This is my first try at a blog and it sounds like great fun. I am a self taught studio jeweler and I love to talk jewelry making. Soldering and fabrication are my favorite things and so I worship the Fire Goddess! Found objects are some of my favorite materials and I try not to change them when I am designing with them. The first step is cleaning them up to see what is under all that dirt! Wondrous texture, bends, and cracks drive my creativity. I also have a series of pieces known as the Driveway Series. I often think how the Ancients lived everyday noticing pretty rocks as they walked and worked. Interesting patterns in their everyday world must have caught their attention and they repeated these in their daily items and their shelter. They wound that rock with plant strands and wore it. They used charcoal and minerals for paints. I try to use these same ideas and habits in my designing and fabricating. Definitely I feel that sense of wonder that comes from such discoveries.
I am also a lover of architectural styles such as Art Deco, Modern, and Brutalist. These frequently show up in my work just naturally for reasons unknown to me. I just use them and love the results.
Metal is just such a fascinating material. It can be anything from a lovely solid sheet to a gas. In my jewelry, I use sterling silver, jeweler's brass, stainless steel, bronze and found metals. It just draws me in to push it, form it, melt it, texture it and bend it to my design. I am in love with it.
Comments