All Discussions Tagged 'education' - crafthaus2024-03-29T09:45:51Zhttp://crafthaus.ning.com/forum/topic/listForTag?groupUrl=danielle-james-humor-and-melancholy&tag=education&feed=yes&xn_auth=noDanielle James - (3) Grad School and NEON Lightstag:crafthaus.ning.com,2016-06-24:2104389:Topic:5507922016-06-24T15:29:33.037ZBrigitte Martinhttp://crafthaus.ning.com/profile/brigittemartin
<p><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058768956?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058768956?profile=original" width="571"></img></a></span></p>
<p>Image from ECU website: Tara Locklear in Metal Studio.</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058771446?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058771446?profile=original" width="741"></img></a> <span class="font-size-3">Continued from - …</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058768956?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058768956?profile=original" width="571"/></a></span></p>
<p>Image from ECU website: Tara Locklear in Metal Studio.</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058771446?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058771446?profile=original" width="741"/></a><span class="font-size-3">Continued from - <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://crafthaus.ning.com/group/danielle-james-humor-and-melancholy/forum/topics/danielle-james-2-undergrad-mustaches" target="_blank">(2) Undergrad & Mustaches</a></span></span><br/><span class="font-size-3"> </span></p>
<p><br/><strong><span style="color: #339966;" class="font-size-3">CRAFTHAUS: Where did you go to grad school?</span></strong><br/><strong><span class="font-size-3"> </span></strong><br/><span class="font-size-3"><strong>DANIELLE: </strong> I applied to six programs total. I was very nervous about going to grad school, so I wanted to cover all my bases. I visited all of those six schools, <strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.ecu.edu/soad/" target="_blank">East Carolina University in Greenville</a></span></strong> happened to be the last one I looked at because it was the closest to home. I could drive there in one day, and I did, in my dad’s truck. I got there a day early for my interview and, to save money, I planned on staying the night in the truck instead of going to a hotel.</span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3"><span class="font-size-3">I had an appointment with the director of the grad program the following morning, so I had some time on my hands and decided to walk around the metal studios a little, poke my head in to see if I could talk to some random people, get a feel for the place. This was in the summer, there weren’t many people working in the studios but I happened to meet <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://crafthaus.ning.com/profile/LaritzaGarcia" target="_self">Laritza Garcia</a></span></span></span> <span class="font-size-3">in the metal studio where she was busy refinishing hammers and mandrels. I introduced myself and we started chatting. After a while she wanted to know where I was staying and when I told her I was staying in my car, she invited me to stay with her instead. How nice was that? We ended up having a great time, she introduced me to a bunch of ECU people that same evening, it was all so effortless. I could not have bumped into a better person that day. Not to say that the other universities I considered weren't warm and nice as well. They were, but there was a different energy at ECU and it worked for me.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><span class="font-size-3"> <a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058771446?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058771446?profile=original" width="741"/></a></span></span></p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058769190?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058769190?profile=original" width="642"/></a><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.ecu.edu/cs-admin/news/ebendorf14.cfm" target="_blank">ECU Art Professor Robert Ebendorf. ECU.EDU</a></span></p>
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<p><br/><strong><span style="color: #339966;" class="font-size-3">CRAFTHAUS: You decided to study with <span style="text-decoration: underline; color: #3366ff;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0nj58QUPTE" target="_blank"><span style="color: #3366ff; text-decoration: underline;">Bob Ebendorf</span></a></span> at ECU, when was that?</span></strong><br/><span class="font-size-3"> </span></p>
<p><br/><span class="font-size-3"><strong>DANIELLE: </strong> I started in 2012 and graduated in 2014. </span></p>
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<p><br/><strong><span style="color: #339966;" class="font-size-3">CRAFTHAUS: How did your work change at ECU, what progress did you make? </span></strong></p>
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<p><br/><span class="font-size-3"><strong>DANIELLE: </strong> The reason I wanted to go back to school was that I knew I needed to work on my fabrication skills, see what I was actually capable of making.</span></p>
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<p><span style="color: #ff0000;" class="font-size-3"><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058769573?profile=original"><img width="750" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058769573?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"/></a></span>Chattanooga TN, necklace in progress with drawings.<br/> Photo: Danielle James</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058771446?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058771446?profile=original" width="741"/></a><br/><span class="font-size-3">At ECU, every single thing I was working on was much more complicated and intricate than anything I had ever done before, a fifteen-part process that ultimately culminated in just one piece. There was the Chattanooga, TN piece, it looks like a view finder. It’s a hollow form that has many things added to it. Some functions move, that was the biggest new thing for me at the time.</span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3">I was excited when I finally finished that piece. For a long time I didn’t think I was going to get it done. It sat on my desk waiting for assembly, like, forever. It was one of the last things I finished from my thesis. I worked on it for almost a whole year and I was really proud of myself that I could slow down that much - and that it was okay for me to do so.</span></p>
