Art Jewelry Elements: early jewelry

Friday, August 7, 2015

The Journey - Part Two

“Life lessons are not journeys traveled in straight lines but are crossroads

formed years and miles apart.”

― Gina Greenlee, Postcards and Pearls: Life Lessons from Solo Moments on the Road

In my last post I shared some of our team's early work, with the thought of encouraging you on your own creative journey. Its fun to look back and see how far we've come. It helps to put things in perspective and it gives encouragement that the future will bring continued progress.

In Part One of this series, I highlighted the journeys of Karen Totten, Jennifer Cameron, Melissa Meman and Niky Sayers. Today let's take at look at Lesley's, Sue's and Rebekah's early work.

Lesley Watt
Lesley started out designing jewelry. Later she branched out into making jewelry components as well. Here is an early necklace and earring set she made, before discovering the world of art beads. Lesley says that, "This was the starting point of my design career and it highlights how much I've learned and how much more depth and breadth there is to my work now.

Discovering art beads was a transformative experience for each of the the Art Jewelry Elements team members. Lesley has made art beads in polymer clay, metal clay and most recently she has been working in stoneware clay. Here is a picture of her first ceramic beads from 2013. Lesley says, "I was really excited about these and they still make me feel like that because it was the start of a huge passion that teaches me something new with every batch of beads..."

And here are a few more of Lesley's early ceramic beads.

Sue Kennedy
Sue started making lampwork glass beads about 10 years ago in a class with Mike Mangiafico. She says, "They only had ugly colors and short rods back then for us to use - there are so many more colors now. You can see the obvious flaws - the wonky beads, the off-center dots, the bubbled up clear glass. But I also see many beads that have great dimpled ends and a hint of talent!"

Sue goes on to add, "These are beads from my next class with Mike (the first class was a sampler I believe). You can see marbles, plunged dots, "caterpillar' beads, hollow beads, how many spacers can you fit on a mandrel beads, an off-mandrel bead etc. And again, wonky beads and not so pretty beads. But more and more practice. Mike was very encouraging to me and I'm so glad he was, because I have been very happily making glass beads all these years."

Rebekah Payne
Rebekah found so many great pictures to share, that several of us encouraged her to do a blog post just about her own development as an artist. I'll just share a sampling of her early work here.

Rebekah is well know for her sleeping critter beads. Here is what they looked like before they became beads! Rebekah says, "The rooster "Button" was my first critter sculpture in polymer—I made him in early 2002. My little beagle, Suzie and the brown owl on the burned tree came next, probably in 2003… somewhere in between there and 2004, I made the chinchilla. I loved chinchillas at the time!! I made the falcon, other owl, and the song birds (and a bunch other birds!) in 2004 for an art contest and to raise money for me and my sisters to adopt a horse.

And here are some of Rebekah's earliest pendants. She states, "I was thinking of making jewelry to sell and these are my first attempts at making my own pendants in polymer from early 2005. The photo makes them look much better than they really are in real life for some odd reason… Thankfully I used the wrong kind of finish and they have a case of the "everlasting stickies", so no one will have to own them!

"This one is one of my first dragon necklaces I made in 2007 for my short, but unsuccessful venture on eBay. I'd been working on this dragon style off and on for about 2 years at this point. My painting was starting to reach a point I liked with the blending of colors… my sculpting skills still need improvement though! Loved seed beads back then!"

I hope you have enjoyed this little bit of reminiscing. All of us are on a journey. None of us can know where it will lead us, but we can savor the trip.

I'll share more early work in my next post. Till then, enjoy the trip!

Linda

Linda Landig Jewelry

Friday, July 24, 2015

The Journey - Part One

The AJE team has been talking about their creative journeys recently. We've each been looking back on our early creative endeavors and reflecting on early work we liked or disliked, how far we've come and even things from the past that might be worth revisiting. Many of our members have pursued other art forms besides jewelry components and jewelry design. We ended up generating a rather large collection of old pictures and related musings.

I will be sharing our journeys in my next two or three posts. Since you are also on a life journey, I hope that some of our reflections might inspire some reflection on your part as well. What sparked your creative impulse? How has that impulse expressed itself in different forms throughout your life? Where do you think the path you are on might lead in a few years? Are you open to new directions?

Karen Totten
Karen has been involved in creative endeavors all her life.She was working primarily in pottery when she needed to have surgery on her hand. In her words:
"These were made with my handmade stamps. I made stamps initially for pottery, then when I couldn't throw (pots) for 6 months due to hand surgery, I made these beads to keep myself entertained. That's how I got into beads, it was an accident. Lesson: ya never know what is around the corner; go with the flow and you find new work, new discoveries."

"I had an unexpected discovery (while looking through these old pictures): pretty much all of it (Karen's early jewelry components) was hand formed or stamped from my own hand formed stamps. I had an impression I'd used commercial stamps with my clay - but that was more the case with my bronze work. However, I did use commercial cutters for some (my favorite cutter was a very old ruffled pastry cutter from my grandmother (I used it to make all the gear links and other shapes)."

" Porcelain with melted glass chips and various glazes"

"Earth and Sky Wrist Amulet - Here's one that I made from hand carved leaf, flower and spiral stamps, in a terra cotta style with underglazes and a clear crackle gloss glaze over all. Very early piece yet I like this style and looking at it now I want to make it again!"

Jennifer Cameron
Jennifer first bead wasn't too bad for a beginner. I took a lampwork class once and believe me, my first bead did not look like the one pictured below! This bead is from 2005 and Jennifer wire wrapped it into a ring. The ring was the first piece of jewelry she ever made, also!

Here's another view. She says she can't remember if she followed a tutorial for the ring or just made it up herself. The ring is not especially stable or well made, but she still has it.

Next up are two beads Jennifer made at about the same time as the ring. She describes the one on the left as being ugly. It was the first encased bead she ever made. The bead on the right is "very large, very wonky, off center and totally scorched!".

Here's an early floral bead. It has a nice "dimple" at the hole.

Leopard designs.

Jennifer says she likes the colors she used in this one, but that "it's a very ugly shape. And chunky. Not very nice."

Melissa Meman

First up is my very first lampwork bead ever, wire wrapped into my first piece of jewelry ever. I made it into a ring that I still have to this day. No, I don't wear it. - See more at: http://www.glassaddictions.com/blog/did-i-ever-tell-you-about-my-first-time#sthash.IL6JAbJE.dpuf

Melissa began here jewelry journey by making wire wrapped, beaded chains, like this early bracelet.

Or these earrings. Of course now she makes not only jewelry, but also a variety of jewelry components.

Niky Sayers

Niky got her jewelry making start with PMC, before the prices for silver went through the roof. She says that she was "..seduced by the possibilities..." of Precious Metal Clay. Here are three of her early pieces.

Niky goes on to say, "I still really like these pieces, I like the simplicity of them and the sparkle and I loved how easy metal clay was to work with!