On Community and Solitude

A friend recently gave me a link to the PBS series Craft in America and I've been sucking it up like an elixir.  The series has connected some dots for me in a rather unexpected way with regards to my sense of Community. 
As craftpeople we often toil in solitude with the vague hope that what we're working our fingers to the bone on, might in turn provide us with some cold hard cash if only the right person happens to lay eyes on it.  This is the mindset that we're groomed culturally to pursue.  But most often the drive to create exists anyway, regardless of the marketability of the finished object.  There is a deep satisfaction in expressing oneself through the crafting of a tangible product unlike anyone else's; definitely unlike anything that comes from a factory.  And the very presence of that mindset, as I found was clearly evidenced in the Craft in America series, validates for me an intangible but immensely valuable sense of community amongst craftspeople.

Solitude is a state I've come to recognize as being most comfortable.  It allows me the space, mentally and physically, to feel at peace.  And that is the crux of where my creative energy grows from.  Finding satisfaction in solitude comes from recognizing that a connection still exists with all the Others out there who are making, creating, & fabricating from their own sense of identity, objects of Craft that fulfill their personal desire for tangible expression.  A Community exists of solitary people that are
crafting objects of beauty and contemplation that serve to help define our cultural identity.
On that note, I will leave you with a link to an inspirational blog whose post for today coincides nicely with this topic.  (And there's beautiful photos!)  Enjoy:
Solitude & Silence, Steve McCurry

Open Studio at May Day Craft Weekend

Well I've done it.  I've leaped, and with both feet landed squarely on the open studio bandwagon.  And although right now I feel like my arms are madly pin-wheeling to help me get my bearings, it's a pleasant sort of off-balance sensation, and is turning out to be highly motivating to my level of productivity.  And on May 5 & 6 I will be ready to fling wide my door and show off my new products!

Pictured above is an example of my newest excitement: photo-etching!  I have so many pictures of birds and trees and mushrooms and plants, and now I have a way of integrating them into my jewellery.  I will be launching this new line at the open studio event, and have so many ideas for possible designs in the future, so stay tuned!

I also have new jewellery incorporating Crystalline Cabochons by Alexis Templeton!  These recent pieces she's given me to work with are stunning, and they've taken me in new design directions.  At left is an appetizer to tide you over.  I roller printed a series of mountain outlines onto the sterling silver background, and cut the top of the pendant to have a mountain profile.  On the left side I textured a piece of square wire and riveted it in place.


This open studio event is organized by the Craft Council of Newfoundland & Labrador.  There are several studios participating, most are open Saturday and Sunday May 5 & 6, 10am-5pm.
Visit each location, get your passport stamped (available at each location), for a chance to win a basket of loot comprised of work from each studio!  For full details check out http://www.craftcouncil.nl.ca/news/may-day-craft-weekend/


Participating locations:
Clay Studio at Devon House                                                          59 Duckworth St.

Alexis Templeton Studio                                                                75 Quidi Vidi Rd.

Running the Goat Books and Broadsides                                       8 Mullock St.

Susan Lee Studios                                                                           116 Bond St.

Anna Templeton Centre/Craft Council Seconds Sale Fundraiser   278 Duckworth St.

Newfoundland Chocolate Company                                               166 Duckworth St.

CharlotteStreet                                                                                181 Water St. (special event location: window of Johnny Ruth/Living Planet)

Sin City Crafters Handmade Market                                               272 Water St. (special event location: third floor of Rocket Bakery)

Another new avenue on my map

 

I've taught my first jewellery workshop.  Phew!  And Yay!  "Pierced and Soldered Ring Bands" was hosted by Peyton Barrett and her family at their studios in Sandy Point.  What a beautiful setup they have there.  Bright and spacious, with different workrooms for different tasks, as well as a little retail shop.  We were made to feel most welcome there, and she cooked for us too!  Divine! 

In terms of the workshop, I do believe it was a successful experience for everyone.  This was my first experience teaching adults, and I found it far less stressful than teaching kids.  I've only done that in a very limited capacity, but remember feeling utterly drained during and afterwards!  Adults are much better at intuitive self-directed learning.  I think I managed to help everyone in some way, even those who were somewhat familiar with the techniques I was showing them.  So that was rewarding.  You can see the fruits of our labours in the photo at the top.  I will make a few adjustments to my lesson plan if I teach it again, but the aspect I was most concerned about: the pacing, was pretty close to accurate for the time we had allotted for the workshop.   I think the time and planning I put into this first lesson plan were well worth it.   

A huge thank-you to my "guinea pig" class, you were most agreeable and hard-working!  And of course to Pete for getting the ball rolling in so many ways.  

Now I must more thoroughly tackle the lesson plan for my next workshop at the Anna Templeton Centre, "Piercing and Riveting"...  

 

Oh, this must be why I did that MUN certificate.