<p><br/><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058772297?profile=original"><img width="750" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058772297?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"/></a>Chattanooga TN on Dayon Royster - copper, brass, champlevé enamel, powder coat.<br/> Photo: Danielle James</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058771446?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058771446?profile=original" width="741"/></a></p>
<p><br/><strong><span class="font-size-3"><span style="color: #339966;">CRAFTHAUS: I’ve seen images of work you did with neon lighting, how did that come about?</span></span></strong></p>
<p><br/><strong><span class="font-size-3"> </span></strong><br/><span class="font-size-3"><strong>DANIELLE:</strong> That happened after my first year of grad school. When the ECU budget was done and they still had a little money left over, the school put out a call to students asking if anyone was interested in some sort of residency and that we should put a request together if we were.<br/></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">I was interested in neon signs, 50’s era dinner stuff, classic cars and so on. There are lots of diners in the north east. I wondered if I could find out how to make neon lights. My ultimate goal was, of course, to make jewelry out of neon lighting, but first I had to learn how to do the basics.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"> </span></p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058771755?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058771755?profile=original" width="657"/></a>Image: The Neon Company, Atlanta</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058771446?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058771446?profile=original" width="741"/></a></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">I looked up every neon shop in the Northeast and in the Southeast and called all of them. There were only about 20 around. Most of them either didn’t answer my call, some refused outright, often accompanied by, "What on earth are you talking about?" I finally found <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://theneoncompany.com/" target="_blank">The Neon Company in Atlanta, GA,</a></strong></span> that was willing to listen. Gregg, the owner was confused at first about what I wanted to do, but then he said, ok, come on down.</span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3">I jumped for joy, wrote all the necessary paper work for ECU and essentially received enough money to go to Atlanta for a week. I figured, I would meet somebody during that first week which would then maybe lead me to stay somewhere I could afford. Turned out there was an apartment off of the neon shop that I ended up staying in for most of the time I was in Atlanta. I was really lucky they gave it to me. That was generous.<br/></span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3"><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058769647?profile=original"><img width="750" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058769647?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"/></a></span><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.gatech.edu/" target="_blank">Image: Georgia Tech.</a></span></strong></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3">We had a project on top of the <strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tech_Tower" target="_blank">Georgia Tech Tower</a></span></strong>. The tower has a neon sign and the team had to exchange the letters T and E. And so, on my first day on the job, I got to climb to the top of the Georgia Tech Tower. Imagine how excited I was! There is a very old, wooden ladder we had to climb up, which was an incredible experience. To my surprise there is a lot of graffiti up there which was surreal to see. I watched a guy from our team dangle on the outside of the tower replacing the letters, after that we all climbed back down. It was great. That was my first day on the job.</span></p>
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<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058772079?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058772079?profile=original" width="700"/></a>Inert 1 necklace- Neon<br/> Photo by: Sim Asher /Model: Rosie M.</p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3">Towards the end of my second week, Gregg allowed me to start bending tube. I guess he was surprised I picked up the basics fairly quickly. I really took to it, but never managed to do the big circles people are so in awe of. Those are difficult to create. It takes a lot of time to master glass tube bending, you need to learn how to move them gradually. The two jewelry pieces I ended up making were made with forty-five and ninety degree angles because that’s what I can do. But at least I got to make those two pieces and I am happy with them. You have to vaporize mercury inside the tubes and there’s this giant electrical machine that's scary to deal with - they wouldn't let me get near it - the guys in the shop did all that for me, but other than that I bent that neon glass for the necklaces! <br/></span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3">What else happened while I was there? <strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.adultswim.com/" target="_blank">Adult Swim</a></span></strong> sent us a bunch of signs they had received from China. The signs had broken during shipping and we got to fix them. That was really cool to see.</span></p>
