This is the third in a series of posts titled "The Journey". I've been sharing the artistic journeys of our AJE team members.
Many of of us have worked in other art mediums. Some of have been artists our entire adult lives and others of us have come to this path later in life. Just like you, all of us are continually growing, learning and evolving.
In Part One of the series, we took a look at Karen's, Jen's, Melissa's and Niky's art journeys. Part Two gave us a little history for Lesley, Sue and Rebekah. Today's post will cover the remaining team members: Francesca, Caroline, Kristen and myself (Linda).
Francesca Watson-
Although Francesca is best known for her metalsmithing expertise, she started her jewelry journey with a focus on wire wrapping. I love the fanned out wire in the bail.
This is Francesca's first bezel set pendant. She says, "OMG. Let me count the things that are wrong with it...but I was sooo proud of it at the time!"
And these versatile earrings were Francesca's first attempt at sweat soldering. She says she wore these all the time...till she lost one of them. Don't you hate it when that happens!
Kristen Stevens
We all know Kristen for her prowess with seed beads, but from this early picture, you can see that she has tried her hand at a bit of straight forward bead stringing, as well. The bracelet shown in the lower part of this picture is one of her earliest attempts at seed beading. She claims she had very limited knowledge at the time she made this. Uh-hum, wish I could do this, even now!
Caroline Dewison
Caroline started out wanting to do lampwork, but her children kept spending all her money - you know how that goes! So she looked for other things to do in her kiln. She got herself a bag of clay and the rest is history! This is one of her first ceramic pieces from 2010.
And here's floral bead, also from 2010.
This picture shows an early iteration of Caroline's wonderful sea urchin beads.
Jenny Davies-Reazor
Jenny was already making and selling beaded earrings, in a local shop, when she was in high school! But her real love became metal. Jenny says, "I found a receipt from my undergrad art school days- sterling was $5/oz!
Here are three of Jenny's early college pieces. She states. "The pendant on the right was first semester metals, sweat soldered. The ring, (ocean and phases of the moon), was made purely for me, for fun. I wore it every day for approximately 10+ years. The moonstone pendant was lost wax cast, (in my) third year metals (course). Also for me, not a specific assignment."
After college came full time teaching and concentrating on painting. Metals got left behind. And 20 years ago there weren't torches suitable for apartment use so Jenny turned her attention to ceramics. Jenny feels that her study of design/metals has informed her work in both beads and mixed media. She adds, "I want to return to the roots and let the solder flow!"
Linda Landig
I started making jewelry in my 20's during a stressful period in my life. I wanted to do something fun for myself, to balance the negatives in my life at that time. I started out metalsmithing. I made this really ugly belt buckle for my brother, about 2 years later. He probably gasped in horror when he received it.
When we had children, life became busy. I eventually sold all my metalsmithing tools and machines (note to self: really bad decision!) and dabbled in some other crafts for awhile. Around 1998 or so, I wandered into a bead store and was instantly addicted! I made my mother-in-law a necklace for Christmas and have been hopelessly in love with beads ever since. These earrings were made around 2002.
My latest gig is an infatuation with clay. And in a way I feel I've come full circle. My earliest childhood memory is of being 3 or 4 years old and sitting in, what seemed to me, to be a very high stool (probably a bar stool) in the clay studio of a friend of my mother's. I remember being given clay to play with and now here I am in my 60's playing with clay again. The sculptor, Evelyn Raymond, was fairly well known in Minnesota in the 1950's. I found this link to an old newspaper article about her work.
This photo was taken much later, in the 1980's, when my parents took a trip back to Minnesota.
That's Evelyn in the foreground, my mother in the back.
One of my first stoneware pendants.
That concludes our series on the AJE team's evolution as jewelry artists. I hope you have enjoyed the journey.
~Linda
Linda Landig Jewelry
 |
| Pacific Crest Trail - © 2015 by H. Landig |
In Part One of the series, we took a look at Karen's, Jen's, Melissa's and Niky's art journeys. Part Two gave us a little history for Lesley, Sue and Rebekah. Today's post will cover the remaining team members: Francesca, Caroline, Kristen and myself (Linda).
