follow the links out for a real look at some of the artists' work!

Sunday morning I was running a couple of minutes late for the Fair Committee meeting so Pat dropped me off at the side door and drove off in search of a parking place.  When I made it to our booth she was already well on her way to

setting up our display.

 Pat is my Balance.

(After adjusting the lighting of my favorite of these photos.)

April has a smile for everyone as she gives us each day's Fair newsletter. 

April Nance is the Guild's Director of Public Relations and Technology.

I think that April's hard work is one of the main reasons that attendance at this Guild Fair was only down about 5% compared to last year's (despite President Clinton making a campaigning visit in downtown Asheville Thursday)!  Attendance at most of the events held at the Asheville Civic Center have dropped about 30% compared to last year.  (I just might have to go "Staff Hunting" with the camera at next July's Fair!)

It didn't take us long to be ready for the last day of the Fair!

 

The last of our Seasonal Botanicals

for this Fair!

Stone Crop and Labradorite Botanical Ridgelines Pendant.

Phil and Gay Brown are ready to start the day!

The Brown's are a sweet sweet family.  [Hush Phil!]  You have to see Phil's amazing bird woodcarvings in person to really appreciate his work, and his original blending of the realistic and impressionistic into his own Appalachian style.

Gay is potter and a Guild member too.  We are lucky enough to have a small collection of her work in our lives ~ with her beautiful brown glazes that I think are only available at Cumberland Crafts or directly from her.  (The other Guild Shops seem to only carry her blue glazed work.)  Sunday Gay and I discovered that we had both worked for Ingles' Soup N Salad during the early 80s and had been trained by the same couple!

Sometimes you are blessed with the ultimate compliment . . . another artist wants to wear your work!  Last year Pat and I made a Bronze Fern, Sterling and Mountain Stream Pebble Ridgelines Pendant to celebrate our 25th Anniversary.  When Laurey-Faye Long saw Pat wearing it during the Guild Fair this July she commissioned us to make her a similar, but unique, pendant that would be her Birthday Present to herself!

"When's your Birthday?!?"

"The October Guild Fair."

"Cool!  We'll have it ready for you then!

Laurey-Faye radiant

just as another craftsperson came to talk to the her!

Laurey-Faye's Bronze Fern and Sterling Ridgelines Pendant

with a bezel-set "Wet" Mountain Stream Pebble.

Wine just tastes better in Laurey-Faye's goblets!

Much later in the day I stopped by David Grant's booth to visit with Melanie.  But, she was using her break to do homework for her teaching course,

"Oh Tom, I'm trying to study now . . ."

When I made another trip up to the balcony I discovered

this perfect view of Derek Hennigar and his booth of Ordinary Furniture.

If Derek's work looks familiar it's because one of his stunning walnut X rockers 

was featured in this year's Guild Fairs' advertising.  (The art glass in Derek's cases is by Michael Hatch.)

A little further along I stopped to talk with Steve Lloyd.  Besides being really energetic and neat people (with nice daughters that bake great cookies!) Becky and Steve make unbelievable sgrafitto decoration on fine English porcelain.  They, like Pat and I, are a true partnership collaborating on their work as it evolves.  They also designed and made a killer booth that really displays their work to great effect.

Here's a view that the public never gets to see!

You'll find Steve busy with the clay program at Haywood Community College.

Haywood was the first Community College in the country to have a degree program in professional crafts!  When Pat was in the metals/jewelery program at Haywood (then Tech) in the early 80s she studied under Arch Gregory.  (I don't know if I can even begin to count the Guild members that studied under Arch ~ whatever the media they work in now!)

I think that David Grant, Melanie's husband,

is a modern master of wood fired, and salt and ash glazed, pottery.

David became a Guild member in 2006, the same year that we did.

A number of David's pieces enrich our lives, but I am hopelessly enamoured with his jugs.  I love 'em!  There is just something about the traditional forms of jugs that appeals to me.  And there is something much more about a jug thrown and fired by David Grant that moves me in ways that I still have trouble explaining.  They are that special. 

 Melanie spotted me and wanted to know,

"Tom, what are you doing up there?!?"

(Isn't she going to make a great Teacher?!?)

This time I was on my way to listen to some great music!

When Ira is dancing

you have to smile as he lifts your heart.

