Happy Easter !!!

Happy Easter !!!

Here are some snapshots of our Easter Day for our Friends and Family.  We especially hope my Dear Sister Terry will enjoy them ~ since she needs a glimpse of green so badly!  (Spring really is coming!!!)

About as far back as I can remember Easter also meant plants, rebirth, Spring.

Who ya gonna call when the Easter Bunny needs help ???

(With a Special Thank You to Laurel for Forwarding this from Kri!)

Hey, the Easter Bunny and his Little Tiger Friend came !!!

I must've been kind of good, because the Easter Bunny brought me a New Guinea Impatiens, some baby Cucumbers, and a Dragon Wing Begonia for my container plantings.  (For now they're resting on the Nature's Helper we mulched our little Memorial Bed with ~ most of the plants were ones that Mom or Dad gave us years ago.  The Lily of the Valley and the White Wood Hyacinth are coming up now, but I don't have any photos of them yet.)

Pat's been saying we need even more sedums . . .

She must've been Really Good because the Easter Bunny brought her even more sedums!

 

More sedums here . . .

More sedums there . . .

(I'm beginning to wonder if the Easter Bunny or his little helper is going to help me dig up the hillside that is going to be our new Rock Garden?  And what about collecting and moving and planting all of those

 Really Big Rocks for it?  Huh?  Huh?!?)

Oh thank you Easter Bunny Tiger !

What can I use this lovely container for???

Hey, I have a cool idea!

(It's getting hot out . . .)

Is it level now?

It worked!

I mean, of course it worked ~ I'm a Bauman!

The glass balls were collected by our Family on, or near, Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands in the 60s.

It was getting pretty hot and we both had worked really hard Saturday cleaning up the yarden.  The last of the leaves are finally gone, the beds are fertilized and most of the containers are ready for the new season.  The "lawn" is de-thatched, re-seeded and fretilized.  I've sown a batch of mesculin and radishes, and the Basil Babies are flourishing.  So, of course, we ended up flaking out in the shade for awhile, both of us feeling yesterday in ways that told us just how long this last Winter had been!

So here's a tour of our front yarden from the comfort of our shaded chairs.

Sometime you really just have to take the time to enjoy the day.

Our hillside perrenial bed.  (We still need to trim the liriope on this side of the steps!)

Neat!!!  The Easter Bunny left us five bags of shredded hardwood mulch in the car???

I think it might be a little hot and late to get started today . . .

Our new fountain.  Hal and Bruce's house is in the background beyond our wild flower area.

The bench, with twice as many sedums as we had just a week ago!

Last Christmas Santa Claws gave Pat this wonderful David Grant bird house.  It's a wood-fired salt glazed piece of functional pottery that he thought the kitty boys would enjoy watching from the back of the sofa.

From our front door you can see that the new early crocus have faded and the later ones are in full bloom.

From the sidewalk the pansies really shine.

I changed the hose so we would have even more relaxing lovely burbling sounds from our new foutain.

The trilliums are going crazy in the wildflower area.  We have at least fifty red in bud or blooming this year!

Here are the lower Blood Roots at peak bloom.

One of our white trilliums in bud.

The last of the flowers on our Oconee Bells that I divided from Dad's planting.

A few of our upper Blood Root closing for the night.

(I'll have to upload some pictures of our incredible Trout Lillies later.)

Daffodils in the evening's glow.

Hal and Bruce are our favorite neighbors.  Tonight Bruce brought us a couple of slices of his delicious homemade apple pie!

One of the funny things about blogging is that sometimes just when you think you are finished you aren't.  Here's a photo I found when I was taking another look at Painter's site tonight and checked out their Facebook postings!

Sedums and lettuce and coleus and Fun with plants!

Isn't this a Big Part of what it's all about ?

We hope that you have had as Happy an Easter as we have !!!

Catching Up

A. P.'s finished brooch!

Unfortunately I still haven't gotten the camera set up correctly, so the red rubies look pink.  It's a nice piece.  Pat made an adaptor so it can also be worn as a pendant.  He's going to have a lot of Fun with this lovely surprise!

We've had lots of good things happening in the last week!  The trip to Arrowcraft in Gatlinburg was great.  The drive was beautiful, we delivered our work and had a nice visit.

Pat was test wearing Shooting Stars.

Laurel asked if she could have it for the store.  The next day K. K., one of our first serious Collectors, came in and fell in love with it!

