Finding Creative Flow after Vacation

One of the most difficult things about traveling is returning to the studio. How do I get back into the flow of creating?

Spring Flock
greenware detail
©2012 Vickie Hallmark
sterling clay

First, inspiration from travels usually gives me ideas. Inevitably I search out galleries and museums in the places I visit, where I collect photos and names of artists to research when I return home. If I have time, I actually write in a travel journal about what I see and why I think certain work speaks to me. I note which works I like, but also which don't do a thing for me, and then I try to analyze why. I deconstruct the work, looking at technical details for little tidbits that might be useful to my own efforts. How are the mechanical connections done? Is the color palette in this piece more successful than in that one? Where is the balance between simplicity and complexity?

Beyond taking in the offerings, I extrapolate my own ideas into the work I'm viewing. If I were making this piece, would I change anything? Is something off balance? Is the scale right? How could I put my own stamp on it, if I were to give myself the challenge to make a derivative piece based on it? So effectively, even though I'm not in the studio, I'm still working. I'm making the same types of decisions, but with more freedom because they're not actually reduced to practice.

Then when I return home, I do go back and look at the notes and Google all the artists who intrigued me. That's why I blog about galleries and museums when I travel - it's my record of those inspirations, with links that I can find later to reconnect me with the inspiration.

fired sterling clay bits and pieces
©2012 Vickie Hallmark

Finally, I have to go sit down at the work bench and reconnect with my own tools and materials. Sometimes it can be hard to reach out and begin something new, so two options often seem easier: 1) finish something already in progress or 2) rework an old idea. This round I have deadlines looming, so both options are in play. I actually left work buried in carbon in the kiln because I had no time to dig it out before I left. And I needed to make a variation on my largest work for an upcoming commitment. As I sit there working, all those new inspirations float through my head, as I wrestle with how to push my own work ever onward.

Inspiration from Australia 1

A month away from the blog is the longest I've ever gone quiet. Among that time was a twelve day trip to Australia, tagging along with my husband who attended a conference in Perth and then continued to further business in Melbourne. The last time I visited Australia with him, I had a twelve year old home schooled boy in tow, so all my tourist activities were geared toward entertaining and educating him. This round, I focused on my own interests, visiting gardens, museums and galleries.

The work that most amused me during my outings was the glass art of Richard Clements, whose delightful bird sculptures fascinated me when I visited Kirra Galleries in Melbourne.  His "animals of unknown origins" were at once whimsical and masterful, mounted on the wall at eye level.

"Animal of Unknown Origins"
Richard Clements
via Kirra Galleries

Kirra also displayed work by another glass artist that I've long admired, Kristen McFarlane, who specializes in layering images and text on glass. Indeed, if the prices on everything in Australia hadn't seemed to be twice what they are in the United States, I might have brought home a small piece of hers that particularly caught my eye, set as a diptych blue daguerreotype.

Kristin McFarlane
via Kirra Galleries

Amongst the flame work included in the special exhibition I viewed that weekend were plenty of jewelry pieces, including typical beads. The most intriguing jewelry work was that of Terri Kraehe, whose necklace based on eucalyptus pods was simply stunning (and already sold). 

eucalyptus pod neckpiece
Terri Kraehe and Marianne Kerby

I find that although most of my recent work has been silver, I am still enormously drawn to glass. As I try to analyze directions for future work, I came away from this trip convinced that I need to somehow combine my glass and metal interests to produce work that is truly representative of my highest ideals. Now I just need to find time to explore the possibilities!

Stone Inspiration

I came home from the PMC Conference filled with inspiration. Going in I was hopeful that the stone vendors would be there, and they were! It was a mob scene at both Horizon Minerals Custom Lapidary and Gem Resources, and I did my best to contribute to both. Having acquired some modest stone-setting skills in my recent classes, I want to use those skills and not lose them. Buying stones that need custom bezels seemed like the perfect motivation. 

I've been sketching ideas for new work based on the stones. The sooner I use them, the sooner I get to buy more!

Vickie, top center, perusing trays of
stones at Horizon Mineral

Amongst the treasures I brought home: hemimorphite druzy,  blue chalcedony, lapis, sugilite, black and golden druzy, amazing natural surface tourmaline, moonstone, peridot, iolite, and blue spinel. 

