How can you be in two places at once if you're not anywere at all

Where do you live?

Welcome to another installment of Blog Carnival** a monthly project of the notorious international art cabal EtsyMetal. This month’s subject is “Where do YOU live?”, or, from our perspective, “where do you LIVE?”.

For some artists location is important, and granted some places are much nicer than others. But when it comes down to it, art happens where ever you are because, well, you’re an artist and you don’t store that at some location. So, to answer the question, we live on the corner of What If Street and Why Not Avenue. We have lived here for a very, very long time.

It’s an interesting neighborhood filled with creative types and we are comfortable here. We’re way off the beaten track, outside the comfort zone, and navigating our neighborhood can be disorienting but full of fun surprises.

Which is exactly why living on the corner of What If Street and Why Not Avenue is so interesting. We like surprises, and are willing to park our car in unknown places just to see what happens. We’re quite used to things going “wrong”. We’ve learned from the folks living on Why Not Avenue that maybe it’s our expectations that are “wrong”, and that things are really OK.  Either way something gets trashed, “things” or “expectations”.

 We have to sort our trash in this neighborhood and we have a special bin for Expectations and Preconceived notions. These get thrown out about once a week, but we also recycle these things. It’s a bad habit.

The result of all this is not so much a paradigm shift as a paradigm merry-go-round. Our perceptions, expectations and preconceived notions are always shifting, being tested and resetting. Meanwhile “things” are flying off the merry-go-round at an alarming rate.

 “What kind of things?” you ask. 

Things like this:

 

Disco Chicken . Mixed media. This piece is the result of a game artists play called Exquisite Corpse. To play,one artists starts a work and then passes it on to another artist to add something. The piece is passed among each player the last in line being the one who “finishes” the piece. Disco Chicken was the result of three artists. We were the last in line, having received the silver square and the branching pendants.

 

Sylph on the move. We have been exploring the concept of alien life forms and how they might manifest themselves. This images is also an exploration of how we depict these pieces. 

 

Sylph Arabia. This is one of many recent pieces where we are using our artistic voice in a conscious effort to counterbalance the mindless demonizing of all thing Arabic and Middle Eastern in western culture. We are doing this by incorporating Middle Eastern design elements into our work to demonstrate the sophisticated and sensitive nature of these ancient cultures.

 

Slinking. This is a purely experimental piece that is the result of working with our friend and fellow artist Jillian Moore  http://www.jillianmoore.net/. We are now beginning to develop our own voice (this isn’t it) using the techniques that we learned from Jillian

Lastly, for all you who don’t like metaphore and are thinking “just cut the artsy-fartsy crap and show us where you live”…Here ya go, Rancho 2Roses in LaLa Land.

••Blog Carnival is the mind-meld of Etsymetal an International group of artists who write each month on a common topic. In doing so we demonstrate how we each interpret the same subject from our own realities.

Jewelry Photography Secret Weapons

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This month’s Blog Carnival** is about jewelry photography. 

It is a necessary part of this trade that once an item is made it has to be documented for a variety of purposes eg, inventory, sales promotion, exhibition and a portfolio record of the artist’s work. Very few craftspeople can afford to hire a professional photographer to take pictures of all the things they make, so most of us become more or less proficient at taking our own photos. Many of us do our own photography for the full range of purposes that images are needed for, and supplement our efforts with professionally done images for more important publicity work such as a magazine cover.

As anyone who has set out to do jewelry photography has learned, information on the specific subject is scant, scattered and hard to come by. Which means that the vast majority of us learn by trial and error – and by talking amongst ourselves, when others are willing to share their hard earned knowledge.  These discussions are usually kicked off with…”how did you get that effect”. 

95% of jewelry photography is about controlling the lighting. That said, we have several secret weapons (tools really) that we find indispensible to the task. First and foremost among these tools are light diffusers. Theses soften the light and reduce or eliminate harsh reflections on shiny surfaces.

