My Profile at Bead Arts Blog
Posted by Leah on Mar 1, 2007
Check out this profile about me on the Bead Arts Blog!
Thanks to Cyndi, the author of the blog for featuring me and arranging all the images so nicely. You can read about all of the jewelry artists Cyndi has profiled on her blog here. She also profiles mixed-media artists on another blog, Layers Upon Layers, here. The guy who makes porcelain urinals really caught my attention - definitely unique!
Another blog to check out
Posted by Leah on Feb 14, 2007
My friend Cyndi recently started a new Bead Arts blog, and she already has some fantastic articles and tutorials up.
Check out this profile on another jeweler friend of mine, Wendy of Indigo Skye.
Cyndi and Wendy are two of the jewelry makers who contributed charms to the Charmed Life necklace (I also have a charm featured in this collaborative necklace, pictured here) which will be auctioned off to benefit breast cancer research.
The Tucson Gem Shows
Posted by Leah on Jan 11, 2007
The annual Tucson Gem Shows are coming up in a few weeks. For the first time in several years, I don’t think I’m going to be able to attend the shows.
For hobbyists as well as professional jewelers, the Tucson shows are a must-see. Some shows are open to the public, while others require a resale license, business cards, wholesale invoices, and various other types of paperwork as proof that you really are in the jewelry business. Even if you aren’t in the business, there are plenty of shows you can attend.
There are bead shows, gem shows, shows that sell rough for cutting or making cabochons, finished jewelry shows. too demos, and jewelry classes for all levels of jewelry making expertise. Plus, industry experts from all over the world are there, and there are networking opportunities, such as Ganoksin’s Orchid forum dinner.
One of my favorite events to attend is Rio Grande’s catalog in motion, where you get to see just about everything from Rio’s tool catalog demonstrated. Last year I learned how to use the Tri-cord knotter for pearl knotting, and saw demos of all kinds of fun tools for everything from metalsmithing to beadwork to resin. It’s very inspiring, and tempting to blow a few months’ salary on tools!
If anyone reading plans to go to Tucson and is wondering about different shows, feel free to contact me (michon at michondesign dot com). If I can’t go to Tucson this year, I can at least talk to people about it and live vicariously that way!
Top 20 works of art worldwide?
Posted by Leah on Dec 6, 2006
A post on Art Biz Blog led me to this Top 20 list of the “best” works of art in the world.
I’m probably admitting too much about my lack of knowledge of art - both classical, modern, post-modern, etc - considering I aspire to make my living off of art and fine craft - but I thought it would be fun to share about my favorite works of art.
When I traveled around Europe for the first time about five years ago, there were two pieces of art that really made me stop and catch my breath. Both were by Michelangelo: David (in Florence) and the Pieta (St. Peter’s in Rome). I went to a *lot* of art museums, and granted, I was sometimes probably too hungover to appreciate the art (it was right after college graduation), but those two pieces would still top my list of “old” art. I guess that probably shows my preference for sculpture. While I did see many incredible paintings, none struck me as much as these two sculptures.
The next time I toured western Europe, about a year later, I discovered some modern art that I really liked at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. There was an abstract painting by Matisse, and some sculpture by Calder, that stood out to me among lots of other really interesting modern art there. I don’t remember the names of the pieces, but the images stuck with me after leaving Paris. I also discovered in Paris the girlfriend (or maybe wife?) of Rodin, Camille Claudel, while at the Rodin museum. Rodin’s Thinker is a great sculpture, but I really loved some of Claudel’s smaller sculptures.
There are a few living artists who continue to amaze and inspire me, and all three work in metal. Ruth Asawa’s large crocheted wire sculptures are awe-inspiring, particularly since I’ve done a little wire crochet and have personal experience with the physical challenge of working metal in this way. Jewelry artists Arline Fisch and Mary Lee Hu, who also use textile inspired techniques in their metalwork, are two of the people who inspired me to work with metal. Arline Fisch’s book, Textile Techniques in Metal, is one of my all-time favorite books, and if anyone wants to say that she and Hu are not artists because they work in a “craft” medium, I will argue with you about that. To me, their jewelry is sculpture, and the fact that it can be worn is irrelevant. I just like looking at it - all the details fascinate me.