(Video to follow later!)

You even have to smile

when he is at rest and listening!

Near the end of the day Liz Spear (among other things Liz is a.k.a. the Voice of the Guild Fair) was making notes for the final announcements of this year's Fair.  (Here's Liz's other site.)

 

That's a mighty fine pendant she's wearing!!!

Liz's Moonrise Pendant

features a bezel set Red Fern Agate

and a Black Fresh Water Pearl.

Among the many other things she does for the Guild, and to promote appreciation of  fine fiber arts, Liz is one of the moving forces behind the Guild's Annual Fashion Show of Wearable Art, held every Mother's Day at the Folk Art Center.

I may be addicted to pottery but, Pat and I are big fiber fans too and we both sew. But we're also, um, "fiber challenged".  Which might explain our fascination with, and enjoyment, of handwoven garments.

I guess it makes sense, but apparently women purchase and wear far more handwoven garments than men do.  I'm a man and I love handwoven fabrics and handmade garments!  Come on guys, wake up!  Wear handwoven garments, you'll love 'em!  Last year Liz made my first handwoven, and favorite, shirt (with "boy buttons" nonetheless!).  It's flattering that now she has one of our pendants and an earring to wear too.

Pat was really kind to me and I was able to add a vest made by Vickie Vipperman to my wardrobe.  (Vickie's other site is here.)

Tired but feeling oh so good in my handwoven vest!

With Thanks to Vickie for the photo!

I bought my very favorite hat from Julia Gaunt last December!



Late Saturday evening, as we flopped and recuperated, I told Pat I thought our Seasonal Botanicals needed a menu board.  Being the good natured, and patient, Lady-Wife that she is Pat actually thought it was kind of a cute idea and said she thought I should go for it . . .  So I did!

Years before our first Guild Fair, and before we realized that we had meet years earlier, a mutual friend gave us our first two Hamilton Williams' plates.  Every day we pour our morning coffee into Hamilton's mugs.  We're Collecting a ten piece table setting of Hamilton's "Moody Blues" tableware.

A couple of years ago Hamilton begin Collecting Guild jewelers' work for his daughter Ella.  She's 8 now and someday she's going to have a Collection of jewelery that any woman would envy!

Near the end of the show Hamilton came back for the new piece of ours that had caught his eye at this Fair ~ a pair of our new Hummingbird Vine Seedpod Earrings.  And we had one pair left for Ella!

So it only seemed fitting to write out a note for Ella to read someday, years in the future, on the last page of our day's "menu".

Doing a show is physically hard work and tiring but we always have a lot of Fun doing the Guild Fairs.  We had a great time talking with people and getting to see their reactions to our new work.  We're both fired up by the possibilities of our new Seasonal Botanicals and, even better, they were very well received. 

My next post will be scenes that only artists, their families, and the staff ever get to see ~ breaking down and loading out the Arena level of the Southern Highland Craft Guild's October 2010 Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands!!!

[Edited to add Vickie's photo.]

Count Down Fun! 3! Part 1

Pat's Latest Favorite!

Sterling Silver Christmas Fern on a Spectacular Labradorite,

hot off the bench!

More to come later   .   .   .



Count Down Fun! 4!

So I woke up in my office chair at 3 or so this morning and stumbled off to bed.  We ended up getting a pretty good early start to the day.  This time of the year the light is just incredible, and mornings and late afternoons can be spectacular.

I started by de-spruing the ferns I cast last night.  The three Christmas Ferns are toast, but the Bracken and the Japanese Painted Ferns are hot!  Despite our joking about how long they would take to de-sprue it went surprisingly fast.  Then a coarse grind and a fine grind and now they're in Pat's to do que.

One leaf is incomplete.  Fortunately I waxed it up a much longer frond than we need!

When I ground the back clean the heat caused this color to develop.

Interesting possibilities for a Fall piece . . .

This is going to be a spectacular pendant once we're finished!

Here's an idea of how different the finished pendant will look from the initial casting:

we made this Bracken Ridgelines Pendant early this Spring.

I got all of the Seasonal Botanicals  ground and ready for Pat, while she finished these two gorgeous Seasonal Botanical Pendants!

Sterling Silver Sedum telephium 'Autumn Joy' and Labradorite.