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<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058770044?profile=original"><img width="750" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058770044?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"/></a>Neon Co. in Atlanta Georgia. Photo by: Danielle James</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058771446?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058771446?profile=original" width="741"/></a></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The Atlanta shop itself is like the museum of neon. Signs everywhere, from many different time periods and all of them come with a great story which Greg would tell you if you wanted to know. The shop had a great atmosphere, but I definitely felt like the odd woman out because I was the only woman in the shop and the youngest person to boot. The guys in the shop were a little confused, I think, about why I wanted to be there [laughter], but it was a great, great experience. When I came back to ECU I naturally didn't have any of the equipment needed to continue the series, but I was introduced to a glass guy in Raleigh and made some smaller pieces at his place that I'm still working on.</span></p>
<p><br/><span class="font-size-3">The big issue with neon necklaces is that I can't make them small enough to be actually "wearable." I love the color and I love the glow and they are absolutely intoxicating, but also kind of impractical to keep around. They’re made of glass and therefore they tend to break, unfortunately.</span><br/><br/></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3"><em>Upcoming post: Enamels ...</em><br/></span></p> Danielle James - (2) Undergrad & Mustachestag:crafthaus.ning.com,2016-06-20:2104389:Topic:5507052016-06-20T18:58:55.934ZBrigitte Martinhttp://crafthaus.ning.com/profile/brigittemartin
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058766800?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058766800?profile=original" width="401"></img></a> Danielle James, "Indifference", Cloisonné enamel, steel saw blade</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058766959?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058766959?profile=original" width="741"></img></a> <span class="font-size-3">...Continued from …</span></p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058766800?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058766800?profile=original" width="401"/></a>Danielle James, "Indifference", Cloisonné enamel, steel saw blade</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058766959?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058766959?profile=original" width="741"/></a><span class="font-size-3">...Continued from <strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://crafthaus.ning.com/group/danielle-james-humor-and-melancholy/forum/topics/danielle-james-1-background" target="_self">Danielle James (1) Personal Background</a></span></strong><br/></span></p>
<p><br/> <br/> <br/> <strong><span style="color: #339966;" class="font-size-3">CRAFTHAUS: Which school did you go to for undergrad?</span></strong></p>
<p><br/> <br/> <span class="font-size-3"><strong>DANIELLE: </strong> I got a BFA in jewelry metals from <a href="http://www.millersville.edu/" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Millersville University</span>.</a> Had I stayed for an extra semester I would have received a minor in theater as well, but it simply wasn’t feasible. I had already been in school for 5 years at that point, I needed to get out of there.</span></p>
<p><br/> <br/> <strong><span style="color: #339966;" class="font-size-3">CRAFTHAUS: It’s interesting to hear about your interest in staging and theater production and how you love building things in general. It struck me that your work definitely has a theatrical quality to it. The way you place a slain animal on a saw blade, that is certainly quite dramatic. </span></strong></p>
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<p><br/> <span class="font-size-3"><strong>DANIELLE:</strong> Thanks for saying that. Drama, yes, that’s me.</span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3">Where I grew up in Delaware, my parents’ house is right at a major highway and on the other side of that highway is a 44 acres farm. Every October, for the whole month, there was a carnival taking place, complete with haunted houses and around 200 employees. Ever since I was little I had wanted to work there. My parents wouldn’t let me until I turned at least 15 and when I was finally allowed I loved it and ended up working there every October from the age of 15 to 24.</span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3"><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058766959?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058766959?profile=original" width="741"/></a></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058768334?profile=original"><img width="750" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058768334?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"/></a></span>Frightland Haunted Attractions: Every October from age 15 to 24 I worked there on the makeup crew. I am the scary clown on the left side in the bottom photo. (DJ)<br/> Photo by: Scott Lester.</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058766959?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058766959?profile=original" width="741"/></a></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">As I got older, I worked in their make-up department doing all the air brushing for the zombies, clowns, and everything else we had going on at the carnival. I got paid to scare the stuffing out of visitors by painting a barn to look like it had fallen over. We staged the inside of the barn to look like a giant library complete with moving walls. To make it look real we had to secure loads of books as library props, we sawed them in half and nailed them to the walls. Yes, it was all theater, only a bit more in your face, hard core, blood, guts and stuff. You mentioned the saw blade and that’s what made me think of that story again. I have a pretty sick sense of humor according to my mother.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"> </span><br/> <br/> <strong><span style="color: #339966;" class="font-size-3">CRAFTHAUS: That’s funny. So, when did you graduate from Millersville University?</span></strong></p>
