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The bowl got an over all light planishing to even out the surface. I still had some deep hammer marks in a few places but wanted to soften them later.  I was more interested in adding something of interest to the base for  visuals inside the bowl.

I drew a star on the base of the bowl, no chasing, I just started to push the metal down with repoussé tools. In the past I have chased a design on the outside of a vessel meant to be see on the inside and didn’t like the way it worked. Recently I saw a guy on YouTube just go in to the back of a large platter (on black pitch) very deeply with repoussé tools, when the front was exposed, he went in to define the figures with what looked like chasing tools, considerably softer-edged than mine.  The Corwin book talks about ‘running’ tools of different widths and profiles for different effects. That must be what he was doing.  I’m moving just a little way down that road with this element.

While I worked on the sides, the pitch lining was cracking a little.  That was  most likely due to its thinness, if I had filled the bowl or lined it more heavily, it may not have cracked in the same way. As it was, I just heated the inside of the lining, pressed the pitch back together, let it cool and continued to work.

When I put the star in the base, it knocked out a piece of the pitch, metal was pushed farther than the thin layer of pitch would allow.

The pitch was melted out of the bowl and I soaked it in turpentine for about 4 hours (to remove pitch residue without fire), while I had dinner and watched Thursday night TV.

Afterwards I gave the bowl a brass brushing  to remove the turps and cut one of the scallops to see if my shears were the right tool, they worked.

The star had a lumpy appearance inside the bowl. Again, something new from the Corwin book, I took some plasticine that had been lying around the studio for years and put it to work. The base had to be supported while I worked on it but I didn’t want to go through the pitch placing and removal process for this small part of the bowl. We were having a heat wave when I picked up the plasticine, it was more pliable than it had been during winter, still pretty stiff but nothing like it was when I was using it years ago in cooler weather.

I packed an inch thick layer of plasticine onto the base and  worked on a board for mobility and to keep the oily stuff of of my worktable. I worked on defining the edges of the star with a pear shaped repoussé tool.

After I worked on the inside a bit, I made a bigger piece for the inside so I could work on it  from the outside.  The plasticine had to be tall enough to raise the rim of the bowl  above  the board.

Working from the outside I was able to smooth out the star’s surface. It was interesting to note that when I remover the plasticine from the inside the copper and the clay were both blackened. I don’t know if there was some unknown agent acting  because it didn’t happen on the outside of the vessel with plasticine from a different part of my stash.

The whole base outside of the star was still not work hardened,  I began to us a dowel to push the base around the star flatter, the bowl is unsupported, resting on the board.

I spent a lot of time refining the shape of the bowl, widening and making the base circular, and removing the visual break between the base and the curved sides.  It took a combination of different hammers and mallets, short trips to a stake, stump depression and board, and  the use of different shaped wooden dowels.

I cut out all of the scallop dips.

The rim was filed into shape ( #2, #4 half round files) and sanded with 800 grit emery paper.  I gave the whole surface a rubdown with the 8oo grit paper. I think it’s finished now, removing the texture might remove its character.

The Van Duzer Saturdays have begun.  These are four Saturdays in July  when the street is blocked off to vehicle traffic and the local merchants and  neighbors fill the block with activities for kids and adults.  The merchants show case their stores and services, local musicians perform and there’s even a little crafts and flea market in an alley off of the main street.  I was there the first saturday with irma and Toni from the friends of Fire at Casterbridge Fair Store which is about a block and a half away from the main events on Van Duzer.

Irma was showing her jewelry and a few photographs, Toni was selling her hand made pillows.

I was there under our tent with jewelry  and  prints.

On Van Duzer kids were painting, taking Karate lessons and listening to live music.

There was an engaging belly dance performance in the early afternoon.

Later in the afternoon, the group Queen Tipsy performed, the singer is Phyllis Forman. You’ll find them on FaceBook.

here’s pan shot of the whole block.

This past saturday was the Saturday in which the Second Saturday  takes place, that’s a different organization that lists and produces a map for art events and performances taking place on Staten Island the Second Saturday of each month.  Our store held a ‘Seconds’ sale  and on van duzer a card board New york city was built.  It even had a model of the Verrazano Bridge, kids  with their parents built  and painted it.

I was surprised to see and old neighbor  appear at the event, here’s Smith, he moved from our neighborhood around Tysen street a year or two ago. He was there with his daughter Aslan working on the cardboard city.

There were a number of kids running around, these girls were cute and energetic.

Irma and I were in Peddler’s Alley again this week, we were joined by Janice who makes shibori dyed silks.  The other artist/dealers didn’t show up, our weather forecast  was for a slow moving thunderstorm that was dropping 1″ of rain per hour; of course, after scaring everyone, the storm failed to materialize. It was probably the main reason attendance was down. Irma shared my tent incase there was a sudden downpour.

