'The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources'

What I have to blog about, jewellery wise, are my ideas, plans and mental wanderings. Like many I've let promotion get in the way of making, and that, fellow makers, has not worked for me. Stock making, flexing of hands and squinting of eyes are now the order of the day. Eventually I'll get it all balanced, along with a rewarding job, and shine, a crafting beacon. Of which there are a number, and greatly admired by me, especially when they are good enough to share their knowledge and experience, like Haptree.

My ideas are penciled into my sketch pad which sits on my desk or by my bed. I wish it's thick creamy paper could be covered by someone with skill and with whole pictures so that it could exist to it's full potential. To assuage my guilt I have just started using my Inkscape software to doodle in vectors. Having built stocks of beads, lovely, lovely beads, I've decided that my usp (humour me?) will be wire. Not Eni Oken style wire wrapping and art, but just using different guage wires to create shapes and patterns with differing finishes and textures. Like

With Einsteins (see post title) words playing on my mind, I wasn't sure whether or not to post about my current designs. I realise there is vanity here. After all, I am not a great or well promoted (ahem) talent , so any worries of my designs suddenly appearing in shops or catwalks are a tad indulgent. However, I support the ideal that a designer should enjoy producing their own designs, and if they desire, licensing the right to copy. Even tiny, beginner makers like me. I hoped to gain the wisdom of others, but, pushed to think for myself * brain grinds away *: reckon they're only mine, no big shakes, and hey, the blog is dated with my logo on the pics...Plus i find it interesting reading other people's blogs setting out their creative process -  Diomoglass, Averilpam and amyorangejuice to name but three
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I'd also love to hear what you think. Would you consider wearing any of them of them yourself (probably not the boys)?

From the top and left to right:
Kuromatsu as it is based on the shapes of the Japanese pine. Brass or copper wire with maybe some green coated copper wire to weave through one 'head' or to wrap round the bottom of all components. Probably oxidised (with eggs!)
Plumage (?) based on 'song' but with longer 'scales'. Mix of copper and brass wire, with some oxidised and /or hammered
Mirror (?) Silver wire, repeated shape, textured but left satin or shiny. Possibly using some wee mirrors I have.
Tori - based on a Japanese print (from Pattern Sourcebook, Japanese style) and the kanji for 'bird', which shows a little beak pointed right up in the air. Probably in silver and brass, with or without a branch. Not sure yet.
Pod (?) Lovely simple geometric shapes in brass, some hammered flat, some hammered with texture and using some beads to unbalance the piece a little more. Started on this one.
Grid (?) Simple and inspired simply by wire properties - it's lengths and plasticity. Hammer flat wire bent at 90 and wrapped once round any other tracks. May use silver, with one 'track' of brass and maybe one of copper. Ends will be bent over for comfort...

Kumo - little Japanese cloud with 5 raindrops / blue sky and a shaft of sun. I've changed the design in making it, as I expect to do with the others. A simple design, but not too similar to other clouds - i checked having make the cloud shaped, so hope I'm right and not stepping on toes.
Gan - means wild geese in Japanese. Will use fine chain to link the bottom two birds. not sure which wire yet - are they in daylight, or catching the setting sunlight...?
Maze - simple large, bold spiral. Nothing else. Probably in copper - and will make today. hurrah. Probably hanging from simple copper chain.

I have components or proto-components of all, but can't wait to get making and tweaking and deciding what to hang them from - chain, cord or handmade chain like Greenfinch? Planning in Inskscape has helped me work out proportion and placing, and how and where the components might be connected.

To finish, some other quotes on creativity:

In the spirit of a recent thread on Folksy - on worry and perfectionism:

“The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates.”

Oscar Wilde

 

Something, maybe, for the banking and investment institutions and those in power who perpetuate the myth.

“Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.”

Einstein

Cough ... stepping down from my soap box,

“The creative person is both more primitive and more cultivated, more destructive, a lot madder and a lot saner, than the average person.”

Frank Barron - a civil engineer, i think.

 

A prod for me to get making...

“Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work.”

