The last couple of weeks I've been experiencing a renewed interest in making jewelry. More specifically, in making lost-wax castings in silver. I took a class in this technique at The Art League a few years ago, and produced a few pieces that I am (still) really proud of:

Looking back through all my old photos is really making me want to pick this up again!

The process is incredibly easy: Buy wax (it comes in pre-shaped tubes for rings, as well as in sheet or wire form) and a few simple carving tools. Carve a shape in the wax, and send it off to a foundry to be cast. In a week or so they send you an exact replica of your carving in metal! You don't ever get your wax back, but you can have them make a mold of it so more castings can be made.

You pay for labor and the weight of the metal used. In the case of the castings above, each ring only cost between $10 and $12 worth of sterling silver. You can get the castings back unfinished (potentially with chunks of metal left over from the casting process, called sprues, still attached), or some foundries will polish or tumble your pieces for an extra fee.

In my head I can already feel dozens of ring ideas forming... or ornately carved pendants... or Christmas ornaments for next year... :)

Posted by katybeck at 08:15 PM

** If your name is Alison, and you are in any way related to me, stop reading now. :) **

This weekend marks the beginning of my second quilt-making experiment. The lucky recipient: my cousin Alison, who is expecting a lovely young lady named Tatum sometime at the end of April. I'm machine piecing and quilting this one, but I think I am going to hand-embroider some patterns and maybe her name.

These are my fabric picks thus far:

The front will be a simple grid of all the pinks, and the green will be the backing. I'm still deciding between this pink as the binding, or a lovely Japanese sage green ribbon I have left over from another project.

Posted by katybeck at 06:32 PM | Comments (2)

The cutting is done, and I've decided on the pattern. I tried for a random scattering of color, but somehow I ended up with something much more orderly.

Posted by katybeck at 06:41 PM | Comments (0)

Whew. After a weekend of non-stop sewing (who would have thought that my little sewing machine would hold up!), I've got the quilting done and the binding on. All I have left to do is sew the back edge of the binding down and its off to the post office!

This is only the second quilt I've ever worked on, and the first one I've done by machine, so there was a lot of learning going on in this process. I learned that the way I basted my hand-pieced quilt wasn't quite tight enough for the sewing machine - I kept getting bumps and ripples on the top layer until I gave up and just pulled out all the basting thread and pinned it as I went along. The next time around I will also sew all in one direction first - in an attempt to even out the top layer as it was quilted, I did some alternating horizontal and vertical rows, which was a miserable failure (an excuse to buy a new seam ripper!). I also perfected my technique for tightly rolling the sides of the quilt so I could get the needle to reach the middle rows.

I went with nostalgia when picking the binding. I have vague memories from childhood of a yellow blanket with traditional satin ribbon binding, and so when I saw it in the store I had to grab it. I probably could have found some higher quality ribbon, though. Its a little see-through on the back.

The only way I know to bind a quilt, thanks to my class, ends with me hand-appliqueing the last edge down. How ironic that it will take me as long to finish the final step as it did to quilt the entire thing! Are there any binding tutorials out there that have better alternatives?

Posted by katybeck at 07:42 PM | Comments (2)

Dearest Internets,

I would like to extend my heartfelt apologies for the sorry state of my archives. I've spent some much-overdue time this evening fixing my templates, and you can now reach all of my archives via the handy links to the left. Monthly archives have been switched to ascending order so that you are no longer forced to read from bottom to top (one of my personal pet peeves) when catching up. Individual archives also now have "Next" and "Previous" links to make moving between them easier.

I hope that you find these improvements helpful in your continuing enjoyment of this site. Please let me know if there is anything else I can do.

Sincerely,
Katy.

Posted by katybeck at 08:19 PM | Comments (0)

This week is Spring Break at the local college. Its been funny to hear people talking about spring break travel plans again. For me it just means I get a few extra nights off! Work makes sure I have no weeklong vacations. :)

In class we've moved from value studies to line and perspective. I'm enjoying it more as we branch off into more diverse subjects. Mostly I'm looking forward to a project later in the semester where we will make a plaster casting in the bottom of a trash bag and then carve into it. It sounds like fun!

Posted by katybeck at 05:56 PM | Comments (1)

A few hours spent last night wrapping up the sewing, a toss in the washing machine, and voila! A finished baby quilt, ready for gifting.

Entries from the quilt in progress:
Baby Quilt
Cutting done
Almost there..

