Jewelry Tutorial

Catching up on the last 1000 years.

2011-12-04T14:39:00.001-08:00

This month's Blog Carnival** asks us for memories of 2011.

If you’re like us, round about this time every year you getplagued with lots of people looking back at the events of the last 12 monthsand wondering “what the f**k just happened?!” These usually come in the form of Christmas cards containingretrospectives from relatives and other people you don’t know or are trying toavoid.

As fascinating as a detailed description of the family pet’sintestinal antics for last year are, we thought that a brief review of the last 1000 yearsmight be helpful and offer more perspective on just what did happen in 2011.

Caveat: The following is history. You can't make up stuff this crazy.

1011

Not much happened this year. Bernard I, Duke of Saxony died.He is noted for supporting Otto III over Henry the Wrangler for succession tothe throne of Germany. Picking your political candidates was much easier in10ll.

1111
Pope Paschalis II crowns Henry V, Roman emperor. Back to stinky business asusual with all the scheming, scandal, intrigue and betrayal you know and lovein modern politics. In 1111 the political phrase “sticking a knife in yourback” had a different meaning than it does today, but the results are the same.

1211

1211 celebrates the birthday of Henry VII, who’s reign set anew benchmark for greed and corruption. Considering his predecessor was RichardIII of Shakespearean villainy fame, that’s a big benchmark. His son, Henry VIIItook over the family business and went on to become the patron saint of divorcelawyers.

1311

Battle of Halmyros: The Catalan Company defeats Walter V totake control of Athens. 2011 marks the 700th anniversary of a corporationoverthrowing a government. This is what happens when you don’t pay the utilitybill.

1411

Battle of Harlaw, one of the bloodiest battles in thehistory of Scotland, was basically a real estate deal gone bad that went on forever – with no clear winner. It set thetone for real estate law for the next 600 years.

1511

Spain and England decide they don’t like France and hire theSwiss to kick their asses. Well, actually it was the Italian’s who didn’t like theFrench, but they convinced Spain and England it was their idea. The Swiss were only in it for the money.Things didn’t go so well, and when the money ran out so did the Swiss. Which is why the national motto ofSwitzerland today is “mind your own business”.

1611

Henry Hudson, looking for a route from England to Chinadiscovers the coincidently named Hudson Bay and the New York metropolitan areainstead, inadvertently founding Chinatown. Hudson’s crew votes him worst navigator of theyear and promptly sets him adrift in Hudson Bay. Years later the marketingefforts for the Hudson automobile suffer roughly the same fate.

On a brighter note,the word "telescope" is invented in 1611 by PrinceFederico Cesi, replacing the commonly used term “thingamajig”.

Shakespeare releases the 3D version of the"Tempest".

1711

Charles VI Habsburg becomes king of Austria, and starts thewomen’s rights movement and a subsequent 12 year international war disputingwomen’s rights, which is how the nation of Serbia and Gloria Alred wasinvented.

A French corporation of investors invades Rio de Janeiro for profit. Led by bankrupt shipping magnate RenéDuguay-Trouin, they succeeded in taking the city hostage and walking offwith 4 million in ransom. Ahh, the good old days of unregulated commerce.

1811

Timothy Pickering becomes the first U.S Senator to be censuredfor publically revealing confidential government documents. Ooops, my bad. Itturns out President James Madison’s was involved in a stinky illegal land-grab annexationof south Florida in collusion with a group of real estate developers. Pickeringtrumps Wikileaks by 200 years.

Austria declares bankruptcy in the wake of excessive borrowing to finance aseries of wars. It takes 25 years for the economy to recover, while theAustrian government prints lots and lots of worthless money.

Major earthquake hits New Madrid, Missouri, causingwidespread damage. Blame is quickly laid on flatulent Quakers.

1st US colonists on Pacific coast arrive at aptly named CapeDisappointment, WA and establish a trading post and coffee shop.

1911

Orville Wright remained in the air 9 minutes and 45 secondsin a glider at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. Later that same year the firstphoto was taken, and the first bomb was dropped from an airplane. The firsttranscontinental airplane flight from NY-Pasadena also took place, in 82 hrs 4min with lots and lots and lots of stop-overs. Peanuts were served.

In business news, Belgian mining law introduced the conceptof a 9½ hour work day, while in the U.S, the Supreme Court dissolves StandardOil under the Sherman Antitrust Act, deeming it too big to continue.

In a bit of irony that keeps on rusting, the R.M.S. Titanic was launched at thesame time the first US group insurance policy was written in Passaic, NJ. Drawyour own conclusions.

A U.S. audience throws vegetables at actors on stage for firstrecorded time in history as
NY receives its first Marconi wireless transmission from Italy. We’re surethese are related events …somehow.

The Tabulating Computing Recording Corporation (IBM) is started,and Chevrolet officially enters the automobile market in competition with Ford.Meanwhile the first old-age home is opened in Prescott, Ariz, and the firstpublic elevator is put into service. For our protection, the US sends 20,000troops to the Mexican border, as the first Indianapolis 500 car race is run. RayHarroun wins at 74.59 MPH. Chevrolets are now built in Mexico, Ray Harroun isliving in an old age home and IBMs stocks are going up and down on a perpetualelevator.

