experimetal: April 2010

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Please say hello to round 3!

So I am sporting "round 3" of my Spring purging session! I am letting go of 3 more pieces from the Project Runway series I xxx in for the last couple of seasons. And I just have to tell someone, this feels darn good to be letting go! Its very liberating. I tend to hold on to things, but I suppose it is my slow process of letting go when I'm good and ready to. I swear I am getting better at it. My father says to me all the time, I cannot take it with me when I die so I might as well let it go." ...well, yah, but....

Season 7: Episode 1 "Five"

Flickr photos

Etsy listing

Challenge description:

This week's challenge was a little vague to me. Tim Gunn asked the designers to run and grab as much Mood fabric they could in 3 minutes. Then he said, "Now only pick 5 of them that you love, and make something that represents and speaks about you and your style."

For some examples some ideas were to use 5 stones, patterns of 5, the actual number 5, what does 5 mean to you? Does 5 have any special significance to you?

At the time I was kind of stumped by that weeks theme, I began thinking that this would be easy, well, after sanding all my finger tips off I have a "Five" to share with you. I went to the rudimentary basics of this challenge and literally made a 5. I fabricated a large hollow form made of Copper. I then oxidized it and left a soft warm finish." Measurements: h 1.5/8" x w 7/8" x d 3/8".

Season 7: Episode 3 “The Metropolitan Museum of Art”

Flickr photos
Etsy listing
Challenge description:
This is a very exciting challenge! We were asked to browse around the infamous “Met” and find a piece of art that inspired us, and to then make our own personal interpretation of a classic piece from anywhere in their archives, it could be a past or present exhibit or something from their permanent collection. I found more than one! but I narrowed it down to this odd little find. It is Untitled and dated 1844 *see it here and is of American or European descent, and is made of Coral. It was a gift from Mrs. Edna S. Crawford, 1945. Accession Number C.I.45.32.7a–c

This piece was inspired/interpreted by the odd little simple object with no name and no description. It was made of Coral and little pillow sachets I believe from what I could see from the photos. I made a sort of talisman charm necklace because I thought the objects were some form of protection because of the sachets. Materials: Sterling Silver, Copper, Topaz and Coral.

Season 7: Episode 7 “Hardware Store"

Flickr photos
Etsy listing

Challenge description:

The challenge was to create a look that the components were found from a hardware store.
So I made the Washer Envy Necklace. I kept it simple. On the show, there was a horrific hot pink string washer bathing suit made. I love washers and felt they were misrepresented and misunderstood, so i felt the need to make this piece to honor the "washer" and its sweet perfectness as individual roundly-object-thingamajigs. So I wanted to be able to show them in all their simple beauty. Materials: Sterling Silver chain, Steel, Brass, Oxidized.

Spring has Sprung!

Ahhh, the mornings at my place have been wonderfully quiet and very productive! and my cup fulleth of creamy coffee... I have been trying to switch over to an earlier schedule, as I think this may relieve that sense of not enough time in the day. On one hand I love to sleep, morning sleep to exact, the sleepy warm snuggly cozy drunken slumber in and out of consciousness is my bliss... Another pro is being up early I accomplish a lot more in a day and feel quite proud of myself, so is the self worth better than the self indulgence? Ok so of course there is the con side. I also love to be up in the late evening as the world is quiet and there is no reason for me to leave the house, no pressure to have to run errands, it's lovely. But since I can't have it both ways I will keep on trying out this new early thing.

But right now as I write I am being really naughty, I am up again in the late evening hopefully not sabotaging my new schedule! OK, I am so excited I just had to post. I have been very productive and have been making earrings and having alot of fun! I wanted to let you all know they are now in my Etsy shop.
I miss feeling this sense of accomplishment. I think I was feeling a tiny bit blue this winter season, but finally I am feeling more energized and happy as the days are brighter, warmer, longer and the sun is starting to shine again, spring is here and the planting is about to begin!

Hello Spring!

Turquoise Swing earrings

Swinging Sweet Bluebird Earrings

Delicate Rings

Little Labbies

Labradorite Rain earrings

Long Double Shielded Stone earrings

Sea Fan earrings

Olive CZ Drop earrings

Rayna earrings

Friday, April 23, 2010

setting them free....

