CraftBoston Spring 2012

Last Saturday I spent several lovely hours taking in the sights at CraftBoston, held at the Seaport. I had been surprised to learn that the event was going to have a steampunk theme, but it turned out that that was relegated to one section and the theme of the talks; aside from that, the event was very similar to last year. I did notice that a large portion of the booths had bright "New Exhibitor" signs on them, and I saw a lot of artists I hadn't seen before. A few highlights:

- Swan and Stone Millinery had a variety of wonderful hats and fascinators incorporating feathers and felted flowers. I really should have tried some on!

- There were a lot of stalls with ceramics at CraftBoston, but I'd never seen anything like the Art Nouveau style ceramics by Stephanie Young before. Her website has a lot of interesting information about her process and inspiration as well. I just saw her work at 13Forest Gallery when I was dropping off work there, so you can see a sample of her style in Arlington as well!

- I remember seeing Joe Bagley's amazing papercuts last year at CraftBoston Spring, but I was glad to have a chance to peruse them again. I was also amused to see a sign in the stall stating that one of his papercuts (a couple on a bicycle, I believe) was the first image pinned on Pinterest. Neat!

Forged Wire Rings

After the recent craziness of my schedule, I just had to doodle around and make something new -- and I'm pretty happy with how it came out! I saw a lot of rings like this while we were in San Francisco and I love the idea. I took it a step further by oxidizing the copper after forming these rings, then buffing off parts of it to reveal the pink copper color. I love how every second in the liver of sulfur bath creates a slightly different tone in the copper -- it turns from gold to maroon to grey to blue-black, all in about 20 seconds (depending on the heat of the bath and wire, I believe). Unfortunately the color in these photos isn't great, but it should give a sense of the difference in color that happens after only a few seconds.

Bronze hue (only a few seconds in the liver of sulfur):

Maroon-pink shade (about 8 seconds):

Deep grey (more than 20 seconds; burnished afterwards to bring out some of the pink color):

Detail of the pattern:

City Hall Show

I have eight pieces in this show -- four 18"x24" drawings (three of which are totally new!), and four of my favorite 8"x10" - 9"x12" drawings. 

Also, for anyone attending the TEDxSomerville conference at the Armory tomorrow, I will have a selection of works in the art show there, including a necklace and a teapot among others.