Soft Box lighting unit

We use “soft box” lighting units that have a diffuser built in, however we frequently supplement this with additional diffusing units for additional control or to achieve a particular effect. Diffusing units can be constructed of anything that is translucent. We typically use lightweight white plastic film, which can be obtained from most art supply or photography stores. The sheeting can be cut easily with scissors to make any shape or size needed. We often make a specific diffuser shape from coat hanger wire and tape the plastic material to it. It’s a cheap, fast and highly effective solution. This photo shows two rectangle diffuser panels made from coat hangers. Thin milk plexiglass or other types of plastic that will stand up on their own are also very useful and we have an entire armada of such shapes and panels in our studio.

Diffuser Panels

Reflectors and light scrims are the other secret weapons that we use extensively. The most common type of reflector we use is common matt board, black on one side and white on the other.  The matt board is easily cut to any size and shape to instantly suite the task at hand. Reflectors are positioned opposite light sources to bounce light or color back into specific areas of the object, such as the underside of a curved surface.  We wrap the reflector board in tin foil if brighter reflections are needed. The black surface is used when you need to eliminate a bright reflection. We also have a good array of various colored boards to have better control over the color tone of the reflection.

Reflectors and Scrims

Scrims are shapes, usually cut from matt board or foam core, that help restrict, form or shape the light source. They are very useful when you need an extra spot of light on just one small area, or you want the light to be restricted to a specific area on the object or shooting stage. Scrims are positioned between the light source and the object. The distances between the three will determine how “hard” or “soft” the lighting effect will be.

Tripod Boom Attachment

One of our guilty studio pleasures is the boom attachment for the tripod.  We got by for years without one, but doing jewelry photography with one is so-o-o-o-o much easier. The boom allows you to position the camera over a small piece rather than shooting obliquely. It’s a small point, but can be a big deal when attempting to get the right angle on a piece and for gaining more control over depth of field issues related to macro lenses. 

For more tips and tricks about jewelry photography, take a look at some of the other Etsymetal Team artist’s blogs who have generously shared what they have learned.

** Blog Carnival is a project of EtsyMetal Team, an international group of jewelry makers, whereby various team members each write about a common topic, giving readers a variety of perspectives.

How to keep a New Year's Resolution

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We kick off the new year’s Blog Carnival** with that perennial favorite seasonal topic: New Year’s Resolutions.

Resolute:  marked by firm determination

Yes, it’s that time of year again when the national sport turns to vocalizing all the things that we don’t like about ourselves and making proclamations that, by God, this time we are ABSOLUTELY going to change!

This is distinctly different than the rest of the year when everyone we are surrounded by tells us what they don’t like about us, and we resolutely tell them to go fuck themselves.

Statistics show that about 50% of us love to engage in this fantasy football of self-improvement. Those same statistics reveal that about 8% of us actually make good on our threats to change. The rest of us have apparently told ourselves to go fuck ourselves.

Oddly, for such a fiercely individualistic bunch that humans are, our personal resolutions are suspiciously similar. Not wanting to fall out of line with the individualistic herd, we have conformed our own resolutions this year to be uniquely identical with the norm.

Forthwith, here are the top 8 new year’s resolutions that you, we and everyone else on this planet makes, but doesn’t keep.  We, however, are resolute and have adjusted the resolutions to guarantee success!

1. Spend More Time with Family & Friends

We have spent the last 30 years actively avoiding our relatives. Considering that they are not likely to change their behaviors regardless of any resolutions on their part, we’re sticking with the odds and staying in stealth mode.  Friends? Well…when they exclaim with amazement “when do you find time to make all this wonderful stuff?” We reply, “when you’re not here.” 

2. Fit in Fitness

Right. We’re in the studio – we ain’t coming out. We resolve to spend more time in the studio instead of fooling ourselves that we’re going to the gym. We’re pretty certain we can do this.

3. Tame the Bulge

60 percent of adult Americans are considered overweight or obese. Don’t worry, in about 60 days you and the rest of us will forget all about this, and we can all get back to enjoying ourselves.

4. Quit Smoking

We never started, so we are resolutely and smugly patting ourselves on the back for this and all the other things we didn’t do, like hacking up the noisy obnoxious neighbors with a hatchet and stuffing them in the freezer. Although, the year is just getting started…

5. Enjoy Life More

Get out and try something new! Take up a new hobby!

We got this one covered – Trying new things IS our hobby.

Naked scuba diving – check.

Skeet shooting with heavy artillery – done it.

