June 2009

CMAG Officers
President: open
Vice-president: open
Secretary: Wayne Acton
Treasurer: Mandy Allen

Members at Large
Susan and Earl Lovejoy (Membership)
Linda Apodaca (Programs)
Barbara Covey

CMAG Board Meetings
Board meeting are generally held the last Tuesday of each month at 7:00pm. Members are encouraged to attend and contribute. Contact Mandy for location.

How to Reach Us
Website:
www.cmaguild.org
Write:
Creative Metal Arts Guild
P. O. Box 8946
Portland OR 97207

Newsletter
Contributions, comments,
classified ads, display ads
metal_fx@comcast.net
Lyn Simon email

Membership
Please visit CMAG's website:
www.cmaguild.org
Annual membership dues are
$60; students $30

The Creative Metal Arts Guild, a non-profit organization, exists to create a community for metalsmiths, jewelers and metal artists, by facilitating communication, providing information and benefits, promoting a positive image of the creative metal artist and increasing public awareness of the artist's contribution to the community.

Editor's Comments

As noted elsewhere, the end of June marks the end of the CMAG member year. It’s time to renew your membership. All you need to do is send a check for $60 AND an updated renewal form to the address on the form. Forms will be mailed to you or are available to download here as a printable pdf.

As always the newsletter(s) along with meeting pictures and so forth are available at our 'secret' archive

www.cmaguild.org/picts.html

Contents
Programs
Program Review
Meeting Report
Member News

Announcements
Calls for Entries
Web Stuff
Meeting Times

Programs Go back to contents

June 2009 - GENERAL MEETING PROGRAM
"DESIGN STIMULUS PROGRAM"
By Everybody

Inspire and be inspired at another of our programs expanding our ideas about design resources. We will have a “CMAG Introspection” into our own ways (That means you!) of getting design ideas for sculpture or jewelry.

WE NEED YOUR INPUT, SO HERE’S WHAT TO DO:

Bring to the meeting 1-4 pieces of your recent work to share.

Tell us…

-Where did your design ideas come from?

-Are they a new approach for you or part of an evolution of ideas?
-Did you make the piece in order to incorporate specific materials such as stones, glass, found objects or specific subjects such as animals or flowers?
-Will this become a production piece?
-Did you have problems making this? What did you learn?
-Bring pictures, books, objects of nature, etc. that inspire designs.

OR…you are also welcome to just come and observe. We will have a small group of appointed members who will start the discussion. Should be fun!!

July 14, 2009: Lee Haga will share her visit to the amazing Isamu Noguchi Scultpure Gardens in Queens, NY via the CD of the sculptures. www.noguchi.org/

August 11, 2009: CMAG Annual Swap Meet- Start gathering the goods!

Program ReviewGo back to contents

"Yoga for CMAG," May 2009 presented by Jane Carlson

Jane Carlson owner of and instructor at First Street Yoga in Newburg and, I think, personal guru to Mona Mozeico, led the group in an energetic and engaging introduction to this practice. Jane first explained that yoga is not primarily physical therapy or conditioning, it is a spiritual practice for “stilling the fluxuation of the mind.” One concentrates on the experience, not on achieving the goal.

Jane had the group examine their hands in a relaxed palms up posture, then asked all to make a squeezed fist, akin to tool holding, she remarked. When the hand relaxes notice that it does not return as far, the muscles do not completely un-contract of themselves. If not stretched, muscles will shorten.

The audience was soon rapt and managed serene lack of self consciousness as they were led through simple introductory exercises. While everyone else enjoyed the comforts of proper alignment, your poor author, attempting notation for this review, meanwhile sat cramped in spinal agony.

By closing, glimpses of tadasanatious balance filled the room. Wayne

General Meeting ReportGo back to contents

Report of CMAG General Meeting DATE

Report of CMAG General Meeting 12 May 2009

Prelude: Before the starting gong, Michael Walsh, Director of Multnomah Arts Center (where CMAG holds general meetings) presented attendees with an opportunity to give input for a 122-linear-foot community-driven mural to be installed in the main lobby. He passed out cards upon which one could draw or write inspirational ideas. This was a sort of last minute deal as the selection committee was set to meet later in the week. The mural will be professionally supervised but actually painted by volunteers. Several persons submitted cards and I’m sure the result will be interesting to behold. According to the card, the MAC garnered some $11k in grants for the project. More details are available at their website:

www.museumofcontemporarycraft.org/programs_community.php

Visitors: Mandy Allen MC’d the meeting once again. Tami Dean introduced visitor Heathe Albey, recent grad at Purdue U and looking into metal classes at MAC. Heather works the internets for a local shoe company and she and I had a nice discussion in geek. Molly Heltsley found CMAG at the show and checked out our website before attending as a visitor. She has work for sale at Etsy which can be seen here:

www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6210512

Molly asked how the general meetings go, which is a question which should be answered once in a while for newbies and prospects. In the ordinary course of events, a general meeting bangs to order around seven fifteen and a short business meeting including committee reports of general interest ensues, followed by member announcements and tech questions and tips. Then we have treats, but no nap, accompanied by the hubbub of visiting. After twenty minutes or so the mob is hauled back to their seats and the main program, which may be a technical demonstration or a presentation relating to metalwork or some variation of show and tell, proceeds until closing at nine somethingish. Mandy outlined this in brilliant impromptu oration.