We met up with Nancy and Norman L.  Nancy was able to articualte what it was that had been bothering me about our second Reflections pendant.  (Which is a Big Help!)  We had a nice lunch, in a restaurant whose name I've forgotten, literally sitting over a creek!  Then we went onto to "Swamp North", their family's cabin on the edge of the National Forest.  We spent a wonderful afternoon talking and relaxing while listening to the creek.

I forgot to photograph them, but, Pat had re-strung two gorgeous turquoise necklaces for Nancy.  We made a new traditional-style clasp for the stunning squash blossom that had been her Mother's.  Nancy put it on while still wearing the beautiful Black Opal Ancient Seas pendant we had made for her Birthday and Anniversary last year.

At the time we hadn't even seen her squash blossom necklace . . .  What is so amazing is that both pieces have essentially the same design!!!  And they really look like they were made to go together!

We missed meeting up with Marina P. and David when they came to town.  I'm hoping we still can so we can engrave her Heart of the Mountain pendant.  (We signed it but forgot to engrave it's name before it went to Bellagio Art to Wear!)

We also made it to Painter's Greenhouse for their first Open House and Sale!  Our big project this Spring will be putting in a rock garden on the hillside beside the steps and the wild lilly/foxglove/columbine/iris bed.  So, of course, we loaded up on sedums!

Something tells me we're going to need a lot more plants . . .

Red Sez

Red Sez:  It's The Face!  It's The Face!!!

You want me to grow up all big and handsomer.

Don't you???  Okay, then feed me again Nice Face!

Happy Spring !!!

We celebrated the Vernal Equinox yesterday by "working" in the yard.  Appropriately enough it was the second day in a row that hit 70 degrees!  It was gorgeous and we actually got quite a bit done.  It seems like it's been a long Winter for us and we're both a bit out of shape.  So we took it slow and enjoyed the day.

I did cast the next flask cast too.  So while Pat works on production rings today I'll be finishing the other pieces that we need for the order we'll be delivering to Arrocraft Tuesday!

We didn't take any photos yesterday.  So here are a couple from Springs past . . .

"Spring", March 2008

From March 2009, this was our first piece using Laurel Kiewitt's wonderful art glass.

And up to the present "Last Freeze" sold at Arrowcraft just last week!

The art glass pendants have been a lot of Fun for us to work on and we have more planned for this year too!  In the meantime though, it's back to work on our Ridgelines!

Happy Spring!!!

Flowers for Terry !

It's a beautiful day here!  It's a sunny sixty degrees and is getting warmer by the minute.  Since Terry asked and is in the midst of blizzard-like conditons and is expecting 10 inches of snow . . .  Here's a reminder that Spring really is coming!!!

Purple Crocus by our steps.

The first of the new Crocus in the long bed.

It's so pretty out that we couldn't resist taking thirty minutes and getting a start on cleaning up the Winter debris.  We took six bins of pine cones out of the wild flower area!  It's a good start.

Inky even came out to soak up some sun and supervize us!

Now we're back to work.  Our hands are all sticky with pine resin!

Synchronicity & Passages

While dinner* is finishing in the oven and Pat is relaxing I thought I'd take a couple of minutes and post the new earring designs that we finished earlier this week.  (These are not good, studio quality, photos but they'll serve for now as a record for us.)

As we were eating lunch in the yarden this afternoon a hawk was calling somewhere in the wooded valley behind us.  Pat reminded me that it was about time for our pair of passage hawks to stop by for a visit.  As soon as she said that I looked up and there one of them was cruising above our street heading to the open air at the end of the knoll that our road ends on!

It got up to 59.4 degrees today.  Finally warm enough to invest the two flasks that I have ready!!!   One is loaded with production earrings and small pendants.  The other one has a special piece for Pat M. and a number of larger pieces that will become new pendants.  It's exciting.  They'll be going into the kiln first thing in the morning.

Talk about small worlds and synchronicity ~ I had been thinking about Nancy L. earlier today.  She called just as I was about to invest!  We'll meet up for lunch next Tuesday when we go to Gatlinburg to deliver Arrowcraft's order.  It's always so nice to see Nancy, and it will be fun to have a chance to just sit down and talk and catch up!

