I can't get enough of brown eggs. They're just so much prettier than white ones. Daily photo: 3/30/08
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Lately
I can't get enough of brown eggs. They're just so much prettier than white ones. Daily photo: 3/30/08
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Colors!
I've been playing with using oil paint to add a little color to my copper work. I paint it on and rub it off the high spots, so it accumulates in the dots, mostly. It's subtle; so far I like it. I'll try to take some photos soon.
Daily photo: 3/28/08
Friday, March 28, 2008
Weird.
This cat of ours, Izzy, is not a friendly cat. She isn't mean, or skittish, she just has no need for or interest in us. Frankly, I think we gross her out. So imagine my surprise when, yesterday, as I laid down to take a little nap, she came over to lay on my stomach! Maybe there's hope for her yet. or maybe she was cold...Daily photo: 3/27/08
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
For your enjoyment
Here are images from the lovely thesis show of Kent grad Barbi Gossen. Congratulations, Barbi! I wish I had been there.Pictured is Narcissus and it is enameled copper (I'm guessing on the metal--the flower itself may be silver...)
Enjoy.
Monday, March 24, 2008
So sad.
I've been waiting for this lovely plate from One Blackbird and it arrived today...like this... It was very well packed and the artist is being extremely helpful in rectifying the situation, but I'm temporarily bummed nonetheless. Damn post office.
Isn't her work gorgeous, though?!
Daily photo: 3/24/08
In honor of Easter--sort of...
I have heard that people like to use wheat grass to make festive Easter centerpieces. Never done it, myself, but it sounds like a nice idea. Daily photo: 3/22/08
Friday, March 21, 2008
3/21/08
Spent the day making fabric wall panels for my craft show display. Now if I can just figure out what I'll be hanging the fabric off of...Daily photo.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
The making imperative
Much has been circulating over the last few weeks in the blogs about the changes people see happening in the craft world. The discussion is actually much older than that, but as with many ideas, we in the metals world, are sometimes late to the party. Specifically, people are discussing ACC's decision to include a 'new wave' section at this years Baltimore Craft Show and Bruce Metcalf and Andrew Wagner's presentation at the SNAG conference in Savannah, GA.
I did not go to SNAG or ACC. I was not invited to apply to the new wave section, nor have I exhibited at any indie craft shows and my success on Etsy has been tepid. I was even rejected by Etsy Metal. I haven't read most of the recent American Craft issues, which have supposedly been revamped, because the half-cover thing irritates me.
How then, you may be wondering, do I have anything to say. Well, I did just finish grad school a year ago, which is not long, I'm an opinionated person in general, and I have been following these developments quite closely over the last year.
My query has to do with the nature of what is going on. I hear stories of anger and resistance, excitement and camaraderie, and that sounds to me like a revolution. But it occurred to me, the other day that in the grand (or even ordinary) scheme of things, crafts as we know them haven't been around very long. Of course, people have always made things, but it was the Industrial Revolution that made making things, on an individual basis, unnecessary. Hence the Arts and Crafts movement. It seems to me that the current idea of craft shows and studio craft artists began in the 1960s and '70s with another generation of people rebelling against mass production, and exploring the notion that people will like things made by other people.
So here we are today, claiming revolution because a group of makers has circumvented the established system of craft-showing in favor of having their own shows. But what is so revolutionary? Have the ideologies changed? Are the new makers not interested in the handmade, or are the old makers not? Obviously that is not the case. Both groups are just as dedicated to the need to make, to connect with the public, to improve the world (or at least our culture) through connecting people with handmade goods. Therefore, I don't see that there is any real change. Just a new style. Indie crafters claim to be more inclusive than the tradional venues, and maybe they are. But there's a look to indie-craftdom, just as there is a look to the ACC shows or Philly. And I don't know how anyone would get around that. It's hard to have a movement without criteria for inclusion. But maybe this issue is more a case of the next generation (which would really be only the first or second new generation since the current system began 30 years ago) coming into their own than that it's a revolution.
That said, I do think the crafts, and especially the metals world, need to make some changes. I particularly agree that there is a severe lack of criticism and while I think Metalsmith magazine is doing a great job of essentially cataloging the achievements and artists of our field, I think it bears some of the blame for our lack of criticism. Though, maybe not. Maybe some other publication that can take more risks and push the envelope should be started.
