The Flaming Forest

Every autumn in Vermont, Nature bestows one last spectacular riot of color on those of us priviledged enough to live here-- warm blazes of reds, yellows and oranges to keep in memory and warm us through the long, frigid winter to come--the color of flames, the color of passion, the color of carnelian and amber gemstones. Some of us call it "The Flaming Forest".

Taking my cue from what's around me is one of my tried-and-true methods for putting my senses ahead of my technique. I find if I lose myself in color and texture first, the design will blossom from this pure inspiration and the piece will express my unconscious intentions more fully.

I actually started this necklace back in the summer, after finding some polymer beads in my stash that I had forgotten about, my "Little Bumblebeads". These were based on the “watercolor” technique invented by Maggie Maggio, an artist that has pioneered an amazing color system and method for use with polymer but that can be applied to any medium. Her blog is very enlightening and expands on the color theory outlined in the recent book co-authored with Lindly Haunani, Color Inspirations.

Little Bumblebeads

The watercolor technique beads were a perfect complement to my husband Douglas' repousse leaf pendant, which he made a few years ago. It was languishing forgotten in one of my many boxes of work-to-be-completed until I decided to punch up the copper color with some heat patination. That brought out some beautiful metallic lustres and then I added a twisty wire bail.

I've been experimenting for a while with layering my necklaces, wearing two similar ones together for a more sumptuous look but I make them as separate strands in case I'm wearing something more casual. I recently purchased one of my dear friend Erin Prais-Hintz's beautifully-crafted owl charms, from her recent Simple Truths collection. It's nicely abstract and not too cute--looking more totemic-- more like the true essence of this noble creature. I really didn't have a use for it in mind when I bought it but soon realized that it was a perfect focal for the inner strand of my composition.

Owl from Erin's "Simple Truths" collection

"Wisdom" necklace - inner strand

The outer strand necklace was completed by the addition of Czech glass beads and leaves, larger Bumblebeads, and a magnetic clasp. Color of autumn, color of maples, the Flaming Forest.

The Flaming Forest

Heartwood earrings

Storing Up the Bliss

It's been over a week since I taught my first class at this year's ArtBliss outside of Washington, D.C.

I'm still full of happiness at meeting all my great students and all the wonderful friends I only knew from online conversations and from all the super-positive feedback I've received from everyone at the event.

I work in a home studio in a rural area and the majority of the feedback on my work comes from comments on photos posted on this blog or on Flickr. Hardly anyone sees the pieces up close and personal so it was a real treat to see how people reacted to my display of work at the Meet & Greet. I had brought most of the pieces that I made for my recent article in Belle Armoire Jewelry and I was very gratified by the reactions of the attendees.

As I commented to Cindy Wimmer, a good friend and co-organizer along with Jeanette Blix, it's like storing up sunshine from a fine summer's day. When I think about it--with the cold autumn rain coming down outside my window for a week now-- it's warming and energizing and I can't wait to start planning another class for next year! I'm so curious about how what they've learned will influence what my students do next in their own individual art-- I do so hope that their experience in my class will have some positive effect, some lasting inspiration.

Because that's why you teach-- not to become a millionaire. Organizing and schlepping close to the entire contents of one's studio to a venue is exhausting and teaching an all-day class at peak energy is like running a marathon but I would not ever turn down the opportunity to do it all again.

I only have a few photos of the event to add to this post, as I was so engrossed in what I was doing and making sure I covered all the material that I forgot to have someone take photos! Luckily, one of the ArtBliss staff took a few. I'm planning on contacting all my students soon and asking for some shots of finished or work-in-progress pieces.

When we got to our suite at the hotel, a fabulous bag of goodies was waiting for me-- including an antique stand used by offices to hold those old-fashioned stamp pads with handles. Cindy knows what an inveterate antiques hound I am. Doesn't it have the perfect patina and woodsy style as a holder for my Passion Flower brooch? I think I'll keep this one right on my desk staged just like this!

