I'm a peaceable soul. Really. Aside from the reprhensible habit of having opinions on everything I really am pretty tolerant and easy to get along with—I say please and thank you, and unabashedly run away from situations that I think are likely to damage my tender ego or person. (Well, except for the rollerblading, but you may be sure I wear absolutely every piece of protective gear manufactured.) I don't bang on walls in frustration or pull my hair in artistic angst. Most people will tell you that propane, let alone oxy-propane, is plenty hot enough for brazing the noble metals and their alloys. Natural gas is economical, and the new propane additives such as chemtane or chemolene burn very cleanly. I use an oxy-acetylene torch to do my metalwork partially because that's what my teacher recommended at the time, I grant you. Oh, I could justify it with vigorous defenses about my preferences for reticulated, bubbled, buckled and warped sheet, and in fact, especially since I tend to combine my metalwork with jaspers and other irregularly patterned beads, and often with chips and other less than regularly shaped beads, it makes a lot of sense to soften all those hard smooth surfaces. All true.
But let's be honest here: the real reason is that I secretly enjoy frying the bejeezus in metal. There's no guilt involved in using excessive force on something so inanimate, yet because metal is so typically unyielding there's a great deal of satisfaction in turning on the hottest of fuels, watching all those hard, sharp, unbending surfaces yield. “Take that! And that! Ha! The mad bead stringer who has to put up with holes too small, badly drilled, or sadly shaped isn't going to take any guff from you!”
(Obviously the above was written before I took up glass. That is to say, mid-90s, probably around the time I started the website. Though there's still a lot of pleasure in cranking the torch all the way up;)
Multistrand necklace featuring removable lentil pendant on bail 10mar2022
Reticulated brass 3 strand turq chip necklace 03jan2020
Pink Pressed Lentil Pendant 27jun2017
Purple rosary. 22jan2016
Orange rosary 21jan2016
Rosary made with green beads 20jan2016
Frit, powder, shards, and cane come together well. Index for pendants. 20apr2017
Lentil shaped pink floral on kumi necklace with etched copper bail. Omiyage for f2tY. 30apr2013
Pink kumi/floral vessel omiyage. Page created 16apr13, posted 19jun2014
Copper etching experiments. 20mar2013
Green floral vessel with pink flowers, sterling bail, and twisted cord 29sep2012
Japan Daughter for the Year's parents sent me not one but two wonderful yukata (summer kimono) plus a bunch of other stuff. Not to mention entrusting me with their child for ten months. This piece was my attempt at arigato gozaimasu . 02sep2011
``New'' for 2010, Kristin Perkins starts experimenting with more naturalistic form. 18feb2020
One of several beads I made during a metalworking class in '07. Though not (as I recall) explicitly envisioned as steampunk, it has the feel, so I posted on 04may09 to celebrate Penguicon 7's steampunk theme. 04may2009
My first effort doing an altered tin; and also using my friend Page's pitch bowl . Originally posted 20oct08. 20oct2008
Collects the metal-related posts: fabrication, pmc, casting, etching... 01oct2008
Lost wax cast sterling merman pendant, created way back in 1989. Originally posted 01Oct08. 03oct2008
Pearl and purple necklace incorporates 3 media: stringing, metalwork and beadmaking. 01apr2014
In which I document my adventures with the first half of my metals class. Originally posted 21feb07 21feb2007
Now that the metal index has been re-instated, pmc is now a sub-index. Served as main metal index 21jan06, moved 1oct08. 21jan2006
Necklace with copper disk , riveted, woven with fringe. Early 90s? (posted 27dec03) 22may2004
My favorite opaque stone , or the-multi-strand-into-a-silk-braid style reaches its height. Collection of the artist. 22may2004
My first really inventive design. 22may2004
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