Show committee: In keeping with the policy of less business and more program, there isn’t currently on the schedule a general meeting devoted entirely to show wrap-up. Nevertheless this item naturally occasioned prolonged discussion, disrupting the agenda. Judy Acton, who serves the steering committee as treasurer, reported the most recent tabulations which set vendor sales at $62, 310, down about 30% over last year’s $89,000. Judy claimed this as somewhat a victory, given the financial climate these days. Could’a been worse.

The show is made possible by the combined effort of a large contingent of CMAGers, all of whom deserve applause, accolades and appreciation. Good on you all! Specifically entioned at the meeting were Lyn Simon who did graphic design for the flyer saving CMAG the professional fees and Barbara Covey who in her first year as chair, wrangled the Silent Auction to sixteen hundred bucks in proceeds, which, in my experience at least, is a new high. Sponsorship, under the lead of Margaret Frison, who wasn’t in attendance, came through with $3820 at last count, which isn’t a record I’d guess, but is well over the budget projection. CMAG gratitude goes out to all the contributors, both within and outside the guild.

Actual clapping broke out at mention of Jessica Vasi’s spouse and his Sunday evening flying squad of hale dismantlers. None of the lads were present so the ovation must count toward continued encouragement of Ms. Vasi, in her pivotal motivational role. Linda Apodaca, speaking I’m sure for all CMAG, voiced our thanks to the steering committee for the efforts they made. The committee for 2009 consisted of Judy Acton, Mona Mozeico, Jessica Vasi and Debra Carus. These gals worked long hours and, although there are some calmer periods, the committee is called upon for leadership and decision beginning soon after closing the books on the last show. As of this writing I have heard that Judy and Debra have decided to remain in harness for another planting.

Judy reported that the 2009 show stayed on track budget-wise and so the start-up carry-over funds for 2010 are in the bank. The Oregon Potters Association is reportedly committed to the Convention Center for another year and doubtless CMAG will also be shortly. Early assurances of re-commitment from members, both as exhibitors and as committee heads, would be very welcome. Getting this set early is a big encouragement and makes for smoother plowing.

Membership: The end of June marks the close of another membership year and it’s time to reenlist for another twelve action packed months with CMAG. The price is still just sixty bucks for full membership. Partnerships and families may share one. Students get half price with proper ID. This year, in an effort to make continuing enrollment more convenient and to more quickly round up the stragglers, a combined print newsletter and renewal form will be mailed to the entire CMAG roster. Watch for it and try to return it promptly. I know it’s easy to overlook but getting this renewal done efficiently much simplifies the tasks of your volunteers who are trying to keep records and make plans for your guild.

Guild Circle: The Guild Council Circle meeting announced for May 28 has been postponed until July. Mandy usually goes to these but any guild member is free to attend. The Circle is a meeting of persons from many of the craft guilds with local representation including, according to the website:

www.museumofcontemporarycraft.org/programs_community.php

Art in the Pearl Fine Arts and Crafts Festival, Portland Bead Society, Columbia Basin Basketry Guild, Columbia Fiberarts Guild (formerly Columbia Stitchery Guild), Creative Metal Arts Guild, Guild of Oregon Woodworkers, Association of Northwest Weavers' Guild, Oregon Glass Guild, Oregon Potters Association, Portland Handweavers Guild & Portland Open Studios. It meets under the auspices of the Museum of Contemporary Craft in their upstairs lab; the new time is Monday, July 6 at 6:30 pm. As a group, we certainly have issues which would benefit from the attentions of such an organization and the Circle, despite a slow start and the reorganization at MCC, likely retains some potential in this regard, in which we might participate.

Tee’s & more: In honor of the evening’s program, Mandy unveiled a CMAG tee shirt yoga-mat quiver with shoulder strap. This is the first fruit of the new sewing machine addition to her Allen Memorial Laboratory of Alternative Tee Shirt Utilization. We may expect even greater and more inspirational things for the future. Despite their continuing consumption by the AMLO-ATSU juggernaut, adequate tee shirt stock remains for purchase. Only $10.

If you want your publicity slides or cd’s back, it might not be too late. Try contacting Mary Wong.

