guest star friday no. 7...my studio, plus a little wrap-up

today's guest star is not a jeweler, but the place i make my work..my studio. this morning i took a few shots of my space located in lovely downtown asheville, nc. i share this studio, composed of one big working area and several small rooms, with three other jewelers, joanna gollberg, geoff giles, and molly dingledine. our work is all very different, as well as our working styles and schedules, but we get along great and love sharing the studio. i feel very lucky to be a part of this special group of artists.

one final note about snag... i hoped to spend more time contemplating the conference and then writing about it, but i've been too busy ever-since to process it the way i would have liked. so, to summarize now and move on, the conference was a totally worthwhile experience for me. i listened to some excellent lectures including iris eichenberg and carlier makigawa; i met lots of interesting people, talked about jewelry and the field, and made some great connections. AND, the best part, i got to spend some serious quality time with a few close friends who live far away.

oh, yes... there was the presentation i gave. that was pretty fantastic, too!

finally, please do visit my website. i just added all kinds of new collection pieces, created a direct link to my blog, organized the art jewelry section (now called "studio jewelry), added a next button in the shop, and a few other little things. of course, i'm not done... my website is very much a work-in-progress. you'll see more changes in the near future.



as always, thanks for reading - have a great weekend!

guest star friday no. 6 (snag installment #3)...carlier makigawa

i know it's saturday, not friday...i've had a busy week!

anyway, this week's guest star friday is carlier makigawa, a metalsmith from australia. i was not familiar with carlier's work until the snag conference where i attended her lecture. her work is composed of cage-like wire stuctures that are clustered or grouped together to form pendants, bracelets, and brooches. the work is light and airy with a subtle strength. the pieces resemble pods, buds, and other organic forms, but because of the rigid metal structure and simple monochrome the pieces become something quite different, other-worldly perhaps. i was particularly interested in her use of negative space because this is something i think about carefully in my own work. she talked about how negative space can suggest that something was there. nice. i enjoyed her talk very much. she began by discussing earlier work and progressed through her career to recent projects which include sculptures and public art.


the top piece is a pendant - cluster #1, flourish 2005–06 from hybrid clusters 2005-06
sterling silver, silk thread, 50.0 x 8.5 x 7.5 cm. the bottom piece is a bracelet - in silver and monel

thanks for reading.