Alas! I must admit I am having (just a wee tiny bit) fun letting the children leave the nest. It is quite liberating to watch them fly on to their new lives! 2 of these pieces are from the Season 6 EtsyMetal Project Runway Jewelry Challenge. All these pieces will be available in my Experimetal Etsy shop! And if you like what you see, you can view a few more trinkets over on Flickr, I try and post them there before they go to the big orange Etsy. oh pssst~ I sell exclusively on Etsy at this time, no where else.
Thank you for all the kind words and support you all have share with me!

N893 "Iconic" Australia Season 1: Episode 5
This week’s challenge was to make an Iconic statement from the 60-70's era. I had just recently seen a couple of huge smiley faces around town and was starting to see them everywhere that week, haunting me in fact! On tire covers and wine bottles!? So I knew it must be a sign from the metal gods to make a giant un-smiley emoticon that week! On the reverse concave side it is a sad smiley. I am very guilty of overusing the emoticon, and try to limit my use, but I can't seem to shake the habit obviously! So this piece is almost 3.5" across, Copper, Enamel, leather and Sterling Silver.

N894 "The Getty" Season 6: Episode 12
This piece was interpreted from a Bronze medallion called "Disk with a Bird" in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Our challenge was to find something that spoke to us and to make our interpretation of the piece of art.
This is made of Copper and Sterling Silver. It is a hollow for which is approximately 1/4" thick. The bird rocks back and forth and his 3 layered little wings swing around as well. The medallion part spins freely. It hangs from a heavy Sterling chain.

N895 "Pop-Challenge!" Season 6: Pre-Finale
OH the pain! This week on the Project Runway challenge all our EtsyMetal Designers took a consensus and asked for an extra week postponement as they were up to their eyeballs in metal, they were working on their mini-collections and needed more time. Heh-heh but as a penalty (and so we had something to post on the blog) we were asked to do a "pop-challenge" for that week. The challenge consisted of making a piece out of limited materialsand only 48 hours!
1 x 2" of Sterling or Copper
3' of wire
So I made a Sterling Silver pendant which captures a steel ball bearing that spins inside, it is about 1" across with a rough hewn patina. As you can see I was able to keep within my material constraint! It was very fun to have limitations!

Monday, April 5, 2010

Blog Carnival: April 2010

"So what is a Blog Carnival you ask?”

It is a group of Etsy Metal members who will collectively write an article on a monthly subject. Blog Carnival happens the first Monday of each month.

April's topic:

The Creative Process:
"How do you plan and organize for design?”

I think this month’s topic is closely related to last months for my particular style of creative process. I am highly influenced visually by shape and overall feel. I do not think I organize in any particular way.

I can share with you what I’ve been thinking about for this last week’s project and how it is manifesting. Last week I wanted to design a crab claw ring. My muse is this beautiful crab claw in the picture above, and forgive me if one of you my dear friends have given this to me and I do not mention you, please speak up as I have misplaced where it came from, but I do know it is the only specimen I have of this crab breed. And perhaps I even ATE this particular claw myself.

OK, so for starters, I will mention I am a little bit of a pack rat. I collect it’s and bits constantly just like a little Bower bird. I collect them not to attract a mate but to create! So moving on, I just love-love-love this particular claw. I love its shape, its being. This is where it starts. I usually will not cut cardboard models out unless I cannot solve a problem with a function I want it to have.
So as I was making a mock up for the movement of this piece I saw how beautiful again the simple silhouette of this form would make for my 365 Ring-a-Day (RAD) project. I thought I could catch 2 birds with one net. And use the progress of building these rings in steps for my RAD project and Blog Carnival. SO for this project ultimately I will be making the pinchers pinch, 2 versions to come hopefully for this Tuesday and Wednesdays RAD rings. I will post them here when finished.

So this is pretty much how it is for me. I live in the moment with my designs and I more than always will sketch it out if it’s a little more intricate than normal. Sketching helps me take ideas and work them into wear ability regarding comfort, balance, functionality and feel. I figure if I am going to put effort into something I want to make sure I am on the right path of my desired outcome. As I’m sure it is with all my metalsmith and artistic friends, things can change at any given point and that’s the magnificent part of creating. So I am open to looking for new ideas while I create and may stray from the original concept to find something that catches my fancy, I am very in the moment spontaneous creativity. I cannot say I am organized in the least bit, in fact I am severely scattered and have a secret wish to be a little bit better organized someday.