Monica Gennero

On my easel? 

Not quite an easel .... Monica shares her table with work in progress 

Studio # 5 and Kathy Szente-Bodor is also at this location 

And Monica's studio "helpers" 

Lis Simpson

Our longtime Studio Tour member Lis Simpson shares what is keeping her occupied this summer 

Metal Etching Class

During the summer I like to explore other media other than my glass work.  So last week I took a class in Metal Etching.  It was fun, and I learned a lot by making mistakes – “what not to do” stays in my head longer!  LOL!

We used ferric chloride as the etchant and Sharpie markers, stickers and tape for the resist.  Here’s my copper piece, after design created and after etching and clean-up.

I also did a piece on thin brass (have you heard of Shim in a Can?).  I used a rubber stamp for the seahorse and tape for the rocks.

I might not do this again, because I have worked in the metal clays – both copper, brass and silver.  They are so much easier to work with and get good texture happening.

Some of my small completed pieces 

Summertime is great for exploring and doing activities “out of the box”!

Thank you Lis for sharing!

Make sure to visit Lis at Studio #13  on this years tour. 

She is a guest artist at Sandra Cole Burke's location.

Monica Gennero

How a ring is built from scratch?

Monica Gennero shares her process with us 

The material is sterling silver and amethyst.

Thanks Monica

Mark Studio #5 on this years Tour to see more of this wonderful hand crafted jewellery 

Lis Simpson ..... Busy lady!

Lis Simpson is a very busy lady! She participates in several studio tours and sales, her work is very popular and she must constantly replenish her supply of original jewellery and glass work

Out of disaster come new creations.  Lis’ thoughts on recent kiln projects:

"These “lacy light” tea lights look great!  I’ll make some more."

After slumping a newly made red tea light over a mold in the kiln:

“Oh, no!  This tea light has turned into a disaster!  The “tendrils” are sticking to the mold and bending inward.  I’ll fire it differently again in the kiln.  There’s room for this small pyramid, too.”

After this firing the red “tendrils” of the tea light ran onto the pyramid.  Another disaster!  She cut the two objects apart.  Look at these unusual creations – something totally new and fresh!

Make sure to stop by and see Lis Simpson at Studio # 13; Sandra Cole Burke is her host artist.

Monica Gennaro

Introducing another of our new Tour members..........

Monica Gennaro. Monica is a goldsmith working in gold and silver. 

She shares with us this story of a few days ago. 

Today it was wire pulling and twisting day. I had to reduce the wire from 2.00 mm to 1.5 and 1.00 mm thickness. I do it with a draw plate and draw thongs. 

This morning I did not pay attention for a second, and by grabbing the end of wire to short, it rock and I fell back on the floor. 

Considering that it was thick wire, I had to pull with lots of strength, wire had broken and with full force smacked myself to the floor. It did hurt a lot.

A picture of the draw plate and the draw thong

Monica is Studio 5 on this years Tour. Also this location has the pottery of Marie Szente-Bodon. 

A must see on this years Tour!

Strawberries As Art - Lis Simpson

Since Stouffville's annual Strawberry Festival is in full swing this is the perfect time to share some of the ways that the delicious strawberry can inspire art!

Below, jewellery maker and Studio Tour artist Lis Simpson explains how she was able to create a replica strawberry from glass!

Last summer I made a glass strawberry in class.... 

Take a fresh strawberry and put it stem down into clay:

Coat it with a release resin and build a plastic cylinder around it to create a mold:

Add plaster; when plaster is set, remove the plastic cylinder and fire the mold, burning out the strawberry.  Fill the mold with glass frit, and fire again.  

When cooled, break the mold away from the glass strawberry.  Voila!

Thanks Lis! 

Robin Rees

Studio Tour artist Robin Rees shares some photos of her new work. We are very pleased that Robin is back on the Tour after her sabbatical. 

Here are some photos of a piece I have just finished for a client. The first photo is the finished piece in copper wire, it is then treated with liver of sulphur to change it to a very ugly black.  The piece is then selectively polished to highlight the warm colour of the copper.

All set

Well we are all set to go!

Its a great Studio Tour - meet the artists, see wonderful art, a fun way to spend some time this weekend. We look forward to meeting you ..... look for our signs!

October 19 - 20  10am to 5 pm

Classes with Lis

Lis Simpson is a certified instructor for teaching Art Clay Silver. 

Art Clay Silver is water-based silver clay that can be molded easily.  It is fired with a torch or kiln to become 99.9% pure silver!  In the introductory class you learn the basic techniques of working with this amazing medium to make several textured pendants.  You will also learn some basic silver finishing skills. 

In Part 2 you will create pendants incorporating a pre-fused glass cabochon or cubic zirconium.   Several techniques will be explored, including bezels to hold the cabochon and syringe work.  The finished piece must be kiln fired. 

Contact Lis if you want more information on these classes (she also teaches out of her home studio.)

905-473-1711 

It's here

It's here... the 12th Annual Stouffville Studio Tour is this weekend. 
We hope you will plan to attend. The artists went to visit 5 studios last night... our new artists and a few others. Well worth the drive to Stouffville. Rain or shine we are hoping to see you. 

Watch for our signs to direct you

Lis Simpson

Lis Simpson takes us through the fascinating process of creating her unique jewellery...

