ZAPP Conference

ZAPP Conference

Wednesday, August 19, 2009 12:00 pm -
Friday, August 21, 2009 2:00 pm (Mountain Time)

Curtis Hotel Denver
1405 Curtis Street
Denver, Colorado 80202
USA
Map and Directions

ZAPPlication.org™ will present a conference for system user artists and event administrators in August, 2009. The three-day conference is sponsored by the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF), the manager of the ZAPP™ system, and will take place in downtown Denver at the Curtis Hotel from Wednesday, August 19, through Friday, August 21, 2009.

The 2009 ZAPP™ User Conference will bring together event administrators, artists, consultants, and event staff—all of whom use the ZAPP™ system or will soon join the more than 330 events and 40,000 artists currently using the system.

Main subject areas for various panel sessions and training workshops include: ZAPP™ system training and technical assistance, organizing the art fair community, the state of the art fair field, marketing and advertising for artists and events, adopting new technologies, the impact of the current economy on artists and events, tools for reducing financial burdens associated with art businesses, jury protocol and process, image formatting, and understanding image technology.

The cost for all conference attendees is $265 per person.

The ZAPP™ system, a non-profit partnership of eight major arts festivals and WESTAF, has been greeted with great enthusiasm by both art festival administrators and artists since its launch in 2004. ZAPP™ allows artists to apply to events online and art festivals to easily manage their application, administration, and jury processes online. The cost-effective system saves administrators and artists valuable time and money by eliminating the need for excessive data entry and application packet preparation, expensive repeat trips to the post office, and the use of slides or CDs of images altogether. With ZAPP™, event administrators have more time available to focus on the actual event without being bogged down in tedious administrative tasks. In addition, the ZAPP™ system's digital jury process ensures jurors see artists' work as they intended via high-quality digital images.

Jewelry Tools by Miland

http://jewelrytoolsbymiland.com/

Miland Suess designs and handcrafts specialized metal forming tools for silversmiths, wire artists, beaders and jewelry repair. Artisans tell us that Miland's unique hand tools clearly save them time and effort while increasing their creativity, capabilities and quality. Each tool comes with a 90-day money-back guarantee and a lifetime warranty.

THE TOOLS ...
Synclastics: Puts two curvatures into flat stock simultaneously without marring. Create a bracelet in minutes, not hours. Also makes rings, bangles and is indispensable in doing jewelry repair.

THE MAN
Miland Suess watched and listened to artisans who were using metal forming tools that have not improved for thousands of years. He then went to work designing, testing and manufacturing a series of time-saving jewelry tools that his customers love because they work.

THE TOOLS...
Anti-Clastics: Similar to the Synclastic tools but produces a concave curve instead of a convex curve. Previously you had to use a dapping tool which was time consuming and did not produce a fine, finished product.

Miland has been an innovator and inventor since he was a child. After working as a Harley-Davidson motorcycle mechanic in his teens, he served in the U.S. Navy as a rear gunner on a Curtis SB2C Hell Diver dive bomber during WWII. Miland married in 1946 and settled in Chicago to raise 5 children. He worked there for 20 years as a well respected Lincolnwood Police Sergeant, saving lives and putting crooks behind bars. As Miland states with a smile: "I used to be in a business where the customer was often wrong. Now I am in a business where the customer is always right."

THE TOOLS...
Dimplers: Puts precise, circular indentations and domes into metal for decorative purposes. Partial indentations can also be achieved by using the tool on the edge of the metal as shown in picture on the right.

After retiring from the police department, Miland began designing and manufacturing hand tools for electricians and metal workers and continued doing so after moving to Arizona in 1984. In 1996, he was approached by a professional jeweler who expressed the need for a specialized tool to form compound curves into metal. In response, Miland designed and patented his first jewelers tool (The "Synclastic" tool, U.S. Patent number 5,513,513) and went on to design and manufacture over a dozen jewelry making tools and jewelry repair tools. Besides designing and manufacturing jewelry tools, Miland also restores classic vehicles including a 1957 Thunderbird, a 1949 Cadillac, and a 1947 Indian Chief Motorcycle. People who have met Miland appreciate his ingenuity, integrity, friendliness and sense of humor.

THE TOOLS...
Double Cylinder Ring Makers: Two different sized cylinders are used to put medium radius curves into flat metal stock and wire. Result can easily be resized on a mandrel. Perfect for making rings, earrings and children's bracelets

Miland enjoys making quality tools, you will enjoy using them, and your customers will appreciate the results.

THE TOOLS...
Texture Hammers: Textures flat metal and wire. Three different faces are available. The back end is flat and polished, like having two hammers in one. The beautiful patterns these hammers put into metal have to be seen to be appreciated.

There are video demos of all of the tools at: http://www.jewelrytoolsbymiland.com

You can contact Miland at:

Jewelry Tools by Miland
Toll Free: (877) 463-8046
MilandTools@aol.com

...and be sure to check in with him at the Tucson Electric Park venue at the Tucson Gem Show this February – look for him in the “Tool Tent”! There are usually new tools that aren’t available on the website and texture hammers that he is experimenting with. Miland also make tools to meet your custom specs!

