The title sounds like it should be about writing, doesn’t it? But I’m talking about story when it comes to your art.
I was listening to Bruce Baker’s cd on selling the other day (which I highly recommend) and he was talking about sharing your story with your customers.
He was referring to your story as an artist, or the story behind your art, or your process – that little bit of extra special information that makes people go hmmm… And then buy the piece because they want to own a bit of that story.
But while I was listening, it also occurred to me that my favorite pieces of art have their own stories and meanings – without adding any extra words.
There was a series of paintings I saw online somewhere (and I wish I could find the link) with surreal white wolves in suburban settings. It made me think and a swirl of fairy tales went through my head. In that case, I almost don’t want to know the artist’s story, I have enough of my own.
Sometimes, a painting simply connects with a personal memory and it becomes more meaningful because of that. That’s not something the artist can control. But if you make art that has meaning for you, chances are that it will connect with someone else.
I have a small oil painting of a dirt road that curves away into a pine wood. Very simple subject. But it resonated with me because it reminded me of happy places from my childhood. In the gallery, when I went back to look at it for the 3rd time, Dave told me to buy it. It makes me happy every time I look at it.
Many of the animals I make have a connection for me. There are animals I sculpt repeatedly – because I love them or because I have so much tied up in my head with them. But I think if I did it consciously, I could add another level to that – an extra layer of meaning or abstraction that would make the piece really stand out. I just need to think about it some more.
So, what’s your story?
brown bat - image from wikipedia
We had an interesting night Monday… Woke up around 3 in the morning because there was this strange little scraping noise. I went out to the hallway and there was a bat flying back and forth in the stairwell.
And of course, Chaos (our aptly named younger cat) was sitting crouched underneath it waiting for it to come close enough for him to catch.
So I grabbed the cat and stuffed him back in the bedroom. The bat flipped upside down (very cool) and landed on the upper door molding before going back to flying back and forth again. I woke up Dave, and he caught it in a towel and we let it go outside. Poor little thing was scared.
We’re not sure how it got inside – the only thing we could think of was that it was resting in the window during the rain and crawled in through a rip in the screen. I believe the only kind of bats we have around here are brown bats – and we love having them. We live in the woods and they eat a LOT of mosquitoes.
We didn’t really get back to sleep after that though 
And I think I really need to sculpt a bat.
Another project with the Knew saw… It didn’t come out perfectly but I’m pretty proud of it just the same. It’s the most complicated pattern I’ve done so far.
I printed out my paper pattern and used rubber cement to attach it to 24g brass. Each section that had to be cut out needed to be drilled so I could thread the saw blade through. It worked pretty well, except that next time I do this delicate a pattern I’ll use a thicker gauge metal. I had some problems with the thin pieces flexing and bending too much as I was sawing.
Liquid Gun Blue and stamped copper with patina
I used my brand new Knew saw to cut the birdhouse shape from 24g copper sheet, including the interior hole which the bird peeks out of. Using metal stamps and hammers is fun – there’s such a satisfying Thwack when you get it right. They added detail and grain, and then I used gun-bluing to patina the copper. Fine grade sandpaper took the patina off the high spots and left the stamped detail darkened.
I filed and sanded all the edges, then sculpted the heart on the back using a needle tool to write “Home”. A little extra clay forced through the hole of the pendant allows the heart to act almost as a rivet once the heart was baked and gave me a secure base to sculpt the tiny bluebird.
After the final baking, I antiqued the heart with blue paint, the bird with light brown and added a touch of glaze to make his eyes and beak shine.
I’m trying to blog more this year… even if I don’t have pics of most of the interesting stuff yet.
I’ve been playing with the Knew saw some more – I absolutely love it. But I do need to practice more and learn some of the constraints when piercing. I’m not used to considering the gauge of metal etc and how thin metal will flex etc when you’re cutting an intricate design.
I’ve been prepping for a class for our guild’s Weekend of Clay – mine’s tomorrow morning. It should be fun. I’m teaching a 3 hour Magpie Eclectic – Mixed Media Jewelry class. I’ll be covering some basic wire working techniques, simple clay accent beads, using patina and gilder’s paste, etc, etc, and figuring out how to combing everything (including the kitchen sink if you can cut it into small enough pieces) together into one (hopefully) harmonious piece of jewelry.
I was trying to pack everything up last night – I’m bringing all sorts of wire and chain and ribbon and cord and tools and accent beads… plus my regular clay kit. I’m not sure how I’m going to carry it all.
But the worst part of it will be coming home Sunday night, dumping the bags on the floor and facing putting it all AWAY again. Should I admit I still have a couple piles that I haven’t put away from my last class? 
I took Monday and Tuesday off. I’m figuring I’ll be tired, and hopefully inspired.
And Dave got me another brand new toy that I’m dying to play with! More on that later after some experimentation.
Dave got me an anniversary present! And he gave it to me a couple months early – when it came in tonight – because he knew how much I’d like it.
He’s awesome. He’s the one who got me my first pasta machine when I was still hemming and hawing over whether it would really come in handy.
Knew Saw and first project
If you haven’t seen one of these before it’s a Knew Saw – a special type of jeweler’s saw frame. It’s aluminum so it’s light and rigid – which means less broken blades. The really cool thing is that I won’t get any more bruises putting blades in.
