Newsletter Sep 08

Mark Your Calendar – Upcoming Events
• Holiday Gifty Art Sale & Open House
• Crucible Recommends

News & Updates
• Faculty Focus – Rick Turner
• Join The Crucible Team

Art & Soul
Saturday, August 30th   12 – 6PM

Here’s a great way to celebrate Oakland, art, music, dance, food and the end of the summer! Stop by and visit ERV.  ERV is our Educational Resource Vehicle, a big red International fire truck with a full metal shop on board.  We’ll be there with live demonstrations of glass flameworking, welding, torch cutting, and blacksmithing.

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Fall Community Open House
Saturday, September 6th   12 – 6PM
FREE ADMISSION

The annual Fall Open House is one of our favorite events – it’s when we invite everyone to come visit and get acquainted!

If you’ve never taken a class or visited our massive studio space, here’s an opportunity to experience the true nature of The Crucible community of artisans, makers, innovators, performers, explorers, learners, mentors, and creators of all types.

Browse through an expo of organizations that provide services to Oakland communities. Check out the work in progress on our latest community collaboration, a wheelchair access ramp crafted in steel by students, teachers, and youth.  Enjoy live demonstrations, circus & fire performances, food and fun for all ages — it’s family-friendly and FREE!

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Download the new Course Catalog
and Fall Schedule today!

{Click Here to Learn More}

Want to learn how to make something with an entirely new skill?  Try an introductory class like Architectural Applications of Plate Glass, where you’ll transform broken window glass and old bottles into sculpture, tableware, and more; or Introduction to Art Silver Clay, where you’ll be amazed how fast and easy it is to make jewelry; or learn the ancient art form of Cartoneria, and make fantastic and colorful sculptures just in time for Los Dios de los Muertos.

If you’re an experienced artisan, continuing classes like Continuing Techniques in Neon, Art of the One-Speed: Building a Bicycle Frame, and Art of Fire Dancing, encourage you to stretch your imagination, learn and practice advanced skills.

Got Workspace?

Our CREATE program allows you to use our studio and tools for your own work.  Fall session CREATE access begins September 20th, with 5-week and 10-week sessions available.

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Old Jewelry Gets New Life for a Good Cause

Is your jewelry drawer a tangle of necklaces and orphan earrings?  Still have that wedding band from your youthful mistake, or mom’s old costume jewelry you wouldn’t be caught dead wearing but feel guilty about getting rid of?   Here’s a feel-good solution:  donate those old unused pieces to The Radical Jewelry Makeover Project sponsored by the non-profit organization, Ethical Metalsmiths.   A team of volunteer jewelers and metalsmiths will transform them into new designs that create absolutely no waste or pollution. The “Makeover” pieces will then be sold to benefit educational programs about the connection between metalsmithing and our environment.

You get a tax deduction and receive a discount coupon, which can be used toward the purchase of a “Makeover” piece at the final exhibition at the Velvet da Vinci gallery in San Francisco in October.
Jewelry donations are now being accepted at The Crucible through September 11th.  For more information visit www.ethicalmetalsmiths.org.

If you have experience in jewelry or metalsmithing, you can join the Radical Jewelry Makeover team in a special workshop at The Crucible, October 11-14 to help create those fabulous new designs.

SPECIAL OFFERING
Build a Mandolin or a Ukulele in Just Four Days!
with Rick Turner

4 Sessions | Saturday & Sunday | Oct 4 – 12 | 10AM – 6PM

Get ready for tiki time or boogie time by building your own ukulele or mandolin in this very special class. Offered just once a year, and taught by internationally famous luthier, Rick Turner, you’ll get all the materials and instruction needed to build your own instrument in just two weekends. While you cut, glue, sand and tune, you’ll have a chance to learn a lot more about music from someone who’s built instruments for musical legends like the Grateful Dead, the Airplane, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Santana, Stanley Clarke, the Who, Led Zepplin, Emerson, Lake and Palmer and more. You’ll gain a better appreciation of what goes into making a quality stringed instrument and have a grand time making music on an instrument you’ve made with your own hands. This small class will go fast, so sign up now and make sweet music later!

{Click Here to Learn More}

Ukuleles made by Rick Turner

Learn more about this instructor below.

It was another great summer at The Crucible. This year we ran three summer sessions, “firing up” over 2,000 students.  Youngsters built kinetic contraptions, robots, and rocket cars; they bent glass and metal, carved wood, and created sculptures of all kinds.  

{ Check Out Images of these Artists in Action! }

Our Fall Weekend and After School Classes for Youth begin in October, so register now to ensure your child’s spot in youth classes like: Blacksmithing, Ceramics, Glass Flameworking, Robots, or Welding.

{Click Here to Learn More}

Youth Glass Flameworking

Check our website for complete information and list of vendors to come soon.

The Crucible Recommends:

Transformed by Fire, an exhibition of fine enamel work sponsored by the Northern California Enamel Guild, at the Oakland Museum Collector’s Gallery, August 13th – October 5th.

This exhibit includes several beautiful enameled vessels by Judy Stone, head of the Enameling department at The Crucible.

{Click Here to Learn More}

Want to take a class from Rick? You can find him teaching Build a Mandolin or a Ukulele in Just Four Days! this October.

FACULTY FOCUS

Rick Turner
Woodworking Department

Rick Turner co-founded Alembic in 1970 and was involved in the design and construction of the Alembic instruments. He founded Rick Turner Guitars in 1979 and joined Gibson in 1988 where he served as president of Gibson Labs West Coast R&D Division.

Turner left Gibson in 1992 and ran a guitar repair shop at Westwood Music in Los Angeles where he developed piezo pickup designs, working with Jackson Browne, David Crosby and others. He later co-founded Highlander Musical Audio, manufacturer of piezo pickups for acoustic guitars. He continues to design and build guitars for many professional players such as Lindsey Buckingham, Ry Cooder, David Lindley, David Crosby and Andy Summers. He is a regular columnist for Acoustic Guitar and a former columnist for Bass Player, Frets and Guitar Player magazines. His present company is Renaissance Guitars.

Turner’s designs are considered significant and innovative, and include at least the following:

• invented and patented the graphite neck in 1976, with Geoff Gould who then started Modulus Graphite.

• the use of curved plates on the front and back of his Model 1 electric guitars in order to reduce standing wave hysteresis loss.

• the use of 18v preamps in an attempt to tame the ‘quack’ sound commonly associated with piezoelectric acoustic guitar pickups.

We are always looking for talented instructors who have a passion and skill to share.  If you have a great idea for a class, or are qualified to teach skills in metal, fire, light and more, we want to talk to you.  Contact Rob Nehring to learn more about becoming a part of The Crucible.