Rita Mae Brown, writer

Cat

Rose is a rose is a rose (or, naming a necklace)

  "... she would carve on the tree Rose is a Rose is a Rose is a Rose is a Rose until it went all the way around." (The World is Round)

I understand Gertrude Stein used this phrase or variants of it through her work. I don't pretend to know as much about her writing as I should, but enjoyed the evolution of meaning which she and others gave to 'rose is a rose is a rose', and the room it gives us to play with language and sense. It's circularity, of illuminating difference, departs from traditional lineal (patrilineal) structure. I like this because I am a bit of a feminist.

There is a connection between this reading of 'a rose is a rose is a rose' and my recent process of naming a necklace. I acknowledge that one has weight to it, and one is mere frippery. Sorry. However, I do now want to find out more, which has got to be good, right...?

Part of my creative challenge, right at the end of making a piece of jewellery (and right before the practical challenges of pricing, photographing and listing) is finding a name for it, in one word. Usually this is as easy as looking into the face of a new born infant and realising that s/he was a 'Stevie'. Sometimes I struggle. Although my struggles should be with more important matters, like money and mind and food shopping these are the places my brain skipped through:

Demin (colour of pearls) > Cowgirl (bit of sparkle and denim) > Southern Belle (necklace is too perdy for a hardworking cowgirl) > Debutante (a southern belle is a debutante is a southern belle, and for the white rose) > Georgia (the white rose is a symbol of the state) > Trueblue  (like a virgin and Madonna's demin and lace era (I think)) >> the white rose is used as symbol for Virgin Mary >>> Virolai is a hymn sang to the Virgin of Montserrat and begins 'April rose...'

So, there you have it: white rose and Mary blue = Virolai. Does anyone else go through this kind of process every once in a while, or should I go see Dr (boo, hiss) Freud?

From Wikipedia:

• "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose." (Sacred Emily, Geography and Plays)
• "Do we suppose that all she knows is that a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose." (Operas and Plays)
• "A rose tree may be a rose tree may be a rosy rose tree if watered." (Alphabets and Birthdays)
• "When I said.

A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.

And then later made that into a ring I made poetry and what did I do I caressed completely caressed and addressed a noun." (Lectures in America)

Tippety tap - an elfin anvil

My Da gave me his father's steel block so I'd have a solid base for my hammering activities. Here it is, pictured with my bettered (hammered on my new block) Daisy earrings. It has gorgeous colour ... and surface texture. It's the size of a brick, reassuringly weighty and, now, retired.

I've started working with fine silver wire, because I reckon I'm pretty much good enough to, and need a sleek, smooth and respectable surface. A week ago my new, drop forged, case hardened (uhuh) anvil arrived. Right at the bottom of the ~20x20cm box and hidden by about five foam peanuts.

What a tiny piece of kit. OK, I bought it from tinytools (good, quick delivery), but this wee thing nestles in my hand, and is hard to spot on my desk. However, I speak up for tiny things (from down here, at five feet three two and a half), when i say, friends, it does the job. Perfectly. Lovely wee thing. Here it is, with Da's old hammer (also once his dad's) and my polite and new hammer, for dainty whackery

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Look - I also made the whole of this 20inch necklace on it. Great textured surface, and no health and safety issues when lifting.

Getting pictures right - all the software

Hello crafters,

It might be useful/interesting for me to list the processes I go though before posting a pic on my Picasa galleries or on Folksy. It might be pitiful. It certainly isn't as good as it can be. But here it is:

1) Go get husband's camera from drawer downstairs. It has anti-handshake magic. Thank you Cannon Ixus

2) Peer out window to look for sun. Look left, look right, as it must be somewhere...

3) If adequate sun found, quickly set up enormous (about 1m sq) 'mini' light tent. It's good quality for the money and plenty of it (Hama mini photo-studio). Squeeze my fabric down the back to give my 1970s sci-fi look, which I feel balances the earthy hessian

4) Set up extra day-light lights around tent

5) Put dogs on bed and give them a meaningful look, which they understand to mean, 'this is work, and I am the pack leader. Do not move from your current positions'.

note/ Dogs are clean, non shedding, non sneezifying beasts, and support UK crafting.

