Muse for a Year

Well, Today marks the end of a grand era for me. Today my last Master Muse tutorial was published on Tonya Davidson's blog. It was such an honor to have been asked to participate in this fabulous project. And amazing to have been in the company of my Sister Muses - Donna Penoyer; Patrik Kusek; Ruth Baillie; Anne Mitchell; Vickie Hallmark; Barbara Becker Simon; Angela Crispin; Kelly Russell and Robert Dancik. You can read a bit about all of us here and find links to all the other tutorials here. To date there are 48 fabulous projects online. But there are still a few in the works from some of the other Muses.

I learn so much from these challenges I take part in. For the Muse project we were given specific materials to work with and often a particular theme to design within. It's exciting to work that way. The restrictions force me to get out of the comfy and familiar design nook in my brain, but the freedom lets me tip toe through the tulips of my imagination!

This past year I taught myself how to drill glass, make an articulated armature, piece clay with a jewelers saw; play with color on metal and use a fired slab of metal clay to fabricate a faux gem.

I'm not done challenging myself though. I still have 36 rings to make and based on a class project I uploaded to Flickr, have just agreed to design and make a workable perfume bottle by the end of June with some of my online friends. Who knows what other challenging situations will arise in 2012! I hope there are many.