We both have a lot of work to do before then.  But if the forecast is correct and it really does get up to 68 Saturday we'll be outside getting some play time in.  Er, I meant work time tending our neglected yarden!  There's a lot to do and even though I'm planning to burnout and cast again Saturday I suuspect that we'll both be outside regardless of the temperature.

I photographed some of our new crocus before we stopped for lunch today.  I planted these late last Fall.  There are a few hundred more of them to come and quite a few Tulipa kaufmanniana, one of my favorites.  In this area we have a mix of sixty crocus and thirty-six various Tulipa kaufmanniana.

Oh dinner*?  Last night left over killer "chilli" turned into AElvish Macaroni and Cheese tonight . . .  mixed with finely grated double gloucester, mozarella, an increedible Spanish sheep cheese and parmigiano reggiano regiano and rotini pasta.  Since I just pulled it out of the oven Pat's making us a nice little spinich salad and slicing some wonderful bread.  It's time to eat!

New Work & The Missing Day

Happy Saint Patrick's Day !!!

Here's the 2nd of our Ridgelines' Reflections series inspired by Lichen!

For this pendant we patinated the bronze then re-polished the highlights to emphasize the incredible textures.  Then we sealed the bronze, as we did the river stone.

And, again, here's the first in this series

This is our latest Ridgelines pendant featuring two really nice Blue Topaz.

Somehow I've changed our camera's settings, so I'll have to post our newest earring designs later.  Tomorrow I'll invest and burnout the two flasks of Ridgelines elements I have ready.  We'll also be placing a large materials order.  Once I have a chance to re-read the camera's instructions I'll photograph all of our latests pieces again.  Until then . . .

Spring Really Is Coming!!!

Oh.  "The Misssing Day"?  That's because I haven't a clue where today went!!!

Satisfaction

Earthlink finally got our email straightened out yesterday.  Which is nice.  While Pat was in Waynesville I de-sprueed A.'s Annivversary Brooch.  It went really well and it was very satisfying to spend some good time in the studio after being sick for so long.  Here's how's it's coming along after desprueing and a quick initial buff.

Of course I forgot to photograph the custom ring for Jeannie before Pat delivered it yesterday!

We have lots of work to do ~ we have some large wholesale orders and some very interesting custom work coming up!  So off to work I go!

Last Night's Castings & No Email . . .

I put both flasks in the pre-heated kiln at 10 yesterday morning.  I expected my burnout cycle to take 7 hours, but ended up pouring just after 9 hours.  The weather turned a little colder and rainy so I had some heat lags to take into account.  It's better to be slow and sure, 'cause you can definitely run a burnout cycle too fast and too hot.

As I was pouring I could hear the first spring peepers calling nearby.  Spring really is coming!

A.'s Anniversary Brooch turned out beautifully!

I'll be spending quite a bit of time de-sprueing with mini-cutoff discs tomorrow.  But all those heavy sprues were worth it.  After I grind and polish Pat will be setting a 2.5 mm AA ruby into each of the 10 petals.  This is going to be a really lovely brooch!

The ring for The Jewelers Workbench turned out well too.

I've already de-sprued and ground it.  It needs a little touching up and a final polish and it will be ready to deliver tomorrow!

For some reason Earthlink's email has been out of whack all weekend.  We can't access our mail at all.  All their support has said since yesterday is, "We are currently experiencing high call volume indicative of an email outage. We are currently investigating further and apologize for the inconvenience. Please continue to check this site for updates."  Jeepers.

Our Dear Friend Greylond called us last night.  He's in the wilds of Mississippi.  He was sitting by his campfire enjoying a glass of wine and thinking of us.  I was having a glass of beer and had just thought of him shortly before he called.  We had a good long talk, about many things.  We each raised a glass, "To absent Friends!"

Red Sez . . .

My 29 gallon aquarium in the living room only has 9 Harlequin Rasboras and a ton of South East Asian plants in it.  Last weekend when I picked up some dried cat food, I took a look at the male Bettas in the store . . .

One of the Red guys really caught my eye.  He was very attentive and just beautiful.  And he told me that if I rescued him and gave him a new home he'd be beautiful and would protect us from all the "snailzs" in the world.

How could I refuse?  Besides he needed saving!

Red Sez:  See how betta~full I am?!?  Aren't I big and scary?!?

Now, SHHH!  Be Very Very Quiet, I'm hunting snailzs and I'm hiding behind these leaveses so they can't see me.

