indiana road

I was born & raised in Indiana, where I grew up in the rural countryside, surrounded by fields that alternated between corn and soybean crops.  Our family didn’t farm, but we were surrounded by those who did.  I loved seeing the fields tilled at the beginning of the season, with their systematic furrows outlining the contours of the land, and how rows of crops would visually shifting and align themselves as you were driving by.  The land was always subtly changing- from one direction it would appear to be a flat stretch of land, and then from another direction the furrows would shift into orderly lines and grids.  

I am continually surprised at how the land I was surrounded by while growing up affects the work I make and what I find intriguing.  I haven’t lived in Indiana for the past 4 years, and every time I return I see more nuances in the landscape that I have subconsciously folded into my jewelry and prints.

When I was at Penland, I was listening to a talk given by Hoss Haley, a sculptor in Asheville, NC.  At the beginning of the talk he showed a few images of Kansas, and mentioned something like, “I grew up in Kansas, so I’m a minimalist, of course.”  Looking at those images of a landscape similar to Indiana & thinking about the work that I create, I realized how my landscape had affected me in a similar way.

powerlines

Structure is an increasingly important facet in my work, and on my more recent visits to Indiana I am realizing why.  The expansive fields and skies serve as a canvas to delicate structures like powerlines, granaries, and silos.  They are profoundly beautiful in their immense size and shape, but they are also forms that are wrought from pure function.  There are no superfluous lines or embellishments- every rivet, crossbar, and swath of steel sheet serves a purpose. 

empty granary

The idea that structure itself is beauty, and the bare bones of a form are the beautiful parts, resonates with me on a fairly profound level.  I’m grateful that Indiana is so much a part of myself that everything I make is a reworking of my experience of her landscape.

open barn with tangled vines

thanks for reading.

well, clearly the blog hasn’t continued the way I was hoping.  or maybe it has- it has certainly reflected the amount of work I’ve been making.  the same lull that has been evidenced online has been happening in my creative life as well- holidays, moving, teaching, setting up a new studio- all these excuses and more have been “keeping me” from making work, although they are usually just words that have been drummed up to try to explain why I hadn’t made anything for months. 

partially confusion has stymied my creativity- confusion about what I’m making and why.  In an economy where people are cutting back on food and clothing, who is going to buy high-end jewelry?  who thinks of adornment when they are looking for a job?  and understandably- why would they?  I’m not searching for new things to spend my money on right now- I’m creating budgets and cutting “expenses,” although I wouldn’t say I have much to cut in the luxury category. do I cut bus fare?  new contacts?  or soap?

so thinking about these things, and the offshoots of these troubles (what galleries are going to take my work?  should I make work more affordable?  where should I be putting my time and energy?), just muddled the fact that it really doesn’t matter.  what I need to make just happens to be jewelry, and while that may feel like a trivial thing to put in this world, it’s still the thing that I need to make.  just like the painter that has to paint, or the writer that has to write, I make tiny things of silver.  this is what I do. 

my friend lulu hosts these monthly websales of her work, and we had talked about doing a tandem show for a while.  she emailed in february, asking if we wanted to do the show in march and suggested that we both have 30 pieces.  looking around at my dusty, dwindling inventory, my barely used new studio,and the fact that march was only a few weeks away, that felt like like a pretty tall order.  but nothing modivates me like a swiftly approaching deadline and a huge helping of obligation, and I finally sat down and started working again. 

and created a few new pieces that I loved.  I feel like my work is starting to bloom into a more organic patterning, and I think that I am beginning to work in a way that mimics how crystalline structures form- taking one basic shape, the hexagon, and building and building until you can’t see where it started.   Even if I don’t sell a damn thing on this sale, the kick to begin making things is enough to feel grateful about.  I’m excited about getting my work in front of a new, more expansive group of people, and hope that some of them will be interested in what I have to share. 

some technical bits: the websale itself begins march 3rd, at 10 am PST.  the sale is hosted on www.lulusmith.com, and if you click here this link will take you directly to the gallery.  The sale goes live at 10 (until then you will just see the work that was in the february websale) and be sure to be there right at 10 if you’d like first pick- the jewelry tends to start selling right at the stroke of the hour.  even if you’re not in a place to buy, please check out our jewelry!

here’s a picture of some of the new work I was talking about- I love these earrings.  unfortunately I lost one of them as I was running to catch a bus and it was run over by a car, but at least I got a good image first.  these will clearly not be for sale on tuesday, but I love them anyway.  (side note- all of my solder joints stayed soldered, even after the earring was flattened against the concrete!)

 

cluster earrings

thanks for reading.  more soon!

My friend Marilyn, of tinyshiny and meander, and I ventured to snowy Chicago for the Renegade Holiday the first weekend in December.  It was my second Renegade; I had done the SF Renegade in July of this year, and Chicago was Marilyn’s first.  The Renegade shows have been my first foray into craft shows, and have been an incredible learning experience.  The first sale in July was an awesome exercise in thinking about display and self-promotion, and seeing how so many other people market themselves within the fair environment sparked new ideas of how I could do it better. 

