Thundering art

As I told you before, I began knitting chains for pendants, which later became a new line of jewelry. Still, knitting and crocheting seemed to be just a craft, not yet art. The inspiration came out of the technique, and was limited, like there's not much else to design.
My creativity came to halt.

I also told you how much I love spring rain. I love the large raindrops and the clear air, but mostly I enjoy thunder storms. We had some of them in the past few days, and since they always "charge" me somehow with fresh energy - they did so this weekend, too.

work in progress

How is this relevent?

So far I used knitting in the same manner, as a continuity of those chains and only a little further designed.

Today I woke up to the sound of loud thunder, the color of dark gray sky and the mist of heavy rain. Normally, my artistic ideas present themself to me using dreams or images - mostly in awakening. Often I forget many of them, and that's why I asked my mate to build me a dream capturing camera :)

Since he failed to fulfill my wish, I took my notepad (which constantly lays within my reach), and began sketching from memory. The designs just kept pouring out of me - wonderful artistic designs!!!

The next stage is to "translate" those designs to technical details, and to knit them - which I already began doing.

It feels like birth, or something quite similar.
I'm so thrilled!!!

work in progress

Textures for Dad

I love textures.
I love to feel them, and also to smell and taste almost everything (mainly rocks on field trips), but that's beside the point.
I love to use them in my work - paintings and jewelry alike, and one of the main reasons is my Dad.

pod3, detail

Dad was a very talented and skillful craftsman. As a child I loved to watch him work, so I became his diligent apprentice for decades. Much of what I learned from him is reflected in my art.

As I grew up, we began to dream on a joint studio, where we could work together after his retirement. Sadly, he lost his eyesight, so I began using textures in my work for him to"see" with his fingertips.

texture in jewelry

I lost Dad last week.
He, who was my most strict critic, was also one of the biggest fans of my work.
I will always cherish him, not just in my heart, but also through the design process of each painting and jewelry piece, and in my longing to "show" them to him.

Dad

Inspiration - spring rain

Spring came early this year, raining large spherical drops that cleaned the heavy haze.
These large raindrops remained on the leaves in my garden for some time.
What a beautiful sight, just like in this photo by Susan Stevenson:

Susan Stevenson: raindrops on leaves

Nothing can be a better inspiration than nature, as I manifested in this pair of earrings:

fine silver crochet earrings with fresh water pearls

I wonder how will summer inspire me this year...

Tutorial - Fine Silver Earrings

One of the techniques for working with metal clay is to press it into a mold.

The main advantage of this technique is repetition - with is great for duplicating the same design over and over again.

The mold can be made out of any object, and also your own design. These designs can be carved out of wax, pressin a metal prototype, shaped using polymer clay etc.

I work with Art Clay Silver, wthich is easy to handle, shape and burn at home.

I pressed soft silver clay into my mold, and waited for it to dry. 

work stages (left to right): mold - silver clay - fine silver piece

My long experience with the material tought me I should let it to dry completely. My patience paid off, and the next day I burned the pieces over a net on the gas stove in the kitchen.

After firing and filing corners, I blackened the pieces - now pure silver - using liver of sulfur, then smoothened the relif with sandpaper and polished with a burnisher.

All that's left at this stage is to assemble the earrings: adding the beads and the hook.

fan earring - fine silver with rose quartz

These earrings are "little siblings" to a pendant I made last year:

"big brother" - fine silver pendant with rose quartz and sterling chain

Georgia, For A Day

Today is Purim, a jewish holiday, and it is custon to masquarade.

I really like being me, but for only a day I would like to be Georgia O'keefee. Well, not "be", but see the world through her unique eyes.

So I'm Georgia, for a day...

Georgia O'Keeffe, 1918 (Source: Wikipedia)

"Light of Iris", 1924 (source: wikipaintings)

Gem Carving

I will probably never stop learning, and often brows the net for knowledge.

My search today was for ancient jewelry making techniques. Many of the links were sponsored or lead to commercial sites, but I finaly found myself in the J. Paul Getty Museum Youtube channel. Among the many art-related videos, I found a real gem: The art of Gem Carving.



Enjoy!

A New Line In Progress

I love working with silver. Maybe it's the way it allows me to form it in so many ways.