For L.'s Consideration ~ More Possibilities !

(Photographed on white paper under room lights ~ there's definitely some color drift!)

A new image of some possibilities because I forgot a Carnelain and the gorgeous Starry Jasper!

Clockwise from the top center:  Petrified Bali Coral, three Butterfly Agates, Bird's Eye Jasper, Maramuabe (an Australian Tiger Eye), small glowy Carnelian, Goldshine Obsidian, a pair of Crazy Lace Agates, Tiger Iron, a darker glowy Carnelian, and Starry Jasper.

Sprueing & A Surprise!

This is a custom ring's wax that Pat carved for The Jewelers Workbench

Here's the pattern for A's Anniversary Brooch

Pat pricks the pattern with a pin to transfer the design to the blue carving wax.

I spent a lot of time thinking about how to sprue this piece . . .

There so much time in the carving that I want to ensure it casts perfectly!  I actually began sprueing this wax Wednesday, then decided I wasn't happy with it.  So I stopped and took a break.  These views are after I finished sprueing it Thursday . . .

I

I used three pieces of 6 gauge and one piece of 8 gauge wax sprueing wire.

Definitely better safe than sorry!

Thursday's high was only 52 degress; too cold to invest.  So I invested both flasks late this afternoon so they'd be ready to go in the kiln first thing in the morning!

I had to run to The Home Depot to pick up an extra bottle of oxygen.  Hmmm ~ gorgeous yellow primroses at the checkout for only $1.46.  They're such beautiful plants that I couldn't resist getting us one.  We may just have to go back for more!

Since I was out I swung by Ingles to pick up some ingrediants for dinner tonight (mussels fresh in from Maine with pasta).  For some reason as I strolled past the magazine section one caught my eye . . .  The April issue of Blue Ridge Country is out.  It's a special issue celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

I picked it up thinking about recommending it to our writer Friend Tim W..  When I leafed through it I found the Guild's ad on page 15 . . .  And there was our first Ancient Seas pendant!!!

What a Fun Surprise!

Reflections and the Perfect Rissotto!

Because of the rock slide on I-40 we made the trip to Gatlinburg yesterday by the old 25-70 route.  It was a beautiful drive and only took us about an extra thirty minutes.  As always it was wonderful to have a chance to talk with Craig and Emily and Laurel.  And to get Laurel's reaction to our new Reflections pendant!

This Reflections pendant features an oval Ridgelines cast in Sterling Silver and oxidized.  The stream pebble is coated so that it will always be shiny-wet looking, then it is set in Sterling step-bezel.  The lichen was windfall gathered from our yard.  We both have always loved and admired the wonderful textures and shapes of the lichens in our mountains.  Tom was so inspired by the special pieces that had been falling at his feet that he developed a new technique that allows him to cast them perfectly.  (If he hadn't they would end up mulched by the city of Asheville!)  The Pearl adds the perfect compliment to the colors of the pendant.

When we left Arrowcraft we stopped at Greenbriar, an amazing part of the Great Smokies National Park, right outside of Gatlinburg.  We had a picnic and a wonderful walk through the faery land beside the river.  For once our trilliums are up first!  We were so overwhelmed that we didn't take any photos.  But here is one from a visit there last April.

On our way back home that last night we stopped in Marshall . . .  It's been years since either of us had been to Marshall.  It was amazing!  The town has stayed small, but it looks to be thriving.  We were lucky enough to discover the Bacchus Bistro.

The Chicken Marsala came with the best Risotto Parmigiano we've ever had.  It was stunning.  It was also the perfect ending for a perfect day!

More Snow and Work

We had a couple of inches of snow again Tuesday . . .

Last week was busy for both of us.  I surprised Pat by casting the two bronze flasks Monday.  I was actually cleaning the sprues off in the quench bucket when she came home!  I had meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday.  When I got home Tuesday she had finished coating our river pebbles and had formed and soldered the step-bezels for five of them!

(They're on a sheet of white paper!  Color drift because I didn't set my lights up.)

We both took the weekend off.  Which was good, because by Sunday I was coming down with something!  So Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I was pretty lazy ~ following Doctor Pat's orders!  I'm much better today and raring to get everything caught back up!

So here's where we are right now . . .

Both flasks I cast last week turned out.  But the ferns arent going to be usable; I had some porosity in each one . . .  But I do know why and what to do about it!  Which is really exciting to both of us.  (As soon as I compared the castings to the photos I had taken as I was working on them the causes were immediately obvious!)

