getting ready

reclaimed gold awaiting mini-melt

OREGON COLLEGE OF ART & CRAFT
Go For Gold: Start to Finish
Feb 5 - 6
9a - 4p

Go For Gold

I am in the studio today getting organized for my upcoming workshop at the Oregon College of Art & Craft. It takes place from 9-4 on Feb 5-6th, and I am thrilled.

So thrilled that I am inside next to my sun-filled window, instead of out in this gorgeous and sunny spring day here in Oakland. We have had a chilly winter for us Californians, and I am glad to be in jeans and a t-shirt inside the studio, for once...not that I am not used to soldering and filing in a scarf, hat, and vest, trust me!




The class will be one of my favorites to teach, which is incorporating small-scale gold refining and green studio practices into jewelry work. My students will be a mix of community and college metalsmiths, and I look forward to seeing what gets produced. Gold is really just amazing to work with, and I can't wait to turn my own pile of scrap and unused jewelry into something wearable and new. I try to make myself a gold band each time I teach the class, so here is to another!

Go For Gold: Start to Finish

I am very excited about my upcoming class at the Mendocino Art Center! I spent the morning on the coast in the misty North Bay, and I am can't wait to look out the studio window at the Art Center and watch waves hitting the cliffs over the headlands.

If you have never made a trip to the North Coast, go. Now.

This April 16 - 18th we will be doing what I love best, which is melting down gold, making myself a small ingot, and getting to work! The process is as satisfying as the results. The remaking of old, broken, or underloved gold jewelry into new work is an integral part of my studio practice, and my dedication to using only 100% recycled fine metals in my work.

I love to be a part of the refining process, in my low-impact, no-frills approach to having a small studio.

See the description of the class online at the MAC's website, and learn more about classes at the Art Center.

gates flyaway ring 2007
23K, 100% recycled sterling + 14K

cluster strand 2005
sterling, 18K bimetal, rubber


23K waiting to be melted down


favorite hammer