How do you make jewelry?
Keep a sketchbook with you at all times
Sketchbooks are a vital tool for every artist, even if they don’t make 2D art for public consumption. Drawing is my way of thinking through ideas and concepts, and sometimes what I draw has nothing to do with what I am making at my bench at that particular moment in time. Drawing is a way for me to organize my thoughts, ideas, obsessions, observations and brainstorms. and even if I never use a drawing to help me make jewelry, I do like to document those ideas in a sketchbook for future reference. Youu never know when something drawn in the past will help you in the present.
Originally published 2-28-2011
I started my artistic career as an illustrator. I can draw very well, and I used to make my paycheck by making drawings. Thanks to a changing market, the demand for good, old-fashioned hand drawn art has diminshed. But, that didn't stop me from wanting to draw, and I still use drawing as a way to explore and explain my artistic point of view.
When I make jewelry, an idea usually comes first. Ideas often pop up when my mind is engaged elsewhere. Once I toy with the idea in my mind for awhile, the next thing I do is start to draw around it. I will make lines, explore forms, textures, dimension, color, space and movement. I will explore other things related to the idea at the same time, so my mind may know the topic well. Once I am confident the idea is sound, I will start the hunt for materials relevant to the idea.
I will then begin to toy with the materials I have chosen to create the object in the same way I toyed with the idea in my mind. I will cut or texture metal and stone and search for meaning and "rightness." Once I feel that I have a solid plan, I will go forward and make that object. Sometimes, this process takes months. Sometimes, I'll abandon an idea after toying with materials, because I am no longer interested in the idea enough to take the time, or make the investment in the materials needed to make the object. Often 3 or 4 ideas are all swimming together on my bench and in my mind. I am always thinking about my work.
Some of my friends work very differently from me. One very good friend has 10 or 12 things going all at once. Another friend works from start to finish on a piece in 1 or 2 sessions. Some design around an existing stone. Others cut a stone and regard the metalwork as a frame for the stone. Thankfully, there is room in the world for everyone's way of making, and for every artist there is a different way of seeing. I wouldn't want it any other way.
Todays tip: I gather small plastic take out trays with lids to serve as "job jackets" for pieces I am thinking of. As I cut stones or texture metal, I put those tests in the job box until I am ready to make the piece. Then, when I have a block of time in the studio, I don't have to search for something -- it is all right there together.
Disc cutters, metal circles and spirals
Don't waste your scrap!
Use a disc cutter to prep a bunch of circles and keep them by your work top. You never know when you will need one!
Originally published 2-18-2011
Sometimes, in hindsight, I am astounded at the way a sequence of seemingly unrelated events exhibits a logical relationship. Yesterday, a chat with my editor led to a change of plans for my next column in Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist. Merle White (said editor) was concerned that throwing a change at me late in the game would mess up my schedule. It turned out I was happy for the change, because I had been struggling in secret with the idea for the original plan, and I was having a hard time finding a good story angle for it. Once I agreed to the change, so many things rapidly and unexpectedly fell into place. In about 4 hours, we suddenly had a better content mix, and I remembered I had just picked up a new tool in Tucson that would go with the new content, and I got an email from another vendor wanting to send me another tool that would also mesh with the newly changed content. I can't help but believe these things happen for a reason. And now, I've been given a more fun topic, 2 new tools to write about, and we have a logical content mix for the next issue. It was easy. All I had to do was say yes.
So, the message of this? I think it is wise to be adaptable when you can. Sometimes, fighting change is needed. Sometimes, it isn't. Trust your circle, and the spiral path you are on. Unforeseen things will happen and a choice will be presented to you. Try to pay attention to the universe. It will give you what you need.
Today's tip: Save your sheet scraps for a rainy day. When you are in thinking mode, use your texture tools and disc cutter to make a bunch of circles out of that scrap. Try to extract every inch of useful sheet you can. Use the circles as practice pieces, or make work with them. Waste not!
If it’s cool and interesting, I’ll use it!
Don’t get stuck in a materials rut!
Here are some resin and brass "stones" I created using vintage kimono silk for a mixed-media bracelet.