 I adore antique jars too and this zinc-top one is full of shells that Cindy's boys picked up on one of their last days at the beach this year. I'm thinking that each and every one of these was specially chosen by one of them and imbued with their happiness and wonder. What a very special memento, with its tag “Near the Sea we forget to Count the Days”!

And to accompany it was a big, fabulously-illustrated book on shells. I can't wait to delve into this one and create some new patterns in my clay work.

 One of the reasons that I teach is that I come home filled with new ideas and enthusiasm for my medium, polymer clay. I am so blessed to be able to pass that on to others but an equally special reward is that they re-inspire me. One of my students gave me some wallpaper squares that she brought to class. Thanks, Judy, and here are some little samplers I made with the textures. I used Genesis heat-set oil paint for the black base and highlighted the designs with silver gilders paste. Some of these may end up as bases for owl or dragon eyes for my porch pumpkins this year. Students also let me make copies of some of the mold-making originals that they brought to class.

 Finally, a few class pictures. If you go to the ArtBliss site and the instructors list, you can see other shots on their blogs. It's not as good as being there but maybe it will get you thinking about attending next year and joining the fun that we all had-- being together, talking about mixed media for three days and hanging out with good friends. It doesn't get any better than that!

 Gigantic thanks to Cindy and Jeanette for a well-run, energizing, and totally enjoyable event! I felt very taken-care-of by both of you-- you thought of everything! And special thanks to my students for being courageous, inquisitive, energetic, affirming and completely wonderful!

Life is Just a Bowl of Soup-- Bead Soup, That Is!

The Bead Soup Blog Party is a large collaboration project, brainchild of Lori Anderson, for lovers of beads in which each beader is paired up with another and tasked with sending the following: a focal, a special clasp (not just a lobster claw) and some coordinating spacers or beads.

Using the focal and the clasp is mandatory, but anything from your own stash can be used to round out the rest and you can choose to use the coordinating beads or not.

In my opinion, the real challenge is to make something in your own style using someone else's interpretation, expressed by the style of the components of the Bead Soup that they send you. My partner was Cynthia Deis, jewelry designer and owner of Ornamentea. The focal she sent was a beautifully-crafted lampwork bead with a tree theme by Lisa Daly, the clasp was a handmade by Cynthia, and the accompanying beads were small Elaine Ray ceramic forms and beads and some Czech glass leaves and faceted rounds.

Now my style is more tribal and usually incorporates large elements. My beads have a soft sheen and are not shiny. Gone are the days of Flecto Varathane for me! But lampwork is shiny and glimmery, so how to incorporate it into my own style? I had to solve the same issue in my previous BSBP piece, Mistress Boleyn's Necklace, so after some musing, I came up with gilt! In the tease post I did for this year's BSBP, I showed a piece of polymer done in multiple gilded colors to mimic a wooden Indonesian screen. I decided to use the same technique to frame the lampwork focal so its jewel-like glow was set off and enhanced by metallic paint.

Since the theme of the focal was a tree, I decided to use woodgrain and branches as a background for the polymer “bezel”. Lately I've been influenced yet again by an HBO production-- The Game of Thrones-- in which gardens dedicated to the old gods are planted with trees called “weirwoods”, so I used handcarved branches on a woodgrain textured background to hold the focal and provide a surface for texture, color and gilt. The same technique used for the layered bezel also created the three-strand connectors that hold the beaded wires.

Now, how to incorporate all the small beads into the design? I've been using wire-wrapping a lot lately so the solution was to wrap and string them around forged strands of heat-patinated copper. I drew the patterns onto paper, enlarged them on a copier and used them as templates as I worked. They were then attached to the focal piece with polymer, textured and cured in place. The amazing thing about polymer clay is that it can be cured again and again without harm so layers can be built up and wires can be held in place.

After adding layer upon layer of color with heat-set oil paint, acrylics and gilders paste--a technique I'll be teaching in a workshop at ArtBliss in D.C. next weekend--I decided that simple bookchain links in copper and steel would be appropriate to match Cynthia's clasp and finish off my gorget. (def: a metal collar designed to protect the throat, later used as an ornamental accessory on military uniforms).

