Getting Started Again

Here's a photo I took on January 15. You can see the leaves are mostly gone, but there are a few still left. I think it's pretty the way the late afternoon sun hits them and makes them look golden. Did I hold the camera straight? I'm not sure. The funny thing about Spanish Village is that nothing is really very straight or square. My studio is an odd shape, the outside wall extending at a slight angle. I can tell by the line of my display table and the area rug. For a temporary structure, it's held together really very well.

I've been so busy and so pre-occupied that I haven't had the time or inclination to write in my blogs. But I intend to begin doing so again. The stressful events that I was facing are mostly behind me. The first was preparing a piece for the Small Image Show. I was very happy with the three pieces I submitted. None of them were accepted. However, we also have a Salon Des Refuses that was started by a former member of Spanish Village a number of years ago. I was accepted into that show, one of my pieces was. It occurs to me that I should have taken a photo of it. Well, I will when I get it back.

The second stressful event was cleaning up my studio in preparation for a visit by a family friend. Well, really that was only stressful in that I wasn't sure I would get it done, and I didn't know if I'd have problems finding a place to put everything. But I did manage to complete the task to my satisfaction. There are still areas of the studio that need more organizing, but I have a good start for now. And the other part of the visit involved framing some of the new etchings I've created. I use to buy mats from a framing store, but they no longer carry them. So I had to get mats specially cut. They turned out very well. I'm very happy with the way the pieces look. There are six new pieces, and I have used the center of my display table to show them off.

The third event that created stress for me was the Spanish Village elections. I was re-elected as the Recording Secretary. I had a lot of paperwork to take care of in preparation for the meeting, and I still have more to do. We haven't had a Corresponding Secretary so I've been writing letters as well. Now, though, we have a new Corresponding Secretary and so there won't be as much work in the future, hopefully.

In the meantime, I have managed to get some artwork done. I've made almost no new jewelry except some incorporating brass and copper beads that my metalsmithing teacher showed me. I do have a new hole punch that helps me create holes for rivets, and I have a dapping block for making domes that I can use for beads. And now I have lots of ideas for new pieces and beads of all shapes and sizes.

I've also been fortunate enough to spend more time than usual doing some work in a class in the Enamel Guild. I've been creating woven baskets out of copper and then enameling them. I created two this past Saturday that I'm quite happy with. The disadvantage, as I see it, is that as I get better at making baskets they become more uniform and less interesting. I prefer some of the early ones that are more haphazard looking and have more character.

I've been on break from school. Next week we begin again. I was looking at some of the etchings I have prints of here in the studio. There is a series of three fish that I like. When I first created them, I didn't like them, but now I do. That's seems to be typical for me. Frequently I don't like something until later, whether its art or writing. But anyway, I'm thinking of spending the first few weeks printing the fish. I never printed additions of them in the past. So that's a way I can begin. Then I'll go from there.

Work Is Never Done

Here's a photo I took over the weekend when we had all that wind. This is my worktable outside. In the front you can see four of the open seed pods that come off the rain tree. If you look closely, you can see the dark seed in the middle of each one. The pod itself is three petals that are loosely attached. They come apart, especially when they're dry to expose the seed inside. Well, actually, I suppose if the pods fell on the ground in a suitable place for germination, they wouldn't necessarily have to open . The ground moisture would cause the pod to disintegrate. And actually, a number of seeds do fall into the bed under the trees and then begin to sprout as the new leaves grow out later in spring.

Today I was off, and I decided not to go back to the Village. I went to visit my parents and then to the bookstore to look for something different, not work related. However, while I was there I discovered a book called 500 Necklaces. So of course I had to spend some time looking at it. I don't think I've seen it before. But even so, it did give me some new ideas. I made some sketchs while I was in the store. I also had an idea for a toggle clasp. That wasn't related to anything I saw in the book. It was related to something I saw in a jewelry catalog my mother gave me.

When I got home, I spent some time going through some boxes in my home studio/office. I was happy to discover some lengths of silver and gold-filled chain that I had forgotten that I had. I also collected together all the wire I have here in preparation for taking it to the studio. Some of it is picture wire, but some is wire I can use for jewelry and other projects.

Tomorrow I have plans to go to a bead and gem convention here in town. I need more supplies, chain and gold-filled closed jump rings. I've thought of ordering them from the internet, but going to the show is much easier and faster. And the selection and prices are much better than I can get here in town. There always seems to be something else to do. But now I'm off to bed. Tomorrow is another work day.