History marches on. If we could only remember where we put ourkeys.

** Blog Carnival is a group-think project of EtsyMetal Team, an International cabal of jewelry designers and metalsmiths. Each month a number of us write on the same subject and you get to see how our entropied brains deal with it.

2011-10-03T04:00:00.000-07:00

PLAYING WITH OUR FOOD

The topic for this month’s Blog Carnival** is “food”, and like our fellow artists, we’ve been known to use the stuff. Of course, because we don’t do anything casually, we jump into food with both feet, sometimes literally. At various times, as a continuum to our art careers, we have owned restaurants, marketed food products, did food styling for television, written a nationally syndicated food column, and been an award-winning pâtissier among other food related activities.

What does all this have to do with “art jewelry” you ask.

Everything and nothing.

For some, life’s activities are compartmentalized. They work at a job and do art on the side. We approach everything we do as an art form. Everything is interrelated and thus a running a restaurant or writing a food article becomes a satisfying creative expression.
All of these experiences also become influences in our jewelry, and that’s the point. The exercise is about becoming a free-flowing conduit to leverage life’s experiences and our creativity into whatever activity we’re engaged in at the moment. All of this may sound in turn, obvious, stupid, or morbidly philosophical. For us, it is simply the way we live, and it makes life fun – sometimes.

One of the side effects (benefits?) of such an eclectic life are the surreal moments that present themselves on a regular basis. We have learned that nothing trumps reality for sheer weirdness, and you simply can’t make stuff like this up. Such a moment occurred once when we were marketing a food product. – dog food to be specific.

The client was a very large, well known international brand of pet food. As the new marketing people, we were summoned to company headquarters to meet the executive marketing team. Upon arrival we were ushered up to 24th floor where we were promptly greeted by an assistant who escorted us to the corporate boardroom. The doors were opened to reveal a very large impressive room. It was totally old school, dark, wood paneled, high ceilings and largest conference table we had ever seen.
The entire executive marketing team was already in the room, They were all dressed in suits, standing, surrounding the conference table. No one said a word, they just stood there looking at us. Someone motioned us to enter the room.

As we entered the room the doors were closed behind us, and we slowly realized that there was absolutely nothing on the conference table. Not one piece of paper, laptop, cell phone, nothing except, sitting in the middle of this huge table – a single can of dog food – and a spoon.

One of the executives motioned to the can and said, “we’d like you to try the product”.

We stood there blankly trying to process what was happening. We looked around the table thinking someone would crack a smile and reveal that they were joking. There were no smiles. They were dead serious. The executive took the can of dog food and spoon and held it out to us. “Everyone who works here try’s the product” he said flatly.

Our brains are racing at this point. Is this really happening? Are we acquiescing to a corporate ritual? Is this a test to see if we’ll debase ourselves? What’s does dog food taste like anyway?
We take the spoon and eat the dog food.

That turned out to be a really good choice and an important bonding ritual that is still playing out today. There isn’t any moral to this story except the point of the ritual, which is to get past your pre-conceived notions. What did the dog food taste like? Pretty darn close to canned beef stew.

** Blog Carnival is a group activity of EtsyMetal, an international collective of jewelry artists. Each month the group selects a topic and members link their writings on that topic, thus providing readers with a multidimensional rambling collaborative brain-fart experience.

A Few Tips On Buying Handmade Jewelry

2011-09-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

Oh Boy! This month’s Blog Carnival** topic is sure to elicit a wealth of stunningly obvious insights and self-serving advice. Not to be outdone, we’ll kick it off by offering this: buy what you like, but above all buy OUR handmade jewelry.

OK, now that we have gotten that out of our system, the real tip is that most of you don’t really need any “tips” on buying handmade jewelry at all.

The real tips come from selling handmade jewelry. As makers, we talk amongst ourselves, and one of the perennial topics is interaction with customers. These conversations often have recurring topics related to behaviors perceptions, and questions that come up over and over. The vast majority of people who visit artisan booths, stores or shop online are wonderful, polite and perceptive folks who are a pleasure to deal with.

But then, there are a few gems amongst you. Here are few tips for those extra-special situations to help you with buying custom and handmade jewelery.
Truth in advertising: ALL of the following have actually happened

Handmade jewelry (or handmade anything) will not be cheaper than what you buy at Wallmart, Kmart or Costco. The items you are looking at are not mass produced in a factory overseas. They are often one of a kind or a very limited edition.

Your kid cannot make something just as good. Declaring so to the person showing you the work simply demonstrates your lack of manners. In fact, the person showing you the work is almost certainly the person who made it. They have invested years of practice and study to develop their skills. Its OK if some art does not appeal to you. No need to be rude…and might we add, your kid is ugly.

When requesting custom work, artists cannot determine your ring size from a photograph, your weight, height, age, job title or any other information other than….your ring size. Emailing the jeweler a photo of your girlfriend’s hand as an indicator of ring size will not work. Emailing the jeweler a photo of your girlfriend naked is just weird.

The jeweler’s name on the inside of your ring’s band is the maker’s mark. It is not an ego power play to put THIER name in YOUR ring.

