What's a "Mentorial?"

It's a clever idea developed by Lora Hart. She took "mentor" and "tutorial" and put them together into one concept. The purpose is to help creative entrepreneurs "discover, re-imagine and refine their artistic voices; develop a conscious intention for their business; and fine tune their working practice."

Lora is the Artistic Advisor of the PMC Connection and a national PMCC Senior Instructor. Her "historically inspired" work has been featured in many books and magazines and she was one of the Whole Lotta Whimsy Master Muses. We are lucky enough to have her scheduled to come teach a class this summer for our local chapter of the PMC Guild!

Many people are turning to coaching for life and business. It seems that the chance to work with a talented, accomplished, supportive person could be really useful for developing a plan for success. People like Lora and Tonya Davidson are generous and supportive by nature. They love to teach and seem perfectly suited to guide others along the artistic adventure.

P.S. I'm sharing the info on Lora's and Tonya's mentoring programs (previous post) so people can learn more. These posts are not intended as an endorsement or advertisement - I just happen to think they're creative solutions for supporting artists and hope some of you might benefit from their experience.

Helping Artists Soar...

Tonya Davidson is busy helping artists soar. As long as I have known her, she has been very supportive of her fellow artists - as a teacher, nurturer of the creative spirit, and the energetic force behind Whole Lotta Whimsy. I'm always amazed at all the things Tonya does. She's always generous with her energy and ideas and has now developed a program for Artful Success, yet another way of "helping artists soar." My head just spins thinking about what her day must be like, yet she's always so calm and collected. She even started a Facebook page for the Artful Success program!

And speaking of Facebook pages, if you haven't seen this yet - Tonya created the Whole Lotta Whimsy Sunday Social Circle - a group for artists to meet, share ideas, experiences, and help one another. If you want to be a member, you can stop by the Whole Lotta Whimsy Facebook page on a Sunday and join. The group is very active - I can't keep up with all the posts - but I'm pretty sure Tonya is reading them!

Check out these resources... Tonya will gladly help you soar too!

Happy Birthday Metal Clay Artist Magazine!

The metal clay community celebrates the second birthday of our very own magazine. Publisher, editor, and artist, Jeannette Froese Leblanc, had an idea for a magazine to support artists working in metal clay... lucky for us, she pursued that idea and Metal Clay Artist Magazine was born.

Since metal clay appeared on the jewelry scene (more than 15 years ago), it's gradually been gaining ground as a respected material/technique for jewelry making (fellow metalsmiths - listen up... metal clay is here to stay). Over the years, more articles about metal clay began to appear in the jewelry magazines. But was it enough to feed the growing interest in this new material?

Launching a print magazine devoted solely to metal clay at a time when print has been seeing a decline was an act of faith in the metal clay community. Jeannette was not disappointed - this international publication has a large circulation (growing every day), with the magazine available in major bookstores, craft stores, as well as bead/jewelry suppliers. With the help many supporters and contributors, including fellow editor Margaret Schindel (author of many informative Squidoo lenses), the magazine has blossomed into something really special.

And in addition filling the need for a print publication, Jeannette launched an online version for those wishing to read the magazine that way. This set MCAM apart in addressing those of us who like to hold a physical magazine and others who like their reading material delivered via computer. It's both tech and tactile...

For those of you who don't know, I started working with MCAM earlier this year selling advertising. This was a new challenge; I'd worked for a magazine, but on the graphics side - creating some of the ad artwork and working in production for a large local magazine and later art directing a smaller publication. But since I love working with the jewelry world and support the efforts of MCAM to bring information to artists, when Jeannette asked if I'd be interested I jumped at the chance. I've seen my mission as making connections for our readers with advertisers who have products they can use.

I like the idea of helping readers learn more, and many of the advertisers are small companies looking to find more customers - I really like helping them too. It's a win-win. I'm not a high pressure sales person, but one who likes to work with the advertisers to find what's best to fill their needs and budget. And it's a good fit because sometimes I wear my graphic designer hat so I can help with ad creation if someone needs it. If you are interested in advertising for your company, products, or classes, you can contact me at cathy (at) metalclayartistmag.com (ok, you had to see that coming... what kind of salesperson would I be if I didn't say something?).

Happy Birthday MCAM, here's to many more!

Penland Glass Book

Since the winner announced for the Penland Book of Glass never contacted me, I've drawn a new winner at random from those who originally commented and expressed interest in either book or the glass book. 


It's Pam! 


Nothing like a second chance :)

To the original winner (Laura) wherever you are - I waited a month for you to appear and even posted my search for you on the Lark Crafts Facebook page...

New Directions: Powder Metallurgy in a Sheet Metal World Part 1

crafthaus: PARTICIPATORY SPORT FOR CRAFT ARTISTS

I'm excited to be a part of the current online exhibition on crafthaus - New Directions: Powder Metallurgy (Metal Clay) in a Sheet Metal World Part 1 is the first of a multi-segmented exhibition celebrating the unique personality that metal clay brings in the form of jewelry, vessels, functional and decorative objects. New Directions: Powder Metallurgy (Metal Clay) in a Sheet Metal World Part 2 will debut July 17, 2011 on crafthaus.  A print exhibition of the entire Powder Metallurgy exhibition will be on view at the Metal Clay World Conference to be held in Chicago July 14 -17, 2011. 

The show was organized by Susan Breen Silvy and Christine Norton; Juried by Ann Davis, Jeannette Froese LeBlanc, and Gwen Rukenbrod.

An expanded collection of images will be released in an exhibition catalog titled, New Directions:  Powder Metallurgy (Metal Clay) in a Sheet Metal World to be released at the Metal Clay World Conference in July, 2011.

crafthaus is a "lively online social network/community of contemporary art and fine craft practitioners and enthusiasts." It's a place where craft artists can connect with other artists. Artists can have a web presence (if they don't already), share work, participate in discussions, learn about calls for entry and much more. There have been several excellent online exhibitions and if you'd like to see some of the excellent past online exhibitions on crafthaus, follow this link.

Penland book winner? Hellooo?

Well, I heard from Kim, but not Laura. Hello Laura? Where are you? I'd like to send you the book. I'm afraid if I don't hear from you by April 19, I'll have to draw a new winner. I mean, that's a month, seems reasonable? So if you entered a comment on the book review, I'll draw from those who commented by the original deadline. The instructions to contact me are on the winner post.

Ring A Week #4,5, and 6

Goodness... the weeks do fly by. I had posted some more rings to the flickr Ring A Week group a while back but never got a chance to post them here. Oh, I'm still behind... working on weeks 7 and 8, when the group is on 13. But nothing can be done about that - I'll have to press on in my own time, which is often behind schedule... and for anyone who wants to complain, you try fitting 25 (or more) hours into a 24 hour day. It's a real challenge!

But I digress... this is about posting rings, not about lacking time. I've written plenty about that already!

So here is the ring for week #4. It's Faux Bone again (yes, it's a series...) still just working out design ideas. This one uses a glass bead. These aren't finished rings. But Faux Bone is great to work with. I love making the shapes in this lightweight and easy to manipulate material. I'm going to use it again when I get around to a resin series for this challenge.

And week #5... (this and weeks 2 and 3 are my favorites so far) it's a coral bead.

And here's the ring for week #6. It's copper tube rivets holding Faux Bone and copper discs together.