Submission Day

I'm excited and hopeful. I submitted my first contest piece over the weekend. It's momentous, because I've never submitted a piece to a contest before. I'm proud, but I also know that I rushed it (found out about the contest a week before the deadline!) so I'm not all that confident I'll even be a finalist. But I'm on the right track. I've been in a bit of a rut. I am currently obsessed with hinges and all things hinged, but I've been stuck. I actually haven't tried them again since the class with Celie Fago, because I was SO intimidated. But I came up with my own twist to make them (much less difficult) so I plan to make a lot more hinged pieces.

The contest was a joint effort between Metal Clay Artist Magazine (www.metalclayartistmagazine.com) and Metal Clay Findings (www.metalclayfindings.com) If you haven't already checked out the magazine, please do so! It's a BRAND NEW magazine, and I'm so excited to have Volume 1, issue 1! How crazy is that? It's amazing to be at the cusp of anything, and I certainly feel that Metal Clay is starting to explode in the jewelery/craft scene. At any rate, the contest required that you submit a piece that was more than 50% metal clay, and that you used at least 3 products from Metal Clay Finding's contest kit.

How amazing is that logo? I really REALLY love it, and thanks so much to Ralph Sciattano (I'm sorry, I know I misspelled the last name!) for making it for me. Incredible talent.

I used a large embeddable jump ring for the top/bail, a small embeddable jump ring for the dangly on the bottom, and all of the Fine Silver casting grain for the "seeds" in the pod. My concept was a "modern day Johnny Appleseed". It gets so dreary come March in the Northeast, and I thought it would be nice to carry a reminder of Spring, and better, to be able to plant some flowers when the snow thaws.



Fingers crossed! After Feb 16 (ish) you should be able to vote through metalclayartistmagazine.com. If I make it to the finals, I will beseech you to vote for me!

More hinges to come. I've been ruminating lately on dollhouses, birdhouses, doors, oh my! Can't wait to see where this leads.