how to drive a nail

My friend who sent this to me described it as

This is just one page picked at random of an amazing kid's shop notebook from who knows when.

I think you will enjoy it.

Klaus Burgel in Belgium

Here's what's new with one of my favorite jewelers, New York artist Klaus Burgel. I am ridiculously lucky to have spent time in the studio with him, let alone have a wedding ring made by him.

................................................................................................................................


Check out images of the lovely exhibition at Sophie Lachaert Gallery in Belgium right here.


................................................................................................................................

Go For Gold

I am in the studio today getting organized for my upcoming workshop at the Oregon College of Art & Craft. It takes place from 9-4 on Feb 5-6th, and I am thrilled.

So thrilled that I am inside next to my sun-filled window, instead of out in this gorgeous and sunny spring day here in Oakland. We have had a chilly winter for us Californians, and I am glad to be in jeans and a t-shirt inside the studio, for once...not that I am not used to soldering and filing in a scarf, hat, and vest, trust me!




The class will be one of my favorites to teach, which is incorporating small-scale gold refining and green studio practices into jewelry work. My students will be a mix of community and college metalsmiths, and I look forward to seeing what gets produced. Gold is really just amazing to work with, and I can't wait to turn my own pile of scrap and unused jewelry into something wearable and new. I try to make myself a gold band each time I teach the class, so here is to another!

recent reading

---------------------------------------

There is a lot to think about
and a lot to get done, but
to be efficient does not mean to be hurried, and
to be unhurried does not mean to sit in a lawn chair.

----------------------------------------

Edward Espe Brown,
The Greens Cookbook: Extraordinary Vegetarian Cuisine from the Celebrated Restaurant

It's Better Than Nothing

Could there be a better reason than this postcard to check out the ART JEWELRY FORUM?

Their website is currently, right this very moment, in the midst of a wicked slideshow of juicy, stark, contemporary jewelry. That is right: our favorite type of eye candy, brought to you direct, by those advocates for studio jewelry we love and know as AJF.

books & hammers

I think that when your books, as well as your hammers, have a home in the new studio, that you can take this as a sign that things are going quite swimmingly. I also am finally able to reach my killer tool drawers to go set that is perfectly made to house my hand files and needle files (love those felt-lined drawers!). In my last studio it was just a bit too far from my bench, and never got fully utilized.


It is vintage, and metal, and heavy, and I love it. You have to be a buff metalsmith like myself to carry it at all, but the idea is that you can bring your handtools with you just about anywhere with this portable drawer set. It made the trip from San Francisco to Oakland with me, at the very least. Certainly I am showing my lack of expertise by not knowing the proper term for this wonderful cabinet, as we jewelers do like to be precise about everything, and makers of all types do love their tools. Ah, well.


I also know that I am settling in quite nicely because I have begun to put my wire clotheslines up on the walls. In my last space, where putting holes in the wall was seen as criminal activity, this solved a basic lease-related problem, but I have enjoyed doing this for some years now. It is a good way to keep samples and ideas and postcards and those little pretty pieces of paper I can't recycle near to me while I sketch and draw and stare at the wall (oh, and work.)

Here is to September, everyone...get out and enjoy your Labor Day, or stay in and do the same.

see you this week-end!

working away

Despite being a bit wiped out from moving shop (and home) across the San Francisco Bay to North Oakland, I have nothing to complain about. I am just home from ten marvelous days in Tuscany, Italy, where I visited my sweetheart, ate the very best artichoke ravioli I have ever had, and yes, it is true....worked in the studio!!
I threw my bag of gold over my shoulder and got on the plane for my first vacation this year. I will have some images before long, but the general summary is that it was an amazing time. I was lucky enough to be a guest artist for the University of Georgia at Athens study abroad program in Cortona, and joined the students happily working away in the very warm, and well equipped, studio up on the top of the hills of this beautiful walled town.

Upon arrival back home, I jumped into preparations for the Renegade Handmade SF summer craft fair at lovely Fort Mason. It takes place from 11am to 7pm on both Saturday and Sunday next week-end (July 31- Aug 1), and I hope to see you there!

moving shop

Have been quiet here online for the last month, as we tie things up with moving shop across the San Francisco bay to North Oakland. The studio is officially in transit, and is awaiting the grand unpack in the new space.
Much more to come as the month progresses, and I get the shop back up and running in the next weeks. Here is to new beginnings!

Metalsmiths' Week-end, San Francisco

Amulet (open)

We are lucky enough in my household this week to have friend and metalsmith Rob Jackson staying with us, all the way from Athens, GA.

Amulet

He is here doing a seminar for City College SF's Metal Arts classes, while in town for his opening at everyone's favorite art jewelry and metalwork gallery, Velvet da Vinci.

Three Ruby Ring

His show, The Eloquent Nail, will be up until April 18th, along with Chased and Repousse, curated by Nancy Megan Corwin.

The opening on Friday was delightful. Corwin's talk, regarding her show in which contemporary examples reaffirm and push what the techniques of Chasing and Repousse can do, was stellar. More on the work shown there by Yuyen Chang, Keith Lewis, and my wife, Suzanne Pugh, among others, in the next post.

We were also lucky enough to have metalsmith Amy Tavern in town, for her own opening! Rare Device on Market Street showcased her in their four person show, FAULT LINES.

