Spark & Twig

Thank you! You too! 🧡 We’re all just doing our best, keeping calm, taking care of those around us. Cheers to being kind, resourceful and strong! 😊

Work in progress. Asymmetrical translucent moss agate cabochon, temporarily nestled inside a sterling silver frame. Shown balancing on the tips of my fingers. So afraid I was going to accidentally drop this while taking the photo. But I did not. Whew. This gorgeous stone was rescued from a scrap pile and cut by the one and only @squalidglobe #metalsmithing #skysmith #artsky #moss #artyear #fog #magick #witchy #witchsky #silversmith #artisanjewelry #jewelry #jewellery #sterlingsilver #artistsupportingartists #art #artists #creatives

Outside edge sawed and filed! Tomorrow, I’ll be adding a couple of prongs and a bale

I try to cook in big batches 2-3 times a week as time permits, and supplement with little things in between. It’s hard when you’re away from home and/or working 12-16 hours a day. Sometimes I’m even too tired to slice a cucumber.

And cooking from scratch takes time and energy. It’s a challenge for many

Me too! ☺️

Oo! Saved! Time crunch here, ugh. I will view, dig in and respond in a day or two! ☺️

I have so many follow up questions! Have to log off now. But saving this string so I remember to come back to it 🙂

Exactly! We should challenge one another to create an unrefined rustic looking piece. Or mini collection. Whatever that might look like to us. Maybe that means first figuring out what those elements are that appeal to us. Naming them.

Exquisite! Like, high-end artisan bench jeweler perfection 🔥

Meet the Knifemaker Inspired by South Asian and New England Fishing Traditions Here’s how Rhode Island metalsmith Joyce Kutty crafts her bespoke blades—and puts them to work in the kitchen.

Here’s how Rhode Island metalsmith Joyce Kutty crafts her bespoke blades—and puts them to work in the kitchen.

Glad it blew up in the best and safest way possible! 😳 New technology induction is quite nice. We don’t have a natural gas hookup available where we are, and when we moved in, having always used a natural gas to cook, I was not looking forward to using an electric range. But I quite like it now.

Work in progress. Sterling silver. Stone is temporarily placed in the setting to show off the way the light can pass through. The outside frame has not yet been cut out.

Sawing out the center of the backplate allows light to come through this translucent stone, but still provides a nice firm base for it to sit on. Moss agate is a relatively hard stone, but is prone to fracture, so I want to protect it as much as possible

The layers and depth and deep earth colors 🤎 Fog is so magical 🤍

A maple tree whose trunk has split into three is in the foreground. Behind it is a woods with some young beech trees still holding onto their leaves. The scene is shrouded in fog.

When it's been raining almost non-stop for over 24 hours, photo ops need to be close to home (in this case about 30 feet from the house).
#photography #woods #fog #trees

Work in progress. A sterling silver piece is being held onto a wooden bench pin with seriously strong fingers. I drilled a hole in the sheet metal (called ‘piercing’ by metalsmiths) so that I could thread a saw blade into the space. The saw blade is then mounted into a jewelers saw frame, similar to a coping saw. Both the interior and exterior of this backplate will be sawn along the lines drawn on with a black sharpy marker.

Sawing the backplate!

Same. My meta accounts are still open because my town and groups and orgs and so many things I’m involved with post everything there. I don’t have the apps on my phone, but I log in on my laptop a couple times a week. We all do what we can. Anyway. Thank you so much!!! 😊😊

Holy wow! Thanks for sharing this! Nicole Ringold! She’s such an inspiration. Broke and rewrote the rules. Last year, a friend of mine flew across the country to take one of her classes. Envy and excitement. I have her book! 😊

Funny, but often the work I most admire is bulky and deeply dark and rustic, but I’m a little OCD and my work always comes out looking like this 😐 So I’ve learned not to not fight it too much. My overall aesthetic goal is “refined rustic” … best to lean into your strengths? It’s a journey, eh?

Don’t be mean to fish! 🙃🙂 Did you put the stone under water will you were grinding it?

My long term the goal is to enrich the soil and plant natives and rain gardens and such. That’ll help.

Oh that’s lovely! I’m at the bottom of a hill, the ground is mostly rock, sand, and clay, so all of the rainwater here “drains” into our basement. Honesty, I’m just happy to have a house at all, so I’m good with it. Everyone around here has water problems except the uber wealthy.

Having limitations forces us to be more creative. So, I’m okay with this 🙂

Also, been meaning to ask: what kind of torch setup do you have? Because I’m working in the basement of our home, I use butane. And so unfortunately I have no way to get a really precise hot flame. I’ve learned workarounds, but it does limit what I can do. I would choose acetylene, if I could!

I tried to contact her though her website to see if she has a mailing list so that I don’t miss anything, but there was no “thank you for your message” so I’m not sure it went through? I will share any bit of knowledge I happen to be privy to! 🙂

Love these guys! Obviously so healthy and happy! We miss having a cat. Most of the household is allergic so it’s not practical. Also, our last cat got angry at us for moving and urinated everywhere. As the person who had to deal with that, I’m highly reluctant to have a cat in the house ever again 😭

Oh no 😕 That’s a LOT of water. Is the ground still frozen? We’ve currently got a couple feet of snow stacked, with 3 inches of sleet coming later today. And it’s supposed to hit 60 next week. I need all of this to melt gradually or I’ll be wearing wellies in my workspace and laundry. Gah 🫧🐠

Oh no 😕

Oops my apologies for referring to him by the wrong gender! You have a female cat, too?

So cute! She’s got the most beautiful fur

At first glance, I thought this was a spider eating a pink mitten 😳🫣