hoity-toity tendencies

Yeah, I got 'em.  It's those sneaky little tendencies to plug in words and phrases that I think will sound all profound and eloquent and inspired.  And I'm really making a concerted effort to cease and desist. My recent website revamping is all about ditching those last vestiges of pretense ... to ensure what I'm putting out in the world is 100% down to earth, genuine, little ol' me.

I'm finally seeing that for all those years when I felt like a poser, there was a small part of me that was in fact - posing.  It wasn't blatant or overt or horribly in-your-face, but as I've been rewriting my Maker's Mark and Nuts & Bolts and my Etsy profile pages, I can see it in the way I'd written about my work and myself.  Little phrases meant to impress or mask or appear more accomplished or sophisticated or just a bit more something.   When I re-design anything, jewelry or websites or graphics, I don't call it done until I've gone back multiple times over several hours or a couple of days and look for those little niggling things that might have escaped my initial changes.  Last night, I did a quick perusal of those updated pages and saw that I still had a bit more work ahead.  I've spent this morning on further rewrites and I'm thinking I might be done.

And for an extra kick in the pants and a supercharged dose of clarity, I took some time to revisit the Gee's Bend Quilts. 

There is nothing on this earth that moves me more than those quilts and the extraordinary women who made them.  I first heard about the Quilters of Gee's Bend in 2003 on the CBS Sunday Morning Show.  The Whitney had the quilts on display and the art magazines were writing about them and Martha Teichner did an inspired profile on that never to be forgotten morning show.  I was floored, blown away, in tears and have yet to recover.  Martha traveled with the quilters on their bus ride to NY, singing all the way and filmed them walking through the museum, voices raised in song and praise.  I was overcome and I bet the Whitney has yet to recover as well. 

To this day, I cannot speak of that video or the quilts without a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes.  I didn't get to see that original exhibition, but I did get to see the second one in Tacoma ... one of the best birthday presents ever.  Thankfully, when I walked in the gallery, there was a bench so I could sit down and compose myself before going in to finally see some of the quilts in person.

You see, the thing that gets me about those early quilts ... they are the truest, most genuine expressions of creativity I've ever encountered.  For me, nothing compares.  No pretense, no airs, light years away from hoity-toity.  And that's the underlying goal for my work ... for whatever I do, whatever I write or create and put out into the universe, it must come from the deepest part of my heart and soul, free of pretense, to just be me and radiate. 

From here on out, I need to keep them in mind.  No more hoity-toity ... I'm over it, done, finished, kaput, fineto.   

onward.
l i g a - kvk 

an aspiring eccentric's reading list

Mansuetude got me to thinking about this whole eccentricity thing.  I've been pondering the idea a bit and I came up with a couple of clues regarding my aspirations.

A good one came last night as I finished reading Seth Godin's We Are All Weird, the very last sentence in the book kind of summed up my motivations, "... someone brave enough to choose precisely what it is they want." 

Then I decided to see what the on-line dictionary had to say.  I like both of these:

1.deviating from the recognized or customary character, practice, etc.; irregular; erratic; peculiar; odd: eccentric conduct; an eccentric person.

2.Geometry . not having the same center; not concentric: used especially of two circles or spheres at least one of which contains the centers of both.

So  maybe it's not so much being eccentric as just being my own person, being brave enough to follow my own vision, to not compromise my values or aesthetic voice.  Lately I've been getting a lot of encouragement from the printed page ... lots. This got me to thinking about my personal library.

 

Like most artists, I am a total visual junky and Pinterest is turning into a daily fix, but first and foremost, I am a book addict.  I cannot see me switching to one of those electronic thingies anytime soon ... just don't see the point in them.  Second, I take great pride in my library ... I've got some real treasures and, color me surprised, there's a bunch of juicy tomes that I thought would be fun to share with other aspiring eccentrics.  

Here are some of my favorites, an aspiring eccentric's reading list ...

There's the navel gazing section.   These are pretty good.

But the way to really judge how much I like a book is by the neon fringe of stickies.  Ignore Everybody has a slew, but the hardcover hides them.  I really love this book!

The one with the most stickies is The War of Art ... a really good book.  He's got a new one (Do the Work) that's pretty much the same thing, just hardcover and more the "pithy purls to ponder" format. 

There's the clothing and fashion section, alternative to contemporary ...

... I just found this one - it's chock full of clothing and design in general - I'm looking forward to a thorough perusal ... I love Japanese and German design!

then there's a big home/style section ...

... and anything by Sibella Court is sure to end up on my shelf.  These are such beautiful publications ... useless on a Kindle.

And the last category is jewelry inspiration.  It's always fun to see what the avant garde is up to and these are two good ones ...