 

The fair was held in the Pulaski Park Fieldhouse, which is a gorgeous building built in the 1930’s… the main floor had a huge, sweeping ceiling and stage, with a balcony perched over one end.  The vendors filled three rooms of the Fieldhouse, and Renegade did a good job of marking exactly how to find all of us.  This was the largest Holiday Sale they’d  held, with the addition of two rooms of vendors, and most of the weekend all the rooms were full of the throngs of hearty, craft-loving Chicagoians who braved the new snow, early frigid temperatures, and scant parking to support the DIY community.  Much of the sales were small ones, but both Marilyn & I did well enough to feel like the show was a success.  I was curious and slightly apprehensive going into the sale- I was worried that the economic downturn would have slowed the interest and support of crafters, but many of us felt that people were understanding the importance of supporting local and small businesses and were doing what they could.  Many people were trying to knock out their entire Christmas list at the sale, and most people who had attended the sale in the past commented that is was the busiest they’d ever seen. 

 

people milling around the lucymachine/tiny shiny table

 

 

I’m still trying to find the right place to sell my jewelry, and much of my work was slightly too expensive or high-end for the Renegade crowd to readily buy, although there was a lot of interest surrounding my work.  I’d love to try and find a way to fit into the price points needed to make going to shows like Renegade financially successful- I love the community that attends, both as vendors and customers, and Renegade makes showing with them affordable and easy.  The booth fee is completely reasonable, especially if you share a booth, and they rent table and chairs.  Booths aren’t required, which is a huge expense at the larger ACC-type shows, along with the impossibly high booth fees at these events.  I imagine much of the cost is justifiable, but as an emerging artist I don’t have the capital to finance one of the larger shows, however beneficial it may be.  Renegade is a great alternative, with a low-budget and straightforward approach, and an inspiringly high quality of imaginative, high-quality craft. 

Here are some examples:

susan dwyer of “up in the air somewhere,” who creates gorgeous hand-built porcelain dishes, pitchers, and other misc housewares that I want to surround myself with.  Her bulging plaster sculptures are also tremendously beautiful, subtly combining texture, color, and varying surface treatments.

pacific puzzleworks, whose laser cut wooden puzzles continue to confound me, but also look beautiful in pieces on my table as I slowly piece them back together.

swear jar designs, who pierces intricate patterns from german silver, and inlays with resin colored with enamel.

and aaron and megan pahmier, of kindling.  they both create fascinatingly beautiful work outside of their kindling project- megan’s recent work is minimal, faceted wooden shapes pieced together in clusters of blocks, with surprising variations in texture and color.  aaron creates gorgeous furniture through green sawn furniture, with a clean and modern design, meticulously pieced from recycled materials.

I have a production line of cast, faceted pieces that I sell through etsy under the name lucymachine, and my “facet ring” has been nominated for “best sparkly jewelry.” voting continues through friday, so if you have a second, link here to vote for me! I’m not sure what I’ll “win,” but at the very least thousands of people have looked at that ring so far, and maybe a few will buy one.

thanks & cheers!

On November 22nd, I had a trunk show at Kobo, a store here in Seattle that focuses on carrying work by local and Japanese artistans.   Kobo has two locations, one in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, and one in the International District.  The International District location is a huge space that once was a dry goods store called Higo.  The original sign still hangs outside, and much of Higo’s original charm- exposed brick, creaking hardwood floors- still remains.

The trunk show was held at the International District location, and I was joined by local jeweler Jessi Taylor and Sarah Fischer.  Jessi’s jewelry is almost all hand-fabricated, and she skillfully sets stones and found objects into bezel-set rings, pendants, and earrings.  Her work encompasses a broad range of materials, but forms a cohesive body with her sensitive and steady treatment of their sterling silver settings.  Check out her website for her extensive array of jewels… www.jessitaylor.com.

Sarah is a fiber artist, and had some small sculpture, scarves, and wallpieces for sale.  I was intrigued with her treatment of felt, and the layering treatments she applies to form a piece.  Her combined interest in millinery (hat making), lace, and a background in printmaking come together to form intriguing felted pieces.  Some cut away to show a snippet of lace, and others are treated with rust or the green oxides formed on pennies to hint at what other materials were once part of the piece’s creation.  Both artists are highly talented and thoughtful, and it was such a pleasure to be a part this event with them.

The trunk show (my first) ended up being a great learning experience. It’s always good for me to see what people react to firsthand, and what questions people might have that I would never had anticipated. It was good practice in displaying my work, which is such a huge factor on what gets looked at and what gets completely overlooked. Lots of friends showed up and it was a nice, social break from my self-imposed bench isolation. Here’s some images from the evening:

kobo trunk show

sarah f & sarah L- sarah fischer's rusted paper prints in the foreground

thanks for reading.

