Half Cracked

I've never been one for smooth, shiny, flawless surfaces in my metalwork. There are plenty of artists out there who do it and do it beautifully. I prefer a little more texture, distress, and time-wear. Maybe it's because I'm an old soul with lifetimes behind me, who knows?

So I surprised myself last week when I was tinkering in the studio with some fold formed copper charms. Rarely one to plan out an exact design beforehand, I started out this pair by simply annealing matched squares of copper, folding them, hammering flat, annealing again, and unfolding---revealing beautiful rustic creases in the metal. Now normally I would next turn to my favorite texturing rock (plucked from our garden) and start banging away as if my life depended on it. For some reason, I stopped short halfway through this time. 

How about we just leave half shiny, smooth, and serene---as a stark contrast to the chaos of the textured side?

And this is how designs are born. 

I'm quite fond of making coin-like discs out of copper, so that's the final shape I decided to go with here. Reminiscent of an ancient coin plucked from the soil, perhaps. I filed a bit along the folds of each, sanded, sanded, sanded, oxidized, buffed, and sealed with wax. Simple, perfect for everyday wear, yet noteworthy enough to make you feel like a pagan goddess. 

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

The Best Laid Plans

I had a vision. 

I was lying in bed--drifting, woozy, floating in that liminal netherworld where ideas come to us so fluidly. What I would do, see, is I would take a piece of copper and fold form it and beat it over some rocks, see, and then texture it and punch it and file strategic places and shape it just so and...

I awoke the next morning with vague recollections of my vision and headed straight to the studio to bring it to fruition. Fifteen minutes into the project when the copper buckled and snapped, I realized:

shit, this isn't going to work

See, sometimes our dreamy ideas seem perfectly logical and functional. And then we go to execute and we realize they could use a little more refinement. There is nothing wrong with this. Rome wasn't built in a day. There is beauty to be found in the process.

Today's pair of earrings features the salvaged results of this vision. I took the two snapped pieces of copper, trimmed them up, softened up the edges, oxidized, sanded, and turned them into simple lightweight earring tabs. And you know what? For being "failures", I'm really quite fond of them. Funny how that works. When life gives you lemons...well, you know.

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

Blessed with Cracks

Aren't we all, though? 

Conventional wisdom has taught us that cracks, imperfections, and vulnerabilities are bad. A sign of sub-par quality. Something to be avoided. 

Well, turn that thinking on its ear. Cracks are an opportunity to be flexible, to expand, to grow. They can also allow us a way to get rid of baggage that we don't need. If we are strong, inflexible, unwavering, and impermeable, then we miss out on so many opportunities. Cracks are a sign that we've been through hell and are here to tell the tale. 

Leonard Cohen, one of my favorite artists and poets, said it so well in "Anthem":

"The birds they sang
at the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don't dwell on what
has passed away
or what is yet to be.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in."

 
Today's earrings feature a deliciously crackled and distressed pair of etched "agate eye" beads from Tibet. I burnished them with wax so they have that warm, soft, well-worn-through-generations-of-hands look. As I've been doing lately, I kept it simple, pairing them with faceted milky white ceramic beads from the ever talented Simona of Happy Fallout. Dots of blackened silver solder complete the crunchy industrial tribal vibe that you know I love. My own hand forged copper ear wires and pitted fat headpins complete the look. 

Proudly showcase your cracks, ladies and gentlemen! They are a sign of strength and openness--not imperfection. 

Happy Wednesday, 
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

Tangled Up In...Sinew?

Now, I know what you're thinking: "Sinew? Errrrrrrr...ewww?" 

Yes, I agree. 

Next fall will mark 15 years that I've been a devoted vegetarian. So rest assured when I promise you that the sinew used in these earrings is completely faux, imitation, no animals harmed. It consists of polyester fibers which have been spun together and waxed, making it tacky to the touch yet pliable and knottable. Good buddy Kimberly Rogers of Numinosity Beads fame turned me on to this material a bit ago. 

 
My crude knotting pales in comparison to some of the intricate, exacting work seen in many cultures, both old and modern. But I really dig the native primitive vibe that it adds to pieces. Plus I'm always looking for ways to incorporate textiles and fibers that will hold up to the test of time and wear. 

 


I've had a leisurely summer in the studio but am on the cusp of releasing a new batch of earrings that feature grungy, earthy neutrals, since that's where my head has been lately. This taupe and fawn hued pair fit the bill nicely. The stones are Polish flint, otherwise known as banded flint or striped flint. Mined in Poland, this stone is famous for its swirling, mesmerizing banding. At first glance the color may seem rather boring, but relax your eyes and let the patterning lure you in...peaceful magic.