But I'd much rather look to the past and these are full of good visual juice ...

I know I've shared some of these in the past, but it was fun to pull them out from a slightly different perspective.  Unfortunately, most are not going to show up on any local bookseller's shelf.  I've tried to show the names and authors in the images, but if anyone wants more details on one or another, let me know and I'll send you the full 411 .

Okay, off to do some more pondering and fix dinner.  Thanks again, Mansuetude for the nudge.

l i g a - kvk

circling ... further along the road of acceptance

So, it's been a couple of weeks since my amazingly well received "accept or resist" post.  I am deeply grateful for all the comments and new members ... so very reassuring to hear I'm not alone on this journey. 

Since that post, one of the things I've been working on accepting is the evolution of my work habits.  Time was when I could sit down to work, stay on task, stay on target and stay focused for hours on end ... these days, not so much.

What I seem to do with most everything and how I operate in general, I can only describe as circling.  I get things done, just not in a straight line.  I used to work on things start to finish ... push push push, drive drive drive, focus focus focus.  Lately, I sit down to work, focus for a bit, go look something up on the computer, go back to work, make some tea, peruse a book or magazine or recently printed eBook, work some more, comb Zoe, water the plants, back to work and maybe I'll stay there for an hour or so.

I don't know, circles, cycles, spirals ... maybe it's spirals.  Like I said, I'm moving forward and getting things done, it's just a different m.o. that's in place.  It doesn't feel like a bad thing, it's just different ... and I'm really trying to be okay with it, 'cause I'm pretty sure those days of parking my backside with laser focus for hours and hours are long gone.  Yep, probably not a bad thing, a paradigm shift for sure and I'm pretty sure I've got no choice in the matter.

The trouble is fitting this new working paradigm into selling and marketing my work.  Back in the fall when I was wholly gung ho about the new steel and bronze pieces, I was putting together a fairly aggressive marketing strategy.  I was going to approach a slew of high end boutiques and schedule trunk shows and travel, I was looking into on-line wholesale options, etc etc etc.  Then, in January, I had to change gears and get the revamped sample presentation of my existing wholesale line to my new sales rep.  When I sat back down at my worktable, momentum had shifted and the work I was being inspired to make changed as well.   

And to make my business and life more challenging ... I've always worked from a wholesale business model ... develop a body of work that I can replicate, turn it into a catalog, ship it off to the rep to take around to galleries and museum stores to write orders and then fill orders and on and on.  Thing is, when the Urban Primitive work came into being, I realized it wasn't going to fit into my existing business model.  The big difference, the firing limitations of the base metal clays guarantees I won't be making tons of anything.  I can fire hundreds of fine silver pmc components at one time; bronze I might be able to fire a couple of dozen and the steel is even less.  Definitely not a recipe for mass production.

I've always made a broad range of work, but it's been stretched out over longer periods of time.  The core of my work was the wholesale line and I'd make a few one-offs here and there to amuse myself, keep the juices flowing and my Etsy shop occupied.  But since September, goodness ... I'm truly amazed by the range and diversity of my jewelry.  I think the newest pieces are all still fitting very nicely under my "Urban Primitive" moniker, but it's been really interesting to look at the last few months work ... I go from delicate, woven fine silver pmc chokers to seriously chunky, darkly tribal neckpieces to minimalist steel and bronze constructions to aethereal gemstone and silver pieces, to my deeply spiritual talismans and back around or to the middle or wherever.  It's all me, all my work, all my inspirations, but I wonder if anyone else thinks I might be just a bit schitzoid.  

Case in point - my newest work ...

This is where the acceptance thing comes in again ... I'm a big believer that "where attention goes, energy flows," so I'm trying not to worry that all this circling around styles of work will affect my wholesale business.  What I'm working on now is being okay with my new m.o., my new working paradigm, with the range of styles and looks and inspirations, with circling.  My plan of attack is to not have a plan of attack.  I'm going to keep making what I'm inspired to make, I'll send love and good juju to my far off case of samples, I'll keep selling on Etsy, but continue looking for additional options and I'll not worry if anyone thinks I'm a team of designers or just one crazy creator.  The bottom line, it only matters what I think and how passionate I am about what I'm creating.  When in doubt, I just need to go back to my foundation statement :

" I am a maker.  I create work that I love and am proud to share; work that is deeply felt, resonates with and is supported by an audience of like-hearted souls spreading the love and joy that is the foundation of all I do." 

