lo and behold

There are no consolation prizes behind my doors 1, 2, and 3.  Each door offers me a wonderful and different present.  Hmmm, let’s see,  I can buy one for my birthday, one for my half-birthday, and one for . . . what I tell my kids is called an “I love you present.”  Just cuz. 

My door #3 is Daisychain Jewellery.  And that’s jewellery rather than jewelry because Jo the metal smith is located in Southampton, UK.  I first “met” Jo when I participated in the first Bead Soup Blog Party hosted by  Lori Anderson.  The second Bead Soup Blog Party is happening right now, and I couldn’t swing it play along this time, but I will definitely be crashing the party once the participants start revealing (next week) what they have made with the “bead soups” they received from another blogger. 

Anywhoo, for her bead soup jewellery piece, Daisychain made this lovely focal pendant with a hollow lampwork bead from Island Girl Insights.  

A week or two later,  she offered a tutorial on how to make it for the drooling commenters like myself who loved what she did. 

Let’s just say that I’ve been hooked ever since. On her blog, Jo is very generous with her experience and knowledge of working with metals, and if it she didn’t live across the pond, I’d sign up for one of her “private tuitions” in a minute.  Or, I’ll  just hop across the pond one day and say hello. 

But in the meantime, if I were to own one of Jo’s pieces for myself, here are a few I’d consider from her online shop. 

As one who is not interested in prissy flowers in the least bit, I’m an utterly enchanted by these. And now I understand why she is called Daisychain Designs.  That cuff – it is unlike anything I own – and I think I would love wearing it. 

And here’s another.  She calls it Dusky Rose, and I could put a different stone in the middle if I wanted. . . . This girl can rock flowers.  (And all the photos belong to the artist.) 

So, each of my doors is really a doorway into a different world.  Don’t be surprised to see photos of me sporting some new jewels before my next birthday . . . And can someone please tell my husband to read my blog?

I found each of the artists I am writing about this week through her blog.  And this person, Beth Hemmila, of Hint Jewelry, routinely stuns me with her beautiful and honest writing. Off the top of my head, I remember a recent post about having an open or closed heart, and another about the “every woman’s complex relationship with food.” Both of these posts articulated challenges that are well known to me. Beth shares openly about her failures, her lifestyle, and her business. 

On her blog, Beth describes her jewelry business this way: 

wild west spirit meets far east design :: handmade silver jewelry connecting people through simple beauty, pure craftsmanship, and common stories

On her Etsy shop, the banner says, Stories in Metal. Primarily, her work is making silver charms, mostly out of PMC, and some also in sterling.  Each carved and cast charm has a picture on it that symbolizes a part of the life force – those are my words, not Beth’s, but I think that’s the idea.  Here are a few of the charms that speak to me. The photos and the descriptive text are borrowed from Beth’s Etsy shop, with her permission. 

Prana, mighty life force and healer, come swim next to me in the borderland. Open my body to spaciousness and touch the places that hurt so as to lead me back to the sound of myself — the feeling that sings without knowing why.

Hummingbirds draw on the essence of flowers, extract sweetness from life, and show us the way to find joy in any situation. They are a symbol for celebrating a life fulfilled as well as losses in the form of loved ones and dreams. Deeply woven into the mythology of the Americas, hummingbirds are often considered tiny messengers between worlds, helping shamans keep the balance between spirit and nature.

A tree of life “to evoke the earth’s healing powers of creation, nourishment, and protection” and matched with wire wrapped gemstones in the colors of the seasons. 

Beth sells the charms individually and also uses them in lovely, luscious pieces of jewelry.  She makes some to sell (like the tree of life above), some on request from customers, and this year, she is building herself an “heirloom memory necklace.” Each month of 2010, she is adding something(s)to a necklace that remind her of that month.  I can’t imagine the time she is investing to write and draw and think about her life so beautifully and intentionally.  This is what her necklace looked like at the end of May 2010.

I can’t wait to see where it goes, and I LOVE reading what Beth writes each month about her process.  

