Color is My World - Part I

You know how it feels when you've been doing something you like so much and then suddenly a storm of commitments come up and you have to let the fun thing go for a while? You remember how good it feels to be able to do the fun thing again?

Well, that's what it was like to work on this month's Art Bead Scene challenge! I completed most of the Challenges in 2009 and then 2010 just shot by and I only got one finished and posted. I vowed that this year I would get back in the groove and do as many as I possibly could. By the end of 2009 I had a nice body of work that showcased my skills for any art jury that needed examples of my best efforts for shows and competitions. Although the challenges were time-consuming, I loved doing them. They stimulated my brain and developed my skills, both in creating art beads and in stringing them. Since I've become a serious, every-day-at-the-bench artist, I need to put myself in the way of design problems to solve-- they don't just show up in rural Vermont life.

So the gauntlet was absolutely thrown down when the painting to interpret was revealed to be one of the “Brown River” series by Wayne Thiebaud, a lively work depicting the Sacramento Delta in California, done in a primary-based palette of clear, saturated color blocks. I never work in these colors. I don't do modern.  Besides, doesn't Wayne Thiebaud do pop art pies and cupcakes? But I did ask to be challenged, didn't I?

I had gotten what I asked for-- in spades. The colors were challenging, the shapes were challenging. I wanted to use a new technique with oil paints and pencil but the beads I made weren't right for the application. I filled page after page of my sketchbook with ideas but it just wasn't coming together.

When I was in art classes in college, we would be assigned a design problem by our instructor and I would do what I called “throwing it into the 'creative soup'. I wouldn't think specifically about the problem for awhile; rather I would just go about my daily activities and wait for inspiration to strike. And it did, eventually. The lightbulb would suddenly go on as I shopped the art supply stores in Soho or listened to jazz or browsed some local galleries or even read a book. I found that activities unrelated to art frequently stimulated the brainstorm I was looking for.

In the course of an e-mail conversation with Barbara Lewis she recommended a new book from North Light Books by June Roman, "A String of Expression: Techniques for Transforming Art and Life into Jewelry". I ordered it and reading through the projects sparked inspiration for some quickly-made textured shapes that were slightly disintegrating. I envisioned these as pendants but couldn't make it work so I decided to string them in sequence. Next came textured clay coins that were colored with alcohol inks and liquid clay. I took some clay scraps in the painting's colors, chopped them together, and ran them through an extruder to make some mokume gane beads and headpins (it's a technique borrowed from Japanese metalworking). Twisted copper wire became the “brown river” and some larimar cubes completed the stringing. My husband suggested that the long length of wire work needed a color break and he was right so I wrapped half of the clasp in red silk.

When Thiebaud spoke at Harvard University School of Design in 1990, he responded to a student question: "What do you think defines an artist?" with "An artist creates his own world!” Amen.

Commitment to Creativity 2011

The past week has brought some serious meditations for me on the nature of inspiration-- what are the best ways to be inspired, the surest sources of inspiration, the very nature of the beast.

2009 was a banner year for me as far as inspiration. I followed the Art Bead Scene challenges closely and submitted 10 pieces-- almost one per month-- and created a body of work by the end of the year that got the attention of an editor at a prestigious jewelry magazine. Finally being published by Belle Armoire Jewelry in 2010 was a goal I could never previously have imagined attaining.

Commitment to Creativity #1: I'm going to keep the momentum going by doing as many of ABS's new monthly challenges in 2011 as I can.

"Blossom" inspired by Van Gogh's "Almond Blossoms"

But more importantly, I was inspired to develop some new techniques and processses that I probably wouldn't have stumbled across left to my own devices. I really love doing my clay work so I don't need any push to sit down every day and spend most of my waking hours playing with the stuff or sketching new ideas. What I need is a focus for all this rampant energy-- therefore, a creative goal on a regular basis.

In 2010 I engaged-- and was engaged by--other artists in collaborations, something that gave me goals to achieve and new directions in which to travel. I very much enjoyed working with Claire Maunsell and Rebecca Watkins - Artybecca for a collaborative Hallowe'en necklace and we are currently engaged in another with an “outer space” theme.