  

And, for more inspiration, I can go back to a post from last summer for the reminder that, the only rule is, there are no rules.  

l i g a - kvk

p.s.  that first image features the newest addition to our family, Orlando.  I finally found a mannequin!  It's kind of gender neutral, which reminded me of Tilda Swinton and Cara thought Orlando was a fitting name.  I concur.  He's in great shape and was a steal at $150. 

  Plus, he's got a cute butt ...

okay, bye .......

hrrrmph

Looks like I got a bit too cavalier in my firing efforts .......

Not 100% loss, but pretty darn close.  I did manage to salvage some of the rubies.  This is what's left after a second firing with fine silver pmc inlays (the white stuff).  First thing to note, I had tumbled all these pieces before re-firing, but I didn't really check them to make sure they were fully sintered.  Funny how pieces can go through the tumbler for hours, come out looking just fine, but when you give them a good squoze ...... pfffftt - they break right in two or three or four. 

What I should have done was really check them before re-firing.  My successful test pieces were definitely fully sintered, these I just don't know.  Like I was saying, I got a bit cavalier.

The last few days weren't a total loss.  While the steel components were firing, I had an urge to make a chain link necklace.  Okay, so at one point I did get distracted and thought I had quenched a piece of 14gu silver, picked up the screaming hot piece with my right thumb and index finger (I'm right handed), dropped screaming hot piece onto the carpet, melting the bit where it landed, managed to pry it up with tweezers and chuck it into water where it was still hot enough to sizzle a bit.  Then, checking out my poor fingers ... looked like I'd branded the skin, ran under cold water for a bit then slathered the burns with lavender oil and popped a couple of ibuprofen.  I don't burn myself very often but, as burns go, these were pretty interesting ... no blisters, just a couple of fried indentations.  By the end of the evening and repeated lavender rubs, there was virtually no pain - only if hot water hit the burns.  That was on Saturday and today, I can feel but barely see the wire brands in my fingertips ... amazing. 

After all that, I do like the chain.  I call it the "intuition chain."  I had no plan making it.  I just kept cutting 14gu wire and putting it together until it felt done. 

Today, well, I don't know about today.  I've got a few more steel pieces ready to fire, the remaining ruby and pmc pieces are in the tumbler with the intuition chain and I have a handful of steel components that did sinter and are ready to go into the abrasive shot.  Needless to say, I'll be a bit more mindful about firing from here on out ... focus and not try to do three things at once. 

The last couple of days ... it's been a bit tiresome.  Sails full and feeling exuberant, sails flat and feeling thwarted.  Now comes Monday and I'm trying to find some motivation and direction.  Not sure what to do, what to work on.  My body is telling me to get off the computer and give my shoulders and wrists a break. 

I don't know ... rethinking, regrouping, reevaluating. 
Deep breaths ........

l i g a - kvk

p.s.  if you like gentle ambient, electronica blended with acoustic music ... check out General Fuzz.  He's got a slew of albums free for the downloading and only asks for a contribution.  Really great background for working.

before

Shutting down electronics, focusing, designing and making and creating and taking lots and lots of deep breaths.  Our Trunk Show is on Friday ... let me just say, I've got a lot of work to do............

my delicious palette of components ... so so inspiring

Can't wait to see how it's all going to come together ... but come together it will.

Onward.

l i g a - kvk

the further evolution of a new collection

Well, it's been a week of experimenting and learning with sore fingers, some near misses, some great successes and a disappointing failure.

I've figured out a fair amount in the steel metal clay world.  Interesting that the only pieces that didn't sinter properly were from my first traditional method firing ...

I was pretty excited about my raw ruby and sapphire focal pieces.  I thought they had fired just fine until I was really pressing down on them with my steel brush and then ... pop!  The ruby piece had already broken in half during the firing, but then it broke again while pressing down on it.  It's really interesting ... the outside is fired and polished, but you can easily see the core is not sintered at all.  Turns out the sapphire piece was the same.  Needless to say, after seeing this, I did some serious reefing on everything to make sure the pieces were fully sintered.

After that first firing, I found out about Hadar's updated faster firing schedule ... worked like a charm for all the other firings ... and there were at least 4 or 5.  I was also taking some liberties in how I loaded the fire box - no problems at all.  Big caveat here - I'm pretty sure this works because my kiln is larger and the fire box sits well within the kiln elements, back from the cooler front of the kiln.

My week's work - 150 grams of steel metal clay plus some regular BronzClay .......

