Intentional Stones

Birthstones everywhere

I've been making a lot of these birthstone rings.  They're a fun and inexpensive way to have a piece of jewelry made just for you.  Being me, I've not been happy with just the original design.  I've been encouraging people to choose something even a little bit more customized.  This one will have a pearl for June, making a pearl cup is new for me, and she's asked for fewer bands on the ring.  These stones aren't set yet, so it doesn't look quite as it will.  Actually, she hasn't chosen stones, I gave her a choice of garnet colors and shapes as well.  Here, I was worried that these would be boring, but they're giving me a chance to experiment with stone setting.  The next set I'll be working on will be emerald cut stones.  I'll have to add listings for the variations!

 

That was really the purpose of designing the birthstone stacking rings in the first place.  Creating settings is my next skill goal.  I think I've got a handle on the tube setting that's the basis of the orinial ring.  The square stones will be very pretty.  In fact, the design for the next ring will be a "Steelers" design.  I'm pretty excited about that one, but a little afraid.  New things!

I need a recommendation for a good stone setting book or video course.  There are a few at Rio,

 

Like this course, or the book Creative Stonesetting, by John Cogswell which has been reviewed very well on amazon.  But I'd love more feedback.  Nothing would replace a class, I think, but I haven't found one and I've done OK so far on my own. 

Anyway, I'm rambling. 

It's been good to have a new skill to focus on while getting ready for this seasons shows.  I can get overwhelmed in the process of preparing applications and improving my displays, and it's nice to feel like I'm still growing, even when my time is spent on non-jewelry projects.

-Simbelmynë

 

Cultivating Creativity

I'm back at the book again (Launching the Imagination, Mary Stuart)

And the second part starts with this title.  If there's anything that this blog was meant focus on, it's cultivating a creative life. 

The author describes requirements for creativity.  The combination of new and old, being receptive to all creativity, and creative thinking.  Also means of motivating yourself as a creator, by setting goals,  keeping expectations real and taking advantage of your strengths.  The importance of a good work area with the resources you need and an environment that inspires your creativity.  And the influence from other artists, gaining inspiration by working with others in order to push yourself creatively and to better communication.

Finally a chapter that's not completely new to me. 

These last few weeks have been very much crazy for me.  Between the end of summer and children and everything, I'm not at my bench much at all.  But while I've been away, I've been collecting a lot of affirmation by being at these fairs at the local mall.  I'm deeply grateful for the people I've met there and who have had confidence in me and in my jewelry. 

In the next two and a half months, I'll be working as much as I can in between getting our cyber school environment established.  The materials to complete our kitchen have just arrived as well.  And the metal work I promised to myself is about halfway done.  I'll do my best to stay sane and pop in to write as often as I can. 

I need to keep my creativity together and energized.  And my body.  So I'll be thinking a lot on the lessons in this chapter.

-Simbelmynë

Books and Nostalgia

Books are the creative works I get the most time to enjoy. I've always read for entertainment and education.  As much as I love books themselves, I usually read primarily for fun.  Lately, though, I've been reading textbooks to keep my brain working, too. 

Anybody who follows my twitter feed might notice a weird #hashtag I use sometimes- #WoTrr, short for Wheel of Time Re-Read.

 

One of my favorite authors, Robert Jordan, died a few years ago, nearly done with an epic series (and I mean epic, he died after completing volume 11 of 12) and the mantle has been picked up by Brandon Sanderson. 

I've seen this done before and been sorely disappointed, so I was a bit nervous when I heard this news.  It turns out, Sanderson is a bit of a genius.  Fortunately for all of us who have been waiting patiently for years between volumes during Jordan's long illness.  And who were devastated when the treatments that had seemed to be promising ended in his death.  Jordan left behind detailed plot outlines, character sketches and volumes of notes and maps, so that the work could be completed. 

It turns out, Sanderson was the best choice.  He's a fan himself (He even uses the silly hashtag sometimes), and he also seems to understand the spirit of these books and of Jordan, himself.  He's worked with RJ's widow and family to fully understand the outlines and reference materials, and he's got a very clear view of the work he has to do.  He's taken everything he has and done it justice by extending the series even further, giving the remaining material three books to develop. 

I'm deeply grateful for the care that's been taken to finish this huge endeavor.  As a consumer, a fan, I'm always so happy when the next volume is published.  It's something I've been able to look forward to since my first year of college.  I have a vague hope that the last book, A Memory of Light, will be out this year, but I have a feeling it'll be around my 20th anniversary of picking up the first book, The Eye of the World, next year. 

E-books have broadened the time I can spend reading. To get ready for this momentous event, I've started my re-read.  Each book is over 600 pages and my copies are all hard cover, so hauling them, along with my day to day necessities is a hassle.  But the fact that I can download them onto my phone means I have my book at the gym, the park, the pool, wherever I am with the kids or on my own.  Honestly, e-books may be the reason I've returned to my habit of daily reading.