Striding through the jungle on the back of an elephant with diarrhea – yep!

This is a very long list – email us if you want to compare notes.

6. Quit Drinking

The odds are better that you will start going to the gym more often. At least you can go to the gym AND drink.  Which means you will feel better and be enjoying life more. As for us, we’re going to stay in the studio and clean up the elephant poop. We’ll need a drink after that.

7. Get Out of Debt

Unless of course, it is something you really, really want or deserve. Remember, the more useless and frivolous it is, the easier it is to finance.  Just don’t ask us for the money.

8. Learn Something New

For example, learn what your friends and family really think about you:

a.     you are overweight

b.    you drink too much

c.     when are you going to pay back the money you borrowed.

d.    you won’t keep your new year’s resolutions

in other words, pretty much the same thing you’re thinking about them.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

** Blog Carnival is a group binge activity of Etsymetal Team in which an international group of metal artists each resolves to write about a common topic, thus giving you, the reader, a world perspective on how the creative mind works - or doesn't.

Back to Old-School!

This month at the ole’ Blog Carnival** we’re talking about “Back to School”.  Somewhere we look a wrong turn in the hallway because…we never left school in the first place. It’s all learning all the time at 2Roses’. It’s part and parcel of this modern life where constant and rapid change is the norm. We suspect that all of you live in this world too – except those of you who don’t.

“Old School” in many cases simply means a “tradition” of sorts. In our fast paced world, this can be taken to mean last week’s traditions as opposed to what’s happening NOW. Much grinding of the gears happens in that space, where old-world tradition (more than two weeks ago) intersects with 21^st century sensibilities. Take our own particular brand of madness, handmade jewelry, for example. “Handmade!?”, folks respond blankly when presented with this fact along with the object. Scrolling text then appears across their forehead….”What does that mean? ….People make stuff by hand?....Why?....Holy shit, how much?”

But wait, it gets better. We are not alone in our handmade-keeping-traditions-alive romantic economically delusional pursuits. There are people engaged in making armor, and flint knapped arrowheads and, we are quite certain if you look around long enough, buggy whips. Now, we totally get armor and flint knapped arrowheads. These are going to be big sellers when the apocalypse comes. But buggy whips!? Seriously!!!??

Which brings us to the point of going back to old-school. Just how old an old-school are we talking about. After all, traditions can go back…as far back as…uhmm, like the first Christmas or something. Anyway, the question is what happens when your old-school traditions collide with my old-school traditions. Well, first off… you’re wrong. I think we can all agree on that.  

Or maybe there is some sort of old-school tradition that the oldest tradition wins. For example, here is how it works in real life: A friend makes handmade jewelry. BAM! Right off the bat, she has about 10,000 years of old-school tradition in the bank. Trump that!

In walks a customer who wants a ring. Not just any ring. This ring: "I want my ring to be made of ethically mined and fair traded traditional diamond solitaire, recycled and sustainable gold and while it's being made, I don't want any chemical or environmental toxins to be used or come in contact with the process AND since I am not really a "consumer" I would like to pay you with the organic fruits and vegetables I grow on my solar powered farm."

Whoa – serious contender – barter is old-old school going back to before Dynotopia and when Benjamin Franklin invented money. The request backed our friend up for a moment and you could see scrolling text appear across her forehead.….”What does that mean? ….People trade vegetables for diamonds & gold?....Why?....Holy shit, that’s a lot of vegetables?”

The customer ended up getting a tattoo instead, and that’s how you get learned in old-school.

** Blog Carnival is a monthly feature of Etsy Metal Team in which members share opinions and perspectives on a common topic which are different from ours …and therefore wrong.

Teenage Dog Enema Nurse

 

This month’s Blog Carnival** is about “pets”, those wonderful, cuddly, friends of the family that provide companionship and joy. No doubt my fellow artisans will be extolling amazing tales of how a favorite pet saved their life at one time, cooks dinner (and does the dishes), helps the kids with trigonometry homework and still manages to provide endless inspiration for boundless creative endeavors. All good stuff.