Bead by Claire Maunsell

Bead by Artybecca

I was truly honored to be included in making beads this past summer for Erin Prais-Hintz's ambitious gallery show and used that opportunity to push the envelope quite a bit, inventing a new process for metal-effect beads that I have yet to fully explore. But sometimes I like to let new ideas simmer a bit, like a good stew that's better the second day.

Beads by Stories They Tell for Erin Prais-Hintz's "Inspired By....." show

It seems to me that if you fully engage in your work, opportunities will crop up to play with others and goals will appear that will challenge you. So with a cornucopia of opportunities out there, why not choose the ones closest to your heart and passion?

Polymer Clay Daily recently posted about the RAD—Ring a Day-- challenge that ran for 2010, which had a fair number of polymer artists participating and while checking that Flickr site I found one that resonated for me—TADA, True Addicts of Daily Art. Their purpose is to “Commit to making progress every day of 2011 on your art jewelry creations. Show your daily steps forward with photos. Blog if you like. Goal is at the end of the year you will have at least one collection or series that is Show Ready”. I also like the tongue-in-cheek play on “tada!” I know that I personally love to see how people progress through their work, so I thought that maybe some of my readers might be interested in seeing how I do what I do. I can't commit to the everyday blogging part but getting feedback from you, my readers, will be immensely helpful to me since at some point I'm planning to write a book and need to know if there's clarity and inspiration in my explanations/instructions.

Commitment to Creativity #2: more blogging about process and sources of inspiration.

As you have come to expect, I will continue to pass on interesting insights into the nature of my creative process and provide enough eye-candy to keep you reading until the last line.

As some of my first creative forays of 2011, here are some new cuffs using a nifty mokume gane technique from an Etsy-available tutorial by Tonja Lenderman. Another mokume gane technique-- I'm in heaven!

Confetti Mokume Gane cuffs

Montezuma pendant - confetti mokume gane

And here are my first efforts into the twisty-tangly world of cordmaking, courtesy of the Diva Cordmaker available from Fiber Goddess.

I'd love to hear what you have planned to jazz your creative juices for 2011. As far as I'm concerned, there can never be too much inspiration available in the world around us. And that's definitely something to celebrate in the New Year.

A Few of My Favorite Things

As adults we aren't supposed to anticipate Christmas like we did when we were young-- after all, we are now the ones rushing around buying the presents, figuring out where to put all the holiday guests, planning all the festivities and paying all the bills. For many people, what's really special about this time of year just gets lost in the shuffle.

Although my husband and I will soon be celebrating our 10th anniversary, we still count having each other as our “bestest” gift at Christmas. And we're both still healthy and fairly active and that is quite a lot to be thankful for at our ages.

But I would be remiss if I failed to thank each and every one of you who reads this blog for making my days so enjoyable as I write down my thoughts and observations, knowing that someone is actually out there who shares my passions and takes the valuable time to visit and comment. I am so thankful that I have many good friends online that I feel closer to than any I have ever made in my lifetime, although I have never met you in person. Can creativity operate in a vacuum? Probably, but it's not much fun. I treasure the ability to share my discoveries, experiments and musings with all of you and am humbled by your enthusiasm for them.

I'm just bubbling with new ideas I want to share with you -- some of them are already scheduled to be out there in a public way around March. My wish list this New Year of 2011 includes making it to a major bead show, where I can meet in person some of the creative friends I talk to almost daily online.Also in the works in the next few weeks is a major update to my studio space, so I can get my kiln going and play with metal clay, as well as set up my bench with my flexshaft drill and soldering station. It's time to add in metals to my polymer creations in a big way, something I've been planning for over a year. I've used some found metal pieces and some  repoussé that Douglas makes for me but I've always had a better marriage of metal and polymer in mind for my designs. I'm so excited, I can hardly wait to get started!

Yesterday I played around with some old glass storage containers I found at a local yard sale. I plopped in some bits and bobs and built some seasonal tableaux with some of my latest polymer experiments.