Francesca Watson-
Although Francesca is best known for her metalsmithing expertise, she started her jewelry journey with a focus on wire wrapping. I love the fanned out wire in the bail.
This is Francesca's first bezel set pendant. She says, "OMG. Let me count the things that are wrong with it...but I was sooo proud of it at the time!"
And these versatile earrings were Francesca's first attempt at sweat soldering. She says she wore these all the time...till she lost one of them. Don't you hate it when that happens!
Kristen Stevens
We all know Kristen for her prowess with seed beads, but from this early picture, you can see that she has tried her hand at a bit of straight forward bead stringing, as well. The bracelet shown in the lower part of this picture is one of her earliest attempts at seed beading. She claims she had very limited knowledge at the time she made this. Uh-hum, wish I could do this, even now!
Caroline Dewison
Caroline started out wanting to do lampwork, but her children kept spending all her money - you know how that goes! So she looked for other things to do in her kiln. She got herself a bag of clay and the rest is history! This is one of her first ceramic pieces from 2010.
And here's floral bead, also from 2010.
This picture shows an early iteration of Caroline's wonderful sea urchin beads.
Jenny Davies-Reazor
Jenny was already making and selling beaded earrings, in a local shop, when she was in high school! But her real love became metal. Jenny says, "I found a receipt from my undergrad art school days- sterling was $5/oz!
Here are three of Jenny's early college pieces. She states. "The pendant on the right was first semester metals, sweat soldered. The ring, (ocean and phases of the moon), was made purely for me, for fun. I wore it every day for approximately 10+ years. The moonstone pendant was lost wax cast, (in my) third year metals (course). Also for me, not a specific assignment."
After college came full time teaching and concentrating on painting. Metals got left behind. And 20 years ago there weren't torches suitable for apartment use so Jenny turned her attention to ceramics. Jenny feels that her study of design/metals has informed her work in both beads and mixed media. She adds, "I want to return to the roots and let the solder flow!"
Linda Landig
I started making jewelry in my 20's during a stressful period in my life. I wanted to do something fun for myself, to balance the negatives in my life at that time. I started out metalsmithing. I made this really ugly belt buckle for my brother, about 2 years later. He probably gasped in horror when he received it.
When we had children, life became busy. I eventually sold all my metalsmithing tools and machines (note to self: really bad decision!) and dabbled in some other crafts for awhile. Around 1998 or so, I wandered into a bead store and was instantly addicted! I made my mother-in-law a necklace for Christmas and have been hopelessly in love with beads ever since. These earrings were made around 2002.
My latest gig is an infatuation with clay. And in a way I feel I've come full circle. My earliest childhood memory is of being 3 or 4 years old and sitting in, what seemed to me, to be a very high stool (probably a bar stool) in the clay studio of a friend of my mother's. I remember being given clay to play with and now here I am in my 60's playing with clay again. The sculptor, Evelyn Raymond, was fairly well known in Minnesota in the 1950's. I found this link to an old newspaper article about her work.
This photo was taken much later, in the 1980's, when my parents took a trip back to Minnesota.
That's Evelyn in the foreground, my mother in the back.
One of my first stoneware pendants.
That concludes our series on the AJE team's evolution as jewelry artists. I hope you have enjoyed the journey.
~Linda
Linda Landig Jewelry
A great series Linda. I love seeing peeks at people's artistic pasts - it's great to see how you've all evolved as makers.
ReplyDeleteThanks Rebecca! So glad to hear that you've enjoyed these.
DeleteBeautiful story and how nice to still have one of your firsts. This proves the point of how incrediblly important the journey is!
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly what I was hoping to get across in this series. Everyone is on a journey. Where we are now is not where we started and sometime in the future, we'll look back on today and be able to see how much further we've come!
ReplyDelete