The lichen flask worked beautifully and Pat is in the studio cleaning them up right now!  The technique I developed for them worked perfectly on my first try.  And yes, maybe I am crowing a little bit.  But hey, I think I've earned it!  The textures and shapes are amazing.  I'm really looking forward to these pendants becoming real.

And yes, I have to cast more ferns as soon as the weather warms up enough for me to do so!  I also have a custom ring's wax waiting to be cast.  (It was being approved when I cast last Monday, and it's been freezing ever since.)

Pat finished the wax for A.'s Anniversary Brooch today!  Here's the original design he choose

Here's the finished wax for A.'s Anniversary Brooch

If the forecast is right we might just get up into the 50s this weekend.  If it does warm up that much I'll have at least two custom pieces to invest and cast.  If tomorrow goes well I just might have some ferns ready for Pat too!

J.T.'s Earrings and Commissions

We had wonderful weather over the weekend!  It actually hit 62 Sunday and we were able to spend a little bit of time outside, once we finished up some work.  Here are the earrings that Pat finished for J.T. . . .

They are oxidized Sterling Silver with Niobium wire wrapped around the dangle as a nice color accent. with four prong mounted Garnets.

As I was photographing them this morning A.P. came by with a deposit for his commission.  It's an interesting one!  (And is an example of how time flys!)  Ten years ago we made their wedding bands.  Five years ago he had us make his Fifth Wedding Anniversary gift for her.  And now we are making his Tenth Wedding Anniversary Gift!

Here are the initial designs Pat skectched after we first spoke with him.  He decided on design number 8, with 10 2.5 mm Rubies in Sterling Silver.  It's going to be a lovely brooch!

Now, I have to get back to minding the kiln!  With this warmer weather I have to use every chance I have to get some castings done!  Right now I have the two flasks in that have been waiting so long.  I'm looking forward to seeing them in metal!  These pieces will be some of the first for our new River Ridgelines series and I'll be casting them in Silicon Bronze.

I have at least one more commission piece to cast and finish before next Monday.  Since the Guild's Board meeting is tomorrow and I'll be at an all day Fair Committee meeting (as the Board's Rep) Wednesday I won't have a chance to even think about casting again until Friday!

Time sure flys when you're having Fun !!!

Before & After and Spring is Coming!!!

Here is a "before" photo of one of the pieces that Pat M. commissioned for last Christmas. (I'm still hoping to eventually 'catch up' and post more about them!)

After making some changes for the recipient:

I took this yesterday as proof and a reminder for us that Spring really is coming!!!

This morning sharp-eyed Pat spotted the first of the Trilliums coming up!

This is River Fern, the first in a new series of our Ridgelines jewelry that we will be exploring in greater depth this year!

The oval Ridgelines is cast in Sterling Silver and oxidized.  The fern is cast in Silicon Bronze and it accented with Black Onyx.  The river pebble, from one of our favorite spots, was coated so that it will always look wet and shiny.  It is set in a step bezel.  The frame is Sterling Silver with a 14 K Gold accent.

This is the very first pendant in one of the new series that we are so excited about! Today it warmed up to 45 degrees. Soon it will be warm enough for Tom to cast those two flasks of new pieces that have been waiting so impatiently for well over a month now!!!

Falling Water

Well, we were "snowed in" over Valentine's weekend!  It started Friday afternoon so we canceled our planned delivery by 3.  By Saturday morning we only had about 3 inches, but the plow had stopped about three houses before ours . . .  So we stayed in, "snowed in" until late that afternoon.  Then we made a quick run to the store, more to get out of the house for a bit than from any pressing need.  Our road was still hairy enough that we decided that we were snowed in for the whole weekend.  So we loafed and watched some spectacular Olympians compete.

Since I had problems with the image of Falling Water 2, here's

Falling Water 1

Varscite from Australia with a Peridot in oxidized Sterling Silver.

The two outer arms have Ridgelines facing outwards too.

Falling Water will be one of our new series of Ridgelines jewelery, and we are both very excited by some of our design ideas.  (And yes, the name was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water ~ as well as by all of the water that we have falling in Western Nortch Carolina!)

Back to updating our Guild Members' Webpage!  (I hadn't realized how behind I had gotten!)  Please feel free to check the new images.