 

I just blanked on what succulent this is!  Um

Sterling Silver Succulent on Labradorite.

(Hmmm.  Maybe I am that tired!  I think I'm glad I didn't try to invest tonight.)

Then it was back to wax work!  I managed to get all of the Petite Ridgelines Pendants that we'll have at the Guild Fair treed and ready to invest.  Got a flask of our larger Ridgelines earrings treed and ready to invest.  All weighed, notes made and ready for the morning.

Here's a sneak peak at some new earrings for our spinner rack for the Fair.

Affordable Reticulated Bronze Earrings!



While I was finishing up Pat made her wonderful enchiladas for our dinner tonight.  The smell was driving me crazy.  They tasted even better than they smelled!  YUM.

Last week someone asked me if we ate out all of the time when we are working like this; hard and straight through.  No, we aren't eating out now.  I enjoy cooking, Pat enjoys it when she doesn't get stuck with it all of the time.  It works pretty well for us.  Stopping and taking an hour or so to cook a good meal is Fun for me.  Besides the better we eat the better we work.  

After dinner and a little break I went back to work and shot some waxes for tomorrow.  After about forty minutes I finally realized that I was smelling the air compressor that powers the wax pot.  I had left the dust cover on and it had gotten so hot that I couldn't touch it!  Time to stop.

Oh.  I just remembered that we haven't mailed our Fair postcards out . . .

Count Down Fun! 5! Part 2, "You know . . ."

[I just discovered that this was saved as a draft last night when I fell asleep in my office chair!  So here's yesterday's second post ~ please just ignore any confusing tense usages and pretend that you're reading it yesterday  .  .  . ]

You know, there's a reason that casting is as much an art form as it is a science . . .

Pat test wearing our newest

Seasonal Botanicals in Sterling Silver !!!

This is another case of taking a break outside and really looking at the wonderful world around us.  I saw this amazing shape and knew that I just had to see what they would look like, and feel like, what they would be as a piece of jewelry.  How could anyone possibly improve on this form, this shape, these proportions???  You can't.

This is one of the first pairs of earrings that I had to try to cast (I think it was) last week (?) because of this inspiration.  (The days are beginning to blend together a little!)  And yes, if you saw my last post, these are actually seed pods from our Ipomoea guamoclit, or Hummingbird Vine.  These beautiful earrings began life as this beautiful flower:

Hummingbird Vine, also known as Star Glory or Cyprus Vine,

Ipomoea guamoclit.

Talk about a stretch your limits challenge!  The first test casting went well and I learned a number of things.  There was no way I could stop with just a couple.  So I had to make more!  But the clock is steadily ticking away and I just don't have time for experimenting ~ if something doesn't work the time and energy and effort is gone.  (But not wasted!  Sometime we have to learn certain lessons more than once . . .)

It was disappointing to take Tuesday night's castings out of the ultrasound and think I'd found shrinkage porosity last night.  I used a miniature cut off disc to desprue the castings today.  And I feel alot better.  Only a couple actually suffered from shrinkage porosity!  (Generally caused by too small a sprue supplying too little metal to too large a mass.  Which was exactly what happened here.)  The rest are perfect and we'll have them at the Guild Fair!  (Providing we find the time to get them all finished!)  I got them all de-sprued and rough ground for Pat today.  She finished up the forged rings so I've got them waiting in the que for grinding and buffing and final polishing.

Between our long dry spell and the cold nights we're having now these might just be the only Hummingbird Vine castings I can make this year.

Our chains haven't arrived from Italy yet, so I called today.  They should be here today or tomorrow.  As long as we have them by next Wednesday we'll be happy.

While I was minding the kiln today Pat got lots more finished up than I did.  Thank goodness!  (Why, oh why, do I still think I can get a dozen other things done when I'm casting???)

Ferns, waxed and ready for spruing*.

So I made dinner a little later than I probably should have tonight.  Pat offered to, but I was already so hungry-wired that I just wasn't being effective so it was better for me to stop working and get into the kitchen.  I made Pat flop on the couch with a good book.

