molliemade design: doing benchwork

I am pretty positive that I do not have a blog following, but in case there were any concerns regarding my one year (almost exactly) time lapse from Blogging, here is the haps. This past year has been a whirlwind schedule, full of all of my part time jobs. My husband started his stint in grad school as soon as I completed my Masters. As the official, head of household, I took on several new occupations! As my facebook page with tell you, my occupation is:   master metalsmith/jeweler extraordinaire, educator, and caretaker at The School of Life I teach at the Lawrence Arts Center. I apprentice/production & design at Shellie Bender Studios I substitute at Eudora Elementary & Middle Schools I am a caretaker for pair of siblings (3 & 9) All is well, my first year being out of the academic realm has been full of new experiences and people. Teaching without grading or attendance policies is fresh! Participating in the Art and Craft show circuit has been eye opening.

started out as my sawing demo for last sessions Beginning Metalsmithing class at the Lawrence Arts Center. That night I brought animal crackers to share, which inspired one of my regular students, Kellie to call out "make the world's tiniest giraffe" when I took requests for what shape I should cut out for the demo. The next class I used the negative relief as my riveting demo (that's the little tree in a square scene). This session I posted on facebook asking people what to cut out for my demo and received a huge list of requests. I have been making about one animal a night since then and have really been enjoying it. I think I might need to make them two by two though. For an Ark, of course! I cut these animals out of copper using my hand saw and my minds image of each animal...it is free hand sawing...no drawing on the outline first or looking at an image while in process. Which, might explain my six legged octopus! I have also run into a scale problem bec