Back In The UK: US Visit Part One

[The Justified Sinner]

At last! A moment in this mad summer break to get a few words down about what I've been doing. Some of you will already know that I spent the last three weeks in the USA, visiting New York, Pittsburgh, Erie and Edinboro, which was quite easily the most productive and fun break I've had in years. Not so sure that Dingo appreciated being drafted in as my PA, though!

 

It all kicked off with a talk at the Society for Contemporary Craft and general networking with Sherrard and the excellent people who work there. The place is absolutely excellent and well worth a visit when in Pittsburgh.

 

 

While there, I was introduced to the wonderful work of Mariko Kusimoto, work of which I wasn't really fully aware previously. She makes phenomenally complex box-structures which house many, many elements which can all be removed from the box and worn as jewellery:

 

 

 

 

At the end of the first week in Pittsburgh, Dingo and I met up with our lovely editor and powerhouse, Brigitte, to go on the Pittsburgh "art crawl", which is a monthly event in which many artists and galleries open up to the public, serving drinks and generally having a lot of fun. 

 

 

We travelled in style, as this picture by Brigitte shows...

 

 

Brigitte jumped in a moment later and the poor lad had to pedal for three of us!

After, it was dinner at the marvellous Church Brew House with other Pittsburgh metalsmiths, Glen Gardner, Thomas Mullen and Brian Ferrell. 

 

Dingo and Brigitte ponder one of Glen's printed-metal rings.

More general photographs of Pittsburgh can be seen here.

 

Later in the break, we hooked up with Sue Amendolara and went to Erie, where she quite unbelievably managed to get us unlimited access to the fantastic art-deco Warner Theatre in the town. 

 

More photographs of the visit can be seen by clicking the photograph above.

We then went to Edinboro, where I gave a talk on Electrolytic Etching, with a demonstration of how easily the process could be done with recycled mobile phone chargers!

 

 

After the demonstration, we all went back to Sue's house for a party, which was lovely. Especially lovely was the cake made by her delightful daughter, Leah and her friend Maeve:

 

A tribute to my pig earring!

 

End of Part One. More tomorrow.

[The Justified Sinner]

Yes, Sir, it was!

Mariko's work is really wonderful.

[Stevie B.]

Mariko Kusimoto :) Wonderful work.

 

Looks like you all had tons of fun!

[The Justified Sinner]

Brigitte, please use any of the Flickr shots; they are available on a Creative Commons license for that very reason. I will be blogging more about the cities later, but don't let that stop you!

[Brigitte Martin]

I browsed through your flickr pages and was amazed at the many wonderful, sometimes quite freaky, shots you took of Pittsburgh (GAR home, anyone?). There is certainly something to be said for looking at a place with "fresh eyes". Is it ok if I "pirate" some of your shots to post them here in your or my previous blog from your recent visit (with proper photo credit of course). Your photos are so amazing, they should not be buried on flickr... :-) Or are you planning another run of blogs about the city?

[Brigitte Martin]

So wonderful to hear your report. Hope to see you again next year!