Growing up we had pets too, particularly dogs. I would watch the exploits of Lassie on TV, but my dogs just never quite measured up. They would mostly just bark at anyone who came near the house, and shit everywhere. I was intimately familiar with this last part because it was my job to clean up after the dogs. My parents believed in the sanctity of work. The dogs believed in the sanctity of shitting – everywhere. These two parallel concepts were to merge in the most horrible manner later in my life, when at age 15 I got an after school job with the local veterinarian.

“Bob the Vet” was an affable man, who liked his job as much as he liked his bourbon. The two went together pretty well judging by the amount Bob drank on the job. But at 15 you’re not too judgmental of such things, and besides Bob was a generous and sharing man.

Bob apparently recognized a deep untapped pool of veterinary greatness underneath my teenage veneer of acne and brylcreme, and immediately undertook to bestow upon me his vast knowledge of the medical arts. I was so adept a student that after only a few hours of training I received my first promotion. I was made the new Dog De-Worming Supervisor and put in charge of the entire division. As luck would have it, Bob had an amazingly steady demand for this service, and even though the entire de-worming division consisted of me, I smelled opportunity.

For those of you who are not schooled in the medical arts, de-worming a dog is mainly accomplished by administering an enema to said dog. Now, the first thing you have to know about the process is that it is a disgusting and messy affair. The second thing you gotta know is that the dogs don’t like it much. It is a procedure that is greatly facilitated by bourbon for the person administering the enema and the dog.

The art of the dog enema is all in knowing how to restrain the dog throughout the experience. The technique is nothing less than veterinary kung-fu that is handed down from master to apprentice -and I was getting good at it. I quickly mastered Chihuahuas and Pomeranians. Beagles and Cocker Spaniels were no match for me, nor Lab Retrievers. I was easily working through everything breed Bob threw at me, until…the Rotweiler.

Confronting a really big dog as you contemplate the best way to shove a hose up its ass is a sobering experience. At 121lbs the dog weighed only slightly less than I did. What he lacked in weight he more than made up for in bad attitude. We stood motionless for a few moments eyeing each other. The rotweiler growling, looking at me, the hose in my hand, my throat. Me looking at the rotweiler and estimating the distance between me the dog and the door.

They tell you in the military that in times of high stress your training kicks in and you act instinctively without thinking. And that is exactly what happened next. In hindsight thinking about it would have been a better move. Instead I made my best enema ninja move, restrained the rotwieler and inserted the hose in one deft motion. This clearly caught the dog by surprise and he just stood there for a few moments trying to figure out what just happened.

I thought things were going pretty well until the rotweiler decided he’d had enough of being violated with a garden hose and broke free, jumping out of the tub and knocking me to the floor in the process. Lying there on my back I watched an upside-down rotweiler looking ever so much like a water balloon let loose. Only slightly less amusing was the sudden realization that this massive snarling animal propelled by a high pressure stream of fluid, worms and shit was charging at me.

That’s when I discovered I could fly – and scream very loudly.  Sitting atop a stainless steel cabinet my incessant screams eventually aroused Bob’s curiosity 

enough for him to come see what the noise was about. Bob was pretty nonplussed about the incident. The dog had been successfully de-wormed (billable) and as the supervisor of the department Bob reminded me that it was my responsibility to clean up. And that is why to this day I remain a steadfast cat person.

**Blog Carnival is the brainchild of EtsyMetal Team whereby a random selection of international artists share wildly inappropriate and embarrassing personal information for your curiosity and gratification.

We sense something odd

Describe your 5 senses. Which are your favorites and least favorites?

 

This month’s Blog Carnival** topic is the five senses. You know, sense of sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. This got us thinking about which or our senses most drive our work. On reflection, to our surprise, the “big 5” didn’t even make the list. 

Sense of wonder

Sense of humor

Sense of Responsibility

Sense of place

Sense of Security

Sense of Community

Sense of equilibrium

Sense of Purpose

Sense of Outrage

Sense of entitlement

Sense of shame

Sense of Motion

Sense of Horror

Common Sense

A sense of perpetual wonder – at the world we live in – is what makes us anxious to jump out of bed in the morning. Each day is an adventure that brings both good and bad, all of which pulls, pushes and transforms the work that gets filtered through our experience and perceptions of the of the world around us.

 

These experiences inevitably stimulate other senses which bubble to the surface of our work in many strange ways. Sometimes they manifest themselves as conscious statements, as when our sense of humor

 

 

 

or sense of outrage is triggered.

