The Feedback of Art

Butterfly earrings by OxArtJewelry - Large, Medium, Small & Petite

We hear it every day in the world of commerce. " New and improved! You spoke; we listened. Designed with our customers in mind."

How can the artist compete in the commercial world, when we hold ourselves to higher, more personal standards? When our goal is quite the opposite of seeking mass appeal, or discovering the lowest common denominator in the creation of our works of art? These are not simply products that we are producing! They are adventures in abstraction, color, texture, space. They are personalized expressions of our passions and our sensibilities.

Several weeks ago I received a request from a lady who had admired a pair of earrings from the butterfly collection that I had listed on Etsy.  She thought they were gorgeous, and knew they would add luster to her jewelry selection. However, through experience, she had learned to never buy an earring that weighed more than 5 grams. She asked what these earrings weighed (they weighed in at 7 grams), and if they exceeded her limit, would I be able to make her a similar pair within her constraints?

Years ago I had abandoned commission painting of portraits and murals precisely because I never liked the idea of creating art that needed to conform to the expectations of others.  Still, this request offered a different kind of challenge: wearable art must be - before all other considerations - wearable.

In order to reduce the weight of these earrings to 5 grams I would need to trim the pieces by 29% in some combination of size and thickness of enamel.  I had never taken the time to really understand the ratio of copper to glass.  Would I be able to cut the weight 30% by cutting the size 30%?  I discovered it’s not that simple.  After considerable experimentation I now offer 4 sizes in my ‘butterfly series’ with the ‘small’ weighing in at 5 grams and the ‘petite’ version under 5 grams.

I can truly say my lighter versions were “designed with the customer in mind” without feeling like I have compromised my artistic perrogatives.

The Music of Metals...

Enameled Copper Breastplate by OxOriginalArtJewelry

Every material I have ever worked with seems to have its own way of expressing its inner beauty, much the same way every individual on earth has inner beauty waiting to be discovered. Or the way sounds can be transformed into music, with patience and experimentation.

As I became more familiar with pure copper in my jewelry work, shining it to reveal its inner brilliance, treating or aging it in solutions, heating with a torch or firing it in the kiln, I began to listen to its music. Each piece reveals itself in a rainbow of color as it oxidates and self-patinates throughout the jewelry making process.

So I decided to allow one piece to sing its own melody entirely with its own voice. For this experiment I created a specimen in the shape of a breastplate, or bib, with lots of open surface, devoid of texture or embellishment, to allow the copper ample space for self-expression. I shined it to its natural glossy state, then applied a coat of protective transparent vitreous enamel to the edge, like a frame, and fired it to seal and preserve that edge. The results were stunning: the copper actually glowed beneath its protective glass blanket.

Each time I fired with subsequent coatings of transparent enamel, the unprotected areas oxidized, aged, and revealed their own patterns and characteristics. It painted itself. It expressed itself. It found its own voice, created its own music.

How often do we forget to listen for the harmony in the materials we work with?

Friends Sharing the Art of Enameling

My first attempt at repousse work

Friends who love making jewelry, working with metals, and enameling will go the ends of the earth – or to the middle of nowhere, it seems - for the love of their art. That is how little Lamar became host to an art-jewelry mini-workshop last weekend.

Two friends visited my studio for a few days of fun, experimentation and learning.  Oh, we could have spent hundreds of dollars traveling to exotic venues for a fancy symposium on enameling or repousse. Could have turned it into a mini-vacation, complete with fine dining and scenic overlooks. But all of that would have been wasted on the incurable jewelry enthusiasts that we are. No possibility of those kinds of distractions in Lamar!

On Friday, Rose Marie from Denver, and I experimented with repousse on copper sheeting, fabricating additional tools out of wood dowels as we needed them. We picked up a second pitch pot at WalMart. (They called it a single-egg skillet, but we didn’t correct them.) Great fun.

On Saturday, Sandy from Colorado Springs, joined us and we turned to enameling. By Sunday we began working in cloisonne. Both of my guests went home with beautiful earring drops and a passion for a new jewelry technique.

And while we played, our poor husbands, out here in the middle of nowhere,  had to entertain themselves. They toured the John Martin Dam, followed the Arkansas Valley canal systems, visited the archaeological site of Bent’s fort, then trekked into the prairie to the site of the Sand Creek Massacre, and finally explored the Colorado Green Wind Energy installation. Poor things. So little to do out here.

The Philosophy of Art (or How to Make an Earpod Pendant)

Enameled Earpod Pendant

The ancient Greeks argued endlessly about the nature of art. Aristotle insisted that the ideal painter would recreate an individual berry so true to its natural form that the birds would attempt to pluck it off his canvas. For Plato, the artist’s duty was to discover the essence of “berry-ness”, and to somehow reveal that form in his art.

Now, it is neither my intention nor my desire to get caught up in the middle of THAT argument. They are both adults; they’ll have to settle it between themselves. However, every once in a while a project comes along that causes me to lean to one side or the other - like when I get inspired to create an artwork based on some “berry” that I have come across. Do I want to ‘imitate’, or ‘extrapolate’?

A few weeks ago I visited the studio of a jewelry artist friend who also collects natural artifacts to use in her work. She had collected some unique seeds from an exotic Earpod Tree in Florida. I admired them, and immediately began to imagine the possibilities for an unusual pendant. Rose Marie graciously gave me one to experiment with.

Did I want to replicate it, as per Aristotle? Or should I throw in with Plato and attempt to capture the essence of all earpods? Not a big deal, I thought, until I began hammering the copper sheet into its kidney-esque shape. That’s when I noticed that Nature had neglected to provide a balance point for the chain. I’d have to tweak that. Point for Plato.

And what’s up with these indents and wrinkles? Are they unique to this particular pod, or does nature just go with the flow? Copper is not exactly elastic, you know! At what point in the shaping process would Aristotle lay the hammer down?

 Now, for the texture: would the ideal artistic earpod be glossy and smooth, or would it allow for some pebbling in the enameling process? So, there I was… did I want to imitate, or extrapolate? Oh dear, what would Socrates do?

Happily, the enamel artist can ‘evolve’ her work in much the same way that nature causes earpod trees to evolve; I used trial and error, multiple firings, patience and timing, until all of my artistic notions were satisfied.

I judge the result by its being as unusual and unique in the jewelry world as the Earpod seed is in the world of nature.

The actual earpod is top right.

It's finished!

This is the finished product after soldering, polishing and oxidizing.  Adjusting the prongs to hold the center orb presented a challenge.  The silver tines are slightly springy, so they failed to grasp until they were equally tight.  I see the earth when I look at this piece.  Perhaps "The World" would be a good title.

Year of the Honeysuckle

    Imagine what musicians and poets could do if only they were able to project color into their art!
     I’ve been thinking about this ever since I learned that Pantone, the global authority on color, had selected honeysuckle as the color of the year for 2011. But this new pink is not our Colorado garden-variety hedge honeysuckle. Pantone’s version of honeysuckle is achieved by cooling down the old hot pink into something more like raspberry.
     I certainly buy into the notion that changing colors can help us transition out of a cold winter, and even provide an uplifting in mood after a bitter recession. Colors have a way of instilling optimism, energy and spirit into our daily lives.
  In our homes most of us will begin by using it in the same way that we use garlic or sage when we cook - sparingly. Nobody is going to paint the living room honeysuckle (unless it is already bright blue). Even an entire sofa set might be a bit jarring in honeysuckle.
   All of which made me want to begin experimenting with this new color in my art jewelry. Enameling is the perfect venue for experimentation with new, daring color schemes.
   What do you think of my variation on honeysuckle?