10/15/20 - Whilst lurking about the Thames one dark and misty night, metalsmith & world traveler Claire Ramsey happened upon a mysterious vintage baby rattle (oooh CrEePY!!) which led her to ... the London Silver Vaults - the largest collection of antique silver in the world. Dated from 1882 the vaults were originally used to house the silver of London's wealthy elites. Join us, IF YOU DARE! Next we'll calm our frayed nerves with a demo by Anne on fold-forming fall leaves (ahhhh). But then it's BACK TO TERROR with SafETy LaST in which we'll take a playful look at home studio safety. Think it's too much trouble to put on your safety glasses? Think AGAIN! (It won't be gruesome, promise). As always, we finish up with an open discussion Q&A period so get your metal arts questions ready. Read on for photos and resource links.

10/14/20 - About 30 students and friends attended our 2nd Annual Shop & Swap at Liberty Station on Saturday, October 10th. Anne set up tables in a shady spot off the main colonnade and we all had fun dropping off goodies, perusing what others had brought and visiting in between. Wearing masks and social distancing was easy and didn't detract at all from the delight of sharing stories and catching up. Aside from that, we managed to re-home all of the lab leftovers we brought, thereby freeing up room in Anne's home studio for new projects. Likewise, everyone who came seemed to find something useful or fun to take home. We were particularly delighted to re-stock a student who lost her home studio building in the Valley Fire. Read on for photos!

10/8/20 - We had so much fun at our Sawing Circle tonight! Everyone arrived right on time and got to work with lots of sawing and filing and discussions of where to stamp the ID numbers (front? back? Around the ribbon?) and how to address the fingernails (to stamp or not to stamp) and even finer points of textures and ribbon wrangling. Like any good gathering of metalsmiths we also got into several tool and patina discussions ... which naturally led to excellent bakeries in San Diego and Santa Cruz. LOL! Great fun. Thanks to those of you who tuned it and if you missed it, we hope to see you at the next one. Happy Sawing!

9/24/2020 - Because we're horribly behind (LOL!) we've extended the deadline for the Hand Medal Project. Be sure to mail or drop off your medals at Anne's Liberty Station Studio by 6pm on to Friday 10/23/20. We'll make sure they get submitted to our San Diego Hand Medal Project coordinator. If you need help me to do the ribbons and envelopes for you, get them to Anne's studio by 10/19 at the latest. Thank you! ~ Ame

9/24/2020 - Thursdays October on 8th and 22nd from 6-8pm PST - Online via Zoom. To help us hit our Hand Medals goal we’re holding TWO extra Sawing Circles in October. Anyone is free to join in. Work on your hand medals or anything you like, the goal is to enjoy the tips, conversation and good company that comes with working together. No need to RSVP, simply join by clicking the link on our Home page that day. See you there!

9/24/2020 - Join us every month on the 3rd Thursday. New time too 5-6pm PST - Online via Zoom. We've been having a blast with our Metal Arts Adventures - so much so that we have been lettin' other stuff slide so starting in October, MAA will happen every 3rd Thursday. We are also rolling back the time to accommodate daylight savings and our friends across the country. As always, we love to hear your ideas about what to cover in the show. Want to give us a tour of your studio? Have a cool tool you want to recommend? Been to an interesting metal arts destination and want to tell us about it? Send it in!

9/24/2020 - Join us for a visit to the Arizona Copper Art Museum with metalsmith Janet Ross as our guide. We'll take a tour through the history of copper work and gaze with wonder at some exceptional pieces. We are also delving deeper into jewelry photography with some pointers about how to use focus and lighting to highlight the work while avoiding glare and reflections. Whether you use a smart phone or a SLR, this will be a great show for asking questions. As always, we'll finish up with our usual open discussion Q&A period. Read more for links and resources shared in this episode.