Jessica Dow of Different Seasons Jewelry

For the Complete Interview with Jessica see my Jewelry and Gem Artisans Blog at:
http://jewelrygemartisans.blogspot.com/


Jessica Dow with
Different Seasons Jewelry
http://differentseasonsjewelry.com/

If you have picked up the new ArtJewelry magazine you will see there is a new type of feature – the cover pendant accounts for three different techniques and step by step instructions in this issue! This is a great idea as it allows the issue to cover more beginning techniques like bezels while also offering the advanced artists a tutorial on engraving!

The featured artist(s) are Different Seasons Jewelry better known as Jessica Dow and Mark Anderson!!

I have known Jessica for a couple years now and in that time I seen her go from an insecure talent to a confident artist that, through her new partnership, will be a force to be reckoned with!

What type of training have you had? how did you get your start and the progression that got you where you are today.

I started making jewelry after attending a couple of basic classes taught by Joe Hesselgrave at the Parks and Rec center in Tucson Arizona. After learning the bare bones of soldering I opted out of the class and started working by myself at home. At the time I was a single mother of a special needs child and leaving home to attend classes was difficult. I found some used equipment and tools through Kent's Tools in Tucson. I also bought some books such as The Complete Metalsmith by Tim McCreight and Decorative Techniques for Craftsmen by Oppi Untracht. I believe I spent under $200.00 setting up the entire workshop. I was almost immediately drawn to the art of piercing. I love sketching and piercing allowed me to draw my own templates and bring those drawings to life in metal. Piercing has continued to be my favorite fabrication technique.




A year ago I moved to Wisconsin and joined forces with my fiancé Mark Anderson. Mark has been working with lapidary arts and jewelry design for about 8 years. He is one of the most talented artists I have ever worked with.


I started out doing my own lapidary work - cabbing my own material expanded my design abilities and enabled me to work with gems that were previously out of my price range. I rarely cut cabs anymore. Mark handles that aspect of our business which allows me the benefit of custom cut gems to fit my designs as well as more time to devote towards jewelry. It's hard to do it all yourself... working with Mark and my mother Martha has allowed me to focus on the aspects of jewelry making that I love most. I am currently training with Mark in the art of lost wax casting. I have been carving my first wax models and have been observing Mark during every step of the casting process. We have also gotten the tools and materials needed to begin adding enameling to our jewelry.... we're both very excited to begin experimenting with various enameling techniques! Mark is also teaching me advanced gem setting techniques such as channel setting and flush setting. I am excited to watch my work transform and progress as I learn new techniques. I feel I am merely at the beginning of an exciting journey.



Give the one piece of advice you wish you had gotten as a jewelry artist just starting out.
When learning a technique, take the time to learn it the correct way! Once I started working with Mark I discovered I had developed some bad habits with a couple of techniques. I not only had to learn the technique again the correct way but I also found it took me much longer due to having to break my old bad habits. If you are not in the position to get professional instruction, be sure you're learning from a good book by authors such as Tim McCreight or Oppi Untracht.

I remember your first posts to the Yahoo Groups that we were both on - talk about the journey from fabricating your early designs to the commission work you do today - how did you get your name out?

I had been making jewelry for just over a year when I sent a photo of one of my pierced opal pendants to Lapidary Journal's Jewelry Artists magazine along with the photos I had taken during the fabrication process. I never expected anything to actually come of it.... I had assumed only an experienced jeweler with a solid reputation could get into a magazine the likes of Lapidary Journal. Lapidary Journal had been one of my biggest sources of inspiration when I first started making jewelry & cutting gems. I had dreams of getting my work within its pages someday. I literally nearly fell off my computer chair from shock when I opened up my e-mail and saw a message from one of the magazine's editors. She told me she wanted to print an article with one of my pierced opal pendants! I was thrilled and intimidated at the same time. It ended up being more work than I had anticipated but it was one of the best learning experiences I've had within this business thus far. That first article was just the beginning... since then Mark and I have had four full length step-by-step articles published, two gallery features, our recent cover with Art Jewelry magazine and we have another article coming out sometime this fall or winter.



Our "Sunstone Waves" article in Jewelry Artist was actually more of an assignment than a submission. The magazine had an issue coming out with a focus on Sunstone. We were asked to carve and set a sunstone gem in a sterling silver pendant. Mark did an amazing job with the carving and I designed and fabricated a pendant to compliment the gem carving. It was a fun project.


Follow Jessica on:
DeviantArt - http://jessa1155.deviantart.com/
MetalChasers - http://metalchasers.com/Different_Seasons_Jewelry
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/jessa1155
Facebook - http://www.myspace.com/jessa1155
Xanga - http://www.xanga.com/Jessa1155