Monday, January 25, 2010

New Work: Nebulae

I have been working on a series I call Nebulae. A strange word, I know... but it is the plural for nebula. Nebula are really special places in our universe- the place where stars are born. Nebula are dense, massive clouds of gas and dust. Some block light from other sources, some absorb light, some produce their own light. I think they are really interesting, and thanks to the Hubble telescope, we can feast our eyes on an array of images from space showing nebulae. Check out the Hubble site if you have a chance. You will get lost in wonder. Meanwhile, what do you think of my own depictions? Comments are welcome!
These pieces are on average 4 x 4 x 1", and made with silver, shibuichi, bronze, copper, nickel, red brass, and stalactite slices I found at the Tucson gem and mineral show.




This one (above) is my favorite!



Monday, January 11, 2010

Bad Blogger!

Well, I hope everybody had great holidays with family and friends! I have been consumed in work over the last month or so, and have completely left the blogging for later. I have been all over the place since the last post... from Arizona across Missouri and back to the Smokey's.

In Arizona, I participated in the Mesa Art Festival, held for the last few years right before the holidays. This year I was awarded a second place prize! It was a lot of fun to see friends there and meet new ones. My boyfriend, Ryan, was there for support... it was good to have time together!

Here we are, setting up...
And a sampling of some of the work I had created for the show:

rings with patterned metals
torch-fired enameled ornaments
lotsa earrings!
lots more necklaces!
...and now the feat of getting them up on etsy!

I've also been working on some other things:


an engagement ring commissioned by one of the staff here at Arrowmont, for another staff member- how exciting! Darren and Maxine were engaged to be married on December 15th. They met here, and they are two extremely hard working, funny and warm people. Congrats to the two of them!


For an exhibition entitled Charmed at The Society for Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh, a set of charms. They are made with patterned metal, shibuichi, and sterling silver. The images doesn't quite show the tubes that are holding each piece together... lots of cutting! The show will be posted online, and the charms will be available for sale. There are lots of participants from all over the country, and I am very excited to see what the others have come up with!



This piece is a tea infuser. It was made for the eXtreme tea exhibition that will take place in Houston during the SNAG conference. Check out the link! They choose my image as one of four for their card! It is about 5 1/2" long, and made from patterned metals, silver and nickel. The tube rivet allows the piece to swivel open and closed to add loose tea.

Judy Belcher and myself put together this piece utilizing her polymer clay skills put together with my metalworking. The piece was a collaboration for the Synergy II conference in Baltimore. This is an international show in which polymer artists were to collaborate with others and see what results might come. I had a great time collaborating with Judy, and I am anxious to collab with others now! We were featured on Polymer Clay Daily a while back- how cool!


Whats next? Tomorrow will be the first day of teaching community classes, I'll be teaching Rings and Things. Students will learn all the basics of metalworking. It will be a blast! Our resident artist exhibition is right around the corner as well- we start installation on March 1st! Yikes!!! The residents will also be going to Middle Tennessee State University in February to give an artist lecture... Stay tuned! I'll have so much more to share coming up. And I am hoping to stay more current with the blogging! until next time- vic