Collaboration with April Eileen Photography

One of the things I really appreciate in the art world is a good photographer. It takes talent to work with light, scenery, and equipment. It takes just as much interpersonal talent to know how to work with models- putting them at ease during the shoot, placing them in the best poses, and giving feedback in ways that makes them both responsive and comfortable. The results can be really breathtaking.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BSJQ7etAzfj/?taken-by=aprileileenphotography

So when April of April Eileen Photography contacted me, I was pretty excited. April is a photographer based out of Virginia, and her subjects range from fashion models, to families, to pet rats. All of her photos are gorgeous. If you’ve never seen her art, it’s worth checking out!

April and I will be collaborating in the coming months. I’m loaning jewelry pieces to her for her shoots, and she’s taking some awesome photos.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m stoked. I can’t wait to see more!

Back to Class

The last time I was in college it was sort of a horrific experience. I was in graduate school and I constantly felt on the brink of imploding. That was three years ago. I’ve avoided any sort of academic pursuit like the plague since. Sure I took some lapidary lessons, but that was off campus and in a weird, smoke filled warehouse. It felt as far from academia as possible.

Lately I’ve been feeling a strange pull to get back to school. There’s this nagging reminder that I used to love learning (its why I tried grad school in the first place). I especially loved my art courses in undergrad, which had nothing to do with my psychology degree and everything to do with giving me a creative outlet in order to stay sane. My friends Ali and Mary started prodding me about six months ago to step out of my comfort zone and try a few courses, and I had some extra money saved for business investments this month. So when I saw that my local community college was offering an introductory metalsmithing and jewelry fabrication class, I took the leap and signed up.

I’ve attended two class sessions so far. My anxiety each day has been through the roof leading up to the class, but the moment I get there I’m totally fine. The classroom is a big, open studio with a ton of jewelers benches, tools, and anvils. I recognize a couple classmates as fellow local vendors, and everyone is there to learn at their own pace. Its exciting and fun and a little intimidating, but I’m okay with that.

I have a few goals for the semester to focus myself so that I’m not just flailing at sheets of copper. The skills I want to learn are:

1. Sawing and Piercing
2. Using a File (Properly. I don’t think I do it properly right now.)
3. Patterning Metal
4. Chasing/Shaping Metal (Again, properly. My stuff is a little haphazard at right now.)
5. Riveting With Open/Closed Rivets
6. Patination

I know better than to think that I’ll master any of these techniques in 8 weeks, but they’re things I’m curious about and want to get a basic grasp on. I started sawing and piercing for the first time tonight, and I’ve decided to keep a running count of how many saw blades I’ve broken for the semester (so far I’m at two).

I’ll post more updates as I learn new skills and make shiny things. Thank you guys so much for your support- without you I wouldn’t have had the money to take this class!