9/24/2020 - Saturday 10/10/20 from Noon-4pm at Liberty Station in the grassy area outside Anne's studio. We miss seeing all of your smiling faces and we've heard that you miss each other too. Come catch up with old friends and make some new ones at our socially distanced Shop & Swap + Picnic. We'll have generously-distanced tables set up and you're welcome to bring tools you no longer want, extra materials, arts & crafts things, books, and anything that would be cool in a jewelry/metal arts studio. We've recently helped three friends clean out their craft spaces of unused supplies so we've got a huge bag of brand new yarn, all sorts of tools, studio organizers, shelving and chairs, metal bits and bobs and more. Most is free, some items will have bargain basement price tags. Bring your items to swap or sell. Cash only, everyone handles their own stuff. We practice all COVID precautions so bring your mask and be ready to visit at a distance (we think of it more as 10 ft than 6 ft just to keep everyone safe). Feel free to bring snacks for yourself and a chair too. It's more about seeing each other than selling stuff - but you will almost certainly be heavily pressured to take at least one free thing with you when you leave so beware!

9/9/2020 - Bette Barnett is getting ready to offer her popular "Keum Boo Like You Never Knew" online workshop for the fifth time. We are so impressed with the work coming out of these classes. Check out the images here by four previous students, and imagine creating your own work like this! No wonder it's been a quick sell out each time. So save the date  - Registration coming soon. Get details |  Join our waiting list | View more student work.

9/17/2020 - Join us on a fascinating visit to the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham, England lead by our own Anne Wolf! We’ll see how production jewelry was manufactured in the hey day of Birmingham’s Jewelry Quarter. In the early 1900's the Quarter employed over 30,000 people who used fly presses, belt-driven polishers and blow-torches (why do Brits call torches ‘blow-torches?’-  watch this and you’ll never forget!). Next we'll take a virtual visit to Sculpt Nouveau with Steel & Gold Artist Bette Barnett and she'll show us how to select and buy finishes, along with some tips for purchasing patinas on their tricky website. Read more for photos, links and resources.

9/10/2020 - The Hand Medal Project was created by friends and artists Iris Eichenberg and Jimena Ríos in Spain. On HandMedalProject.com they explain "While we are all watching caregivers, nurses, and doctors giving all they can to our communities, risking their lives for us, we want to find a way to honor them. They should all get a medal, a votive offering given in gratitude or devotion. At some point this crisis will end and there will be a moment when we can thank them for all they do. We propose to present as many health workers as we can with a medal based on a traditional ex-voto, also to mark the moment when we can see a future."

9/9/2020 - Metamorphic Mokume - second section coming soon! November 7 & 8, 2020 - Saturday & Sunday 10am-4pm PDT. Instructor: Anne Wolf. Tuition $240 + $62-$122 kit fee (+tax & shipping or kit available for pick up). Take your mokume gane patterning to a whole new level - beyond stamping, twisting and chiseling. At a fundamental level, mokume gane patterning is analogous to the geologic processes of uplift, metamorphosis, and erosion. In this newly expanded class, Anne reveals unexpected ways to pattern which she has discovered over the years. With hammers, stamps and other tools we will metamorphosize the blank mokume gane sheet; the patterns will begin to appear as our files erode away the disturbed layers. The focus will be on creating uniquely patterned mokume sheet that can be used later to make jewelry, box lids, and more. Best for students who have taken at least one mokume gane class, or well-equipped and motivated beginners. This online class is designed to work just like an in-person workshop. Registration coming soon. Join our waiting list to receive advance notice.

9/9/2020 - Click images for a larger view. It was all hands on deck last night at Anneville Jewelry Club's Sawing Circle! Seriously, we had great fun sharing our tips, tricks, and travails as we sawed, filed, stamped and sanded silver, copper and brass hands for the worldwide Hand Medal Project. Seventeen eager sawers discussed important details like whether the index finger in the template was oddly long, whether to stamp our artist numbers on the front or back, the best way to attach the ribbon, etc. Thanks to Nancy for the tip of putting a piece of paper in between two glued layers of metal - great way to saw two hands at once. Kathe showed a great example medal; we're hoping our ribbons will look as classy. Everyone agreed that putting the sandpaper in the sawframe made sanding a lot easier. We agreed to share resources - number stamps and ribbons - basically we're happy to give each other a hand!

9/9/2020 - We're taking a week off to rejuvenate so we invite you to catch up on some of our favorite Metal Arts Adventures, hand-picked by Anne & Ame (and in no particular order). Each of these links takes you right to the short segment and we have a BIG FAVOR to ask of you when you get there. We are really, really trying to hit 101 subscribers and we need your help. For each video you see, please hit the Like button (thumbs up) and click Subscribe. When we hit 101 subscribers we can unlock new features that will help us do even more cool stuff.

