Annual Member's Exhibit: 20/20

Another summer is here!  Although the weather is determined to convince us otherwise, the plants are defying the odds and turning green, the grass is growing, and that means the Annual Member's exhibit is once again upon us.  This is the 20th Anniversary of the Craft Council Gallery, and so the theme for this year's show is 20/20, with the idea of the submissions reflecting a vision of where we're headed as individual craftspeople.  The pieces I have in this year's show are a reflection of some of the brand new skills I've acquired during my studies in Haliburton, and are a glimpse of my intention to take my work up a notch to a new level of professionalism.  I'm really pleased with these pieces, they are truly one-of-a-kind.  And I'm thrilled to have them included in this year's exhibit alongside the work of so many truly talented and inspiring craftspeople.  The exhibit opens this Saturday, June 25th at 2pm and runs until September 4th.  Drop down and visit! http://www.craftcouncil.nl.ca/news/2011-annual-members-exhibit/

Meanwhile, I'm keeping busy in my studio with a commission for a 25th wedding anniversary.  It's keeping me on my toes.  Commissions seem to be a great way to step outside my "box" and make something different, and in the process, I'm tackling things from new angles and finding exciting possibilities for future projects as well.

I'm also working on components for an open studio collaboration I'll be doing with Alexis Templeton at her studio on July 8th & 9th.  I'll post more about that next week....  Should be lots of fun!

And I'll leave you with two links that are exciting me today.  The first I will peruse in more detail as time permits.  It's called the National Parks Project, and is a joint undertaking between musicians and filmmakers that focuses on  many of our beautiful national parks. http://www.nationalparksproject.ca/

And the other link is to a nifty little house-ish structure that would make a great studio (my second choice studio since stumbling upon the  Tiny House Blog, the first choice was a straw bale construction).  I think I'd need a cat with a crooked tail to go with it though!  http://tinyhouseblog.com/stick-built/rustic-way-whimsical-house/

Reinvention

"Finished" is a very subjective state of existence.  In getting a handle on my inventory these last couple of months, and in choosing which new directions to pursue first,  I've been looking at my jewellery with fresh eyes.  I've created pieces that seemed truly done at one time.  I thought through the design process, I did the work, I polished the final result.  But then, given some distance in time, I'm seeing new directions for some things.

At left is a bangle I made in Haliburton.  I wasn't overly thrilled with the final shape.  Granted, it was an exercise in technique, more than design, but I finished it the best I could.  Then the inspiration of last week's etching workshop at the printshop hit me.  And so the bangle I didn't love became the cuff above that I absolutely do.  Now I see the infinite possibilities for this bangle design.  Absolutely infinite!  And narrower ones in silver and brass....

Another design I put together quite some time ago was a series of earrings like the ones on the right.  I had quickly sold a similar pair at Devon House and thought I'd hit on a design that appealed.  So I made more of them.  But they have not proved as popular as the first pair.  What to do?  I exposed them to different audiences, still no takers.  But then I saw them in a different light one day.  Less as a failed design, more as components that could be reinvented.  I've had customers ask if I make earrings on posts.  And it was then I saw the potential in these to reconstruct them into something my customers might be looking for.  The results are below, with the spin-off bonus that I like the look of the remaining copper cups on their long shepherd hooks so much that I've claimed a pair for myself!

Aren't they cute?  I'm really pleased with them.  And even if I'm the only one who thinks so, I can hopefully learn from this experience, so that what initially seems like a dead-end design suddenly does a cartwheel, and voila!, become something new.

THAT is an etching.  It is not a piece of jewellery.  I was very excited this past week, to take an etching and aquatint class from Philippa Jones (http://www.philippajones.com/) at St. Michael's Printshop here in St. John's.  Etching in jewellery making is one thing, but I suspected that etching in printmaking was entirely another.  In fact there are a lot of similarities.  But the differences are what have excited me to now bring this new knowledge across the chasm into my jewellery making.

Here's the process, abbreviated.  At right is the drawing I prepared ahead of the class.  We were instructed to utilize both line and tonal values.  If you are a regular reader, this image may look familiar.  I do not count myself amongst the talented draw-ers of this world.  I can however, given enough time, produce a reasonable replica from a photograph.  This drawing is an amalgamation of three pictures I took during our studio tour on the Southern Shore, and some of which I shared in my last post.  I had sincerely hoped that there was a way we would directly transfer our drawn image to the copper etching plate, but that was not the case.