A jeweler is not likely to make a “sample” of a custom ring, bracelet, or any other item so you can see it and then decide if you want to buy it or not. So don’t ask.
PS: this doesn’t work in restaurants either.

Wearing your jewelry while swimming in the ocean is generally not a good idea. Particularly if incorporates wood, ivory, or other organic materials. The jeweler is not responsible for replacing items that are lost in the ocean, or corroded/damaged by prolonged exposure to salt water.
Extra Note: shiney/sparkly things are used by fishermen to attract fish. This could be inconvenient if you happen to be in the water WITH the fish, some of which are bigger than you.

While we’re on the subject, the jeweler is also not responsible for replacing your jewelry if:
1. You drop your diamond ring into a running garbage disposal
2. You leave your jewelry on the top of your car, drive off, and find it is not there when you arrive home
3. You hide the gift box in the garage under the car, and then run over it on your way to dinner
4. You break up with your girlfriend and she customizes your ring with a 5lb sledge hammer before returning it to you.

When having something custom made, the artist will consult with you to determine the specifics of the item to be made and a price. Once the job is started, changing the specifics will almost certainly change the price. Deciding that you want an engraving of the Last Supper on the inside of your ring after it is made just might add to the cost. Nothing personal, we’re just sayin’…

We could go on and on, but we’ll leave some room for all the other Blog Carnival jewelers to weigh in on the topic. At the end of the day, making handmade jewelry is great fun, and the never-ending cavalcade of experiences stemming from those activities is an enriching source of humor and amusement. And don’t forget to buy OUR handmade jewelry.

** Blog Carnival is a group activity of EtsyMetal, an international collective of jewelry artists. Each month the group selects a topic and members link their writings on that topic, thus providing readers with a multidimensional rambling collaborative brain-fart experience.

Standing on the shoulders of giants

2011-07-11T04:13:00.000-07:00

Who and What Influences your work.

The July theme for the Etsymetal Team Blog Carnival* is "influences on your work, with examples".

It is said in art, that we are all standing on the shoulders of those who have gone before us. This is certainly true, for there is virtually no one that can claim to have not been influenced by someone or something in the progression of their art. The popular notion is that an artist sees another’s work and then goes off and tries to emulate it. This is rarely the case. Influences are much more oblique and subtle than that. Influences come from many directions and sources over a lifetime. Some influences are immediate and direct like a punch in the nose. Something stops you dead in your tracks, and you know it will haunt you till you find a way to express it in your art somehow. Other influences take years to develop, appreciate and find a voice for. These can be an experience from childhood or a philosophical point of view.

Most artists are sensitive to other art forms and their environment and are often influenced by them. We see influences in our own work of our musical tastes and political views. These influences don’t necessarily take center stage, but they are there nonetheless, and tell part of the story of “why did you do that”. In that sense, influences are an elaborate “connect the dots” trail of thought and emotions that result in a particular artistic expression.

Here are some of the dots that connect our work:

Martini Glass

Stainless steel, brass, color on metal.

Influences: Old botanical manuscripts and Caravagio.

Corliss was apprenticed as a floral designer at a very early age. This has had a deep life-long influence in her artistic voice. John virtually grew up in an art museum and thus had extensive contact with classical painting and sculpture from an early age. Classicism has been a recurring thematic device in 2Roses work whether expressed literally or abstractly.

A botanical manuscript circa 1500 by Pietro Andrea Mattioli

Bachus by Carravagio. Side Note: John was expelled from the high school art club over a dispute about Carravagio. Fuck you Shell Fishburne, Carravagio was an influence and still is. There, we feel better now.

Galaxy Bracelet

Circuit board, sterling silver

Influences: The Jestsons animated tv show. Like most children of our generation, we spent countless hour watching, and being influenced by television. What started out as a simplistic situational comedy view of the future soon blossomed into a heavy interest in futurism and science fiction. Frank Frazetta made our eyes water with his virtuoso painterly technique, but Syd Mead really blew our minds. This was industrial design done with a narrative.

The Jetsons

Syd Mead

Vaquero Concho Earrings

Nickel, sterling silver

Influences: Armor and early Western Tack.

We were introduced to engraving early on through interaction with antique edged weapons and armor. This has manifested itself by getting sidetracked into knife making, but in recent years we've finally come back to focusing on engraving.

California Style vaquero tack

Spurs with Spanish style rowls

Hurt Yourself Earrings

Sterling Silver

Influences: Robert Williams iconoclastic style and artistic "piss on your shoes" attitude puts him in the vanguard of artists you love or hate. There seems to be no middle ground, and Robert would have it no other way. We happen to love him. We also love New Zealand art forms, Moko in particular.

Robert Williams, Empire hanging by a stretch

Maori Moko

Ghost of the Red Fort
Sterling Silver, bone
Influences: Islamic and Indian art. The rich classical tradition of Eastern pattern and textural decoration has been a great influence on our art. We almost always go back to ultra-conservative forms when we get in these moods.

a Mughal palace

The Alhambra

Pompei
Ancient coins, repousse, micromosiaic, bone, neoprene
Influences: Ramona Solzberg, Ron Ho, Roman Mosaics
The work of Ramona Solzberg and Ron Ho has had great influence on the philosophy and form of our work. This has played out with the use of found objects seen in other examples on this page. The convergence of found objects (electrical components) with exposure to Roman mosaics gave birth to the technique of micromosiaics that we have developed.

