I’ve been committed to the art of jewelry making since that first week of metalsmithing class in college. I got the last space in the class and went from my first project, which the head of the department actually ridiculed during a critique, when she just happened to be passing by, to a beautifully executed gold ring for my final project.

My T.A. (teaching assistant) for that class defended that first piece to the professor, thank you Hollis!

From there I went on to take more classes, in college, in trade school, in gemology with GIA, at Arrowmont. I did two apprenticeships. I briefly tried out grad school. I began to build my tool collection.

I stayed committed to jewelry as an art form. With few exceptions, I didn’t allow myself to work on other art forms or craft media. Metalsmithing has a never-ending array of techniques to master, and for me that’s part of the attraction. As Tom Hanks said in A League of their Own:

“It’s the hard that makes it good. If it weren’t hard, everybody’d do it.”

The one time that I stopped making jewelry was after my older brother died suddenly. After that, jewelry seemed so pointless, so meaningless.

Here’s an excerpt from an essay I wrote about my work for a project:

Well, for a while, I stopped making art at all. If I were to line up all my sketchbooks — where I scribble out my ideas for jewelry, and then write long descriptions explaining what the drawings are, since no one can tell, including me, if I wait long enough to look at it again — there would be a gap there, years probably.

It became meaningless. Why make jewelry? How trival. It didn’t matter.

But clearly, I did come back to art making and jewelry making. And the way back in was through grief, and a string of grief-projects. I’ll show you the El Dia de los Muertos Shrine I made for my brother.

Here’s a post where I talk more about the shrine and art and death: Art and Liminal Times.

And so I continue. I battle the dishes, I make time for my art, I enter shows, I fail to enter shows (whoops! missed another deadline!), but I remain committed to my art, because this is what I do, this is who I am.

——————————————–

This post is a part of the Art Bead Scene blog carnival.
http://artbeadscene.blogspot.com

I’m delighted to be a part of the Art Bead Scene Blog’s Blog Carnival! My first post will be on this month’s theme of commitment.

If you don’t already know Art Bead Scene, you’ll want to! They’re here: http://artbeadscene.blogspot.com

Both will be at the Indianapolis Art Center:

http://www.indplsartcenter.org

I’ve been reading both of the metal clay bead making books that came out last year — one from Barbara Becker Simon and one from Linda Kaye Moses.

Linda’s book shows a wonderful drying rack she made from dowel rods. I didn’t have any dowel rods handy, but I did have straws, so I made a drying rack for making one of the beads in her book.

I laughed at myself for having so many lids handy for this project. No waiting, I was able to make it right away!

…besides the carpet. (there was carpet under all that, who knew?)

I found three, yes, three cans of Liver of Sulphur. And one wasn’t even in the studio.

Ever done that? ‘Lost’ something in your studio and just ordered another one?

Post a comment to confess! Thanks!

I took before and after shots of my bench. Here’s my bench before, with wax dust everywhere.

My studio is so small that in order to have some storage, I have to sit with my back right up against the shelf.

Here’s the sweeps drawer of my workbench cleaned up and ready to work in. It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough to get to work!

And here’s my new mini shelf from IKEA, just the right size for keeping some chemicals off the workbench and out of the way, but still handy.

I was inspired to clean up partly because, well, I just had to so I could get to work, and partly by this post from Lateral Action: http://lateralaction.com/articles/creative-block-disorganisation

This month we ask ourselves –

What is the most difficult piece you’ve ever made, from a technical perspective?

Hmm. Which one to choose? The technical part is what makes jewelry making interesting to me — the piece has to work, it has to function properly — you have to make the design work, and the piece work.

Helping students work out their engineering challenges and order of operations is one of the things I enjoy about teaching metalsmithing.

I’ve raised a few bowls, those are fun, but not really that challenging. I’ve made some hollow containers (salt and pepper shakers) by forming the halves in the hydraulic press and then soldering the parts together. But that’s not hard either.

In metal clay, my piece (from my series of medals), “The Society of Mothers…” was a technical challenge because the sterling silver baby was in the center of a piece of fine silver mesh, and the mesh had to be attached somehow to the outer edge of the medal. That was fun to figure out how to do.

Another medal in the series, the Anti-war Medal, was easier, because a) I’d already worked out how to attach the mesh, and b) the leg (yes, that’s a leg, symbolizing the many lost limbs in the Iraq war) spans the medal.

The tiny spoon I made in PMC was a bit of a pain in terms of getting the bowl shaped just right.

After experimenting with firing the bowl of a spoon (just a bowl I did, no handle) over a combustible core, and not being happy with that, I fired the whole spoon flat and shaped it after it was fired.

I used steel stakes in the hydraulic press to get it shaped just right.

Wondering what the other blog carnival-ites have to say on the subject? Here are their links:

Andes Cruz

Tamra Gentry

Tonya Davidson

Vickie Hallmark

Angela Crispin

My studio is in a small room, 60 square feet, that it shares with this very computer and its desk. And, oh, it’s kind of cold in the winter.

The other day, my dear husband had the clever idea of moving my studio (and rather heavy jeweler’s bench) down to the basement, where I’d have more elbow room.

More importantly, it would be quiet and I’d be further away from potential interruptions.

I like this idea. A lot. Now I just have to make the time to pack, call the electrician to have some outlets installed, and schedule a moving day!

How about you? Do you like being far away from everyone else? or in the hustle and bustle?

Cyndi’s post Beaded Jewelry as Decorations reminded me of Ornament Thursday, a blog carnival I participated in back in 2007.

Here are the links to the ornaments I posted then:

Polymer Clay Ornament

and

Memory Wire Ornament

This month we ask ourselves,

“how are you coping with high precious metals prices?”

This year, I’ve done more work in BronzClay and also some pieces involving silver foil leafing. (those are pretty cool, can’t wait to show you those.)

I’ve been using my BronzClay key chain daily for months now, and it’s holding up really well.

I’ve even taught BronzClay to kids, and they’ve done great work with it. What I’m getting out of working with the bronze, besides saving money, is working larger, more freely, and in a more sculptural way.

Here’s what the rest of the Blog Carnival folks are doing to cope with high metals prices:

Vickie Hallmark:

http://fiberartglass.blogspot.com/2009/11/jewelry-blog-carnival-soaring-cost-of.html

Tamra Gentry:

http://jewelrydesignchronicles.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/november-blog-carnival-high-metals-prices/

Marco Fleseri:

http://www.fleseri.com/blog/2009/11/20/how-are-the-continued-higher-prices-of-precious-metals-affec.html

Andes Cruz:

http://andescruz.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/november-jewellery-blog-carnival/

Tonya Davidson:

http://www.tonyadavidson.com/musings_and_mullings/2009/11/carnival-blog-november.html