Push me, Pull you
Originally Published 3-4-2011
As a kid, one of my favorite movies was Dr. Dolittle. I love animals, and I thought it would be so wonderful to be able to speak to them. I remember the day I went to the theater with my girl scout troop -- #687, Delaware County, Pa. -- to see Rex Harrison as my hero and mentor. His romantic travels around the world to meet and treat an incredible array of creatures large and small engaged my imagination and stayed with me all of my life. Little did I know that the rare and elusive Pushmepullyou -- that fantastic and imaginary creature in the film -- would become a pivotal metaphor for my life.
Women are pushed and pulled every moment of every day. They become quite skilled at managing a tidal wave of dueling commitments and desires because simple biology has selected them to adapt that way of being for survival. The human race would probably not be here and now and at this moment of development if women were not able to do many things with equal focus simultaneously.
As I write this, there is a half sawn sheet of metal on my bench and in my mind. The iPod is playing a song in the studio that I am actively listening to because the rhythm is insisting I feel it. I am aware of spelling, and the keys of the computer against my fingertips. The jeans are spinning in the drier, and I can hear the metal snap hit the drier drum at each revolution. There is a box of pasta on the counter for my dinner. And the sauce is bubbling gently in the crock pot. I can smell the onions, peppers and basil I sauteed an hour ago to start it. My cat is snitching a taste of my breakfast from the plate behind me on the table, and I hear her purring as she licks her paw. At the office, I know there are 2 manuscripts I need to finalize on Monday, and a stack of Design proofs to review. Somewhere between Denver and New York, my students' tools are in a truck and scheduled to arrive at my friends house so we can teach classes next week. I can visualize my son far away in cold Montreal in his flexibility or dance class and I wonder how he is. I think of the one I love, half a world away in the middle of the Pacific, and I feel my heart quicken. I know the plumber will be here tomorrow to finish a hookup in the bathroom, and that I have freelance work to finish by Monday. And, that I am out of milk, and my new eyeglasses are ready to pick up.
As all of this is happening, my mind is engaged elsewhere. It is on an elusive idea that is swimming in the calm and dark sea of emotion just outside the edge of my subconscience. And I want to chase it. I am pushing toward it. But I am pulled by everything else. I want to push and I am pulled. Or, I want to pull and I am pushed. I want to go to the place where that idea is and capture it, and dance with it, and realize it, and bring it into being. But until I can find the space to chase it, I have to be patient and wait. Because it will come to me eventually. After I meet everyone else's needs.
Today's Tip: Keep a small sketch pad with you at all times. Your mind will give you gifts when you least expect them. Be ready. Document those ideas when they come.
Back from Eden: Tucson Gem Shows, 2011
Originally Published 2-11-2011
A feast for the senses
The African Art Village is a never-ending source of inspiration and delight. I make it a point to visit whenever I am lucky enough to get to Tucson.
It was freezing in Tucson this year, but I needed to go. Seeing the stone rough, jewelry, gems and goods there helped me get my head on straight, realign myself with my compass and resolve to make some new work. I've been blocked for a while now, but thanks to a visit to the bitter and windy cold of the American southwest, the cacti, mountains and open space, I am home once again. I've promised myself to write here at least once a week. Hold me to it.
Todays tip: Check your hammer heads every week while your studio heat is on. Soak the wood handles in linseed oil by slathering it on with an artist's paintbrush near the wedge. Brush on as much as the handle will take. This will keep the hammer heads tight and condition the wood enough to prevent cracking, or worse, losing a hammer-head mid-strike.
How do you make jewelry?
Keep a sketchbook with you at all times
Sketchbooks are a vital tool for every artist, even if they don’t make 2D art for public consumption. Drawing is my way of thinking through ideas and concepts, and sometimes what I draw has nothing to do with what I am making at my bench at that particular moment in time. Drawing is a way for me to organize my thoughts, ideas, obsessions, observations and brainstorms. and even if I never use a drawing to help me make jewelry, I do like to document those ideas in a sketchbook for future reference. Youu never know when something drawn in the past will help you in the present.
Originally published 2-28-2011
I started my artistic career as an illustrator. I can draw very well, and I used to make my paycheck by making drawings. Thanks to a changing market, the demand for good, old-fashioned hand drawn art has diminshed. But, that didn't stop me from wanting to draw, and I still use drawing as a way to explore and explain my artistic point of view.