As the day ended, the inhabitants of our alley showed up. They are being fed by one of the people who lives here.  They are feral cats in need of health care, homes and neutering.  It made us feel bad to see them suffer, but we couldn’t get near them, they watched us and ran to hide if we approached them. I like the kitten on the far left but Henry is enough and probably wouldn’t be happy if we brought another cat home.

Colman showed me a drawing in the last week of June and gave me a scanned print of it. I thought it would be interesting to see if I could make  a bowl like the drawing, so I and bought a couple 7 inch copper disks at Metalliferous and on the 27th I began to hammer the bowl into shape.  I sank the disk into a depression as a first raising. Here’s a link to  my ‘raising’ video on YouTube.

After annealing, it was raised on a T stake.

It was annealed again, I began to raise it by rounding the sides on a sand bag.  For this operation, I began my hammering from the rim toward the base. That way the bowl would retain its diameter and the sides would round outward giving the bowl a little height in the process. The bowl is shiny where I have struck the metal with the ball peen hammer and duller where I have yet to work the shape.

The bowl was raised significantly and rounded  nearer the finished profile.

It was annealed again, I used the surface gauge to mark and then trimmed the rim to an even height. The next step was to draw on the ’shield’ shape triangles.

I used the surface gauge to scratch in lines for the height  and depth of the scalloped edge, the bowl was divided into 9 sections and the triangular shapes modified.

I chased in all of the lines after scratching a more definite path with my awl. Cutting the scallops will be one of the last operations, I hear Gennady in the background saying,  ’later, there is always time to cut.’

I have recently purchased this book at Metalliferous. It is a beautiful and thorough work on all aspects of chasing and repoussé. There are sections on tools and toolmaking, the different types of pitch and eastern methods, different from those we learned in the west. The book is illustrated with shots of the various tools and materials interspersed with photos of remarkable works in metal. I recommend this for anyone interested in doing this type of work. The author is Nancy Megan Corwin and the publisher is Brynmorgen in Maine. (It cost $33.00 plus tax)

I had never seen anyone shape the pitch before seeing the illustrations in the book about making a cuff.

It led me to line the bowl with pitch rather than try to fill it completely or use some wood to solidify a layer of pitch. I don’t have a piece of wood that would work for this job and the lining allows me to constantly shift the bowl on the end of a sandbag while I work on it. I raised the sandbag on a short plank of wood because, in some positions, the bowl’s lower edge was against the table.

Pitch removed and annealed again, it was ready to receive a little more relief.

I carved a depression in one of my  tree slices and used the ball peen hammer to push the ’shields’ out from the inside. I also used a pear shaped repuossé tool in the points of the triangle.

Once the shields were pushed out, I hammered the base all around on the inside to push a little more volume into the bowl. Then I lined it with pitch so I could work on the narrower triangles from the outside of the bowl adding some contrast to the relief. I will probably push the narrower triangles out from the inside once their edges are more defined. I’ve had to stop work on this bowl momentarily because I am involved with the VanDuzer Saturdays here on Staten Island, there’s also some pressing work in the graphic part of my studio. So, this is where I leave the bowl for now.

It was a beautiful, if a bit warm, day yesterday. It was the occasion of the first Raritan Bay Arts Festival held on the grounds of the Conference House on Staten Island. There were displays of crafts, some food, demonstrations of Kayak making and, in the afternoon, live music performances.

Steve Nutt, of Friends of Fire, organized the artisan part of the festival; he’s the founder of Friends of Fire which has been an association of artisans, mostly potters, for over 10 years. I recently joined the group and we (a few members of the group) have opened a brick and mortar store in the Stapleton section of Staten Island. You can see the store on it’s faceBook page.

Here are some photos of the event. When I took the photos I was focusing mostly on the participants who are members of the store rather than the entire event. I was there mainly to show my work and couldn’t leave my table for very long.  This is a wide shot of the Crafts area, my ‘tent’ is in the right side of the photo in the back. Steve  is the guy in shorts, his head is framed by the second tent from the right.

Toni, who started, who Casterbridge Fair store in Stapleton, is sitting with her hand made pillows. Janice, another store member, is in black sunglasses with her hand dyed silk scarves near Toni.

This is Judith,  she makes charming ceramic teapots and tableware.  You can see them on the  Friends of Fire at Casterbridge Fair  faceBook page .

Me with my display. I’ll put shots of the whole display up at the bottom of this entry.

Here’s Steve with his new line of majolica on display.

Our friend Christy, another potter, with her New York  ’Delft’.

This guy makes Kayaks. I like the model with pontoons and  a mast. It looks like it should come from Hawaii.