As I've said before, I believe that perseverance is the key to compelling design – to keep working into it, adding layers of color, shape and texture. I design with the intent that when people see my pieces, they are inspired to invent a story about them. With “Norweigan Wood”-- my title for this piece-- I hope I've achieved my goal.

"Norweigan Wood"

Focal lampwork bead

Clasp detail

Here's the link for the entire list of 362 participants/partners of the Bead Soup Blog Party. Grab a cup of coffee and have fun-- there's lots of great design to enjoy! And thanks for visiting!

http://lorianderson-beadsoupblogparty.blogspot.com/

Bridge Over Troubled Waters

If you were on high ground in Vermont two weeks ago watching as Tropical Storm Irene sent sheets of rain down for twelve hours, except for a fairly warm drenching there wasn't much happening. All the battening down of lawn furniture and picnic table umbrellas proved unnecessary since the predicted Category 2 winds never developed. Of course the power went out about four hours into the storm for four days but we were prepared for that. We had water, oil lamps, crank-up radios, food and plenty to read as we hunkered down in our one-story workshop situated in our field and out of the way of tall trees.

The stream next to our house

Overruning the opposite bank

 As the rainfall rate started to crank up, my husband and I went outside to get a better view of the teensy stream that runs at the back of our acreage, which was cresting its banks with leaping waves and had begun to flood the lower parts of the property. Happily, it had avoided our newly-planted apple grove and blueberry bushes. A wide, shallow river of muddy water was rushing toward a confluence with the larger stream whose course runs a few feet from our driveway, flowing from the hills across the road, under a small bridge and down to the Third Branch of the White River. When I bought this house in 1994, I made sure it wasn't in a flood plain but I also guessed that once the water flowed under the little bridge it had a wider place to go and therefore wouldn't rise to the top of our bank, 12 feet or so above the streambed. My gamble was correct and although Douglas snapped photos of the water's crest coming to within a foot or so of the roadbed of the bridge, severe damage was avoided except for a total rearrangement of the stream's course as well as some physical features of the landscape downstream. I also knew that our home, which is post-and-beam construction and built in 1830, had withstood the historic Vermont Flood of 1927. It had, in fact, sheltered men from the community who stayed here overnight so they could keep one bridge open off Braintree Hill by fending off large trees that were washing down the streambeds and threatening to demolish the bridge.

Floodwaters flowing under our bridge



We had experienced major flooding from a summer storm in 1998 and lots of roads in our nearest town, Randolph, were severely damaged that year. Earlier this spring, major work was done to replace aging culverts and this work was well-justified, as those previously-damaged areas came through with flying colors. The Amtrak trestles didn't do so well. In two sites the track was seen suspended in mid-air with nothing underneath for 20 feet.

Amtrak "suspension" bridge a mile from our home

 Monday after the storm we ventured into town to get a cell-phone signal so we could call relatives and let them know we were ok. We began to see saturated furniture and household goods piled in front of homes and farms. Boulders and large trees were left in the middle of flattened hayfields, like strange sculptural installations. Stands of ripe corn were covered with gray mud. Parking lots had collapsed into streambeds, giant bites taken out of the asphalt. Stores had their doors open but without lights. We checked our local Aubuchon's Hardware and they told us generators were on the way. Shaw's Supermarket was running on generators but the shelves were still reasonably stocked. Randolph Village, which had been so hard hit in the Flood of '27, had survived the worst. At least our floodwaters had receded.

View from the bottom of our field-- normal streambed is to far right of photo

Battles Brook heading toward its meeting with Flint Brook

But many of our tiny villages and communities are still isolated and without power or a way to get out except by foot almost two weeks later. My husband's company had watermarks 5 feet up and mud all over their offices and manufacturing facilities. They will rebuild but it will take months and lots of physical labor and help from a backhoe. It's hard to believe that in 2011 our civilized world could be dealt such a blow from the forces of wind and water. You read about the tornados and the earthquakes and the tsunami but until the water's at your door, it doesn't seem real. We are lucky in Vermont that we still have some time to fix roads and find shelter for those whose homes were demolished before winter and the inevitable cold arrives. But the courage and fortitude (a word hardly used anymore) of my neighbors in dealing with this crisis makes me proud to be part of this community-- we're not whining, we're not looting, we are being generous with our resources and our homes, we are rebuilding by using our own hard work and hands, we are helping each other. In earlier times we did the same. It seems adversity serves to renew our trust in each other and our interdependence as a community.