Necklace by Ron Ho

Roman Mosaic

Artifact of Faith
Sterling silver, brass, rutile, Italian liturgical print
Influences: We were both raised in the Catholic religion and attended parochial school. This exposed us to lots and lots of religious-based art, the Catholic church being one of the great historical patrons of the arts. We did our stint at vatican-bashing with our art in our youth, but we've come around to appreciating the more ornate forms of Catholic religious objects. In particular, Spanish influenced cathedrals and Russian icons

Valencia Cathedral, Guanajuato, Mexico

Russian Icon

Be sure to check our EtsyMetal friends to learn more about how artists are influenced and what plays out in their art.

* Blog Carnival is a team project of EtsyMetal. Each month, volunteer members of the group all write on the same topic. Topics are usually related to the artistic/creative lifestyle or metalsmithing in particular. The purpose is to give readers a sampling of the the diversity of thought that artists hold on common subjects.

Creative Mess

2011-06-06T02:00:00.000-07:00

This month’s Blog Carnival theme is “Studio Tour”.

We’re all voyeurs on some level. For artists, peeking into each other’s work space is endless fun. What tools do you have? How are they set up? What level of chaos do you work in? And of course, the supremo question…whatcha workin’ on right now?

2Roses studio space encompasses about 2500 sq feet divided into three large rooms. There are also a number of out buildings for storage as well as rock cutting and rock storage external to the building.

The studio is in a constant state of flux, and we work in an atmosphere of a slow roiling controlled chaos. Equipment is moved and rearranged constantly as we add or upgrade items, or attempt better work flow. We always have 30 or more projects going at any time. These will invariably encompass a cornucopia of materials and techniques, and will range from production line to commissions to exhibition work.

Storage is an ongoing battle. We accumulate stuff, every imaginable kind of stuff. We have learned to stop asking each other “what in hell are you going to do with THAT!?” We know that someday we will need a mummified opossum paw to finish a piece. The real question will be, where in hell did we put them.

So without further ado, welcome to our studio. Feel free to look around, and send us an email if you spot a opossum paw in any of the photos. We’re also still looking for a Burmese ruby we dropped on the floor in 1994 too.

Fabrication room

Fabrication bench

Faceting bench

One of big rock saws, lapidary

Small kiln and ovens, enamel & poly clay

Lapidary bench

Machine room

Resin/Casting

Rock Storage, just a partial of 3+ tons of material

Storage

Woodworking room

Naked Sketch Book

2011-05-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

This month's Blog Carnival** asks the question, "What's in your sketchbook?"

There is nothing we possess that is more personal than our sketchbooks. We carry them wherever we go and are never without one. They are far more than something to draw in. Our sketchbooks are really running diaries of our thoughts, moods, and observations in pictures and words. They are in fact an open window into how our brains work, page by page.

Sometimes the pages are methodical construction plans and manufacturing details. Other pages are spontaneous brain-farts or random tangents set in motion by…anything. We often write down experiences as they are happening, or stop mid-step to sketch something that catches our eye or sparks an idea.

Because these books travel around with us on a daily basis, the context in which any page is created may be at a restaurant, the dentist’s office, the Yuma Symposium, driving to work or flying to Germany.

We have never opened our sketchbooks to anyone before, so you are the first. The following pages are random selections from 1990-2011. Welcome to our brains. Please watch your step.

Kinetic objects hold an ongoing fascination for us, as we are easily amused. We have hundreds of pages of designs for mechanically moving jewelry. We’ve actually built a fair number of pieces over the years. They always sell fast, so apparently lots of people are easily amused.

We go off in lots of directions and will design purses, accessories, tools, belts, vases, boxes, knives buttons, furniture, and in this case, eyeglasses, as the mood strikes.

Sometimes you just have to sit down and plan out or document how something is going to be made. We’ve got lots and lots of pages like this one. Its not sexy, but stuff like is invaluable when you go to make the second iteration of a piece.

These pages probably represent the popular notion of what is in an artist’s sketchbook. We’re working through some surface decoration variations for a specific form. The item held in the book with blue tape is a tracing from the die used to cut the hydraulically formed shape. This ensures that the designs are as accurate as possible.

This page was done at the Yuma Symposium. The text on the right is a series of quick notes on the events of one afternoon in Yuma. Eventually this will be fleshed out into a short but very weird (and true) story.

These pages show the development of a piece titled “Good bird, Bad bird, which is about anthropomorphism. The concept was pretty crystallized for us, so most of the development focused on the physical body language of the birds. We did quite a few variations of birds, but felt that the more taciturn we made them the funnier they were. It lent a “business as usual” feel to an image that is intrinsically ridiculous.

That concludes the tour of our brains. Please visit the gift shop on your way out, and be sure to come back for next month’s Blog Carnival topic “Have you ever made a sex tape in your studio?”

**Blog Carnival is a project of the Etsymetal Team. Each month, members of Etsymetal all blog about a particular subject, thus providing different perspectives on the same subject.