To create these, I knotted faux sinew around the tops of each stone to form "caps" of a sort and then hung each from my extra long oxidized copper ear wires. Simple, versatile, soothing, neutral, unique.

Happy Wednesday!

Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

Take It Eeeeeeasy

Ever feel like you're taking a cop-out easy route with one of your designs? But you really don't care because the end result turns out so perfectly that you wouldn't change a thing? 
 
I had some of that guilt when I made this pair a couple weeks ago featuring some more of Kimberly Rogers' deliciously mismatched lampwork glass headpins. The glass itself is a very soothing, neutral, streaky birch color---I've been gravitating more and more toward neutrals and earth tones over the past year. I wanted to highlight the fact that Kim deliberately made one headpin twirled like a horn and left the other drippy. What better way to do that than to make one of my soldered caps twirled and the other smooth? And the "I feel so clever" moment: I switched up the swirls. Oooooo, gettin' tricky!


Ok, so it's not a complex design. I could have hung these headpins beneath stacks of grungy precious bits, like I'm wont to do. I could have hung them from gnarly hoops or used them as focals in a chandelier-style pair. But lately I've been craving stated simplicity. 

To be honest, it's almost more difficult to reign yourself in when designing. At least for me, anyways. Plus, I always try to be sensitive to the wearability of pieces. It's one thing to create a masterpiece for a gallery or a competition, but it's another thing to make pieces that people are able to wear and love every day of their lives. That's the miraculous thing about creating art---every artist has unique goals for their work. There's never a wrong or a right answer. It just is. And that's a beautiful thing. 

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy

The Art of Restraint

A very kind woman gifted me with a very generous compliment the other week:

"...you do something very mature, as an artist. You know when to stop with a piece. Most people load on all but the kitchen sink, but your pieces are restrained and elegant. That is a rare quality." 

When I stopped grinning, squealing, and blushing like mad, I had to pause and think, because she hit on something that I strive very hard to emphasize with my pieces: less is more; more is just more. 

As designers, it can be hard to self-edit, especially when you're surrounded by mounds of attractive, colorful, shapely unique beads:

"Ooooooo, I've always loved these beads, let's add in a couple here."
           and
"Ack, the colors of these match those perfectly, let's add in a couple here."
           and 
"Crap, I forgot I wanted to include these stones, let's add in a couple here." 

And before we know it, our designs can get unwieldy, impractical, and sometimes gaudy. 

Knowing when to stop or when to remove components from a design can be a tricky thing. We may feel like we are dumbing things down, like we haven't invested enough time and creative energy into a piece, like it's too simple. I'm here to tell you that's BS! Unless you're planning on hitting the red carpet, a runway, or an art gallery opening somewhere, most people don't typically wear ginormous overwrought pieces of jewelry. Not that there's anything wrong with statement pieces - I do plenty of those - that's a discussion for another day!

 
Case in point: these demure ceramic raku squares from local artist Jennifer Pottner of Urban Raku. Her work is INCREDIBLE. I visited with her the other week at a local bead show and snagged this pair from her table. Their muted, velvety dark gold and plum hues really spoke to me - the colors of autumn without clubbing you over the head with pumpkins and scarecrows and bright orange and all that. The size on the squares was enough to make a statement itself, plus I didn't want to cover up too much of that beautiful finish. So I chose to give them simple ridged soldered "belts". Sleek, geometric, artful, and restrained as all get out.

So the next time you're feeling the need to do more, ask yourself if you could actually do with a little less :) 

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki 
LoveRoot on Etsy

A Time Before Kings

Every so often you either stumble or make a calculated fall into a design or an aesthetic that really takes you. More than just an "oh wow, I really like how this came out" kind of way. But in a "THIS" kind of way. 


As I've continued to play with copper and fold forming in the studio, I found myself gravitating toward elemental glyphic shapes over the last week. No complicated over-wrought heavy designs. Just simple eye-catching statements that end up saying more while actually saying less.

 



The end result (or perhaps just the beginning?) is a series I'm dubbing "A Time Before Kings", due to the primitive ancient finishes and the glyphic symbology. My love affair with purposeful firescale results in pops of thick blood red while pockets of raw copper and blackened darkness add light and depth.  






I considered using these metal charms as part of larger designs, but in the end decided to let them speak on their own. 

Sometimes you need a break from the norm so you can explore further along down the path.

Happy Wednesday!
Nikki
LoveRoot on Etsy