ISF 2011....T-minus 6 days?!

NEW WORKSHOPS AT THE IOWA STATE FAIR

In honor of Studio Fuzzishu's 4th year at the Iowa State Fair we are introducing four new metal jewelry projects that you can make and take home with you the same day. Workshops start every half hour or so, daily 9am to 9pm Aug. 11-21 in the Cultural Center.

New Project No.1 - Mixed Metal Stamped Pendant

New Project No.2 - Mini Mantra Bracelet

Projects 3 & 4 Coming Soon!!!

(hint - they are name tag for your pooch and a yearly charm that can be used for a keychain, charm bracelet, pendant etc.!)

New Project No.3 - Pooch Tags

New Project No.4 - Annual Fuzzishu Charm

And, of course, your favorite project and mine, the one that started them all, the silver ring!

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Dear blog readers, I am going to give you the opportunity to win one of the new workshops for FREE at state fair OR, if you are out of state/country, one of the new projects made by yours truly just for you ;)

To enter to win simply leave a comment below telling me which project you would like to make/have and why.

BUT WAIT, we are giving you more chances to rack up entries. If you follow the fuzzi- blog, share the giveaway on Facebook and Twitter and promote this giveaway on your personal blog you'll receive one extra entry for each act of social media. Just come back here and post a SEPARATE entry for each of your postings or followings. Entries will be accepted until Tue. at 9pm Central time.

Update 8.8.2011 - Thank you for the entries so far! However, please make sure you leave me some way of getting a hold of you if you win. You can email me with your screen name or leave a contact on here. I will post a blog announcing the winner but you don't want to miss your opportunity!

Dine + Design

Art is food for the soul...but let's not forget our tummies! Please join us at studio fuzzishu this Thursday May 26 for the first Dine + Design event! Bring your sketchbooks, materials, things that inspire you, and thinking cap. We'll do some brainstorming around a theme, bounce ideas off of one another, critique, sketch, create, etc. and of course, share a meal.

Don't forget, if metal or glass is your thing (or you just need some space that's not the kitchen table!) you can always come back for 'open studio' time and create what you've designed! Please RSVP if interested so I can get a head count for the 'dine' portion of the evening. See you Thursday!

Jewelry Bites @ the Des Moines Art Center

[jewelry bites necklace sample by fuzzishu]

This past Thursday was the first of three sessions of Jewelry Bites, an introductory jewelry workshop, at the Des Moines Art Center. We have a full class of twelve (12!) excited novice jewelers. Our first class was also jam packed with new technique demos and a chance to try their hands at them. We covered sawing, filing, finishing, texturing/stamping, and 2 kinds of rivets. They also received homework and will bring back sketches of their ideas for next class. Check back in two weeks to see the fantastic pieces they come up with!

Ta Da!

Newly designed logo for the studio end of fuzzishu. Comments? Critiques? Congratulations? ;-p

Name that Tune! Er, Workshop!...

And win! I am offering a new workshop in 2011 and it is the Class-Yet-To-Be-Named. I'd love your input. I'd love your input so much I am offering a jewelry prize (joie earrings) to the person whose suggestion I like most. Plus you'll be famous (in Iowa...ok, not really. Just at studio fuzzishu) for having named this awesome class.

What is this class you ask? Go on, ask. I'll wait. ....

It is a class in whence students brainstorm several themes and narrow it down to one then proceed to design a set of three jewelry pieces around their theme. ie - themes 'romance and rock'n'roll', 'forests', 'circles', etc. Let's say Student X chooses 'forest' for their theme. They might then make a branchy looking bracelet, a pair of leafy earrings, and a ring with winter berries on it. They can use any material and any techniques they may have learned up to this point. It's a more self directed class. I am there purely to advise on a technical level.

To enter this contest simply leave a comment or email me with your idea and your email/a way to contact you. You may enter as many times as you like. Keep it fun and creative!

So...any ideas yet? 'Cause I'm fresh out. fuzzi-mom affectionately refers to it as BEN, you'll have to ask her why yourself though. ;) Good luck and happy naming.