As you might imagine, I am very drawn to this whole idea. Poetry in jewelry – that’s an interesting juxtaposition for me, as I feel that my poet self coming back alive but in a different medium.  I love the idea of making necklaces of this type as gifts.  And for myself, I could make a birthday necklace and add something each year.  Or, I could start a necklace now which I could continue to build until I am 50.  It would be a piece that represented the period of my life between ages 45 – 50 in which I feel I am re-birthing myself, or revising myself, or transforming in some powerful way (I don’t have the words yet – maybe something visual will help.)

If I got myself a birthday present from Hint this year, I think I would start with the Tree of Life.  . . . I would certainly add something glass that I have made, and something beaded.  Fun to think about.

I also want to hold Hint in my mind as a model of business.  I noticed that Beth gives away 10% of her sales to a different “good cause” each month, something that I did when I started my Etsy store.  I also wonder if I will find a way to bring meaning to the beauty that I am learning to create in glass.  I’ve thought about it, and sometimes certain ideas come up.  I think I’m getting closer that that ideal, but I know I will have to stay open to the desire and put the time in to really tease it out.  That’s a very good goal, and Hint is an excellent example. 

I’ve selected three choices for my birthday present to self.  The artist behind Door #1 is from Round Rabbit.  Since I started writing this post a few days ago, she’s put everything in her shop on sale – 25%  off! 

The problem with Round Rabbit is that there is so much gorgeousness that making a choice seems pretty impossible.  I love the patterns, the shapes, the colors. I want pendants and earrings.  I don’t really want bracelets, so I guess that helps.  Here are a few of my favorites: 

OK.  It seems I want circles.  Except that if I had to pick right now, I think I’d pick the crimson tear drop earrings.  She adds new things to the store all the time.   And on her blog, creativity spills out and over and over and over again.  It blows me away. 

See these bead below?  Made of porcelain?   I want to make them out of glass.  I tried, but it didn’t work.  I”ll try again. 

What would you pick from Round Rabbit’s shop if you were buying yourself a present? 

One of the many times I was trying to explain to someone what this blog is about, I launched into a story that went like this:

I remember when I turned 40; I had just stopped nursing my younger child.  I knew that my baby-making years were behind me, and I felt a wonderful freedom thinking of the new decade as one in which I got my body back.  Then, when I turned 45, my younger one had just finished kindergarten.  I had two children securely ensconced in school, more sure and capable every day – I felt it was the beginning of the era in which I got my brain back. 

As I told this story, I realized that I am a person who seeks out markers.  I need milestones and I rarely let one pass without imbuing it with meaning.  Not that this surprised me much, the evidence has been there for, what, 45+ years.  With my birthday in June, the New Year in January, and the Jewish New Year in September/October, I have three nicely spaced markers each year to pause, reflect and make up new traditions. 

What can I say?  This is how I think.  No one ever accused me of being a casual person. 

So, it’s June and if I had my way, I’d celebrate my birthday every day for the whole month.  Or maybe it’s that I want my birthday celebrated for me, with gifts and attention showered from many directions, day after day.  But that is another story. 

This year, I am going to buy myself a present.  Something handmade.  A piece of jewelry.  Funny thing about the artistic journey I’ve been on to become a maker of jewelry is that I actually am not much of a jewelry wearer.  However, I do own a few pieces of jewelry that I really love, none of them very fancy or expensive, and I never tire of wearing those pieces.  And in my online travels over the last couple of years, I have discovered quite a few makers whose work I very much admire, but I haven’t really bought anything.  It’s not that I have such great will power, but more that I’m just not that much of a shopper.  But lately, I’ve been thinking that I need to start supporting other artists more often and building my own collection of handmade stuff.

But what to pick?  Great choices . . . . 

I can’t believe I forgot to include this bit of news in my Report Card: May:  lo and behold on Artfire is now open! 

Isabel took my new camera and did a beautiful job photographing my bracelets, so they are now available for online sale.  I will be adding my glass items soon.   Take a look:  www.lisaoram.artfire.com. 

And guess, what?  I have 500 bubble padded mailing envelopes to safely ship these beauties to new homes!  How’s that for optimism? 

I have lots more to list in the shop, but still, 500 mailers seems like a lifetime supply.  What do you think?  Prove me wrong! 

I had another great weekend learning, thinking, and dreaming glass.  This time, in Millville, New Jersey. 

