Kate McKinnon

That Vicki and her husband are hilarious. I’m having the BEST TIME. And I even agreed to go to a party tomorrow night, very risky, of course, taking me to an Event, but they seem fairly unafraid.

I’ve unexpectedly got a bit of time in the Tucson airport, so charming, so different from Other Airports. This has got to be one  of the mellowest places to fly in and out of, unless it’s the Gem Show. The Monterey airport used to hold top honors with me, but sadly they couldn’t leave it the hell alone, and so tore it up and rebuilt it. I’ll see it’s new look (which I’m sure I will grumpily say isn’t an improvement over the cool old 60’s period piece it was) for the first time in late August, when I go out to visit Suzanne, an escapade that I’m greatly looking forward to.

I’m mysteriously dining at a GOLF CLUB tonight. It might be stuffed with Republicans, but then it’s LA, so who knows. It will be an adventure to be certain. I have been advised not to have a cocktail.

There are way too many people here today with very small children; they are all eating Skittles and spilling Cheerios and pushing strollers and running and screaming and drooling like maniacs. It’s kind of overwhelming; I look forward to getting on a plane and beading, and hoping that magically all of these voracious toddlers and strange jumpy people are on other flights.

I’m finishing up another Groovy Cuff; I am applying to teach this one class at Bead and Button next year; those of you who know me know it was a decision I thought about fairly thoroughly. I love the show, but not the fuming, firing, soldering, and fusing going on without ventilation. But hey, it’s just beadwork, and it’s not like I’m on a hunger strike. I really miss teaching for them, and I’m hopeful that I can get back in the loop with beadwork, until they evolve to a safe show for metals. It’s just a matter of time, I’m sure.

How time rockets on. I’m looking forward to making components, chain, whatevertheheck, this weekend. I’ve got a few new ideas that I haven’t had a chance to try out yet- this should be a perfect time to do so.

An amazing little German Puck trailer from 1972, meant to be towed by a four-cylinder VW. Even the MIATA could pull this little cutie.  Too bad it’s packing a specialty price as well. Check it out on EBay!

People have been sending me their cute travel trailer stories and dreams; apparently we all love them to pieces.  I should definitely collect a little fleet of them. That sounds like a fun long-term project. I need to find at least one cute, inexpensive little lovebug to winter over in. I’m experimenting with all sorts of smallerizing; I’ve separated off a little suite in my own house for myself; I’m renting the main portion of it out for the winter months. People who are staying with me may have the delightful surprise of their own little trailer.  Ha!

Two of the darling little trailers the Cowgirls have collected. Thanks Suzy!

“I took to makin’ trouble like most women take to makin’ biscuits”

And I don’t seem to really be making much of it. I mortally offended the delightful people who owned the Streamline, when I finally grasped the situation, and realized that it wasn’t an Airstream. Apparently, they just used that word in their advertisement, which read “Vintage Airstream,” as a generic for “Silver Travel Trailer.” They were NOT happy when I raised an objection, and pointed out that the value was pretty different without that AS name. I feel badly about it, not only because I killed the deal, and trades are very hard to come by, but because they are deeply irritated with me and I really liked them. They are right, I suppose; it probably was my ultimate responsibility to grasp the fact that their ad was random, and incorrect, but still. People. Don’t say Alpha Romeo in your ad if you are selling an Austin-Healy. That’s just not good for business.

Also not an Airstream, but damned cute.

Evan, eating stew.

Evan is wondering if just maybe, anyone out there has recently upgraded their computer and might have a used PC gathering dust?  He is interested in doing things that only run on PC, and we are a an all-Mac family.  He is willing to work for it, if there is a used one that he could possibly afford, bearing in mind that he is 11 years old and starting from scratch.  Let me know. Apparently his system requirements for his project are:

1.7ghz processor, 512 MB RAM, Direct X 8 level graphics card, Windows 2000/XP.

If anyone has a used machine, and might want to engage Evan in a discussion about it, please email me and let me know.

My email is: kate at katemkcinnon dot com. (Of course you know to replace the at and the dot with the @ and the ., right?)

I can’t seem to get through a single day without having some kind of unexpected expense, equipment breakage, or general fuckery. Today it’s the lock on the front door of my house. This seems to be a problem that we are all having at once, two steps forward, one and a half back. I was talking with James, a landscaper, and Susan, a realtor, yesterday, and it just seems like everyone we know, at all income levels, is falling behind. All we can do, of course, is keep moving resolutely forward, but it would be nice to make some real progress one of these months.

It turns out that the vintage Airstream that I’ve been working toward isn’t an Airstream at all, it’s something considerably more obscure, a Streamline Royal Coach. This would be cool (well, it IS cool) but the Streamlines were a moment in time, and don’t have the easy parts availability, good resale value, and community that Airstreams enjoy. As it turns out, it isn’t worth what an Airstream of the same vintage would be. I’m not sure what to do; my intention isn’t to restore it for resale, but to clean it up and enjoy it’s funky coolness in the B40. But I don’t want to overtrade for it.

Here is a link to an entertaining brochure from Back In The Day.

Although this car is one of the most inexpensive used cars a human being can buy, and therefore attainable by any teenager with a summer job, this does not diminish my passion for it. Oh no. It heightens it. This is heaven. I got it back from John’s shop today, purring and prowling, and sailing through emissions as if it was barely even there. OMG. I’m in love.