So that’s my short list of well-known art that has been the most influential or inspiring to me. What’s your favorite piece(s) of art, or the artist(s) that have been most inflential to you? Now that I’ve written this post, I’m tempted to make another list, of unknown artists I love - since I know many aspiring artists and crafters personally who do incredible work.
The Beader’s Guide to Color by Margie Deeb
Posted by Leah on Dec 4, 2006
Margie Deeb’s book “The Beader’s Guide to Color
Whether or not you use beads in your chosen art/craft, the beautifully illustrated discussions of color theory in this book make it a good read. Professionally photographed pieces of beadwork accompany pages on specific color combinations, and small diagrams show suggested accent colors to go with a chosen main color. I refer to this book whenever I need color inspiration.
For seed beaders, the book has an additional perk: all suggested color combinations are listed with the color number of the recommended Delica bead for that color. Also, since there are so many inspirational pictures of beadwork, many beaders will like this book just for the inspiring work shown. I don’t do a lot of seed beading, however, and this is in my top 10 list of art and craft related books that I own.
Bead Crochet by Bethany Barry
Posted by Leah on Nov 28, 2006
Bead Crochet: A Beadwork How-To Book (Beadwork How-To series)
I bought this book a year or two ago, based on the picture on the cover, which I think is really beautiful. I personally like freeform designs, and the necklace pictured incorporates lots of color in what looks like a semi-random mix, but done with a great eye for color and design.
The book starts with a section on the history of crochet and lots of how-to information on crochet stitches as well as beadwork techniques. For someone who doesn’t have a lot of experience with either beads or crochet, this section would probably be pretty useful - since I do have experience with the techniques, I mostly glossed over it.
Then there is an illustrated project section. The projects include jewelry as well as purses using several different bead crochet techniques. I liked some of them, others not as much - but of course, that’s just a personal preference. I’m more drawn to the freeform-style projects, and there was a mix of these and some much more structured designs.
Finally, there is a small gallery of bead crochet, by Bethany Barry as well as other artists, some of whom were familiar names to me from back when I did more beadwork. I would have liked a bigger gallery section, because that’s always my favorite part of a jewelry book, but otherwise I have no complaints about this section of the book.
Overall, I like this book. I refer to it now and then for inspiration (the pictures are good), but I find myself wishing it was longer - I’d like to see more projects, especially for someone a little more advanced, and an expanded gallery section. On the other hand, it was pretty inexpensive for a jewelry book, and I think it is a good introduction to bead crochet and some of the possibilities for using it as a design technique.
Links to check out
Posted by Leah on Nov 27, 2006
A couple of my favorite art/craft/creativity blogs have great new posts in the past week.
First, if you have some time, here’s a long post on creativity, prioritizing, and all kinds of issues related to living a creative lifestyle on In A Minute Ago. Sharon also mentiones an older post she wrote on visual journals, which I think is worth reading.
Luann Udell has been adding to her series on getting started. She’s currently up to the tenth post on this topic, which is called “Why didn’t they buy my work?” This is a valuable post for me to read and re-read, as someone who is illogically afraid of the possibility that a store might not want to carry my work. Luann’s other posts in this series are also very good, and I recommend reading them all if you have, or want to have, a business selling your creative work.
Felt
Posted by Leah on Nov 20, 2006
I’ve started felting - the picture above is of a pile of wool felted beads I made (a few of them are now pendants and earrings, and I have plans for some necklaces and other things too).
I was reading a blog I like, In A Minute Ago, and came across a link to a felt dictionary. I can’t say I knew most of the terms!
Anyway - the process I’m using to make felt beads, scarves, and other things is called needle felting. It’s a time consuming but fun process where you repeatedly stab the wool fibers with a special needle called a felting needle. This pushes the fibers into each other, and they get so tangled that eventually a nice, strong fabric results. It’s a very sculptural process which is probably why I’m drawn to it - anyone who has seen my jewelry knows I like three dimensional, sculptural pieces. It’s also a really fun medium for playing with color. I have wool roving (the unspun wool fibers used for felting) in a bunch of bright colors, which is a nice contrast to the more monochromatic metalwork I do.