For anyone who’s never used one, you put a blade in an ordinary saw by securing one end, then compressing the frame (so the blade will be under tension) before securing the other end. You do that by putting the end of the handle on your breastbone and the other end of the saw in the V of your bench pin and pressing forward.
The first time you do it, it’s mildly uncomfortable. Once you’ve snapped one blade, it’s getting a little painful. You put the third blade in and you’re looking for a cushion or something first to try to protect the bruise.
This saw, on the other hand, lets you secure both ends of the blade while it’s still loose. Then it’s got a tension screw which tightens the blade to wherever you want it (the ‘ping’ point where it sings because it’s taut). It’s easy and it’s wonderful.
You can see the little birdhouse I cut out in just a few minutes. Needs some filing and refining still, but it’s not bad for someone who hasn’t used a saw much. And I didn’t break a single blade – not even on the interior circle.
Thanks, Dave!
In a word, obsolete. Other than the blog, I haven’t uploaded new work to the site in years.
Current Home Page
I haven’t kept up with the links – I think more of them are dead than alive, and there’s something wrong with the styles in newer browsers that’s giving a section of the link navigation a black background.
I finally disabled the footer section. When I originally did the gallery pages, I had to do some finagling with the css styles to make everything work, but in newer browsers the footer decided it wanted to be front and center – right across the middle of most pages. Not too attractive.
So, I’m working on an updated design that I’m probably going to deploy piecemeal. I may even leave the current galleries alone as ‘old work’. Generally, I try to tweak everything so it’s perfect and do it all at once, but I’m liable to get sidetracked before I finish that way and never update anything.
Conquering perfectionism, I’m just going to put up sections as I go along and tweak them as they need it. If you do notice any problems in the next few weeks, or have any comments or suggestions, please let me know.
Links Page
Gallery Page
I made a number of samples for my button workshop. I knew a plain polymer clay button would survive being washed and dried, but I wasn’t sure about more delicate techniques.
The top row is a similar button that hasn’t been washed. The bottom row is after one wash and dry cycle with an ordinary load of laundry.
The first button was antiqued with white artist-grade acrylic paint. Any paint on the surface or edges was buffed away, leaving only the areas where it was recessed. Not bad really. I’m thinking sending a strand of beads through the wash repeatedly would probably give you a nice muted sheen–but I’m too impatient, so I’ll probably still just buff the clay on my jeans for that sort of effect.
I did also do another button completely painted with a shimmery pink craft acrylic. The paint was partially removed and collected a ton of lint from the t-shirt material it was sewn on. The lint seemed to be embedded in the paint at the end of the cycle. Not a success.
The second buttons were black clay with Perfect Pearls mica powder, followed by one coat of Flecto Varathane to protect it. I was amazed at how well that held up. Some of the mica on the edges did get buffed away and I think repeated washings would eventually wear through the Flecto. It would be fine for handwashing though. And it would be worth trying a few more coats of Flecto or some Kato liquid clay to see if that would hold up to repeated washings. I do love the shimmer of mica powders.
The last button had inclusions of dried flower petals mixed into white clay. I gave it a coat of TLS before I baked it, and I didn’t notice any change at all after washing. I was expecting the surface bits of flower to flake off but they stayed on.
Top row of buttons is pre-wash. Bottom row is after 1 wash and dry cycle
I gave a two hour workshop for the Moonlight Weaver’s Guild on Tuesday on making buttons. I went over a few basic techniques: conditioning clay, buttonholes, wire shanks, using cutters and textures, etc, then turned everyone loose.
It was wonderful to work with such a creative group of people. I answered questions and added information, but everyone went off and did their own thing, often trying things I hadn’t even thought of applying to buttons.
I think everyone at least tried the mica powders. They seem to speak to everyone – our inner magpie speaks up and goes, “Oooh, sparkly!”
They made some really interesting shapes, and they used fiber techniques such as woven clay, braided clay, and these cool twisted and coiled knots. There were butterflies and hearts and roses and abstract shapes using interchanged cut outs. It was a lot of fun and you can see some of what they made below:
It’s all because I needed button covers. And I needed button covers for a very good reason – I needed them for a workshop I was teaching.
If you’ve never heard of a button cover, it’s a little metal finding that allows you to slide something decorative over a normal button. That way you can use something delicate, or in the case of polymer clay, remove it if you want to dry clean the garment. Polymer clay and dry cleaning do not get along.
So, of course I had to go online and do some searching around. Most places I found had them for 50 cents apiece or so in packages of 4. Fire Mountain Gems had a 100 for about $12.
Perfect! Especially since I needed a few other things–jumprings, some chain, etc–anyway.
Now the thing with Fire Mountain Gems is that it has assortable princing – the more items you buy, the bigger a discount they give you on each item. This is dangerous. Extremely dangerous.
I easily passed the 15 item mark and had about 30 items. And then I realized I could get to the 50 item mark if I checked out the $1 sales, and I did an inventory and ordered some pinbacks I needed and splurged on some Swarovski crystals, and bought some cording, and …. Well, you get the idea.
I saved money – I did! Just like the gambler who mentions the $20 win and conveniently forgets the $100′s lost before that
So this is what my little purchase turned into… I’m just glad Dave doesn’t mind me spending money on supplies
