Skip to main content

hot under the collar


There's a fairly long line-up of stuff that gets me hot under the collar… This is also the title of a sure to be excellent upcoming show featuring contemporary necklaces that I, sadly, won't be in. So I decided to have a solo show and post a picture of my current favourite new necklace: "For The Girl Who Has Everything: A Snack".

"For The Girl Who Has Everything: A Snack". Sterling silver, stainless steel,
gluten free cookie, brass, cubic zirconia. Constructed. 2012.


There is at least one reason I won't be in the show: I didn't enter. And there's a reason I didn't enter… That would be the $30 fee to have my entries reviewed for potential inclusion. Simply put, I have hemorrhaged far too much cash recently entering shows—the same amount would have bought me a considerable amount of raw metal and gemstones, a run of business and post-cards, or even the best part of the airfare to go see the show!

It's not that I'm against spending money on self-promotion and marketing, like everyone else I just need to be choosy about how much, and what I spend my money on. I would really like to be able to answer the question "cui bono?" every time I have to reach for my credit card: if a show of fabulous contemporary work will boost foot traffic at a location, why am I paying so much to be even considered as a participant? What about just charging those invited to be there? How are all those application fees used? The answers of course have many facets, and I will continue to enter what I can afford. But I would really like to scrutinize the money flow to ensure that I feel good about what I am paying for—maybe organizers could let us know their policy information as part of the proposal?

I look forward to hearing what other people think about this.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

narrative jewellery: tales from the toolbox book launch

For every piece of jewellery I make there is a story. It can be simple, just a note on the “why?” that led to the forms and textures, or the feeling that I want to remember. Sometimes the single idea that could become a piece, conceived way before the act of making, can become so over-whelming that I need to write a whole new reality for the jewellery to exist within. That’s how it was for “Pull”, the first piece of jewellery in a body of work that became the ReFind Collection *. It caused me to look at materials in my home, especially the things that were routinely thrown away, very differently. It was like waking up to realize I just hadn’t been paying the right kind of attention to all the “stuff” in other areas of my life; realizing that maybe jewellery could be linked to something as obscure as industrial-scale food-processing and packaging—if I allowed my mind to receive the information, differently. I am very honoured that my necklace has been included in Mark Fenn’s new ...

will you...?

Artists write stories about their work all the time, and the greatest joy is when that story becomes important to another person.  This project was about creating a piece of fan-art for a client (DP) based on their love of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter stories. DP approached Jeff de Boer because he needed to commission a very special golden snitch sculpture: the body would become an opening engagement ring-box. DP had a very special proposal in mind, and the snitch was to play a key part. Jeff and I do not usually make snitches. Jeff is a renowned metal artist and teacher, famous for creating armour for cats and mice , and collected world-wide. Jeff also has an ever-increasing body of large-scale public art projects (…with lots of news to come in 2016!). His web-site is a magical place, full of stories made real. I am an emerging metal and clay artist whom Jeff is mentoring - particularly in the skills of chasing and repoussé - and these skills were to be at the core of makin...

Artist talk on March 28, at North Mount Pleasant Art Centre, Calgary.

Excited to share I’ll be presenting an artist talk on March 28, 7pm, at North Mount Pleasant Art Centre, in Calgary. I started clay classes there in 1996, a year after I emigrated from England to Canada—it was that education and community that helped me develop the skills to set up my home studio. I’ll be diving into my process, doing some demos, and generally obsessing about all things clay (with a bit of metal sneaking in). Thank you to the Mount Pleasant Potters' Guild for the invitation--hope to see you there!