Intentional Stones

Artist's weekend

My family will be out of town having the time of their lives.

And I'm staying home to have a party! (yes, I do feel like a teenager whose parents have left town for the weekend)

It's an artist's retreat at Simbelmynë's house!  I'll hit Costco and fill the house with food. I'm used to all sorts of eaters-picky eaters, carnivores, vegetarians, vegans, food sensitivities, OmNomNomNivores... Also I have hot and cold running WiFi, which is, of course, optional.  And, never fear, coffee.

Everything's ship shape with lots of room for big projects.  I'm not far from Construction Junction, really you could get pretty crazy. I'm planning to set aside areas for specific things, and we can adjust as people arrive with their projects and goals for the weekend.  I have lots of places to sleep, if you're from out of town or just don't want to leave.

The jewelry studio will be in full swing.  I have almost every type of equipment anybody could need-from torches to finishing equipment. I have tables and corners and quiet areas for writing, being quiet, meditating.  A park next door for walks and listening to the world around us.  A full crafting room with all sorts of supplies, if you forget anything.  I even have a macro photography studio, if you want to get some small photos.

We can swap, dump, laugh, play, work, meditate, trade secrets, teach, learn, whatever we want to do.

If you RSVP I can make sure I have what you need.  Or just show up, the more the merrier!

Stay all weekend or come and go as you please. 

Official Start is 7pm Friday, March 18 and end at 7pm Sunday March 20.

-Simbelmynë

(412)608-8986

235 Oakview Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15218

(Please ignore the photo it's from the highway, for some reason)

We're the last house on the left.

Homework for Jewelry Making 1

Assignment: Visit the website www.velvetdavinci.com click on the "shows" link and explore at least 10 shows.  Choose one and write a page about it.

    Of the many galleries on VelvetDavinci.com, the show that interested me the most was the Virtual / Tangible v2.0 show of January 27th to March 4th 2007 http://www.velvetdavinci.com/show.php?sid=65.  Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Manufacturing programs have changed jewelry forever.  The curators of this show are exploring how jewelry artists and instructors have used these innovations in the past four decades. 
    I’ve seen examples of the new technologies available to jewelry makers and I’m interested in the implications they have for the future of technique and artistry.  If we can visualize our work in the unlimited environment of the computer, in CAD/CAM programs, and then directly create wax forms which can then be made into jewelry the possibilities are endless!  However, what does the innovation that could let us design fantastic surfaces, settings and forms mean for the hard work it takes to do these things by hand?    The possibilities are fascinating and disquieting.
    This show contains pieces of jewelry of all types.  Necklaces, bracelets, rings, and broaches and they’ve included other uses of metals- flatware and sculpture.  The items range from plastic to virtual.  Most of the pieces in this gallery are created in the virtual environment and then created with help from new instant manufacturing techniques.  Some are plastic, others metal and still others are traditional precious metal and gemstones.  The artists combine computer techniques with hand forging knowledge.  One artist designs with image and light, creating worn pieces that are simply a projection of light on the skin, hypothesizing on what could be done if it were possible to wear in a real setting.  All pieces are a result of experimentation not possible with traditional methods of jewelry creation.

Brain Reset

Stream of consciousness post for today.

I've been blogging less lately, I really don't want to lose you as readers, but my inspiration's been sucked up by delays, setbacks and obstacles.  I worry that it's all me.  Not able to overcome, push things out of the way and get to work. 

So I'm going to unfog.  Write mostly about what it takes to make myself work, and hopefully share some good work along with stuff that's just OK and things I hate.  It's a little scary.

I've got commissions and requests for information.  And this is making me feel very good and yet have doubts at the same time.  I need to work on the process of communication. Creating a request form with specific information that I need before I take on an order.  Set up a reasonable system of creating an estimate and time frame for response and expectation.

I also need to make time to fix up my space and organize my materials.  I need find music and sound to keep myself stimulated while I do repetitive work.  Still I need a better creative environment, one that's not messy and distracting.

My household is distracting me endlessly and things will not settle down unless I stop letting things bother me.

I need to: Clean up, organize, focus on skills, get old projects finished.

I'll share photos and write whenever I can.  And hope order comes out of this chaos eventually.

-Simbelmynë

Counting Words

I've been jealous.

Jealous of other people's talents in crafting. Mina's in particular. It's the talent of writing.