6) Set up shot. Lie on belly a) to steady camera and b) cos the tent is so big it can only go on the floor. Be careful to adopt a position that does not disturb dogs, who are now laying on the floor with good view of proceedings.

7) Take many pictures

8) Download and winnow away the husking rubbish (out of focus shots etc)

9) Cup of tea

10) Use Cannon Zoombrowser (free with camera and downloadable online)  software to crop photos. It allows you to do this by pixels, which is really handy as you can get an exact square. I also tweak contrast, saturation and light to make sure the pic is as clear as possible. I started by upping the light too much, which lost colour and looked anemic. I'm use contrast more now - and I mean only 1-3 steps up or down - because that achieves clearness without losing colour (to my eyes).I save the edited pics with 'sq_' prefix in 'Folksy ready' folder. I am a bit of a nerd.

note/ Folksy squares off non-square pics when they are uploaded, and it's not guaranteed that the best bits will remain. Your Folksy shop looks smart because of the squareness, but it's best to crop oneself before uploading


11) Use Faststone (freeware) to resize if necessary and to add a watermark. It is really easy to use and enables users to change batches of pics at once: batch renaming, cropping, watermarking, resizing and so on. I use Inkscape (freeware of course) to create the logos and lettering which make up the watermark (and headers, avatars pics etc etc)

note/ Following a helpful Folksy post about copyright I've added '© Cat McCracken Jewellery' to the logo. To get a © symbol (such fun I did it again) put the number lock on, hold down 'alt' and, using the number keyboard on the right, type in 0169. 'Tidy', says my inner welshwoman (really).

12) Use Gimp (Freeware? Yes, of course) to edit out any dust particles. Very quick and easy.

13) Check photos. Get rid of any stragglers not spotted before

14) Cup of tea

Commission sent, received and liked!

It's a little nerve wracking to make something to order, especially if contact is online only. But I've just finished a set for a lady in Bucks, following email communication only and it has gone very well.

* has cup of tea and helps self to a smile *

The necklace, earring and bracelet set is to be worn at a wedding, and is called Alice. There is a wee teapot charm amongst the bracelet beads ... so you see the connection?

It's based on an earlier necklace, called Space and used
the same satin wave beads with swarovski, grey silver foil and general pattern. The bracelet used 70 wrapped beads so is wonderfully shaky and jangly.

Feedback from the lovely lady included 'really listened to what I wanted', and 'professionally made and finished'. Wonderful to hear. She is also going to spread the word if and when she gets the chance at the wedding. Marvelous!

One lesson from email commissions - descriptions, questions and 'through the process' pics took longer than I imagined to carry out. Therefore profit dropped. But overall, a good experience!

Oxidisation with eggs

My skin is sensitive so I don't fancy using something from a bottle which requires me to wear gloves. Also, I haven't had eggs for a while. So, I hard boiled three big ones, left one in a well-sealed plastic container with some bits and bobs and sat down to enjoy the other two. Eggs taste good.

Hypothosis: Certain base metals, when sealed in a container with a cooked (large and free-range) egg, will oxidise and change appearance.

Method: On my first trial I left some silver-plated beads, some 'silver-plated' charms and some ready-hammered copper pieces which just looked too eager in their raw, shiny state.

Results: After about one hour the exposed surface of dimple beads was green/grey, and the copper had patches of dark brown. No change to the charms. After about one afternoon the copper was blackened fairly consistently over surface, the dimple beads still looked alarming and there was no change to the charms.


Conclusion: The charms were silvertone, and not silver-plated. Bad show. The copper did very well, but my method when trying to oxidise silver-plate needed refining.

As you can see, the copper has a little more about it - this pic was taken after brushing and polishing some of the 'eggsidisation' off.


Note: the next day I tried brass. After about 2 hours it had darkened nicely.

Having enjoyed my two eggs during the previous day's experiment I decided to boil an extra three - THREE - for myself to eat. Result: I no longer like the idea of eating eggs.