Symposium 2012: Book Brooch

I've got a few minutes before I rush off to the next thing, so I thought I'd post a little about the Symposium. I had a really great time this year. Partially because I didn't have to do any of the work, but mainly because there were more hands on activities as well as more presenters over all. I think that we all learned at last year's symposium that the workshops we had were just too full. By adding more workshops, each workshop had a more reasonable number of people in it so you could see more and do more.

One of my favorites was Amy Tavern's workshop on just making something, anything (well, a piece of jewelry) out of the materials you have on hand. She provided us with leather, fabric, cardboard, staples, tape, string and a few other things and told us to get to work. We had an hour to make a piece of jewelry.

These are some photos of one of my pieces (courtesy of Amy). I knew as soon as I saw the slick, glossy paper that I wanted to use some of that! I'd had a book technique that I'd been wanting to try rolling around in my head, so I started with that and just kept folding. The overall shape I came up with is a little too similar to the shapes that Amy uses for me to feel comfortable with it, so I tried to make it more my own through the mark making.

I also really enjoyed some of the conversations that came out of this exercise and hearing Amy talk about her work habits. She talks about how easy it is to get distracted, which I can totally identify with. Amy said that she'll tell her self to just go work for an hour, go sit at the bench for an hour and then she can go do something else if things aren't working out. I found myself doing something similar, yet opposite. If I just work on this job application for an hour, I can go play in the studio.

The recurring theme that I kept seeing pop up at this symposium was making something everyday. Renee Zettle-Sterling spoke about it in her keynote lecture, and Amy discussed it in her workshop. I've heard more than one person, post-symposium, say that they were going to implement this practice into their own lives. I'd been thinking about trying to make a book a day, once I'm back at Linda's where I can spread out, but maybe I'll open it up to just make something, one thing every single day.

Good News!!!

Lavender Pearl Necklace by Amy Tavern

I just found out that the necklace exhibition I'm curating is in fact insured! Yay! There's still time to apply, the deadline is January 15th.

To get the prospectus you can go here or here!

Busy Busy Busy. . .

I thought I would get a chance to rest a little bit after Shop and Mingle, but the past few days, and the upcoming days seem as jam packed as the days before the sale. Unfortunately, not much of it makes for very interesting blogging. I did get a chance to rest on Sunday, and enjoy some time with friends, one who was visiting from out of town. Yesterday, I was invited to an enameling crit at Pitt Community College. Fellow ECU alum and dear friend Autumn Brown teaches there and had asked me to give an enameling demo back at the end of October. It was great to be able to see the completed projects!

Other than that it's been mostly small errands, house tidying, job hunting and gearing up for the next round of applications. I'm anxious to get back in the studio to make a few Christmas gifts and work on some designs for a possible commission that needs to be completed before I leave town. I did manage to make a kick ass sketchbook with the help of resident book maven Lisa Beth Robinson, but I'll blog more about that later.

One last thing I'd like to share with you tonight: Amy Tavern posted about the Hot Under the Collar exhibition. You can read it here. I feel so fortunate she agreed to be a juror! I know she and Bob will put together an incredible grouping of work.

Happy Tuesday!

Shout Outs!

I've been so self absorbed about my thesis for so long, that it didn't even occur to me that other people were paying attention to what I was doing. But, friends Amy Tavern (current resident artist at Penland) and Lisette Fee (current ECU undergrad) both did some lovely blog posts which I was in.

Amy Tavern featured several Metals MFAs graduating from schools around the country. It was great for me to see what my peers at other universities were up to, and really sweet of her to feature all of us on her blog. I gotta say, I'm really excited about the future of our field. You can read Amy's post here.

Lisette just put up an excellent post showcasing all the ECU grads that are currently up in Gray Gallery. Like I've said before, there's a BUNCH of us. You can read her post here, complete with pictures of all the artist's work.

Happy Weekend!!!

Guest Star

Well what do you know, I was featured as a "Guest Star" over on Amy Tavern's blog!

I was fortunate enough to finally meet Amy in person a few weeks ago, and listen to her give a great lecture about her work. I've been following her blog for quite a while now, and it's been incredible to see her work evolve. We didn't get a chance to chat much face to face during her visit to ECU, but hopefully we'll get to hang out again in the near future.

You can read her post about me here.

Excitement!!!

Wow, I have so much to blog about! The brooch I made last week, the earrings I made today, the Symposium!!!, my book arts class and fun surprises that arrived in the mail. But, first things first, here's the sweet brooch I purchased from Amy Tavern last week. She lowered the prices of everything in her etsy shop. This little guy was $5! I just couldn't resist! It's small and sweet and two of my favorite colors!

I'd like to blog more, but I left my camera at school! Curses!