Fall 2007 • Volume 10, Number 3 Studio Member Magazine of the PMC Guild PMC Speaking to the Spirit page 6 PMC Link Necklace page 14 Tips from our Contributors page 16 Aluminum Contamination of Fine Silver page 19 Studio Fall 2007 · Volume 10, Number 3 Member Magazine of the PMC Guild PMC features departments 6 Speaking to the Spirit 4 As I PMC It Six PMC artists share how their spiritual lives inspire their art. 12 Gallery 14 PMC Link Necklace 20 Happenings Dona diCarlo explains her technique for using PMC to make a large silver chain necklace. 23 Marketplace 16 Tips from our Contributors In our final issue, we turn to the people responsible for a decade of On the Cover: Jerusalem Cross by Martha Biggar. Studio PMC for a collection of tips and advice for working with PMC. Photo by Robert Diamante. Studio PMC PMC Guild 19 Aluminum Contamination of Fine Silver P.O. Box 265, Mansfield, MA 02048 Tim McCreight explains why PMC artists are warned against www.PMCguild.com aluminum on their workbenches. Volume 10, Number 3 • Fall 2007 Editor—Suzanne Wade Technical Editor—Tim McCreight Art Director—Jonah Spivak Advertising Manager—Bill Spilman Studio PMC is published by the PMC Guild Inc. pg. 20 Contacting Studio PMC Editor Suzanne Wade How to get answers to technical questions Phone: 508-339-7366 E-mail Tim McCreight at: [email protected] Fax: 928-563-8255 E-mail: [email protected] Join, Renew, Update your PMC Guild Membership To join or renew your PMC Guild membership, to change your mailing or e-mail address, or to request back issues or additional copies of Studio PMC, visit the PMC Guild Web site at www.PMCGuild.com, call toll-free 866-315-6487 or write P.O. Box 3000, Denville, NJ 07834 PMC Guild Jeanette Landenwitch, Executive Director 1921 Cliffview Lane Florence, KY 41042 USA Phone: 859-586-0595 Website: www.PMCguild.com To contact Fusion, the PMC Guild's new professional E-mail: [email protected] journal, e-mail editor Bob Keyes at Copyright ©2007 PMC Guild. [email protected]. Printed four or more times a year. Reprints by permission only. All rights reserved. Studio PMC, its staff and contributors, specifically disclaim any responsibility or liability for damages or injury as a result of any construction, design, use, manufacture, or any other activity undertaken as a result of the use or application of information contained in any Studio PMC issue or article. 2 · Studio PMC Farewell! ith this issue of Studio PMC, the Guild marks the end of this Wvital publication. For the last 10 years, this magazine has been central to the creation of a thriving community of PMC artists and the businesses that support them. From the beginning it was clear that the Guild needed a physical document to be in touch with its members. Now we have an active Web site, a conference, and several dozen local chapters, but in the beginning, the Guild was mostly Studio PMC. Our first editor was a man named Steve Edwards, who, among other things, brought Jonah Spivak to our team. Jonah founded and runs a graphic design firm called Spectrum in Bennington, Vermont, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he has personally handled every page of every magazine for the last decade. Jonah is the person who lays out each page, working with the editor to achieve profes- sional results in a confined timeframe. His company has also run the Guild's Web site since its beginning, and continues to do so, always with grace, intelligence, and sophistication. After five years at the helm, Steve Edwards left to pursue other tasks. The Guild was fortunate to find an energetic woman named Suzanne Wade to take charge of the magazine. Suzanne brought years of experience at large magazines in the jewelry trade, and wasted little time in shining the light of that knowledge through Studio PMC. Within weeks of her arrival, she tracked down a printer that could produce a color publication at almost the same price as we had been paying for our two-color version. We can also thank Suzanne for conceiving and then managing the transition from newsletter to magazine format. Turn back to the cover with its full size image and you'll see what I mean. In this regard as in many others, Suzanne elevated Studio PMC to a magazine deserving of its national following. Need another example? You can thank Suzanne for bringing Bill Spilman onto the magazine's staff, and through him, a range of advertisers who offer resources to metal clay artists while they simultaneously underwrite Guild publications. Take a minute and think back to November, 1997. Had you heard of Precious Metal Clay? Were you