So we ate and then I cast the Ferns at 7:27 tonight.  It was 56 degrees out, though because the kiln and Electro-Melt were running it was 65 in my casting area.  I charged the Electro-Melt with 59 grams (just a smidge under 2 ounces) of Everdur Silicon Bronze once it was preheated to 1850 degrees Fahrenheit.  The kiln and flask were at 950 degrees F.  Normally I'd cast Silicon Bronze with the flask at 900, but it was a cool evening and the ferns are delicate finely detailed pieces.  (Remember that:  "Delicate finely detailed pieces" . . .)

Here's tonight's 1 minute 30 second video of the pour.  If you want to skip ahead to see the four seconds it takes to pour 2 ounces of molten metal, the Fun Part starts at 54 seconds.  This is the make or break point of more than two very full very long days of work and another day spent burning out the flask . . .



Ten minutes later, because it was so cool, the button wasn't glowing and it was time to quench.  And I immediately knew I had problems.  Despite the extremely excessive spruing three of the five ferns completely failed to cast . . .

Gut-dropping, stomped flat, sick to the stomach about sums up how I felt when I first held the castings in my hand.  What ???  Sure, we all know ferns are too thin and too light to cast.  But I've done 'em before and . . .

When I first started casting [lets be polite and just say it was a couple of decades ago, okay?] everything that could go wrong did.  There are so many things that have to be just right to making a casting work, or not, that sometimes I couldn't figure out what had happened!  I wish I could find it now but, I wrote out a list of every single step involved and what might go wrong if you made a mistake at any step and what the affects would be on the casting.  For some reason the number 311 still jumps into my mind all these years later.  (It might've been 315.)

So by my, ancient, calculations from the wax stage to the final quench there are more than 300 hundred ways that you can completely mess up a casting . . .

But more importantly, just what the heck went wrong this time?!?  And how the heck have I messed up two castings in a row???  Am I really that tired???

The metal temp was at 1950 when I poured.  Silicon Bronze is, like DeOxidized Sterling Silver, kind of funny stuff to melt.  There's the melting point of the metal and then there's the liquidous point ~ and sometimes there's another altogether different temperature for the pouring point.  When Silicon Bronze first melts it looks like an antique mirror with a crackly crazzed surface; raise the temperature another 20 or 25 degrees and that affect disappears as the silicon is activated and you're good to pour.

Okay.  It looked good or I wouldn't've poured when I did.  But my first suspicion was the metal's temperature and even though I tried to allow for the ambient temperature that's where I looked first . . . 

Oh.

Here's what I forgot to allow for!!!  Yep, I poured at the correct temperature ~ for a dense heavy casting.  For light delicate ferns I should have poured when the Bronze was another 50 to 100 degrees higher!!!

There's nothing to do but make a note in my casting log and hope that I'll always remember to double-check in the future.  Then you turn the music on and smile and dance.

It's such a Beautiful World and there is always more to remember and to learn. 

So if that was the problem why did I say casting is as much an Art as it is a Science???

Because if I had listened to, and really heard, my own inner voice saying, "Um, it's not hot enough yet . . ." regardless of what the pyrometer said, I think they would have all turned out perfectly.

I didn't listen.  Now all I can do is dance and smile and laugh with the music.

If today is suddenly Friday it must be time for lists, or maybe it's time for bed   .   .   .

Sam & Ink again, late this July, just because.

*Gee, aother word that I seem to automatically misspell!  Sprueing should be spruing.  Though ti, er, it makes me feel better to see how many people have googled sprueing and landed on our blog!

Count Down Fun! 7! 6!! Catching Up, I Hope . . .

This is the morning of Count Down Fun Day 5, as I try catch you up on what we did on Days 7 & 6.  (Lets see if the video works!)

Last time I talked about investing the new Seasonal Botanicals.  On Day 7 they went into the preheated kiln at 300 F at 10 AM.  I spent the day waxing new Fern Seasonal Botanicals.  And waxing, and waxing, and minding the kiln.

It was a pretty well behaved burnout cycle.  There's always a lag between the kiln temperature and the actual temperature of the flask being burned out.  Especially at the lower temperatures, but once the water content has been forced out by the heat and you reach the 1000 degree point the flasks tend to be pretty responsive to temperature changes.  (Though just because of their size and weight there is still a bit of a lag in temperature changes.)  Anyway . . .

