I spent my Mother's Day weekend moving cleaning the kids area, moving furniture, putting together furniture, and getting the entire area organized.  I also took my kids to the opening reception of the regional school districts art show at The Pumphouse Regional Arts Center in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Here they are looking at the elementary kids art from their own school. 

Here they are looking at the middle and high school art.  The kids really enjoyed the work.  They had a much stronger appreciation for art than I ever remember having.  They talked enthusiastically about colors, subject, texture, as well as subject matter - all of the things that the rest of we adults should be discussing.  Do stop by the Pumphouse and see the show if you are in the area.  The kids around here are exceptionally talented.

 
My daughter loved this piece that she is standing in front of, not the type of work that I expected her to appreciate at all.  Now how can I ever choose art for her again?  She has such well considered tastes.  We will have to start art window-shopping together.

Yes, I spent my Mother's Day weekend being a Mother. 

I did buy myself two new trees for the yard, a sugar maple and a prairiefire crabapple.  I planted them too, in the rainy windy low 50s unnaturally cold spring weather. 

So did I rest today?  No, I still had work to do.  It was at least business related work, but not in the metalshop.  I completely re-organized, or perhaps I should say just organized, my office, photography and shipping area today.

The floor is clean, all the way out to the loft edge.  The packing materials are neatly tucked into a storage drawer, along with most of my Etsy inventory and art show supplies.  My computer is off to the left of the bookcase.  I will still need to find a way to store the exhibit pieces that are currently at VIVA.  Maybe I should just put them on the wall!
Yes, I keep the kids computer near me.  I like to know what they are playing.

So what was my reward, other than my lovely little trees? 
Today I got my necklace from duckduckgoosestuff, her end of a trade that we started last fall!  I love it!

A few entries back, I posted about some tree shelf brackets that I've been working on.  Here's how they turned out! 

I used a U shaped beam at the top.  The shelf should be routed to fit over the u shape, so that it looks like the tree is going right up into the shelf. 

The shelf brackets are large, about 30 inches high with a shelf support length of 12 inches.  Surprisingly enough, they are not very heavy.  I specifically designed them to be strong, but also to be lightweight.

Let me back up a little.  When the client first approached me about the project, I sure "sure!" jumping in headfirst like I usually do, without thinking about it enough.  I originally thought I would use branch textured bar stock.  Then I realized a few things.

1. I don't have a power hammer anymore, so it would be terribly difficult to for me to texture my own bar stock like I used to. 
2. Those would be heavy!  I'm trying to avoid heavy.
3. Propane is very expensive right now, so that means hot forging is very expensive for me.  I've been adapting my work to use much less propane.

So I started to re-think the process.  At first I thought I would use plain un-textured bar stock.  Still that would use lots of propane for forging and would be heavy.  Then I thought, well I'll just buy the bar stock.  That was a mistake.  That supposedly "branch textured" bar stock from King Metals is UGLY and doesn't look at all like a branch.  Finally I realized, I need to go back to the rough anticlastic technique that I've used in the past to make hollow twig/branch forms, in both large and small sizes.  I used to use it a lot for steel work, but I only have the pictures as slides, with no slide-scanner.  If you look back through my jewelry pages on flickr, you can see the technique on the twiggy copper bracelets and on many of my leaf stem pendant bails.

Basically, I cut asymmetrical long strips of metal.  Then I shape them over the step of my anvil into a tube shape.  To finish up, I close up the tube, letting the metal overlap and wrinkle at the edges.   I also hammer around the hollow tube form, to create more texture and form.  This creates a surprisingly strong and lightweight hollow form, that is very organic and convincing as a branch form.

I agonized over this for ages before I started!  I hadn't done it large scale in so long and I was worried that it might not work after all the effort I put into it.  But as you can see from the pictures above, it worked beautifully!

I was so pleased after I finished the brackets, that I even created a few small steel branch sculptures, and a candleholder, using the same technique.  Click on each photo for full details.

All in all, it's turned out to be a great example of how a challenging project can lead to exciting new directions, or exciting new takes on old directions.

What's your Mother getting for Mother's Day?

Mine is getting the silver heart ring in this picture.

Here's another one, size 7, available in my Etsy shop that could go to your Mother.  Or buy it for yourself! 
I know I like to pick out my own presents.  I don't want to be surprised.  I just want what I want. 

Hey, if you do buy it for your mother, put a note in the "message to seller" letting me know if you need it shipped to a different address or if you need a gift card enclosed.