Cabochons from Horizon Minerals

Cabochons from Gem Resources

The Roots of Inspiration

Today I am remaking my Silver Lining brooch to remove the flaws that bother me so. While part of me says "just move on," I need to rework the piece to be able to do so. I don't often make near duplicates of my jewelry, but the first brooch is destined to be turned in to a refiner to recover the silver. As I was carving the sun rays on the front and adding the curls around the edges, I finally recognized the root of inspiration that was haunting me.

Perhaps six years ago, on a trip to Europe with my son and a group of other middle schoolers, I snapped this photo of a rose-carved pumpkin sitting invitingly on a table outside a restaurant in a narrow street near the Trevi fountain in Rome. I used the image even then, with a black crow perched on top, for a watercolor that I always loved. 

rose-carved pumpkin

Yesterday, I stumbled upon the photograph in a pile of papers when I was digging for class notes to help me with a construction issue. Perhaps I should clean my studio so that I can dredge up the watercolor, which must be similarly hiding. 

Harvest Crow
©2006 Vickie Hallmark
watercolor

It just goes to show that filling the well with visual inspiration is critical. Things that resonate will return again and again.

Inspirational Quotes in Artwork

For years I've collected inspirational quotes and idioms. Two years ago, I turned my bird quote collection into a journal with watercolor and collage to keep my hands busy while traveling. On occasion, I've incorporated a line or two into jewelry. I like the surprise of flipping the piece over, or opening it up, and finding meaning and another level of connection.

Today, I'm working on artwork to convert to rubber stamps so that I can extend this idea in my upcoming work. I took the easy way out and used commercial fonts in Photoshop, but now I'm wanting to explore producing my own font to keep the artist's hand as active as possible. Or maybe I'll just draw everything out by hand and scan/shrink it to a smaller scale. Much to think about.

Inspiration for Artists

Over a long weekend, I tagged along with my husband on a business trip, venturing to cool and green Boston. There I visited numerous museums and galleries, filling the well with amazing treasures that will surely influence my output in the future. It made me reflect on inspiration for artists. While the kernel of our work may be based on historical influences, conceptual theory, or natural sources, there is something amazing about seeing the best of the best from other artists. Whether it is something that is near to our own work or far afield, the artist's core recognizes the spirit in a special piece.



Seeing world class art makes me want to step up my game, to stop making the mundane things that have filled my days to this point. I feel emboldened to take the leap to the grand ideas in my head, to give up the notions of small pieces that don't cost a fortune in materials or result in gut-wrenching price tags. I want to produce work of my very own that will give me that same breathtaking thrill that accompanies my discovery of new work by artists I admire and pieces known from photos finally beheld in person. There evidently is a buyer out there for Mariko Kusumoko who spends unknown hours constructing the metal sculpture equivalent of a doll house, with a myriad of amazing movable and wearable jewelry parts, all meticulously crafted by hand, and carrying a price tag of $20,000.

Perhaps it's time to believe that if I make it, that piece of my dreams and heart, that a buyer will appear.

Santa Fe Inspiration

It's nice to escape to another world on occasion, to find inspiration in a different landscape. While Austin has been extremely hot and dry this past year, it hasn't quite reached the high country desert feel of Santa Fe. On a weekend anniversary getaway, I was surprised to encounter widespread beautiful spring blooms of lilac and forsythia.

I was totally captivated by the Southwestern architecture, where almost every home is surrounded by an adobe wall and gate. Wood or metal, carved or painted, the gates bring a sense of mystery to the beautiful winding streets. What lies within?

My self-assignment this week at home is to contemplate how to utilize this inspiration directly in my own work. How can I bring a sense of mystery to my jewelry? I've long been attracted to mechanisms, to hinged doors and secret compartments, and I'd love to incorporate some of the enigma of the Santa Fe gates into my designs.

Inspiration is all around. The tricky part is to reduce it into my own practice in a mindful manner. I clearly don't have a Southwestern aesthetic, so while I appreciate the classic motifs of Southwestern art, they won't ever appear in my own art. I have to delve a bit deeper to seek elements such as emotion that are more universal. 

Personal Creative Voice

"Nobody is born with a style or a voice. We don’t come out of the womb knowing who we are. In the beginning, we learn by pretending to be our heroes. We learn by copying.

We’re talking about practice here, not plagiarism—plagiarism is trying to pass someone else’s work off as your own. Copying is about reverse-engineering. It’s like a mechanic taking apart a car to see how it works."

-- Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative 

Flock bracelet
©2012 Vickie Hallmark
sterling silver

Developing a Personal Voice by Working in Series

So you're wondering how to get from simple, beginning, generic designs to your own recognizable artistic style? The idea is to develop a personal vocabulary of shapes, motifs, and components that  can be combined in a multitude of original ways. One idea builds on another, with only slight variations from one to the next, but over time persistent evolution refines the design.