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<p><br/> <strong><span class="font-size-3">DANIELLE:</span></strong> <span class="font-size-3">I graduated in 2010, in December. That’s also when I met Erin Kaufman, a graphic design graduate. I already knew her from school, we had had some classes together and we clicked. I don’t know how this came about, apparently we didn’t have any real-life problems at that point, so we simply decided to get together and make jewelry as a team and see if we could get some sales going. I did the metal work and she did the marketing for our little venture. It was mostly silhouettes that came out of that collaboration, we hammered stuff out on steel wire, really simple. Most of our work sold locally and we actually did pretty well financially.</span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3">As a “thing,” we each got our septum pierced and one day Erin went to some sort of dress-up party. She had a little wire mustache made, which she threaded through the hole in her septum and off she went. When she returned from the party she told me that a lot of the guests had loved the mustache and wanted to get some for themselves. That was very encouraging news for both of us. We did some quick research and found titanium wire which is hypo-allergenic and can actually be put in your body without any issues, in contrast to steel. <br/></span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3"><span class="font-size-3">We ended up making a whole bunch of mustaches in different styles from titanium wire, we called them “Falsestaches” and our sales totally exploded. We had a lot of etsy sales all of a sudden, to the point that I was able to pay my rent with this project. It went very well for us and it was fun. It wasn’t anything spectacular craft-wise, but it was a good way for us to get our feet wet.</span></span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3"><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058766959?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058766959?profile=original" width="741"/></a></span><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058769816?profile=original"><img width="750" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058769816?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"/></a><em>Axe to Grind Designs</em> marketing picture and “Redundant Excess” necklace.<br/> Photo by: Adam Serrano.</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058766959?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058766959?profile=original" width="741"/></a><br/> <strong><span style="color: #339966;" class="font-size-3">CRAFTHAUS: Why do you think the mustaches were such a success? </span></strong></p>
<p><br/> <span class="font-size-3"><strong>DANIELLE:</strong> Because mustaches happened to be a really big, fashionable thing back then. That’s the only reason and because we had a lot of weird, crazy friends who liked them. It just happened to be the kind of network we existed in. Oh, and another happy coincidence: A brewery started hosting the “<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://capemaybrewery.com/blog/tag/national-beard-and-mustache-awards/" target="_blank">National Beard and Mustache Awards</a></span>”, we got in on that too!<br/></span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3">In essence, we were just in the right place at the right time and that’s why it worked out for us. We did the mustaches for a little more than a year before I got accepted into grad school and Erin and I had to part ways. She was also getting more of a foothold in her actual career, graphic design. Life happened and we just left it at that. We’re still good friends though.</span></p>
<p><br/> <span class="font-size-3">When I think back on it all, honestly, I would've never gotten into this collaborative mustache project had it not been for Erin. I’m an only child and had never been keen on working with someone on a team until I met her. That was the great thing about our relationship, it just worked. It’s amazing when you find that someone with whom you don't have to complete your sentences, they just get you. Until then I had not known anybody who had gotten that close to me. That was an amazing experience.</span></p>
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<p><strong><em><span class="font-size-3">Next post coming up soon: Graduate School & Neon Lights...</span></em></strong></p>
<p></p> Danielle James - (1) Backgroundtag:crafthaus.ning.com,2016-06-17:2104389:Topic:5506252016-06-17T16:16:39.132ZBrigitte Martinhttp://crafthaus.ning.com/profile/brigittemartin
<p><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058772414?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058772414?profile=original" width="720"></img></a></span></p>
<p>My mother and I during my graduate thesis exhibition<br></br> Photo: Erin Younge</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058772572?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058772572?profile=original" width="741"></img></a></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-3" style="color: #339966;">CRAFTHAUS: Where did you grow up? What’s your…</span></strong></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058772414?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058772414?profile=original" width="720"/></a></span></p>
<p>My mother and I during my graduate thesis exhibition<br/> Photo: Erin Younge</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058772572?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058772572?profile=original" width="741"/></a></p>