Silver Leaves tableaux

Pinecone tableaux

Globes and Stones tableaux

  Here are some toys that Santa left under our tree.

"Red Fox" felted wool pin, from Under the Moon, Amanda Wiesenfeld, VT Handcrafters

Antique store find tool box, lovingly restored by Douglas

Present for both of us-- yipee! new techniques!

Polymer lentil bead from Mindy Jackson, Stray Cat Jewelry, VT Handcrafters

Lampwork bead from Wandering Spirit Designs -- present from my sis

And for a happy ending to the busted stove story, today I'm happily baking cupcakes and a pumpkin pie for Douglas. A wonderful repair technician named Gary from the Dead River Company in Woodstock, Vermont persevered through a snowstorm to repair my oven on Thursday night. Now, THAT'S customer service, Sears! I'm glad I went with a local company and supported my community.

Happy holidays to all and I'll see you again after the New Year!

Giving and Receiving or What's Really Important at Christmas

Winter on a farm is a time to rest from the endless routine of summer's planting and growing and autumn's hubub of harvesting and storing and finally take some time to breathe and contemplate. Have I accomplished all that I set out to do this year? More importantly, what do I have to be thankful for? And now looking back over this past year, that's quite a lot.

Blogs are great vehicles for communication but they are also primarily journals and so useful to document our works and progress. I try not to view difficulties in my work as problematic but rather as challenges to be overcome. Is this annoyingly optomistic? Well, what's the alternative?

This past weekend my oven quit working. Given the holiday season, it's not easy to find a repairman on short notice and since we live in a rural area, it's doubly difficult. So all my plans for cupcakes and cookies are kaput. Not to mention Christmas dinner. Luckily, it's just the two of us but now I have to rethink all my plans for a special breakfast and my husband's potluck contribution at work.

I called Sears yesterday and they said “Sure, we can have someone there today-- how about between 1 and 5 pm?” So I cancelled a previous repair appointment for a later date and waited. And cleaned the stove within an inch of its life. And waited. And waited some more. Finally, at 4:30 pm, someone called from Sears and said “So sorry, the repairman got hung up on a job-- how about next Tuesday?” I actually kept my temper in check but was firm about wanting to talk to the tech supervisor who had so cavalierly decided the tech could just go home early. So the “customer service” person -- that's a joke, of course-- hung up on me! THEN I was furious! I ranted to my husband a bit and then we had to pick up our truck, which was at the garage being inspected.

Now I know you've been waiting for the “It's a Wonderful Life” ending of this little parable. Our great auto repair guy, who I've known since I moved here in 1992, told us he had had a rough week. His wife went in for a routine checkup and they found a large tumor on her ovary. They immediately did surgery to remove it and found no cancer. She's now home and well on her way to complete recovery.

So are my problems with my oven still a big deal? No. Not compared to what my garage guy went through. And this morning my backup repair called and said they could be out today and could maybe even fix it before Christmas. But it doesn't matter anymore. I'll eat hot dogs and beans with my sweetie and be glad that we are healthy and our families are too and that he just got a job and that I made some really good sales in December. And I probably don't really need to eat cupcakes.

If you made it all the way to the bottom, here's some eye candy as a reward. It's what I sent out for Christmas presents this year. And on time, too!

Jurassic cuff - for my niece Gilly

Jurassic Earrings

Pendant in faux basse taille for my cousin, Missy

Talisman necklace for my brother-in-law, John

Gravure Earrings for my sister, Bonnie

Art for the Sake of It

It's fine and well to make art strictly for the joy of it. Nothing compares to the satisfaction of seeing a concept through to the end-- to make reality of a thought, a feeling, an interpretation.

Although I've spent many years making art, I previously had little to show for it. A rug here, a garment there. I gave everything away. Until I started making jewelry, I didn't even have a portfolio of work to show for the hours and years of creative endeavor.