Warbler earrings
©2012 Vickie Hallmark
sterling silver

One starting point is the idea book or board. For years now, I've maintained a Book of Attractions, filled with images cut from magazines of work that speaks to me -- ceramics, fiber, wood, stone, metal & glass all appear. Of course, everyone is doing their own collections on Pinterest, and I'm no exception. The one thing I recommend in terms of really utilizing the boards (or old-fashioned book) to advance your own work is to analyze what about the piece attracts you. Which shapes repeat? What colors captivate? Finding the themes of the work that your soul is drawn to can help you make work that is true to your own self. This is not a license to copy, but a hint of where to start to develop your own personal style.

Bird & Nest Shield earrings
©2012 Vickie Hallmark
sterling silver

For example shields have recurred in my clippings or pinnings for many years, so I know I should use shield shapes in my own work.  Coupled with my favorite bird and nest motif, using custom textures made from my original drawings, these earrings are the simplest version of my self.

Flock earrings
©2012 Vickie Hallmark
sterling silver

The squeezed pillow shape from my Flock and Birdwatching bracelets is also one of my favorites, so I have used it repeatedly. Variations abound. I can cut a plain tile with my texture, as in the original Flock bracelet.  I can cut an opening and build my trademark sculptural bird on a branch across it. A box behind a window can hold a painted tile of glass. I can split the shape into two or more pieces, with a window that is flat and an oval or other shape that is domed, convex or concave. A box bead, or two domed tiles attached at the corners for a truer pillow shape would give even more dimension. Once I get going with the variation brainstorming, ideas really start popping. I can change the color by using patina or resin or gold keum boo.  I can add extra components that reflect the rest of the work, like leaf dangles.

The best way to evolve the work is to make more. Slow but steady variation leads to new ideas and personal work. Develop a list of shapes, textures, colors, marks and components that can be used to generate never-ending variations on a simple theme.

A Ceramic Distraction

Over the holidays, I had several fun artists play dates with a good friend who is a potter. Melodie specializes in tile mosaics, but she also produces a lot of ornaments, especially around the holidays. I was invited to make some ornaments of my own.

Of course, I used the copy of my bird journal that I took for her as the model for my carvings. I started with a flat slab of clay that Melodie provided, sketched on it lightly with a pencil, then cut around the outline. I filled in the details with a carving tool. After firing, I returned to add glaze. Although intended to be off-white with some faint color details, I obviously didn't apply enough glaze. Even so, the thin coat leaves the details really visible, so I think they'll be perfect hanging in my studio.

Hand-carved tile mosaic by Stickhorse Studios

To check out Melodies' amazing work, visit Stickhorse Studios. I'm lusting after a pillar for my new garden addition, with some of her birds.

Creativity is Everywhere

Even my fortune cookie is telling me something. Too funny!

Art and Design of Metal Clay Jewelry 2012 Calendar Now Ready to Pre-Order!

The fabulous Holly Gage has done it again! Along with jurors Emma Baird, Tracey Spurgin, and Lesley Messam, Holly selected work from over 300 submitted images to fill the pages of the 11" x 17" (open size) wall calendar.

From the gorgeous detail of Terry Kovalcik's locket on the front cover (above) to the work of the three jurors on the back, the calendar is filled with inspiring images of the best in metal clay today. Works from about forty of the best known and most accomplished artists in the field are accompanied by statements of inspiration or technique and website addresses. The calendar includes conference and competition deadlines to keep you on track.

This edition of the calendar is the most eclectic ever, showcasing silver, rose gold, bronze, copper, and steel clays. Take a look at the calendar preview and pre-order your copy today here.

I'm incredibly honored to be included again this year, with my syringe cloissone Vine earrings showing off enamel with silver clay in the month of October.

Artistic Resistance Peaks after a Creative Hiatus

Returning to a work in mid-process is a common trick for jump-starting studio time. This weekend I tried to resurrect a creation that has been sitting on my bench for months. This brooch has been a trial from the beginning.

Lessons learned:

1. Don't get cavalier with your medium. Just when you think you have it mastered, new issues will arise.
   Cutting two pieces with the same template doesn't guarantee that the clay will dry evenly so that they match, and irregular shrinkage in the kiln can undo even greenware ministrations to fix the issue. Clay has memory, and repeatedly working it leads to trouble. Handle as little as possible.
   
