OK! The time has come for a blog..... I am not the most dedicated of writers, but I'll try and keep it up to date when I get the time. Start at the bottom please, news gets added to the top!

30 July - Today was the end of the workshop, what an enormous amount of information we got. It'll take some time for it all to filter down! Charles did a massive amount of demos, giving a real insight to the process and how to take it further than the obvious (and very pretty) first results. Here are a few examples of some of my things and how they change in form by forging and then opening up.
This is the same piece, forged, then opened up and twisted.
	Hard to believe that these cup shapes, came from a small square of copper, just folded, no soldering.

27 July - Finally getting to hammer some copper! What a blast! I think I could get hooked on this. The folds are simple, the combination of them can make the pieces look very complex. Here's some of my first & second day's efforts.
	Charles doing a demo
	Bar-B-Q after class, a chance to have a little social time. Karen looks after us very well!
26 July - Start of my 5 day workshop at Metalwerx in Waltham, near Boston. Learning Fold Forming with Charles Lewton Brain Did not do much work the first day, lots of demos from Charles. I'm excited to be here and can't wait to get at those hammers!
24 July - Monday, travelling all day......

22 July - Saturday - Second seminar today, I was actually more nervous about this one. It seems it didn't go too bad ... lots of nice comments from people afterwards.

Got to Lou Kappel's Plique-a-Jour seminar next, great to see his work in person. The patience required for his goblets would probably be beyond me!! Still, I'm tempted to try after hearing his presentation.

Instead of lugging my laptop around with me, I decided to put it in my room at lunchtime. After lunch I went to some demonstrations. Judi Weers launched the very cool extruder for Metalclay. I have to have one of those! I'm not much of a tool junky for PMC, but I'll have to make an exception for this one! The possibilities are staggering. I also took the time to have a good look at the exhibition"Revolution/Evolution: Contemporary Work in Precious Metal Clay" The work was fabulous, both in it's variety and standard. I loved seeing the work of all the Super stars in real life. It is even more beautiful in person than in the photos I've seen.

Then it was time for 'Show & Sell'! I got a few very nice things, one of Holly's Titanium pieces, a Noortje Meyerink pendant, some beads, fabulous 'Faux Bone' and.... a Celie Fago pendant! I don't actually have that one yet, Celie has to have it photographed. By the time it's ready I might have the bank account looking a bit healthier:)

At about quarter to four (during show & sell...) I suddenly realised I was supposed to do a demo of Photos to Drawings in Photoshop!!!! Panic stations!!! I had put my computer in my room remember??!! Quarter of an hour walk away..... I don't believe I totally forgot about it!!! I was lucky to find Tim and he drove me over to the dorms (after posting a 'guard' at the door where I was supposed to be. I got back 15 minutes late.... to find another full room! That was totally unexpected! I'd visualised a more personal contact with just a few people around a table! I'll make a file and post it to the group's site for the people who missed out on a hand-out.

Cocktail party was next on the program. Lots of people there, nice to have a chance to talk to some I hadn't had time with yet.

With Patrik Kusek, Linda Kaye-Moses & Judi Weers

21 July - Friday - I'm feeling reasonably calm today.... When I got all set up in my seminar room the hot water still had not arrived! Panic stations!
In the end it all came together and I got 2 large buckets! The talk went OK, I forgot a few minor things, but in general the comments were very encouraging. I showed a new double exposure technique, that has texture at the low imprint level and a higher impression for the edges etc. The people that had done the plates before were very excited about this, the newbies had more trouble to get their head around it.

My first seminar

I managed to get to some seminars as well, Lora Hart's Casting Call was fabulous. I learned a lot, especially what to ask the caster. Lora was having trouble with the computer supplied, luckily I still had mine with me, she had practiced on it before, so that helped!

Lora's Casting Call

After lunch I went to Tonya Davidson's engineering seminar, beautiful work was shown and how to think ahead about the way the piece would hang. Also got to Fred Woell's seminar on the business of teaching.

That evening I attended the local chapter's get together, hosted by Cece Wire. I got lots of ideas and helpful hints from members of the Los Angeles and Tucson chapters. I think we might have to look into this for Australia soon, must talk to Roz Eberhart (our Aus. PMC Guild President) about this.
The evening went on when Angela produced some Foie Gras and French wine, then Cathy Paetz came up with a lots of bottles
(6 ???) of Australian wine, there were nibbles, lots of laughs and good conversations. Finally got to bed around midnight, while Tim and others partied on! The stamina of these people!!! :)

20 July - Start of the conference! Registration and meeting lots of people I know from the group. The excitement level is through the roof! Keynote address by Bill Daley, a witty and inspirational man! The first of the seminars started today, I managed to get to Robert Dancik's Cold Connections. It was fabulous, I love his jewellery, some of which was passed around the audience. I like the look of the 'Faux Bone' he uses, I'll have to try and buy some in 'Show & Sell' Although I'd read his article in PMC Studio magazine, I had no real idea of the material, thinking it was like polymer clay which it is definitely not, it really looks and feels like bone.
The exhibition opened officially, it's fabulous to see the standard and variety of work there, as well as in the cases that were set up by the local chapters.

Lora Hart & Lou Kappel

Meal times were for meeting new people and hanging out with mates. There was a 'Dessert' reception at night, together with the charm swap. I did not go, just too tired! Didn't sleep at all the night before :( I still managed to get my charms swapped during the conference. I'm glad I made the extra effort to create some, it was a nice 'extra' and a chance to admire people's work. I'd made a little Champlevé enamel Nautilus shell, a mini version of my very first PMC enamel. I was extremely nervous all day, my first seminar is tomorrow!

19 July - First day at Purdue, not many PMC ers here yet!
Wandered around most of the morning, getting familiar with a small part of the campus, which is huge. I met Tim McCreight at one of the pre-conference classes. He took me to see some of the off-campus workshops put on by Rio; CeCe's Hollow vessel workshop, Tonya Davidson's Gold granulation, Thackery's soldering class were in progress there. I caught up with Angela Baduel-Crispin & Lora Hart in Tonya's class. We have been emailing on a fairly regular bases and it was great to finally meet in person!
Bumped into Sarah Triton (Sarasota Sarah) on the way to dinner.
There will be quite a few members of our Yahoo group here, funny how we know each other through all those emails, but would pass each other without recognition! I'm glad some (like Sarah) have posted their pictures beforehand.

17 July - Left for the USA 9 am Monday morning, had to go the long way around because of time restrictions due to finishing McGregor winter school on the Saturday prior to this trip. The long haul from Auckland to San Francisco was great, the plane fairly empty, I think nearly everyone had 3 seats to themselves. Overnight in San Francisco, then on to Chicago, a shuttle to West Lafayette and another ride to Purdue University. All in all it took me 70 hours to get here!