Stretching and Growing

I have now had 2 craft show juries ask for more information about how my metal clay designs are handmade.  The implication seemed to be that my jewelry was somehow manufactured. What does that say about my designs?  Should I take that as a compliment or a criticism?   I politely explain metal clay and how each element on my pieces is created and placed by hand and the whole thing is kiln fired.  I guess metal clay is still a new concept to some people. Next time I'll send a link to a basic metal clay YouTube video.

As for my designs, my friend and mentor has been encouraging me to keep raising my design bar, polish up my technique, and make something spectacular. Something worthy of hiring a professional photographer. I'm still a bit stuck in the mindset that jewelry must be wearable and therefore practical.  If you read my previous post about the artisans in Florence you will see that some jewelers do create beautifully outrageous pieces.  I'd be worried that if I wore one of Dari's rings it would get caught on my sweater or I'd knock it against something.  But, truthfully, Dari's rings are meant to be collected, or worn in another world where people don't get things caught on their sweaters. And I think that's the kind of spectacular my friend is asking me to create.

So I had a little bronze clay left over, the kind that takes forever to fire, and decided to try a few things. Rings are so hard because everyone wears a different size and I don't want to make 6 of the same design.  So I've been experimenting with adjustable rings and came up with this idea. It wraps under one finger and cascades over the next one.  Let me know what you think.

I also tried to make a cuff bracelet that would be worn with the opening at the top of the wrist.  I planned a floral idea for each side.  After trying three times, I gave up.  The weight of my design made it too hard to attach to the band no matter how I worked it.  My idea seems to be better suited for sheet metal.  But...the design I planned to put on each side did make a nice pendant.

I haven't quite gotten to the point of spectacular yet, but I think I've moved out of the box.  And calla lilies seem to be my latest theme.

Some Artisans of Florence

The artisan culture in Florence, Italy, is based on centuries of skill and tradition.  This was part of the reason why I chose to spend a week in Florence.

Many artisans reside or have workshops in what is called "Oltrarno" or the other side of the Arno.  Armed with a list of addresses and my map, my friend and I crossed one of the bridges into the Santo Spirito district and the maze of streets known as Oltrarno looking for the violin makers, jewelers, bookbinders, and gilders.

I'd like to tell you that I found them all but following a map in Florence isn't as easy as it looks.  Streets change names at each intersection and some smaller alleys aren't even listed.  We did see a couple of open doors to studios with artisans refinishing or gilding very old furniture and frames.

Through a little trial and error we finally found ViaToscanella, 5 and the studio of Giancarlo Giachetti and his cat.  He looked to be in his 70s and spoke no English.  But he pointed to a poster on the wall from several years ago that showed him as a much younger man participating in an art event in Hawaii.

The link attached here to his name has a great little article about this internationally known Florence artisan and his background.  We had no idea that we were meeting a legend of the Tuscan artisan world.

Sometime later, walking down what appeared to be a deserted back street in Oltrarno, we saw a couple of men take a right into an open door that we probably would have passed without a second thought.  It appeared to be more a museum than a jewelry shop and was filled with nicely displayed and glass encased pieces that looked like a cross between jewelry and sculpture.  Mostly rings, they looked like they could have been ancient and were set with gemstones and crystal.  Off to the right as you enter was the man I later found out was Alessandro Dari, probably one of the most talented jewelers on the planet, working on his latest piece.

I was a bit too intimidated to even ask if I could take pictures so these are ones publicly available on the web

If you're interested in purchasing one of Dari's pieces, click here.


If you clicked the link to Dari's jewelry prices, you'll see that some artists have a customer base most of us can only dream of.  The Mercado Central, Florence's central open air market, is filled with booths of leather, t-shirts, jewelry, and scarves.  Most of these people are selling items produced in third world countries or in little factories in Italy that use leather from China.  Prices are low and vendors are happy to bargain i.e. "How much do you want to spend?  We can make a deal."  It was refreshing to meet one leather artisan who talked to us about how to determine if the coat or purse you're buying is truly handmade in Italy.  And, of course, we segued onto the subject of price.  It should be no surprise to anyone that pricing is an artist's biggest challenge--what it's worth vs what it will actually sell for.  And it's difficult to compete with the Pakistani vendors that fill the market.

