ME and Baby 'Lil.
This is a site for and about the jewelry classes and workshops I teach. I've taught jewelry making to all age levels both long term classes at Lorain County Community College and short 3 hour workshops at various locations. I use(in my own work) and teach basic fabrication(this includes sawing, soldering, filing, sanding, buffing, etc.) lost wax casting, sand casting, and etching(both photo etching involving silk screening and regular resist etching). I've been making things in metal for at least 20+ years now and at one time sold to approximately 10 galleries and did quite a bit of repairs, mostly the sizing of rings and mending broken earrings and necklaces. I'm currently an art teacher at Bethel Local, in the greater Dayton area. For more information about my current teaching experience please click https://miketayseartteacher.wordpress.com/
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This is a shot of me and a student soldering. I remember she was pretty anxious about the flame and all. I try to hover and be available and offer as much assistance as is seemingly needed. Ultimately, if all goes well, as an instructor, I"ll make my self obsolete!
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Another colorized picture of me demonstrating how to file something. Most likely a ring blank, judging by the use of the wooden blocks in the vise.
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A reasonable picture(I really need to improve my photography skills) of an etching I do which is a copy of a piece called the Fuller Brooch. It was made in the 9th century. Click the link for more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuller_Brooch.
You have to respect and be in awe of the original maker. He or she did it with less than good lighting and primitive tools but more than compensated with extraordinary skill and determination. The imagery is amazing and to me somewhat mysterious/ambiguous. I blew up a picture and inked up some areas to repair some of the dinged up spots. I've sold a few of these when I used to do the Ren fairs and I still sell a few.
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I've done many stamps in this fashion. I use new or slightly used stamps bolted up between pieces of plastic that I drill holes into. Since I only need small pieces of plastic I can use scrap. I generally use #256 bolts(allen heads, fillister, hex, etc) and then glue a pin on the back. I also do my own drawing in this fashion but the cool thing about using stamps is I can offer any subject matter because pretty much everything you can think of has been made into a postage stamp. You need a pin to celebrate go cart riding in Czechoslovakia? I got it. A pin whose subject matter is Maria Montessori? I've got it. French art, chickens, Elvis, bicycling...I've got them all. I have this 12 drawer display of all kinds of stamps for various subject matters.
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This particular stamp pin has an interesting story. I was picking up and dropping off repairs and was restocking stamp pins and other jewelry that I make and placing them into a large glass display case at Art in the Powerhouse, an art gallery, in Cleveland, Ohio. This older lady picked up a stamp pin commemorating Anne Frank and started crying. I was crouched on the floor reaching into the case and looked up, pretty confused. She was being accompanied by another lady who explained the crying woman was Miep Gies,the woman who hid and kept Anne Franks writings. At the time I didn't know that. She knew a stamp had been made of Anne Frank in the Netherlands(I sell that one too) but she didn't know Germany had made one. The irony was a bit too much for her. As she went on to tell us/me, Anne Frank had been her friend when they were both little girls, and not the abstract person we know through books. She remembers the Nazi's entering the houses and searching. She remembers Anne Frank and herself hiding and the fear they both felt. Anne Frank was her best friend as a young girl and she remembers going dancing with Anne and all the other fun stuff they did as young girls too. It was still very real to her, it was-is her life. She lived the stuff we read of. It was a strange and moving moment. I was just in to stock pins and pick up and drop off repairs. I'll certainly never forget it.
If you would like to buy this pin, I've put a, "Buy Now" below.
If you ever need an object to explain/embody the meaning of irony, this should do it.
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Just another stamp pin. It's from a series commemorating children's books in Great Britain. These are pretty popular. I've set up at some conferences for reading teachers and sold quite a few of these.
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Another etched piece.
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The outside of the studio I built in the backyard. This is the Painesville studio. I'm now in Tipp City, Ohio and have built a new studio into my barn. I'm leaving the old pictures of the Painesville studio but if you want to see the new studio, Here's some pictures.
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The bench where the buffer, ultrasonic cleaner, drill press and primitively rigged up, via plywood, portable band saw converted into a more stationary one, reside. I have a larger buffer in the garage. The small one is so I don't have to go outside in the winter. I'm 'kinda of a lazy guy. All the books in this picture are books about jewelry. I've picked up quite a bit from them.
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This is my bench that I usually saw, hammer, file, sand, grind, etc at. You can see the vise with the wood jaws and the rolling mill off to the left and the nice tool box made by Dave Zautner off to the right side of the bench. It's hard to see but the wonderful set of drawers holding up the bench on the right was given to me by Joan Perch. I did a panorama on the Windows Photosynth of the shop entitled, mike tayse workshop 1. You can use your mouse to drag the picture around and see my shop.
A little closer view of the bench.
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The clean part of the shop! Laptop, scanner, packing materials, drawing table, files, paper cutter and the like. It's probably 6' x 8' or so. Strangely neat...
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A lot of things I make start this way.
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I grabbed this image from another blog, it seemed funny.