It’s a sort of metallic microflake blue; really pretty and different in every light. They called it Montego Blue Mica.

My dad used to sing a song that went, “I like it here (oh I like it here) but I love Montego Bay…

I’ve missed my dad fiercely lately; I’m not exactly sure why. He was, of course, a danger to society with his right wing fundamentalist Christian arms dealer won’t-recycle white supremacist ways. I’ve been missing the 30-35 year old version of him, really, the one who was dashing and daring and totally, utterly, competent. Back when he was still a wild ride, before the guns and the Jesus completely defined his reality. He was spontaneous, funny, romantic, honest, loving, domineering, and impossibly charming. No one could resist Stan.

One of our neighbors has FASCINATED ME by freshening up his rocks in his front yard by painting them a vivid kelly green. Unreal! He said that that was what they looked like in the 60s, when he got his house (we live in a neighborhood of 50s ranch houses) and so he was just making them look new again. I am mesmerized by this. It is both atrocious and incredibly cool; the more I look, the more I love.

WOWZA! This is a curving freeform island in his front yard, about 25 feet long and twelve feet wide, with oleanders planted in rows and tall palms.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): The Norwegians used to have a concept called
*svoermere,* which meant something sweetly futile or deliciously
unprofitable. While I can see the appeal that your particular version of
*svoermere* has had for you, Gemini, I think it's time to think about
moving on. According to my reading of the omens, you have both a right
and a duty to seek out more constructive pleasures that not only make
you feel good but also serve your long-term goals.

Is Rob talking about my mission to make the field of metal clay more aware of safe handling issues? It does seem sweetly futile, I have to admit.

I was discouraged by reports from a recent presentation by Barbara Becker Simon, whom I adore, and admire as a person and as an artist.  We disagree strongly on how much information students should be given on safe handling, she and Tim McCreight lean toward none, I lean toward plenty.  Barbara is one of the senior Rio PMC Certification Instructors, and  at the glass beadmakers’ Gathering in Miami last week, she gave a presentation which was reported to me by several emailers as saying, basically, “Don’t listen to people who are worked up about safety! Metal clay is totally safe- you can torch fire anything you want that’s smaller than a silver dollar, you can eat, breathe, and smoke PMC, and binder materials, and you can stick sterling wire in it and fire at 1450 with no negative result to your finished product.”  She apparently went on to say, “why, it’s so safe and non-toxic, I’ve eaten it off of my hand.”

Christ. This is what I’m up against.

First, yes, you can torch fire anything you want. However, do NOT breathe the fumes of combustion, because they are respiratory irritants, and can trigger an asthma attack (which can kill you, if you are susceptible) and, at a minimum, will irritate your bronchia and probably give you a nasty headache.  Be aware also that by choosing to torch fire your piece, you are making a markedly inferior finished metal product, one that cannot be hammered, formed, forged, or worked without danger of breakage.

Second, as common sense indicates, you should eat, breathe, and smoke as little metal or metal clay binder as possible in your lifetime.  This is clearly indicated on the MC package directions, which warn you against firing without ventilation. I’m not sure what could be clearer than that. Follow the package directions. Do not breathe the fumes of combustion.

Third, If you use sterling wire, and underfire the clay at 1450, or 1490, you are depriving the fine silver of the opportunity to be as dense and fully annealed as possible.  It will work, certainly, but you may not be able to form, forge, or work the metal as intensely as you could if you had fully fired your piece.  What you gain in strength from the sterling wire, you lose in potential in your fine silver base.  This may be fine for you, if you are making a piece that will require no forming, but you should be aware of the choice that you are making as a metalsmith.  Your piece will also require chemical pickling, or mechanical buffing, if you wish to remove the blackened exterior that the sterling will have from the firing.

Fourth, although I celebrate Barbara’s good health, the fact that she fires floral foam (phenolic resin from China) wrapped around balls of toxic Styrofoam or Styrene, and eats metal clay off of her hands, well, this behavior is not indicative of what industry calls “best practices.”  It’s irresponsible to promote carelessness with people’s breathing apparatus, when safe handling is both easy and free.  Sadly, not everyone was blessed with Barbara’s strong constitution and sturdy respiratory and immune system.  She is also not pregnant, a circumstance that we can’t assume for our students, at least 75% of whom are women of childbearing age. And if you breathe burning phenolic resin and/or Styrofoam or Styrene when you are in your first trimester of pregnancy, well… it isn’t pretty. And it could cost you your pregnancy, or the health of your child.

So again, people should be free to make their own choices, as long as they are informed choices.

That’s all I’m working toward, more information, as opposed to less. But it does feel sweetly futile, and I can confirm that yes, it is decidedly unprofitable.

So, I kept the studio house, only because this wasn’t remotely the right time to sell it, and reconfigured it really cleverly as a 2br 1 ba cottage, with a 1 br 1 ba efficiency apartment at the rear of the property. The house has a private walled front garden, and both the house and the apartment share a huge parklike back yard and a lovely Arizona room (what we call our enclosed porches) that has a full laundry, access to the house services, and a huge conference table that seats ten. Check it out here- maybe you’d like to come for a visit? I’m booked for the Gem Show, and also for a class session over the weekend of November 12-15, but other than that, I am completely open beginning September 1.

Why not plan a trip to Tucson this fall or winter? Heck, set up your own class- the Arizona room can hold a class of 8 piece a’ cake. I can even arrange catering, and fresh flowers.