September 2010
CMAG Board
Bruce McKay
Daniel Baca
Ken Patton
Barbara Covey
Lyn Simon
Earl Lovejoy
Susan Lovejoy
Wayne Acton

CMAG Board Meetings
Board meetings are generally held prior to the General Meeting at 6 pm in Room 33. Members are encouraged to attend and contribute.

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
guild@actonjewelry.com
Wayne Acton email

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

Newsletter

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.
President's Message

Back to School Message

The craft of metalworking is full of many, many skilled craftsworkers, a fair number of whom are know-it-alls. Each know-it-all has the perfect technique for any given situation and the next know-it-all approaches the same situation with completely different tools or techniques. I have been blessed with the knowledge that I will never know it all. I will be looking to learn new ways of doing things and new areas to learn in our craft for the rest of my life.

After I had gone to school and learned the one and only way to set stones I went to work side by side with a goldsmith who was willing to teach me how to do what I already knew. I had learned every type of graver or bur one would use for any particular shape of stone or setting technique and I had invested in piles of bur and graver shapes, sizes and types for any situation. My bench top was full of tools ready for anything. His bench had a small set of ball burs. I asked him where all his burs and gravers were and he then showed me how he did all of his beautiful stone setting with just ball burs and the occasional knife or flat graver for finishing. Then the next goldsmith I sat next to did almost all of his cutting with a hart bur. My lesson was to grab a little technique from each of them and adapt it to my own style.

It can be difficult to learn new technique. A number of the older goldsmiths I first worked around were reluctant to teach technique to the younger craftspeople, in fear of what I am not sure. I sure wasn’t good enough to knock them out of their jobs. I have always been a proponent of sharing any knowledge with anyone, even when I have been sharing my knowledge until they have a bored look in their eyes. The more skill is out there in our pool of knowledge, the stronger our craft is.

I am often asked by people with no experience with metalworking or people with skills looking for new skills as to where to go to take metalworking classes in the Portland area. I have decided to compile a list of schools and people who teach metalwork, stonesetting, stonecutting, gemology, enameling, or anything else related to our craft and I need help. This list of learning resources can range from the university to a craftsperson who teaches out of their workshop

I am asking for any information you have on where to go to take classes. I plan on visiting as many of these classrooms as possible over the next year and to have this list done in a year. The information I am looking for is as follows:
Name of school, name of instructor(s), location and contact information, website and email, techniques taught, equipment and facilities available, number of students, length of classes, individual classes or programs available, if a member of CMAG, degrees or certificates of mastery awarded, job placement programs, accreditation if the school has any, cost of classes and tools needed.

Any information I left out is appreciated, as well as pictures of the classrooms, school and teachers. Please email any information to bruce@mckaydesignsinc.com. With your help I can put together a resource list we can post on our website of all the places we can go to become know-it-alls or to maintain know-it-allness. Bruce
Contents

Programs
Program Review

Announcements

Call For Entry
Meeting Times

Archive cmaguild.org/picts.html
Programs Go back to contents
Sept 14 - GENERAL MEETING PROGRAM
"Collaborations: Working to create art and connections"
Dana Cassara, the president of the Seattle Metals Guild has graciously agreed to drive down for our meeting so I hope there will be lots of people there to welcome her. She will be discussing such things as their annual metal arts symposium in October and hosting the upcoming SNAG Conference in May. Come with your ideas about how the two guilds could collaborate on these and other projects.
Plus, Mandy Allen will be giving details about an opportunity through the Museum of Contemporary Crafts to create collaborative pieces inspired by the designs and patterns of Oregon textile artist Laurie Herrick in conjunction with their upcoming exhibition of her work. The goal is to connect artists and crafters across Portland to create collaborative pieces for display online and in Community Showcase exhibitions at the MoCC.

If you can’t make it to the CMAG program to hear the details you can still go to the official pot-luck and kick-off event:

Saturday, September 25th
6:00-8:00pm
The Lab at Museum of Contemporary Craft
724 NW Davis Street


October: Tudor Rose Earring

For the October program, Judy and I are preparing to demonstrate making our Tudor Rose Design. This is a five petal flower design in filigree and repoussé which we use for earrings mostly but also pendants and sometimes pins. We intend the demo to focus mainly on our repoussé method but will quickly recap the soldering and fitting steps. We will come ready to demo most processes up to polishing and are also attempting to prepare examples of the various steps. How much of this will fit into the program is problematic, of course.
Additional Note: Booth Program

Mandy Allen is starting work on an upcoming program about how to build a better booth for craft shows. She is compiling advice about tents, displays, lighting, etc. If you have any opinions about what to use or what to stay away from please contact Mandy at the email below. She would also love any images of booths to be used as examples during the program.


allenmetalarts@gmail.com
Program ReviewGo back to contents
"Scritchin'," August 2010
presented by Lyn Simon

Review by Linda Apodaca

The CMAG meeting at the studio of member Lyn Simon drew folks up into the historic neighborhood of Oregon City. Arriving with tantalizing potluck dishes in hand, we all enjoyed a fell-spectrum spread for dinner. A new guest of note (who stole the evening) was Dax, the service dog-in-training brought by Ken and Dionne Patton.

The evening progressed as Lyn assembled us in her studio to give a talking demo of the processes she uses in making her renderings of flora and fauna on sheet metal by using abrasives. She also explained how she colors the metal using heat and grinding in successive layers.

Thank you Lyn for hosting this different evening. It was fun and informative



Calls For EntriesGo back to contents
OCAC Fall Metals Classes

There’s still room in Oregon College of Art and Craft’s Fall metals classes and workshops! Choose from a variety of formats, from 1-day workshops up to 12-week classes taught by local instructors, including Miel Margarita Paredes, Rebecca Scheer, Deb Stoner and Ben Neubauer (photo attached). Or, register for the weekend workshop with world-renowned metalsmith and teacher Bob Ebendorf (photo attached)! For details or to register, visit ocac.edu Questions? Email Kristin Shiga at kristin@ocac.edu.
Meeting AnnouncementsGo back to contents
MONTHLY MEETINGS & PROGRAMS
General Meeting
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.

Board Meeting
Before the general meeting ... at MAC ... in room 33 ... starts at 6 pm.

CMAG Webpage