May 2011 Blog Posts (20)

a half hour break

Since Thursday evening last week, it has been absolutely non-stop! I spent the weekend in Birmingham, the home of the jewellery industry in the UK and a city I love for its energy, friendliness and genuine multi-culturalism: ignore the naysayers who deride the place... It is WELL worth a visit.

 

The reason for visiting Birmingham this time was for a board meeting of the Association for Contemporary Jewellery, roughly the UK equivalent of SNAG, albeit on a slightly smaller…

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Added by The Justified Sinner on May 24, 2011 at 3:43pm — 1 Comment

Toshiko Takaezu 1922-2011

Toshiko Takaezu was an especially strong influence on my work as a potter in the early 1970’s.  She made wonderful large, quiet pieces and was a strong role model for me as a woman in a field then heavily dominated by men.  Her esthetic has continued to be a reminder to me as a metalsmith of the strength and beauty in seemingly simple organic forms.

Safe journey, Toshiko…

Added by Deborrah Daher on May 23, 2011 at 9:11pm — No Comments

Upcoming classes at Genevieve Flynn Studio

Genevieve's Visiting Artist program is going strong and she has two other wonderfully talented instructors/artists coming up!

August 5-6, 2011 Forging Fine Silver with Michael David Sturlin

September 6-10, 2011 Hydraulic Press A-Z with Cynthia Eid

 

Along with the fabulous instructors above more are being added along with a developing schedule…

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Added by Genevieve E. Flynn on May 23, 2011 at 9:42am — No Comments

"Art by Attrition"

If you'll be in Seattle for SNAG, I hope you'll check out the show "Art by Attrition" at Kobo Gallery at Higo.

Curated by Julia Harrison, the show features pieces made by artists who use subtractive or reductive techniques to produce their forms.  "Subtractive processes have a particular dynamic.  When using these techniques, all of the material that an artist will have to work with is present from the beginning and, once removed, cannot be replaced.  This exhibition will call attention…

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Added by Emily Watson on May 21, 2011 at 3:06pm — No Comments

Thinking about Geography

I have been feeling very nostalgic for San Francisco since my visit there last November. Strangely this is always triggered when I see a house in New Jersey with a stucco exterior.  I realized the places I lived the longest or during important turning points in my life were all stuccoed. I never realized that this visual memory was so strong. I felt something like this when I moved back to S.F. after living in Wisconsin for three years, I thought I longed to see the ocean again, but what hit…

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Added by Thea Clark on May 21, 2011 at 2:00pm — No Comments

Digital Image (extensions) - Or alphabet soup? A quick tutorial. GET READY for the PDS.

I have a feeling that many artists and makers are confused about the different digital images.

 Are you confused about:

  • RAW
  • PSD
  • TIFF
  • JPG
  • GIF
  • PNG…

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Added by Harriete E Berman on May 21, 2011 at 11:41am — No Comments

New SNAG program will benefit members

SNAG is launching a new program to promote members work.  This looks to be quite different than the tired old approach of a few images and a CV.  Anthony Tammaro is leading the program which will be unveiled at the conference.

Added by 2Roses on May 20, 2011 at 8:49am — 4 Comments

Birmingham Weekend!

Off to Birmingham this weekend to meet with fellow jewellers and Crafthaus members, Miriam Rowe and Yi Liu. I'm going down for a meeting of the board of the Association for Contemporary Jewellery and it's always good to make these things a bit social too.

 

Been doing a lot of work on "A Forest" too. I managed to complete the top of the main box structure:

 …

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Added by The Justified Sinner on May 18, 2011 at 3:42pm — No Comments

Cough!

Well, I got loads done today despite having a strange 'flu-like thing which is making me cough a lot and sneeze loads - not good for soldering - without making me feel bad in any other way... 

 

Attached most of the top section of "A Forest": 

 

A Forest (WIP) - 32

 …

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Added by The Justified Sinner on May 14, 2011 at 3:44pm — No Comments

my work in an upcoming show in Seattle

My work will be in a show during the SNAG conference in Seattle this month. It's called "Art by Attrition" and it's at KOBO at Higo gallery. The theme of the show is artwork made by the subtractive process. The show will be May 26th - June 25th, 2011.

