Makers Part 21

John Muir, the 19th century Scottish/American naturalist was an early advocate for preservation of wilderness in California. He wrote: "When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world." My next maker's connection to the natural world is manifested in her choice of materials - stone, wood and metal.  Christina Brown lives in California and makes beautiful jewellery that comes from and reflects the natural world she loves. In doing so, she gives her wearers a direct connection to that world.  You can buy her jewellery at Feeling Charmed on etsy and keep track of her listings on facebook, pinterest and instagram.

Can you tell me a little about your background? 

I live in Los Angeles, California with my husband and rabbit, Pilot. I have a full-time job working at a University doing nothing especially creative. That is why I take so much pleasure in making my jewelry. It gives me an outlet for all the creativity I have bottled up inside.

What do you make?

I make bracelets and necklaces.

What attracted you to this particular medium? How did you get started?

I have a love for all things fashion. I was looking at bracelets online one day and thought, I could make those. Once I started creating I just could not stop. I love the creative process of picking out beads and accents that complement each other and stand out in fun and one of a kind ways. I love pops of color, unique beads and fun charms. I was initially making bracelets that I could wear and enjoy. It wasn't until I started getting compliments on them that I realized I wanted to sell them so that others could enjoy them the way I do.

How long have you been making?

I have been making bracelets for about 2 months and just recently started making necklaces.

How does your practice fit in with your everyday life? Do you have your own studio space and when do you work and where?

I work whenever I can get a free moment, usually in the evening after work or on the weekends. I don’t have a studio space at the moment but I would love to have one eventually. Right now I just either work at my living room coffee table or my kitchen table. My bad part about that is that I usually have a complete mess everywhere. I always find beads in my carpet.

What are the best and worst aspects about working with this medium?

 

The best part of working in this medium is the variety of materials that are out there. I am always finding new beads and charms to buy. My newest discovery has been organic, all natural beads. I love the authentic, earthy feel that they have. I feel the organic materials match my esthetic and fit with the direction that I plan to head in. I do not have a worst part.

Who or what inspires you?

I find my creative inspiration all around me. When I first started making bracelets and picking out the materials for them, I always went for the earth tones. So I thought I should stick with what I like and take inspiration from the earth, sea and sky. I enjoy the mix between taking the blue from the sky and joining it with the wood from the earth. I feel there is a harmony there and that the elements work together to form a balanced, beautiful creation.

Do you get creative blocks? If so, how do you deal with it?

I do get creative blocks sometimes. When that happens I just start mixing different beads, accents and charms together. If one combination does not work I move on to the next. It is a trial and error process but through that something I love will eventually emerge.

What other mediums would you love to explore? 

I would love to start knitting sometime in the future. I think it would be great to design and create scarfs and bags.

What do you hope to do next with your practice?

I hope to keep designing and creating new pieces for my shop and get my name out there as much as possible.My next goal is to start attending fairs and selling my products. I am looking forward to getting the face to face contact with customers. I think it will really help to have people be able to see my products in person, try them on and feel confident about what they have purchased.

Thank you Christina! If you make or collect I would love to hear from you.

Makers part 20

                   

Chainmail is a type of armour consisting of small metal rings linked or welded together in a pattern to form a mesh. The technique has been in place for 3000 years as a method to make protective covering. The name "mail" is derived from the French word "maille", which comes from the Latin word "macula" which means, "mesh of a net". My featured maker, Miriam is a contemporary jeweller who uses this technique to make beautiful and timeless pieces and her work can be seen in her etsy store The Lovely Dame.

Can you tell me a little about your background? 

When I was twelve years old, my parents sent me to Germany to go to school and to learn the language. I lived with my grandparents, didn't speak a word of German, and knew no one my own age. To help me make some new friends, my grandparents signed me up for a jewelry class at the local activity center with the idea that there would be many students my age with whom I could connect. 

I was the only student in the class. This ended up being a life changing moment for me, as I was able to completely devote myself to learning how to make jewelry, which has become a lifelong passion for me. When I arrived back in the U.S. I was itching to learn more about the art and I was lucky enough to attend a high school which offered jewelry and metal working classes. My mother also discovered a program at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City called Saturday Live which offered weekend classes for high school students, and once I saw the studio and got my hands on the tools there, I was hooked. I started traveling to the city every weekend, spending 8-10 hours every Saturday in those wonderful studios, absorbing everything until one day, about two semesters into the program, I became the teacher’s assistant. Helping the other students and walking them through their projects made me realize another passion in my life: teaching.

Ever since that time in Germany, I have been making jewelry, teaching art and loving every minute of it. Jewelry making holds a special place in my heart. It is a very meditative process that has helped me overcome many challenges and has opened many, many doors for me.

