EtsyMetal Blog Carnival 4/4/11

Most coveted tool. Why? How would you utilize it if you got it? 


I didn't know it at first, but it didn't take long to realize that I was doing metalwork and making jewelry so that I could buy tools. Making jewelry is great because you don't have to frame it, it doesn't take up much space, anything you can do big - you can do small. What they didn't tell me was that I would need a whole room just to put the tools in.


I usually spend a lot of time researching and pricing tools that I think I want and wait a little bit to make sure that I really do want them if they cost a lot. I also like to go to Drew's used tools and wander up and down the aisles and stumble on some great find. I have bought tools there that I didn't know what they did, but they looked cool.


I spent last Saturday at a blacksmith's shop. He had tools and metal from the floor to the ceiling. He had to move some stuff to create a path so I could walk in. Then he started showing and demo-ing his tools! He had these 3 swage and dapping blocks, one of them weighed about 275 pounds, yea, I wanted that! Most of his tools he acquired from retiring blacksmiths, garage sales, things he found on the side of the road, and tools he had built himself-an advantage to being a blacksmith!
One of the coolest tools he had that I wanted, was a treadle hammer that he had built himself.
 (This isn't the actual hammer because I forgot to take pictures while I was there.
 It delivered a huge amount of force for stamping and a controlled almost delicate amount of force for shaping metal. (Next cool tool was the forge he built using a hairdryer part from the thrift store.)
What would I do with a treadle hammer? I'd put it in my shop and it would look really cool, then after awhile I might start smashing things with it. Maybe food.


Check out what tools other Etsymetal artists covet:
Beth Cyr - http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com
2Roses - http://jewelrytutorial.blogspot.com
Elizabeth Scott - http://esdesignsjewelry.com/blog
Tosca Teran - http://nanopod.wordpress.com
AdobeSol - http://www.AdobeSol.com/blog
Nodeform - http://nodeform.blogspot.com/
wildflowerdesigns - http://wildflowerdesigns.blogspot.com 
Erin Austin- http://metalmusing.blogspot.com

Kinetic Ring Challenge

We just had a kinetic ring challenge. I love these challenges because I'll get an idea and can't imagine what else there could be and then I see what everyone else has done! Some truly amazing ideas. I'll be posting them here, 3 or 4 in a posting. Of course, if you want to see these rings in action go to the Flickr site http://www.flickr.com/groups/1661527@N23/pool/ and catch the videos.
So for today...

Here is Kest Schwartzman's Guillotine or Divorce Ring!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vagabondjewelry/

Michele Grady's rattle ring!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/michelegradydesigns/

Carole Zakkour's 3D Zoetrope Ring!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47294570@N06/

And Tinkertown's Dichroic Kinetic Mosaic Ring!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinkersue

 Stay tuned, I plan to post all the kinetic rings.

Extremes

Sometime to straighten out my thinking I read Andy Warhol or about Andy Warhol. Right now I'm reading 'I'll Be Your Mirror, the Selected Andy Warhol Interviews.'
This is from an interview with David Bourdon 1962-63. (p. 7)

B: A few years ago, Meyer Schapiro wrote that paintings and sculptures are the last handmade, personal objects within our culture. Everything else is being mass-produced. He said the object of art, more than ever, was the occasion of spontaneity or intense feeling. It seems to me that your objective is entirely opposite. There is very little that is either personal or spontaneous in your work, hardly anything in fact that testifies to your being present at the creation of your paintings. You appear to be a one-man Rubens-workshop, turning out single-handedly the work of a dozen aprentices.

W: But why should I be original? Why can't I be non-original?

He always reminds me to be just who I am.
And that some days I work with vegetables and somedays are more technical...

Crazy Life

What a week. Major earthquakes, thousands of people dying, tsunamis, tsunamis where I live, part of Pacific Coast Highway 1 falling into the ocean... This stuff paralyzes me. Everything seems so fragile. When you get down to it, we are flying around in space  on this planet, god knows what can happen out there.

We could fall through a black hole!

I start to feel insignificant. My art seems to feel insignificant. How can I do something so insignificant when there are so many scary things going on? But even a better question is how long can I hold on to all of this fear.

My answer is... not very long.

And my insignificant art starts to take on a new meaning. I do it, because not to do it would be insanity. I would get lost in my fear of crashing into a meteorite or California falling into the ocean. I can't live like that. I go into my studio and start to work and I get absorbed, I forget about being afraid, and I play. I do what I can in the world to help and I live my life.

Part of living my life is making art.

Today I got to break out of my fear and do a metal class with 3 almost 9-year old friends who all share the same birthday. We spent a couple of hours in my studio and they made several pendants, played with my dogs, had cupcakes, and French hot chocolate! Fun prevailed and it felt good!





The beginning of some fold form pendants

RAD Returns!! Congratulations to Erin

#365 Erin Austin!!

Just when you thought it was safe to not have to think about a ring a day again... well, Erin Austin (AKA Toopa http://www.flickr.com/photos/82626320@N00/ has just completed her 365th ring!!

It was no small feat completing RAD for any of us, but it did make it a little easier when you had a group of people doing it with you, looking everyday, and commenting regularly. Even though Erin didn't finish all of her rings by December 31, 2010, she continued to make a ring a day and post them to the RAD Flickr group, all alone.
Many of us kept watching her progress and I'll tell you, I feel like an anxious relative waiting for the baby to be born!!

Congratulations, Erin!! I'll start passing out cigars now!!

#362

#335

For more congratulations go to: http://www.metalriot.blogspot.com/

Why Ring A Week?- Blog Carnival

Our first RAW Blog Carnival!
What was your inspiration for participating in RAW?