Now I've got a blog, a Flickr page, magazines that have published my work and lots of pieces of jewelry, all testament to the fact that I'm a "creative person". Trouble is, I'm a bit swamped with all of it. Lately some other artists have blogged about their urge to clean out, free up and open a space for creativity. My cousin chastised me a little last week, urging me to sell more-- “you can't wear everything” she said. That's true. But those of you who also create know that selling your work is like auctioning your babies. Will any amount that you are compensated really be adequate reward for the love, thought and care that you put into them?

But maybe having the freedom to express yourself and let your ideas fly and hopefully touch another person is compensation enough in itself? Maybe when that person wears it they will feel a little of what you put into it, what you felt yourself, how proud you were of your creation. My best customer really gets me. She truly understands what I'm trying to say, even when I don't fully know myself. When I let something go to her, I know it will be loved, cared for, understood, appreciated. What more could I ask for?

So I'll be putting some old favorites and special pieces of mine in my Etsy shop in the coming days and also some new work I've just created. If you've purchased from me before, please convo me if you want to purchase something-- I have some thank-you discounts for you. If you're not familiar with my jewelry, I welcome you to visit my Etsy shop and browse. Until December 25, all domestic shipping is free. Maybe you'll find something you will enjoy wearing as much as I enjoyed making.

Serengeti earrings - now in my Etsy shop

Kandinsky necklace - SOLD - Thank you!

Depth Earrings - now in my Etsy shop

Marrakesh earrings - now in my Etsy shop

Dark and Stormy Night Necklace - now in my Etsy shop

Disintegration Earrings - now in my Etsy shop

 Thrones Necklace - now in my Etsy shop

Shards

Artists are varied in their approach to clutter on their workbench. Do you stop to tidy up so your tools are ready to hand or does the disorder somehow allow you to pull some creative inspiration out of the chaos?

One of the things that is most troublesome to me is my tendency to collect detritus and keep it in little containers all over my bench. Pieces of previous work that didn't quite make it, creative accidents, orphan beads, pieces of small repoussé work that my husband, Douglas, has made for me, interesting found objects, rocks with nifty textures, rusty bits, twigs-- all of these find a home in various receptacles. Sometimes I feel more like a 19th century naturalist, surrounded by specimens.

As I'm about to transform this space into a real working studio, I find myself firmly resolving to corral the clutter and keep my space zen-like and receptive to the slightest nudge from my Muse. But just this week, while digging through one of my boxes, I discovered a shard of polymer, a sample for the Jane Eyre cuff in faux ivory that I did some months ago.

Faux ivory cuff sample

Jane Eyre cuff

 It was too large to make into a pendant so there it sat. I just enjoyed looking at it. I like making pieces that look as though they are shards discovered in an archaeological dig and then combine them with more modern elements into one whole. The juxtaposition of ancient and contemporary creates a tension that appeals to me. I just happened to have one of Objects and Elements' open bezels in the same box-- sometimes when I buy new findings I don't want to store them away since I tend to forget about them. If I leave them out on my bench, I see them every day and eventually find a use for them. I've used these bezels with several pieces, like the Dance of the Ancients.

Dance of the Ancients

Intrepid explorer of the artistic landscape that I am, this rectangular bezel was cut, shortened and re-shaped to fit a scrap piece of polymer that I carved a bit and antiqued. So the bezel was fit to the shard, instead of the opposite!

Relic pendant

The shard was long and rectangular so would allow me to keep some of best motifs. I carefully scored the polymer with an X-acto knife and kept making shallow slices until I could break it off without damage. Some additional cutting and sanding was necessary to make it fit the bezel and then I re-stained the edges with shoe polish. My plan was to make a simple pendant necklace I could wear with jeans and a tee. Yeah, well.

The bezel had two attachment loops so I decided to look through my stash for a suitable dangle. Sitting in one of my containers was a copper leaf that Douglas had done in repoussé and I had heat-patinated to a beautiful purple/copper sheen. I drilled a hole and attached that to the bottom loop. The leaf was a more modern style than the shard but I encouraged that by stringing some garnet-colored square Czech glass beads together with mesh-covered crystal beads interspersed with lampwork rounds. I tried several ideas for the bail, like a piece of brass from a mantle clock that I had taken apart but ended up making one out of 18 gauge bronze wire. For the clasp, I used an antique etched brass bead on a chain with a handmade shepherd's crook as the loop side. It worked perfectly and was very secure.

