one of the many good things that have come to life during and despite this troubled year, is a local artists collective that sprang into action in response to the covid19 pandemic, offering a supportive net for fellow artists and makers.
had been following them on instagram @artico.20 since the start but did not readily envisioned being one day featured on their feed!

so I'll be up there for the full week of december 6 through 12, go check it out and enjoy the ride, each day is a new post and a new image...

putting my thoughts together this morning I realized there could be much to say...but for now pinning down a few things, somewhat randomly popped to mind, but pretty important:

- I am an animal lover. since forever. like forever.
I feel affinity with dogs, coyotes, wolves, foxes, dingos and bears...
a stuffed bear was given to me by my mother when I was 1 and we never departed.
Kara my black dog companion is currently with me, I love dogs, I cannot live without them.

​- a red jeep was a surprise gift from a fellow jeweler at a show in Baltimore, several years ago.
He just walked up to me in the aisle in front of my booth and asked if I could pick up his truck parked at the Albuquerque airport for him, he had just bought a brand new red pickup in Philadelphia and was driving back west with it. He handed me the keys, and if I liked it, he said, I could just keep it...
​
red jeep is still my daily wheels, including a little intervention years back with a rebuilt engine.

and for further reading, bouncing you back to a blog post of some while ago, for a quick summary of a few years of recent living...

months of uncertainties have been piling up, we do not know what is happening next.
bring my thoughts back to my work, the bench, what needs to be done, slices earrings, in progress.

and after a few days, got a bunch to shoot, tedious work of quite a few hours...

and then, they are ready to go!

it all began by accident. and fun. and by having fun with accidents happening...
some while ago, quite a long while ago actually, and in full exploration mode i spent hours with a bandsaw and a bunch of copper, brass, silver pipes and tubes of all sizes and ...cut away!
​'slices' of various sizes began piling up on my bench, some immediately finding their composition and combinations

then last year i found a box tucked away in my studio and almost forgotten, and pulled out  six 2" x 2" thin square slices in brass, almost as out of thin air....

and these came out: the square slices!

still in playing mode, i quickly put together six pairs of big thin square brass slice earrings, with a simple sterling silver ear wire and put them out to the world, without much thinking (did i mention that i was just playing?)

and to my surprise, or maybe i was just caught off guard, these babies just flew off my earrings rack almost in no time and i found myself wondering... should i make some more?
people really liked them, why not?
but the experimental original 'slices' were gone and i had to start from scratch, slice them afresh from a pipe i could not find in my stash and with a band saw i no longer had...

so, in the meantime, and given what i had and did not have handy, i decided to start from scratch. that is, make the 'slices' from scratch. yes, i have tools, luckily i have tools and with hands and tools, i can make things. it might take some time, but i can make things...

and...here we go:

then someone gave me a gift....speed up the process a bit, you say?

and now, as i catch up to speed and can let my playing expand a bit further, just playing still...

so for now my little steps have taken me to add another style to the collection, and the circles are now rising, in 2 sizes and color finishes

Circle Slice Earrings grouping in black and yellow brass

and so now, to top it all off, i am happy to introduce (yes, right at the bottom) a new page just for the slices collection right off my website, that is just around the corner... check it out!