Making pigments from local materials

In the past few weeks I have been spending more and more time on my nature journal, which I have been keeping for nearly 20 years. I made the leather cover and a simple page-attachment system (tied with a leather strip) so I can use any paper I like, cut and drilled to fit. There are loops inside for pens. It's been with me all over the world, recording what I see and experience.

I started adding sketches in the mid-1990s, working from the Clare Walker Leslie's books on nature journals and the excellent Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain. The latter is excellent for those of us who have both a strong science leaning as well as an artistic side, but the science side gets in the way of free-flowing art and sketching especially.

Now I've been adding watercolor and a few more collages to my journal, switching to archival watercolor paper and handmade art papers.

In the Decorated Page, Gwen Diehn describes making pigments from local minerals and organic matter - and I had to try it. First, I made ink with charcoal from local mesquite, and then a beautiful ochre pigment from clay collected on a nearby road. I will post tutorials soon. And I can't wait to try other minerals and materials - oak gall ink, turquoise, fluorite, and chrysocolla pigment . . . 

An early appreciate for nature & beauty

Are creativity and curiosity innate, or learned? Perhaps a combination. My parents are both very creative and appreciative of nature, beauty, and art. They passed that on to their children - all of us are creative in different ways, and interested in the world around us; I see it in the my nieces and nephew, too.  My dad loved rockhounding in the Southwest, and took us kids with him on trips to search for geodes, desert roses, chalcedony nodules, agates, and pyrite. That's me circa 1972 or so, with my little collecting bag, probably filled with a hammer and some unknown rocks. Dad cut rocks into slabs and made them into cabochons, and then made jewelry. I loved hanging out in his workshop - it smelled of dusty rocks and machine oil. Little did I know I would pick up the thread decades later and become a lapidary and jewelrymaker, too. All those weekends exploring the deserts around our home also rubbed off on me - nature is an enormous inspiration to me, a real passion. I'm so grateful to have a spouse who shares that, and a wonderful retreat in the desert where I am surrounded by the things I love the most.

The creative process (4): so many projects, so little time . . .

While I would have liked to have spent most of my weekend at the workbench, I decided to tackle the considerable job of cleaning up and organizing the workshop after five months of neglect . . . it took most of my time, fancy that. 

When I finally sat down at the workbench for some creative time, I found I could not concentrate on projects at hand . . . on Thursday I bought two tiny Moleskine journals on a whim at the checkout at Borders . . . and I'm just dying to make little copper journal covers for them.

Then there is this project:

I found the Mimosa seed pod in Baja, and over the last few months have been messing about with a design that incorporates a single pearl, an iridescent green and gold beetle from Kenya, and a richly patinaed copper background . . . it's not quite right yet, but I like the fabricated / fused silver branches.

And then while at Ace Hardware I found brass channel wire - prefect for quick, inexpensive bead bracelets. I envision this one with all black beads (wonderful Arizona black jade) with a single red one . . .

And so I messed about with a lot of little things, but in the end didn't finish anything . . .

So many projects. It's wonderful, but sometimes I wish there were 40 hours per day . . .

The creative process (3): keeping organized, keeping track

I tend to have a lot of projects going at once, and with hundreds of pieces of inventory (from gemstones to beads to found objects to silver, copper, and gold), I had to develop a way to keep the chaos at bay and yet still allow for my creative process to flow . . .

Developed over several years of full-time jewelry-making (with inventories for online sales, 6 galleries, and several craft shows), this system is based on using my own Desert Rose notepads (5 x 7") and slightly larger plastic bags from a jeweler's supply store.

When working on a project (or an idea, still in the 'bits and pieces' phase), I sketch the basic idea, dimensions, and materials on a piece of the notepaper. If a commercial project, I'll include the prices of the components and where I got them, so I can source them again; a tally of the final cost is simple and helps me to figure out wholesale or retail pricing. The piece above is a great example: a cheap cabachon ($5) because it seems to have a 'flaw' - but I saw it as nopportunity to pair with a perfectly shaped droplet of fire agate that will look like it 'dripped' out of the agate . . . ('GG' as the source is Galarneau's Gems; Jerry Galarneau is my favorite cab maker if I am not able to make my own.)

In between projects I place all the parts in the bag (usually in smaller bags, to protect stones and metal) and store in a tall baker's rack on wheels - the shelves are huge baking sheets; each shelf holds 50 or more bags and there is room for 15 shelves, though I use many  of them for bead and found object storage as well.