I started taking distance education courses at Memorial University a few years ago, when I was still working full-time as a welder, to earn my Certificate in Post-Secondary Education.  Jewellery was still a part-time activity for me then, and I had a vague idea that I might teach welding one day.  But my passions shifted over the years, and now jewellery is what keeps my creative juices flowing on a daily basis.  I kept plugging away at my certificate, however, since I'm not one to leave loose ends dangling and I completed it last year.  Now, with people asking on occasion if I could please show them how to do this or that jewellery skill, I've decided to put together a couple of lesson plans for beginning techniques in metalworking for jewellers.

At the top of my blog you'll notice I've added a new tab: Workshops.  So far, I've got three coming up for this spring.  The first is in Sandy Point, and will be a great weekend of ring-making, hosted by the effervescent Pete Barrett.  (Oh, you'll die for her "flummies", so delicious!)  She can arrange billeting if you're not sure where to stay in Central.  The second (already sold out!) and third workshops are being hosted by the Anna Templeton Centre in downtown St. John's.  A wonderfully historic building, bound to get your creativity flowing, as we make pierced and riveted pendants, earrings, and keychains (hint hint, now that's something a fellow might like to make isn't it?).  Click on the Workshop tab to get all the registration details for each. 

As an avid workshop junkie myself, I love seeing the varied results when students are provided with the same skills and materials.  We each bring such personal interpretation to our creative practice, and I'm so excited to be able to provide a bit of a basis for those who want to see what jewellery-making has to offer.

Unplugged

The internet is great.  I love how much inspiration and knowledge is at my fingertips.  However it sucks my time up in an increasingly addictive way.
For me, the morning is my best time for accomplishing creative things.  But too often lately I've let that niggling voice in my head that tells me to just check my email, to see if there's any new messages on Facebook, or to pop in to the discussion forum with my etsy team, win the first part of my day.  And "suddenly" the morning is gone.  The afternoon then coerces me into getting out of the house, and before I know it, the day is gone, and nothing creative has been accomplished.
So last week was a necessary and welcome intervention.  We fled the city and it's conveniences of internet for some cross-country skiing and a bit of ice-fishing, with only the occasional access to internet when we chose to drive into town for other necessary things, like food.  
Aaah, what an elixir.  The plentiful fresh air and the freedom to work on some wire trees, as well as an owl sketch for a piece of jewellery that was, hitherto, stuck in my head, was blissful indeed.

Repurposing the long-gone railroad.

Every 10 yards or so, coyote did the soft-shoe.

In progress.

And now that I'm back in the city, it is my determined goal to not succumb to the Siren call of the computer in the mornings, and get right down to some tangible creative endeavor.

Digging Out!

   We're buried in snow today, but I've been busy doing digging of a different sort.  Tomorrow, myself, Jason Holley, and Alexis Templeton are having a SALE!!!  I just love doing group things like this, it's going to be SO MUCH FUN!  (apologies to those that find CAPITAL letters offensive!)


I've gone through ALL of my jewellery, not just the stuff that stands cohesively-well together in a craft fair setting, and I've found some pieces that maybe are just the only one that's left, or maybe it was the only one that I made in the first place.  Items that I'm really quite pleased with, but they're having trouble finding a home because they look lonely in a craft fair display, where many items of similar style stand together, and these items stand apart.

 SALE at Alexis Templeton's Studio! 75 Quidi Vidi Rd. 11am-6pm



AND, with the excitement of having this event approaching, I've been motivated to work on two new Crystalline Collaborative pieces.  One of which I've been pondering for some time, and the other of which I thought I knew my plans for, and as I tackled it, they changed entirely. 

At right is a stunning example of Alexis' talent with crystalline glazing.  A very gentle blue, with the crystal splashed across the cabochon from one side.  I had planned to incorporate a whale into the design of this piece.  I even crafted a whale tale shaped bail for it.  But after much thought it just didn't feel or look right.  The balance was off somehow, and so the whale bail waits for another pendant.  Instead, I used reticulated silver and where the cabochon cuts into the silver, the outline of the crystal completes the interrupted circle.

The Butterfly Brooch was determined to come about exactly as I pictured it in my mind from the start.  The shape of the crystal on this cabochon could be nothing other, in my mind, than butterfly wings.  Being so set on the design, however, led me on a much longer journey to complete it than I had anticipated!  And it used a lot more silver than I had expected.  But I'm ultimately pleased with the result.  The only alteration I made from my original idea was to leave out the antenna I'd planned to attach to his head.  I felt they were too fragile a component to be practical.


So these two new pieces will make their public debut tomorrow at Alexis' studio as well.  I hope you can make the journey down to have a look and let me know what you think of them.

Resuming normal flight pattern.

 

The holiday season is over, and on the cusp of 2012 I feel a greater sense of the direction that I've been cultivating over this past year.  One year ago, I was diving into my studies in Haliburton, and launching this blog.  Now, as I return home from a festive break with family, I expected the dreaded dead period of winter sales revenues to allow me to tackle some new ideas that have been percolating, as well as catch up on some production of wire trees, but, as it turns out, those will have to wait.  A couple of customers have surfaced, and I haven't even been home a week!  It is very affirming.  I feel grateful to have made this choice to shift my life in such a creative and rewarding direction.  Wishing everyone the best for 2012, onward and upward...