New beads from lint

lint beads

Most people clean out the dryer’s lint trap without giving it another thought, but lately I kept cleaning out the trap and finding myself fascinated with the color and texture of the lint. Why is it that no matter what color clothes you dry (with the exception of white clothes) you get grey lint? Why is the lint so soft? Could I use this lint somehow in jewelry making? These were the questions that kept coming to me as I would clean out the lint trap. This went on for about a month until one day I decided to do a little experiment and see if I could make a bead out of the lint.

I gathered together my bead making materials and set about hand forming the bead. Slowly the bead formed and I set it aside to dry then drilled holes once the beads were dried. I think the result looks like a cross between charcoal wool and industrial felt. Of the eight beads I hand formed, only two came out perfectly, which is all I need. I have plans to make earrings from these beads, hopefully with raw diamonds and sterling silver. It should be interesting.

Right now my art practice is limited to bead making until I’m able to gather more resources, but in the meantime I’m experimenting with the bead form as widely as I can. My approach to experimentation in the studio and my way of viewing my art studio as a creative laboratory was largely shaped by the artist Jaq Chartier in the book about her work called Testing: Jaq Chartier by Marquand Books, a Seattle-based publisher. I feel that my experiments have largely been successful, and even those that have not been successful, have served in helping me to refine my production standards.

Ever since I started reading about Takeshi Murakami’s exacting standards, I’ve found that the quality of my work has improved. I am striving for perfection while knowing that not only is perfection impossible but according to the standards of wabi-sabi philosophy (which shapes my own aesthetics), it’s not even desirable. But I love the tension of desiring and rejecting perfection. I feel that somewhere in the interstices of that desire and rejection is the potential for really good work.

rEvolution: 105 Years of Jewelry and Metalsmithing

(rEvolution): 105 Years of Jewelry & Metalsmithing at the University of the Arts
First Floor Galleries

An exhibition of work by the many artists who have helped guide the Jewelry/Metals Program at the University of the Arts and its predecessor institutions, the Philadelphia College of Art and the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Arts.

Curated by Sharon Church and Rod McCormick, the exhibition is part of the The Art & Design @ 50 celebration at the University of the Arts. For more information visit Philadelphia Art Alliance.

Metal Urge – Tacoma, WA

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.

Johnny Swing’s Nickel Couch

Johnny Swing's Nickel Couch, 2008

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?