A Chop off the Old Block

We made a quick trip to Calgary to visit family and we had the privilege to tour a huge project that was completed by Dave's son.  He is a master tile setter and we were so impressed by what him and his work crew had accomplished I had to share it with you.  If you click on each of the photos you will get a larger view.

This is the new Chop Steakhouse and it is impressively big.  This photo only shows one half of the outside.  All the outer walls have been tiled with 1 foot by 3 foot heavy slate tiles.  Dave's son is showing him how the tiles were applied bit by bit and perfectly straight.  It was a real challenge with all the angles and corners.

Even on the inside, almost every wall and piece of floor was tiled in some unique way, usually with more slate or marble.  This is an outside patio wall on the roof.

And more slate covered walls and floor in every hall and nook and cranny.

I love the round stainless tiles used here around the base of the huge bar and up several long stair cases leading to the roof patio.  I would love to have this as my backsplash in the kitchen but at $30/foot (wholesale) I think I am more inspired to create something like this with my clay instead.

There are several walls like this throughout with this beautiful marble tile but this one is my favorite of them all.  You will notice the lights that are coming out.  They just look like bulbs sticking out here when in fact they are quite unique. 

 There are glass or acrylic (not sure which) shapes surrounding each light.  The shapes are almost invisible but what you do see are the shadows on the wall they create which you can see in the photo below.  I had to take this photo with my flash off in order for them to show up in the picture.

Everywhere you turned there was some sort of interesting chandelier or sculpture.  It was like going through a museum more than a restaurant!

You can check out our facebook fan page to see more photos.  We knew Dave's son did fantastic tile work but we are so glad we had the opportunity to see this massive and impressive latest work of his and we are both so very proud.

Here's me with three generations of tilers:

Clay tiler,  Master Slate tiler and our grandson the Rummy tiler! lol !

Totem necklaces

We enjoyed spending time this past month with family and we were fortunate to have our oldest grandson stay with us for the past week.  Between dips in the lake and water balloon fights in the yard to cool off we managed to find some clay time together.  He wanted to make some "Totem" symbol necklaces -- an eagle totem for himself and a bear totem for his brother.

We ended up creating a mould for each one from a drawing and then created the pieces from the moulds we made together.  We then added mica powders to highlight the details.

I think they turned out quite well and here is a picture of him and his granddad (Dave) wearing them....

Mokume Gane Buttons

I created some buttons from the mokume gane sheets I made the other day.  I love the look of them and think I will make some more....  In the meantime, these are available in our Art Fire Studio and Etsy Shop.

Mokume Gane & CaBezels

We've been busy with family visiting this past week and so I finally got around to finish off a few pieces I'd been working on.  I love working with the CaBezels and this time combined it with some mokume gane.  I saw this color combination on a table cloth in a restaurant the other day and had to mix some up while it was still in my brain.

   

I decided to make some beads from the mokume gane sheets and created this collar piece as well.  I love how the colors and pieces turned out that I am so tempted to keep this piece for myself ... we'll see....

New Textured Beads for Sale

I just listed some new beads in our Etsy shop and Art Fire Studio.  These are also available individually in our Art Fire Studio as well in case you don't want a set of 6.   These have a deep leaf texture on them and they are identical on both sides.  These beads were created using the same technique as in my Double-sided Textured Bead Tutorial I have available for sale.

They are available in the colors of golden olive, olive and copper patina, golden moss, emerald green and antique copper.  The bead shown below is in the olive and copper patina mix which is my favorite.

Some pens for autographing....

I finished covering some new pens the other day.  They are a twist style pen that I ordered from Boston Craftworks where they go together quite easily without the need for a pen press or other such tools.

I love covering pens and these were not only fun to clay with but feel really good when they are put together and have a nice weight to them.  The first set below I used the same "seamless" method I use to make my textured tube beads and my fan/light pulls.  I discovered it works great for covering pens as well!  I'm writing a tutorial for this and should be published in a few weeks.

There has been a lot of talk on the net lately about covering pens.  Surfingcat did some experiments with different pens that are good and not so good with claying and melt when heated.  Then Angela from Crafty Goat created an interesting blog post on the top four pens she discovered are oven safe.  I really like the Bic retractable one and think I might try some of those next for a more affordable and practical type pen to sell to replace the typical stick ones.

Shuswap Lake Festival of the Arts

Well the Shuswap Lake Festival of the Arts started today.  This past week has been a real blur with so many things to do to get ready.  Between all the rush, my "claymate" (hubby) Dave was in the hospital and is now recovering from several surgeries.  I am so glad to have him home again with me now.  It is a real relief.

I was in such a rush last week I turned my piece into the juried art show and had forgotten to photograph it!  I took some photos of it today to show you and to my surprise I discovered it was sold.  It is a vase that I titled "Tidal Pool" and I used a combination of mokume gane and gold leaf crackle techniques.

I will be demoing again this year and will be set up tomorrow from 10 until 1.  You may want to stop in if you are in the area.