deep blue ocean

This video is incredibly mesmerizing and scary!

I held my breath just watching this...well not as long as Guillaume. The music is just as awesome as the video.


via sub-studio design blog.

oh and of watching the ocean, I finally uploaded some new photos on my website (and every other site)...check it out.


Pin It

habit forming

I'm trying to get some Summer reading in but it's been hard! This week I was busy every night, nonetheless I'm determined.

If you've got a creative block or need some ideas on a breakthrough I highly recommend Twyla Tharps's The Creative Habit. I got it yesterday in the mail and I haven't been able to put it down.

Twyla gives simple yet provoking methods for catching those droplets of inspiration. I'm only on chapter 2 and I'm already analyzing my own habits and rituals.

The Creative Habit is a great book for any kind of profession, not just 'creative' professions. Because honestly, creativity is needed in almost anything you do on a daily basis.

Check it out! Pin It

Inside Alexis Bittar's studio

Great short interview with CFDA Accessories Designer of the Year Alexis Bittar and view of his studio which is NOT in China but Brooklyn, NY.



I really like it that his company has all their jewelry made in house and in the states!

via Fashionista. Pin It

wonderful article on design...

David Sherwin of frog design reflects on how being in the moment and observing life can bring about a breakthrough and ideas for design.

Read at Design.Mind's. Pin It

teaching/subing my first metals class

Several weeks ago, I wandered into Emerge Gallery, a local artists gallery as well as school, that teach smaller recreational art classes.

I always like to walk in and see what my classmates and local artists are selling. This most recent visit I spoke with Holly Garriott, Executive Director about one of my favorite ceramicist, Adam Egenolf (psst check out his work because it is awesome).

After chatting for awhile and telling her how much I love the metals program at ECU she offered for me to send my resume to possibly teach classes or sub!!!

I was thrilled and am subbing this evening for grad metals student Laritza Garcia. I'm a little nervous but nonetheless excited! Pin It

sized my first ring!

I was really excited Friday when I sized my first ring! My good friend gave me an old ring that had lost it's stone and I decided to size it from a 5 1/2 to 8. The reason I sized it so big was to practice with more metal. And I was successful!

Ellis, the 'Jewelry Doctor', showed me a great technique for fitting the silver wire into the shank.

First measure the length, saw and file it, as well as the shank itself, in the center and then create a V-shape to the shank and for the piece to be solder the opposite shape (a V inverted to the left) so that the shank and piece fit like a puzzle.

I did this and voila! It's funny what we metalsmiths get excited about! Pin It

hot cars

For Memorial Day weekend I flew to Louisville, KY for my cousins wedding. Several hours before the big event, my family and I drove around the hip Highlands neighborhood. And lucky for us there was a vintage car/motorbike show!

It was fun, not only were there hot rods but also cute and sexy pin-up fifties style clothing on sale.

Just one of the colorful cars at the show.

The car above was so badass - it literally was on the ground, tires were removed.
And this pretty pink car had dice on top of radio antenna!

It was so nice to get out of town and visit a new city and catch up with all my cousins and family.

I hope you had a good Memorial Day weekend!

Pin It

children playing = designing!

Okay, another video but this one is so much fun to watch.

Remember when you were a kid and the possibilities were limitless? Let's try and be like that everyday.



got this video via design mind | business.technology Pin It

Where have you gone?

in the clouds...this song is perfect for staring off into space, contemplating life.

Pin It

new earrings

Here is my initial sketch and stones for a pair of earrings. The stones were actually one...but they broke! Why waste such a pretty agate stone? I plan on prong setting them in sterling silver. When I left the studio the prongs were already in, next step is soldering the back hooks for chain earrings.
Here are 3 of my 'paper lantern' coral earrings. I'd been contemplating how to make some sophisticated, funky and unusual earrings. I take a small piece of already used or scrap silver and roll it out to a very thin sheet and then pierce out swirly/curvy designs and lastly attaching a large piece of coral. Overall, I'm very satisfied and plan on selling these on my website and future etsy site.

I'm taking photos tomorrow, with the help of metals grad student, Laura Wood. I'll finally have some decent ones! Pin It

did someone call for the doctor? the jewelry doctor?

I began working part time this week at the jewelry doctor and I'm already learning so much!

I'm really loving it. Such a breath of...jewelry dust (not fresh air)...to work with my hands and be away from a desk and computer.

Ellis, the owner, will do the repairs (sizing, chain repairs, checking prongs and/or settings stones) while I clean them up. I grind down the solder seams, file, and file some more, more filing and then polishing.