My Precioussssss

Isn't my new baby pretty? I am so incredibly psyched to have gotten my hands on a rolling mill. Granted, it isn't the stacked Durston D2 130 that I've been lusting after...then again it wasn't $2,000 either! I'm looking forward to future classes being able to use this to texture their metal. It will be especially good for the cold connections project that J102 is doing right now. I am still working on getting a stand for it so that it may be used. I'm heading out to Bob's* this weekend to try and find something that might work.

This mill has a lot of history, the grandfather of the woman I got this from used to work for one of the major film production companies in Iowa. He used to collect the silver dust from the process, refine it and make jewelry. Since then the mill has been used by the grandkids to squish apples and various other objects. She approached me at state fair and asked if I might be interested in such an object. Of course I was!

I'm trying to figure out exactly what brand of mill it is and perhaps a little bit more about its history. If any of you out there have a clue, please let me know! I took her apart to try and clean it up a bit and saw a 'made in italy' stamped into the metal. There are also some letters/numbers near the top that you can see in the photo...looks like EC 82? Any ideas?

*I really really want to get one of Bob's redheads (see below) for the studio. Some day!

Introducing....

Apologies good readers. I meant to post this a long while back. Some of the material (regarding fair, for example) is dated. At long last I give you the post that should have been....

As promised, here are some images of the new line a-go-go (for the moment this blog is the go-to place to see my work. My website is not up and operational yet. Webdesigners interested in working a trade please let me know!). Each piece features hammer textured silver discs with a vibrant glass disc adorning it. For this series I am working with a palette of 9 colors of transparent lampworked glass.

Quick history : At the tender age of 16 I learned how to make glass beads by trial and error. In front of audiences. 12 hrs a day. All 11 days of the Iowa State Fair. For 10 years I continued to demonstrate at the fair alongside my mentor (another story for another time) until I decided that taking my 2 weeks of vacation to return to the US (I was living in Switzerland by that point) to work 12 hour days was getting to be a little much. My brother took over my job and I have had to find other ways to become a part of 'fair' again (watch for future posts!) *ed. - obviously referring to the RiNGS workshops

Sandwiching these summers of beadmaking I also took every metalsmithing class available at my high school and some beyond that. I worked for local jewelers doing a variety of oddjobs. I attended and graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design after having focused on jewelry and metalsmithing. In all of this time I have searched for a good way to bring my two passions together. This new line is the culmination of that search. It's a starting point that I will be springboarding off of to discover new ideas. I look forward to sharing my journey with you.

Introducing...R i N G S

Hi All- a special welcome to all new readers and email list recipients -
We have soooo much to catch up on. There's the story of the broken EZ-up, last weekend's Uptown show in Minneapolis, and some unrelated events that are kind of fun that I'd like to share. But first...I wanted to let you know about a very special upcoming event at the Iowa State Fair.

(Quick background - for almost 10 years I assisted a local glass beadmaker by demonstrating at the ISF 12 hrs a day for 11 days. After moving to Geneva I continued to return to Iowa, using my vacation time to 'work' the fair, it is just that good. If you've never been to it I highly recommend planning next year's family vacation now! My brother has since taken over my beadmaking responsibilities and I'm very excited to be returning to my 'state fair family' to offer this new event.)

I will teaching silver ring making workshops daily (Aug. 7 - 17) at 10 am, noon, 2 pm, 4 pm, 6 pm and 8pm in the Cultural Building. Each participant will receive a silver ring blank and the side by side instruction to saw, stamp and solder it to create their own unique piece of jewelry.

The R i N G S workshop is for anyone who has ever wanted to try their hand at jewelry making, from total beginners on up. Workshops are a little over an hour long and $40* ($35 if you bring in the coupon from the July 31st edition of Cityview). Please contact me to reserve a space.

Here's your chance to win a free workshop! Just leave a comment about why you are interested in taking this class and I will be choosing one submission by midnight Friday August 8th.

*cost of workshop does not include admission to the Iowa State Fair.