After this class from Kristina Logan, following close on the heels of my work with Heather Trimlett and Jill Symons, I feel steeped in information and inspiration from the most skilled and talented glass bead makers I could find. 

I could not do it just from reading books.  I did not have the patience to work through trial and error for years to figure out all on my own how to move molten glass into the shapes and designs I see and can imagine.  I am not brave enough to hook up the gas first and ask questions later. 

Instead – and this was not a conscious and intentional plan from the beginning  - I have taken just the right classes from just the right people to now feel I have a solid footing.  

Five classes. Fifteen months:

• Intro to Flameworking – Sally Prasch at Snow Farm
• Into to Beadmaking – Nancy Tobey at  Snow Farm
• Encasing and Inclusion – Jill Symons at Blue Moon Glassworks in Austin, TX
• Buttons and Beads – Heather Trimlett at Blue Moon Glassworks in Austin, TX
• Beads:  The Next Level – Kristina Logan at Carlisle School of Glass Art in Millville, NJ

And now - I am so done. I know enough about theory and enough about practice that I feel grounded and ready to fly.  I can invent. I can build the walls and windows of MY house. 

I have been a sponge, and now I am going to be a hermit.  I am going to bid a grateful goodbye to my Hothead in the garage and set up a real torch in a real studio that I can work in year round.  A room of my own.  Finally.  

Kristina’s class was just the right one to end on.  (And I don’t mean I will never take a class again, but it will be a while, not like in the same intensity as this run. ) In addition to a full and open disclosure of what processes and techniques work for her, Kristina was also very wise and instructive about how to grow artistically.   She asked at the beginning what intention each of us had for the class. Some people said “to learn how to make your designs.”  Kristina was clear that learning to make her designs would not serve us (or her). Instead, her intention was that each of us would leave feeling that we could make our beads better. 

Here’s an example. You know how I love these dotty beads, right? 

Well, they started because of how enchanted I was to see opaque dots on a transparent round of the same color.  Originally, I used an even paler transparent gold so the opaque really stood out.   Something about the bare wisp of transparent color together with the deep rich opaque of the same hue just delights me to no end.  In Kristina’s class, I made “my bead” this way:

Three rows of dots:  big, medium, and small.  Kristina, “the queen of dots,” taught us about control of size and placement, and see – I could take my bead to another level.  I don’t love the bead I made, but I now have better skill with dots which  gives me a new freedom when I sit quietly and alone in front of my own torch.  (Yikes, look at the difference in photo quality between my old camera and my new one!)

There’s much more I could say, and I will, but for now, a few more photos of the weekend. 

We couldn’t take the torches outside, but we spent a few minutes in the sun learning how to prepare a rivet for the hole of a bead. 

I live in a college town and today was the last day of classes. Finals coming up for the students, but not for me!  No exams in my personal fake graduate school. 

Classes:

• Three days in Austin, TX for classes with Jill Symons and Heather Trimlett.  Wrote about it here, here and here.   Felt very welcomed by Jim and Rose of Blue Moon Glassworks.  Enjoyed the social and the solitude.  Definitely worth going. 
• Had more than a few “ahah” moments at the torch in Austin, many of which I felt impacting me immediately when I started working again at home.   Will detail this in another post. 
• Also, visited Nancy Tobey at Snow Farm and got re-inspired to take a class there in the fall.  (Plus, Nancy said she likes my blog and that was a big smile for me.  Hi Nancy!)
• Next:  I am taking a weekend class with Kristina Logan in May.
• Next:  Will continue to keep my eye open for classes with bead makers I admire. I would like to take at least one “travel class” a year.  Maybe Bead and Button next year? 
• Next:  Will also look for teaching studios in a wider driving distance. Recently discovered some interesting classes in Rochester, NY. Need to look into Boston, Worcester, CT, NYC, DC. 
• Next:  I am re-thinking the Gathering in July.  Maybe TX and NJ are enough and I could add Snow Farm. The Gathering is very expensive and long and it may be a better use of my energy to keep up steady practice on my torch and focus on getting my indoor studio set up before the fall. Plus, my mother is having surgery at the end of June and I may want to travel to Michigan to see her. 