My bench at the repair shop

Ellis is a really patient and good teacher. Before even working part time, I came in once a week for an hour to get trained. Ellis gave me several tests and had me take in orders. It's such a great experience to learn this side of the jewelry business. Repairing jewelry is very different from actually making a piece.

In that you have to understand the properties of whatever your repairing, in addition to assessing the type of repair it needs.

Here I am with my magnifying glasses; looking completely dorky and happy!

Pin It

Ring 70.6 (2008, IT) Public Treasure Poison Ring

Ring 70.6 (2008, IT) Public Treasure Poison Ring
Originally uploaded by Blind Spot Jewellery

Blind Spot Jewelry is....AMAZING! When I checked out Janos Gabor Vargas website, my jaw dropped. His steel rings are incredible, twisting steel and bending them backwards is just amazing. His series of poison rings are fascinating and intriguing.

You can view more of his work here.

Blind spot is also on flickr.

And something I really appreciate on his website, is inviting the viewer to see the process of how he makes his rings.

Pin It

music to sketch to

Bibio - Fire Ant

Music and making art go hand in hand to me.

Pin It

Etsy finds - Red Hot Pottery

I love getting my Etsy Finds (Daily Shopping guide) email, highlighting sellers based around a theme. Such as Twilight, Mothers Day, Emerald colored items etc. And tho I'm guilty of not yet purchasing anything, as I'm a student, I add some sweet sellers to my favorites.

I'm currently lusting for Red Hot Pottery's vases, they're so delicate and pretty

::::RED HOT POTTERY::: Handmade stoneware and porcelain by Arizona artist Christine Tenenholtz, who keeps herself busy inventing new ways to play with clay, beads, the camera, the computer, learning to drum, bellydance, and speak Spanish.

Florapalooza vase

Love Birdies Vase (oooh so pretty)

She even sells jewelry!

Pin It

ECU metals charm swap

Another fun charm swap! And this time, with my friend/fellow metals student, was able to get Jim Cotter and Bob Ebendorf to provide pins! We were all very excited about this and were anxious to begin the swapping.

Mine is in the top row, middle one with the round object/shell from Panama with dangling coffee beans. Jim's is to the left of mine with the large golden clothes pin.
Bob's is in the bottom right corner.

The other charms are Laura Woods (of course the large print makes it stand out). Marissa Saneholtz's is the small hand grenade, very unexpected for her style. Kat Cole made her charm with tin and beach glass, I really like the glass.

Tara Locklear made hers with cut out skateboard hammered brass (I got Tara's charm). And of course Sarah West's geometrical steel wire charm. I really like the new work Sarah's been doing.

Tara has been the force behind organizing the charm swaps, which I'm very happy she has. It's so great to share a small pieces of our work; despite our busy lives it creates community within the metals studio (grad and undergrad). Tara has an awesome goal of continuing a tradition of inviting professional metalsmiths to participate in the charm swap even if they are not present for the swapping...hence Jim Cotter, whom recently visited our studio for a demo and critique.

We've already set a goal to have our next one in July and I'm already looking forward to it. Pin It

Jewelry of the Day: Cleo and Cat Jewels

Aren't these pieces wonderfully organic? Like something you'd find at the shore's edge or maybe stuck to a giant rock on the ocean.

Claudia and Catalina are behind Cleo and Cat jewelry. Which they create using polymer clay and semi-precious stones, along with metal and organic materials. Each piece is handcrafted. You can shop and learn more about that at their website www.cleoandcatjewels.com. Pin It

David Bowie sings "eewwwww, ewwww fassss-shion"

I had that song in my head as I was writing this post. Clothing and textiles have always had an influence on me, artistically as well as how I dress.

When I was about 10-12 years old I wanted to be a fashion designer, I even had an inspiration board and wrote a paper for my class submitting some of my designs. I got an A on that paper and my teacher supported my aspirations...she was one of those awesome, nurturing teachers.

Anywho, I thought I'd share some recent fashion show outfits.

Lovely patterns provide ideas for layering metal, fabric and organic materials.

Purple and black - 2 of my favorite colors!
Anna Sui Spring RTW from Style.com
Any shot of black with a shot of peacock feather automatically gets attention for me. That is what I love about black.

The way Bibhu layers squares of fabric near the bottom of the dress is beautiful.
Bibhu Mohaptra from Style.com

When I look at new runway looks and just fashion in general I begin to think, how it may apply to metal/jewelry. How would I reinterpret the same look but with jewelry?

Pin It

Logo

As you can see I changed the title/image for my blog.