Considering Different Options

Look at this succulent. It's not the flower; it's the whole plant. It's so amazing. It grows in front of Beverly's studio at Spanish Village. Jon is one of the partners in her studio now. I use to keep her studio open before my own was ready for occupancy. And I would hear people comment about this plant. There are several others that are similar. Some people thought they weren't real, and almost everyone took photographs of them. Even the man who propagated them was amazed when he saw how well they grow in that particular location.

I spent the day working on my assemblages again. But today I don't feel as though I made much progress, unless I can count all the possibilities that I eliminated. And actually, that is part of the process. In fact, it's more work trying various combinations and rejecting them than it is actually creating the assemblage once the parts are chosen.

Tomorrow is my day off. And I think I'm going to take it, not go into the Village at all. I need a break. I worked yesterday, and right now I'm feeling kind of brain dead. I need a break. One thing I did do late this afternoon was to sort all my pieces of junk into various boxes. I've got large circuit boards in one, large pieces of metal in another, small circuit boards in a third, etc. Anyway, at least I did accomplish that task. I was feeling rather tired and not very inspired though today.

And it was a cold day, more like a typical winter day. It was mostly cloudy, and I had to go inside and get a sweater to put on. Even then I wasn't as warm as I would have liked to be. I could have gotten another one from my car, but I was lazy and absorbed in my work.

Almost all the leaves are gone from the golden rain trees outside my studio and the one over in the children's clay class area. Some of the others still have leaves. Later the jacaranda will lose their leaves as well. However that hasn't happened yet. The one closest to my worktable is turning yellow, but some of the seed pods are still green on that tree, so it's not going to give up for awhile.

Lots Of Work

Here's a photo I took this afternoon outside my studio. You can see how the trees have lost a great many leaves, at least the two outside my studio. The ones back there in the background still retain theirs. They're the same kind of tree, but they are slower to change. See that little chimney? I guess that's what you'd call it. But it doesn't go to anything, except to provide a vent for the Gallery 21 kitchen which is right behind my studio. I like seeing it up there though. It adds character.

I spent the whole day working on my assemblage. And actually I started a new one as well. They take me a great deal of time to make. I have to try every piece in every possible position. Today I was very happy working though. I took the two large plastic storage boxes of parts and spread them out on my outside worktable. The whole table was covered, but it was so convenient. I could look at everything and then when I had an idea, I could walk around the table picking up pieces in the shape I wanted.

It was a beautiful warm day, probably about 75 degrees, a dry Santa Ana day. I worked outside until about 2:30 when my special friend called and wanted to get together. So I took all my pieces and put them back in their boxes and left the Village. I went back later, but not to do much work. Tomorrow which is an actual work day, I'll take all the pieces and spread them out on the table again. But this time, I'll arrange them better when I put them away.

I think tomorrow I'll probably work a little on the assemblages, but I need to get back to working on my copper cutouts or I'll never get them done in time for the Small Image Show. But I will have my assemblage, one at least. And I've got copper baskets and copper bracelets that are etched. I have the necklace made with brass washers and a pearl one made with brass nuts that's very pretty. So even if I don't get my copper landscape of cutouts done, I'll have pieces to enter. Anyway, I'll be glad when the deadline is passed, so that I won't be so preoccupied with submissions to the show.

After this week, I have lots of Spanish Village business to deal with. It's the end of our terms as officers on the Executive Board. Even if I'm reelected as the Recording Secretary, I want to wind up the books for this term so that I can move on with a fresh start.

Copper For Everyone

Here's the golden rain tree across the patio from my studio. You can see that it has lost most of its upper leaves. The only ones that remain are near the bottom. And the whole patio from my studio all the way across to this tree and beyond is strewn with leaves. Several of us tried to sweep some of them up today, but we gave up after awhile. It takes some younger, more energetic folks to do the job.

I spent the day working on my Small Image projects. I've been taking several of my pieces around and showing them to other artists, getting some feedback. I find that most people are responding to the various pieces more or less the way I do. They like the ones I like.

Tomorrow is my day off, but I plan to go and work at the Village just the same. I plan to spend this week working on my Small Image pieces. Then next week I may take a break and do some other things that need to get done. But the show has to be my first priority this week.

