The Art of Giving… the Giving of Art

I often feel selfish about my art – not wanting to part with it and wanting it all for myself.  When I make a piece,  I end up spending so much time on each piece – that every piece also feels like it contains a part of me.  At the same time, there is nothing more joyous than giving someone a piece of jewelry / metal art that they cherish.

A few weeks ago my appropriately named friend “Art” made a piece of art for me. The painting is an abstract representation filled with rich deep blues, light sky blues, gold and white accents.  As Art explained his process – it felt amazing to be the inspiration behind a piece of art… like so many pieces I’ve created for others.  I am constantly thinking about the person I’m creating for throughout the entire creative process and anticipating their reaction.  To  hear how Art had thought of me while painting felt truly special – he thought about my color preferences, my personality,  interests, and inspirations.  He took into account my style and my art filling the piece with gold accents and touches that could easily come to life as a necklace, bracelet, ring…  It’s filled with detail, depth and perspective that draws you in, pulls and intrigues you – which is one of the things I love about art, no matter the medium.  To me, great art makes me wonder at it, how it was made, what it was meant to express, and what the artist was thinking.

Here it is hanging over my bed, the finished piece – if you know me – what do you think?  Can you see the inspiration?

Thank you ART!

Stronger more fearless

It’s funny all of my pieces speak to me. In some cases they speak to me of patience and beauty and in others surprise and pride. I’ve been working on this piece now for some time – it’s a collaborative piece with my friend Christopher Jernberg (Christopher, the artist) who is an interesting and deep individual.

He likes to think of himself as a Navigator, one that charts his course in life through his art.  I can imagine we all have different periods in our lives that mark where we are, for him his life expression is through art and his biography becomes his creations.  Beyond just trailmarkers for his past, he talks about using his art to create visualizations for his future, creating self-portraits where he paints himself as he wants to be.  He also uses the technique of  text painting to reinforce simple yet powerful messages as reminders that bring us back to where we need to be.

Christopher Jernberg

It is one of those text paintings which provided my latest inspiration. It is a text painting that tells a story.

Image courtesy of mdumlao98 on Flickr

The words intentionally blurry, you strain to read and understand – but some words stand out. “Slept under the stars, beautiful clear night, laughing, challenge, stronger more fearless…” It is a story of camping trip Christopher took with his friends where they found themselves lost yet in the midst of a beautiful scene, having to call on their survival skills and eachother to find a way out. Really a story that happens everyday … we take trips, different paths – sometimes find ourselves lost and dependent on ourselves, our instincts, and our loved ones to help us find the way.

Sometimes with a piece that takes me longer to finish I get frustrated, am eager to get to the finish line – not so with this piece as everytime I look at it, work with it – I learn something new.
The process of translating this piece into metal involved several iterations – first bring it down to a size that was appropriate for a piece of jewelry and then playing with the contrast so as to be able to make out the words once etched. While the shadowy technique Christopher uses on his painting creates an amazing ethereal effect – on metal it would be lost completely.

Metal etching is a process I love and one that I use frequently in my pieces. It involves copying the image onto acetate paper and doing a heat metal transfer onto the piece, after which the piece is placed into an acid bath for an hour. The acid eats away at the metal that is exposed leaving a physical etch that you can see and feel.

For this piece, I felt it was important to place emphasis on the words that resonated with me. So I enlarged them and glued them to the etched piece and then individually cut each letter out with a saw. It was a tedious process as each letter requires a drilled hole, and then the saw blade is threaded through each hole to cut the letter. I had no idea it would take me so long. But at the same time I enjoyed the repetitiveness,  as it was almost meditative and relaxing – giving me time to sit with the words and truly feel them.

I am almost done and feeling the meloncholy of parting with my creation, but excited for someone to feel the power of Christopher’s words as I have.

An explained absence

It’s been awhile since I updated this blog, namely because I’ve been conducting a personal branding exercise and focusing on a new chapter in my life. I’m also not happy with the look and feel of this blog and have been contemplating going back to my old blogger site. If you’re so inclined, I’d love to hear your thoughts..

In terms of the name, I do love Orange Alchemy because it combines some my favorite things…the color orange which I think is beautiful and powerful and the word alchemy derived from the Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo – which is a fable about a shepherd following his dreams and lastly the mystical process of alchemy or creating gold, which as a metal worker is uniquely intriguing.

It hasn’t been for a lack of content, which I plan to get back to – even as I juggle my professional persona with my personal passions.  In fact, I am currently working with another artist to translate his art into metal and am excited and inspired by the possibilities…more to come on that.

Friendship…always an inspiration

The best kind of friends are the ones that uplift and inspire – they see the best in you and want to help you bring it out more.

I experienced that kind of inspiration this Sunday with one of my oldest and best girlfriends – and together look what we created. This painting was at the SF MOMA behind a glass frame. Immediately we were drawn to it – it had a feeling of serenity and beauty in spite of the encompassing feel of a dust storm. We placed ourselves within with the scene with the vibrant butterflies serving as our guides. A fitting picture for a friendship of so many years..transformation, beauty, and love.

From the young mischievous girls we were together to the independent strong women we are today…so nice to know that the dusty past and vibrant future can co-exist as we still gain so much from each-other and our friendship.