What do you make?

In my home studio I make bracelets, necklaces and earrings using new and recycled materials. I focus mostly on chainmaille, but also enjoy using pearls, glass and gemstones. 

What attracted you to this particular medium? How did you get started?

I had been making jewelry since I was a little girl, though in the beginning it was mostly making necklaces out of plastic beads to play dress up with. I had never been exposed to the art of metal working until I traveled to Germany for schooling, but once I got started, I was hooked.

                           

How long have you been making?

I have been making chainmaille jewelry like the items seen in my Etsy shop since I was 12 years old. When I was around fourteen I learned how to solder and to use other techniques such as hollow forming, lost wax casting, and piercing and sawing. Piercing and sawing, which is a technique that allows you to cut intricate patterns into a sheet of metal, is one my favorite things to do (besides chainmaille, that is).

How does your practice fit in with your everyday life? Do you have your own studio space and when do you work and where?

I work from home, and have my studio set up in one of the spare bedrooms. I try to spend several hours at a time either working on a new item or photographing existing pieces, but more often than not I will get an hour or two in before something else needs my attention, like the pets or getting dinner together for everyone. We have since moved to a larger space, and now that I have a dedicated studio I am looking forward to being much more productive and efficient. In our previous location, I would often find myself making my jewelry at my bench, or moving to the kitchen table if I needed more space.

What are the best and worst aspects about working with this medium? 

I would say that the best thing about working with this medium is that there is really no limit to what you can do. If you have the time, the tools and the ability, you can make anything you put your mind to. It is fun and meditative, and I have found that after becoming familiar with so many different tools for work that I have become quite the handyman around the house.
  

Who or what inspires you?

My inspiration comes from good music, great art and a love of nature.

Do you get creative blocks? If so, how do you deal with it?

I do get creative blocks from time to time, and I have found that the best way to deal with them is to just step away from the project for a while and then look at it later with fresh eyes.

                             

What other mediums would you love to explore?

I have started sewing recently, and would love to learn more about it. I’ve been making simple things like pillowcases and basic skirts, but it would be nice to take some lessons on more complicated pieces. I’ll be honest and say that sewing patterns confuse me sometimes, leaving me with some pretty lopsided pieces.

What do you hope to do next with your practice?

I am looking to make more jewelry using pearls and semi-precious gemstones in the next few weeks. But first, the studio needs to be unpacked!!

Thank you Miriam!

Makers Part 19

Creativity is about using ideas drawn from around you and from your imagination to generate ideas, and inventiveness is using that process to bring those ideas to life. My next maker, Deb is Australian and she combines the two to create her signature pieces of clothing and accessories that take the best of vintage for contemporary use. She sells her work on etsy in her store Flotsam and Jetsum and on Madeit.

Can you tell me a little about your background?

I currently live in Charters Towers, an historic mining town, in North Queensland Australia. I’ve been married happily for 18yrs now and we have one child who is now in upper primary school. We are about 1 1/2hrs drive from the stunning tropical coastline in this part of the world. We a bit of an outdoorsy family and holidays for us (when not seeing our elderly parents) tend to be bush or beach focussed.

Although reading came very naturally to me, as a child I’d much rather spend my free time outside in the garden, playing with our cats, drawing, doing something crafty or cooking. I grew up in fairly ordinary circumstances, the youngest of four children, with a Mum (and a Dad (although Dad was not inventive) who was the master of invention. She was from a family that immigrated to Australia to escape the Russian revolution in 1918. They eventually arrived in Australia in 1928 and had to survive with what they had, which was very little. I really admire that ingenuity, and those circumstances gave Mum the DIY attitude to life. She didn’t have much free time for craft but would have a go at tackling just about any job, and her patience when it came to teaching me sewing seemed endless.

My education background is ordinary. It may be of note that I selected Art in school for a bludge subject! (Shocking, I know!) It seemed easy and natural to me...perhaps a hint of what I would do later on. Despite feeling that education is very important and being a high achiever, I left school at Grade 10, entirely of my own volition. I had other things to do with my life. It’s all rather ironic, because a large number of my clients are teachers! I remember walking past a jeweller’s window on my way to my first job, thinking to myself ‘I’d much rather be working in there designing’...so here I am! 

What do you make?

I don’t specialise in any particular item but apply my philosophy of story, heritage and the gentle handmade finish to a spectrum of creative pieces for women and children, including women’s clothing, vintage clutch purses, scarves, baby clothing, girl’s clothing, woven and retro necklaces, vintage earrings as well as vintage cushions for the home (although they’ve recently sold out). I order broken china pieces from a talented local lady who cuts them to my specs, and I’m having fun putting them in rings, earrings and remodelled retro necklaces.