Tool Lust

2011-04-04T14:34:00.000-07:00

What is the tool you covet the most?

Why? What would you do with it if you got it?

cov·et : To wish for longingly.

This month’s EtsyMetal Blog Carnival** question reminds us of the old joke about the dog chasing after a car. The punch line being, what would he do with it if he caught it?

We’re like that with tools. You see, like most of our metalworking friends, we are unabashed tool junkies. So, the tool we covet the most is the one (any one) we don’t have. Who knows what we would do with it once we got it (whatever “it” is). Who cares!

This is really all about tool lust. And don’t pretend you don’t know what we’re talking about. It doesn’t matter what you’re into, you’ve experienced tool lust at some point. Example: We were on one of our exploratory trips into the bowels of Los Angeles some weeks back. There are some truly amazing nooks and crannies to be found in any large city. In little Tokyo we stumbled into a Japanese specialty hardware store. Is Japanese hardware so different from hardware anywhere else? Apparently so!

Once inside the door of the little shop, we were courteously greeted by the owner. So un-Home Depot like. Our gaze became quickly distracted by floor to ceiling shelves overloaded and bristling with tools of unimaginable functions. This was way better than a trip to Disneyland, and clearly had the potential to be far more expensive.

We beckoned to the store owner. We were going to need an experienced guide on this safari. For the next hour and a half we grilled this patient little man on the detailed operation and purpose of almost the entire contents of his store. Some tools were so specialized and esoteric that their purpose couldn’t be communicated by the shop keeper’s limited English and Kafkaesque pantomime. No matter, it seemed we were destined to get at least one of everything.

The shop keeper led us into the dark and cluttered rear of the store. With a quiet knowing smile he descended behind a counter. When he reappeared he held an object in his outstretched hands, which he offered to us almost reverently. It was a pair of scissors. We gently took the cutting implement from the shop keeper. This was no ordinary pair of scissors. “For bonsai” said our host, “finest in all Japan”, as he motioned like Edward Scissorhands for effect. Indeed, they were exquisite in their utilitarian plainness, clearly handmade, and razor sharp. There was no way we were leaving that store without those scissors.

Which brings us back to the story of the dog chasing the car. We don’t do bonsai, but we have one hell of a good pair of bonsai scissors.

** This series is part of "Blog Carnival" a project of EtsyMetal. Each month, members of EtsyMetal share thier views on a common theme.

EtsyMetal is an International group of metalsmiths who create handmade Jewelry. More information about the group and it's members can be found at http://www.etsymetal.com

What jewelry do jewelers wear?

2011-03-05T10:35:00.000-08:00

You’re a jewelry designer, but what kind of jewelry do you wear? This is always an interesting question to pose to artists in any medium, eg: What music do musicians listen to? The question presupposes an insider’s refined sensibility, as well as a knowledge of, and appreciation for artists that may be beyond the public taste.

Full disclosure: Corliss wears lots of jewelry, all the time. John almost never wears jewelry. Both of us actively collect the work of other artists.

We have an extensive collection of tribal and ethnic jewelry that has been assembled from our travels around the world. We also have an extensive collection of contemporary work assembled through contact with our fellow artists.

We can’t point to any particular piece and say “that’s our favorite”. We love them all. That is why we own them. Which pieces are worn at any particular moment is dictated by mood and what is appropriate for the venue, look and/or statement we want to make. We have a very broad palate to choose from.

So, here is a peek at a small selection of the contemporary jewelry that Corliss has worn in the last few weeks.

Left: A Penny Harrel necklace. This was acquired in a trade with the artist for one of our pieces. Our favorite way to add to the collection.

Below: Earrings by Tamara. We actually bought these about 20 years ago. They are extremely well made and have held up well both mechanically and stylistically.

Left: A wonderful alluminum necklace by Vanessa Waliko that was acquired at the 2010 SNAG Conference.

Below: A wonderfully industrial chain link bracelet from an unknown French Canadian artist purchased in Quebec many years ago. Wish this artist would have signed the work. Note: I this is you, or you know who made this, let us know.

Left: A Robert Lee Morris pin. This was a gift from Robert. We worked with him on a fashion show and retrospective of his work held at the Los Angeles County Museum of art.

Below: A pair of Jillian Moore earrings. These were a recent right place at the right time acquisition. We happened to be on-line when Jillian posted that these were up for sale. We snapped them up. Lucky us.

Left: Harriete Estel Berman earrings. We had to have these. The reference to traditional jewelry was too funny and ironic to pass up.

Below: a traditional Scottish pin form from the master Greg Thorne

Left: A heavy silver and Mexican fire opal bracelet by Dana Gochenour. Dana is one of our prospecting buddies and is a first rate geologist and miner, in addition to being an accomplished jeweler.

Left: An amazing brooch by Don Friedlich. This piece is made of frosted glass and refracts any thing that it is placed on. It is a real joy to wear as it optically changes as you move.

Left: An iconic piece that we commissioned from Lorena Angulo, a master of precious metal clay. We were in love with the designs and style of Lorena's work and asked her to make something using silver, bronze and copper clay in one piece. No one had done this before and it turned out to be quite learning curve. Lorena pulled it off spectacularly.

