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What Do You Do With Kids During The Summer?

This is the time where I should be cranking away in the studio experimenting.
Yeah...that's me!  
but I am completely shut down for an entire month.

And to be honest it makes me cranky!

I have kids for at least a month in the summer.  They do not go to camps cause they are kind of old for that and they are constantly asking, "what are we going to do today"?
Buuuuut...
sometimes you can take opportunities like this to use them as guinea pigs!

An opportunity to hone in on my teaching skills.  I used to teach grad students in the lab so why not in the studio?

Stepie #1 is kind of a geek.  He is into all that Minecraft gaming stuff and decided he wanted to make a pendant for himself.
Stepie #1 being all Zen with the saw.
This was his first time doing salt water etching.  His first etching experience was with ferric chloride.  That was when he first learned to saw.
  
Etching Station (nothing fancy)
I love the colors we get after etching.

A close up.
That picture above reminds me of the copper mines in Arizona.  It is called the Queen Copper Mine.  I never knew the name of that pit.  I just called it the big hole in the ground.
Gemologytidbits
I used to drive by this pit as a child often and thinking that we would die if we drove off the road and into the pit of darkness.  
hahahaha...SEE!  
I was thinking about impermanence even back then!

Oh...back to the subject.

Here is Stepie #1's finished product.
Minecraft Pendant - Salt water etched, brass, and patinated on leather chord
I tell you what.  
Teaching kids has to be the easiest and most fun thing to do.  
They are so open and free.

He actually got a commission out of this.  I cannot tell you how excited and a little serious he is about this.  When the order was placed he immediately started working on it.  He was planning and asking how much he has to pay me for supplies!

Cute!
Have a great Thursday everyone.  I have to go clean the studio because it is a mess!  I do not know how Stepie #1 worked in there.  It just goes to show how free they are.

Namaste
Kalaya

Comments

  1. Fantastic! Don't you just love how well young people take to metalsmithing?

    I'll be doing my first demo day for the MS guild on August 1st so, I'm trying to figure out what I can do that won't be too messy (I'll be inside the Biloxi Craft Center Gallery) yet actually shows what I *do*. Decisions, decisions...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's wonderful Libellula! You have so many good pieces in etching I'm sure you will think of something. I still need to get some pnp paper. Do you have a good source?

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