The copper plate is coated with "ground" (resist in jewellery-speak), and then I redrew the image onto it using the tool pictured (which is just a sharpened piece of steel).  It is only necessary to scratch through the ground, not into the copper.  And then it is etched.  Once it comes out of the acid you apply ink to the plate, and then "pull a print".  Simple as that.  The result is the image at the top of this post.  Etching reproduces the line values in a drawing, not the tonal values.  For that you then do an aquatint. This is a secondary process done on the same plate.  Using a "painterly" technique, ground is applied in stages to the plate, blocking out the lightest areas, then the next lightest, and the next, and so on, with a brief etch happening in between each.  (I likened it in my mind to making Ukrainian easter eggs.)

At right is the plate after a couple of these layers of ground have been applied.  The ground is the dark brown part, and they are covering the areas I wanted to remain the lightest in the finished print.  It was difficult to separate in my brain the application of a dark brown covering that would result in a light area when it was done.   Philippa emphasized the importance of realizing that the aquatint would not exactly replicate my drawing, no matter how hard I tried!  With an aquatint I had more freedom in the application of the ink to the plate than with the etching, so the image can be more or less dark, as desired.  Below is the finished plate and aquatint.

 

I loved the workshop.  I think my patience lies more with the etching than with the aquatint process, I would prefer to take more care with my line values to convey the illusion of tonal values, rather than go through the repetition of painting ground and etching required to create an aquatint, but I have only done it once, so with practice the aquatinting might become easier.  

But this blog is about jewellery, so now what.  Well!  I loved the detail I could get with the printer's ground, and I intend to seek out some of that so I can refine my etched designs in jewellery.  That is the biggest and most immediate result of this workshop.  Down the road I may try making mini etchings that become art jewellery in some way, or the mini etched plate would become a piece of jewellery, and in partnership with it maybe would be a print from the plate itself.  So many possibilities....  

The inspiration of others

What a fabulous fun filled weekend!  This past weekend was the AGM for the Craft Council.  On Friday we traveled down the Southern Shore to visit the studios of Nicola Hawkins, Peter Sobel, and have lunch at Five Island Art Gallery.  It's so refreshing to see other people's creative environments.  Nicola and her husband have transformed an old church into the most mind blowing home and studio space.  Truly a multi-talented woman.  It will be exciting to see her upcoming show at The Rooms after the sneak peak she gave us.  Lunch was lovely at Five Island Art Gallery, surrounded by the artwork of so many accomplished painters, as well as the rugs of Laura and Sheila Coultas.  The gallery is a beautiful space in an old schoolhouse.  We had a lovely day for a walk after lunch, and Vicky showed us where the East Coast Trail connects in Tors Cove.  Beautiful vistas.  And you've got to love small old towns where they leave the church unlocked.  Old-school woodwork in there.  Attention to the details.  In Witless Bay we were an entranced audience as Peter Sobel peppered us with his boundless ideas and plans, and showed us his clay and painting studios, as well as his gallery, garlic beds, and finally his home, where his wife joined us and we spent the rest of the afternoon eating cookies with beverages and watching the gannets and whales out in the bay.  Phew, and that was just Friday!  Here's some pictures:

Saturday evening was potluck and slide show night.  If there's a better combo out there I don't know what it is.  The brie and chive biscuits I brought were a big hit - thanks Cecily!  John Goodyear showed and explained to us the evolution of his work and some of the woodworkers that inspire him.  It adds so much to hear where an artist's ideas come from, it gives the work more substance in a way.  Isabella St.John then showed us a selection of slides that earned her the contract to make the lantern-like forms that the lucky recipients of the EVAs took home this weekend at their awards gala. 
Sunday was the AGM, and I will say I was a bit leery of going.  I've never attended an annual general meeting before, and I feared it might be hard to stay awake.  But it wasn't!  It was very interesting.  I hadn't realized how interconnected the different parts of the Craft Council really are.  And everyone cares about the success of all the other parts.  I won't deny it was a long meeting though, and it has taken a bit of time to find the creative spark I felt after the creative injection we got on Friday and Saturday.  But it's great to feel a part of a craft community that is so supportive. 

Please take some time to peruse the links below for info on some of the artists I encountered on this great weekend:
http://www.fiveisland.ca/
http://www.petersobolart.com/
http://www.csda-ccad.org/ornSpring2010Domestic.cfm  (Article on Nicola Hawkins)
http://www.johnpaulgoodyear.ca/
http://nlac.nf.ca/awards/stjohn.htm

And three woodworkers John Goodyear showed us the work of:
http://www.jacquesvesery.com/JVesery/Jacques_Vesery.html
http://dixiebiggs.com/
http://www.jpaulfennell.com/

Enjoy!

