Love Kill Monster is the studio of Alexis Pierre-Louis, and this blog features her studio jewelry in progress, plus research notes, current observations, etc. Thank you for visiting!
Metal-Urge is a summer-long event in Tacoma, WA that galvanizes the community around a city-wide celebration metal arts. The community event features 23 venues exhibiting the work of over 100 artists whose metal work includes jewelry, sculpture, vessels, hardware, home décor, enamel, and artifacts. Presented June 6 – September 20. Metal Urge coincides with the Tacoma Art Museum’s exhibitions “Ornament as Art” and “Loud Bones”. Included are artist workshops, lectures, museum and gallery exhibitions, artist receptions, and a free community festival July 31st at the museum and Tollefson Plaza at 1701 Pacific Avenue . For more information and maps of locations, go to www.tacomaculture.org.
I recently renewed my membership to the Society of North American Goldsmiths, and I was patiently waiting for my subscription to SNAG’s Metalsmith magazine to kick in when it hit me: why wait for the magazine when I can stroll down to the bookstore and score a magazine? Instant gratification is the American way after all. I scored my magazine, and I can honestly say that this was one time when impatience paid off.
First let me thank the folks at Barnes and Noble for placing Metalsmith in the art section rather than the crafts section. Because I feel that while metalsmithing and it’s related arts (particularly jewelry making) are situated firmly between the realm of fine art and fine craft, if you read Metalsmith, it reads like an art magazine and many of the artists featured approach the craft of metalsmithing with the same conceptual process as artists. Maybe it’s me, but one of the things I love about metal work is its ambiguity: is it art, craft, or design?
That’s exactly what I thought when I saw Johnny Swing’s Nickle Couch. My first reaction when I saw the couch was swift and visceral. I thought, damn, that is one sexy couch. It undulates and curves sinuously like a sleek tongue darting flirtatiously. Solidly constructed of nearly 7,000 nickles held together with 35,000 welds on a steel truss, it weighs in at a hefty 125 pounds but it ups the cool factor of your domicile immeasurably. But I think the true genius of the Nickel Couch is its elevation of the simple nickel coin to an art form. Who else but an artist would look at a jar of nickels and think, I can make art from that?
Rio Grande, a trusted jewelry supplies merchant, has announced the 10th annual Saul Bell Jewelry Design Award Competition. The deadline to apply is September 18, 2009. The entry categories include:
Gold/Platinum
Silver/Argentium Silver
Beads
Metal Clay
Hollowware
Enamel
Details, instructions, and an entry form can be found on the Saul Bell website.
Happy Friday, I’m enjoying a pitcher of Vesper martinis on the rooftop on this gloriously bright, sunny day. Not only is today the end of a good week, but my subscription to Art Jewelry magazine kicked in and I’m enjoying the article about Kiwon Wang (one of my favorite jewelry artists) who is curating an exhibit on contemporary Korean jewelry artists at the Fuller Craft Museum. I thought this day couldn’t get any better but right on my doorstep was my supply order from Rio Grande. Now (after these martinis wear off) I can get to work on my twig neckpiece. I’m so excited!
I am working on a new neckpiece. I have conceptualized the design and sketched it. I have made a cost estimate of the materials and equipment needed to produce the neckpiece. One of the pieces of equipment I will need is a torch, which will be new equipment for me because I do not normally work in metals. But my art practice is evolving, and I’ve decided that I will use recycled metal, found metal, precious metal clay (PMC), and responsibly sourced metal. This new ethic gives me more options in jewelry making.
But I’ve learned that deciding on a torch is no simple task. Apparently different metals have different soldering and annealing temperatures and so while a propane/oxygen torch might be right for working in silver and gold, an acetylene torch might be better for working in platinum. Then there are the safety considerations, I mean you’re working with fire and gases. I woke up at 3 AM this morning sweating over safety issues. Luckily, there are studio spaces where I can safely use my torch (once I make a decision on one).
Since I was up early I decided to make a pot of coffee and get to work. I took a second look at the beads I’d made from recycled coffee grounds. I decided to gild one. I liked the gilded/rough texture, so I decided to gild two more. I washed my hands and sat down to drink a cup of coffee. Afterwards, I picked up the three gilded beads and placed them on my wrist like they were part of a bracelet. One thing came to mind: ironic. These beads look ironic. Like their trying to be fancy, but they know they’re not, and so they have a little attitude. Ironic beads. What do you know?
I’ll give it a few days and decided if I actually want to make a bracelet or if this was just a stress-relieving exercise.
I’ve had several days of quiet time to conceptualize new work. During this time I have done a lot of problem solving around how to produce neckpieces from existing beads. I have three sets of beads that I am working with, so my production efforts are centered around how to create neckpieces from these beads. I feel very fortunate that I am able to visualize the design in my head where I can arrange, and re-arrange the jewelry components at will. I know that it is a gift to be able to rotate objects in my mind so that I can work out the design in my head rather than wasting a lot of paper sketching, and re-sketching.
These first set of beads were constructed from a rather labor intensive process involving organic and man-made materials plus fire to produced the scorched appearance. I produced the beads last year then struggled with how to include them in a neckpiece for a year. Then a few days ago I took a walk in Denny Park and saw some interesting twigs on the ground, which I brought home and accidentally laid them next to the beads. All of the sudden I was inspired with an idea, which I worked out in my head then sketched once I had figured the design out in my head.
