Sunday, December 14, 2008

Rings

Rings have been made. Now I just need to solder the braided part around the flat band, solder the two bands together, create a bezel for the stone and set the stone.

This is what the band will look like once I solder the braid on the flat band. I'm doing two bands like this and the stone will sit between them. Not sure why I did such a complicated design, but it will be cool once it's done.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Thanksgiving

We had our first New York Thanksgiving this year. It was also the first time we hosted it at our house. It all started with an excellent young turkey from Bell & Evans. You might have heard of Bell & Evans as they are the people who provide the turkey for the president every year. Not the one that gets pardoned, the real one. You can't really tell from the picture, but this guy was somewhere between 18 and 20 pounds. I had to bring him home from the butcher in our little shopping cart because he was too heavy to carry.
We brined the turkey in a salt water bath for about 12 hours. It was kind of gross because the water turned all pink and bloody. After we put the turkey in the oven we had this yummy cheese plate.Doesn't this look perfect? It kind of reminded me of that movie Delicatessen though. Here is some of the other great food we had. In the front are samosas that anshuman made by hand. I also see the marshmallow yams Ellie made and the mashed potatoes, roasted carrots and green beans that Jason made at our house. Cranberries on the side. There were cheesy potatoes that Susie made not shown in this pic and gluten-free stuffing that I made. Oh and you can't forget the gluten-free pumpkin pie and berry pie we had after a long walk around the neighborhood.
The next day Scott and I took leftovers to Central Park and had a little picnic and then went to the Whitney to see the William Eggleston exhibit. I love the Whitney. It's the perfect size and never overwhelming. It was super crowded, but it felt like a real New York thing to do, so I mostly enjoyed viewing his amazing photos with a hundred other people.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Halloween


Halloween was fun this year. I used an old zombie tennis player outfit I had in the closet and added the tennis ball-in-the-head accent. I'm a lot better at scary makeup than normal makeup. Scott managed to pull off a pretty good yellowman costume last minute.

Back on track

My gold class ended and I took a little hiatus while traveling here and there. Now I'm back and even more excited to finish. I finally made wire and now have two bands. Progress is quicker now and I should be done within the next few weeks. Then it will be time for moons and lockets...

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Cuteness


Since that last entry was so boring, I thought I would post a photo of Arrow. He totally knows how cute he is in this one...

Snaky


This is about 3mm, so I'm close and it's going a lot faster now that the wire is thinner. I have one more class and kind of can't believe I spent this whole time just rolling out the metal. I definitely have an appreciation for how it feels to work with gold now.

After this class, I'm going to just attend the open studio time and will finish this ring and make some other projects friends have requested. Hopefully things go a little faster from here on out.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Getting there


After six hours of work and a few cracking setbacks, my hot dog is a little longer. I have to keep rolling it until I get it down to 3mm wire.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

labor day antics

Puss

Pollination

Popsicles

Posh

Pantless

Party

hot dog

After six hours, this is what my gold now looks like. The end goal is 3 mm wire. I remelted it into a hot dog shape and then put it through the roller about a million times. I can only roll it about five times before I have to anneal it. Annealing involves heating it up until it almost melts and then putting it in the pickle (a liquid bath) to get rid of the "dirt" that gets on it from annealing. It keeps starting to crack along the top (you can kind of see this in the picture) and I've had to slightly remelt it once already to fix this. When you remelt it, you kind of have to start all over again. I'm trying to be patient.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

$425 worth of gold

Can you believe it's so small? I created this alloy last week by combining 24 karat gold with a tiny bit of silver and copper. You pick the color you want your gold to look like and then use a handy chart to figure out how much silver/copper to add to get that color. I went for Very Deep Yellow, 18 karat, which should be a bit darker than the usual color you see.
Yesterday I went to R Gems in the city to pick out a stone for the ring. I've always loved rocks and gems (even had a rock tumbler as a kid) so I could have spent hours looking at all of their stones. I ended up with a garnet (my birthstone) and a green quartz. I think I'll probably go with the garnet for this ring. They were super nice and even gave Scott and me a tour of the back where they cut the stones. The guy was saying that they use a diamond blade to cut the stones and this type of blade won't hurt your finger if you touch it. He fired it up to show us and pressed his finger against it firmly and sure enough nothing happened. Then he took a rock to it and it cut right through. I'm a little confused about how exactly that happened.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

First Piece


I got to reminiscing about the very first piece I made when I started taking metalsmithing classes back in SF. The days of the deer (and big belts) are slipping away, but I still love this buckle (especially the green eye!).

Tonight I'm starting a gold class at 174 Studio in Williamsburg. I've only worked in silver, brass, copper, etc. so I'm super excited to work with a new metal. We start with pure 24 karat gold and custom alloy it to create 14 karat gold in a custom color. Then I'll make a piece with it. Stay tuned...

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Perfect Summer Stoop Sipper


2007 Chateau Montaud Rose, Cotes de Provence

My local wine shop directed me towards this rose that is great for a late summer evening spent sitting on the stoop gossiping with neighbors. It smells of strawberries and melon and is the most pale pink in color. It is also refreshingly dry while still retaining some nice fruit flavors. And it's low in alcohol (labeled at 12%) so you can have many glasses without guilt or hangover. Yum!

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Tat



I got a tattoo last week. It's a zinfandel leaf. Zinfandel isn't my most favorite type of wine, but we grew old-vine zinfandel on the vineyard I grew up on so it's a sentimental choice. Thanks to sweet Lulu for helping with design.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Mavis Staples


On Friday, Scott, Linda and I went to see Mavis Staples at the SummerStage in Central Park. It was a magical evening that left us all smiling for a long time afterwards.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Cat Naps Finally Happens in 2008



I'm finally starting this blog to document life in Brooklyn/NYC and any other things I'm currently into. One of my 08 intentions is motivation, so hopefully I'll post frequently.

We closed out 2007 with a big trip back west to see family and friends and take some much needed time away from reality. Some highlights included:
  • BBQ Turkey and massive overeating in Ojai
  • Playing soccer and losing to my mom's dog callie
  • Noontime margaritas and more with old friends in Laguna
  • Morning hot tub soaks with Artie and Eileen
  • Bolompie papusas
  • Playing with Robert and Amy's three cats
  • Madness at the Hemlock
  • New Years back in Laguna with Jessica, Jason and their friends
Here are some pics. Stay tuned for more soon...