I remembered!

...or more accurately, I found my notes...I knew I wanted to talk about something that happened last Wednesday, June 18. I met more wonderful people (naturally. Are you noticing a theme?) AND, I can't believe I forgot to mention this. I'm going to be taking a class with Celie Fago (PMC-ers out there, you know who I'm talking 'bout www.celiefago.com ) in September in BRONZE CLAY!!! The latest issue of Art Jewelry had an article about it. It's created by the same people who brought us Precious Metal Clay (Fine-Silver clay). Those people are Mitsubishi Materials of Japan. Bronze clay is similar to PMC, but given that it's a different metal, has some distinct differences in how it is manipulated and fired. I've never had the pleasure (luxury) of working with Gold clay, as it is prohibitively expensive. But what's so great about the Bronze Clay is that with the rising costs of precious metals, the "lesser" metals (copper, bronze, pewter) are becoming more popular for jewelry. And Bronze Clay can be incorporated with PMC, and can be shined and polished to look like gold. I'm SO excited about it. Celie Fago is a legend in the PMC world, and I'll finally meet her. An interesting self-promoting aside: When I was living in Burlington, I took part in several art/craft shows put together by Made Boutique (alas, now defunct) and members of the Burlington Craft Mafia. Celie Fago's apprentice, Jennifer Kahn (www.jenniferkahnjewelry.com) was at all those shows with me, and she's becoming pretty renowned in the PMC world as well, so I feel privileged that I "showed" with her! She's a "blogger" too: www.jenniferkahnjewelry.com/blog.html. She seems to be more skilled at blogging than me, but I'm learning. I promise I'll nail the layout one of these days.

So getting back to the nice folks who I've been meeting at DFB. On Wednesday, I met Joan Moris, who's a PMC fan like me, and is looking forward to some classes in enameling on PMC, and incorporating dichroic (diachroic?) glass. I imagine she'll be a likely candidate for future Bronze Clay classes as well. I also met Laura Hedglon Simpson, and she was good times! I very much enjoyed my conversation with her, and the mental wheels just started churning. I hope Laura will be a guest-teacher, specializing in children's classes! (Better her than me!...no, I jest. I like kids, I've just worked with kids in crisis for too long!).

Today (June 23rd) was a relatively productive day. I set up a local account at HSBC bank, and Kelly Burlingame helped me. She was a hoot (to borrow an expression from my mom). I have never laughed so much during any bank encounter or transaction in my life. At one point, she was inquiring as to what color I would like my check-book cover to be. I could have sworn she said "Navy or Plaid?" Naturally, I chose plaid! She looked at me, burst out laughing, and said "Navy or BLACK!". It was a rather embarrassing "blond" moment. (I'm a natural blond, so I can say that...I also just spelled blond "blonde" and was miffed when the spell-checker underlined it. Maybe I shouldn't have admitted that). I was so taken with the idea of a plaid check book cover too! I did get a sweet "green" shopping tote with an energy saving light bulb and coupons for bio-friendly products. I like that banks are attempting to reduce paper waste and encourage using canvas totes for groceries. The same goes for me. If you've gotten a paper bag from me with the DragonFly sticker, bring it back in good condition and I will re-use it!