When I make jewelry, an idea usually comes first. Ideas often pop up when my mind is engaged elsewhere. Once I toy with the idea in my mind for awhile, the next thing I do is start to draw around it. I will make lines, explore forms, textures, dimension, color, space and movement. I will explore other things related to the idea at the same time, so my mind may know the topic well. Once I am confident the idea is sound, I will start the hunt for materials relevant to the idea.
I will then begin to toy with the materials I have chosen to create the object in the same way I toyed with the idea in my mind. I will cut or texture metal and stone and search for meaning and "rightness." Once I feel that I have a solid plan, I will go forward and make that object. Sometimes, this process takes months. Sometimes, I'll abandon an idea after toying with materials, because I am no longer interested in the idea enough to take the time, or make the investment in the materials needed to make the object. Often 3 or 4 ideas are all swimming together on my bench and in my mind. I am always thinking about my work.
Some of my friends work very differently from me. One very good friend has 10 or 12 things going all at once. Another friend works from start to finish on a piece in 1 or 2 sessions. Some design around an existing stone. Others cut a stone and regard the metalwork as a frame for the stone. Thankfully, there is room in the world for everyone's way of making, and for every artist there is a different way of seeing. I wouldn't want it any other way.
Todays tip: I gather small plastic take out trays with lids to serve as "job jackets" for pieces I am thinking of. As I cut stones or texture metal, I put those tests in the job box until I am ready to make the piece. Then, when I have a block of time in the studio, I don't have to search for something -- it is all right there together.
Disc cutters, metal circles and spirals
Don't waste your scrap!
Use a disc cutter to prep a bunch of circles and keep them by your work top. You never know when you will need one!
Originally published 2-18-2011
Sometimes, in hindsight, I am astounded at the way a sequence of seemingly unrelated events exhibits a logical relationship. Yesterday, a chat with my editor led to a change of plans for my next column in Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist. Merle White (said editor) was concerned that throwing a change at me late in the game would mess up my schedule. It turned out I was happy for the change, because I had been struggling in secret with the idea for the original plan, and I was having a hard time finding a good story angle for it. Once I agreed to the change, so many things rapidly and unexpectedly fell into place. In about 4 hours, we suddenly had a better content mix, and I remembered I had just picked up a new tool in Tucson that would go with the new content, and I got an email from another vendor wanting to send me another tool that would also mesh with the newly changed content. I can't help but believe these things happen for a reason. And now, I've been given a more fun topic, 2 new tools to write about, and we have a logical content mix for the next issue. It was easy. All I had to do was say yes.
So, the message of this? I think it is wise to be adaptable when you can. Sometimes, fighting change is needed. Sometimes, it isn't. Trust your circle, and the spiral path you are on. Unforeseen things will happen and a choice will be presented to you. Try to pay attention to the universe. It will give you what you need.
Today's tip: Save your sheet scraps for a rainy day. When you are in thinking mode, use your texture tools and disc cutter to make a bunch of circles out of that scrap. Try to extract every inch of useful sheet you can. Use the circles as practice pieces, or make work with them. Waste not!
If it’s cool and interesting, I’ll use it!
Don’t get stuck in a materials rut!
Here are some resin and brass "stones" I created using vintage kimono silk for a mixed-media bracelet.
Originally published 2-11-2011
Some people think I have little regions of snobbery in my artistic processes. It's just not true. I can easily explain my thinking behind what I put with what -- glass and plastics with base metals, stone and non-manufactured natural materials with silver -- it is pure and simple science. I have a very scientific mind and I classify, analyze, sort and process everything into a sort of taxonomic heirarchy of materials. Some things deserve to be put with other things because of their fundamental or elemental way of being.
I have used everything from plastic to diamonds in my work. I have beads, stones, buttons, fabric, fibers, art supplies, paper, plastic, ceramic, metal and wood in my studio at all times. I just put those things together according to my own sort of Darwinian system of organization. I am a materialsmith, and I love to investigate everything with an eye for creating assemblages of things that have a reason to be together. My mind sets a problem, I create a reason for solving it in a specific way, and then I let those materials tell me why they belong together. If the things I choose look good -- and solve the problem I set for myself -- I'll use anything. Sometimes I am sucessful in making a satisfying object that speaks on several levels, both to me and others. That is the job of art.
Todays tip: Don't mix resin with a wooden stir stick because wood tends to create an excess of air bubbles you'll have to pop once they rise to the surface of your piece.