These painted kayaks were on display. I like the one with the three eyes. I think of it as insurance that  you won’t lose your way if the boat is carefully watching your drift.

Here are the shots of my work, from one end of the table to the other.

Colman spent most of the time water coloring.

New earrings in dichroic glass on the left side of the board with a collection of Pearl and Stone  sets. Earrings from an earlier ‘Glass Period’ on the right.

I’ll open this entry with a shot of my display for Art by the Ferry  which took place the first two weekends of  June. The photo was taken by  our friend Sarah Yuster. It turned out to be a successful show. It was on the tail of that energy that I made the following new pieces for the upcoming show this weekend at the Conference House on the southern tip of Staten Island.  It is to be the first Raritan Bay Arts Festival.  Wish us luck and temperate weather.

I have just finished this long silver chain with faceted, polished aquamarine nuggets and hammered silver rings. I loved these stones the minute I saw them, I have others that will be wired together in the byzantine style as the summer progresses. 

Here’s a close up. The hammered silver rings flash and sparkle when the chain moves.

I finished this chain of triplets at the beginning of the week: a choker made of  polished aquamarine stones in a freeform cube shape with large round freshwater pearls, there are matching earrings.  The hook works in all of the large rings and the piece could probably be worn doubled as a bracelet.

This is a collection of earrings and a few pendants in stone and glass that I put together for summer and evening wear.

I also worked on the Lion Cup this week, It will take a little longer  than I expected getting it finished and ready for wine. There’s a lot of polishing to be done on the inside and on the lip. Here’s a photo of the cup as it came from the electro form mold.  We have ordered another one.

Last Wednesday (June 2nd) we were invited to a BBQ at Gennady’s Home in Long Island. It turned out to be a beautiful day and a lot of my classmates arrived for what turned out to be an extraordinary feast.  The garden in front of the house was a grand array of blue flowers, clematis and roses. This is just a small view.  When we arrived we could smell the roasts cooking.

Happy, with Eileen and Cindy are around Gennady’s wife  Irene.

ChengLin and Anna joined us and Colman took a shot with me in it.

On the Menu:

grilled butterfly leg of lamb marinated in pomegranate juice

grill roasted pork loin with garden herbs

grill roasted Atlantic salmon with garden herbs

Beverages: cold virgin caipirinha and  hot tea from Russian samovar.

Quoting from Happy’s FaceBook album: ” Beautiful summer BBQ day outside the city. Hungarian Pork Leg. Cheese. Parmigiano Reggiano. Cucumber wasabi salad. Grilled butterfly leg of lame marinated in pomegranate juice with hot hungarian sauce. Grilled roasted pork loin with garden herbs. Grilled roasted Atlantic salmon with garden herbs and yogurt wasabi sauce. Mediterranean pita. Cold virgin caipirinha and hot tea from Russian samovar. Freshly picked sweet strawberries. Banana Cream pie. Absinthe. Rose. red, white wine…”

There is a small deck on the front of the house, it’s set with a screened pavillion, table and chairs, the front of the house is decorated with these metal sculptures.

The samovar is smoking under an umbrella.

The pork loin arrives bathed is a remarkable chipotle sauce.

Eileen

The salmon was the last meat course to arrive at the table, roasted on a cedar plank with herbs.  Very good.   I cut and served this one.

Lively conversation as we finished eating, Happy has put a lot more photos of the day  up on her facebook page, here’s a link to the second BBQ album. There are also shots of the studio and a lot of Gennady’s work.

David and Mai.

Eileen modeling one of my new necklace and earring sets.

I am working on a new silver wine cup and have decided to take people along with me as I begin to chase the surface. The first 7 parts have been posted on you tube. You can get to my channel by clicking in this LINK to see the series so far. I will try to post something every few days after I complete work at each stage of  working the design into the cup’s surface.

Here is a ‘preview’ in the form of Parts 3 and 4 where I sketch in the design to see the it in place before making final adjustments. I intend to take you along with these videos using real time where it isn’t boring and showing all the steps it takes to finish a cup, even when I misstep. I am still a student but I have been doing this long enough to know that I can correct or improvise when necessary to complete the project, even if it goes awry or veers from the original plan.

I feel like I passed a milestone last night, there are now over 200 people subscribing to my YouTube Channel.  It’s been gratifying to have such a positive response to my work on line. I enjoy making the videos, they and the response to them, give me as much satisfaction as teaching a class or workshop.

The Art By The Ferry Show will be coming up the first two weekends in June. I have been making a number of new pieces of jewelry for the event. Now that the Friends of Fire Store is open I have pieces there as well as the Red Carpet Gallery on Castleton, both of the establishments are on Staten Island.

The first pieces are Part of the fluorite collection I have been making for summer wear.  The fluorite beads are always cool to the touch and come in colors ranging from clear to greens and purples. A few of the beads will have several colors in them in bands or stripes.

