Debut: The Microcosm Collection

It's been a busy season, and it's not over yet!  Just wanted to add some images of new work that debuted at the Piedmont Craftsmen's Fair a couple of weekends ago.

These pieces feature a new technique I learned in Ken Bova's Torch-Fired Liquid Enamel workshop at Sawtooth School for Visual Art in September.  Other than a few pieces that have a little sifted enamel, the majority of these pieces feature ONLY white liquid enamel.  The color comes from the oxides in the copper being drawn up through the enamel when they are torch fired.  I LOVE this technique and plan to include it in more work soon!

I'm calling this the Microcosm Collection because of the nature of the torch-fired enamel technique, being somewhat controllable unpredictibility - each piece looks like its own little world.  I hope to have them up on my website and etsy shop very soon.  Enjoy!

New Members' Show

Hiya friends!  To anyone who is in or around the Winston-Salem area in the next month, I have some brand new pieces in the New Members' Show at the Piedmont Craftsmen Gallery in Winston's Downtown Arts District, right now through March 28!  We have quite a lovely arts district, worth checking out for the variety of galleries and shops as well as neat restaurants and bars if you happen to find yourself coming this way!

Unfortunately, due to an ice storm, our opening scheduled for this past Friday at the First Friday Gallery Hop was canceled... however, I will be doing a demo and artist talk for "How2Night," one of PCI's programs for educating the public about all that goes into making fine craft.  That takes place this Thursday, March 13, 6-7pm at Piedmont Craftsmen.  Open and free to the public, and a great chance to see the New Members' Show, which features the work of the 19 newest craftsmen accepted into the guild.

I'll be demonstrating how I form my "SeaPods" pieces from flat copper sheet into pod form with hammers and stakes and then how I apply the enamel to the interior of each piece.  Should be a fun time!

Piedmont Craftsmen

This post is long overdue:

I am thrilled and honored to annouce that I have been accepted as an Exhibiting Member of Piedmont Craftsmen's Guild!  

Good thing I finished this neckpiece with like a day to spare.

When I first moved to Winston-Salem after college, my first job was as a gallery assistant at the Piedmont Craftsmen Gallery in the downtown arts district.  The gallery features work of the over-300 exhibiting members of the guild, and it was so inspiring to be in the presence of such beautiful work from amazingly talented craftspeople from throughout the Southeastern region of the US.  Now, 10 years later, the guild has nearly 400 members and encompasses the whole United States.  

The jury process is rather rigorous.  It's a two-part process: image jury and object jury.  In the spring, the Image Jury opens, and prospective members can send in 8 images of their work to be reviewed by a jury of craftsmen members form every major craft field as well as board members and supporting members.  This is difficult in itself, as it's hard to know what each jury is looking for, as it varies from year to year.  This was actually my third time applying to the Image Jury, but the first time I was invited to continue on to the Object Jury.  The first year I applied, I showed a huge range of portfolio work, from jewelry to large raised vessels.  I was told after the Image Jury when I wasn't selected, that I had good scores, but not quite high enough to be invited to continue, that I had maybe tried to show too much of a range, and they were looking for a more cohesive body of work.  The next year, I showed work all from the same line, my SeaPods Collection, but included a few of the smaller, more production-oriented pieces.  That year, they said that again I had one of the higest scores of those not invited, but that they were looking for more unique "show-stopping" work.  So this year, I submitted images of large neckpieces from my solo show plus a couple of older pieces that fit with and actually inspired that collection, and it worked!

So, if your work is selected by the Image Jury, you are then invited to participate in the Craft Fair in November, either in a solo full booth or in a group booth for the Object Jury, where the jurors come around as a group and discuss and scrutinize your work and then vote on whether or not they think your work is up to the standards of the guild and if you should be invited to be an exhibiting member of the guild.  

I chose to do the group jury booth because: 
1. I felt like I could best represent myself with five show-stopping pieces that were super well-crafted and cohesive as a group rather than trying to pull off a cohesive booth with all of the different lines of jewlery that I make.  They like cohesiveness, those jurors.  
2. I didn't have all of the displays and fixtures required for a high end craft fair booth, and I wasn't sure I could pull it all together in time monetarily in addition to making all of the work necessary to fill a full booth - you need a LOT of jewelry pieces to fill up a booth, let me tell you... 

Well, I'll be honest here because that's the whole point, right?  I had a crazy busy Fall.  That's why I haven't posted since August.  It was good, don't get me wrong, but craaaaazy busy.  And I suddenly realized - on October 30th - that I had written the wrong date on my calendar and that I had 2 weeks instead of almost a month left to make the two pieces I really wanted to make to go with three pieces that I had made earlier in the year for my show at Quirk.   Also, I had a smaller indie craft show scheduled for the weekend before and a trunk show scheduled for the day of installation at Piedmont Craftsmen.

Panic at the freakin' disco.  

