moving forward through making

One - lovely - gold ring...for C & M. 14k yellow gold.
Commission. Christine Pedersen.

   December 2020: the last month of a very strange year, a year full of deep reflections. I’ve been working away designing and building new work, even though shows were so limited, because it takes a lot of time to create complex pieces and I want to be ready for 2021! The garden was fantastic this year due to the gardener’s spending a lot of time in it: a stay-cation reflecting on life and the universe, grateful to be able to walk and run in our neighbourhood. I’ve also started to share my studio life on instagram—it’s been a really useful way to stay in touch with friends and see fantastic hand-made original work by fellow makers. OK…it’s actually been hard to stay focused, there is just so much beautiful hand-made work out there! It’s been such a joy to make some new friends on the way, especially while we are all dealing with such reduced contact with each other.
   You can find a huge number of Canadian fine craft artists and galleries on the Citizens of Craft web-site, and they've collated lots of provincial fine craft organisations and galleries who have online markets this year. Here’s a link to my profile too. Alberta Craft Council has started the huge task of getting member work uploaded for on-line shopping, with fine craft from all over Alberta.
   Sending you every best wish for a safe and restful season, and fingers crossed that we’ll be back to sharing much more in real life again soon. Visit me @metalisclay on instagram to stay in touch and see more from my studio. I hope you get something hand-made this Christmas, cheers!

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

my brand: I am a nerd

His & Hers Nerd Pendants. Sterling silver. 2011. There is no point in denying it: I am a nerd. I designed these pendants for the "Branded" exhibition at the fabulous Influx Gallery in Calgary this summer. I like to bring my background in science and natural history into my art work, and in this case, I also brought some political advocacy. In an era in which some cultures still deny females equal access to education, I used the loaded motif of the apple to create a context to present the writing to the viewer. Here's the full artist statement: His and her “ nerd ” pendants confidently declare affiliation with a tribe that delights in knowledge, education and technology. Nerdism nourishes the world around us, and we are proud of that contribution. His “ nerd ” pendant is about strength in identity. Styled after a traditional branding iron, the pendant is a rugged and substantial piece of silver, designed to perpetuate this important meme beyond one life

Beaux Arts sculptural metal exhibition now open at Il Centro Art Gallery, Vancouver.

The Beaux Arts exhibition, curated by Angela Clarke at Il Centro Art Gallery, Vancouver, was developed with the Vancouver Metal Arts Association . The work of nineteen artists is included, and I am very honoured to be one of them. Huge thanks and kudos to the volunteer members of VMAA who have managed to organize and install a professional show under the current incredibly difficult conditions. To quote from Il Centro’s web-site : As the first exhibition in our Charles Marega 150 celebrations series Il Museo at Il Centro presents Beaux Arts: An Exhibition with the Vancouver Metal Arts Association. This exhibition features the sculptural metal art form both large and small. Entitled Beaux Arts in honour of the artist style of which Charles Marega was an interpreter, this juried show integrates traditional metal work with non-traditional styles and elements, true to the Beaux Arts form. Throughout the exhibition space there is a continuous juxtaposition of traditional and non- traditiona

metal is clay

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