I'm excited because my enamel instructor stopped by to say that he will be working in the Enamel Guild both Friday and Saturday. Most likely we'll work both days on our pieces. There are several artists who will be working with us. Jon wants to do some enameling. He use to do quite a bit, but he hasn't for a number of years, if I remember correctly.

I also talked to my metalsmithing instructor about some deep etching that can then be used in a rolling mill to make the same impression more than once. I have already created one deeply etched zinc plate in my printmaking class. But I want to make a copper one. I told her about my relative who told me how they use copper to print a million copies of a catalog, like the Sears catalog. So she was very interested and asked me to create a copper plate as well. I have some pieces of copper that my enamel instructor gave me. They're thicker, perfect for deep etching.

Leaves Everywhere

Here's a photo I took today while I was sitting at my outside worktable. I used a larger format so you can see it better. See all those spots that look like I might have forgotten to wipe of the lens? Those are leaves flying through the air. As the wind blew today, all those leaves fell from the golden rain trees. And today they certainly did provide a golden rain.

If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you'll see the leaves even more clearly. I would have like to have snapped the photo just as a leaf was right on top of me, but the camera and I don't react that quickly. Now the whole area between my studio and Andy's is covered with leaves. I suppose I will sweep them up tomorrow or at least get a start on them. Andy won't be back in until Wednesday. There are two other glassblowers who sometimes sweep up our leaves. Maybe they'll help out.

I've never liked fall and/or winter when the trees lost their leaves. It always seemed so sad and depressing to me to see the bare trees. But now it occurs to me that when the trees are bare, they allow more light to fall to the ground. At a time of year when there's less daylight from shorter days, it's nice to have the extra light.

And certainly today was a beautiful warm day, even though it is winter. I sat at my table in my short sleeved tee-shirt. It was a lovely day, and the days are already getting a little longer. It doesn't seem like dead of winter anymore. Of course, here in California, some of our "worst" weather is ahead, our rainy, windy weather.

Anyway, I spent the whole day, when I wasn't busy watching the tree, working on my copper cutouts for the Small Image Show. The deadline is next Sunday, so I need to keep working if I'm going to get the whole thing done in time. I know that I'll have to spend some of the time working on Spanish Village paperwork.

We have elections coming up soon and there's lots to do. Last night we had a meeting to introduce the candidates and listen to some of their/our ideas about how to improve Spanish Village. I'm running for Recording Secretary, a job I've done for two terms already. It's a great deal of work, but I feel that I make an important contribution to the Village.

New Tools and New Plans For a New Year

This tree looks about the way I feel: kind of worse for wear. But I was back at work today, and I was feeling really pretty good. It was a fairly warm day for this time of year. There were a few days when it was really cold in my studio, just as cold as it was outside. Now I have lots of extra clothes piled up in my studio to put on if I get cold.

I spent the day preparing my calendar for the new year and generally getting organized. I'm always trying a different version of calendar/journal. The one I have this time makes me feel optimistic. I'm combining two months together, a day on a page, with 100 sheets of lined paper for writing and drawing. On the daily pages themselves, I can write down appointments and other things I want to remember. I can also use those pages for pictures that I save from magazines. Each page will be used in any way it works best for that day. It did occur to me that I could use it for my blog pages, and I might do that, but I'm not sure that's the best solution. I could also use those pages for drawing.

After I finished my calendar and did some organizing, I spent the rest of the day working on my copper cutout idea. Before I got sick, I had drawn a whole group of circles on a piece of copper. I had started to cut them out and make them into little medallions. But today when I looked at the copper with circles on it, I thought I could use a part of it to make a line of trees. I cut out a piece and then began shaping it into trees with open space between the tree trunks, the leaves all joined together in an undulating line above. I'll work on it tomorrow.

I've decided to create a copper "base" on which the trees and other objects will rest. The base will be a flat piece of copper with one of my poems etched onto it and also some suggestion of a landscape features like a canal, bridge, and so forth. Then the cutout trees will stand on the base and can be rearranged to suit the observer. I can see the idea going in a variety of different related directions. There could be all kinds of environments like seascapes, farmyards, interiors of buildings, buildings in a cityscape, groups of people. I think it sounds like lots of fun. I can also see a line of trees superimposed on a bracelet for example or a pin, or individual trees or whatever as "charms" on a necklace or bracelet.

I got a heavy-duty hole punch that I can use for making holes for rivots. I won't have to use a drill press or even a drill. I'm happy about that because I can make holes so quickly and easily. It will give me a way to make bracelets much more quickly and easily. So I'm definitely moving forward in the New Year.