We found Vittoria Scaffidi in front of the Pitti Palace.  There are always artists and their paintings in front of the museums and palaces of Florence.  Some are just selling cheap prints but we found several very talented painters with their work on display.  Vittoria's style was a combination of ink and watercolor and while the subjects of her paintings were the usual scenes of Florence, her technique was unique.  Vittoria is originally from England but has been in Italy for 17 years.  I'm not sure how often she brings her work to the Piazza Pitti, but as someone who sets up a tent at a few craft shows a year, I see this as a tough way to earn a living.  Her prices, like some of mine, were based on what the public is willing to spend.

The Annual International Handicrafts Fair in Florence Italy

The Mostra Internazionale dell'Artigianato at the Fortezza di Basso is an annual week long fair running since 1931 with the aim of showcasing local artisans as well as others from all over the world. Why am I blogging about this event?  Well, I'm excited to tell you that I WAS THERE, last week as part of my vacation in Florence, Italy.

It takes place in several buildings at the Expo Center in Florence.  The first small building we came across was filled with local food products from the region.  We sampled cheese and wine but ended up buying chocolate to bring home.  

Formerly a fortress, one of its ancient rooms was filled with recycled art, clothing, jewelry, and home decor.





But the main event takes place in the Spandolini Pavilion.  The entry level featured arts and crafts primarily from Italy though we found a few artisans from other parts of Europe as well.  As is typical, there were several jewelers, but with very unique designs.  I bought a leather band for my motorcycle riding husband from Eggskinlab. Her style is much different from leather crafters I've seen locally and she works almost exclusively with black leather.

                                                     

                                                       Bethany & Eva trying on funky hats.

I don't know why I thought steampunk was primarily a US thing.  I was surprised to see "A Casa de Momma" jewelry and this fabulous steampunk belt/corset. 

 Jazz Steampunk has an Etsy shop and was there from the Netherlands.  But Kizzy's jewelry was very close in style to Jansjems.  She spoke very little English and but when I handed her my card she laughed and said "no copy" very clearly.  I didn't bother to tell her that my work is already pretty similar.

There were several Italian ceramicists represented and found that most painted in the styles you can find all over Florence and the Tuscan region.  But the work done by the brothers from Caltagirone, Italy, was different, antique looking, and so much more special.  I had no intention of bringing home any ceramics.  I put Spanish ceramics in my carry-on after a trip to Spain and worried the whole way that it would break.  But my daughter who was there for a couple of days bought me a lovely smaller piece as a gift.





This was a huge space so we were very surprised to find that there was yet a lower level.  Downstairs was set up much like a bazaar. The floor was broken up into quarters--French, African, Indian, and Asian.  The Asian part was pretty much set up like the gem shows I attend with table after table of gemstones and pearls.  The French offered lace and fabric.  

And yet, there was an upper level dedicated entirely to food--Asian, Italian, Indian--packaged or cooked to order. To give you some idea about the size of this event,  I found out that this floor was almost 20000 sq.' and it was smaller than the other 2 levels.  Fortunately there were sitting areas spread around and the furniture was pretty interesting and made of recycled cardboard.

In addition to all of this, there were other smaller buildings here (think the Big E grounds) that had events like cooking demos.  There was also a puppet theater, a food court, and the ubiquitous gelatto stand. 

So Many Ideas, So Little Metal Clay

My new order of Goldie Bronze Clay arrived last week, thank heavens.  And just in time as I had used up the last of my Art Clay Silver and still have so many designs I want to make.

I have 3 or 4 empty jewelry trays and they hold little pictures like these, some with gemstones, and when I have time and metal clay I choose a couple.

My youngest daughter's birthday is coming up, so I made something for her with the last of my Art Clay Silver.








Recently I was asked to donate to the local library's fundraiser.  Some of you know that I have a weak spot for libraries and have donated pieces to others. While I have pieces already made that I could give them, this seemed like a good opportunity to create a new one, just for them.

And as one thing led to another, one piece led to the creation of another, and I've been in my workshop off and on since last Thursday.