Shows from 2009 part one

Long Crossbuck: pendant on sterling chain
2009

side view of Crossbuck necklace
100% recycled paper and sterling
2009

detail of Crossbuck necklace
2009

This month, the show Via Penland is coming to a close at REBUS WORKS gallery in Raleigh, NC. The Crossbuck necklaces pictured above were included in this year's show. They are made of 100% reclaimed artist's board, 100% recycled sterling frames, and hang on long oxidized sterling chains.

Rebus Works does a wonderful job of exhibiting contemporary craft and art, and were lovely enough to give me a two person show in the summer of 2008. Shonna and her staff showcase craftspeople really beautifully at the gallery, and I recommend checking out their site. This year's Via Penland show featured two woodworkers with a past connection to Penland School of Crafts, and my pal Sylvie Rosenthal was one of them.

Confidant
Sylvie Rosenthal

Coming soon: more highlights of my recent shows.

Eye Candy III

Kristen Beeler
That's your opinion



Kristin Beeler
fine silver studies

Today, some images from Kristin Beeler, who has a site that you can travel to for more images and information.

Eye Candy II

Klaus Bürgel
Untitled (brooch, detail) | 2000 | Gold, aquamarine, pearls

Eye candy, continued.
In honor of the holiday of love: some lovely jewelry to feast upon.

Klaus Bürgel
Untitled (ring) | 2000 | Gold 750, malachite

Klaus Bürgel
Brooch | 2000 | Gold 750, Pyrite


Polly Wales
Rings | Swarvoski crystal, sterling

Ramon Puig Cuyas
Tempora Si Fuerint Nibula Pendant
(from the series, Imago Mundi)





Ramon Puig Cuyas
brooch

Eye Candy

Sharon Massey,
bursting brooch
steel, cotton muslin, silver, 14k gold, freshwater pearls, beeswax

Well, I have never had much of a sweet tooth, preferring to take in the majority of my candy through the eyes. So, in honor of national eat-whimsically-shaped-molded-candy-chocolates-day on the 14th, I will be posting images of jewelry that I love to look at, so that you, too, can get your fill of sweet, sweet studio jewelry.

The pieces are all made by contemporary jewelers worldwide: artists who I know, wish I knew, have heard of, or have found in the interspace. I'll try to include 2 images minimum of each mouth-watering artist's work. Today seems to be about the lovely color white.

................................................................................................................

Sharon Massey,
pearl necklace
iron wire, cotton muslin, wax, pearls

Karen Gilbert
nest neckpiece (detail)
sterling silver, silk, pyrex, aquamarine 2007

Karen Gilbert


Arthur Hash,
neckpiece
Cast polyurethane

Arthur Hash,
ring
copper, paint

Check back for more this week!

Gold

I was led to an amazing group of images about gold by the organization Ethical Metalsmiths...more on them in a moment.

The images show gold, in its many forms, all over the world, and originally appeared in a Boston Globe online blog by Alan Taylor, The Big Picture: Gold. I encourage you to see the link for the full series, of which there are several dozen, including the world's largest bar of gold, our obsession with gold captured in many forms, and the stages of the mining process which are so damaging many communities.

Ethical Metalsmiths is " a non-profit organization dedicated to connecting people to responsibly sourced metals and gemstones," which was founded, and is supported, by metalsmiths.

They, along with many metalsmiths like myself who have committed to using only recycled gold and precious metals, (refined in the U.S.), seek to raise awareness about the lack of regulation in the international mining community, and about the fact that the amount of gold which exists currently in usable form far exceeds the amount needed to support the current jewelry industry.

Dependable

Another studio visit, y'all! I was lucky enough to sneak a peek at what they are doing down at DEPENDABLE LETTERPRESS on 3rd, in their workspace in the former American Can Co. factory, on the Bay side of Potrero Hill. What a gorgeous building, and a truly wonderful collection of presses that are put into use producing beautiful, high-quality prints from digital files.
Many thanks to owner Joel Benson for letting us come on by! We love our amazing calendar!

June Schwarcz, Living Treasure of California

Last Sunday my wife and I had the unforgettable experience of being the lucky ones to pick enamelist and metalsmith June Schwarcz up from her home in the hills of Sausalito (just over the Golden Gate Bridge from SF) on the way to her lecture for MAG. She invited us in while she had a quick snack, and encouraged us to look around her amazing home filled with international art, where she has been living since 1954.


To be in the presence of someone who has been honored by the Smithsonian, the ACC, and myriad others, and to have them let you come on in and look around, is one thing. To have that person be still making work, and in my humble opinion, some of the best of their life, in their nineties, is incredibly inspiring.


She sometimes starts with paper mock-ups (hooray, paper mock-ups!!), and gives structure to her forms by sewing together copper wire mesh (100 threads/inch) or several different thicknesses of copper foil. She then works adding layers with electroforming (copper), and enamelling, and plating (iron, silver, gold, and others).


She spoke in her lecture of making pieces that someone wants to look at over and over again, and wondered if conceptual art today doesn't often lack this character. Here is a shot of a small part of her studio (I was too shy to take photos in her home, and luckily for all of us, there is a link below of some really yummy images of her home and art collection).



Here are some links to images of her incredibly loose and layered work, followed by links to interviews and a wonderful photo tour of her home.
work at Velvet da Vinci gallery
interview with the Smithsonian Archives of American Art (great images way down in text)
incredible photo tour of her home by Catherine Bailey of Heath Ceramics (another California craft institution)