This probably goes way back to high school, where the "coolest" teacher taught creative writing. I could not possibly pile that upon my elective art, science and french classes. I've never been particularly confident in my writing skills, beyond the simple formulas of essay writing, that is. But the seed was planted. I wished I could write.

A few years ago, I vicariously became aware of the broad possibilities of the internet through creative writing. Specifically I watched Mina's world open up through the relationships she developed through LiveJournal.com and the challenge of National Novel Writing Month.

Write 50,000 words of fiction in 30 days. Sounds simple, eh? It's a creative challenge. There are a lot of people who do it, successfully and unsuccessfully and they're all OK afterwards. Not like a marathon where you could destroy your knees or have a heart attack. (Yes, I'm chicken about running.)

So, naturally, I took it on myself. For a couple of years I tried. The first year, I managed 1500 words in the first couple of days. And then my story just petered out. The second time, two years later, I managed 3000 on a semi-autobiographical fiction that dragged me down like cement shoes. Self preservation took me away from that one.

Then I called out to my crafting friends and we formed National Craft Making Month and I focused my energy in my own area instead of working from jealousy. I've done this for two years now and it's been fabulous-creative, productive, and I'm building new friendships out of it. So I thought I'd try writing another novel.

And lo, the change in me!

I let go of any presupposition that the novel would be good. In fact, it's working title was "Cathy's Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Novel" (apologies to Judith Viorst) and I just wrote up a daydream story I've been telling myself before bed for years. And it went, and went, and went, for 15 days and 25,000 words!

Alas, the holiday season began and my commitment to make online sales work for my jewelry pulled me away from writing. So the novel is sitting in a file waiting for me to have time. I'm excited about finishing it, almost as much as my other crafting projects.

I'm not sure if the difference in perspective comes from two years of successfully completing my own crafting challenge, continuous blogging or simply from looking at writing as another crafting project. It could be all three. Next year I will finish, I know I'll be able to.  Isn't that crazy?

Do you NaNo? And has it changed you?

In this new year, as part of my crafting initiative, I am looking to challenge myself daily once again. I may even write about it on the Crafting Month group, and of course, here.  Good things come of it.

-Simbelmynë

I'm glad I'm not the only one.

politics, swine flu, stock markets

You're really not going to see these things in this blog.  Unless, of course, they get in the way of my crafting.  If theses things show up in my art, it's not direct.  They may influence the feelings I express in my subject matter.

Probably the heaviest thing I will blog about here is Home Schooling.

Here's my exemplar for a descriptive passage for my third/second grade reader's writing exercise.

Beads

I have many, many beads.  They are every color and size.  My beads are made of stone.  They are very heavy when you try to take them all with you.

I use beads to make jewelry.  I string them on thread and on wire.  I use them in colorful patterns.  I create shapes and pictures with them.

Pardon the simplicity of my example.  The child is capable of amazingly complex thought and reasoning.  He has opinions on all the subjects above.  Unfortunately, at the moment, the idea of _writing_ about anything at all is painful to him.  I'm sure that political discourse is on the horizon.  But first, let's learn to write without pain.

-Simbelmyne

Finding Myself

Hi!  I'm back.  I've been "finding myself"  I hope I found something good.

Actually, I've been trying to think about writing.  How I write, what I want to write about. 

I've said before that I don't write fiction.  I leave that up to the pros.  There are so many good ones out there... Neil Gaiman, Jonathan Carrol, Ursula K LeGuin, among others construct worlds and characters that lead me out of my boring humdrum whenever I want. 

I look at the artists I admire and they share a seemingly effortless quality of well considered impact.  I want the words to engage my mind and my imagination at the same time.

Since I really think that all these expressions reflect into one another, I'm happy to make the comparison.

I'd like my jewelry work, heck, all the things I make, to have this same effect on others.  It's a lofty aspiration. I don't know if I have ever succeeded.  Some of them work for me, at least.  Stepping into my new bathroom makes me forget that I hate the carpeting outside, or that the cat's foodbowl is empty again.  I fidget with a ring or pendant I'm wearing, and I think that _maybe_ if I see someone else on cleaning day, they won't think "you don't care at all what you look like."  Maybe it's an illusion.  But it makes me feel more myself.

I figure that that is the key to a good blog entry.  It makes me imagine, for just a moment, that I can see the world of that blogger, through that person's eyes.  I would like you to see my world through my craft.

-Simbelmyne