Mona Mozeico has been investigating the influence of school art programs, which are reported to increase core understanding and brain activity in students. If anyone wants to volunteer to work in the schools, Mona is willing to attempt coordinating. No word on whether she intends to turn academician for a personal trial of these discoveries.

Susie Wells, who is now also helping open our library at meetings, brought treats which included French egg-white and almond confections served under raised glass. To which the crowd repaired, it having been determined to forgo further pre-program palaver. I shall endeavor to otherwise herein review Jane Carlson’s engaging presentation of yoga, as it applies to us dilapidated bench-worker types, which ensued thereafter.

Respectfully submitted
Wayne
1 June 2009

Member NewsGo back to contents

CMAG Year in Review
By Mandy Allen

As we come to the close of CMAG’s 33rd year of existence, let’s take a moment to look back on some of the highlights.

At our general meeting programs, we explored alternative materials with Cary Smith and had a lot of fun with a pin swap. There was the always-popular Swap Meet. Members shared tools as well as tips, tricks and techniques during the “Favorite Tools” program. Wayne presented another in his series of soldering programs, in which he demonstrated how he fabricates silver ring shanks. Marie Escamilla of Sterling Office Services introduced us to QuickBooks as an option for organizing our business accounting. Bruce McKay treated us to two programs; “Wax Carving”, in which he used a wide selection of tools to carve a signet style ring wax, and a “History of Created Stones”, where we learned about several processes for making synthetic stones both from the past and the present. Apparently it doesn’t happen when you put a mommy diamond and a daddy diamond together. Daniel Baca’s presentation of the texturing and coloring techniques he uses in his sculpture was a real crowd pleaser. “Yoga for Benchworkers and Sculptors” with Jane Carlsen taught us how to prevent injury with gentle stretching of the upper chest, shoulders, neck, arms and hands. And the super-inspiring “Inspired by Actual Events”, was presented by Kristin Mitsu Shiga, in which she tracks her artistic carrier through a series of important life events. And I always kept you wondering, what will Mandy make out of a CMAG T-shirt this month?

If you missed any of these programs or want to relive the experience go to the archive page on the website, www.cmaguild.org/picts.html, and read Wayne’s program reviews in the newsletter.

Speaking of the newsletter, I always enjoyed Wayne’s poetic interpretations of the minutes and Linda Apodaca’s member profiles. I hope my craft show reviews were informative and the member announcements were a great way to keep up with what people are doing.

Many members enjoyed Alma Rand’s Cloisonné and Ferric Chloride Etching workshops.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the Spring Show which seemed to go very smoothly this year. And members contributed to yet another collaborative neckpiece, assembled by Mary Wong and auctioned as a fundraiser for CASA.

Wow, did we really do all that in one year? I’m going to renew my membership today so I can be a part of next year (hint, hint). See you then.

Call for submissions:
We are always looking for volunteers to help write articles for the newsletter. If you’re not into writing, you could help solicit articles from others. Ideas for articles include, but are not limited to: reviewing an interesting exhibit you’ve seen or book or website you’ve read, a technical article describing a process, reviewing a new product or tool you started using, and of course, we love to get announcements about what members are doing. To submit articles email or call Wayne, guild@actonjewelry.com or Lyn, metal_fx@comcast.net.

Anyone up for a road trip with Mandy?
The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas owns the art jewelry collection of Helen Williams Druutt English, a well-known Philadelphia gallery owner, collector, and educator. Passionate about the place of fine art jewelry in the work of contemporary art and craft, she amassed a collection of more than 800 pieces spanning five decades. About 300 of those pieces will be on display at the Tacoma Museum of Art, June 27- September 13 2009. I intend to drive up there to see it and was wondering if any other CMAGers are interested in carpooling or meeting me there. If you are interested contact me at allenmetalarts@gmail.com or 503-281-7820

Important Announcement!
The next Board meeting has been rescheduled. It will be the 2nd to last Tuesday, June 23rd. In order to accommodate schedule conflicts, we moved the meeting up one week. It will be the last one at Mandy’s house, 5855 NE 33rd Ave. Portland, OR at 7pm. All are welcome.

Annual CMAG Memberships are due!
We sent out this special print addition of the newsletter to all our members in an effort to get your membership dues renewal checks and forms returned as soon as possible. You may be surprised to know that many man hours are spent tracking who has and hasn’t renewed, taking people off the mailing list then putting them back on a month or two later. Plus, it’s good to know how much money we will have in the bank as many of our major expenses are due in July. So as a courtesy to your CMAG board please use the envelope provided and renew today. Thank you! textbody

Show Pics
From Randy Rasmussen

[ed note] Each year Randy Rasmussen makes a photo record of the Spring Show. Lately he’s posted these on his flickr account. The link he sends goes to this year. Searching around a bit will find some other years. Wayne

Guys: This year's show photos are up on Flickr. Following this link will take you to them:

www.flickr.com/photos/rlr_pix/sets/72157617360779439/

--randy

ROSE GOLD & PLATINUM RING
By Joe Apodaca

For several years I have admired the work of German master goldsmith Michael Zobel who frequently uses rose gold combined with platinum and stones. Having some rose gold left over from a commission, I decided to make a piece inspired by Zobel’s concepts.

