Kalaya Steede

As I mentioned earlier Thomas Mann studioFLUX has been bringing in visiting artists from all over the world!  Okay maybe not ALL over the world but at least from North America.  Ha! It started with Jesse Bert from San Miguel de Allende in Mexico and now Richard Salley will be visiting from  Sante Fe, New Mexico in June. Picture by Thomas Mann studioFLUX Richard is teaching two workshops at studioFLUX ... The Found Object Pendant and Behind Closed Doors: The Locket Cuff .   Richard also just finished a workshop in Virginia at artBLISS . Beautiful pendant by Cindy Wimmer (photo by Cindy) Visit what Cindy (who was one of the workshop hosts at artBLISS ) of  Sweet Bead Studio  and  Laura of  Souvenirs From Life  had to say about it.  Ahhhhh...good times! Well it is time to go get busy at the bench.  I have procrastinated long enough. I hope everyone is having a great Friday! Namaste Kalaya

Merci beaucoup for all the lovely words on the last post The Risk to Bloom .  I am truly touched by everyone who stopped by. I bow in gratitude. I felt such a flow of energy when making Riesgo (Risk).  I am wondering if I will be able to make anything like it again.  It is not the final product that I want to create but the feeling of the moment while creating.  I very much would like that feeling to return.  Oh well...time to move on.  Ha!   So what is stirring in the studio today? A commissioned ring! I said,  "I would NEVER do commissions" but what am I doing?  I am making a ring that I have been COMMISSIONED to make!  There is a reason why I was warned never to say never. The mission was to make, in her own words, "an obnoxious ring!" .  Hmm...define obnoxious: very annoying or objectionable .  Sure...I can manage that...I think. And this is what I came up with... The lines were made with my very own personal tool that I made in

It all started with an acorn button and grew from there. In an earlier post I mentioned this button swap blog hop, that I am participating in, and how I was immediately drawn to the acorn button.  Every day I would hold it in my hand, feel its essence, exam it, and then put it down.  This lasted for about 2 weeks. Then I remembered I had etched an oak tree on to brass when making buttons for my partner Kylie of Lotus Out Loud .  And... so begins the journey of creating something with this wonderful acorn button, which only started yesterday. Haha!  Etched brass was copper riveted to a piece of oak.  Merci beaucoup Papi for finding some oak!   I am using what Jesse taught me in his workshop .  It was the first time trying his technique.  It worked beautifully! The riveted brass was then captured with a piece of pierced copper. Voila! And then the day came  when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk to bloom.