Engraving

I am learning to hand engrave on silver. It is very difficult and painstaking but I love the fact that it is a very direct way of patterning metal. Yes I have a tool in my hand but it is a small tool, used almost as an extension of my hand.

I took a workshop 18 months ago where I first picked up gravers to work on silver. I planned to go home and start practising right away but I left it a long time as other things inevitably intervened. I started again this past winter and tried to practise regularly but it wasn't going right so I contacted the instructor of the workshop - Jane Short - and she invited me to come to her studio for a day of instruction and practice. It was wonderful and just what I needed to get the feel of it again and ask a lot of questions.

I am not so interested in traditional engraving, script and lettering, scrolls and figures. I want to use the technique within my own aesthetic sense. It combines well with enamelling as you can engrave a recess for the enamel to sit in which can itself be further engraved with pattern as I have done with the piece above.

I am aiming to practise often now. A little everyday is ideal and I did that for several months cluminating in this piece of engraving fired with enamel. I must start on another piece right away as time flies and I don't want to get rusty. 

New Studio

Spring is not quite in the air here in the south-east of England but I think it won't be long, the daffodils are in bud and just waiting for some warm sun. Nevertheless I am excited because we will be building a studio in the garden next month. Since moving back to England I have mourned the loss of my old studio in Canada. Under-appreciated at the time it was merely part of the basement of our large house, nicely warmed by the furnace and with the laundry sink close by with hot and cold running water, two windows looking out on my garden.

At this moment I am renting an old cowshed on a farm - clean and painted white inside admittedly but draughty and cold with no natural light, no sink and only cold water available outside. When I first rented it there were other artists on the farm too, a couple who do hand book-binding and a woman who carved granite sculptures. They were lovely and made it bearable. Since they have left and some unfriendly characters  moved in I no longer want to be there at all.

So, the decision to build a studio taking up part of our small garden was made, costs debated over, savings pondered and finally we gave the go ahead to a local man who is happy to have my husband help him build a wood framed fully insulated 'shed'. I can't wait for it to start and have already bought a climbing rose to grow over it.

Bragging!

Earrings in sterling silver and enamel

Is it ok to brag about your own work really? To blow your own trumpet and say how great your work is? Well, what I am really saying is that I made these earrings and I really like them, I don't think I could make them any better.

Actually I think it is a very useful skill to be able to critique your own work. So here goes... I love these earrings for their slightly unusual shape - not complex but not exactly straightforward either. I love the pattern - a classic Japanese chrysanthemum pattern, and the scale of the pattern is exactly right for the size of earring. I especially love this green enamel - Thompson's unleaded Grass Green, which by the way is the easiest, most forgiving colour to work with on sterling. I also think that the plain silver, slightly textured domes work well as a counterpoint to the coloured enamel.

So, I am not really bragging just sighing with relief that a piece of jewellery went right for a change. Believe me I have a box of rejects waiting to be de-enamelled and re-fashioned or simply thown in with the scrap. After all if you cannot critique your own work how will you ever realise what went wrong with it?

Summer Time

Why is summer so busy?

There are so many things that I want to do including continuing to make jewellery that this blog has most definitely fallen by the wayside. My husband and I went away for five weeks to the UK to visit my family (picture above is taken on the Isle of Wight) and I just never caught up when I came home.

Every winter I always picture myself enjoying long lazy days in summer, promising myself that there will be outdoor sketching days, pure designing days, experimental metal work days, days for new enamel ideas, and on and on. It never seems to happen that way does it?

I have actually sold a lot of work this summer which is good of course, but what happens next is that I have to make more inventory and as I am only one person not a factory it seems to take forever. Cranking pieces out with no thought for their quality is not what I want to do, so I continue to work painstakingly on each piece - can't do it any other way.

In addition, I am working on some interesting 'things' in enamel - not jewellery - as part of a possible commission. I won't say any more except "watch this space" for further details! Now if you'll excuse me I have to go and continue weeding my garden.

Calling all art students

Once a year I get asked to return to the school where I studied jewellery-making - Kootenay School of the Arts - to give a slide show and talk to the students about moving from being an art student to being an art business owner. As April is just about upon us and students will be graduating in a few weeks I thought I'd share with you my top ten tips on this subject.

1. Work hard.


2. Establish a routine of regular working hours, tell everyone you know, repeat it continually.


3. Buy a camera, learn how to use it and make a photo booth for your work.


4. Start selling locally, move further afield as you become experienced.


5. Try different things - you won't know if it works until you try it.


6. Book-keeping - do your own, then you'll know what is coming in and what is going out.


7. Artistic work feeds commercial work - do both if you can.


8. Be reliable and nice with everyone - customers, gallery owners, suppliers etc


9. Show off your art - wear you own handmade jewellery, clothing, accessories.


10. When you can afford it, go to a workshop or conference, for creative renewal and networking.

I have tried my best to do all of these things and my hand-made jewellery business will be 12 years old this year. Here's a photo of a brooch I made in my early years - Oak Leaf in sterling silver, 14k gold and acrylic.

