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?

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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?

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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.


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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!

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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.
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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

Stanley William Hayter

I didn't know much about the Surrealist painter, Stanley William Hayter, until today.

I saw this photo in an artist magazine and all I knew is that I loved the way he drew the figure with a background of wild colors.

Here is a brief bio (via wikipedia):
Stanley William Hayter, CBE (born Dec. 27, 1901, London died May 4, 1988, Paris) was a British painter and printmaker associated in the 1930s with Surrealism and from 1940 onward with Abstract Expressionism.^[1] Regarded as one of the most significant printmakers of the 20th century, in 1927 Hayter founded the legendary Atelier 17 studio in Paris. Since his death in 1988, it has been known as Atelier Contrepoint.^[2] Among the artists Hayter was credited with influencing were Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, Joan Miró, Alexander Calder, Marc Chagall, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko.

I began this piece almost a year ago in my 2nd enamel class with Abby Goldblatt at the Art League school via the Torpedo Factory in Old Town, Alexandria.

In my initial sketches I planned on riveting tubes on each point to put a jump ring and triangular chain. Then as worked with the piece and it grew...my plans changed. And I decided to use fabric of some sort.
I sewed the 2 pieces together and then 'threaded' the black goat leather to create a chain and then sewed bra strap pins as a clasp. I know it sounds odd but I wanted the leather to be seamless the enamel piece to be the center of attention. Overall, I love this piece and will rock it out!

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drawings

Here are some muscle drawings I did last night. I really didn't want to do them at first and then afterwards I loved them. It's all about procrastination.

Drawing is so meditative, listening to music and shaping the line.

And here is a photo of another champleve pendant I'm working on. The last champleve I worked on was very tedious but absolutely beautiful.
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The Marzee Collection at St. Andrews

Oh man, I wish they had more footage, I ate up this video of the Marzee collection,

"Galerie Marzee in the Netherlands, will be celebrating its 30th anniversary over the next year and this will be billed as one of the anniversary events. The gallery is the largest known gallery in the world dedicated to innovative contemporary jewellery (its displays extend over 4 floors of a former grain store) and its director, Marie-José van den Hout has built an extensive collection of some of the best international contemporary jewellery over the last 30 years. "

The Marzee Collection at St Andrews from Galerie Marzee on Vimeo.

The conversation in this video reminds me of one I was having with my Mom last week, when I visited my parents over spring break. Talking about how I used to play in her jewelry box and try on everything and ask when I was going to get it.

Now, I await anxiously for when my Mom gives me one of her pieces of jewelry. She's collected them over the years from Taiwan, Japan, Panama, Argentina, Peru...on and on and on.

Anywho, enjoy the video! Pin It

SNAG video

Arthur Hash, is a metals lecturer at SUNY New Paltz and put together this awesome video of the juried student's work for the SNAG (Society of North American Goldsmiths) conference this year in Houston, TX.

SNAG 2010 from arthur hash on Vimeo.

Check out all the great talent across the U.S. working in metals/jewelry. *the music choice is very good as well.

Be on the look out for ECU Grad talent: Marissa Saneholtz, Laura Wood, Liz Steiner and Jennifer Wells. Pin It

I've finally set up Paypal on my website!

It really wasn't that hard...but y'know how when you have to do something that you think is going to be SO much work and when you do it, you say to yourself, "that wasn't so bad?"!

well that is exactly how it was with setting up Paypal and now I'm on a roll! I've been uploading images of recent work that I've had for awhile!

I uploaded my 'broken heart series' of pendants and one brooch and I'm just so excited to let my sister-in-law know because she lives in the very-uber hip Brooklyn and her friends have been asking her where she got her bad-ass pendant? Moi!

Now, the next step in all of this is getting better images. I grumble everytime I photograph work with my lil' camera that doesn't have the mega-watt superpower of all my friends cameras. In addition, good photos are SOOOOO important, just as important as the work itself.

anywho, I'm on spring break and just having a very nice time laying around in my pajamas all day and getting some work done. Oh and of course, watching trashy cable! Pin It

What inspires you?

Barn Owl
Originally uploaded by BigBrotherBear

For me, inspiration varies from a song, belief to most often animals and more to the point birds.

Their wings, eyes and the odd shapes and colors that birds come in gets my creative juices going. Like this barn owl which I found while flipping thru photos on flickr. Ray Barlow has absolutely beautiful images of birds, several owls which fascinate me the most.
This barn owl is so elegant and regal.

So back to inspiration. What I've found common on most artists websites and blogs is that they find inspiration from nature; which is natural for us as humans but to me it's animals that intrigue me.