Some of my favorite pieces are those cubes.  Unfortunately, there were problems with some of them.  I got the sides a bit thin and during the firing, they cracked and separated a bit.  I could have fixed them with more steel clay, but by then I'd used it all.  But necessity is a great source of creativity and  I remembered I had some first generation BronzClay in the refrigerator.  Okay, so I'm pretty sure I bought this clay before we left Port Townsend ... 3 years ago.  I brought it across the country, tightly wound in plastic wrap, in the cooler with Zoe's food, and it's been in the refrigerator ever since.  One little bit was kind of dried out, but the bigger chunk was in pretty good shape.  I took some small bits and filled in the cracks and reinforced the back sides and, lo and behold, if these aren't just some of my favorite pieces ...

I was really doubting the whole steel clay decision, but after seeing it with the bronze ... I don't know, there may be more steel clay in my future.  BTW, I fired this batch using the kitchen oven burnout phase - perfecto!  And that's the old bronze that is supposed to be nursed along through the firing.  You can see the other pieces I made at the same time in the terra cotta dish on the right.

Here's a couple of my favorite focal pieces of the steel ...

This is the biggest piece I made.  It's about 48 x 23mm.  The texture is from a fossilized turtle shell and a lot of smushing ... that's the technical term.

The pendant on the left is textured with that same turtle shell fossil and is about 34 x 20mm.

I've taken apart most of the fossil pieces I'd made a couple of weeks ago.  One thing I've found through my years of designing ... when I start working in a new direction, I'll make a bunch of pieces and then leave them be for a bit.  When I come back to them, more times than not, I end up taking them apart, starting over, re-working the concepts.

For me, that's the key to developing a cohesive collection ... edit, edit, edit ... re-think, re-work, re-configure.  Turn it sideways, what if I flipped it over, how would these components work this way rather than that way.  I'm really looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow ... a brand new day, a brand new  perspective, a brand new batch of exceptionally delicious components.  Oooh, boy howdy, fun fun fun!

And here's some musical icing on the cake ... today I was listening to a little bit of Fever Ray ... alternative, kind of punk, kind of like the direction of the new work ...



Back with more as the collection evolves ...

l i g a - kvk

pattern recognition

Much of my work is based on the repetition of form - my stitched coins, stacks of discs, cairns, pickets.  Which is only natural as it's a long held obsession of mine - collecting objects, both natural and man made, that embrace my passion for repetition.  I've been thinking about this for awhile and thought I'd take a short break from my Etsy work and share some of my collection and thoughts.

It seems so much of my collection is in the form of shells.  

I love that there is great precision in patterns placed by the creator.

Exquisite perfection ...

But equally compelling are the random more chaotic patterns created in the decay ...

Within the precise creation pattern exists the chaotic decaying pattern ...

And of course we humans are ever driven to emulate nature's perfection and chaos ...

Here, I've laid down relatively precise dots of pmc slip on a thin black clay slab.  The metal clay is over fired and starts to curl into mercury like balls of fine silver ... the section with the broad brush strokes has reverted back to it's preferred pattern of chaos.

Chaos leads to form to repetition to pattern recognition to decay and back to chaos ... perfection.

l i g a - kvk

p.s.  paper and fiber artwork by Lynne

p.p.s.  one of my favorite books is all about repetition of pattern - the Elements of Design

further designing adventures

In between a bit of deck sanding ... I ended up sort of wimping out - I'm just not as acclimated to the heat as Dave is ... and weekend chores, I got some work done in the studio.  I think I'm finished with the Angel Wing pendant. 

I decided to nix the gemstones and beads, but still wanted to do multiple strands of something.  Hillary suggested multiple chains like I used in the Repetition Sapphires necklace.  I agreed and felt like some of it needed to be silver but still liked the look and idea of the linen - I don't know, angels and raw linen just seem to go together.  I decided to go in that direction with a twist - literally.  Here are the components I decided to use ...

I've got two different sizes of sterling links and two different sizes of linen cord.  I did kind of a random threading of the linen through the links so it is more securely integrated.  I added a 9" double strand of the smaller link chain with the same linen treatment at the base of the 36" larger link chain.  I waxed a lighter weight linen to wrap and secure the three chains together.  I used the same waxed linen to secure the linen cord at the clasp.  I'm really liking the mix.  See what you think ......

I'm going to continue working with this component and think it will be an excellent addition to the KVK Luxe collection.  But for now, the finished piece which I'm planning to list on Etsy in the next day or so ....

I've also been continuing to work on the Talisman Elements series and have finally decided on a big big component.  I've been trying to come up with a blessing that would be sort of all encompassing, that would work on any of the necklaces and, by jove, I think I've finally got it ... Love, Infinite Grace, Abundance.  Written on silk with a mustard seed tucked inside, the intention is to, "have faith and know that you are always surrounded by love, infinite grace and abundance."  I can use the initials LIGA as well.  This came to me yesterday.  I've googled the word combination and the initials and haven't found any conflicting sources or weird associations.  So, I've already put my new blessing into action.  Here's four new necklaces from the Medallions collection awaiting the final touch ...