Liz at work

Her tools

Liz explains:

For the past eleven years, I have been working on an oxygen propane torch to create my art glass beads, which are turned into jewellery after they are cooled and cleaned. My beads begin as glass rods which come from Murano, Italy.

 

 I was featured in the Fall 2011 Surfacing art magazine and most recently invited, along with the other featured artists, to create a piece for an exhibit at the Station Gallery in Whitby.  I challenged myself to go beyond my usual skills and learn new techniques for this project – it took many days, with “trials” and “back to the beginning” steps.

Since one of my popular beads is called “Fire Opal”, I thought I’d use that as the focus of the project.  So I made a few of those beads (each one turns out differently). 

The various molten glasses are wound around a stainless steel, coated mandrel and kept warm in the torch flame.  This glass thermal shocks (explodes!) if you don’t keep it warm “like a baby” in or near the flame the entire hour or so you are creating it.  Once a bead is started, you cannot stop!

Then I thought a “flame” bead of some sort would be good as additional accent.  My first attempts were to pull out “strings” of red, orange and yellow glass from the core bead.  Here’s some along with other possibilities to be used in the final design:

Do they look like flames to you?  I wanted them more “pointy”, but you can’t have sharp points on finished jewelry – ouch!

They didn’t look quite like the idea I had in my mind.  So I decided to create small “flames” on wires that I could put at the base of a focal bead and draw the wires up through the hole.  New skill for me:  making ribbon cane.  I put the red, orange, and yellow stripes on the base red rod; squished it flat; and then pulled it out to be smaller – voila’ “flame” ribbons!  I then cut some sterling wire into pieces.  The ribbon cane was heated in the torch and then the molten blob pushed onto the end of the wire and some of it pulled away.  Small “flames”!

Now I needed to make a chain for this pendant.  However, my idea was for “fire” and “flames”. My web research didn’t turn up anything like what I had in mind  (pen drawings at the top of image), so I started playing with craft wire to see what I could come up with for links.  I narrowed down my choices to three – single, double, and triple flames. 

Then I figured out how to duplicate these designs on the wire jigs. ‘Created many, many links out of sterling silver wire:

Next a clasp.  I first tried it with Art Clay Silver, but “if you don’t love it, don’t fire it!”  So back to wire, but I needed a heavier gauge!  Now to bend and manipulate wire, one needs it to begin as “soft” temper, but all I had was “hard”.  New skill to learn – annealing wire with a torch or kiln to make it “soft”.

   

I had to buy a stainless steel bowl to do it in the kiln.  The wire on the left was six inches of 14 gauge coated with flux to deter fire scale.  One hour in the kiln and then cool down.  The flux was cleaned from the wire, and then it was malleable to bend into shapes.

 Assembly.  This is the fun, but often challenging part.  I played with bead arrangements and putting the chain links together.  Argh!  The first chain links I’d made had wire that was too small in relationship to the larger beads!  I made an entirely new chain of links with larger wire!  I also cut down on the number of beads in the design.  I was finally pleased with my design.

In keeping with the theme of “fire”, I had a fused glass pyramid that had broken into chunks and been re-fired that would be perfect with this necklace!

 

 

My beads are rarely named except for these special projects.  I began playing with words and ideas from the net.  Pele is the Hawaiian Goddess of Fire:

 “As She Who Shapes the Sacred Land, Pele reminds us of our own dynamic creative power.  We are reminded that we constantly create and shape our own life with the powerful energy that we project through our thoughts, through our words, through our emotions, through our beliefs and intentions and through our imagination.  In this way, we will create that which we actually desire to create and experience.”

  

 Here it is! – “Pele’s Promise – Created by Fire”

 Come see the actual piece at the Station Gallery in Surfacing’s exhibit,

“Off the Pages”, from September 8^th to October 14^th, with the Opening Reception on Saturday, September 8, from 1 to 3 p.m.  I’ll be there!

Grace MacPherson & Diana Bullock art exhibit

Jewellery maker - Lis Simpson

Lis Simpson, hot glass artist and jewellery designer, has been making one-of-a-kind jewellery pieces for about nine years. Her glass beads are made on a torch from rods hand-pulled in the glass factory in Murano, Italy, and accented with shimmery dichroic glass and other unique textural elements, compatible with the molten glass. She puts these fine art beads on handmade sterling silver head pins and adds bead accents and precious metal chain to make her hand crafted jewellery, “wearable art”.

Torchworked glass beads are relatively new and unequaled in the jewellery industry. Although glass bead making was an ancient, secretly guarded art, it wasn’t until the 1990s that the techniques began to be shared in North America. It can take from one half to two hours to create the bead on the torch, without any stopping! If her cat calls to come into the studio, he is ignored or the bead thermal shocks into tiny pieces! It’s a tricky business working with molten glass. Her passion for working with hot glass and her repertoire of skills continue to expand as other artists working in hot glass and in other mediums inspire her!

Glass beadmaking has only been offered at art schools within the past few years, so Lis began with a few lessons from another Toronto beadmaker, and then honed her skills on her own torch. She has branched out into fused glass, making both pendants and more recently paperweights. As well, she became a certified instructor for the innovative fine silver medium of Art Clay Silver, and took the wirework course from George Brown College. She now teaches these jewellery techniques both in her own studio and at various venues in the Greater Toronto Area.