Why do I make jewelry?

Once a month, members of the EtsyMetal team are given a topic or question and then are requested to blog about it simultaneously. This month's topic is:

Why do you make jewelry?
Think hard, dig deep!

WOW.

Another difficult question.

Well here's the easy part of the answer: How did I start making jewelry?

• I made my first piece of jewelry about 25 years ago but it was NOT love at first sight.
• I actually fell in love with metal working a year or two later while making a large steel sculpture.
• METAL + FIRE = LOVE!
• Another year or so later, I found myself concentrating my college studies in metals/jewelry. I KNEW this is what I was supposed to do with my life.
• And...I have been making jewelry ever since...

The hard part of the answer: Why am I still making jewelry?

• AHHHHHH...good question!
• When I am at the bench and in my zone, jewelry making is pure joy. (METAL + FIRE = LOVE!...right?!?!)
• But.....I have to admit that after all these years, I have found myself a little bit burnt out. (The reason for this may need to be another blog post.)
• I don't spend as much time at the bench as I used to.
• But it is the only thing I know.
• And I do love it.
• I have been taking steps to get my mojo back...because I have to!

What is inspiring me to love my love for jewelry making again?

• New work is inspiring me.
• Manipulating metal, soldering and creating is my passion.
• Making wedding bands is inspiring me.
• Rings are somewhat limiting in design, but they are very intimate objects and many times have such deep personal meaning...this really appeals to me.
• Helping couples to make their own wedding bands in my workshop is inspiring me.
• This is SO satisfying. Showing a novice the work involved in making a fine piece of jewelry and watching the couple work together fills me with joy. 
• Teaching others is inspiring me.
• I have recently REdiscovered the joy of sharing my knowledge with others. It is a nice change from working alone in my studio.

So have I answered the original question, Why do you make jewelry?
I make jewelry because I love working with my hands, I love working with metal, I love stones, I love making objects that make others happy. It is my career, my art, my passion, my life. Sometimes we stumble or slow down along the journey but we still continue...

Please follow these links to read why my fellow EtsyMetal members' make jewelry:

1. Cynthia Del Giudice
2. Laura Jane Bouton
3. silentgoddess
4. Beth Cyr
5. Peculiar Forest
6. Tosca Terán
7. Nodeform
8. Mary Anne Karren
9. My Precious Studio
10. Deborah Lee Taylor
11. Anne Walker
12. Andrea Ring
13. Gracebourne Design
14. Evelyn Markasky
15. Inbar Bareket
16. Jewellietta
17. Abella Blue
18. e5 Jewelry

My (artisitc) Roots

Once a month, members of the EtsyMetal team are given a topic or question and then requested to blog about it simultaneously. I haven't participated in a while---in fact I haven't done any blogging in a while. I thought this month's topic was a good one to jump back into it with:

Our Roots
Where we came from. How our families have influenced us. Artists in the family.

When I think about my artistic roots, I immediately think of my mother. She has always been a "maker"---someone who uses her hands to create. I have childhood memories of her making clothes and going to the fabric store with her...looking at all the clothing patterns and wondering the aisles of fabric bolts. She painted pottery, did macrame, cross stitch, knit and crocheted. One of her longest lived hobbies is quilting. Over the years, she has quilted baby blankets, comforters and wall hangings for dozens of our family and friends.

One of the many quilts my mother, Suzanne Miller, has made for my children.

She has always been supportive of my artistic endeavors and enrolled me in pastel and oil painting classes when I was 10 years old. I was encouraged to follow the creative path that ultimately lead me to art college and my jewelry career.

Coincidently, my grandfather dabbled in metal work. When I was a teenager he gave me a cuff bracelet he made. My memory is foggy, but I think he said he made it when he was in the Navy during WWII. When my mother was a young girl, he took sheet metal/tin smithing classes and made cookie sheets, pitchers and containers for friends and family members.

Bracelet made by my grandfather (circa 1945?)

Last but certainly not least, I am influenced by my husband, Ben Gilliam. He is an amazing teacher and a talented metalsmith and sculptor. We have different styles, but we still influence each other in countless ways.

