Kalaya Steede

Usually I post on Fridays but I did not know that Friday already passed.  It is great not knowing what day it is.  What a blissful life. Ha! I just finished taking a workshop with visiting artist,  Jesse Bert , last week at Thomas Mann studioFLUX here in NOLA.  It was pretty amazing! I do not think I have the words to describe my experience.  There is so much I want to share but I will try and keep it simple.  So...let me introduce you to El Maestro. Jesse Jesse is originally from the U.S.  Although you would not have guessed it. Anyway one day he followed his heart to San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato in Mexico and decided to stay and to never return.  Just kidding, he does come back to visit the states every now then.  What a romantic notion to runaway to Mexico, hmmm. I digress.    Jesse likes to incorporate recycled and found objects into his sculptural pieces.  I particularly like the details you see on ever...

I've been meaning to talk to you about. I failed to mention this in one of my previous posts about what I like to call, "technical difficulties." The whole purpose of this blog is to share my experiences with all of you on my journey in metalsmith. There are no secrets and I encourage any questions you might have.   So don't be shy. :-p As you can see both parts are patinated prior to connecting. This is how I've been taught.  I connected the two using rivets.  While I was hammering the back side to secure the pieces the patina came off where I was hammering.  Sorry, no pictures of the back.  Remember...the backside has a secret message.   Okay...so the patina came off.  Which means I had to remove the patina, clean, and patina again.  I must of done this at least 2x.  Moral of the story... I'm thinking I should rivet BEFORE applying the patina. I'll tell you how that goes later.  It just goes to show you that there is al...