Below: One of our own pieces from back in the day when we were making more traditional jewelry forms. 52cts of matched rubellite tourmaline set in gold. We mined, cut and set the stones and couldn't bear to sell it.

Left: A pair of wooden bracelets from one of our collaboration partners, wood turner Chet Brisco. The top piece is turned Banksia pod, cocobolo and walnut. The bottom piece is turned and textured with pyrography.

** This series is part of "Blog Carnival" a project of EtsyMetal. Each month, members of EtsyMetal share thier views on a common theme.

EtsyMetal is an International group of metalsmiths who create handmade Jewelry. More information about the group and it's members can be found at http://www.etsymetal.com

So, what else do you do?

2011-02-05T13:18:00.000-08:00

Most creative people we know express themselves in many different media and forms. It is just the nature of the creative mind to find outlets for that creativity. We are no exception, which leads us to the topic of this month’s Blog Carnival*:

What other media do you work and play with? Does it relate to or inspire your metalworking?

When this topic came up, we had to stop and really think about it. We have both been working artists from childhood and everything we touch, everything we do, becomes an art project. Our entire life is one big art project. We can’t help ourselves.

As to whether any of these activities relates to, or inspires our metalwork; it is all a continuum to us. We see no difference in any of it other than the medium of expression. This topic is really about another subject that artists frequently deal with, namely, the idea that art is a job or vocation. For most of us it is a way of life, and it permeates every aspect of our lives.

The best way to explain this is to show you a random selection of images of some of the things we do. Some of the following is work made for sale. Other things are simply random acts of creativity for our own use and amusement. This is life on the art side.

We have worked in glass in its various expressions for may years. Stained glass work is our favorite, but we've been blowing glass of late. The cow jumping over the moon window is in the west wall of our house. Below are a couple of recent glass blowing attempts. The goal is to work this down to the micro or jewelry level.

We also do woodworking of various sorts ranging from furniture to finish carpentry and woodcarving. Most of what we do is commissioned, but we also do a lot of things for our own house. This is an on-going project that we've been working on for decades

This is a door to the library, painted in traditional Japanese motifs. Below is a detail of the hand carved door frame.

Here are a few other details from around the house.

Another hand carved door frame detail.

This is a small wood carving that we mounted on the kitchen cabinets under the sink.

We have served as the curators of the local area Historical Museum for decades. When one of the local historical homes was being demolished we have the opportunity to do some salvaging. This corner niche is constructed of 150 year old Mahogany and slate reclaimed from the house.

Corliss is also a professional pastry chef and has done food styling for many tv commercials and restaurant displays.

We frequently turn our attention to fabric, either on its own or for our jewelry.

This is Sharky, our house mascot.

We will even get downright functional, as with these sofa pillows.

When the mood and the season coincide we occasionally go into "wreath mode". We been making these for decades and no two are ever alike.

Many of you know that we both are traditionally trained artists. We both cut our teeth on painting and drawing and continue to work in those mediums as well. In fact we never go anywhere without a sketch book - including dinner. One of our favorite things to do is people watch and draw character sketches and impressions from memory. Over years we have amassed thousands of drawings of everything from biker funerals, raves, Las Vegas madness and art openings.

If you have ever met us, there is a good chance there is a drawing of you somewhere.
One of the challenges of our classical training has been to break free of the rigid representationalism that is imposed in such a system.

We took up jewelry in the first place, as a method to break out of the training of two dimensional representation. That and the fact that we had been prospecting for many years and needed to actually DO something with all the material we were collecting.

This is our little curiosity cabinet. The other 7 tons of material (no joke) is scattered about the property.
In between all of the above we also practice lapidary & gem cutting, photography, writing, antique repair and restoration, leather work and few other things. And there's lots more we want to do and haven't found the time to get to it yet - but we will.

** Blog Carnival is a monthly group project of EtsyMetal. Each month, members of the group write on a common topic. Readers can click on the links associated with the topic to see how different artists approach it.

Do You Do Custom Orders?

2010-12-18T10:10:00.000-08:00

This month’s Blog Carnival* question is: Do you take custom orders? What kind of custom work do you do or not do? What has been your favorite custom piece?

The short answer is, yes. We do a lot of custom orders, typically utilizing things that people bring us that they would like to have incorporated into something they can wear.

This is very satisfying work because the resulting piece usually has deep meaning and personal value for the recipient. It can also be nerve wracking, as we are painfully aware that the material we are working with is irreplaceable – and often unstable, unsuited, and unintended for jewelry use. But, that is also the great creative challenge, to make it so.

Because we are fairly well known within the jewelry field for our ability to work with just about any material, no matter how odd, other jewelers and museums often refer work to us. These projects have included no end of mineral and rock specimens, antiquities and artifacts, old machine parts and mechanical devices, found objects of every conceivable type, food, other jewelry, glasses and lens, computer and electronic parts, weapons, fabrics, liquids, human teeth and taxidermied animals.

Its impossible to identify a “favorite” piece, because each one is a unique part of someone’s life and touches us in different ways. One gentleman brought us his great-grandfather’s watch that had been worn by successive generations of his family through four wars. That watch was beat to shit and looked like it had been through four wars, but you knew that every scratch, nick and dent had a story behind it.