This is the logo my very talented cousin, Lorena Carrasco, created for me.

I really love the cursive, swooping font and the font she used for jewelry, unfortunately I can't use the logo on my own website! Oh well, I still have some time to toy with putting an image of my work around it...I just need to get good images...grr. I will, definitely this summer.

I'm curious to hear what you, my very few readers think? Do you like it?

I'm also going to order new business cards with the new logo, any good recommendations?

Thank you for reading! I look forward to hearing from you. Pin It

Inspiration boards

stim board
Originally uploaded by futuretribe

I love looking at artists & creators inspiration/mood boards. You can see some of the process, the wheels turning in their head.

Check out some of these I found on flickr's Inspiration Boards group.

I'll add more and take a photo of mine in the next several days.

unfortunately I can't hang my cork board in the student studio b/c the walls are cement but I hang lil' clippings and postcards on my bench.

Oh and I have to share this photo of my new henna tattoo that my friend Lisa did in exchange for jewelry. It's pretty cool eh?

Pin It

several projects going on

I've got a couple of jewelry thangs goin' on. The above is a moth pendant that I acid etched and then enameled. I'm not completely happy with it but it's a good first piece. I got the inspiration from digital photos from the New York Public Library Digital Gallery.
They have fantastic images, such as the one above.

Then I began sketching this morning an idea from a setting to the stone...which I can't remember of the top of my head, I bought. Anywho, it'll be pretty cool.
And here is a blurry photo of an earring I finished with a lovely coral bead. Something funky and quick to wear this weekend while I visit my friends back in VA! Pin It

250

Here are more projects from the 250 materials assignment from Bob Ebendorf:

I was especially impressed with these 2 projects. the above made of felt twisties and the other of black tea bags. Isn't it amazing what you can make with ordinary objects? Pin It

cupcakes and toothpicks

Last weekend I was in the mood for dark chocolate...cupcakes so I found an awesome recipe online on Cast Suger blog. And these cupcakes came out sooooo good, though my arms were killing me from mixing all day.
I decided to add my own lil' addition of yummy hazelnuts!
Buttercream frosting with irish cream mixed in...deliciousness.
And the voila! my cupcakes!

These were a payment in exchange for a trim to my new haircut, you can see in my previous post.

Okay, now onto a design project I've been working on. Bob assigned us a project to construct something with 250 of any material we want. I decided to use toothpicks because they contain the perfect amount of 250. My idea was to create a watchtower...sorta looks like one.

or a hand? Pin It

showtime

It's pretty much near the end of spring semester at ECU and there are lots of senior and MFA thesis shows going up. I went to several Friday night and it was great to see the culmination of hard work for the several metal graduate students.

Here are several photos of Autumn Brown and Jennifer Well's work:

Porcelain faces Autumn wood fired. The central face holds potato chips! Much of Autumn's work utilizes porcelain, metal and semi-precious stones. I especially loved the above body of work and the ostrich egg wall piece below. Autumn is very adept at doing sculptural work, as you can tell and the ostrich egg piece is just magnificent.

Klepto belt buckle.
One of Jen's silver vessels. Jen uses horsehoe nails to adorn, and support, her vessels, which are flawless. I've only raised one copper bowl...and to raise such a fine piece of silver, is well, very hard!

Here is my friend Lisa (right) and myself. We had a great time walking around downtown Greenville for the semi-annual Artwalk. *as you can see I'm wearing one of Laura Wood's earrings which, I really love! Pin It

The Gray Area

I'm really, really loving the discussion over at Jewelry Art Forum, they're blogging the Gray Area Symposium, held in Mexico City... ‘stands as an endeavour to not only encourage the cultural exchange among jewellery makers from Latin America and Europe, but to additionally create an interdisciplinary frame of reference for contemporary jewellery and its practices within a truly multinational discourse’.

The Gray Area Symposium is a result of the Walking the Gray Area project/blog which in their own words is to 'carry out a dialogue about global mobility, identities and contemporary jewellery. The dialogue will result in an exhibition to be presented in Mexico City, April 2010.'
*Gray area logo

I especially enjoyed reading the review of Ecuadorian Anthropologist's Xavier Andrade discussion on the functions of jewelry in Latin America and how it is a part of the process in culture. I wish I could've been at the symposium myself to hear his talk as well as other parts of the symposium.