What attracted you to this particular medium? 

It’s what I’m comfortable with. I love the unstudied lived-in feeling! It has grace and ease. I’ve always grown up with vintage (although I didn’t appreciate it at the time) and lived in old gracious homes. Now our family live in a mostly restored 120yr old 'Queenslander' home with verandahs to provide shade and respite from heat, a traditional bullnosed roof, picket fence and tropical garden. Pretty much everything we’ve owned in our married life is old, has a story or a history of its own. Our home’s ‘ornaments’ are rocks and shells, seed pods, boat oars and with the odd antique or bird’s nest thrown in for good measure. I guess it was only time before this philosophy progressed to my wardrobe and accessories.

How did you get started? 

I’ve long dabbled in making my own clothing and jewellery and often received compliments when I wore my pieces. The vintage and repurposed movement clicked immediately with me. Tired of making everything from new, I was bursting with excitement to try the challenge of making with these overlooked treasures. So, primarily as a creative outlet, I thought I’d try my hand at online selling as a way to reach customers I could never reach otherwise.

How long have you been making? 

I’ve been sewing for well over 20 years now. I’ve had my Etsy and Madeit shops since 2011, but it took almost a year for anyone to find me! It’s been a lesson in perseverance and it was until I’d refined my online strategies things started ticking over.

How does your practice fit in with your everyday life? 

I’ve chosen to be a stay at home Mum and fit my online shop work in around the priorities of our family life and our faith. This means I can’t chase every idea or run with every ambition, but I don’t mind being ‘cottage’ and staying small. It means I am being faithful to my ideals. I see it so often, that when volume is churned out, little things suffer (and bigger things like family life), and those ideals matter to me.

Do you have your own studio space and when do you work and where? 

I’m now set up in a small studio which was originally our bathroom and then a temporary kitchen. My husband is a clever chook and installed totally recycled benches and repurposed our old kitchen cupboards for shelf space on the walls. We’ve put in another window (recycled – what else?) for extra light. I have a wall space with a collection of old recycled hooks where I store an unfinished objects neatly in bags (repurposed ta da!). I have an antique wooden cupboard that stores much of my linens. I’m usually in and out of there during the day when my son is at school. I aim to limit my ‘shop’ time on the weekend and nights, only doing what is ‘essential’, so I have more time for my family and my faith.

What are the best and worst aspects about working with this medium? 

Best – Happy customers, who really appreciate each piece not just for itself, but for the love and care taken with it. I love the way you can make something you don’t want to put down out of something discarded and overlooked. I love the soul and character of clothing that uses repurposed fabrics and embroidery that someone spent many pleasant hours musing over. It just FEELS, and in my opinion, IS more wholesome! I love seeing stylising my photographs and writing descriptions that give a window into my thoughts when designing each piece – you don’t get that with off-the-rack items!

Worst- My chief bane, is online ordering my supplies for my jewellery and often fabrics. We live in a town of about 9,000 which really limits what I can get locally. Ordering is detailed, time-consuming and at times I’ve made costly mistakes. But I learn from them... most of the time. My retro jewellery can be very fiddly to construct, and seeing I’m a tweaker and fine-tuner, it’s not unknown for me to pull something apart altogether and reconstruct it, until I’m happy with it. Because my time is spread across a diversity of pieces, I usually have limited stock in store of any one piece. I’m conscious of the fact that this makes it harder to be found by customers and search engines. It’s a little frustrating at times.

                         

                          

Who or what inspires you? 

The natural created world for me, has this simplicity and beauty that refreshes. It also has this surface randomness, with clever, subtle underlying harmony and order. (Think the golden angle and fractal patterns) I try to include these things in my designs. Just grouping together beads in a bowl or fabrics in a stack will often give me colour or composition ideas. I also find it inspiring to browse through decorating books or home magazines, like Australian Country Style, Peppermint and Real Living . My ideas are like shells pummelled in the ebb and flow of the tide. Eventually, they settle on the shores of the shop, but not before being made, pulled apart and refined in my mind many times over. 

Do you get creative blocks? If so, how do you deal with it? 

I haven’t had this problem yet! More ideas than I will ever use in a lifetime.

What other mediums would you love to explore? 

None at present. I’m working on increasing my range of repurposed vintage clutch purses and scarves. I think they are such natty statement pieces and even someone who doesn’t want to wear a doily can enjoy the nostalgia that comes with them.

What do you hope to do next with your practice? 

My motto for this year is ‘be organised; work smarter, not harder’. I can but aspire anyway!