  

The ribbon is vintage French silk that Nina gave me years ago.  I've dyed it a dark mossy brown; the blessing is written with a sharpie, the mustard seed is tucked inside, then the ribbon blessing is wrapped around the chain and secured with a wrap of waxed copper silk thread.   I do love waxing the threads, probably because the block of beeswax I use is an antique - it belonged to my grandfather from his days as a shoe repairman.  One of the things I love about this ribbon is one side dyes lighter than the other, so even though it's hidden within, the blessing shows up nicely.  The finished wraps ...

I'll be listing these on Etsy as well along with individual medallions and Talilsman Elements.  The idea is that as we grow and evolve, as our needs and inspirations change, our Talismans can change with us.  Also, I'll be making more of the little pinch bowls to use as a home for the Elements.  

Hmmmmm, looks like I've got a lot to do.  And of course a girl needs a cool beverage to refresh her on these screaming hot days.  My new favorite concoction for the summer - Hibiscus Ginger tea with mint and lime - oh my ....... so very yummy.  I started with two kinds of herbal tea - there's my favorite color combination again - ruby and ochre.

Add a few drops of stevia to sweeten it up.  Smush some fresh mint and squeeze some lime in the bottom of a glass, add gobs of ice et voila, a sugar and caffeine free glass of summer dee-light.

DEE-licious!!!

Well, like I was saying - this girl's got lots to do ...

So for now - LIGA ... love, infinite grace and abundance - kvk

no cigar but lots of potential

I've got a bunch of new additions to the Talisman Elements series, but first I thought it'd be fun to share the evolution of a one-off design ...

It started here - a fragment of an angel wing shell from St Augustine.  I made an impression of it in polymer clay and then used a big piece of my sterling silver metal clay to make the pendant.  I tried to make it fairly thin to test the strength of the sterling - I'm happy to report, it's very strong.  I love that the pendant hangs kind of off kilter.  Plus it's very ... well all I can think of is that it's very wabi-sabi.

So I've got the pendant, next I started gathering potential elements.  I've got gemstone nuggets - rutilated quartz, then the amber and citrine from Andrew, a few ochre trade beads, my stash of Basha beads, unbleached linen to make into cord, hand cut and dyed silk ribbon, silk thread, oh and some big honkin bronze pearls.

I worked on the layout and how many strands of linen cord and tried different stones with different hole sizes - I wasn't in the mood to drill any stones or pearls - and pondered closures and lengths and ended up here ... 

close, but no cigar ...

It's just not quite there.  Don't get me wrong, there are elements I like, but overall, it's just not done.

For instance, I do like the closure, I like it off center and the loose ends with the linen wraps - it reminds me of Zoe Keating's hair!  BTW, been listening to her CD's non-stop - so so so very excellent.

And I like the trade bead and rutilated quartz nugget together on the linen cord ...

But the jumbo citrine nugget doesn't hang quite right and overpowers the pendant and the rest of the piece.  I do like the little stack of copper and silver spacers.

I'm also not sure about the linen cord.  I've been thinking about grouping linen cord into something for days ... just not sure this is the best application.  So, this piece is still very much a work in progress.  I'm going to take it all apart and start over.  I'll keep you posted with my progress.

But I also wanted to show you my latest additions to the Talisman Elements series.  The overall concept is finally starting to come together.  I got all inspired to do some carving in polymer clay, which lead to the idea for the Medallions.  I've got a chalice, a crown, a compass, a portal and a spiral.  I also made a couple of unicorn-looking horns.  Then there's the reproduction of the little eastern European vintage cross I bought from Cool Vintage on Etsy - really love everything in that shop! 

Also, I've really hesitated about the use of text, but decided to dig out the rubber stamp sheets I had made way back in my ArtFest days of early 2003.  So some of the medallions have ready made messages stamped into the back and some have individually stamped words.  

I am pretty excited about all my new Medallions.  

Oh, there was one more piece from my sterling silver firing - Eros ... another stamp from my long-ago rubber stamp making days. Pretty sure  he's destined for another one-off piece, but that remains to be seen.

So that's where I am right now.  I'm probably not going to get anything else done in my studio this holiday weekend.  Dave and I have this idea we're going to re-stain the deck, which means taking everything off the deck - like those bloody huge, fully soaked flower pots of mine and all the other not so heavy stuff, a bit of sanding and then painting.  WOO HOO - Boy howdy do we know how to party!

I guess that's it for now.  I hope everyone has a wonderful, fun and ever so safe holiday weekend.

blessings - kvk