Having myself grown up in Latin America: Uruguay, Panama and El Salvador I saw the symbolism of culture in jewelry, the Pre-Colombian gold jewelry as well as the handicrafts of locals using natural/found materials.
Jewelry, as much as ceramics, is a very important element in the studies of Anthropology. Telling rich stories about the people of a given region. I could write an essay on this (maybe I will...) but for now, I'll propose the question, what story(ies) does your jewelry hold? Pin It

Otherworld creatures

That is what Christy Langer's sculptures remind me of. In Celtic myth if a person saw a white creature with red eyes they were said to be in the Otherworld (aka. heaven).

Christy was recently featured on The Shooting Gallery's blog. I'm a huge fan of getting insight into an artist's studio and how they work.

Some of her sculptures show animals in motion, as if being attacked or attacking another animal in the wild. They are absolutely beautiful and more captivating painted white with red eyes.

*I'm not posting photos as they are copyrighted so please read more of the interview and view images on the Shooting Gallery's site.


Pin It

Charmed, I'm sure!

Last night one of the undergrad metal students, Tara Locklear, held a charm swap, and it was super fun. We'd been attempting to organize one with the entire guild but it just got so busy in the studio so Tara just said anyone come that wants to exchange a charm. It's a wonderful way for us to keep a memento of each other and represent their work. I got a charm from Laritza Garcia, a graduate student.

The charm I made was somewhat of a test piece for future work of moth wings. I chased lines and pierced it and then enameled soft blues and purples. It came out nice. All of us agreed that we want to do more charm swaps. Pin It

scrap or something new?

Whenever I get stuck or take a break or when I'm waiting for something to dry or pickle, I go through my bench drawers to see what I've put away for another time.

In January I was working on my broken hearts and I had been working on one brooch that wasn't working with me. so I took it apart and kept the pin back setting, I thought, this may come in use later as it had a perfectly good pin back setting.

so I took a lil' break and looked at the pin back setting and thought, why not just leave it as is and wear it as a pierced brooch? I did some more piercing, oxidized it and voila! I have something that is just fun and not too serious.
What do you do with scrap or pieces that didn't work immediately? Pin It

Jewelry of the Day: Drown

I just found Drown jewelry via Worn online magazine, via Fashion Hayley (it's amazing what you find once you stumble on a blog to another blog).

Drown jewelry is a side project of Drink Me, Alice, by Australian jewelry designer Alicia. I especially love her Nebula collection made of acrylic, resin, onyx and oxidized metal. I myself have been quite inspired by nebula photographs and beautiful starry photos via National Geographic.

Enjoy!

Pin It

currently in the studio

It's chaotic! I spent several hours today working on my champleve pendant but I got out of there as there was a roomful of metal survey students working on their projects...and it can get somewhat cramped.

Here is a process shot of the 3 colors I'm using for the pendant.

I thought about splurging and purchasing more leaded enamels but right now I'm trying to save some money so I stuck with the enamels I have and after testing these three blue/green colors I'm very happy with the combination. To me, the pendant looks like floating sea algae.

I'll post more pictures, close up ones, once I'm done. Pin It

Jem and the Hollograms and Gems

Back in the day when I was a little girl, I LOVED Jem and the Holograms. I'd wake up Saturday mornings, I think around 8am just to watch the show. I wanted to dress like her, basically be her.

One Christmas I got the Jem doll, with light up earrings and a very cool waterbed. She was so rockin'. Anywho, I was watching a video of Jem on youtube and I realized how cool her style is, albeit very 80's but I kinda like it now. I mean, check out the colored hair and neon outfits?!

Her makeup and accessories have me somewhat inspired to make some lightening jewelry...not that I haven't already done that.

For your viewing pleasure here is a video with Le Tigre (one of my fav Feminist bands) singing along to Jem.


Okay for reals, on Gemstones, I just got LarkBooks 500 Gemstone Jewels and it is packed with the most beautiful gemstone jewelry work I've ever seen.

I highly recommend purchasing this book. I flip through it almost daily.
Pin It

Gold Rush

Yesterday I was trained at the Jewelry Doctor, a repair shop in Greenville, NC where I will work/train part time this summer.

Ellis, the owner, showed me some of the basic repairs he does. He repaired a hollow chain, butterfly pendant and diamond ring that had a crack in the gold. I was thrilled that he took the time to show me and also marveled at the rapid rate one can heat and repair gold. It's certainly nothing like working with silver, when you have to heat the entire piece to solder one spot.

I have exciting plans to begin my journey with working in gold this summer with a rad triangle cut lapis lazuli stone! Pin It

Jeweler of the Day: Mari Ishikawa

I just found Mari Ishikawa via Klimt02. Her dark, organic looking brooches intrigue me. I especially enjoy her gold brooches. Pin It