Sonata necklace

After completing the piece, I was a bit sad that the repoussé leaf might be leaving my workbench forever-- the fate of all one-of-a-kind pieces. So I thought “why not make a mold from that great little leaf” and got out my Alley Goop RTV (room temperature vulcanizing) putty, and made a mold. I had some scrap clay in a mix of burgundy, green and purple so I used that for the leaf, which turned out to be the perfect base color and added some Jacquard metallic powders and metallic acrylic paint for the copper accents. Maybe earrings to match?

Repoussé leaf

Polymer copies of repoussé leaf

So, at the end of the day, I say – keep it but organize it. You never know what treasures you'll find to inspire you at the bottom of your personal benchtop midden.

Hoot

Sometimes here in New England the summer seems to last forever-- it gets a little cooler but the grass stays green and the leaves on our Norway maples won't drop until the weather's about ready to spread that white stuff all over the ground. Just last week most of the leaves dropped and created what I call “golden snow”.

Hoopty Hoop by http://www.lyanavoteyphotography.com/

My photographer neighbor, Lyana, wanted to do a shot of me doing a “leaf angel” in the leaves but I would have had to rake them into a pile for that and they were just too pretty laying in an amber carpet so we settled on the above shot of my front yard. We Vermonters need to soak in all the color we can, for as long as we can, since Spring can be a long way off once the leaves are gone. I dug the flea market find-- below-- out of storage and hung it on my studio door. I think it's oil crayon on canvas.

You don't have to be a Harry Potter afficianado to love owls. They have been depicted in petroglyphs since the dawn of humankind's ability to interpret our surroundings in drawings and carvings. Lately they've been showing up everywhere in my personal sphere. From the barred owl that calls from our back woods in the early evening dark to the huge Great Horned seen sitting on the wrist of Dowager Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine in the new movie version of Robin Hood, they represent the mysterious and untamed forces of nature. In some cultures they represent wisdom, in others a harbinger of death or illness.

I always associate owls with the deep woods, flying through a backdrop of towering dark hemlocks. They may be raptors like hawks and falcons and have been used by humans for hunting prey as well but they have a different vibe for me-- nothing cutesy or precious but more mystical and spiritual. Their gaze is not as intensely fierce as a hawk's. It has almost a zen quality, of just being there, waiting and listening.

So, bitten by the “owl bug”, I went in search of images that I could use to carve myself one, with the intention of making a mold so I could create several polymer clay copies for one of my cuff bracelets. While searching Etsy for inspiration, I came across several Victorian brass stampings with carving just spare and detailed enough to satisfy me so I figured why reinvent the wheel, I could use these as a jumping-off point for the cuff decorations.

I decided to lay down a textured background on my brass cuff blank so I wouldn't have to cover every inch and would get more decorative mileage out of it. I had one motif that combined the head and wings and when the clay copy ended up projecting a bit more from the flat surface, the effect was of the owl about to fly out of the background. I put two smaller owl faces at the wrists, a highly underrepresented area on most cuffs, in my opinion. I let the composition sit for a day, during which I decided it needed some woodland elements so I added some oversized acorn-y blossoms and some branches. It gave the cuff design a steampunk quality I like. Thanks to Jan for noticing that! After curing, layers of raw umber, a mix of greens and burgundy acrylics went on and were mostly wiped off. It was still missing another tone so I rubbed on tan shoe polish, which added just a bit of yellow tint and mellowed the red and green together.

Wingéd cuff

Wingéd - detail

I had some ivory base clay left over and an adjustable ring blank from Objects and Elements so I experimented with filling that with a little owl face. This is the first ring I've done and I opted for a lighter antiquing on it than on the cuff.

It's quite comfortable to wear so I'm encouraged to try another-- maybe resin? I've got some bottles of ICE resin calling to me. Next blog-- leaves. Is there a woodland theme here?