2. Mistakes are opportunities. Repeat this statement as often as possible when Resistance strikes. Lots of mistakes mean lots of opportunities.
   If the silver pieces don't match, there could be an insert showing to give a new edge and extra design options. If the enameled text on the insert bleeds into a huge black blob, it's an opportunity to learn to remove enamel from copper. Or an invitation to improve speed in fabricating a new blank with saw, file, and drill. 
3. New ideas near completion may conveniently be accompanied by mistakes to insure that there is an opportunity to experiment. Take a deep breath. Maybe the day's work is done. But tomorrow's work will be to back up and try out that new idea.
   How lovely that the pen work did not bleed on the second try ... but the background is boring. Naturally, the nature of those riveted holes will guarantee that the upside down artwork will be removed a second time. 
4. Laugh. And then get back to work. Resistance is a sign that you are on the right track.

The more important a call or action is to our soul's evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it. -- The War of Art

Inspirations of the Enamel Variety -- Jessica Calderwood

Enamels are definitely on my mind. I signed on this week to take a five-day workshop with Charity Hall during Idyllwild metals week. Five entire days focused on drawing and painting with enamels! I thought it appropriate to dredge up an enamel artist from my files who also directs her enamel work toward the drawing and painting directions.

Jessica Calderwood's fabulous wall pieces and jewelry range from meticulously painted portraits to details of body parts. Some are quite humorous, such as the series of curler brooches. I love the superposition of the gold details. Others have more disturbing implications, such as "Consumption."

I find her settings to be quite as intriguing as the enamels themselves, with rotating mounts and double-sided pieces, such as this brooch, "Blink."

An extended exploration of enamels, on both glass and metal, is in the offing for me, since it seems the perfect way to blend my journaling with my jewelry. Today I ordered fine silver sheet to make a load of color samples with the new enamels I purchased at Linda Darty's suggestion. I can't wait to develop a new palette. 

Journaling--Electronic and Hardcopy

When people ask me why I blog, I tell them I do it for myself.

Surprisingly, I find it very motivational to make a record of what I'm doing. I find myself checking back to see what the date was when I finished a certain piece or to read the details of a process that I may have forgotten. Needing to post something semi-regularly keeps me looking with a fresh eye for something I've done that might be of interest.

I do keep many hardcopy journals, both a handwritten mind dump, a la Julia Cameron's morning pages, as well as design sketchbooks and idea journals with brainstorming on words to describe my work or artists whose work I admire and an analysis of why.

Recently, I've felt drawn to construct a more artistic journal, with a slightly different slant. I've long admired Teesha Moore's journals. You can view a plethora of pages on her website. When she recently posted YouTube videos of her process, from building the journal from watercolor paper, in a process I've done many times, to paint, collage, penwork and lettering, I found myself re-energized to try this.
Here's Part 1 of 4 on lettering, but there are a total of fourteen videos to guide through the entire process.



Now Teesha's style is unique, and I've no desire to copy it per se, but I did use her guidelines to quickly construct and paint a small journal. I thoroughly enjoyed the mental switch of tearing up stacks of magazines looking for colors and textures that would accent my paint.


Now I'm working on finding bird images to collage and doing some drawings of my own bird imagery. I find the journal surprisingly addictive and look forward to starting to pen my collected bird quotations into its pages.

In my recent travels to see my ailing mother, my drawing sketchbook and this journal were the sum of my creative efforts. Perhaps I enjoyed it so much because I had limited opportunities, but as always, I think the cross-fertilization of working in many media is beneficial to all. I can't wait to see where this new endeavor takes me.

Squeezing in Art

Alas, the end of summer is in sight. It's now time to finalize all the preparations for our ninth year of homeschooling. Unfortunately, high school requires much more preparation than elementary or middle school. My son will be a sophomore, so the necessary classes involve things like precalculus and introductory chemistry. These tasks are well within my abilities, since my doctorate in physical chemistry ensured that I spent many years doing math and science. Still, lab equipment must be ordered, books must be familiarized, and schedules must be set, for the sake of my son and a handful of willing friends.


All these preparations detract from my ability to work in the studio. So today I breathed a sigh of relief to sit at the hairdresser, with my hair a rat's next of highlight foils, and work with my sketchbook and watercolor pencils. Maybe tomorrow I can break out the metal clay and glass and squeeze in a little art.