The two pieces that I wanted to make were not started.  They weren't even planned in detail, just semi-vague ideas.  So I got on it.  And in the end, I decided to use four of the pieces that I had already completed - because really, they were all nice pieces that I was very proud of - but there was one that didn't quite fit color-scheme-wise, and one that didn't quite fit shape-wise.  So my goal was to design and make a piece that pulled them all together as a cohesive collection. 

 one more.... ready? go!

busy day of hammering: formed cones 

initial coat of enameling complete

patina, findings, assembly!

finished 18 hours before installation

yaaaaaayyyy!!! (this is the look of relief.)

the display ended up looking pretty lovely!

Not a bad way to end the show season. :)

So thanks to everyone, my wonderful family and friends, my fabulous students, my network of amazing jewelers and craftspeople for all of your support through the ups and downs.  It's been a good year.  It was the year of my first solo exhibition, the year we bought our first house, the year I was accepted to a prestigious craft guild, and by far my best year (yet!) business-wise. I'm a pretty lucky girl. So on to 2014!  I hope it's wonderful for you all!  

Good News for People Who Love Bad News

That was a modest mouse reference.... it's not really ALL bad news....

I mentioned a while back that I had applied for grad school at VCU.  Well, a few weeks ago, I got an email from the head of the metals department saying that they were impressed with my portfolio, but there was a very large, very competitive group of applicants this year, and currently I was at the top of the waiting list.  There were two positions open, and I was number three in line.  What a bitch.  So they were waiting to hear back from the one candidate ahead of me, and if they decided not to accept, I would be offered the position.  So I waited.  And waited.  And I saw the professor at a gallery opening, and she said she should know in a few days.  So I waited some more.  Finally, another week later, I emailed her, and she wrote back that she was sorry not to have emailed me at the beginning of the week, but they did not have a position for me this year.  Suck.  So I was pretty bummed.  But Mark helped cheer me up.  He's good at that.  It's funny how you feel good about something when you submit the application, and then as time passes, you feel worse and worse about it, and your confidence dwindles.  Then you hear that hey! they did like it!  there's a chance!!!  And you feel pretty good again.  Then you wait and wait and wait and your conifidence dwindles once again.  So by the time I finally got an answer, I guess it's kind of what I was expecting.  But I won't lie, it still sucked.

Guess you have to have some disappointments along the way.  We also found out that a house we had seen (awesome!) and were thinking about making an offer on got snatched up from under us.  Boooo.  Not a very good few days. 

But I feel a lot better today and can focus again on getting going.  Keep on keepin' on, as it were.

So I've been busy with various tasks here lately.  I had been putting off getting all my official business done, you know, the part where you have to get tax ID's and register your business and licenses, etc.  So I finally got around to that.  It seems like there is no clear answer on the web about exactly how you're supposed to get things done and in what order.  So I asked a friend who owns a small art-based business, and she was so helpful!  It's not that hard when you don't have 47 different websites telling to you to do various things and just not really being clear and concise.  So I will share it with you now:

1. Get a federal tax ID number, called an EIN from the IRS.
2. Register your fictitious business name (DBA) with your city or county Register of Deeds. (In Virginia, you can find that at the Circuit Court office) $10
3. Get a business license.

I haven't actually gotten the business license yet, but I'm on it! 

Now I can buy supplies from wholesalers, deduct expenses from my taxes, be eligible for many craft shows and fairs that won't accept you without at least a tax ID, and all kinds of other stuff.  Just have to be sure to keep immaculate records of my expenses as well as income.  My friend also told me about a free software for managing your finances at https://www.mint.com/.  So I will check that out.

Among other things, I took some work to Quirk Gallery here in Richmond.  They could only take consignment right now, but with the economy still being the way it is, I'll take it.  Obviously if someone will buy your work straight-up for wholesale prices, that is preferable, but I love this gallery and just really wanted to have some work there.  So if it sells well, maybe next time they will buy it wholesale.  Most of the other galleries that I have shown in for years have been on a consignment basis, so it's not like it's that big of a change for me.  One step at a time!

I also applied for Piedmont Craftsmen's Guild, a prestigious craft guild for artists working in the Southeastern US.  They are based in Winston-Salem NC, my home town.  I actually worked in their sales gallery right after college.  It is a two-part application process - an image jury, and then if you pass that, you are invited to show your work at their annual fair in November, where you are judged again based on how your work looks in person.  Whew!  But once you're in, you're a lifetime member.  Many of the best and most well-known craftsmen in the region are members, including my mentors, Andrea and Chuck Kennington and my former employer, Jon Kuhn.  Once a member, you are also invited to show your work in their gallery, participate in group shows, and show your work at the fair each year.  And just as an added bonus, it would drive JK crazy to have to call me a colleague.  Ha!

I also have a couple of shows lined up.  A faculty exhibition at the Sawtooth Center over the summer, and an alumni exhibition at ECU in the fall.  Nothing too fancy right yet, but they should both be very nice.  And I have a few more things in the works. 

So I'm trying not to let the whole not getting into grad school thing get me down.  I have a lot of things cookin', so hopefully things will take off soon!  Guess I better get back to work.  Sorry no pictures today!  I'll have some for next time.  Thanks for reading!