Another client casually dropped by the studio one afternoon and dropped off a bag of artifacts that she had collected over 40 years of world travel. There was stuff in that bag that predated the time of Christ from a wide variety of cultures. And now it was all sitting on our bench. Stuff like this blows our mind when we think of the journey through time and space that these objects have taken.

Yet another project was working with reclaimed parts from a Soyuz space capsule.

That seemed like a souvenir worth having, but terribly difficult material to work with. Who knows what specialized alloy of god-knows-what this stuff was made from. One thing’s for certain, it didn’t work like any metal we have ever encountered before or since.

So, by now, most of you are thinking, “ shut up and show me”. OK. This is a piece we did for one of our long-time collectors. It started as a couple of coins from antiquity, a couple of artifacts, and a request to “make something”.

* Blog Carnival is a project of EtsyMetal, where member artists share their thoughts on a monthly theme.

Read the other blogs to get a broader view of how different artists approach this topic.

2010-11-07T17:07:00.000-08:00

EtsyMetal Blog Carnival

Each month, the artists at EtsyMetal take a crack at a different topic related to the arts. This month it's Business Success Secrets: What does it mean to you to be "successful" in business as an artist? How do you walk the line between creativity and profitability? What is the best thing you've done for your business?

Artists often wrestle with, and angst over, the question of how to define success. Get a bunch of us together and the conversation on this topic can get hot fast. The main bone of contention usually always boils down to the fact that financial success is often viewed with suspicion and seen as a sign that one’s artistic integrity has been compromised. The converse of this is that many individuals who enjoy an artistic leadership position in our field don’t have a proverbial pot to piss in and cannot support themselves on their art.

The question posed for this month’s blog carnival illustrates this concept: “How do you walk the line between creativity and profitability?” Creativity and Profitability are presupposed as mutually exclusive states. It wasn’t always this way in the arts.

We don’t think that we need to walk a fine line between creativity and profitability. We think that running a profitable business making art REQUIRES creativity. And not just in designing and crafting a product. Business is an art and art is a business.

The truth is, no one does art in any form for the money. It is a calling, a way of life. What we all hope for is to be able to express ourselves through our art in our own pure voice. To make the art we want to make. If this coincides with what people want to buy, you have arrived at artistic Nirvanna.

The best thing we have done for our business is to study business principles and stay true to our artistic principles. For us, success is pursuit of an artistic way of life.

Gods and Mascots

2010-06-07T22:42:00.000-07:00

The subject of “studio mascots” came up the other day. Specifically, what / who is your studio mascot(s) and does he/she/it inspire you? Watch you? Encourage you? Impede your work? We suspect the answer being looked for was something along the lines of “our cat HairBall, who’s cuteness inspires us to create things that benefit all mankind”. Well, things don’t quite work that way at 2Roses studio.

Walk into any artist’s studio and look around. Its always a mess, and embedded in that mess are usually all sorts of odd, intriguing, unsettling objects that beg for an explanation. These objects won’t be the projects or work the artist is working on. Rather, they are the population of totemic and symbolic objects that are imbued with great and small personal meaning for the artist. They are often scattered about the studio like small shrines and invariably have a story attached to them. We refer to these objects collectively as the “Studio Gods”. Here are just a very few of the Studio Gods at 2Roses. On a good day the Studio Gods are with us. On a bad day they demand sacrifices.

Godzilla Torch Lighter

Catbird House

Turtle Tom

Hoofy Doo

Uncle Bob

Shark Foot

2010-03-31T20:20:00.000-07:00

The Creative Process:
How we plan and organize for design.

Our Design Process isn’t really an organized plan but rather a collection of spontaneous moments. When we seize one of them, so to speak, we utilize two primary vehicles to get a concept ready for bench creation.

Our Extensive Library
Over the years, we’ve built an extensive, working library with volumes on technique, full color coffee table gaga, botanical editions, illustrated historical references, children’s books, travel destinations, tattoo designs, ancient armament, you name it. The library serves as a reference for detailed research and study. We’ve solved many technical problems and have received much inspiration after a browse through the library. Keeping it orderly is another matter. It's like the Enterprise being overrun with Tribbles. Our books must be breeding and having offspring.

Our Indispensable Sketch Books
We keep sketch books within easy reach at all times. When we say this we mean that we keep sketchbooks everywhere. Our ideas could be in the form of descriptive text, illustrations from a recent museum exhibit, ideas for a new one of a kind piece or a new line concept. We create this output whenever it strikes us – when’s it’s fresh in our minds.

Once we have some ideas that look good on paper, it’s off to the bench. Sometimes a construction paper model is made before any metal is cut and soldered. Sometimes we go for broke and just fabricate. What really helps us is to keep what Corliss calls a “fragment sample” of a completed piece. These are usually a step by step series of components illustrating how something is textured, formed, finished, joined, etc. We do so many things and work with so many materials that we need to have these reminders around to jog the creative
memory.