Is it Soup Yet?

Yes, it's that time again-- 362 jewelry designers from all over the planet swapping hand-picked jewelry elements that will become fabulous swag--. Lori Anderson's largest-ever Bead Soup Blog Party!

This time I am paired with Cynthia Deis, owner of the eclectic and gloriously-stocked shop Ornamentea, where I've spent many hours perusing and marveling at the wares she's gathered. Of all the online shops I visit, I love Ornamentea the best for their inspiring and unique tutorials demonstrating ways to use the components that they sell.

The purpose of the Bead Soup Blog Party-- BSBP-- is to have fun designing with materials somebody else has chosen and to meet new jewelry enthusiasts but also to stretch our design abilities and use colors and materials we normally might not choose, to get outside our artistic comfort zone.

The stash I received from Cynthia will definitely do that. I love to work in a fairly large scale-- big, chunky beads, bold colors, multiple layers of vintage chain and substantial focals. My package from Ornamentea is all scaled-down and precious-- a glimmering handmade lampwork focal by Lisa Daly with a tree motif, miniature leaves, faceted Czech stones, tiny ceramic beads by Elaine Ray-- all woodsy-toned and neutral. An eclectic group of fibers is included-- deerskin, leather lace and golden maple silk ribbon. Cynthia's handmade steel clasp finishes the group.

 I puzzled a bit over what I would do with this. I went over to my pile of “works in progress”-- bits and pieces of experiments, earring parts and elements that are waiting for completion and/or inspiration. I found a little piece that I made a few months ago that reminds me of the wooden Indonesian screen that my sister has hanging in her living room. It's handcarved with very weathered paint.

 So my challenge is to incorporate Cynthia's supplies into my own style, using the “wooden” polymer shard as my jumping-off point. This is one of those instances where the total design just sprang into my head and my fingers had to move very fast to capture it on paper. The fibers will add in nicely and I might whip up some cord on my Diva cordmaker to pull it all together. I already have a name for my piece, which is unusual since I almost always name them after they're done. I'm calling this “Norwegian Wood”. Stop back for the big Reveal on September 17 for the blog hop.

Sharing Your Stories with the World

“Stories are attempts to share our values and beliefs. Storytelling is worthwhile when it tells what you stand for, not what you do”.

Simon Sinek, Start with Why.com

A photographer I once knew shared an amazing piece of advice. He said that all artists “run dry” occasionally and discover their well of inspiration is empty. So in good times, when ideas are coming fast and furious, write them down and stick 'em in a file, so that when you need a boost to your creative Muse, you'll have a stock of gems that you forgot about.

The name of my business, Stories They Tell, came straight out of my unconscious, a number of years ago. I hadn't even considered working in polymer and had no intention of starting a business so I stuck the title in a file and forgot about it. When I opened my Etsy store, I found that little slip of paper in the file-- it was completely serendipitous and completely perfect for what I do.

I always hope, when I create a piece of jewelry, that it expresses my values and beliefs. Nothing political but more spiritual and aesthetic, more about who I am and what my life's experiences have been, how they've shaped me and what they've taught me. My life has hardly been as full of trials as some but I have had my share of adversity and disappointment and now I feel my work can show the confidence I have in my ideas and processes. If you like my work, fine. If you don't, that's ok too. I don't need to please everybody; in fact, I don't feel I need to please anybody but myself and that doesn't come from a place of ego but a place of acceptance of my own style and imagination. I greatly admire the work of other artists but these days I don't long to create in a style like anyone's but my own.