Reading:

• Caught up on my magazine reading while on the plane to Austin: Jewelry Artist, Step-by-Step Wire, The Flow.
• Next:  Not sure.  I felt like reading was really important in the winter when I couldn’t torch.  But now that I can, I think doing is more important. 

Blogging:

• 15 posts in April.  Down from March, but still in my zone
• Learned to post from my iPhone!
• Got a new camera.  Long needed.  Can take much better photos now with little additional effort.  At some point, I will actually learn something about taking photos and they will get better still. 
• Added my blog to the BlogHer network. 
• Discovered some more “midlife bloggers.”  Will write about them soon.
• Next: My 100th post is coming up.  I think this one is number 95.  Want to mark this in some way.
• Next:  Stop writing report cards. It’s feeling tedious for me - which means it probably even more tedious to read it. 

Studio:

• Spoke with building commissioner of my town. More food for thought about how to proceed.
• Met someone in Austin who powers her torch with natural gas and an oxygen concentrator in a spare bedroom of her house.  Suddenly, that sounded very safe and comfortable and maybe like the answer to having the studio in an already finished but unused room of our basement (used to be an office that Steve and I shared). 
• Next:  Do some more computer research into oxygen concentrators and maybe look at some at Carlisle . It would be so great to find one there and drive it back in my car.  I assume the class will also use Mini CCs which will be the first time I’ve used something different than a Minor Burner.  One of the best reasons to go to the Gathering is to check out the technical vendor display. But we’ll see. 

Making:

• Heather said “A bead a day" and that’s what I’m doing.  Well, actually it’s more like an hour a day which includes 3 mini spacers for a warm up, and then usually two or three other beads. Where I used to think I worked best if I had at least a three hour block of time, I am rather liking this daily dose of glassy love. 
• Next:  Torch as much as I can.  Go where it takes me.  This is the most important thing and what I most want to do. I may stop writing altogether and post just big photos of what I make every day. 

Professional/Networking:

• Am making local connections through a group called Artisans of Western Mass. Went to one meeting. Will get myself on their website soon. 
• I had hoped to set up my Artfire store and do some selling for the Mother’s Day/Graduation gift season, but I couldn’t do it without a better camera.  I have now taken photos to list ten items and I hope to get them up by end of May.  
• Next: Going to a <free> workshop tomorrow about business and marketing for artists. 

About two years ago, I bought this bead from Nancy Tobey at a Bead Show.  It’s color and intricacy is really much more than what is visible in the photo. 

Last year, in the weeks before I was taking a lampworking class with Nancy, I designed a necklace around the bead.  I have to say, I love the way the necklace came out.  One thing I consistently love about making these rope type necklaces without a clasp is how many different ways you can wear them.  You can wear this one with Nancy’s bead and the oval gemstone on opposite sides of each other.  You can wear it with either one of them hanging down center front, and you can wear it with either one of them hiding in the back so there is only one, clear focal.  Each bead crochet piece is a different length and this is the most asymmetrical piece I’ve made. 

Today, I finally sent the photos to Nancy because she is having a contest for people who have made jewelry with her beads.  After years of asking people to send her pix, she finally had to bribe us to actually do it.  You can see my entry, and others, on Nancy’s Facebook fan page. 

I had a HUGE, I mean H.U.G.E day of discovery. Huge. And it came so unexpectedly.  My brain just about exploded this morning. 

I can’t even remember what I was looking at first. I made my hotel reservation for The Gathering, so maybe it was from there.  I made my hotel reservation for the  Kristina Logan class at Carlisle, so maybe it there. Maybe I was momentarily abducted by aliens. . . .I don’t know, but one way or another, I landed on a website called Mostly Glass Gallery.  And what I found there rocked my little artist-y world:  four seed bead jewelry makers, three of whom do bead crochet, on display at this very moment at SOFA in New York City, which opens tonight. 

First of all, I had never heard of SOFA, and I soon learned that the International Expositions of Sculpture Objects & Functional Art: SOFA CHICAGO and SOFA NEW YORK  are the “The World’s Foremost Fairs of Contemporary Decorative Arts & Design”  Their website describes them this way: 

At SOFA expositions, prominent international galleries and dealers present masterworks bridging the worlds of design, decorative and fine arts, showcasing the rich visual heritage of the decorative arts alongside new, innovative expressions.

