It has been some time since I have posted. Since then, I have moved to a great apartment on a classic brownstone Brooklyn block, sent out a lot of packages for customers of the Guild, celebrated the holidays, spent almost a week with my head buried in the wonderful novel, A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth. What else? Well, there was a housewarming party attended by 50+ guests, and not least of all, the beginning of my new design and show preparation frenzy.
Speaking of my new neighborhood, I have been finding that there is a lot of inspiration right there on the street as I walk to my studio every day. The wrought iron fences, the ornamental trees that are often planted in the small yards in front, the plasterwork visible inside the parlor floors of brownstones, and the chandeliers inside the parlors.
Tomorrow I will be off to the Baum School of Art in Allentown PA. I am participating in a workshop conducted by Thomas Mann called projectOBJECT. The idea is for four teams of four metalsmiths to spend three days creating a production line of jewelry from concept to finished sample line. Sort of a Project Runway for the real world of surviving as an artist. Even though I am already fully active in my metalsmithing based business, I am looking forward to getting some fresh perspective on how to go about creating a body of work meant for in-studio production. I am always amazed at what other artists are coming up with and I wish that I could spend a little time in each of their studios, so this is a chance to get some fresh ideas about the design process.