2010-03-02T21:03:00.000-08:00

20 Things to kick-start creativity

This months blog project for the Etsymetal Team is to write about 20 things that we use to kick-start creativity. We all run into the wall from time to time. Here are twenty things we do to go over, under, around or through it.

1. Go to a museum.

For us, this is tantamount to sticking our fingers in a light socket. A museum, any museum, of any type be it art, historical, cultural, anthropological, natural history, you name it, will jump-start our batteries faster than almost anything.

2. Change scale/focus.

Go anywhere familiar, a park, neighborhood, shopping mall, ect. Now, look at it by taking in the really big picture, or conversely, look at it in minute detail.

3. Change context.

Go to a magazine stand and purchase 5 magazines that you would NEVER buy. Study them. This also works with TV Roulette. Watch a few shows that you would never watch. Keep your sketchbook in your lap

3. Word Up

Pick a word at random from a book or magazine. Research that word on the Internet. This can provoke themes or images.

4. Change cultures.

If you live near a metropolitan area, go to a market in an ethnic area. Pretend it is a big art supply store.

5. Turn your original idea or sketch upside down.

View it from a different perspective.

6. Restrict your choices.

For your next project, limit yourself to only materials that you have in your studio. A limitation in this sense spurs ideas in areas that you normally would have not considered.

7. Jump in the bushes.

Grab your digital camera and within a 1 mile radius of your studio, take photos – of local foliage (weeds, yard grasses), architecture, landscaping, construction, demolition and repair. When you view the images, look at them in terms of form, balance, texture and connection.

8. Maybe now is the time to explore Pasta.

Do your next project in a medium you’ve always wanted to work with but never got around to it. There’s always a learning curve with a new material. This will expand your expertise and give you a finished piece outside your usual scope of work.

9. Paper or Plastic?

Use construction paper and fit together a 3 dimensional model of a small focal item that can be incorporated into a piece of wearable art. Consider negative spaces, puzzle type fitting, perhaps cold joining as well as soldering. Then create this object in the medium of your choice, It could be metal, cast resin pieces, polymer clay, carved wood, etc.

10. Ask Mother Nature.

Get a handle on the use of color by studying nature. The Internet is your best source for photos. Google images gives an entire encyclopedia of examples of how nature uses color. Try photos of tropical fish to see how colors act when placed next to each other.

11. Google It!

Are you stuck for organic shape ideas? Use the Google images search to find photos of succulents, cacti, seed pods and other botanical examples. You’ll be amazed with what you find.

12. Play with your own poop.

Don’t throw away your mistakes. Keep them in a box for later inspiration. What didn’t work today could very well be the inspiration and a prominent element for a signature piece later on.

13. Clean up.

Clean your bench and sweep the studio floor. These are Zen like tasks and involve a certain amount of calm and concentration. Your mind will temporarily escape the frustration of creative block. Many times when doing this, we will find some material or half made piece tucked away on the bench that will inspire us to get rolling again. And even if you don't, you'll feel so good about a nice clean studio, you will be compelled to get back in there and make a mess.

14. Put those half-baked ideas back in the oven.

We have a box in our studio called “in progress.” These are not mistakes but rather projects that have not told us what they want to be when they grow up. Sometimes we revisit this box when creatively stumped. Often, these old projects get recombined or restarted with a new approach.

15. What would Da Vinci do?

We previously mentioned to go to a museum for inspiration. Many times when viewing paintings or sculpture, the artist depicts jewelry of the period on the subject. We study these examples of jewelry, how they’re worn and what they’re made of. You can really get inspired with some of the examples that you come across.

16. Go Japanese, or Sudanese, or Inuit or...

you get the idea.. Viewing examples of art from other cultures, ie pottery, textiles and adornment exposes you to a different aesthetic in form and balance. This departure may be just the thing to get you started again.

17. Go dumpster diving

America’s trash is an awe-inspiring cornucopia of creativity.

18. Walk backwards

Well, maybe not literally, but it works something like this. We all have familiar neighborhoods or “habitrails” that we walk through, usually in the same direction or pattern each time. Reverse the pattern. Walk the same path you always take, but in the opposite direction. You’ll see all kinds of things that you never saw before.

19. Gather a pile of your favorite things

You know, all those treasures that you have kept from different times of your life. These will be objects that have special meaning and memories for you. As you lay them out before you think about how you would express the meanings in your art.

20. You’ll notice that there is a method in the madness of creative stimulation. Many techniques are based on the concept of “pattern interrupt”. As we fall into repetitive patterns of behavior we tend to apply the same solutions over and over again. Putting yourself in an environment that interrupts your pattern of behavior or thinking will usually allow you to make new connections. So go ahead. Bungee jump off that bridge.

This blog is about sharing knowldge

2009-10-14T07:18:00.000-07:00

Hello to all our friends in jewelry-land.
The purpose of this blog is a running exchange of tips, tricks and how-to's for metalsmithing, jewelry making and repair. With over 25 years experience in art, design and metalsmithing, 2roses has a few bench tricks up its sleeve, we know that you probably do to. Lets all learn from each other.

We'll be covering everything from pricing and business issues to banging on metal and getting that special finish you're looking for. We also invite you to participate and be part of this project. So stay tuned. We're just getting warmed up.

Corliss & John