<p><strong><span style="color: #339966;" class="font-size-3">CRAFTHAUS: Where did you grow up? What’s your background?</span></strong></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>DANIELLE:</strong> I was born in Delaware and grew up in a little town right in the middle of the state. Baltimore is really close, DC and New York are close. My dad worked a blue collar factory job at a Delaware Chemical Plant. They make bleach for Clorox. He knows a lot about bleach [laughing]. My mother worked at a newspaper called the News Journal. I remember going into the back room where the newspapers were printed and watching them slide down all the way to the floor. Like in the game “Shoots and Ladders.” Then workers came in and put the papers on trucks for delivery. My mom would let me hang out with her while she was getting her work finished. It was a great environment to be in. It was really cool.</span></p>
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<p><strong><span style="color: #339966;" class="font-size-3">CRAFTHAUS: Neither of your parents is involved in art, craft or design. Where does your interest come from?</span></strong></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>DANIELLE:</strong> My dad is an artist of sorts. Not in the academic sense, but he was always into building stuff and making things himself. I remember him building his own canoe once and we would go to a little swamp close-by and collect native American artifacts. We picked up pottery, airheads, old bullet cases and milk jugs. Just weird things that would wash up on the shore. I learned about making things from him. There was always something happening around the house, and I had a certain natural curiosity about how stuff works. My dad was always willing to explain things to me in a way that I could understand, even as a little kid. </span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3"><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058772572?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058772572?profile=original" width="741"/></a></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058763353?profile=original"><img width="750" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058763353?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"/></a></span>"Chocowinity NC Brooch" - Copper, brass, powder coat, champlevé enamel, led lights.<br/> Photos: Danielle James.</p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058772572?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058772572?profile=original" width="741"/></a></span><br/> <strong><span style="color: #339966;" class="font-size-3">CRAFTHAUS: How did you get your start in metals? </span></strong></p>
<p><br/> <span class="font-size-3"><strong>DANIELLE:</strong> When I was in High School we had ceramics and painting classes but no metals. It wasn’t exactly a super exciting art department, but my art teacher was great, passionate and understanding. If I had issues in school, which I always had, I could go to the art studio whenever I wanted.</span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3">Studio theater also took a lot of my time, especially technical theater. I stayed after school for hours and painted finishes on canvasses to make them look like a wooden bar for example. I loved making the sceneries for our High School theater. I continued to do that later in college too and then, eventually, for a professional theater. I created theater backdrops for about 10 years total, which was great because I learned how to build something well. Some of the props we built needed to be sturdy and safe enough for people to walk on. It was important nobody would get hurt.</span></p>
<p><br/> <span class="font-size-3">The metals aspect didn’t actually happen until I was half-way through my undergrad time, during my art education degree. My parents, as supportive as they were of my art work in general, had suggested I go into art education rather than fine art, and I did. The bad part was that I didn’t like my art ed professor very much, and I didn’t like the classes I was taking. It felt like I was in scrapbooking school and I was paying way too much money for it.</span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3">Lucky for me, at the time, Christina Miller from <a href="http://www.ethicalmetalsmiths.org/" target="_blank">Ethical Metalsmiths</a> taught in the metals department and suggested I take a class with her. I took her class, it was very hard and I failed. It was awful, Christina made me cry [laughing]. I never had as rough a time in art ed as I had in her metals class.</span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3"><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058772572?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058772572?profile=original" width="741"/></a></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058772536?profile=original"><img width="750" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058772536?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"/></a></span>At ECU. Saw, file, solder.</p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058772572?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1058772572?profile=original" width="741"/></a></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">I guess I was kind of a lazy kid when I started in the metals department and Christina told me I should probably NOT be taking Metals II - which was, in retrospect, the absolute best thing she could have done for me, because I actually liked metals and was, like, f*** **u! Now I’m gonna take ALL these classes! I am a bit of a contrarian, I guess.</span></p>
<p><br/> <span class="font-size-3">I ended up switching my major to jewelry/metals a year after that, but I was still doing theater props at the same time. I had to do a lot of juggling with my time. And I started selling some of my work. That’s really when I tasted blood and realized I could probably make a living out of this metal thing. I wasn’t getting anywhere close to that kind of positive attention from any of the painting I was doing in art ed. This was different, a new experience for me and I kind of really got off on that. All of a sudden, people were excited about what I was making, it was like a drug and I got addicted.</span></p>
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<p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://Danielle%20James%20-%20(2)%20Undergrad%20&%20Mustaches" target="_blank">Next post: Danielle James - (2) Undergrad & Mustaches</a></span></strong></p>
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