Last night I was flipping through a magazine and came across 2 elk, the position of the 2 elk and the way their horns intersected provided a very interesting negative shape providing me with a new pendant design.

What get's you going and excited to create?

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what I've been working on lately

Most of my recent posts have been about other people, while I haven't really written much about what I'm doing. So here's a brief update!

My drawing class is going well, I draw really well when it's a bone or imitation drawing but I struggle with drawing nude models.


Bob Ebendorf has been gone for a week to the west, for the Yuma symposium. While he's been gone our assignment was to create an object 2D or 3D object using folded paper.

After my sub-par spoons I really wanted to kick ass on this project, I thought I was with my grand idea of imitating a birds wing but now I'm not so sure. I find it boring...you can see for yourself.
I like the colors but perhaps I could've gone smaller with the feathers at the top?

As for jewelry, I've been gearing up for my weekend trip to VA/DC to visit friends and host a 'jewelry/brunch' with my girlfriends. I'm very excited to see all my old friends and show them what I've been working on.

I decided to continue with the hearts, they're easy, fast and fun!

The threading is working really nicely with the entire heart motif.

I am also making some nice silver jewelry, rings and pendants with some new stones I bought. I didn't take a picture of those but I will soon.

Happy Monday! Pin It

jewelry crush = spanish metalsmiths

I've found myself extremely impacted by freedom and play of spanish jewelers:

here are some sites I frequent, along with artists.

-Silvia Walz's blogspot

-Gisselle Morales

-Monteserrat Lacomba

What jewelers/artists have impacted you? Pin It

Atlantis

Atlantis
Originally uploaded by mgypsy

What a captivating pendant. Mygypsy's work involves twisting various kinds of wire (brass/silver etc) around stones or by themselves.
I couldn't find much information about Mygypsy but you can buy her work on etsy. Although it looks like she's all sold out. Nonetheless you can also view her work on flickr.

Her work has this ancient quality that I'm drawn to. Very beautiful and excellent craftsmanship.

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ReadysetDC

It's funny how when you leave a city or anyplace, you begin to really miss some of things that you couldn't stand - like the metro! VA/DC metro area is where I moved from and it will always hold a special place in my heart/map of residences.

Nevertheless, I always appreciated the art movement/resurgence in DC and this creative enterprise is pretty awesome to showcase new artists!
Enjoy:

The ReadysetDC Manifesto from ReadysetDC on Vimeo.

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trades!

"I love you so much it hurts my head"

I've been wanting to trade with several of my art school friends/artists for awhile but didn't have anything that I felt I wanted to trade so with all the hearts I'd been making, the ECU Valentine's day Guild sale was the perfect opportunity.

I traded with a printmaking artist, Katerin Goold! She is SO very talented, I saw Sarah West, a fellow undergrad metalsmith, with this same poster and I fell in love instantly. And luckily she liked my heart pendant!

The oddity of the elephant's head on a woman's body is so, odd and perfect.

And lastily, I had to join Laura Wood's legion of followers with her paper/potato mold earrings. We traded and she was so excited to have one of my pendants, it's silly but made me feel good that she liked them.
Laura often sports these with one large earring and a smaller or none at all on the other lobe. Very cool. Laura is an ECU metals graduate student and she has an etsy shop that you can purchase her lovely jewelry and a blog.

You have to check her out.

And I just adore her packaging, it's so unique and her style.
Laura stitches pieces of doilies and other paper/fabric with a unique stitch.

I'm inspired to work on something more creative to display my work. Pin It

graphic design and branding

So one of my goals this year, more like the first half of this year, is to create a banner/logo for my production work specifically an etsy page.

I'm in this weird/odd artistic state as I'm slowly finding my aesthetic meanwhile attending art school has opened my eyes to all sorts of new and fun materials and methods. I'm trying to find a consistent look and pattern to my production work. Preparing for the Valentine's Day sale is definitely spurring me and I'm feeling comfortable with cranking out pieces along with my look.

However at the same time, I'm at a loss with describing and identifying what I want my work to convey.

My cousin, Lorena Carrasco, is a graphic designer and she's definitely helping me hone in on that. I've solicited her to develop my banner and logo. Lorena is very talented and I trust in her skills.

Of course, I naively thought she'd just conjure exactly what I was thinking... crazy, I know! She in turn sent me several questions probing me on what my target audience is, 3 words that describe my jewelry, etc. Jeez, I have SO much to learn.

I'm excited to see what she designs!

Oh here is a recent drawing I did for my figure drawing class.

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