This is an eggplant or deep amethyst colored  necklace. I chose the beads to make an elegant monochromatic statement. All the wires and findings are sterling silver, I make the hooks myself.

The next piece is more typically colored Fluorite showing a good range of the colors.

In person, these are all shades of green, the camera and lighting don’t do them justice. I added flashing hammered silver rings to make the piece sparkle as well as glow.

This last piece is made with Dragon Skin Agate. I like the reticulated character of the markings in the stone. The earth tones will compliment  almost every colored outfit, I like to make things that can be worn daily in stead of being saved for a night out or special occasion.  This is being old as a set too.

The show this year seemed a little smaller than in past years. The plants were beautiful and it was again a quality show.  My only complaint is the use of those terrible red tablecloths. Not very dignified and terribly distracting, especially for photographing the plants. I would also like to see them use smaller entry tags for the plants, it seemed particularly messy, long scraps of paper strewn all over the display tables (also a major distraction when combined with the ribbons).

Some of the first things seen as we entered the show were tufa tub gardens on tables in the center of the cactus part of the show. This one was so nice to see with all of the pink buds announcing Spring.

Naturally we went to the sales area first, we were a day late and the best  plants had probably already been bought and taken away.  It was nice to see Judy Becker  with all of her plants; cactus, succulents, gesneriads and  some unusual begonias (that’s what I bought).

I really like these gesneriads but I just don’t have the space and time for them anymore.

After shopping we went to see the exhibits, starting with the thorny plants.  There were some really well grown fasciated specimens.

This is a particularly nice variegated plant.

Another favorite, but nearly impossible for me to grow plant, a tylecodon.

This conophytum was in bloom, a rare feat for a show, the grower deserves the blue ribbon for his excellent growing.

Another nicely grown conophytum.

A sinningia with a crusty tuber.

Two beautifully grown euphorbias.

A varigated haworthia.

A tight little gasteria.

A festively colored, variegated gasteria.

Two more plants rarely displayed with flowers.  The one on the right is a massonia.

Some plants in the caudex section.

Crested succulents.

A crested echeveria pulvinata.

My trichocaulons never looked like this,  thisone must have been carefully pruned for YEARS. . .

This is a spectacular varigated haworthia.  It won all the top prizes in the show.

This cucurbit has a magnificent caudex and was bearing fruit.

Someone planted this exuberant mix in a birdbath. A wonderful arrangement,  the star of which is the red echeveria.

Part of the educational display.

A gymnocalycium.

A couple of Ubelmanias.

A budded astrophytum.

A shot of the auction in progress, Dr gerry Barad is  up front to the right of the auctioneer.

A boweia.

The furry cactus display.

This is a grand adenium.

We had a mixed bag of weather this weekend. A beautiful Saturday and torrential downpour on Sunday. There’s water in the basement. It rained Monday too and I stayed inside to finish work I wanted to deliver and show today. The Lion Cup is done, I intend to have a mold made so that we can have it electro formed in a variety of metals and finishes.
Her are two shots.

I went into the city today to buy gold leverbacks for a pair of earrings to go along with the necklace I finished yesterday.  The beads are carnelian, they alternate in a chain with 9-10 mm freshwater pearls. The necklace is just under 20″ long, all the wire and findings are 14kt gold, I soldered and forged the hook clasp.  It’ll be available on my website soon, as a set for $350. Or you can email me at colsage@earthlink.net

The Azaleas are blooming out of sequence this year because of the little heat wave we had a few weeks ago and the prolonged cool weather we are having now.

My cross between an Exbury and  a Ghent hybrid  azalea is having a banner year. I love the color which is more subtle than here in the photograph. You’ll see the whole bush in the pans of the garden at the bottom of this entry.

The Ken Janek Rhododendrons are also blooming in a strange way this year.  In the past the blooms all were together, the bush showing pink buds and then with the flowers opening the intense pink was all gone. This year some flowers are opening  and some buds are delayed so that we have a real splash of mixed color.  Colman thinks it’s because the plants are sensitive to the microclimates around each bush; sunny branch, cool pocket, warm draft.

In the front the Sekidera Azalea in blooming. The flowers are very nice and large, but the bush itself looks wretched most of the year. I cut it back severely last year and it started to look better, I’ll do the same this year after it finishes blooming, that is if it doesn’t continue to rain like it has the past few weeks.

Here are two pan shots of the back yard, one dappled with sunlight when I got home today around 4:30 and then again a little later as the sun got behind clouds. You can see my glowing, orange azalea in front of the greenhouse. The red azalea on the left in the shade pan is Girard’s Scarlet, the one in the center is Silver Sword, called that because the leaves are variegated with white edges.