Of course, there are many new authors out there.  I haven't even had time to read Sanderson's other books, and I'm eager to do that now.  Not to mention Martin, a few of Neil Gaiman's I haven't gotten to, and another author I check on every time I'm at the book store-Tad Williams. 

I'm so glad to be back to reading a lot.

-Simbelmynë

Images, Weight, Symmetry, Motion

They pack an incredible amount of information into the chapters of a design textbook.  Only one chapter and I'm reading about perspective, frequency of images, frame and orientation, emphasis, scale, relationships, location and symmertry.  I feel like I need a book in order to read this book.  It's no wonder I've been working on this one for a month. 

Luckily, the author has used images of jewelry and from Mulan, nice of them to take into account my obsession and my regular life stuff. 

Ok, Words are hitting a wall again here.  I think I'll just blurt things I think of when looking at the concepts.

• Unity and variety- A piece, jewelry or painting, is one thing.  All the elements and images must coordinate and work together.  But there must be differences to create interest. 
• Continuity-even elements that are dramatically different can contain similarities that create w sense of connection in the piece.
• Similarity-As mentioned earlier, this is the simplest way to create continuity.
• Visual Systems-using a pattern to connect elements in an image.  Would this work with jewelry?  Frequently it's a collection of pieces.  When it's not it's usually small.  Working in minature would give me the opportunity to create an individual piece with a system.  Naturally, several parts of a necklace or bracelet form a pattern. 
• Closure-the tendency of the viewer to complete patterns and lines that are implied.
• Weight and Gravity-It's very easy for the central element of a jewelry piece to have the greatest impact on the design.  Balancing the weight along the entire length of the piece gives the design interest all along it. 
• Balance- can be created with symmetry or balanced asymetry and color and brightness or darkness.
• Scale can create motion, emphasis, perspective.

Allright, there's too much here for one blog entry.  I'm going to chew on these ideas for tonight and get to making jewelry. 

It's no wonder I had so much trouble with this stuff in college!  For me, understanding of these concepts has come through experiencing art and creating it over the years.  How can one expect a young artist to grasp everything in one week, lesson, chapter?  I imagine I'll be coming back to Chapter 2 many many times before I'm done studying this book.

(Referring to Launching the Imagination: A comprehensive Guide to Basic Design. by Mary Stewart. McGraw Hill Higher Education, 2002)

-Simbelmynë

 

Reinforcing knowledge

This book is currently part of my daily reading.  I picked it up at Half Price a few years ago and I'm almost finished reading it. 

Sometimes I worry that I'm stuck in the beginning stages of learning to work metals.  And, in a way I am.  Many of the things I've done lately have been to solidify my basic skills.  Begining jewelry class at the community college.  Drawing 1 and 2 over again. 

And they all have been amazingly worth it.  Granted, I've completely fallen behind on posting here on the blog.  I know once the summer comes I'll have tons and tons of material to write about.  But I've moved up a level in my jewelry and my design. 

It turns out, revisiting lessons over again and from a different perspective is highly useful.  When a technique isn't working the way I think it should, I go back to a different teacher and see how he or she recommends approaching it.  That's exactly what I'm using the Design and Creation of Jewelry for.  It's a great overview of basic jewelry metalsmithing technique.  I believe it's designed as a textbook for jewelry classes.  All the examples in the book are student work.  (from the University of Illinois, no less.  A year in their art program in 1992-3 and I never knew they offered jewelry!)

My only disappointment is the book's secion on Design falls at the end and is only one chapter in 6.  As Design is first in the title, I'd expected more.  This is alright.  Much of jewelry design is based around the many techniques you need to master in order to create it.

I'm working my way through the design chapter now. 

One thing I've loved about my jewelry classes is the instructor, Adrienne Grafton of Pearlette Jewels, is designing many different types of jewelry-from belt buckles to hair combs. 

I look forward to learning even more about designing as I get to the point where I'm just creating with the exciting techniques I've learned!

-Simbelmynë

 

"Yeah, She had an accident. I'm your Muse now"

I've got a new favorite comic

Oglaf
(warning, this comic is generally NSFW)

I have felt this way more than once. 

My muse and I have not been on speaking terms for the last couple of months.  And it's been bugging me.  A lot.

So I busted out a notebook and started writing Morning Pages, the only part of the Artist's Way I've managed to internalize the first time I tried to do the process outlined in the book.

And my dear friend who I've been taking many art classes with said "Wait, I need to find my copy of the book!"  I had asked another dear friend what she has done about artist's block, as I'd been working on a piece for her for literally weeks and not getting anything done, and she mentioned the book in the first line of her response.  Sometimes it's just time for an idea.

So I'm finishing week one. 

And it's clicking this time.

Seriously.  Like my muse, when the time is right, I just have to do a thing.  Why can't the time be right when I first WANT to do it?

My muse has already started speaking to me again.  Even if it's only in fits and spurts. 

-Simbelmynë

Books for the Road

Along with crafting, I'm rediscovering my love of books. Maybe I've just been too busy. Maybe the enormous number of unread books in my house in Pittsburgh has been stressing me out. Maybe the television was eating my soul. But I hadn't been entertaining myself with literature or non fiction for quite a while.  The idea of e-books is growing on me, but moving away from your wireless router or out of cellphone range will never be a problem with the bound paper version.