I think I’m going to display a whole bunch of felt earrings on a small fake Christmas tree at my Open Studio next weekend. Stop by to see everything I’ve been up to, and have a glass of wine or a snack and chat! I’ll be there from 11:00-5:00 on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 25-26, hanging out. It’s 2703 7th Street, Studio #355 in Berkeley (the Activ Space building, on 7th between Dwight and Ashby).
Can fashion be copyrighted?
Posted by Leah on Sep 13, 2006
The NY Times ran an article earlier this week about copyright laws and how they apply to fashion. Since I’ve written about copying a couple of times now, I was very interested to read about some of the legal issues. The article talks about clothing designs being copied, but the same issues apply to jewelry.
Apparently, a bill (which is not expected to pass) is going to Congress that would allow designers to copyright their designs and provide some legal protection against people making inexpensive knock-offs.
I have no idea how they plan to enforce this, even if it does pass, given that so much of design (in clothing as well as jewelry) is influenced by current trends, and also given that so many millions of designs have already been created at one time or another. It seems like it would be very hard to prove that a design was truly original. I think it is a nice idea to provide some protection for designers, though.
I can’t find a link to the article at the moment (and you have to be a member to read the Times online) but I’m curious to see where this goes.
Has everything already been done?
Posted by Leah on Sep 7, 2006
Whenever the debate about creativity, copying, and inspiration comes up on jewelry forums, it gets heated right around the time someone says that “everything has been done already anyway” or “there’s nothing new under the sun”.
People (myself included) don’t want this to be true, because we consider ourselves to be creative, and even on some days, artists. Our work is original, and how dare anyone say it’s not?
Here’s the thing - every time I’ve come up with something I thought was completely new, I later found out someone else, somewhere in the world, had done something similar at some point in time. Not identical, but similar. And really, should I be surprised?
I thought my freeform pendants were really cutting edge, really new. I soon found out that I wasn’t the first person who thought it would be fun to twist some wire around in an abstract form and add a bead or two. Does that mean I wasn’t being creative or original? No, just that other people have had similar thought processes that resulted in similar looking jewelry. Most of the freeform wire jewelry I’ve seen doesn’t look quite like mine. Some of it I love, some of it I’m not impressed by, but I love the freeform technique, and that it lends itself to pieces turning out a little bit different every time. If I can’t be completely unique, at least I can keep coming up with new twists on things.
Same thing happened after I started doing my fused sculptural pieces in fine silver. I stumbled across a website of someone who also thought it was really fun to melt metal into abstract shapes. Again, hers didn’t look quite like mine - she’d used the technique differently - but there was the same twinge of disappointment from knowing that my idea wasn’t quite as original as I thought it was.
Argentium was the next thing I got excited about - new metal, not many people have worked with it, maybe I’d come up with a really, really new idea. That wasn’t in the cards either. Yes, Argentium has some properties that make the style of work I do easier, and yes, you wouldn’t work with sterling quite the same way (or fine silver) but the basic techniques are still things that people have been doing for a long time.
Finally when I started doing resin work, I came up with a way to use a basic technique for jewelry that really couldn’t have been done before. I cut out details from printes of my husband’s art and set them in found object bezels. Totally unique, right? Except that it wasn’t me who figured out you could set images behind resin, that’s a commonly used technique.
So I’ve come to accept the fact that, no matter how much I innovate and push the boundaries of my creativity and skill, there will be elements in my work that strongly resemble work that other people have done or are doing. I’ve decided that I have to be okay with that, and it doesn’t make my work boring or unoriginal. My jewelry does tend to be pretty unique, at least the more experimental stuff. And because of the processes I use, I’m almost guaranteed to come up with something that’s not identical to something anyone else has ever made. Even if other people have used the same techniques and materials. There is room for innovation, and as designers/artists, we have to figure out ways to keep innovating in spite of the fact that we are working with materials, ideas, and techniques that aren’t brand new.
My dream, of course, would be to discover a completely new material for jewelry and exploit all of its unique characteristics before all the other jewelers out there, many with more skill in fabrication than me, could get to it. But for now I’ll have to be satisfied with being as creative as I can with what is available to me.
