Check this out

Check out my hubby everyone!!! I am wicked proud of you Steve!!
Steve just had this article written about him and his show The Garage with Steve Butler
Here is the link
http://www.telegram.com/article/20131118/NEWS/311189958/1101/newsrewind
Congrats baby!!

Holiday Sale

I have been so busy the last few months that I have neglected my blog. I am so sorry. I will be doing an update post very soon.
But first, it is holiday time already. I can not believe that it has crept up on me. So here is the coupon code for this years 35% discount at my etsy store. The code is HOLIDAY2013. I will be adding new work next weekend and some older work that will be re-listed. If you see something on the blog that is not in the store that you want shoot me an email and I will get to you.
Happy Shopping and Happy Holidays.
Liesl  

Black Necklace

The pendant above I just finished yesterday. It is made of sterling silver and there is a large black onyx set. I love this piece I am planing on hanging if from black rubber cord. I love my little sprouts. I used black max to oxidize it and scruffed some off to give lots of dimension.

Quinn was working hard on his own projects while I worked on the black necklace. He loves being in the studio and making. He loves to learn how to make. This morning when I asked him what he would like to do today, his answer was to go in the studio and make some jewelry. How amazing!!

Update

Sorry that it has been such long time since my last post. Trying to find time these days has been hard for me. I am hoping to finish a couple of projects that are in the works this weekend, and start on this one.
The top piece is a piece from my grandmothers blue willow dishes, the middle piece is a stone that Quinn found on one of our hikes, and the bottom stone is a labadorite. I love the different shades of blues and all the textures in it.

Also every time that  I am in the studio Quinn has been coming with me to learn and wants to learn everything. Amazing. Here we are below and he is watching me sand and polish with the flex shaft. We stopped for a quick photo opt.

Some News

Last week I received this interesting email form Jeff Star of golocalworcester. He wanted to do an article about me and my work. Amazing!!! I am so excited about this opportunity. The article was posted on Monday August 5th. Here is the link to my article. Please check it out. Again this is very exciting. Happy reading! And thank you Jeff Star and go local worcester

Collaboration with my son

Quinn and I have been working on a necklace together. He found the stone and he set the sea glass. This was so much fun. The pictures below is of Quinn working hard to set his first bezel. He did a beautiful job!

The picture below is the necklace that we made. He set the bottom piece!!! It is sea glass from Rhode Island. The middle stone is one the Quinn found on one of our walks, and the top piece is a sterling silver hollow form with a high polish. This is one amazing piece. It was so much working with my son on this. 

Almost done

I have been working on this piece for little while now and it is almost done. The top piece is a hollow form with a high mirror polish. The second is a stone that was found by my son, Quinn on one of our hikes. He had asked to help set the bottom piece, which is a piece of sea glass that I found almost 10 years ago in Rhode Island. I was so excited that he wanted to learn how to set. We are going to be setting today and I can not wait. So much fun!!!

Working away

Over the last weekend Quinn was working in the studio. He made a necklace for himself and told me that he would like to be my jewelry student. What an amazing kid we have!!

Earrings

These are a fabulous pair of puddles and pebbles earring that I finished last week. They have a high shine on them and the pebbles have been oxidized to bring out the texture. I love these!!

From my bench

 Yesterday I was sitting at my bench and thinking what a great view I have from it. The image above is my bench with a ton of projects, pottery shards, stones that my son found for me and gemstones. I love the look of my bench it just stirs creativity for me.

The image above is what I see from the window in front of my bench. The side of our yards and our fire pit with our fabulous chairs. One of these days we are going to get around to painting them. I am thinking a two bright yellow and one teal, or maybe the other way around.

Quinn at Work

 Yesterday Quinn and I went to work in the studio. He wanted to make daddy a necklace for Fathers Day. Here he is working at the bench. He is really quite good with the saw. He made it with only a little help from mommy. All I really did was hold the metal for him.

