I'm also in love with my husband.

N. and I were married on Friday, October 26, here. It was very nice.

Wall Art

New wall pockets--die formed and riveted. Would be very cute with dried flowers.

I'm in love!

If you know me, or have spent any time looking through my work, you may have noticed that I adore sock monkeys. My adoration began with monkeys, but really I adore any new thing made from an old sock. I think what I like is how unlikely the final result is, given the original object. Who would think to make a monkey from a sock? And why a monkey specifically? And why begin this practice during the Depression when socks were probably hard to come by?

I don't know. I have theories. But what I do know is that I like them, and this weekend I found this book, Sock and Glove, at Barnes and Noble and I am in love with this new generation of sock--and glove--creativity. The bottom image came from amazon.com, and the top image was taken from a June 19 post on craft blog Wise Craft. Everything in the book is completely adorable and full instructions are included.

I didn't buy it, but I'll be dreaming about it for awhile now.

It's important to have goals.

So, my goal is to publish pics of at least one different ornament per week until Christmas--we'll see how well that goes since I'm getting married next week....wait, no, I mean it...I'm going to do this...really...

Tis the Season...

...to think about the Holidays. So I made this cute little tab-fit copper ornament. It is for sale now in my Etsy shop (coreyackelmire.etsy.com) for $30--and there will be more to come. Also keep an eye out for upcoming copper wall pockets!

Repair Days

This weekend, N and I drove down this scenic stretch of classic mid-western road to go to Repair Days at the National Ornamental Metal Museum in Memphis, TN. It's a yearly fundraiser organized by the Metals Museum where the public brings their broken metal stuff (stuff is a kind and generous term...) and some of the countries best metalsmiths (generally alumni from SIU-Carbondale) volunteer to fix it for $30 a pop.
It's a very 'old-school' metalsmithing kind of experience, with people giving blacksmithing demos, and lots of nightly drinking.
Overall, it was a good time and I'm glad we went. We only attended for the day on Saturday, but next year, we will have to hang around and do some work. By far the coolest event of the day was the iron pour--pictured above. People carved into sand molds and the Museum cast them. So, yes, that's a big bucket of molten iron, and I'm just feet away--oh, the excitement!

The Allstars

This upcoming spring, during the 2008 SNAG conference, I will be participating in a curated show called Legacy and Lineage. Gail Brown, the curator, wants only one piece per artist, and so she asked me to assemble a group of my toothbrushes that uses brushes from all three pieces (from my thesis show at Kent State). This, I did. I like to call them the "allstar" set, as it represents my favorite brushes from my thesis work. Enjoy.

Gearing Up

N. and I are busily preparing for this weekends SIMS conference. Above is an image of a piece by my undergrad prof., Sarah Perkins, a metalsmith and enameler who will be demo-ing at the conference, along with other nationally known metalsmiths and blacksmiths.

Obsession of the week.

Periodically, (fairly often, actually) I decide my life is lacking in some way. And I decide that something--generally a very specific thing, is what I am missing, and this thing, if I had it, would make my life complete. This week, that item is a French rolling pin.
I don't really bake, and when I do bake, it's not something that needs rolling because I don't have the counter space, but I feel certain that if I could have a lovely (preferably handmade) French rolling pin, like this one I found on Berea College Crafts, then I would start to bake and everything would be perfect. Is it possible I'm investing too much emotion into an inanimate object?

I also want a ceramic mortar and pestle. Same reasons.

Alicia Bock

I know Ms. Bock has no shortage of web coverage, but I just love her images. They are so ethereal and simple. They are the kinds of images that picture the way I would like my life to look.

Studio shots

Yesterday it was suggested to me that I consider applying to trunkt.org. I decided I will, but then I also decided that I needed better images of bowls I currently have since most of the bowls I have nice pics of are bowls that have been sold/traded away. So N. and I put up our adorable, homemade, photog set up (adorable because it's little--not because it's actually cute) and burned off about 25 lbs. of water weight under the oppressive heat of the 500 watt tungsten bulb. But I think it was worth it. I'll post more pics on my flickr and most of these bowls will also be on my esty.

Tantilizing Details.

I've been taking pics of some of my recent copper bowls for Etsy today. I always struggle with things like lighting and the best way to adequately describe the bowls with a picture--but I like to shoot details. Those are usually pretty fun.