On conceptual metalsmithing, Andrew Wagner (current editor of American Craft) called for a manifesto. I agree! But I don't want one manifesto. I want many, some of which disagree, are unpopular or make people angry. I want letters to the editor, forums, and posts on the blogs with comments. And I don't want the discussion entirely led by makers from their studios. Of course makers have many valuable and necessary contributions to make to the criticism of our field, but we also need independent people dedicated to the scholarship of the field, or the crafts in general. People who can identify movements and trends, and name the social stimuli behind them. I don't know how those people would be paid... But the more we challenge and push and innovate in our field, the more we will interest such people.
So I hope these discussions continue, but more importantly, I hope they move on to a grander, more public scale.
Philly SNAG Conference chairs, are you listening?
Rainy Days and Tuesdays...
...plus a lot of other stuff, most of which has to do with making a living and mean people, always gets me down.Today's picture makes me think of one of the saddest scenes from one of my favorite sad movies, The Bridges of Madison County.
Daily photo: 3/18/08
Monday, March 17, 2008
Sunday, March 16, 2008
3/15/08
We went to St. Louis Friday night to celebrate some friends' recent elopement. This is a shot I grabbed while speeding down the highway on Saturday, heading back home.Daily photo.
3/14/08
Amazingly, here's an even worse looking meal than the previous post--only this time I didn't eat it. Yep, those are chicken livers with cabbage and apple sauce. And no, this was not at a nursing home.
Daily photo.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Gone, gone, gone!
My Coffee Spoons (pictured) and Buttonhooks are in a show right now in Corpus Christi, TX--The 42nd Annual National Drawing and Small Sculpture Show--and my spoons won a $2000 purchase award! I'm just shocked and I'd like to thank the Academy and all my friends and family who made this girl with a dream believe she could do it! ;-)
3/12/08
Spent the day giving a white-washed look to my craft show displays. I think I like it...Daily photo.
Dinner out
It is undoubtedly our fondness for dining out (which we did on Tuesday just before this photo was taken) that has our bellies looking like this. Daily photo: 3/11/08
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
3/10/08
Let's face it, life doesn't often hand me perfect picture-taking opportunities like delicate bird feet in a shallow dusting of white snow, and when that doesn't happen, my default response is to take cheesy, abstract-style images of stuff close at hand. So this is the lamp that is directly above me on the couch. Daily photo.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Misty? Yes. And watercolored, too.
When I was 16 I took a trip with my French class and my mom, who chaperoned, to France. We spent one week in Paris and one week in Brittany on the Northwest Coast.In Paris, we stayed at the Hotel American and every morning we were served a continental breakfast of croissants, coffee, hot chocolate and mini baguettes. I chose the hot chocolate and baguette, and while the hot chocolate was from a mix and I'm sure the baguette was not an exemplary baguette because this was not an exemplary hotel, I thought it was delightful.
There's only a handful of memories from that trip, or most others, that I tend to think of with out being prompted and this in one of them. So I was excited to see that my grocery Co-op has started making mini-baguettes and even more excited to see this one in the free-bin as it is one day from expiring. It is tasty, and my homemade hot chocolate in its pretty mug is delicious, but it is not the same as my breakfasts in Paris and nothing ever will be.
Daily photo: 3/6/08
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
From flosser to Rattle
It was a vibrating flosser (weird, in my opinion) but now it's a rattle (still weird, but more intentionally so). 
I added little silver domes so this one would make more noise when it's on. N. mentioned that I need to address the baby-rattle reference, so now I'm thinking of how I can make that comment a little stronger...
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
New Work
In an effort to make copperwork that is less time consuming (read: expensive) than my bowls, I have started making these wall hanging pieces that I really like. I start with flat sheet and use the hydraulic press to create a lip, which I then roll over and scallop. There's a hanging wire soldered to the back and I stamp them the same way I do the bowls.I took these images because I'm trying to apply to a more alternative-type craft show in St. Louis for next fall. I know they're not really "indie" but I'm hoping they are a little more contemporary looking... I guess I'll find out.
I have one in my Etsy store, but I'm still working on the best way to shoot them for etsy.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Leaving
Left the sale on Sunday--not an overwhelming success, but not a disaster either. Beautiful day on Sunday, in STL. Daily photo: 3/2/08
Dutifully
Spent Saturday at the sale. Here sits my dutiful helper, reading a magazine and cleverly hiding behind the display.Daily photo: 3/1/08
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