Not all the same beast

Craft fairs are puzzling.  Each one is so different from the last.  I'm finding that there's no set-in-stone expectation for the atmosphere, the sales, or the customers.  I was anxious about the fair this past weekend, because for the most part I was flying solo, with no booth sitter, for three days.  However it was a fair unlike any other on which I'd based these anxieties.  The craft tables were set up just off the lobby in the Sheraton hotel, and we were invited there to display our wares for the national AGM of the RCMP Veteran's Association being hosted here in St. John's.  So the venue was comfortable in the extreme.  We had access to coffee and muffins and pastries all day.  The room was spacious and inviting.  Washrooms were conveniently close at hand.  But sales were sluggish to non-existent for the first day and a half, and there were great lulls of inactivity whilst the vets were in their meetings.

Which leads me to ponder how long craft fairs in general should be in duration.  People do like to browse, and ponder what they've seen, and have time to come back.  But I do think that given this time to peruse and ponder, people will not purchase less, if the fair is shorter, than they would if it were longer.  A few of us punched a VERY long second day at this fair, and my sales did begin in earnest at 10pm that night.  Most purchasers saved their spending for the final day, as would seem logical, since it was their last opportunity.  Marketing to visitors also is different, since they know, for all intents and purposes, that if they want what they see they should buy it now.  But they wanted to see it all before they made a final purchasing decision, and fair enough, which meant we had to wait till the final day of the convention for them to have seen all they could when they were out and about on bus tours and the like.  The customers were lovely though, and it was such an happy group of people to be on the periphery of, as they reminisced and recounted tales of their varied postings across this country over the years.  At right is how my last day of the fair began.  Not too shabby!

I was inspired this week by the postings of Island Sweet to carry my camera on my evening walks.  Because the same old same old is really quite beautiful when you remember to look with fresh eyes!

A few 'snaps': The last link in the chain of events.

The fun of jewellery is in the making.  I do not find the fun in the labeling, pricing, packaging, and photographing.  Not so much.  It has become the necessary tedium.  So today, with the hint a a little sunshine, after days of dreariness, I decided I'd change up the tedium a bit and try photographing my new jewellery outside.  Usually I use a lightbox, with somewhat, but not very adequate lights, and a branch to hang the jewellery on placed in the box.  However the branch is not exactly horizontal, nor is it inclined to remain steady.  It is an exercise in extreme patience to photograph things on it.  Earrings especially.  They wiggle, and twist.  So, outside I went.  While I don't think I saved time doing it out there, I think the fresh air was calming.  And there were flowers.  There were, inevitably, different variables to contend with; ah, yes: the wind, and the branches that are ideal for hanging jewellery seem (right now, in this time of barely spring) to be growing unnecessarily close to the ground.  But I was, overall, pleased with the results.  Here's some of what I've made recently and will be selling in the lobby of the Sheraton this coming Thursday, Friday, and Saturday during the National RCMP Veteran's Association Convention:  (The last image shows a bit of my set up for taking the pictures outside.) (AND if anyone wants to offer a tutorial on aligning photos in Blogs without having to know HTML, I'd be eternally grateful!!!)
Cheerio!

Getting back into the swing of things.

Well, I knew I'd be busy when I first got home, but whew! I'm just now getting my feet under me after being back for well over a week.  The MayDay YayDay fair was great fun.  What a beautiful venue.  Many long days could be eased by their proximity to a very fine bakery I think!

I filled this past weekend up with a workshop on Saturday: mould-making with John Bear.  Geared towards potters, but I think I can adapt it somewhat to working with metal.  I must look up how durable plaster of paris is when molten metal is poured into it.... I think Susan Stopps may have mentioned something about that during our casting week.  It sure would be nice to make moulds I could use more than once when I eventually get the right equipment for dealing with molten metal.  And on Sunday, H and I went panning for gold.  Yes.  Seriously.  We also seriously didn't find any.  But it was a great day to be tramping about in the woods.  Tea and herring over a fire.  Nothing better.

Now I'm trying to put my nose to the grindstone and make some production jewellery.  I'm signed up for a table at the RCMP Veteran's Association Convention next week, being held at the Sheraton Hotel.  We'll be set up in the lobby for 3 days, so a comfortable and very public venue, that I expect will draw members of the general public as well.  I'm still working on making a quantity of new designs that are "fair friendly".  It's been a challenge trying to focus on what I can make now with the tools I have, after being spoiled with such a well equipped studio in Haliburton!  It's tougher than I expected that's for sure. 

I do love riveting, and I like the texture I get with my riveting hammer, so I've been using those techniques.  I also have some copper fuming over ammonia to patina it.  I'd like to find some sawdust so I can get more interesting effects with that.  Below is the first rinse and scrub: imagine if that blue would stay on the metal!

But now I must get out for a walk before the day is done.  And find some chocolate.  Yes I do believe I hear its call....