Distinguishing Features

Here's another facade of one of the buildings in Balboa Park that I took on my walk last week. Seeing it here with the palm trees really does make it look as though it's someplace in Brazil or the Philippines or other tropical country. I like to take photos of some of the less obvious landmarks, sites. After all, everyone who goes to Paris takes a photo of the Eiffel Tower. I did too. But I like to take photos of other buildings, people, and conveyances in other countries, too. I like to ride along and think to myself, "how do I know that I'm in France, or Russia, or India, or California?" What are the distinguishing features.

I suppose you could say that's what art is about, seeing the distinguishing features and presenting them in a new way, helping people see that Paris is more than the Eiffel Tower, that Agra is more than the Taj Mahal, that a woman's eyes may not be the same size or on different sides of the nose, or that the arboretum is always east of the museum. That's my plan with my little copper pop-ups which today have been cutouts, like trees made of two flat pieces with slits in them that join at right angles to create a three dimensional object. I'd like to make a whole series of trees, plants, hills, buildings, all of which can be rearranged continually in an ever-changing landscape.

So tomorrow, I hope I'll feel up to going back to work. I have lots of paperwork to do, but I also have lots of artwork that I want to create. Landscapes of copper and brass, maybe everything fitting together on a copper "carpet" on which I've written one of my poems. I'm really excited about this project, providing I can get the look that I want. I can visualize how I want everything to look. It remains to be seen whether it will turn out the way I picture it.

I love drawing patterns on the copper. I need to do so much of it that I don't mind cutting up the pieces once they're etched, because the etched pieces add so much to anything I construct out of copper. It's so much more meaningful to add a piece that's already etched than one that's plain. So I need to get busy and etch more copper and not be afraid to cut up what I have already etched. I have a million ideas.

Yesterday I was listening to an interview that Terry Gross of NPR did with Leonard Cohen, the composer and musician. She asked him if he ever wished that his songs could come out more positive and not so sarcastic. Well, I'm not sure that's the word she used, but something like that. And he said that yes, he would like his songs to be different, but that when he sits down to write he just has to go with the energy that he has. That's something we all need to remember as artists. I can look at a pop-up book that I love the style of, but when I go to make my own pop-up book, it's going to be in my style, my "voice." And each of us needs to find our own voice in which to express ourselves. We can't copy each other because we each have a different voice.

Copper Pop Ups

Here's the beginning of a sketch, the type from which I create my etchings. There are hundreds of them here at home and in my studio. This particular one just happens to be drawn on a sheet of paper lying next to my compter. Hence its appearance here before you.

This particular drawing is abot six or seven inches tall. I've got drawings ranging from an inch to probably 12 inches in this particular style. It occurred to me today that I could take some of these drawings and cut out around them in copper, etch them, and stand them up, like parts of a paper pop up book or card.

I've been playing around with the idea of trying to find a way to illustrate my poetry. When I started looking at it again recently, I realize a great deal of it is very similiar in flavor to my drawings. I've taken some of it and written it on pieces of copper and brass that I've etched and made into jewelry. More recently, I've wanted to prepare some entries for the Small Image Show and a local book arts show that is coming up in February, or at least the deadline is. I've been toying around with creating a book of copper pages somehow.

And I've been toying arond with making three-dimensional structures that I could enamel. That has led me to look at paper craft of various sorts. I spent more time today looking at origami which I don't think is going to work. But I've always been intrigued with pop up books. Some of them are amazing feats of engineering. In fact, those folks who create them are called paper engineers. So I spent the entire afternoon studying primarily one book on pop up books and cards. It was then that I came up with the idea of making little cut out "forests" that are etched and stand up like paper cut outs. In the beginning, I'll start with just little cutouts. When I'm a little more familiar with the techniques, I'll try a copper book and incorporate some text into cutouts.

Before I left the bookstore this afternoon, I went to the children's section and looked at the pop up books. Some of them are amazing. Even though they are for children, they are quite fragile and highly detailed. They're really works of art. And of course, just because I'm interested in creating them out of copper, it doesn't mean I can't work with paper as well.

I like the idea of a pop up or accordian folded book because it can be stood up on display and everyone can see it. A regular book is hard to display because it's closed or open to only one spot at a time. That's one problem I've had with book arts all along, displaying the work.