So maybe I am just a babe in the woods, the last person on the block to know about the party, but I have never seen bead crochet jewelry recognized and included at such a high level.  The fourth seed bead artist used mostly freeform peyote to create stunning works of jewelry.  Undoubtedly, they are exceptional.  I have seen amazing stitched and woven seed bead sculptures, wall hangings, and fine art pieces, but it struck me as pretty unusual to find seed bead jewelry in the company of an international collection of sculpture objects and functional art.  At least I have never seen any in my limited travels. If I am naive, please point me the way to more.

But let me just get to the main point – introducing these artists to you.

Hildegund Ilkerl and Gabriele Malek:  These gals are from Austria.  Their personal website is mostly in German and I haven’t taken the time yet to read it in translation, but I did look at the pictures :)!  I think one of them is a lampworker.  Their work features bead crochet all over the place.  Some of it blows me away because it doesn’t seem that different from what I do or what I could do, and some of it blows me away because it’s what I can do but on steroids to the hundredth degree. I am using these photos without their permission, and I hope it will be OK; both the work and the images belong to them.  It looks like they often use size 15 seed beads, and I don’t have any idea how they do the flat pieces.  The third photo is a necklace. Click on the links above. Go. Treat yourself.  But come back.  There’s more to see. 

Karen Flowers:  I can’t even find a personal website for this woman. Mostly Glass Gallery says that six of her pieces are on display at SOFA – right now.  Tonight.  Do those squared have wire in them?  I want to hold that piece in my hand. 

And lastly, Mary Darwall. These beadwoven pieces were exquisite, but even more important for me, when I looked at her personal website, it looked like she and I are not so different:  she has no formal artist training, she was once a teacher, she wove her life around to art, and she loves the tiniest little beads and the process of working one bead at a time. She has an amazing eye for color. I am not trying to say that I am anywhere near as skilled or talented, but she feels to me like a model of what can be done.  Dare I say: what I might become. And look at her list of galleries.  Look at her list of shows.  The prices are high and it looks to me like she sells. I always wonder how the people behind this kind of art have the time to build an inventory, but somehow she has. One day, I will have to learn more about how she has done it.  

OK.  My day of discovery: I haven’t even started to say what I learned at my torch today. Part 2 coming in the next day or so.

I haven’t felt like writing much lately.

The weather has been nicer, and I’m torching as much as I can, with mixed results. 

These are pretty good, yeah?  What you can’t really see is that the insides are different and dimensional and sort of swirly all the way around – in a good way.  I made stringers with 2 or 3 different shades of transparent blues and greens than wound them around an opaque core and then encased the whole thing.  Definitely a technique I want to pursue.  

One thing I’ve been noticing is that the glass and the torch don’t perform the same from day to day.  I wonder if that is a function of the Hothead or if flameworkers on better torches experience something similar.  It’s really not me, I don’t think.  I’ve noticed for a long time that when the gas tank gets low, my beads are different.  Not as good.  And when I start with a new tank, those beads are the best.  Does anyone know what’s going on with that?  The other day, my beads felt like the tank was low, but I knew it couldn’t be;  I just hadn’t used it that much yet.  Does the air temperature around the tank and/or the torch matter?  It was a cold day, probably just a little too cold to be out there. 

I am shopping for a new camera and I am getting close to choosing one.  I don’t want to invest the money in a DSLR yet, and I am thinking about a Canon PowerShot SX120.  Anyone have experience with that model?  It has a 10 MP, a 10x zoom, and manual options for just about everything.  I like the way it feels to hold, and it can be attached to a tripod.  It’s medium sized.  What else do I need to think about? 

Lastly – and this is silly, I know - I felt sort of deflated that I didn’t win the ABS Turquoise Challenge.  It was the first contest I’d ever entered and I really thought I would just nail it.  Every girl needs that kind of wild hope every once in a while . .  . what should I do with this beautiful thing next?  Sell it? (not so much my colors to tell the truth).  Submit it somewhere else?  Trade it to another artist (make me an offer!) Give it away in some new and creative scheme I haven’t thought of yet. . . . Whatcha think?