Added by Jon M Ryan on May 13, 2011 at 5:28pm — No Comments

Powering Ahead

Got quite a lot of work done on "A Forest" today:

 

A Forest (WIP) - 32

 

This has easily been one of the most challenging silver-iron soldering exercises!

I wanted a large bullet cabochon for the bottom of the piece, to make into an "acorn" but my stone-dealer had nothing in stock and while I could have asked her to get one cut…

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Added by The Justified Sinner on May 12, 2011 at 3:57pm — No Comments

The Scent of a Forest...

Because of time constraints, "A Forest" is having to be made to serve two purposes: 1) to enter for consideration in the show outlined in a previous post and; 2) to enter an informal "contest" between friends, colleagues and associates where we all tackle the same idea in our own way. The current challenge is to create a wearable perfume holder. I'm not quite sure at what point it occurred to me to combine the two projects, but they are now quite unified in my head!

 

I made…

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Added by The Justified Sinner on May 11, 2011 at 3:52pm — No Comments

Sawblades In Hand

Mondays are never a good day for me to make blog posts as I go straight from work to an evening meeting, from which I rarely get home before 22.30... however, this is a kind of monday-and-tuesday update on "A Forest". After Satuday's debacle of the sawblades, I managed to get started again on Monday morning with 1 dozen borrowed from one of my students - another of my students brought me half a gross in the afternoon (I have the best students!).

 

I managed to cast some of the…

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Added by The Justified Sinner on May 10, 2011 at 4:20pm — No Comments

What is Craft Forward? Are we lost or found in the 21st century?

Craft Forward, an amazing title that attracted my attention when first announced. I wouldn't have missed this symposium -- and only an hour from my house. 

 

 

A symposium about CRAFT moving Forward.  Despite the upheavals and economic struggles for all artists and makers, I anticipated a symposium…

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Added by Harriete E Berman on May 10, 2011 at 12:08pm — No Comments

back in my studio for a while

Two weeks ago I came back to the US after spending the last year teaching English at a high school in South Korea.  It was a good experience and I'm glad I did it.  I had been thinking of teaching English in Asia for about the past 15 years, and I finally did it.  When I left for Korea last year I was totally burnt out working in my studio, and sick of the things I was making.  I thought taking at least one year off would be good for me and my work.  The year flew by and it was so good I… Continue

Added by Jon M Ryan on May 9, 2011 at 12:20am — No Comments

Never Run Out of Sawblades on a Saturday!

A new maxim for metalsmiths, in the UK at least. I was hoping to finish the piercing on the box flat which will make up the main body of "A Forest" but broke my last 6/0 blade on the back panel:

 

A Forest (WIP) - 18

 

As you can see, there are about half-a-dozen sections to go and the right-hand panel isn't even started. I can't use…

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Added by The Justified Sinner on May 7, 2011 at 11:49am — 1 Comment

Attack Of The Fifty-Foot Woman!

I started cutting the box for "A Forest" today: 

 

A Forest (WIP) - 14

 

The trees were drawn in Inkscape from photographs of real trees (in Rye, East Sussex) and then transferred to Rhino to make the cutting plans;

 …

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Added by The Justified Sinner on May 6, 2011 at 2:48pm — No Comments

The Kiss - A Forest

I've been planning my entry for BJ Johnson's call for pieces based on inspirations from the works of The Cure. Since I first read about this exhibition, I've been planning what to make and have ended up going with my initial feelings that I should work with the initial idea I had after reading the proposal: to make a piece around "A Forest", their 1980 single and a song which, for me, encapsulates their…

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Added by The Justified Sinner on May 5, 2011 at 2:30pm — 4 Comments

Enameling

 

I have leather enameling gloves...but I never use them. Getting tired of my thumb always getting just a tad bit too hot when I put those pieces in the kiln!!!...maybe I should wear those…

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Added by Aimee A. Domash on May 2, 2011 at 12:27am — 4 Comments

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