RAD #1
http://www.flickr.com/photos/markasky/sets/72157613803257694/

Near the end of Ring A Day a feeling of relief settled in, shortly followed by a feeling of panic. I was tired of making a ring a day, but I wasn't tired of getting on my computer everyday to see what everyone made, and hearing what comments and support I was getting for my Ring of the Day. It was a little scary to think about losing the connections that were formed. It made working alone in my studio a friendlier place. 

RAW #1
http://www.flickr.com/photos/markasky/sets/72157625662614093/

So when Tomi suggested a Ring A Week, well, it seemed like the perfect follow up. Here was a chance to stay connected, and have the time to actually think about and work on more complex ideas or a series of rings. I had gotten some great ideas from RAD, but I really didn't want to make any more pasta or dryer lint rings. It is really fun and inspiring to belong to a group like this sharing a common interest and to have developed so many friendships with people all over the world. It almost seems odd to have such supportive, inspiring, and good friends that I have never met face-to-face. The internet is an amazing place!!  Somehow we should get a group photo!!

Check out how other RAW participants were inspired to join RAW by clicking on the links below:
Marcie Abney - labellajoya.blogspot.com
Joanne Harrill - www.jojobell.com
Thomasin Durgin - www.metalriot.blogspot.com
Amy Nicole - www.rubymtnbeads.blogspot.com
Janice - www.doxallodesigns.blogspot.com
Aleksandra Micic - www.micicart.blogspot.com
Lana Chu - www.ginkgoglass.wordpress.com
Kerry Alice-Twigs and Heather - www.twigsandheather.blogspot.com
Lorena Angulo- blog.lorenaangulo.com/
Kate Jones-- www.katejonesdesign.blogspot.com
Maria Apostolou- www.createjewelry.gr/blog
Sarah Small - www.bysalla.blogspot.com
Rebecca Bogan - www.Adobesol.com/blog
Elaine Luther - www.CreativeTextureTools.com/news
Rebekah Timlin Meddles - www.lunasadesigns.blogspot.com
Laura M (Zoeowyn)- zoeowyn.blogspot.com/
Kimberly (bahamadawn) - www.bahamadawn.blogspot.com
Erin Austin - www.metalmusing.blogspot.com
Catherine Witherell - www.happydayart.typepad.com
Michele Grady- www.michelegradydesigns.blogspot.com 
Joan Furilla - http://jfurilla.wordpress.com/
Kathryn Cole- www.kathryncolejewelry.blogspot.com 
Posted 3 days ago. ( permalink ) 

Is There Life Outside of Metal?

Etsy Metal Blog Carnival -- February 7, 2011

Tell us about other kinds of art and craft you do. What other media do you work and play with? How often do you get to create? Does it relate to or inspire your metalworking?


I've always wanted to open up a store where I would sell art and craft items and have workshops that would teach different media. That way I would have access to everything. It would also satisfy my need to keep buying art and craft items! My house sometimes feels like that store. Over the last 20-30 years, I've tried every media I possibly could.


Lately, metal has definitely taken over my life, it's so easy to combine other media in metal that it seems to satisfy most of those other needs. Adding enameling, I can paint and draw on metal, I can punch holes and sew metal together, I can cast it and use it like clay. I can create small sculptures. I have to say that I'm totally obsessed.

                  

Encaustic Self Portrait

Encaustic Photo Booth

I teach an art class twice a week to disabled and able-bodied teenagers. In creating lessons for the class, I look at other mediums and find myself thinking that this is fun! I need to do more of this. But I usually, only do it in the class. One thing that carried over was working in encaustic, painting with wax. 

From the encaustic you can see two of my other obsessions, self-portraits and photo booth pictures. I have about 40 or 50 strips of photo booth pictures from when I was in college, about 30 years ago (and it only cost $.25!). My friend and I used this as our art medium, our teachers weren't quite so sure about it. I've always done self-portraits, drawing sketching, painting and I still do them on occasion. I have Photo Booth on my Mac (I was very excited to see that!!) and I do use it frequently, with a cache of pictures waiting to be made into something. The pictures don't look quite as good, I guess that's because I'm 30 years older and that camera seems to pick up every detail! The encaustic self portrait was from a picture using Photo Booth.

Metal Photo Strip

My photo booth pictures have totally inspired my metal work. I have used them many times as inspiration. As a matter of fact, I have a whole story about it on my website:       www.evelynmarkasky.com/Site/Photobooth.html


The other thing that I do at least 2-3 times a week is sketch. Of course, that is mostly for ideas for my metalwork. Yes, I am obsessed!!


Please check out the other blogs in the carnival and see how other artists answer this question:


1. kate jones - http://www.katejonesdesign.blogspot.com
2. kathryn cole - http://www.kathryncolejewelry.blogspot.com
3. 2Roses - http://www.JewelryTutorial.blogspot.com
4. Twigs and Heather - http://www.twigsandheather.blogspot.com
5. Erin Austin - http://www.metalmusing.blogspot.com
6. Thomasin Durgin - http://metalriot.blogspot.com
7. Nodeform - http://nodeform.blogspot.com
8. Beth Cyr - http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com
9. stacey hansen - http://wildflowerdesigns.blogspot.com
10. Nina Gibson - http://ninagibsondesigns.blogspot.com/
11. elizabeth scott - http://esdesignsjewelry.com/blog
12. Evelyn Markasky - http://markasky.blogspot.com
13. Amanda Conley - http://amandaconley.blogspot.com
14. Jenny Baughman - http://ridgeschool.blogspot.com/
15. Catherine Chandler - http://catherinechandler.blogspot.com/