Finally, I file finished projects in a three-ring binder with a photo of the piece, so I have a record system that makes repeat projects much easier.

The creative process (2): found object bracelet

Earlier in May I wrote about my creative process, and used as an example a collection of found objects (weathered copper and stones from a beach on the Sea of Cortez).

After sitting on my workbench for five months, I finally set about working them into a piece of jewelry today.

The second step for me (after playing with my piles of objects for days or weeks or months, until an idea 'gels') is to lay out all the bits and see if my idea will result - practically - into jewelry.

I wrote about how I envisioned the flat stones and copper as a linked bracelet, so that's what I set out to do. I sealed the copper with satin Krylon clear, to keep it from reacting when in contact with skin (salts and perspiration would cause an adverse reaction, both to the jewelry and to the skin).

I laid out the found stones (flat pieces of shale, in lavender and terra cotta colors) with the copper and started playing with the colors. Musing on shapes, textures, and colors, I then went to my considerable stash of stones and objects and started pulling out other pieces that might work well to add to the storyline: rainbow hematite, amber, amethyst, opal, iolite, copper, and a piece of blue-green glass.

Happy with the colors, I then started cutting out the copper into pieces I thought would work for bracelet links. It is very brittle, so the saw didn't work very well - it worked better to carefully snip with tin snips. 

All joins will have to be 'cold' (without a torch or solder, since that would destroy the copper patina), so I marked where I will rivet or use miniature bolts to connect the layers. I like the look, colors, and textures . . . but I began to worry about the fragility of the pieces. The copper is very brittle, and the stones might not stand up well to the abuse a bracelet must withstand.

So I started considering making it a necklace . . . I mused on a metal chain, then started playing with cord and ribbon - I thought the contrast might be nice with the rough stones and patinaed copper. 

At this point, I started another project, since I want to mull this one over a bit before continuing . . . 

The creative process

The creative process fascinates me almost as much as colors, textures, and patterns. By 'process' I mean how one makes the journey from raw materials to finished art. Each artist has his or her own preferred method for inspiration, planning, and execution. I don't know how typical my process is, but I'm going to try to catalog it as much as I can, because I find it fascinating.

To begin the process, one must have the materials (whether it is jewelry or food, one has to have the basics on hand). As an artist interested in many media, I collect just about anything - stones, beads, textiles, beetle wings, feathers, scrap metal, shells, seeds. They reside in my studio in baskets or boxes or out in the yard in little piles. 

The next step is to have lots of inspirational material at hand - magazines, books, websites. I have hundreds of books on jewelry, art, and other visual inspiration (textiles, photography). I also buy magazines like Ornament, Lapidary Journal / Jewelry Artist, Art Jewelry Magazine, Stampington's line of publications - Altered Couture, Artful Blogging, and Belle Armoire Jewelry, to name just a few. I flip through them (like I do recipe books and food magazines) during lunch or at night. The ideas just sift around in my head. 

When I have just a little time to create - or I am giving myself 'permission' to create (that is, when I'm not fully engaged in a large contract for a client, or an event) - I notice that a part of my brain becomes locked in to seeing colors, textures, and patterns and processing them, no matter what I am doing at the time. I can be eating, sleeping, walking - and an idea just pops into my head. It can be jewelry, clothing, food - anything. 

When a specific idea comes to me that I like, I keep a journal for sketching my ideas.

Then, when I set aside time to create, I head out to my studio and set out my current piles and sketches and I start fiddling with the bits and pieces . . . and the funny thing is, I can set out to create a bracelet but I might end up making a dyed and embellished scarf. I try not to force things, to "have" to do what I set out to do. This makes the whole art process so much more enjoyable to me.

The photos above are a collection of small pieces of slate, obsidian, bottle glass, and weathered copper sheet found on a beach in Mexico.  This pile has been sitting on a corner of my workbench for months . . . when I'm on the phone, I sift and sort and play with the bits. I've been waiting for ideas to solidify. The copper is gorgeously, naturally patinated and I want to get it just right.

Right now I'm leaning toward a bracelet incorporating the small pieces of slate alternating with the copper sheet somehow. I like the verdigris, warm peach, and lilac colors together. I'm envisioning silver bezels or frames . . . and link connectors, for a loose bracelet. It hasn't quite 'gelled' yet, so we'll see.

As this project progresses, I'll continue to share in the process.