Here is the necklace that Quinn made, his first one. We had stamped Dad on it and I then oxidized the letters to bring them out. Quinn then put some finger paint to add color and his print. What a wonderful job he did. Quinn is truly amazing and only four years old!!!
Happy Fathers Day to all the dads out there.

Bezel making and works in progress

 This is image above is of how I make my bezels. I have a small board that I clamp on my bench, it has masking tape(sticky side up) to hold the stone or found object in place while I form my bezel. I find that this trick is wicked helpful. When I do not need it hangs on the side of my bench. I love this!!

This image is of the necklace and earring that I working on. The necklace is from a post earlier and all the pieces are waiting for finishing and the last soldering of how it is all going to hang. Then I am working on a pair of puddles and pebbles earrings. I have only made one other pair of them last year for a client. I am not sure if I am going to add any stones or beads. hmmmmm

New work in Progress

This is a new piece that I am working on. The top is going to be a hollow form with high polish. The stone in the middle is a stone that my son found on one of our walks here is Massachusetts and the bottom is a piece of sea glass that I found at a Rhode Island beach. I can not wait to work more on this piece. It is going to be fabulous. I do not know how I am going to hang it yet, it will be from a black rubber cord, that much I know.  
So exciting.

Art All State Completion

The completion!! This is what the project looked like all done. It was amazing!!! There were birds everywhere, I loved it. The top picture is a good one of most of the project, the second one is the inside of the red structure. The bottom is of Quinn checking it out. He thought that it was amazing, that all of them were amazing. It was great seeing it all from his point of view. He had a look of awe on his face. After we got home we made some of our own birds. I told you all (in studio 202 that we would) I had taken a bird home for him and it now hanging in his room. Again this was an amazing experience. Thank you

Art All State Day 2

It all came together on the morning of the day 2. It looks amazing and the focus that everyone had that morning was amazing. They were all there before Bob and I. They ended up taking down the child on he wall in the second picture. The way they all were so respectful and  everything was talked about in a group was fabulous. We worked up to the very last minute, what stress.

Art All State Day 1 Part 2

I love the shadow lanterns in the first picture. They were amazing. This came out after changing directions. I love how well everyone worked and the birds!! It was so much fun!!

Art All State Day 1 Part 1

Art All State 2013. We were in Studio 202. We had wire coat hangers, colored felt, for materials and our mystery material was post cards.  What an amazing group of kids we had. They were focused and social. They all worked so well together, I can not get over how respectful everyone was to each other. So the morning of day 1 was all about what to do, coming up with a concept and how to execute it. They did a great job. They came up with one idea and started on then, tore it all down and started over. The images above start with the discussion groups and then how they started to work on parts of the whole.

Art All State 2013

Tomorrow is the start of Art All State 2013 at the Worcester Art Museum. I am very excited to be part of the this amazing program again this year. Check the blog latter this long weekend to see what the kids did.

Commissioned Ring

I had a friend who commissioned me to make a ring. It came out great. The top image is of my ring (on the left) which the commissioned piece is modeled after. The bottom image is of the commissioned ring alone. It looks amazing. It is all sterling silver and a hollow form with some amazing granulation on it, which I oxidized a little bit to bring out all the bits and pieces. I am sure that she will love it.

Some news

Earlier this week I received a very exciting phone call. It came fromParadise City!! I was invited to be an exhibitor at the Northampton, next weekend. This was huge, it is the premier craft show in the northeast. I was so excited I could barely contain myself. After I calmed down I had to call back and say that I could not be an exhibitor due to the fact that it is the same weekend I am doing Art All State at the Worcester Art Museum. I am so excited to be doing Art All State again this year. I can not wait to see what the kids will come up with. That was some very exciting news for me this week.

New Necklace with Tourmaline

I finally finished this necklace. I change it a little bit. I really love how it came out. The top piece is this great piece of recycled silver and then the middle piece is a hollow form that I textured with burlap. You can not see it very well in the photo, it looks so great, very subtle. And the bottom stone is a black tourmaline, one of my favorites. It is hanging from a rubber cord. It is really lovely.