9/3/2020 - For this week's episode you're encouraged to slip into a muʻumuʻu, Hawaiin shirt or don a lei 'cause we're gathering in the tropical coolness of the Anneville Tiki Lounge. We'll kick things off with a panel discussion about jewelry sales with guests Anne (Etsy), Yvonne Burkart (Shopify) and Karla Knutsen (gallery sales). After quick break to refresh our mai tais Anne will share some tips for taking great jewelry photos. Next we'll cue the fire dancers for an islands-inspired jewelry runway show and that's where YOU come in. Send in photos of work you've seen or made and we'll share them in a fast paced show that will delight and inspire. We're looking for seaglass jewelry, works referencing Polynesian art and anything that conjures up the fragrance of plumeria and the sound of waves gently lapping a moonlit shore. Extra credit to anyone who shows up with tiki mug, drink with a tiny umbrella or a lava lamp! Read on for photos and resource links.

8/27/2020 - Join us for a deep dive into the fascinating world of agates this week with Lapidary and jeweler Sky Paxton as our guide. Sky will show stunning examples and share valuable pricing insights while giving us tips on the hardness and cleavage planes of popular stones (which affect their use in certain types of settings). Sky also helps viewers identify their own stones live on the show. Next, Anne walks us through the steps of recycling filings and scrap and we check out an ingenious home jewelry bench setup and a cool, old tool. As always we finish by talking about current projects and sharing ideas. Read more for resource links.

8/26/2020 - October 3 and 4, 2020 - Saturday & Sunday 10am-4pm PDT. Instructor: Anne Wolf. Tuition $240 + $62-$122 kit fee (+tax & shipping or kit available for pick up)
Take your mokume gane patterning to a whole new level - beyond stamping, twisting and chiseling. At a fundamental level, mokume gane patterning is analogous to the geologic processes of uplift, metamorphosis, and erosion. In this newly expanded class, Anne reveals unexpected ways to pattern which she has discovered over the years. With hammers, stamps and other tools we will metamorphosize the blank mokume gane sheet; the patterns will begin to appear as our files erode away the disturbed layers. The focus will be on creating uniquely patterned mokume sheet that can be used later to make jewelry, box lids, and more. Best for students who have taken at least one mokume gane class, or well-equipped and motivated beginners. This online class is designed to work just like an in-person workshop. Get details and Register.

8/25/2020 - Tuesday, Sept. 8th from 6-8pm PDT. You're invited to join from your own studio and work alongside us via Zoom. How will it work? We have no idea! But it sounds fun to try. Collaborate with your Hand Medal Teammates or work on anything you like from class projects to professional commissions. Anne will be at her bench working and chit chatting in between muting her audio to hammer. Ame will be hosting, offering Zoom help and making Hand Medal Project envelopes. Whether you're on our Hand Medal Team, a team in another location or just wanting the fun of working at your bench with a friend, you're invited. To join on September 8th just hop online between 6-8pm (link opens Zoom).

8/24/2020 - Our August blood drive registered 25 appointments and collected 18 pints so it was a big success considering we had just two of the four beds operating due to COVID precautions. Due to the nationwide shut down, blood supplies are at critical levels. If you can't donate, please consider making a financial contribution or volunteering with your local blood bank. If you missed your chance with us, save the date for our next blood drive on October 24th. You can bet it will be a very special Halloween edition! RSVP link coming soon.

8/18/2020 - Hop in the Land Cruiser and hold on tight...we're headed down a dusty, red road to the Murowa Diamond Mine in Zimbabwe with Alexandra Hart of Ethical Metalsmiths as our guide. Located not too far from Zimbabwe's famed Hwange National Wildlife Park and the 11th century ruins of Great Zimbabwe, Murowa is a model for ethical mining in Africa. We’ll meet the locals, see mining practices and learn to bring ethical material sourcing into our own studios. And speaking of sustainability, Anne will share a recent commission that involved some beautiful but challenging heirloom gems. Carrying on from there we'll examine a cool, old tool belonging to a student. As always we'll finish by talking about current projects, sharing ideas & resources and having an open Q&A. MAAA is a FREE weekly online metal arts presentation followed by an open discussion Q&A. In this fun, interactive gathering we offer demos, share tips & tricks, feature work by artists and students from around the world, go on virtual studio tours, discuss historical metal arts traditions, test out tips and tricks and share resources.