Posted by katybeck at 08:01 AM | Comments (1)

I just stopped by the IKEA website, and what do I find?

They've released some new textiles, and have a mouth-watering online magazine (popup) with tons of fun low-sew or no-sew projects!

Not only that, but the summer stuff is online too. Bring on the patio plants!

Posted by katybeck at 02:20 PM | Comments (0)

I've been scouring the web for the cutest Easter-themed chocolates I can find online. I don't even want to eat them, I just want to pinch their little cheeks because they are so cute!

Williams-Sonoma

Richart

Vosges (via Design*Sponge)


Chocolate Source

Posted by katybeck at 04:59 PM | Comments (1)

Inspired by the handy instructions over at Thimble, I have made myself a little favicon:

Basically I took a screen cap of my header, shrank it down to 16x16, futzed with some of the grainy bits so that it would show up better, and sent it on its way. Yay!

And on another technical note: I have just fixed my templates for IE so the page doesn't render all wonky. For my IE users, I apologize. And I heartily recommend downloading Firefox. :)

Posted by katybeck at 02:10 PM | Comments (0)

How fun would it be to sew on something like this?!? (via Apartment Therapy)

Posted by katybeck at 09:00 AM | Comments (2)

I've long been frustrated with the design (or lack thereof) of sewing machines and paraphernalia. It seems like every sewing machine you see is this huge, white, plastic-encased eyesore. Or, at the opposite end of the spectrum, you have an arguably better design that still ends up being a pink, plastic, Barbie-encased eyesore. Sure, they have amazing innards and could probably clothe my firstborn child with just the touch of a few buttons. But why, why so ugly??

I want the sewing industry to go through the same sort of design metamorphosis that kitchen appliances have gone through in the last few decades. What about a sewing machine that looks like a Kitchen-Aid? Is it so hard to round those hard edges and make it red? or green? or stainless steel?

I went on eBay this morning to do a little sewing machine sightseeing. Strangely enough, the most creative, well-designed machines I found were mostly children's models made in Russia and Germany:

Posted by katybeck at 08:49 AM | Comments (2)

From the wayback machine.. I got a Flickr Pro account earlier this month, and so I've been going back through all of my photos and uploading them in high res.

I took a short series of photos at the 2002 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, and I am still inspired by them today. The theme of that year's festival was the Silk Road, so various cultures from Central Asia were represented. I still worked on the Mall at that point, so every one of my lunch breaks for the whole two week festival was spent wandering around the tents or listening to the concerts.

My favorite tent was the Fiber Arts tent, where they had master weavers from India and Afghanistan (and I think Morocco?) demonstrating their craft. And when I say craft, I mean it with a capital C, because these men (and women) were amazing.

Posted by katybeck at 10:57 AM | Comments (0)

I'm a little surprised. This is not an article I'd expect to find on CNN.com! But The art of the Internet is an interesting analysis of an artist couple who sell through both eBay and physical galleries.

Posted by katybeck at 11:27 AM | Comments (0)

First I fell in love with these (from Speak Up), and now I find myself coveting stuff like this (via Design*Sponge)..

They are the creations of RightBrainTerrain.com, and they aspire to bring the world something cooler than your typical fluffy kitten/sparkling golf course/sleeping baby motivational posters.

Its about time!

Posted by katybeck at 02:01 PM | Comments (0)

The school where I'm taking my design class accepted submissions for juried student art show last week - and I made it in! In fact, both of my pieces made it into the show, and I'm kind of excited about it. Especially after I stressed myself out preparing because I left the mounting and wrapping of them to the last minute and ended up having to use cheapo clear wrap from Michael's.

Strangely enough, the two pieces I posted about in Scenes from a design class ended up being the ones I submitted for the show.

Posted by katybeck at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)

I'm submitting the baby quilt I made for my cousin Alison as my contribution to March's Month of Softies, organized by the ever-inspirational Loobylu. As I started the quilt I wasn't thinking of the theme for this month, but as I got farther along I realized I was choosing fabrics and patterns that evoked strong memories of my own childhood. This was especially true with the satin ribbon that I used to bind everything with, which I chose because it reminded me of a blanket I remember favoring as a kid. It spawned a lot of interesting discussion within my family about memories we all had of that time. I had great fun with it!

I documented the quilt in progress in a series of journal entries:
Baby Quilt
Cutting done
Almost there..
Finished

Posted by katybeck at 02:42 PM | Comments (2)