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All 25 people who left a comment on this post will receive a one month free trial membership to the Artist Lounge Level when it launches later this month. I’ll let you know when your membership is active. Congratulations to all and many thanks for your participation!
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Most people grab a pencil or pen when they want to draw. Celia Smith grabs recycled wire instead, utilizing its malleable nature to draw her favorite subject.
Walking Puffin 9.8″ tall copper wire, telephone cabling
Smith’s three-dimensional drawings of birds capture the essence of each animal’s character while giving the viewer a sense of movement.
Lapwings 9.8″ tall copper wire, telephone cabling
Curlew Calling, 27.6″ x 15″ wire wall drawing, copper wire, rusty steel netting
She often creates small wire studies right in front of her subjects. Love that.
Studies of Guillmots, approx 4.5″ tall, copper wire
Guillmot, 14″ tall, copper wire, fabric coated telephone wires
“I use wire to create sculptures. Each sculpture that I make is a three-dimensional drawing with the wires representing a quality of line. Birds are my main inspiration; capturing their movement and character is my primary concern. I find that wire has a spontaneity that can give my sculptures a feeling of life and energy.”
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When Angela Jarman was in college she became aware of recent developments in science and how those developments were applied in different areas including nature, genetic modification and cloning. Jarman brought this awareness to her work, choosing to explore the “more sinister side of these new cell technologies.”
Nap
Limpet
She limits her color palette to ensure that the emphasis on the sculpture and jewelry remains on form, texture and structure. Utilizing the lost wax casting technique, she is able to combine sculptural artistry with technical skill creating “. . . pieces which have a sense of beauty, but which also have a quality about them which makes them slightly strange & disturbing, with a lurking sense of unease.”
You won’t find Jarman’s most recent work on her website – check out Adrian Sassoon for those images.
Flora Growth II
Polar
The video below shows more of the lost wax technique and gives you insight into the artist’s process.
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Yesterday I posted a picture to my personal Facebook profile of a piece of driftwood with worm markings that I found while walking on the beach. The driftwood was fascinating, however the bed of rocks it was laying on is what ultimately sparked a conversation. It seems many of us are compelled to touch, collect, stack and drill beautiful beach pebbles – or in Andrea Williams’ case – inlay them with recycled silver and gold to create stunning, award-winning jewelry.
Kebyar Grass Necklace
“This necklace finds its inspiration in moonlight shining on the open field. The beachstones are carved and inlaid with reclaimed sterling silver. I then fabricate and rivet links onto the back of each stone.”
Williams’ Kebyar Grass Necklace, first place winner in the Saul Bell Design Awards, Bead Category, is a stunning example of this technique. I’ve long been a fan of her work and wrote about about the jewelry three years ago, and now the artist takes beach-pebble jewelry to another level with her latest collection.
Kebyar Blossom Necklace
“This piece was inspired by Japanese Byobu screens and the minimalist landscapes often portrayed in them. For this piece I inlaid reclaimed/recycled 18k gold and Venetian glass into found beach stones.”
Sa Wedding Ring Set
“When placed together these rings reform to make a complete stone. This takes the concept of the unbroken circle that is a wedding band and adds a new symbolism that two joined together make a greater whole. These rings are fabricated from a single found beach stone and lined with reclaimed 18k gold.”
Mizu Necklace
“Mizu is the Japanese word for water. A gentle current flows around this necklace, made of beach stones inlaid with reclaimed sterling, and hand pulled venetian glass.”
Kebyar Growth Necklace
This morning’s post marks a milestone on DAM – it is the 3,000th post. The posts represent approximately 8,100 hours of research, writing and editing, cataloging my survey of the best in contemporary fine craft.
I still have so much more to share with you, but first, I want you to taste more of the DAM experience. . .
DAM’s dashboard shows 2,999 posts – that number will flip to 3,000 with today’s post!
As you know, on June 1st 2,800 archived posts became part of a new Members-Only area on DAM (read more about that here).
To celebrate today’s milestone, I am giving 15 artists a FREE ONE MONTH TRIAL MEMBERSHIP TO THE ARTIST LOUNGE LEVEL after it launches later this month. Artist Lounge includes a private forum for conversation with other artists, interviews, advice from experts in the business of art, full access to the archives and more.
To enter, leave a comment on this post by midnight EST - tell me what you think about the pebble jewelry above, or tell me what DAM has meant to you, or tell me what you would like to see more of on DAM, or tell me anything you want me to know – just leave a comment on this post by midnight tonight EST (June 6, 2011) to be entered into the giveaway for a one month Artist Lounge Level trial membership on DAM!
Have a great day – see you back here tomorrow for more inspiring art on Daily Art Muse.