Oh my.  It’s been a while, and my apologies to anyone who has checked to find that no recent posts have been made.   The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity, and I remembered thinking, “wow, maybe starting a blog right before all this might not have been the best move on my part.”  That said, now I’m back in Seattle and settling into my life of making again.

I’ll be adding posts every few days to recap the busy last few weeks.  A brief overview, though, was making over a hundred new pieces of jewelry in about two weeks.  These were for the Pratt Holiday sale, the “Fine Line” exhibition here in Seattle, the “Earring Show” at Hyart gallery in Madison, a trunk show at Kobo (a wonderful store/gallery here in Seattle), and the Renegade Holiday Sale in Chicago.

just a quick update- I’ve been working madly for the past few days, and have started on a new tangent of work with these long, crystal-y facets.  My friend Marilyn and I do an informal monthly critique- emailing images of new work- and months ago she asked, “why don’t you make some of them longer?” Well, finally I did, and I love the new elements.  This brooch was supposed to go to a show, but I decided to keep it for my own self.  More to come!

structure brooch

This has nothing (and everything) to do with what I’m doing and making.  If the name “Giant Crystal Cave” means nothing to you, go here now.  Are you sitting down?  Good.  Now go!

Well, today was a Monday- but only kind of a Monday. My Monday-Friday schedule is getting blurred, with every day being a potential work day (or a potential weekend day.)  This has been one of the hardest parts of trying to figure out how to work for myself- I adore structured days and to-do lists, and now I’m the one that has to define how to spend my time. Saturday was more like a Thursday with a late breakfast, and Sunday was a Sunday, but after brunch a workday afternoon snuck in there, too.

However, I did get a bunch of work out the door to Taboo Studio in San Diego, and now I’m turning my attention to work for my trunk show and the Renegade Holiday Sale in Chicago… my castings came and I’m determined to figure out if getting work cast makes sense financially. Today I starting timing every task I did to see how much time I actually put into my pieces. I’ve been told to do this for a while, but I just didn’t want to start timing every action at the bench. When people would suggest that I should do it, I’d think, “ugh. What am I, an assembly line?” Turns out that right now, the answer is actually “yes, I am.”  Or that I need to be.

Surprisingly, timing myself made me more productive and focused.  I felt like I had to finish a project through before I got up to check my email, change the music, make a snack, get a drink, look outside, fold my laundry, pick up the house, do the dishes, etc.  I’m terribly distracted when working, especially since I’m working out of my apartment. There are so many things to do besides the one thing I should be doing, and it can be a struggle for me to focus on what actually needs to get done at the moment. Timing myself actually turned out to be helpful because I felt more conscious of being “on the clock,” and I was more productive that I anticipated. It also made me aware of what I really, truly got accomplished- I often feel if I don’t have pieces finished at the end of the day I didn’t do much, but today I could see exactly how I spent my time.  

my bench, with little crystal castings being cleaned up

 

Also, here’s an image of a necklace I sent to Taboo.  I’m tres excited about it!

 

Thanks for reading.

For the past month and a half I’ve been working two days a week assisting a local jeweler. This job used to be four days a week, but because of our current economic situation, my hours have been curtailed to half of what they were when I started almost two years ago. This shift in hours has actually been pretty ideal, and has given me time to make my own work while still covering the rent.

This will end right before Thanksgiving, and December will be the first month on my own.

November, thankfully, is chock-full of shows. I’m finishing up a body of work for Taboo Studio for their holiday show, which will run through the first of the year. I’m in an earring show at the Hyart Gallery in Madison, WI, which is run by Hiroko Yamada, one of my past instructors at Penland School of Crafts. My newest store in Seattle, KOBO, is hosting a trunk show for me and local jeweler Jessi Taylor on November 22nd. There’s also the Pratt Holiday Sale, and I’m getting ready for the Renegade Holiday Sale in Chicago, IL, which takes place the first weekend in December. I’ve started a production line which you can find at lucymachine to try to balance out my one-of-a-kind & limited production work, and this will be my focus for the Renegade show. I’m not sure if it’s worth it yet; it’s been a sizable (for me) investment for casting. Most of my limited production work is made out of 20g wire and ebony, both of which are readily available either in Seattle or a refiner. Being dependent on another company to help make my work makes me nervous, and I haven’t found a casting company yet which is dependable, affordable, and timely.

I’m also supplementing my income through teaching at Pratt Fine Art Center, which is a great art center here in the Central District of Seattle. This has been my first foray into teaching- in the past year I’ve taught two workshops on steel fabrication for jewelers, and one eight-week beginning class. Teaching has been challenging and rewarding, and has been a good way for me to stay immersed in art while making an hourly wage.

So, that’s what happening for November. I have a ton of work to make in the next few weeks; castings come on Monday and I have 100′ of sterling silver wire waiting to be turned into jewelry.

Thanks for reading.