Surface

Inspired by Martha, I recently stepped outside my normal short list when perusing magazines recently.  Fortunate timing!  I’d glanced at Surface before, but never really picked it up and looked.  Well, it was the right time.  I’ve no idea if they have an ongoing commitment to covering jewelry, but this issue had several fantastically inspiring stories.

A nicely broad pictorial piece on American-made/designed avant garde jewelry.  Images by Akihiko Tagayasu. Jewelry by Phillip Lim, Jiro Kamata, And Erica Rosenfeld and more.

A four page spread of jewelry by Sergey Jivetin, hair by Ryoji Imaizumi (Shu Uemura), make-up by Nadine Luke (M.A.C), images by Walling & McGarity.

The non-jewelry related content was inspirational too.  You could dress me up in this any day, and I’d be more than willing to take a stab at being a “Cosmic Nomad”.  With the addition of some jewelry, of course.  Hooded jumpsuit/skirt by TSE, wool boots by Lacoste.  Image by Mark Gong.

Speaking of fashion magazines and jewelry, does anyone know if Elle Accessories still exists?  There was many a time when boots and shoes really dominated an issue, but when it actually covered jewelry, I loved it.  I know last year they went from two special issues a year to just one, but I haven’t seen any concrete evidence of a Fall 2009 issue yet.  It would be such a shame if Elle Accessories were killed by the current economic crisis in magazine publishing, just when fashion designers have started paying attention to jewelry again.

Inching along

It turns out, if you paste together enough sheets of newsprint, you can actually build up some thickness and structure.

How many layers is this?  Don’t know, I forgot to count. A whopping 2mm worth, though….:)

The prospect of added durability and strength has spawned more complex ideas, leading me away from the chain links themselves, making a sideways shift to things which hang from chains.

But this just a little side-trip, an embellishment, a little shiny thing which has caught my eye, so-to-speak.  We’ll get back to the chain links soon enough….

P.S. Yes, those two middle images are more from this.

Jewelry in everyday things

Is it me, or was there a pearl earring in that lamp post?

Text and images

Working with newsprint gives one a whole new perspective on words and images.  Both become patterns, fields of color, purely visual.  They are seen for their potential, to be built up, layer upon layer.  Links and connections, secrets obscured and revealed.  A locket and chain in the making.

Many thanks to all who stop by….

For more on this project, see the challenge here, individual photos in this weeks photoset
or all the One-a-Week posts here.

Inspiration Strikes Again

A new season of Project Runway has finally started again, and Etsy Metal is hosting one-a-week jewelry challenges this time.  I can’t commit to the whole series right now, or to finishing in only one week, but I couldn’t resist episode 5: Fashion Headliners. The unconventional materials challenges are always my favorites, and this time the medium was newsprint.  Click on the pics for more notes at Flickr, or see the whole set here.  Stay tuned…..

Sometimes progress is silent

Wow, away so long!

But things flickering and growing. Slowly, beneath the surface.  Ripening.

More soon.

Simulacra: Fragment Necklace

Outside my Window

Day 2: Le Grand Chapiteau, originally uploaded by kaitschott.

If there’s anyone who doesn’t already know, (I feel like I talk about nothing else lately!) Cirque de Soleil is setting up right outside my window. Like a little kid, I am super excited! We’ve been taking some time lapse films of the tents going up, which you can see at Flickr. Yay!

1,2,3…GO!

Ritual.  Habit.  Hard Work.  Twyla Tharp’s outlook on creativity is pretty simple in it’s essence.  It’s a perspective that appeals to me greatly.  Motivation?  Ideas?  Not a problem.   Buckling down and being productive?  Well…maybe, once I figure out which exciting thing to do among the zillions swirling around my head and then once I figure out why I didn’t already do it, and then maybe after I wash the dishes, ’cause I need to do that to clear my head too.  Oh, yeah, and I need a coffee, since I worked really hard at the day job, and I had to get up early so I’m tired, and I deserve it, and hmmm, I probably need to have some lunch too ’cause I’m feeling  a little light-headed and….

“Turning something into a ritual eliminates the question, Why am I doing this?…The ritual erases the question of whether or not I like it.  It’s also a friendly reminder that I’m doing the right thing. (I’ve done it before.  It was good.  I’ll do it again.)…In the end, there is no one ideal condition for creativity.  What works for one person is useless for another.  The only criterion is this: Make it easy on yourself.”

“Make it easy on yourself.”!!!  If there’s anything I need to be reminded of, it’s that.  I’m not sure if it’s so much that I’m a procrastinator, or more that I’m an over-thinker.  Maybe over-thinker is just a specific sub-species of procrastinator.  Either way, I am highly skilled at doing everything but the work and yet convincing myself that it is absolutely vital that I do x,y, and z, in order to get that creative work done.  Got to clear out email. Got to read blogs.  Got to upload to Flickr.  Got to update Facebook.  Good lord!  That stuff may be worth while, and vital to other important things, like maintaining friendships and gathering inspiration, but it’s not vital that I do it before I can make something.  I need some short cuts.  I need to stop thinking about why I don’t get things done, pare my actions down to the briefest list necessary, and get going.  I need a trigger.  1..2..3…GO!!!

P.S.  I will say one thing about blogging as a prod to making stuff.  If you’re someone who thinks that posts work better with pictures, and you’ve got nothing to take pictures of…well, you’ve got to make something, don’t you?

Flickr Favorites

I may not have been getting into that white room too much lately, but I’ve been chucking inspiring things in through the window, as it were.  These are actually from a while ago, but when I started looking to update them, I decided they were just too good not to share.  For some more great stuff I’ve found since, check out my favorites here, for instance this and this and this….

1. close up, 2. OAW #1 – Liked the back much better, 3. Masdevallia constricta, 4. Cavansita, 5. Flowers in the shadehouse, 6. Remote Possibility, 7. Diamond Teardrops, 8. Sealing howtodoit 5., 9. pirites, 10. Campo Ligure in winter, 11. middenvingerconstructie, 12. OAW Final piece – Rachelle, 13. From the side, 14. Untitled, 15. Frames 2, 16. IMG_0653, 17. Frank Gould and wife at Helen’s wed. (LOC), 18. Untitled, 19. Bright Glass Collection – Spring / Summer 2008, 20. Lichens for a new piece, 21. via rail, 22. Sun Printing, 23. Bright Glass Collection – Spring / Summer 2008, 24. “Geek Bling”, 25. Untitled, 26. Top Of The Hat Rack, 27. armreifen – bangles, 28. ., 29. The Parlament from the “Halász Bástya”, 30. dust, 31. damascus with agate, 32. “…de sangre”, 33. Ghostly Gown, 34. Untitled, 35. brrr, 36. * i got tiny tools, too