Thank you Deb! Follow Deb's work on instagram and Facebook too!

Makers Part 18

                              

The philosopher Gaston Bachelard talks about the miniature as a place for dreamers, where one can experience and express what is large in what is small. He views the miniature as a gate which opens up and explores another perspective of the known. The containing of worlds is, of course, the stuff of snow globes. My next maker, Camryn Forrest with her husband Reid, takes her ideas and preoccupations and gives them their own world in her beautiful and thought provoking snow globes. You can find her work on etsy in CamrynForrestDesigns and on her web site here.

Can you tell me a little about your background? 

I live in Denver, Colorado with my husband who is my collaborator. My college degree is in journalism, although I took enough art classes (drawing, painting, sculpture and photography) for a minor in art as well. Both of our grown-up kids are very creative and inventive in other mediums.

What do you make?
Waterglobes, snowglobes, curious inventions: we make tiny sculptures from found, repurposed and created items, which are installed inside one of a kind snow globes or water globes.

What attracted you to this particular medium? How did you get started?
I’ve always been drawn to tiny things and miniature worlds. When I was small, I made my own dollhouse furnishings and accessories, and I’ve collected every small thing I see: little chairs, bone china animals, souvenir buildings, model railroad figures.

How long have you been making?
I have been making miniatures for decades, but we jointly expanded into snow globes about five years ago.

How does your practice fit in with your everyday life? Do you have your own studio space and when do you work and where?
We have a two-car garage that no longer houses cars. It has been turned into one-third storage and two-thirds artist studio, with the studio carving out more space every month. There are several shelving units with multiple containers of components that we have found or might need someday: beads, buttons, wire, antique dials and clockworks, broken toys, dismantled machines and thrift-shop jewelry. We have an ecletic collection of tools, and a very long work table made from a conference room door. The studio evolved on its own, and has the eccentric touches such as an antique crystal chandelier shining ing next to modern bright industrial lighting.

What are the best and worst aspects about working with this medium?
Let’s see: the worst is that snow globes are fragile and people can be hesitant to touch them. And the chosen medium is very challenging since the sculptures are less than 2.75 inches tall. some things just can't be made that small. But that’s positive, because having the size limitation means we think differently, and we see small items and interesting shapes that we would not have considered using if size was no limit. And the best thing is that we’ve found nobody – NOBODY – can shake one of our snow globes and not smile. From the smallest child, to the roughest, toughest street dude, when you shake a globe and the sparkle happens, it’s beautiful. That's why I love doing shows, because you get to see people interact on a very personal level with your artwork.

Who or what inspires you?
I’d say we love epic stories, fantasy, science fiction, the 1950s, childhood cartoons, architecture, contrasts, whimsical archtypes, visual puns, sad stories, happy memories, mechanics, renaissance artists and inventors, steampunk, Nikola Tesla, Meis Van De Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright, and grand gestures … you name it, it probably inspires us.

Do you get creative blocks? If so, how do you deal with it?
I keep journals and notebooks of ideas: sketches, phrases, poems, visual prompts and there are hundreds of ideas that have not yet become snow globes. However, for me as an individual, the block happens when I want to create something that seems beyond my technical skill. Right now, I’m working on snowglobe design with a staircase of different sized cubes and I want them to appear to float between each stair … it’s a technical problem that rolls around in my head. Sometimes when one or the other of us gets a great idea, but can’t make it happen, we’ll get together to solve it. I’d say that I often have more of the wild and crazy impossible-to-build ideas and my husband has more of the “here’s how that works” solutions.

What other mediums would you love to explore?
I’ve been apprenticing with a metal smith for several years and I’d like to improve my ability to work in metal, perhaps making custom metal bases for the snow globes. I’ve had people ask if I can make some of the tiny sculptures life-size in metal --- I’m years from that happening, but it does appeal to me.
Another aspect I'm working on is making sculptures out of sentimental costume jewelry for people. If there is someone you miss, and you have a piece of their old jewelry that is small enough to become a sculpture ... wouldn't it make a cool sparkle globe? I'm experiementing with this now, especially because some of the jewelry can be fragile so I need to work with the qualities it has.

What do you hope to do next with your practice?
Right now, we have a backlog of "snow storm" projects that are either just swimming in the brainjuices, or only partly realized on the studio table. When something turns out unpredictably, I might put it aside and look at it in a few weeks or a month to see if a solution has appeared magically. We need to buckle down and finish some of the interesting pieces that we’ve begun, because while it’s always fun to start new pieces, but we can run out of room if we don’t finish some other pieces first.

Thank you Camryn and Reid! Are you a maker, collector or artist? I would love to do a post on you!