Head above the water

Originally Published 11-11-2012

This weekend is the first one I have had free -- relatively speaking -- since mid-May. It is amazing to see the light at the end of the tunnel when you have been in it for so long you forget what daylight is like. I am 2 objects away from done on the book, I've got most of my teacher proposals and paperwork in the can for 2013, and all of my Cool Tools & Hip Tips columns for this year and most of next year have been either written, filed or settled on. Can somebody say, "Whew?"

I haven't seen my friends or family except for absolute dire necessities for almost 9 months. No dance classes, no workshops, no gym, no vacation, no fun, no nothing but work for 24/7. Boy am I tired! But now that there is light streaming into the tunnel, I can finally reflect on what I have finished this year, and all I can say is I have no clue how I managed to get it all done.

So here is the scoop on the fruits of all this labor: The Jewelry Maker's Field Guide: Tools and Essential Techniques book is in the design/photography/editing phase and is scheduled to be out around this time next year. I will be filming my 6th Metalsmith Essentials DVD: Spirals, Tubes and Serpentine Forms in late April, and I am already scheduled to teach at workshops in Tucson, Arizona in February, and Pennsylvania in April and probably August. My Cool Tools & Hip Tipscolumns promise to get you involved creating content too in 2013, so stand by.

I will post more here as I know more, and thanks for hanging in there with me.

PS: You know, there is something to be said for a long weekend of bad junk food and crappy, tacky 1960s horror movies after a long, long, long hard period of seemingly endless work...

Cats out of bags…

Originally Published 10-3-2012

OK. Quick hit blog. I am so sorry I haven't written in months.

I have a legitimate excuse -- I have been writing a book on metalsmithing for nearly a year and the manuscript has been mostly delivered. At the current time, I am fabricating sample objects like a fiend, and readying the studio for the arrival of my brilliantly talented colleague Jim Lawson, who will be shooting the photos.

Keep checking here. I didn't bail on you, I have just been too, too overscheduled. I wanted to make a book I can be proud of. So far, so good....

When it rains, it pours

Originally Published 5-3-2012

I am always amazed at the ebb and flow of work. Why is it you are either so busy you want to tear your hair out or so busy you almost want to tear your hair out? So, whatever happened to "down time?" I often wish I had a few open days to reflect on something I have just completed before the next onslaught arrives, but these days it is a constant deluge of work, stuff, life.

Last weekend, I taught a fun workshop on Textures and Patinas for the 20th anniversary conference of the Enamel Guild's Northeast chapter at the beautiful Newark Museum arts workshop metals studio. I have been creating samples, demos and handouts for weeks to expand and clearly document the information I briefly covered during the filming of my third DVD on the same topic. We all had a great time, it was an incredible conference, and I am honored to have been invited to teach. For the past few days I have been following up with extra information, paperwork and correspondence with my students and the new friends I made, in addition to the regular workload of my day job. I am inspired to make something new -- but I don't have any time at the moment.

I was just assigned a really fun story to cover in the November issue, I have several ongoing monthly writing assignments, this blog, Facebook contacts, a Twitter feed, and a June workshop to plan for. There is also my son's end-of-term performance to attend, the garden is screaming for attention, and I have 2 things on the bench I really want to be done with so I can make some new work. And, I also have a complex, long term, very important and dear to my heart project -- which is on my mind and consuming every waking moment. I can't let go of it for even a second or it will break my concentration.

If I expect to teach next year, I had better whip out a few pieces, have them photographed and write and submit my proposals in the next week or two or I will miss the window of opportunity. There are kits to prep, pickups to make and tools to test for the work and classes I am scheduled to do and teach on the near horizon. And if I don't sit down and write out bills soon I will be in deep doo doo.

Ay jai jai.

I'd love to have a week off to think about what I have just accomplished, but I can't have that now. I have to wait for it. But I am certain when I do get my vacation it will be oh, so sweet. Until then, pass the umbrella, please -- because it is a monsoon!

Finish what you start

Originally Published 4-1-2012

Very often, I get about halfway through something I am making and decide I absolutely loathe it. Usually at that point, I put the offending object on my bench in disgust and walk away from it for a while. It is uncanny how often I get just to the point of frustration or fear or boredom and I stop working. But this year, I am determined to go forward when that happens, even though I want to stop. Because everything I have read and seen and understood about creativity in recent weeks tells me that this is the thing to do. When every fiber of your being is telling you to stop, you must keep at it and finish. It is very difficult to do, but you must.

Because, creativity can only happen if you show up for work.

So, I have 4 half finished objects on my bench now at various stages of stall. There is a pendant I like, but there is one problem area in the reticulation I am in a quandary over, and I am not sure how to proceed with it. The next piece I am a little ticked over, because I snapped the cabochon I was polishing for it about 2 seconds before I was ready to drop it in the setting and I could kick myself for fussing over it, because now I have to cut another stone, and none of the material I have is quite as nice as the original. Then, there is that textured copper piece with the surface folds, but I haven't really resolved the way I want to drill and attach the stone to that one in a way I am pleased with. And last, but certainly not least, is the ring I fabricated to showcase some glass beads I made myself, but I want to replicate the design in a different metal. And, I hate to do it again, but I know I won't wear it unless I make it in silver.

Of course, it is so easy to avoid those things I have to finish, but this time I am determined not to. Even though paperwork, and cleaning and laundry, the garden and cooking and all those other things are there to divert my attention, I will not abandon those four projects. I can't. Because I will let myself down if I do, and I refuse to let myself down, even if I end up sitting at my bench all day tomorrow staring at them like a child in a dark dining room in front of a cold plate of brussels sprouts their mother is forcing them to eat. I will finish them if it kills me. Because my reward may not be a piece of finished jewelry I like, but it will be something way more important. Belief in myself. And, in my world, that is a far greater reward than any finished object that I like or don't like.

Stretching my boundaries

Originally Published 3-27-2012

This weekend I just completed one of those inevitable "favor projects" that come your way more and more often when people find out you are a jeweler. But this one was different. This one was a turning point for my confidence, plus it gave me several ideas for some work I would like to make because of what I accomplished doing a favor for someone else. Nice.

So far I have done about 10 repairs this year. Everything from patching a strip of silver onto the inside of an over stressed cuff bracelet that had cracked, to sizing down a 10K gold ring with the stone left in place. Every repair that comes my way sends a tremor of fear down my spine because I dread the unanticipated mishap that might cause me to turn someone's treasured jewelry object into a molten puddle. Luckily, I haven't done this yet.

The cool thing about these little side jobs is that they give me a chance to challenge myself in ways that I like. Because, there are challenges that make you grow as a person, and there are challenges that are just a big fat pain in the butt. I do my best to steer clear of the latter, but sometimes they are unavoidable. Anyway, back to the latest project.

What made this project so cool was the thought behind it, the meaning of it, and the symbolic gesture it would become once I completed my part of the deal. A talented and creative friend of my son's asked me to saw an antique silver serpent ring in half so he could present half to his beloved for her birthday on Friday. A relatively easy job of anneal, flatten, cut, anneal and coil again. But, what made it cool was that I sawed the serpent in half down the length of its spine -- which created two separate snakes that could be worn together as one -- or worn as two rings by two people who have to spend time apart, but are as interconnected as that snake originally was. As I cut that little reptile in half, it set my imagination on fire.

I put the package in the mail yesterday with a big smile on my face. Because now I have 3 pages of ideas I have sketched out due to the concept of that little ring. I can't wait to get to my bench this weekend. Best of all, I can buy some metal with the fee I received for doing the job. Double nice.