Creating

I've been working with small linear sculptural forms for the past five or six years, having transitioned away from casting and welding metals to create without heat, using simple cold joining methods.

 Hanging Sculpture 4, resting as a stabile

Making larger shapes with the same materials and techniques I use in my jewelry has been a natural progression. It suits me to work spontaneously. I love the immediacy of realizing an idea without moving through various stages of a slower process. It's like drawing in space to create a new reality.

Saltwater Pearl etc. Locking Earring

Lately though, I've imagined sculptural pieces that will present some different challenges. As a graduate student and later when I taught art, I often worked larger in wood, stone, clay, fibers, metals, and plastics. Now I'm thinking of using some of these materials again, but in new ways.

Before cold joining, casting and welding made joinery easy. I remember it was a little awkward making the transition from heat to cold methods, beginning to visualize using new skills. I've riveted, stapled, folded, wrapped, snapped, glued, and sewn.Now as an artist still in transition, the thought of increasing the size and range of my work once again is exciting. Moving back to my roots in sculpture, I'm also beginning to discover the impact on my jewelry designs. This time my new ideas will take form from methods and techniques evolved over time and inspired by intuition.

It will be an exploration, building on what I already know. Rather than looking outside for someone to show me more skills, I've reached a point where advances in my creative vision suggest going deeper inside to create very personal solutions. To realize my own changing voice as an artist, the emphasis is on my design idea rather than how I achieve it.
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Please read how other Handmade Division Team members view the issues of creating, skills, and techniques:

NEDbeads, Lisa Hopkins Design, Jewelry by Natsuko,
Beth Cyr, Abhaya Fibers, Purified Art, Nova of Sweden,
Bella-Bijou Jewellery, Pink Crow Studio, Sand Fibers,
Alice Istanbul, Thomasin Durgin, Moxie & Oliver,
Andes Cruz, Tosca Teran, Delias Thompson.