 

 Other times, we find ideas creeping into the work because of our sense of community or sense of place.

 We have a sense of responsibility to the people around us, coupled with a strong sense of purpose in what we are doing. This has in no small part contributed to a sense of equilibrium and a sense of security in ourselves, each other, and our work. 

 ** Blog Carnival is the random zeitgeist of  EtsyMetal, a loose cabal of international creative conspirators dedicated to overthrowing the global lack of imagination.

CONFESSIONS OF A TOOL JUNKIE

This month’s Blog Carnival** topic will undoubtedly be a treasure trove of hidden gems for the metalsmiths in the audience. The subject is “tools you have made yourself”, and the objects made with those tools. We are squealing with glee right now. FYI for our non-metalsmith readers, most metalsmiths, especially us, are unrepentant tool junkies. Very rarely will you encounter a metalsmith who admits to having enough tools.  When visiting each other’s studios metalsmiths will always want to look over the tools, and specially the little things each of us does to modify a tool for a special purpose. Almost all of us make tricked out tools for ourselves.

We make tools for the sheer joy and fun of it and suspect that making jewelry is simply an excuse to engage in tool making. In fact, we are writing this blog post as fast as we can because what we really want to do is visit all the other Blog Carnival artists to see what tool tricks we will discover. 

The first item is a jump ring cutter. Everyone has to cut jump rings sooner or later. We actually have many types of jump ring cutters and will grab the one best suited for the volume and size of rings we need. This one is for medium sizes and small quantities.  The second item is a nylon dapping block. We made this to form domes in metal that had texture or other processes applied to it. The nylon is relatively gentle and will not “iron out” the texture or pattern on the metal like a metal dapping block will. We have made a lot of these blocks in various sizes, usually to suit a specific project as needed.  We also make nylon or wood dapping punches to go with the blocks.

This chain mail necklace was made using the jump ring cutter and nylon dapping block.

This is a micro deburring tool that is made from old exacto blades. It is one of the most useful little tools on our bench and we use it all the time.

These are nylon and delrin mandrel for making quick work of trueing up or shaping cones of varying sizes and shapes. These are made on a lathe from rod stock and we have dozens of them in different sizes and shapes.

These earrings were made using the deburring tool and a cone mandrel.

A friend of ours, Trish McAleer, literally wrote the book on metal corrugation. In the early days there was no corrugation equipment other than expensive Italian rolling mills. Everyone used these cheap little tube wringers, which are still likely the most used tool for the job.  The problems were getting sufficient pressure on the metal and then turning the little handle when you did. We modified ours with a screw to exert mechanical force on the rollers and a handle that provided considerably more leverage for turning. This will do a respectable job on 24 gauge metal. 

PostJohnCarpenter Apocalyptic Earrings made with the metal corrugator

We have lots and lots of these wooden forming mandrels in a wide range of sizes. We make them on a band saw or lathe, often to fit a specific project.

A couple of bracelets that were made using the wood mandrels.

This is a carving bur made from a 45° heart bur that had become dull. These can be reshaped by grinding the top off the bur leaving only a portion of the lower section below the girdle.

This is a micro-clamp for working on small or delicate parts. It is an extremely versatile tool and we use it all the time for holding small parts while sawing or doing other operations.  One of the nice things about this jig is that is very easily modified to do a lot of different jobs. We have made lots of extra parts and configurations for the base plate over the years.

This carved and pierced bone pendant was made using the carving bur and micro clamp.

Technically this isn’t for metalworking, but we’re throwing it in just for fun. This is our flint-knapping tool kit. It consists of a deer antler heavy hammer, a copper small hammer, a copper compression tool, a leather hand protector and safety glasses.

A pretty crude knapped knife. We need to do a lot more practicing, but by the time the next ice age rolls around we should be in a position to clean up.

We could go on and on with tools, but we need to get over to the other Blog Carnival sites to see what cool things we can learn from those folks. 

** Blog Carnival is a collaborative blog experiment by the artists of EtsyMetal, an International collective or metal artists. Each month, various members write on the same subject, giving readers a perspective on how artists in different areas of the world approach themes common to our lives.