I remember passing through the day – thinking “I am thankful for these moments – the closeness of a true friend, the possibilities of what we could explore together, the warm sun, the moving art, and the laughter……such is life!”

Repousse’ repose, or however you spell it

The ancient art of Repousse and chasing is a way to get deeper grooves and designs into your pieces – essentially making a shallow bah relief. It is done using a pitch and in our case, a cast iron pan.

Foregoing the traditional tar Repouse which is pretty smelly and difficult to deal with, Adam uses a special kind of pine sap – which has no real odor, thankfully. The first step is to melt or soften the pitch – which is usually done with a torch making the top layer unusable for the future. My instructor, Adam has actually developed a technique that uses a nifty heat gun to soften the pitch instead.

Using this heat gun instead of a torch actually saves quite a bit of the pitch and makes it usable for future / additional projects.

The next step is to then brush baby oil onto the metal which keeps it from sticking and also turning the corners of the piece down. Using chasing tools, you can then proceed to create elaborate designs that can have depth in both directions as you flip the piece and add decorative elements on both sides. The effect is quite beautiful.

Its not something I’ve tried yet ….but on the list, ole’

i want to

Lessons in staying true to your creative self from a master

Just got through Hugh MacLeod’s book Ignore Everyone – it is filled with wisdom, inspiration and truths that resonate. And it will have you LYAO.

Some particularly poignant points for me:
- Good ideas alter the power balance
- The sovereignty you have over your own work will inspire far more people than the actual content ever will
- Doing anything worthwhile takes forever (have learned this many times from the hours I put in to making each of my jewelry pieces)
- 90% of what separates successful people from those who fail are time, effort and stamina (interesting to note how talent doesn’t necessarily factor as much as tenacity)
- Pillars are a hindrance
- Never sell anything you love (this is hard for me because I LOVE everything I make)
- The more you need money, the more people tell you what to do, the less control you have, the more BS you have to swallow, the less joy it will bring
- The creative urge is a primal calling- (now that I am back to making jewelry again, I know this to be true… I must create)
- The best way to get approval is not to need it
- Power is never given, but taken
- Beware of turning hobbies into jobs (since I’ve tried it, I can relate to this point…my goals this time around are much simpler, to simply fund my habit.. materials and class costs)

The book like all of Hugh’s work is exceptional – brilliant, hilarious, and insightful. The “Ignore Everyone” Limited edition print you see below is available for purchase on his website.

Keys to creativity by Hugh MacLeod

return of the succulents

My signature piece is back…by request..succulents – an obsession of mine, those pretty green cacti -like plants that retain water and come in so many flower like forms.

Succulents happen to be great for casting, as are many natural organic forms – however succulents are so beautiful, they come out looking like beautiful silver flowers.

I picked a few succulents from the Botanical Garden in Golden Gate park and used them to create casts. The process is one where you attach a wax sprue to the flower, which will act as a canal for the molten silver to pass through as it fills the mold. The flower and sprue are then placed into a steel tube canister called a “flask”.

The next step is to mix and create investment, a plaster-like material that is poured around the piece into the flask. Then the flask is placed into a kiln for 12 hours and all the organic material plus the wax is burned out.

There are a couple of different casting techniques that I am familiar with, one that uses centrifugal arm that is wound up and that shoots molten silver into the hollow form. The other uses vacuum power to suck the molten silver down through the piece to ensure a complete cast. Both techniques involve melting silver in a crucible to the point that it is liquid.

My original succulents were made with the centrifugal technique. I then had a professional caster make several replicas, which I could then use to create other pieces such as bracelets and necklaces. I used to sell these pieces in a few shops in San Francisco, my succulent ring is actually a part of my daily wear, so recently have gotten a few requests from friends and acquaintances for that same piece.

It’s always interesting to get requests and a huge compliment, one of the things I find I need to work on is pricing out the true value of each piece. While many things can be found for cheaper in silver, because I hand make my pieces, I need to accurately and fairly estimate my time. While I love to make people happy and make them what they want, my time is limited and part of my love of jewelry is the creation of something new, so to make something already done involves an exchange of my time where I could be doing something else, and learning.

Either way, its great, flattering and fun – here’s the latest succelent I made for Abbey, a slightly bigger version of my ring.

collaboration

Obviously inspiration comes in many forms, but at its base it is a re-interpretation of nature, objects, feelings into a different medium such as painting or in my case metal-smithing. One of the things I find exciting about my art, is the ability to transform something that currently exists in one form into something new. One of the ways I like to do this is through collaboration. Not that I’ve done much, but I definitely find much inspiration in other artists’ work and love to share in the creative process with others.

A few years ago, I was able to collaborate with my friend Sirron Norris on a ring that I made for my brother. It involved etching his design onto a piece of metal and then forming it into a ring. It turned out amazing and its a shame that it got lost. But that experience has always stuck with me as a really fun and unique way to find inspiration from others and give their artwork an extension by transforming it into a different and utilitarian form.

Stay tuned, I have some ideas in mind for some collaborative efforts and eventually perhaps working with other artists more regularly in this way..if you know of anyone who’s work could transcend other mediums – let me know.

Spider getting put to good use