I shared my partially-finished ring at our last meeting and said I would share the finished ring and how I made it.

To start, I melted my scraps of gold into an ingot and forged out a flat ring blank. I then cut various sized rectangles of 24gauge platinum, fluxed them and arranged them on the ring blank. When I heated the gold to fuse on the platinum, the platinum retained its shape as it has a much higher melting temperature than gold.

After pickling, I flat forged the ring blank more until the platinum was hammered flush into the gold. I then textured the whole surface by hammering the blank onto the textured, pitted surface of my old medieval anvil. I liked the irregular edges that resulted so I left them, bent the blank around into a ring and soldered the joint.

I chose a rubellite tourmaline as my main stone and cut out the area where the bezel would be soldered. With the gold that I cut out, I made another tiny ingot and rolled out bezel stock.

I then flush-set diamond melee and soldered on one tube-set diamond on the edge of the ring. I then made the bezel, soldered it onto the ring and set the rubellite.

Kiln for sale
From Tami Dean

Hi Wayne, Are you the person I should be sending this to? It's a friend of mine who has these items for sale. That's ok, isn't it? Thanks, Tami

Nine-Program Neycraft® Vulcan® Oven

We have had this kiln for 5 years and we have used it about 10 times. It is in perfect condition. We just don't use it enough, so we have decided to sell it. We paid $1800 for it, and we're asking $1200. Cash only, please. Here are the specs from Rio Grande catalog, and a link to their description and photos. We also have a centrifugal caster that we want to sell. If you're interested in both, we'll work out a package deal! Feel free to call or email if you want to come over and take a look at the kiln!
LeBrie
bwill (at) evanet (dot) com
503-736-3358

Calls For EntriesGo back to contents

All Oregon Arts

This came to the guild box this month, I think maybe sculpture works? When you get to the State Fair website, click on "competitions", then "fine arts and photography" then clicking "more" reveals a bunch of pdf’s for download.

“All Oregon artists and calligraphers are invited to submit artwork to the All Oregon Art Annual, which is held in conjunction with the Oregon State Fair. This annual exhibit promotes, encourages, and supports Oregon artists in all traditional media who show an ongoing commitment to the highest standards of creative excellence. Due to site limitations, we cannot accept video or performance art at this time. The All Oregon Art Annual is located in the Jackman-Long Building which is centrally situated on the Oregon State Fairgrounds.
Sheila M Powell, Director 2330 17th Street NE, Salem OR 97301
Eileen Cotter Howell, Professional Division Coordinator Ph: 503.947.3260 (after April 15th)
Trish Hibler, Calligraphy Coordinator Email: art.annual@state.or.us

www.oregonstatefair.org

Professional Division: entry postmark deadline. Monday, June 22
Professional Division: notification of jury results mailed. Monday, July 20
Professional Division: drop-off site delivery. TBA
*Note to artists from Bend, Eugene, Medford, Newport,
Pendleton, and Portland: If more than five works are
accepted from your area, AOAA will arrange to pick up
your work at a pre-determined location. Information
about drop-off sites will be included in notification letters.
All Categories: hand-deliver artwork to Jackman-Long Bldg. Saturday, August 15; 10 am - 6 pm
Sunday, August 16; 12 noon - 5 pm
Amateur Division: notification of jury results mailed. Friday, August 21
Artist Reception & Awards Presentation. Thursday, August 27; 7 pm - 9 pm
Opening Day, Oregon State Fair. Friday, August 28
Closing Day, Oregon State Fair. Monday, September 7”

Meeting AnnouncementsGo back to contents

MONTHLY MEETINGS & PROGRAMS

WHEN: General CMAG member meetings are held the second Tuesday of each month. Door opens at 6:45pm, meetings begin at 7:15pm, and adjourn by 9:15pm.

WHERE: Room 34 at the Multnomah Arts Center, 7688 SW Capitol Highway Portland 97219.

WHAT: Meetings consist of a general business and a short break with refreshments, followed by a program which may be a demonstration of a technique or tool, a slide presentation, a panel discussion, or other presentation of interest to CMAG members. The CMAG Library is open before the meeting and during the break for checking out books and magazines.

WHO: Meetings are open to CMAG members and their guests.

CMAG Webpage