New organic ring

I finished this fabulous ring. It is similar to my pebbles and puddles series. This one is structured with a very organic look and feel to it. It is sterling silver and has been oxidized to bring out the texture. It reminds me of things sprouting all over the place and it seems very fitting, with it being spring and all. It is about a size nine and super comfortable to wear. It have a matte and a high polish finish in it. I need to update my etsy store  and I am hoping to send time next week on it. This is a fabulous ring!!! 

New Project

Yesterday was great being in the studio. It was nice and clean and I could easily focus. This is a new project that I am working on. This is made of some elements that I had created a while ago and I finally thought to put them together.  This is going to be a fabulous necklace. The top piece is recycled silver and then the middle one is a hollow form, then the stone at the bottom is a black tourmaline. It is going to hang from a thick rubber cord. This is going to be a great piece!!

Spring Cleaning

Well with spring come spring cleaning and man did my studio need it. There was wood and dust and well just stuff everywhere. I have a hard time being productive in a messy environment. So I took this afternoon, sunny but a little chilly and clean like crazy. The Ramones are great to listen to when cleaning, well really anytime. So the pictures below are of the mess and craziness before the clean out.  

 Ahh!! Now that it is clean it feels much better. I can think again. And I also have room to dance to disco. You gotta dance. I can move and I work with out tripping on anything. Fabulous!!!

 And now I get to all of these project that I have laid out on my bench. Then maybe my bench will look neat. But I have my doubts about that. I always seem to put two more projects on my bench. But I wouldn't have it any other way.

The studio in spring

The studio looks great this spring. Hopefully all the flower seed that we planted in the front of it will bloom. I love the spring!!! IT makes smile even more and I love planting and getting dirty. This year we put Quinn's old rain boots on the studio put some blue and red flowers in them. It looks so cute. I just love it and can not wait for all gardens (flower and vegetable) to be in bloom. I am so glad that winter is over. Now all I have to do is clean out the studio. Happy Spring to everyone. 

Thank you, Boston

I would like to thank all of hard working men and women of the law enforcement who work so hard to make Boston safe again. This was a crazy week here in Massachusetts. They worked swiftly and safely. And to all the people of Boston. Thank you
Boston Strong

Co-Habitat-Uxbridge

Last night was the opening night of Steve's and I's exhibit at the Uxbridge Free public Library. It looks amazing. It was great the people came out. It is upstairs in the Library's auditorium, it is a great space. We put my lovely displays on easels as you would a painting, they look great that way, right at eye level. I would like to thank Jane at the library for letting us, Steve of course, and our local Hannaford grocery store for donating the platters for the opening. If you are in the area please check it out it will be up till the end of April. 

Co- Habitat - Uxbridge Free Public Library

Steve and I spent yesterday working on setting out exhibition at our local library. It is looking great. The opening is latter this week and I looking forward to it. It has been a lot of moving of Steve's work and it takes both of us to go up the stairs with most of his work. I can not wait to see it all put together.

New Gallery - NOA Gifts

Today I went to NOA Gifts W. Concord location. The owners Barbara and Ian Scofidio are great. I dropped off a great amount and a great assortment of work to them. They are putting a collection in both of their locations. There is one located on Commonwealth Ave in W. Concord MA and one on Charles St in Boston. Please stop by and not only see my work but of other local artist that they carry. It was a great time and a great store. The above photos are from the inside of the W. Concord location.Fabulous!!

Sprout #7

This pendent was finished yesterday. And what a great day yesterday was. It was sunny and starting to show signs of being warm, things are starting to sprout. I love spring!! I was listening to a great variety of music, including disco. Now I know most of you are cringing when I said disco, but what other music can make you want to dance like that?
Now about the piece. It is sterling silver, the bottom piece is a hollow form with "sprouts", I gave it a high mirror polish. You can see me in the refection. The top is a mystery stone, I think that it might be some kind of agate. It is bezel set with sterling silver. And the stone is one of the many that my late grandfather had given me. It is a spectacular piece and I was thrilled when it was finished. It is a statement piece, it will get you noticed. I love those pieces.