A CMAG first, this year’s Winter Party featured the Metalsmith Olympics! Four teams of 4 were challenged to create a copper snowflake ring, first finished won! Here, Maia Leppo and team mates are awarded their fabulous prizes — pins by Mike and Rachelle Stromberg. Here’s a close up of those pins:

Pins by Mike and Mary Jewelry, (c) 2013 All Rights Reserved

Anyone not participating in the Olympics got to play Pin the Sawblade on the Sawframe:

The event had a great turn out of CMAG friends old and new! Special thanks to the party planners, who did a terrific job, and all the members who brought such wonderful food and drink to share!

CMAG is thrilled to have a booth at the upcoming Chicago Creative Expo. The Expo is a great place to connect with arts organizations and attend really terrific workshops and lectures — on all topics designed to help your career.

CMAG’s own board member Elaine Luther will give a talk called, “How to Start a Not for Profit, It’s Easy! I’ll Show You How!” Friday, March 1st at 10:30 am in the Garland Room.

Complete schedule information is here: www.CreativeChicagoExpo.org

Friday March 1 and Saturday March 2, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm

Chicago Cultural Center
78 E. Washington Street
Chicago, IL 60602

Admission Free No RSVP

There’s a lot to do ~ Bring a friend!

Thank you for all of YOUR help and compliments!

Chicago Metal Arts Guild cordially invites you to attend our Annual Winter Party.
Join us for an evening of fun and getting to know your fellow metalsmiths.

The evening’s entertainment will include participatory events like the Metalsmith Olympics 2013! Or join us just to socialize.

Bring your favorite dish or beverage to share. And please bring some of your work to show off to the group!

For the exact address and time, look here.

See you there!

Participating artists:

Aja Engel

Erika Uzmann

Janna Weddle

Katy Froeter

Leah Ball

Marti DeBoer

Roslyn Broder

Sydney Brown

Michelle Salemi

Dianne Serakos

Jesse Torres

Ivan Sagel

Rita Chevli

Lynn Floriano

Katie Mills

Leslie Perrino

Alisa Miller

Laura Garza

Maia Leppo

CMAG was again honored to co-host an event at SOFA with SNAG. This year the event was a delightful and well attended brunch. A terrific turn out and lots of connections made!

Summer CMAG Mixer

CMAG is holding fun, casual meet ups almost every month. They’re a fun way to meet other metalsmiths. These aren’t announced on the website because they’re members-only (and guests of members). Members are notified of them via email.

Want to join up? It’s easy to become a CMAG member and you can even pay online.
Click here: http://chicagometalartsguild.com/join

I didn’t expect to like this book as much as I do. In addition to covering the basics of working with shrink plastic, Shrink, Shrank, Shrunk by Kathy Sheldon, also provides a handy lesson on design. Shrink plastic, like sheet metal, is inherently flat, yet can be worked into shapes. Anyone who is struggling with their sheet metal work will find simple ideas in this book for beginning to add that third dimension to their work.

The book shows all kinds of ways to add color to the shrink plastic as well as methods of connecting items made with the oven baked plastic that goes beyond the simple jump ring through a hole.

There are some fun, almost interactive designs, such as teapot scatter brooches where the teapot is pouring into the teacup. Other pieces use layering in an attractive way.

I’m more likely to add a bit of shrink plastic to a metal piece for a bit of color than to make a piece entirely out of the plastic, and this book gives me everything I need to do that.

Like all Lark books, this one has lots of color pictures, clear general instructions and step by steps for each project. The projects are from a number of designers, so you get a variety of styles.

Overall, a thumbs up, a definite “buy it” rating if you want to make shrink plastic jewelry, are looking for fun projects for a tween girl’s birthday party (not to imply that this is only kid stuff.) It’s also a “buy it” if you want some design training — sometimes it’s easier to see the ideas in a different medium than your usual one.

You can see some projects from the book here: http://www.larkcrafts.com/jewelry-beading/shrunk

You can find the book online: http://www.amazon.com/Shrink-Shrank-Shrunk

A generous gift has inspired a show…

Buttons were first discovered over 5000 years ago and originally not meant to be used for closure but rather as decoration and ornament on clothing. Centuries later the invention of the fibula to close a cloak became prominent during Greco Roman times. Buttons became functional for fastening and closing clothes in the 13th & 14th century Germany which led to their wide spread use in the clothing industry in Europe.

As an extension of the ancient fibula, a button’s main function is to fasten clothing together, but like the fibula, the button is also an object rife with opportunity for personal adornment in that it’s construction and inclusion of decorative elements tell a romanticized story about the maker and the wearer.

On the Button is an exhibition of members’ use of a donated collection of incredible buttons from Cynthia Jenkins of Evanston, Illinois. Cynthia has requested that these treasures not be resold or marketed for their antique value, but be used in creative ways by members of the Chicago Metal Arts Guild. CMAG is inviting members to take individual small bags of buttons and be inspired to create and a piece of adornment or sculptural art with them.

The creation can be either functional or non-functional. It is up to the maker to decide on what they will invent & create. We ask that when you have completed your piece that you submit and image to CMAG for an online exhibition in 2013.

Timeline:

~Buttons will be handed out at meet ups over the next few months and at CMAG’s annual Winter Party in January 2013. Members should submit an image of a finished piece for an online exhibition in 2013.

~In September of 2013, CMAG will hold their annual members meeting / party for participants to come and show their creations.

Button exhibition:

What we expect from participants:

1. That you be inspired and have fun creating with the button you choose (or are given, in a grab bag assortment!)

2. You submit an artist statement with the piece you created telling us about why you made the art work and what your inspiration was for it.

3. You do not sell the buttons in their original form.

4. That you do not sell the piece you create for at least one year so that we have the physical work for exhibition in Fall 2013.

5. You return any unused, left over buttons to be used for future exhibitions.

Things to consider: What attracted you to the individual buttons you chose? How do these relate or not relate to your own work? What is the history of those buttons? Where were they manufactured? How are buttons used today versus 10, 20, 50 or even 100 years ago? What statement are you making with these buttons?

I took the time to actually make a project before writing this review. I wanted to make sure the instructions were well written and they were!

The projects in this book are not difficult. The author walks you through the steps to learn how to make many geometric shapes and then explains how to make them into dimensional elements. The instructions are easy to follow and the results are wonderful.

This book is well-suited for intermediate/advanced beaders. Although it provides the basics, one should have some bead weaving experience to be able to easily figure out how to build the shapes described in the book.

If I had a say, I would have chosen more vivid colors for some of the projects to make them more appealing. Also, I hope Lark books will eventually move on to spiral books, it is so much easier to work on projects when the book can be bent and still keep its form.