Copper vessel by my husband, Ben (aka: John B. Gilliam)

Please read the "Roots" stories of other EtsyMetal members. Follow the links to their blogs throughout the day:
2Roses
Artigiano Jewel Box
Erin Austin
Inbar Bareket
Beth Cyr
Cynthia Del Giudice
Evelyn Markasky
Nodeform
Elizabeth Scott
Twigs and Heather

My Design Process

Once a month, members of the EtsyMetal team are asked a question and then requested to blog about it simultaneously. This month's question is: The Creative Process: How do you plan and organize for design?

I use simple geometric forms as the building blocks for most of my designs, which are inspired by architecture, machines, toys and nature. When I get a new idea or see a shape that excites me, I try to get a quick sketch down on paper. Many of my designs are modular and linear...so as I begin to work with that idea or shape, I move things around and create multiple variations. As a result, sometimes the design evolves or completely changes, many times it grows into a whole collection of jewelry (eg: bracelets, earrings and necklaces). I do this both on paper and with the metal parts I make....
I really like designing by playing with "pieces parts" and as a result of that, my bench is always completely cluttered. I have many "parts" all over the place...ready for me to arrange and re-arrange and re-arrange...until someday it becomes a finished design. This is both good and bad. I like being reminded of my many ideas and their "parts" but is also distracting and just a down-right messy. I have been meaning to do a serious clean up for months but I am very good at procrastination! And don't forget what Albert Einstein said:

If a cluttered desk signs a cluttered mind, Of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?

Please visit the other blogs participating in today's blog carnival to read about their design process:
Victoria Takahashi/Experimetal
Thomasin Durgin/metalriot
Su Trindle/QuercusSilver
Inbar Bareket
Stacey Hansen
Nina Gibson
Corliss & John Rose/2Roses
Maria Whetman
Beth Cyr

Signature style...

A question has been asked, "How did you come to develop your clearly defined style? What inspired that signature style?"

First, I should describe what I consider my "clearly defined style"... Simple, refined geometric forms, clean line and kinetic elements (especially abacus-like ones) are an integral part of my "signature style."

I have always been drawn to geometry, minimalism and mechanisms. I believe that growing up in a steel mill town played a huge role in influencing this design aesthetic. I took in the everyday sights, like factory architecture, freight trains and the lattice of bridges, with a child’s wonder-filled eyes. All of this sparked my own creative industry, which I now express through my jewelry design. Like the gears and rails that inspired it, my jewelry is geometric and much of it has moving parts.

Bethlehem Steel's mills along the Conemaugh Rivers, Johnstown, PA

The kinetic aspect of my "signature style" was brought to life while I was studying jewelry at Tyler School of Art, during a project in which we had to design a piece of jewelry that attached to the wearer in a non-traditional method. I created a brooch that used a series of sterling gears and rubber rollers in which the wearer's shirt fabric rolled between the rollers as a means of attachment. After that project, I started to explore the concept of kinetic jewelry and how the wearer could interact with it. The last few months of my studies were devoted to creating large rings with playful, movable elements, entitled "Nervous Habit Rings." Once I graduated, I began scaling down my ideas to appeal to the consumer while still maintaining the kinetic base.

Incline Plane, Johnstown, PA

I entered the marketplace in 1994 with my kinetic designs...but didn't feel like I had my "signature style" down yet. In 1995 I made my first "Abacus Bracelet." I continued to build on that design and that is when my "signature style" finally took a true hold. Although my designs are constantly evolving, I still feel like all of my work has a consistent and "clearly defined style."

Abacus Bracelet #1

For more stories about inspiration and signature styles, please read these blogs, whose authors are posting on the topic on June 5 -6, 2009
http://andescruz.ganoksin.com/blogs
http://andescruz.wordpress.com
http://ashleyakers.blogspot.com
http://bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com
http://cynthiadelgiudice.blogspot.com
http://etsymetal.blogspot.com
http://ninagibsondesigns.blogspot.com
http://sarawestermark.blogspot.com
http://tangerinetreehouse.blogspot.com

http://discomedusa.typepad.com