Ginkgo Industrialist
Thursday, July 9, 2009 at 8:28PM;)
Silver Ginkgo © 2009 Cameron Blazer
So, unless you are having this read aloud to you while you recline with cucumber slices over your eyes, sipping daiquiris and being fanned with palm fronds, you have probably noticed that I like ginkgos. And while I'm guessing that every expert treatise ever written about world blog domination has a chapter about "synergistic branding" or some such, my love for ginkgos is in no particular alignment with the subject matter of this blog, and I haven't ever much cared.
But now. Now, I can say that I am a cottage industrialist who makes ginkgo leaves.
For as long as I have been making jewelry, I have longed to escape the limitations of bead store tools and materials and to control the design process from the raw material stage to completion. I finally had the opportunity over the last few weeks to try my hand at the basic tools of silversmithing (yay, Redux!), and I am, just as I expected to be, smitten. There's just something so satisfying about taking a flat, dull sheet of metal and cutting, hammering, and folding it till it starts to feel and look like something alive. And while I'd love to have access to a full bench of jewelers' tools, I was careful when designing this project to choose something that I could replicate at home without needing to buy too many new geegaws. A rare example of supply restraint. I will be patting myself on the back for that one for quite some time.*
What about you? What have you longed to try but stopped short because the tools or the skills seemed just out of reach?
*Though if my as-yet-nonexistent-personal-art-patron is reading this, there is a lovely outfit of tools (in my size, no less!) available from Rio Grande...think...free silver ginkgos for life!**
**Apologies to Prof. Carolyn Matalene for my shameful misuse of the ellipsis. Yes, you did teach me better than that. And yet.
Reader Comments (5)
I would love a ceramics studio complete with wheel and kiln. I took all of one throwing class and wanted to dive in head first. Took a lot of restraint on my part, too. *congratulations to myself as well*.
Love your ginko and a lovely keepsake it is, too. This kind of work eludes me - always impressed with any sort of metal work.
Oh. My. Goodness. I am in love! K, I'm telling you now that I'll order one! When are you going to put some up in your etsy shop????? Pretty please?
Swoon! I agree: put these in your etsy shop. As for Carolyn Matalene...
I am an ellipsis whore! Can't...stop...
I would like to know more about building. I can design stuff, but I always have to check with the husband to see if he can build it. That and weld...imagine my backyard if I could weld...
Very beautiful!
I've always wanted a top of the line laser cutter. I have so many ideas to cut up all types of materials into all sorts of projects. Maybe someday...