On Tuesday I dropped off the finished piece at the Tilton Library.  I think it looks pretty good.  I hope they make a lot of money off of it at auction.  If you're interested, the auction/fundraiser takes place at Chandler's Tavern (Yankee Candle restaurant) on Wednesday, March 6.  It's an evening of wine tasting and micro brews.  Only $25 at the door or $20 if you purchase tickets in advance.  I'm sure they'll have lots of great items to bid on.

As for the birthday gift? I'm pretty happy with it as well.  I hope she likes it.

A Little Fun after the Snowfall

Sometimes you just do a craft show because you know it will be fun.  I occasionally am asked for advice about the criteria I use for selecting shows to apply to.  And I definitely have my list -- well established, good traffic, communicative organizers, no re-sellers, etc.  But Handmade with Love, the little show at Eastworks that happens twice a year, has always been an exception.  While it ticks several of my must have boxes, it's still a small show with traffic well below the 3000 I generally look for.  But the organizers are organized, the handmade arts and crafts are varied and well made, and the vendors are all local and all friends.

So even after Nemo hit and they had to postpone until the next day and a few of the artists weren't available on Sunday, it was still a successful show.  Yes, traffic was lower than usual and sales were a bit off.  But in between groups of customers who seemed to come in waves, we chatted, checked out each others' newest items, got caught up on what shows we were applying to, and even had a little unofficial AWM meeting about our planned Demo Day.  More about that in the future.

Then came a little impromptu treat that I hope will become a tradition at this show. As it got close to closing time, Jen pulled down one of her very ornately painted guitars and she and Karen serenaded us with a few oldies.

You know they were REALLY oldies since I knew all the words.

So for those of you who were unfortunately still shoveling on Sunday, you missed a great little artisan show in Easthampton.

More Fun with Metal Clay

I've got a half dozen craft show applications sitting in the office, my Etsy shop has been totally neglected, and my website is down pending some new pictures.  So I've been spending a lot of time working on some new silver designs. Wanting to try with silver the techniques I used with bronze clay, I spent another week buried  in my workshop.

Trying to create open work curlicues with silver is a bit different from  bronze.  Silver hardens more quickly and seems to be more fragile when dry.  It breaks more easily.  It took me a while to get used to the feel again so I started with some simpler pieces.

Like flowers and leaves, the curlicues are much easier to put on a solid surface.







But I eventually created a pair of earrings that I really like.

And later a pendant set with a genuine ruby cabochon.

But the best piece I made this past week was actually one I made using a tutorial.  Now there are lots of tutorials out there and they are a great way to learn new techniques.  I just haven't found one for anything I really wanted to try.  But in an older issue of Metal Clay magazine I found a tutorial by Anna Mazon.  She's a metal clay artist and instructor from Poland.  While she's the expert on the open work technique I've been working on, her tutorial is for a 3-dimensional pendant called "Hidden Pearl".  I spent several hours on this piece and I have to say that it's really nice to have all the logistics of the design already figured out.  (Sometimes that takes more time than the design itself.) So I just followed her very clear instructions and pictures and here's the result--

I haven't decided yet if I'll put this one up for sale or just keep it for myself.

January and the Creativity Zone

I'm in the zone right now, holed up in my downstairs workshop.  January is when I take out all those pictures I cut out and the sketches on little scraps of paper and try to create some new designs.  Not all of them work out as planned but I've made a resolution that this year I will only fire those I'm completely happy with.  Then I can't fall asleep for thinking about how I can change something that didn't work or what can I add to a dull piece so I won't smash it in the morning and reconstitute the clay.  A lot more clay than usual has been reconstituted this month.

I've done a little more work with those curlicues I mentioned a couple of posts ago using the bronze clay in an attempt to get better at it before I move on to silver. While the open work can probably be even finer, these are pretty good initial designs.  Sanding is really important for a smooth finish but I'm finding it difficult not to sand these brittle pieces to the point of breaking.

These are time consuming, a challenge, and a bit different from my usual geometric Art Deco style.  But one needs to move on creatively and challenge oneself, no?

As for geometric, I also made more of the the dangly retro style necklaces.  These are just fun and a nice break from the detail work.