Studio Immersion, Day 1

My boys (DH and son) have gone on their annual pilgrimage to Oshkosh. For the uninitiated this is the biggest air show in the world, with attendance over 700,000 people and 12,000 planes. The busiest airport in the world during the show, it's called the Super Bowl for air controllers, where the best are honored by being chosen to work. It's so busy, the controllers talk to pilots, but pilots don't talk back, they just wag their wings to acknowledge instructions and put signs in their windows indicating where they want to go. Small planes land two at a time on the runways. All the new equipment premiers here; every gadget for planes can be investigated first hand. It's pilot heaven.

This year, my boys were unable to camp with their plane, as the Mooney didn't come out of its annual inspection in time due to a required propellor overhaul. So they flew commercially and get to sleep in nice soft beds at a hotel twenty miles away. I've never wanted to rough it with the masses, sleeping next to the runway, but they always enjoy it.

Truthfully, I relish the time alone in my studio. This is immersion time for me. Four solid days of MY time: no external requirements on me of any type. I eat and sleep at whim, and I wander from one project to the next.


Twenty-four hours in, I've torched glass beads, painted a new set of glass tiles, formed and fired silver clay, started electroforming a bead with a new carved design, added new pages to my website, revised class proposals, and started reading some of my stash of art related books. I have lots more plans: an inspiration outing to local galleries that I haven't visited in ages, painting a new cigar box, carving another bronze clay cuff, constructing a Summer bronze bell (least worry, summer will go on for months yet!), making a few new photopolymer plates, and finishing my fused silver chain. I also want to make time to experiment with some new ideas that seem to always get pushed back: etching, patina recipes, copper clay, and engraving faux bone, for example. I want to sketch, work in my Book of Attractions, and plan new work.

Of course, I get carried away with all the ideas. It's not possible! But I can try. Right after I go buy some food for the next few days.

Garden Inspirations

I can hardly believe that I'm enjoying weeding my garden on our 41st day of 100°+ heat this summer. I set my timer for fifteen minutes, grab two plastic grocery bags, and go to it.

As any Texas gardener knows, nutgrass and bindweed are the most pernicious weeds ever. I've got nice loose soil now, so I'm trying to ease out the extensive underground networks that make these weeds so vicious, before things get totally out of hand. I'm trying out 28% vinegar in that hot sun to see if that can dissuade the rascals. If that doesn't work, this devout organic gardener may have to fall back on chemistry.

In between wiping the drips off my face, I stop to admire the new cedar bench installed in the mock dry creek bed.


I notice the red tinged new pads on the Santa Rita prickly pear.


And I stop dead in my tracks over the buds on the Pride of Barbados!

Gathering

I admit to moping a bit about missing the ISGB Gathering this past weekend. For the last several years, you'd find me glued to the demos, meeting new friends, and selling my latest creations. This year I really looked forward to presenting my new carved electroforming. Alas, a family wedding takes precedence, and deservedly so, but still I moped.

So this morning the concept of Gathering in a different context popped into my head as I added a few more cicada wings to my recent collections. Now I'm feeling a little better since I realize I didn't miss the Gathering after all.

I realize how many more gatherings I left out of the photo, as well -- the porcupine quills and bird nest from Italy, for example, and the large scorpion that I electroformed and gifted to Gordon Uyehara, who tried to rescue it from hairspray and Lysol (where's my photo, Gordon?). For the squeamish, I left the rattlesnake and coral snake in the freezer. I'm still pondering how to harvest the skeletons, skins and rattle. And I just love the feathers above all, especially that teeny red down feather from a cardinal that I witnessed being banded. That treasure is destined for a special piece of jewelry.

My Top Ten Paris Sights

1. Eiffel Tower -- at night when it's covered in lights and twinkling


2. St. Chapelle -- the most incredible stained glass ever! Click on the link for an amazing surround view.



3. Musee de l'Orangerie -- Monet's waterlies, which I already blogged about


4. Versaille -- gardens, state rooms (especially the Hall of Mirrors) and the Hamlet




5. Cruise on the Seine River -- for great views of all the classic sights


6. Musee de Louvre -- especially the crowd around the Mona Lisa


7. Musee d'Orsay -- don't miss Le Restaurant or the Impressionist gallery on the 5th floor




8. Rue de Seine -- galleries!! Where Un-Roen and I fell in love with bronzes by Christine Remy


9. Les Arts Decoratifs -- museum of jewelry, fashion, ceramics, toys, advertising, photography, furnishings, etc., where I had to sketch because no photography was allowed


10. food!!! Especially, sweets of any sort -- croissants, macarons and this raspberry napoleon with pistachio cream