Because of the time/temperature lag I start counting down each stage of the burnout cycle once the kiln actually reaches the new temperature range.  For example, the main high temperature for a 3" by 3" flask is 1350 degrees F for three hours.  So when I go from the 2nd stage at 700 F I don't begin timing until the kiln is actually at 1350 F.  And that's the fiddly stage for my old electric kiln.  (An American Ceramics kiln that I dearly love and owe an awful lot to.)  An hour and a half into the 1350 F stage I'll pull the flask, rotate it approximately 90 degrees and turn it over so the sprue former pour cup is now facing up.  Then back in, make sure it's at 1350 F and time for another hour and a half.

The actual pour was at 6:30 PM.  Wait about 15 minutes to let the flask cool then quench.  Then you finally get an idea if all of the wax work and then the burnout and pour worked.

I don't have a way to edit video yet, so this 3 minute clip is a bit rough.  I tried setting the camera up facing my casting area.  From the camera what you see is:  my Vic 9 vacuum caster, my Kerr Maxi Electro-Melt  (100 oz capacity!), and behind that the side of the kiln.  The very loud noise you hear is the exhaust fan.  The even louder noise later is the vacuum caster when it's turned on.  It's dark, but wait till you see the molten metal flowing!!!

Here's a quick timeline:

.10 Charging the Maxi-Melt with 90 grams of Sterling Silver (3 oz) when it is at 1850 F
.30-.40 Rocking the Maxi-Melt to help mix the alloy and sometimes, if it's a lot of metal I can feel if it has begun to melt
.50 checking the melt. Nope, not ready.
1.40+ rocking the Maxi-Melt, feels good, lets check it!
1.50 quick stir with my quartz stirring rod to make sure the melt is complete & to mix it
2.04+ turn off the kiln, pull the flask and set it on the casting table, turn on the vacuum pump and check the vacuum gauge to make sure the flask is drawing a vacuum
2.19 the beginning of the pour & my very favorite part of casting. All the hours and days of work lead up to the next few seconds.

After the actual pour I dump any residual slag out onto my fire resistant base and make sure the graphite crucible is clean. Turn off the Maxi-Melt and unplug it.

The last bit is jumpy because I wanted to show what the flask looks like from my view as it is glowing at me.  Sorry 'bout that, but after the Fair I'll have time to work on editing some more videos.

After cooling a bit I quenched then put it into a glass jar to devest in the ultrasound.  Made dinner and we both decided that we were pretty much done for the evening.  Around midnight I transferred these castings to a pickle jar and left them in the ultrasound for the night.  I turned the ultrasound off when I went to bed around 2.

Just as a reminder, there's a reason I look like this when I'm casting!!!

• Full respirator ~ don't want to breath in any metal fumes!
• Casting glasses ~ I'm looking directly at and into 1850+ degrees F!
• Welding glove on my right hand ~ I use tongs to pull the flask out of a 1000 degree F kiln, and then I use my quartz rod to stabilize the 1850 degree F graphite crucible as I pour.

Yesterday, Day 6 I spent working on new Fern Botanicals.  And working on them, and working on them.  I have to admit I was in a groove and loving it.  They came along really well, but took a lot longer than I had meant them to.  (I thought I'd get them burned out and cast yesterday.  HA!  I just kept working on them.)  I left the earlier Botanicals in the ultrasound all day.  Just got distracted and left them running in fresh water.

Pat got a lot done on the production earrings for the spinner rack over the last few days.  Yesterday she finished the larger pendants that had been on the bench.

We stopped and I made us dinner around 7:30.  Then I went back to working on the Ferns.  I pulled the castings and dried them off . . .

And that was when I finally saw that some of them had shrinkage porosity and aren't usable.  Blankity-blank-blank-blank!!!  It was my own fault.  So there's nothing to do at this point except make a note in my casting log and remember to have a heavier sprue the next time . . .

So, of course, I stayed in the office working on the Ferns and boy did I overcompensate!  I began to actually spruesprue them up ~ after I completely over did their sprueing!  There is no way they will have any shrinkage porosity.

But what a pain they're going to be when it's time to de-sprue them . . .

So now it's the morning of Count Down Day 5!  In four days I'll be loading the display in the car.  In five days we'll be setting up at Booth #109 in the arena level of the Asheville Civic Center.  In six days the Fair will open at 10 AM and we'll be there, all set up and ready to go!

Counting the days  .  .  .