So it's perhaps an appropriate time that a magazine I greatly admire has seen fit to acknowledge that style and feature my work in its Designer Collection article for the autumn issue this year. I'm speaking of Belle Armoire Jewelry, which will do a stunning eight-page spread to be published on September 1, 2011. I'm in great company, as some previously featured artists have been Stephanie Lee, Richard Salley and Robert Dancik. Ricë Freeman-Zachary has done an excellent job with her interview of me and captured my personality along with the facts of my artistic life and work process. And my honest and heartfelt thanks go out to Deryn Mentock, a good friend whose strong endorsement made my name known to the BAJ editor, which started my relationship with the magazine.

I worked for six weeks on the eight new pieces that I submitted, as I wanted to send them the latest and most thoughtfully considered pieces I had ever produced. It's pretty amazing what you can accomplish when you have a deadline like that-- and spending maximum time in the studio can produce results you never thought possible. When an opportunity this big comes calling, you'd better bring your “A” game! When the work was completed and I was packing it to send off, I was actually stunned to see the results of giving my imagination free rein and letting it lead me wherever! I think it's the most creative work I've ever done. A big “thank you” to my wonderful husband, Douglas, for supporting me throughout the process and for creating my fabulous new work room.

I've seen a preview of the article and my work looks awesome. It's very gratifying to see your pieces in print, to know that your story is out there in the world. I'm also encouraged that what is presented there are my values and beliefs, not merely my process. A technique is just a technique-- it's what you do with it that really makes a difference-- in your artistic life and to the people that see it.

Since the pieces below didn't make the cut for the article, I can post them. They are a couple of my favorites and in the near future I plan to expand upon the techniques they represent.

"Poisonous"

"Poisonous" - detail

"Tuareg"

"Tuareg" - detail

Hot Summer Color

The recent heat wave was unexpected here in the cool Northeast. For most of us, "air conditioning" means opening the windows. How to deal with these awful temps? Someone I once worked with put it this way: "Do as the Europeans do-- walk slowly and smile a lot!" With a garden that is finally deciding to put out some edible produce and 30+ chickens to keep hydrated and pecking on clean grass, that's a tall order.

So we garden and do animal chores in the cool(er) early mornings and hide behind shades with our fans going in the scorching late afternoons. A perfect time to clay (if you're not doing canes and processes requiring lots of clay-handling) and think about hot colors.

I decided to make a couple of pairs of earrings that I could wear with my recent Solstice necklace. I re-visited my stringing method after wearing it, adding another strand of beads to counteract the tendency of the beads to flip around to the opposite side. I had originally put two holes in the clay pad on the back of the bead to accommodate two strands but the trick was to string the top strand first and THEN the bottom one. I use a necklace bust when I'm doing this, so I get the drape correct. I've found you just can't get it right by laying the necklace flat.

Here are the shots of the earrings before I added the earwires. You may be able to see the texture in the wire, which is the new, fabulous Whim-Z Wire from Garlan Chain Company, which comes in bronze or copper and several textures. You can see the product and buy it in bulk spools at Rio Grande. The product's distributor says it will be available in smaller quantities at retail prices soon. Check here for updates. Here I've used "Nick" in brass -- my go-to wire lately for everything from my twisty-wire embellishments to earwires. It patinates very nicely with proprietary patinas or with heat. It's very pliable but has enough oomph to hold a single loop for components or charms. And it takes gilders paste beautifully. What's not to like??

After watching a great Good Eats episode on curry, I decided to name the red ones "Masala", which means "mixture" in the Tamil language. The Kashmiri earrings have dangles ending in my new favorite stone, pyrite chips. I love that the color's a cross between gold and silver and has a nice glint to it without overwhelming the polymer.

Masala earrings

Kashmiri earrings

Jeanette Blix from ArtBliss just told me I have a new registration for my class there in September. We'll be making earrings like these and exploring many other interesting coloring techniques as well. And be sure to check out the entire lineup of fabulous instructors. For mixed media fans, ArtBliss definitely has something for everyone!