The kids love to know they aren't alone in getting dragged around the country and Are We There Yet is a favorite with both the kids and the adults. The elephant who ate the hated hat is Havoc's hero, and I'd love to surf on sandstone cliffs at the Australian Bight.

I've been cultivating our habit of breaking up our long drives by stopping a interesting spots along the way. It's better to find places that aren't marked on the signs sometimes. So we've been using The Geology of Australia as a bit of an off the path travel guide. This book is amazing in that it provides an intelligent explanation of geology and it's terms for a beginner, but also goes in depth into new information and nitty gritty science. I admit it, I've never taken a course in geology, and considering how much I love stones, this is unbelievable. I may rectify that problem when I get back, because this book is fascinating!

I miss my jewelry books, and the internet has supplied me with the information I need, but sometimes the best part of a book it's lack of distractions- No people! I was lucky enough to find a great bead shop and though I've finally reached the point where I feel I have enough beads. (Yes, I said it, it's possible to have enough beads.) They had a lovely rack of instructional books. There are hundreds of books on basic wireworking and bead work out there, the unusual thing is a book about more advanced technique. Wirework, and Illustrated Guide to the Art of Wire Wrapping was just the right thing, taking basic technique to the next step with inspiring and beautiful projects. There is no substitute for time in the studio with an experienced teacher, but when it's hard to find the time, books are great for self teaching.

And for entertainment, I'm reading the long long awaited final volume of the Wheel of Time series, The Gathering Storm. I love a good fantasy novel, especially one you can get your teeth into, and at almost 800 pages, these books will not leave you unsatisfied. The death of the Author was quite a blow to the fantasy world, but he left behind a testament to the care he took in writing. After committing to novels and a series of this epic proportion, he had carefully planned and plotted so much that it was possible to finish his work. Brian Sanderson is doing a great job bringing me the story I've been wanting to read since the early nineties in college.

What are you reading?

Nature By the Book

Seeing all these wonderful and new creatures and plants everywhere we've been has also created a need for lots of references to figure out what they are!

The birds are gorgeous, the plants full of wonderful smells and flowers, and the animals dart into hiding whenever we see them.  So, one of my first stops was at a book shop to try and figure out who we were seeing. 

Our first realization?  Books here are quite expensive!  Sometimes as much as three times the price I'm used to.  I guess it makes sense, with shipping costs so high and most publishing happening overseas.  (I also learned, from a little bird, that this is an attempt to bolster the sales of Australian books, keeping the price of imported books as high or higher, but the government may be reconsidering this strategy.)  Unfortunately, i think the libraries suffer from this as well.  We have two branches of the ACT public library within striking distance, but both are small, especially in the children's area.  Friends from work have kindly lent us some of the bird books they have.  The internet and e-books are going to have to help us out.  It's too bad, because I love to support local business. 

Still, we've had a great deal of success.  We have found a wonderful series kids books on the wildlife of Australia, by Steve Parish Publishing.  Amazing Facts about Australian Mammals, Birds, Insects, etc...  Which have great information and a wide variety of the creatures we've been seeing.   The library provided me with books on Australian snakes (over ninety percent of these are poisonous, and the non-venomous varieties only occur in the rainforest, so we won't get getting cuddly with the snakes while we visit), and the Geology of Australia, which is turning into a guidebook of places we really must visit. 

At home, in the US, I know we take our wonderful environment for granted.  Many of the birds who visit are familiar friends, I've known most of my backyard tree species since I was a child, and animals are cute or pests and I move on with my day.  It surprises me that I'm not more curious, since my family tends to travel through nature for most of our vacations, and I love to point out the variety of plants and animals to my kids as we walk.

Being in a completely new environment has woken me up to the amazing variety around me, at home and abroad. 

When was the last time you cracked a bird guide?  Don't you want to now?

-SImbelmyne

When in Doubt, Read.

Life is moving very fast. Mom is on her way to Pittsburgh, taking this opportunity to wander a bit and visit relatives along the way. The Australian visa is complete and we are one business letter away from buying plane tickets. I'm taking steps to reconfigure my home so that one more person can live here. We need to find an apartment for six months in Canberra. It's overwhelming.

There's appallingly little time for jewelry, knitting, photos, and other crafting. Instead, I've been finding good books!

For light entertainment, I downloaded Jacqueline Carey's Banewreacker for Kindle on the iPod. Fantasy has always been my favorite form of entertainment. This one's particularly interesting, turning epic fantasy on it's head since the characters, quests, armies and deities we're following are the "bad guys."

Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace by Ayelet Waldman has just been making me laugh as it questions the idea of a "good mother" and why I feel the need to live up to an impossible ideal.

Never mind the endless research on Australia in books such as my mother's gift Moon Living Abroad in Australia by James M. Lane. Perfect, even including homeschooling co-op websites. We're going to Australia!

I've loaned out my camera this week. Apologies for the lack of photos.