Mossy Galliano beads
Once I understood that my design inspiration was fired by laying out the beads in a necklace pattern, I laid out these green “Mossy Galliano” beads, and sure enough I figured out the design for the neckpiece, which I promptly sketched. Moving forward from that success I worked on my “Amber Nut” beads, which were also made last year after a labor intensive process. I love making jewelry beads. The process of making jewelry beads is very meditative. I sit in my studio for hours making beads, and it amazes me how my hands are able to scoop up the right amount of material to make similarly sized beads. After a while, my mind begins to go into a meditative state; making beads is a very satisfying and centering ritual.
Amber Nut beads
The process of making these “Amber Nut” beads was greatly experimental. They are constructed of paper and polymer clay. They are finished with hand-rubbed oil paint, which I let thicken in the sun. The beads are still drying in the sun, and I am still working out the design for the neckpiece in my head. But for now, the creative process will have to wait because it’s a beautiful, sunny day with a perfect, gentle, cool breeze. I am to get outside and have some fun. Who knows, I may be inspired by nature or by something I see, and that may be the inspiration I need to work out this final design.
I am re-reading Elizabeth Olver’s The Art of Jewelry Design from Idea to Realityfor the hundredth time. It’s a great book in terms of the number of color pages and practical advice from how to set up your studio, to how to generate ideas, to how to execute those ideas. It’s one of my favorite jewelry books, and I think if I ever teach a class it will be required reading. I guess because I’m feeling a little stuck right now, I’m devouring all of my Metalsmith, Ornament, and Art Jewelry magazines. I’m constantly looking at jewelry and sketching.
Last night as I passed C Art Gallery, I thought about approaching the gallery director with a proposal to curate a show on art jewelry and perhaps small sculpture. I’m still fleshing out my ideas and thinking about whether to invite particular artists or have an open juried show. I’m confident that as I mull the thought over, the challenges will resolve themselves.
In the meantime, I am checking out the art jewelry over at Klimt02 and Charon Kransen.
Lately I’ve been finding cool twigs in the park. I plan to use them in jewelry. It’s funny the way I find the twigs. I’m just walking along, minding my own business, and I notice them because they almost seem to shout, “notice me, I’m special”. The second time that happened to me I started paying attention to all the twigs in the park, and sure enough only the special ones seemed to shout. The other, regular twigs just laid on the ground like, well, twigs.
I’m starting the process of moving to a new artists community, and I’m excited about that, but not thrilled about having to actually pack my things into boxes and schlep them across town. But there are worse things, like not living around other artists.
Since I may be moving soon, I feel that it’s not time to start any new jewelry projects, which makes me a little sad because I finally figured out the secret to my felted paper beads: it’s the yellow pages paper. I’ve tried making paper beads from different types of paper and only the yellow pages paper resultes in a felty finish. So as soon as I move into my new digs (assuming they accept me), I’m going to go around to all my new neighbors and ask them for their unwanted Yellow Pages directories. Ah, the beauty of recycling.
Today was a good day, and it seems that I’m not the only one who thought so. Everywhere I looked people were smiling and talking to strangers. I could have sworn I’d been transported to another city because Seattleites are famously introverted, which is a culture shock coming from the neighborly south. I blame it on the sun.
My own spirits were cheered by the sun and by viewing the inspiring art jewelry on the Velvet da Vinci website. I was particularly drawn to the work of Talya Baharal, whose Urban Landscape work seems similar to my own investigations into the corrosive beauty of rusted steel. This rusted metal form, for example, continues to vex me as I try to reimagine it as a component in a piece of jewelry. In short, I found this interesting object, and now I’m trying to create jewelry around it.
Today was also interesting because I wore my Dirty Hara bracelet, and it did exactly as what it was intended to do. Hara, in the Japanese tradition, is the place that physically exists in the middle of your abdomen, approximately eight centimeters below your navel. Spiritual speaking, the hara is the source of your energy, and Zen Buddhists focus on hara breathing to assist them in zazen, a seated form of meditation. I always found the rules for sitting zazen too restrictive. Or maybe my unruly mind resists the discipline involved in sitting zazen, but I remain intrigued by Read more »
Root Doctor ring, copyright ⓒ 2008, Alexis Pierre-Louis, all rights reserved
Yesterday I decided to take a walk during my lunch break. My head was swirling from indecision. For weeks I’ve been trying to decide which artistic discipline I should make primary so that I can produce enough similarly themed work to present to a gallery. I wrestled for a long time between figurative and abstract painting but neither choice resonated with me. As I walked yesterday, it suddenly occurred to me that the discourse I am engaging in through my painting is a private discourse and that is why I struggled with the notion of presenting my paintings to the public. My paintings represent my private thoughts and questions about race, class, and gender and it’s a conversation that I mean to have with myself.
My jewelry, on the other hand, has always been meant to be received by the public. My inquiry into notions of preciousness, value, status, cultural identity, and gender are questions I want to present to the public, and I am interested in the viewer’s gaze and feedback. Suddenly, it became clear to me, after nearly two years of exploring and experimenting with painting, sound, and writing, that I have an art practice that is centered in jewelry. I am a jewelry artist. I rushed to share this news with family and friends, but no one seemed surprised but me. One friend told me, Read more »
Metal-Urge is a summer-long event in Tacoma, WA that galvanizes the community around a city-wide celebration metal arts. The community event features 23 venues exhibiting the work of over 100 artists whose metal work includes jewelry, sculpture, vessels, hardware, home décor, enamel, and artifacts. Presented June 6 – September 20. Metal Urge coincides with the Tacoma Art Museum’s exhibitions “Ornament as Art” and “Loud Bones”. Included are artist workshops, lectures, museum and gallery exhibitions, artist receptions, and a free community festival July 31st at the museum and Tollefson Plaza at 1701 Pacific Avenue . For more information and maps of locations, go to www.tacomaculture.org.