Waiting for Business

Unfinished production pendants in fine silver and enamel.

Last saturday and sunday I was part of a local Culture Tour - demonstrating my enamel jewellery techniques. It went about as I had expected - not a complete loss but not really busy enough to get excited about. Because I had set up my work table in a local boutique where I sell my work there was a steady stream of people coming in. But I was surprised at how many of them just concentrated on their shopping and showed no interest in what I was doing. As I have said before, I don't really think that the geography and sparse population of our area were conducive to this tour being a success, but I was happy to give it a go.

By the way I had been worried about taking my kiln up to the store and plugging it in. We (myself and the store owner) had finally managed to get hold of an electrician and he came and temporarily replaced the breaker for the outlet socket I was using. I was relieved, and everything worked very well.

The pieces I worked on during the tour were some small, very simple pendants, using the textured foil technique. It is an easy technique to do while talking to someone but it looks quite effective when finished. I had a cloisonne piece set up to work on too and I did a little, but I really needed to be at home alone doing that one. I did have some people who werer very interested in what I was doing and they really made it worthwhile. I even sold a few pieces!

All in all I'll call it a weekend spent promoting my work rather than selling a bundle of it. I guess it all helps in the end, and I did get quite a few pieces made!

Art in Action

Enamel over embossed silver foil

This weekend I am spending all day saturday and sunday demonstrating enamelling on silver as part of our local cultural tour. These artists tours are ubiquitous these days but this is only the second year for ours. One of the problems here in rural Canada is that the artists are spread very thinly over a large area making it difficult for people to see many places without a lot of tedious driving.

Rather than open my studio which is only my basement and nothing special, I have partnered with the local store that sells my work and I am lugging all my stuff up there and setting up right in the window. It should be good for both of us. I think many people are intimidated by going to an artists' house especially if they are the only visitor at the time - it can feel awkward. By setting up in the store I think people will feel fine about popping in. Perhaps all the stores on the main street of our little town should sponsor an artist?

I'll write about how it went next week - hope my kiln will be okay and not blow all the breakers!

Goals

When I first set up my studio jewellery business I found it really helpful to set some goals and to actually write them down. It was a way of crystallizing my ideas of what I wanted from the business.

The way I wrote them down was as follows:

First I wrote down about three or four goals such as being featured in a magazine or having an exhibition or creating a new body of work or winning a grant that year. These were just larger ideas that I thought would be good things.

Second, I took each goal and broke it down into smaller pieces. For example making a list of magazines I might possibly be featured in, what kind of article; or where were possible galleries that might show a jewellery exhibition; or if I applied for a grant what would be some proposal ideas. I called these my objectives.

Third, I took each objective and broke it down into a mini action plan complete with a to do list. For example I would compile a mailing list and a press package for the magazine objective and then do a mail out. Once I did this for each goal it really made it all seem far more do-able, albeit a lot of work.

I did this goal setting exercise for at least five or six years while my studio business was growing and I learned a lot from it. For the past few years I think I have been running on automatic as I am immersed in production work and custom pieces and I have a pretty solid routine to follow each work day. But lately I have been thinking that I need to set some new goals and see if I can change the path my jewellery is taking. Time to shake things up...

Epiphany

Last week I had a bit of an epiphany and it concerns something that I think a lot of artists have to deal with. An elderly friend of mine had shown me two pieces of jewellery that needed repairing. There was no value to the pieces in terms of materials - one was a brooch made of glass beads threaded onto a brass backing and the other a brooch of shell pieces glued to a backing of mystery metal. However they were of significant sentimental value to her. I don't like doing repairs on jewellery other than my own and try and avoid it but it always seems to be friends that I can't say no to.

So I went ahead and fiddled around for ever with glue (which I hate using) and nylon thread and so on until they were done. If I had charged my normal hourly rate it would have been hundreds of dollars, so what do I do? Charge a nominal $10 or $15 or what? In the end I went over to her apartment, had tea and gave her the pieces and said not to worry about paying, basically because it was easier for me that way. Anyway she suggested that she make me a cake as payment - she loves to bake, so I said okay that would be nice.

So the epiphany happened when I went back to her apartment to collect the cake a few days later. She had made a huge apple cake, carefully wrapped up. As I put it on the seat beside me in my car and drove away I was suddenly full of a strange warm glow and I realised that it was because I felt genuinely good at the transaction we had done, not just a fake kind of feeling good that you tell yourself to feel. I felt like it was the antithesis of a Walmart type of transaction and I felt good about that because I don't like Walmart and what it stands for.

Anyway this is not to say that I am going to search out things that need repairing and offer to do it for free! But I am happy about how it worked out in this case, and you can imagine the look on my husband's face when I walked in with the cake!