working in jewelry, or even involved in crafts? It's been since then that Studio PMC has been a lead- ing voice in the metal clay field. Think of all you've learned, all the inspirational photos you've seen, and all the technical information that has come your way, and you can see why we're so proud of our magazine's history. And you will be glad to know that the Guild is committed to keep- ing the past issues of Studio PMC available online to members. Frankly, this information and these photos are just too good to lose. As we begin a new chapter in our PMC Guild history, we bid a very fond farewell to Suzanne and wish her huge success as she transitions into a new profession. To Jonah we say thanks for your work on the magazine, and we look forward to your help as our site grows. On behalf of the staff at the PMC Guild and our members, we thank you both for your service, which has always gone beyond business to stretch into personal attachments. You’ve both brought us a long way. With warm regards, —The PMC Guild 4 · Studio PMC As I PMC It by Suzanne Wade s long as there have been human in a perfect match for her, but she rejoiced Abeings, we have reached for paint- in the others who were helped by the iden- brush and clay to share our experiences of tification of new potential donors. the divine, with amazing and often power- And in reaching out, she also invited oth- ful results. Even those who are not particu- ers to reach back to her. When she shared larly religious can hardly help but be moved her struggle with her friends on a Yahoo by Michelangelo's Pieta and Da Vinci's Last metal clay board, the online community Supper, intrigued by the intricate patterns Suzanne and Jonah prepare to ride off into the sprang into action. Although most had of Islamic art, or struck by the serene coun- sunset, heading towards their next adventure. never met her in person, several donated tenance of an ancient Buddhist statue. gregation. But whatever our differences, I pieces for an eBay auction that raised nearly So it probably isn't surprising that over found we all shared a desire to offer some- $2,000 to help cover Robin's mounting the years, I've talked to many jewelry thing that has been deeply important in medical bills. And they kept in touch with artists who have spoken about their faith our own lives to others, as a gift. her, sending cards and messages of encour- and spirituality as essential sources of inspi- That spirit of sharing is what I have agement when she needed to undergo addi- ration in their work. Some have been active loved most about working in the PMC tional treatment and sharing in her and her in organized religion, others practice more community. From the best way to rehy- family's joy and grief as they weathered the individual forms of spirituality, but all drate PMC to questions about the meaning ups and downs of the disease. think of their work as speaking to the spir- of life and faith and art, every time I have In my faith tradition, there is no greater it, inviting the viewer into contemplation asked, this community has answered. act than caring for one another. St. Paul of something greater than themselves. But the sharing goes well beyond the writes in his letter to the Galatians, “Bear This is the final issue of Studio PMC, and exchange of information. Over the years, one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill with its cessation is the end of my involve- many artists have told me about their the law of Christ.” Powerful calls for com- ment in the world of PMC. The theme of efforts to use their talents and the unique passion are found in Jewish, Islamic, and this issue was planned long before the deci- qualities of PMC to reach out to others. Buddhist teaching, among others. Love and sion was made to change the Guild's publi- Artists have written to me about their compassion for others should be the defin- cations, but I could not have chosen a more experiences working with the develop- ing characteristic of people of faith, appropriate one for my farewell issue. In mentally delayed, the disabled, and the although sometimes we seem to forget that. September, I will become a full-time stu- seriously ill. They have talked about using I have been blessed indeed to have been dent at Episcopal Divinity School in PMC to reach out to those who have strug- part of a metal clay community that lives Cambridge, Massachusetts, with the antic- gled to find a means to express themselves, out that spirit of caring, even though its ipation of being ordained an Episcopal particularly in the wake of grief and loss.