If you’ve ever taken a beginning figure drawing course, odds are the instructor had you do a blind contour drawing in which you look at the person you wish to draw (or in a mirror) and not at all at your paper. You’re also not allowed to lift the pen or pencil off the page….
“Too much of a good thing is wonderful” – Mae West Coco Chanel got it wrong when she suggested women should go for the ‘less is more’ approach. Watch a scene of a woman getting ready for an evening in any costume drama or classic movie, and one of the defining things she’ll put on…
Thanks to everyone who sent well wishes for my Retreat Week in June! I’m happy to report that I managed mostly to stick to creative work and not to doomscroll news. Each one of these Retreat Weeks I learn more about what I need to support myself in the studio. You might think after 36…
As I’ve worked on more art objects than jewelry this year, I’ve been paying closer attention to the varied ways I accomplish creative projects. 2024 was an entire year of hyperfocus as I worked on both the exhibition Radiant Echoes and its monograph. I fully admit it, sitting at my desk, clicking my Mac mouse…
Filigree, if done well, is so gorgeously ephemeral looking, yet is deceptively strong. Perhaps that’s why so much of it from the past has survived. My drive to preserve the process is inextricably linked to my desire to push its boundaries without compromising its beauty. Students often ask questions about making the tiny, twisted filler…
I still remember forking over half my paycheck at Borders Books in 1996 to purchase Elyse Karlin’s book Jewelry and Metalwork in the Arts & Crafts Tradition with my staff discount. I’ve blanked out much of my final, sh*t, part-time job – Borders was quite corporate by then – but no regrets! I still pull…
The first time I taught at Metalwerx in Waltham, Massachusetts, Cynthia Eid volunteered to be my teaching assistant, so she could test my techniques with Argentium® silver. As I said to the students in that workshop, having Cynthia TA was like having the Beatles as my backup band. Cynthia had long before discovered the educational value…
