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Summer in the City


View of the Cliff House from sea level

There’s nothing like a November day that feels like summer with clear skys and temps in the high 70s and low 80s. 🙂 And, it was on the first day I’ve spent time in this part of Golden Gate Park – right on the beach. Soooo perfect.

Careful!

WPA Murals in the Beach Chalet

A Beach Chalet “Sand Castle”

Some friends, who are fellow jewelry artists, and I visited the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design on Sutter St. We viewed the jewelry exhibits, participated in the toy jewelry / photo exhibit, and made some jewelry out of toys.

Catherine Witherell and her toy jewelry creation


Patrik Kusek and his toy ring


Pat Accorinti and her pipe cleaner and button necklace
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Updated the Website for an Upcoming Show



I’ve been very busy lately updating the website for my upcoming group show with The Virgin Artists. Fellow artist Adea Fong created new buttons for the artists joining the show this year, and she also created a new button for our newest category “Home Decor.” 

 
The site design we collaborated on 3 years ago has been nicely received and we hope you enjoy checking it out. We’ve freshened up a few of the general information pages with images from our artists that Adea has added text to. It’s really nice to have a graphic artist help us look as professional online as we do in person.


In this 6th year of the art show and sale we’ll have fourteen artists, 3 of whom have never sold their work before. Eight of the artists are returning from last year. All the artists live in the San Francisco Bay Area and create their art by hand themselves. We have artists who create art jewelry, art glass, ceramics, gourds, home décor objects, and fiber arts.

 
If you’ve enjoyed the show in the past, you’ll notice that we have a new venue and new show days. We’ve listened to your feedback, and are holding the show on Saturday and Sunday December 6th and 7th from noon – 6pm.

Our new show location is The Institute for the Study of Western Civilization, located at 10060 Bubb Rd, Cupertino, 95014.
 
 
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Bactrian Treasures, Velvet da Vinci, Maya Lin, YSL, and Stanford Taiko

Friday was a gorgeous fall day in San Francisco.  Clear skies and warmer than average temps were much appreciated in our day spent out and about in the city.

In the back of my mind, I knew there was a  mint in SF; and I had visited mints in other cities. Friday I noticed the fortress-like SF Mint for the first time just as public transportation was rolling by.




The Bactrian Treasures at the Asian Art Museum were worth the visit. They were made of very high karat gold, and made with different techniques. Many were made of sheet, many were created with the repousse’ and chasing technique, and some looked cast (although the descriptions on technique were often missing from the descriptions.) The pieces had great range, with the clearest garnet cabachons I’ve seen, inlaid turqoise, and elaborate sword decorations.

The crown shown on the National Geographic site for this exhibition can be taken apart and laid almost flat; fueling conjecture that the crown was worn by a nomadic princess.

The Pendant Show and re-invented recycled jewelry of the Radical Jewelry Makeover sponsored by Ethical Metalsmiths are accompanied by an exhibition of Jillian Moore’s new work at Velvet da Vinci. The friendly staff at the gallery was very informative about the jewelry makeover project. 

At the De Young Museum, Maya Lin’s installation art, Yves Saint Laurent’s artwork, Ruth Asawa’s hanging wire sculptures, and a view from the tower at the de Young Museum were capped off with a listen to the Stanford Taiko groups first two songs.


The Academy of Sciences as seen from the tower of the De Young Museum.

Maya Lin’s “2×4 Landscape” installation in the lobby of the De
Young reminded me of favelas.


If you know if anyone wore this YSL wedding dress, I’d be interested to know who it was.


Having learned Ruth Asawa’s basic technique from Nancy Banks at a Metal Arts Association of Silicon Valley meeting this year, it was very nice to see Ruth’s work in person. 


The Stanford Taiko group performed in front of Maya Lin’s installation inside the De Young Museum.

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Visit to the Cantor Center

On the day before All Hallows’ Even, I spent the afternoon with a friend at Stanford’s Cantor Center for the Arts. We viewed the exhibit of Diebenkorn drawings and paintings of Santa Cruz Island. Santa Cruz Island is one of the Channel Islands off the coast of CA.
Also on exhibit were contemporary glass pieces, inspired by older Italian, Greek and other pieces.
In very comfortable craftsmen style chairs upstairs in the museum, we watched some great cloud action above the campus.




Afterwards, we headed over to the nearby Allied Arts Guild to view the work of some local artists. These flowers caught our eye.



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Nice! -and- Patinas

Emanuela Duca has some very nice pieces of jewelry on her site. Clicking the title of this post will take you to her site.


Back to work! For the upcoming SFBASCG meeting in Los Gatos, I’m preparing a patina demo on brass, copper, and silver. I enjoyed experimenting with different materials last year when I gave a patination demo for the Metal Arts Association of Silicon Valley. 

Results of last years demo are shown below. The tobacco patina was interesting because the coarse and fine tobacco resulted in very different patinas. The friend that went with me to the smoke shop to purchase pipe tobacco for the demo was just asking me about the tobacoo patina the other day. She finds it amusing and interesting. Aren’t we artists odd?!



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Monterey County Studio Tour

We’re looking forward to 3 days of early fall and coastal air in Carmel and Pacific Grove.

 
Friday night’s Gala Reception for the Monterey County Studio Tour is held at the Pacific Grove Art Center.
 
The tour action heats up on Saturday and Sunday September 27th and 28th from 10am – 5pm at the Jody Royee Gallery in Carmel. Jody has graciously offered the gallery space to myself and fellow art jewelers Fran Grinels and Daria Salus. The walls of the gallery will be decorated with paintings by Lesely Anne Spowart. If you’d like to meet any, or all, of us and enjoy some snacks at the same time head over to 317 Mid Valley Center, in Carmel (5.5 miles from Highway 1 on Carmel Valley Road.)