A while ago I bought a lagre spool of fine silver wire, and began to search a way to use it. At first I repeated some of my artistic wire designs. I was satisfied, but still wanted to "listen" to its language, its flow.

In the past few weeks I came up with a line which combines pearls and gems - but also bare silver.

Here are a few samples:

fine silver wire crochet and chrysocolla neckpiece

dangle earrings - fine silver wire crochet and pink corals

bridal cuff bracelet - fine silver wire crochet and white fresh water pearls

fine silver wire crochet doughnut pendant

In The Beginning

How does one become an artist?

Is it genetic? Acquired? Chance?

I can track back my first artistic thoughts to kindergarten, at 5 years old.

One was when my friend, Orit, sketched a figure and drew to many contour lines for the hands. When painting inside she realized making a mistake and fixed it, but I was disappointed. I really liked those extra lines, and thought it was wonderful and imaginative.

Another was being fed up with threading plastic beads, and looking for other options. The teacher's assistant took some olive kernels and showed me how to grind their tips on a stone to make holes. I coated the kernels with gouache paint and created my first necklace.

I come from a family of craftsmen and artists, so becoming a creative artist seemed natural for me. However, support for my young talent came from other places, mainly my art teacher at school. When I expressed my wish to learn art in high school, my father replied that it's better to learn a trade, and sent me to learn bookkeeping.

Me, bookkepping???

I'm still lost in my bank statements!!!

Soon he realized his mistake, and became a source of support. Art became a built-in part of my routine.

fine silver pendant - metal clay, sterling silver and fluorite necklace

StudioD began its first steps about 30 years ago, when I quit my Architecture studies. At first it seemed to be a good substitute for art, but soon I found myself longing to form and shape materials with my bare hands. I began designing jewelry made of leftover modeling cardboard, and can sincerely say that they were the best outcome of my studies.

mixed media on canvas - acrylic and modeling cardboard

Getting There

What triggers your creativity?

What makes you leave everything and rush into your studio?

What drives your art making?

Every artistic creation has a story, and behind these stories lays inspiration.

I'm not different from other artists, and would like to share with you my sources of inspiration in a series of posts.

Let's begin.

The first rainy period this year was stormy. I love stormy weather; it charges me with fresh energy and fills me with joy. Go figure…

It wasn't so for my husband, who also likes rain but realized he lost his long loved wind resistant umbrella. It's the kind of umbrella that doesn't bend inside-out by a light breeze or even a fairly strong wind. It looks like this, but was dark green:

Charged with all that energy I was very generous, and suggested to knit him a new umbrella :)

I took the spool I just knitted from and made a dome, which later became this earring:

Obstacles and Creativity

I often hear fellow artists complain about writers' blocks, lack of muse and other obstacles in their path to making art. It's given, since creativity isn't always fluent and can be episodical. Moreover, most of our art is composed in our subconscious, and only when it surfaces – art is being created. I compare these phases to pregnancy. Other obstacles can be lack of time, of support, of financial ability and of opportunity. In the past few years I've encountered another: physical disability.

About twelve years ago, in the midst of a creative period, I developed Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) – AKA Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), Post Viral Fatigue Syndrome (PVFS), Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS) and other names. CFS is a neurological disorder characterized by exhaustion, cognitive fog, widespread pain and other symptoms.

In short, painting and jewelry making became increasingly very difficult, even impossible at times. After the initial mourning I knew I had to adjust, and gradually learned how to glide on the wavy nature of the syndrome. Now there are "good art days" which allow me to saw and hammer metal, and "medium art days" which I use for more delicate and less physical work. Unfortunately there are also "no art days", or "couch potato days".

Creativity means not only making art, but finding solutions, and I found two.

Ever since CFS became a fact of life, I wished there was an easy way to continue my work with silver. It took some years, and then I found Metal Clay for my "medium art days".

 Metal Clay pendant - Fine Silver and Carnelian

Working with Metal Clay is fun, but I still had to do it in the studio. At the time I began knitting wire necklaces for my Metal Clay pendants. When a "no art day" happened in the middle of a necklace, I decided to take it to the living room, to complete it in front of the tube. Since "no art day"s can stretch to weeks – this decision yielded a new and colorful line of jewelry.

Lacy Lariat Necklace and Belt

It may sound weird, but I thank CFS for expanding my choices.