Originally published 2-11-2011
Some people think I have little regions of snobbery in my artistic processes. It's just not true. I can easily explain my thinking behind what I put with what -- glass and plastics with base metals, stone and non-manufactured natural materials with silver -- it is pure and simple science. I have a very scientific mind and I classify, analyze, sort and process everything into a sort of taxonomic heirarchy of materials. Some things deserve to be put with other things because of their fundamental or elemental way of being.
I have used everything from plastic to diamonds in my work. I have beads, stones, buttons, fabric, fibers, art supplies, paper, plastic, ceramic, metal and wood in my studio at all times. I just put those things together according to my own sort of Darwinian system of organization. I am a materialsmith, and I love to investigate everything with an eye for creating assemblages of things that have a reason to be together. My mind sets a problem, I create a reason for solving it in a specific way, and then I let those materials tell me why they belong together. If the things I choose look good -- and solve the problem I set for myself -- I'll use anything. Sometimes I am sucessful in making a satisfying object that speaks on several levels, both to me and others. That is the job of art.
Todays tip: Don't mix resin with a wooden stir stick because wood tends to create an excess of air bubbles you'll have to pop once they rise to the surface of your piece.
Lapidary Work in my PJs
Cutting cabochons is so much fun
Here are a few preforms after grinding on the first two wheels of my DP Genie. Red creek jasper, turquoise, lapis, agate, 2 mystery rocks and andalusite.
Originally published 10-16-2011
Sometimes, I wake up in the wee hours of the day because I forgot or neglected something important I was supposed to do. After I toss and turn a bit, engage in a few OCD what ifs and figure out how to deal with the issue, I'm awake.
May as well get up, right?
This morning it was a screwed up caption for a project in Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist. Luckily my obsessive brain woke me up and I caught the correction before we went to press. So then, I made a strong pot of coffee and went to the studio. My Tucson rough was there on the bench, bagged and sorted, so I figured, what the heck? Doesn't everybody work in their PJ's at some point? I knocked out a few preforms, cleaned up the Genie and took off my rock-cutting-stained wet jammies and socks, hopped tnto a speedy hot shower and zipped into the office. Life is good.
Todays tip: After you cleanup the lapidary grinder or flat lap, reassemble it and run the motor for a few seconds to dry off your wheels. Dry laps and wheels are less likely to rust on you.
On the way to why
Originally published 2-24-2011
I've heard a lot about viral marketing, SEO and the financial benefits of a huge online presence -- in business, anyway. I have both a day job as a provider of content -- and a personal, artistic mission to create other sorts of objects and works. I'm often torn between what the business I work for needs vs. potential needs the content consumers might want, based on my own philosophical or artistic instincts. So far, I've discovered that online media is different from print in many ways, but when it is really good content, and not just clipped and pasted or rehashed stat crunching, it is not very different at all.
I grew up in newspapers, and have worked with brilliant editors and reporters, and extremely talented art directors and photographers. Because my career has spanned many years in print publishing, I know what it was like to experience the thrill of getting the job done "right" on breaking news without regard for manpower, cost, time constraints or resources. These days in print, I know how difficult it is to work very, very hard and get the job done "right" with none of those things. One thing hasn't changed, though. That is the why of what we "content providers" do. Good "content providers" primarily ask why, and then, they try like the dickens to provide the answer for the readers.
Because I am a logical thinker, I've created a construct -- so I can balance the dueling goals of my job and my calling. I happen to think the famous movie line, "If you build it, they will come" is totally right -- just create good content, and you will be read, bookmarked, and tweeted. As long as they can find you. That is where life gets interesting, and the place where my head crashes against the wall over and over. Because SEO becomes a numbers game eventually -- no matter how great your content is -- it didn't really seem fair until I figured this out. The classic 5 W's of journalism are still true. You just need to frame them differently.
The business leaders want to know What people are searching for.
The researchers want to know Who those people are.
The marketers want to know Where they can get reliable data on them.
Your boss wants to know When you can create the golden goose.
You question Why people are searching for that particular thing, and how the heck you are going to create SEO content around it on deadline so everyone above you can figure out How to cash in on it.
Funny? I don't know. But it sure seems true more times than not.
Today's tip: You should always keep 3 versions of every photo of your work ready for use at any time: A big, print resolution, color-corrected CMYK file, a web-resolution RGB jpeg, and a smaller, email version of the RGB jpeg. Have your photographer enter the caption data in the Photoshop file for you -- the PR people and editors you send your press information to will thank you for that.