Crafting an Artful Life: Imaginative Musings on Creativity By Victoria Lansford

Shiva and the Blue Christmas

Behind the Scenes· Calligraphy· drawing· Inspiration· Miniatures· Processes

19 Sep

When it comes to birthdays and holidays, it’s a toss up whether my husband is happier to give me complete surprises or whether he likes having me pick out exactly what I want. He jokes that he’s lucky because, being married to a tool junkie, he gets out of the no-plugs-on-presents-for-your-wife rule. – For our fifth wedding anniversary, I was…
Read More

Beauty, A Force for Good

Art Jewelry· Behind the Scenes· Books· earrings· Inspiration· New Work· Rings· Russian Filigree

5 Sep

I’ve been reading Alain de Botton and John Artmstrong’s book Art As Therapy, literally outlining how we could experience art to help us navigate life’s challenges and how we deal with them. Talk about revolutionary…The book’s basic idea is that, instead of museums offering sterile galleries organized as “French Impressionists” or “Italian Landscapes before 1600,” they could offer us entire…
Read More

“One Nation Under a Groove”

Behind the Scenes· Inspiration

22 Aug

To All My Readers, far and wide, those who have been with me since I began blogging in 2003 and those many of you who have joined my list along the way, I hope you will enjoy this post in the spirit it is intended. It is rather unapologetically…me. Real, perhaps even raw, and as good-naturedly humorous as you know…
Read More

Living on The Skuppet Show

Behind the Scenes· Inspiration· New Work· Processes

8 Aug

My son Skyler has spent most of his life turning nearly everything into a puppet. By age 4 he corrected me regularly that his stuffed animals were actually puppets. I take responsibility since I was the first one to make them talk. Skyler learned nearly everything by example then always did his own thing with the acquired information. He also…
Read More

Duende: the Mystery, the Risk, and the Fire

Behind the Scenes· Eastern Repousse· Inspiration· Teaching· Travel

28 Jul

Back in the 90’s when I fell in love with the books and art of Nick Bantock, who wrote the introduction for my recent book Giving Voice, I learned of the power of duende. Described by Spanish poet Federico García Lorca,* “the spirit of the Earth […] the duende surges up, inside, from the soles of the feet. […] a…
Read More

Dolores Lewis

I wish to compliment you on the wonderful DVD you and your production crew produced to introduce your method, knowledge, and vision for Russian Filigree. The DVD demonstrates, so honestly, your dedication, skill and techniques that you have given to master this artful jewelry. You hold back nothing and give so much. This is the best teaching DVD that I have purchased in a long time. Thank you once more for the opportunity to learn from you.
Cordially,
Dolores Lewis
Dean Emeritus Moore College of Art

Praise for Giving Voice: “Remarkable Work”

I love Giving Voice. This remarkable, inspiring and unique book is a magical journey unlike any other and is beautifully done. Rich colors and patterns metamorphise into stunnning images created by reknown artist Victoria Lansford. Her words dance and flow across the pages filled with insightful thoughts and expressions. The music is contemplative, sophistocated and lovely. I would highly recommend this book as a gift to others or for one’s self.

RogueJoan via Apple Books

Praise for Giving Voice: “Amazing”

Giving Voice is what ‘multimedia’ is supposed to be! Visual art, music, and spoken word brought together in a complementary manner. Whether you're checking out a few pages to get a quick pick-me-up of pen, ink, and piano, or parking yourself in one spot to lose yourself in the gestalt, or doing something in between, you’ll find something new inside to keep coming back to.

Anonymous via Apple Books

Alexandria Reyes

No painting, song, or sculpture had ever moved me like your art did. It's beyond beautiful, I cannot describe my feelings. Each piece is so organic, they look alive. Each one left me with different feelings, mostly: wonder, amazement, happiness, and curiosity. Some even a soft anger or loss. But each one left me emotionally rolled. You're work is....life changing. I've finally heard the thundering beacon of what I want for my future. And that is to someday be as an amazing of an artist as you.

I thank you so much for what you do.

Alexandria Reyes
Phoenix, AZ

Patti D’Arbanville

I just spent the most wonderful week-end with one of the best teachers that I have ever had the pleasure of learning from. Victoria is a true artist and shares her gift teaching with patience, passion, good humor, and enthusiasm...she has an infectious laugh, and you can't help laughing with her while she encourages you to achieve levels of skill that you didn't know you had. 11 other jewelry students and myself came into her workshop on Saturday having never picked up a hammer to do repousse ever before and all learned more from her in this one weekend than we thought possible. She spent time with each of us, pointing out better ways to solve whatever problems that we were having pushing the metal around to make it do our bidding. Victoria, I can't wait until you come back to us!

Patti D'Arbanville
Artist, Actress

Al Boyers

Victoria teaches techniques used for millennia to create many of the great works of art one can see in museums. Though these techniques had fallen into disuse due to their labor intensive nature, Victoria has found many tricks that streamline and improve the processes, and she uses them to make strikingly contemporary pieces rooted in the ancient world.

One will never go into a hardware store with the same mind set again. Students are given a series of challenges and opportunities to grow their own inner voices and are encouraged to create works unique to them, at their levels of ability.

The number of places one can learn these skills in the US can be counted conveniently on one's thumbs. In Japan, Victoria would be considered a national treasure, and she would be funded to pass these skills on to the next generation.

Al Boyers, Metalsmith

Chris Hullinger

It is a very old technology of course, but by the way in which you have brought it to light, it takes a refreshing approach in a learning and applicable direction. This is good for the learning curve of the students in the jewelry arts, to show that we should respect the artisans and their contributions from much earlier times, and not to get caught up in just the "new" methods of application and materials.

Chris Hullinger, Metalsmith

Crafting an Artful Life – Victoria’s Blog