In My Studio: Reflections

When I create one of my oriel pendants it's because I am drawn to a specific image -- I like its color, its shape, its symbolic interpretations, the feelings it brings up in me. These could be feelings of reverence, humor, desire, joy, longing, wildness, adventure, beauty. My pendants are often iconic and people often react to them on this level. Something resonates and is representative of their inner workings -- their hopes, wishes, dreams, desires, loves, passion. When I wear one of my pendants I feel connected to something deep inside of me. I am remembering and celebrating perhaps a part of myself that needs acknowledgment and honoring -- celebrating. People have shared with me that they buy my oriels because something resonates within them as well. I like this exchange. I like this -- I like that they are drawn to a mirror of something positive within themselves and they desire ti acknowledge it and share it with the world.

"Virginia Mary" ItsyBitsy Oriel Pendant

This ItsyBitsy Oriel image is from a portion of a frieze found in a Santa Fe church. Whether you are religious or not, there is an undeniable sense of peace, or calmness that is communicated through such icons. They seem to capture and communicate a vibration of centeredness. In a world such as ours -- one filled with hope, despair, beauty, ugliness, discord, unity -- all swirling around us -- I like to make jewelry with images that remind me of the journey that I find myself on.

WOO_WOO!!!!

Success! I can't believe it! I just took my first set of photos -- I think this is great! This is a photo of one of my newest oriel pendants: Siddhartha. I photographed it flat, on top of a handmade journal. I set up the camera directly over the pendant -- no flash, macro setting.

Look how clear it is! No glass reflection. OH MY GOD!!!! This could become addictive! It's still not exactly what I want -- for instance it appears a bit washed out. If any photo experts out there run across this post, please feel free to comment! YAHOO!!!

Photos, Fear, and Timing

One of the things I have struggled with as an artist is how to "capture" the items I create. I have felt totally passive about this since I started creating art back in 1982. I never seemed to make it a priority to buy a camera: I had other more important pastimes (like riding and the upkeep of owning horses) that ate up what little money I was generating. So I reluctantly would have to beg, borrow and steal to hire someone to take photos of my artwork.

When I launched my Etsy shop, Kentucky Girl -- I made do by either scanning my oriel pendants, or even xeroxing them, then scanning those copies and uploading them to the my shop. I agonized over what type of camera to buy. I searched the online groups, the Etsy forum, asked friends who were camera buffs their opinions, and it all just drove me crazy. Hyperventilation even. I couldn't make up my mind.

Finally last summer, my brother Jesse (who is less video/camera/computer challenged than me) came in town and held my hand metaphorically, and we went out together to find a camera. A friend had recommended Seawood Photo in San Anselmo (CA), and we hooked up with the salesman Don Kennedy (who actually was at one time a real-life jewelry photographer -- imagine that!). Dan recommended the Canon Powershot, which I bought, and a "Photo Studio In-A-Box" set that included lights, camera stand, backgrounds, nylon diffuser screen -- everything I could possibly need to take plausible photos of my jewelry.

Have I unpacked the box? NO! Have I studied the manual of my Powershot? NO! This is serious -- we are talking drag your ass as long as possible here!

But tonight I'm making progress -- I unpacked and set up the photo studio. I've got my camera manual and I'm ready to rock! Let's see what happens!

What would it feel like to not be so concerned with timing? What would it be like to just feel my mane blowing in the wind?

Blogging, Intention, Results

A successful day in the studio yesterday -- my friend Michael came over and photographed me at work, and just seemed to have a fun old time playing with his camera. Michael's kind of like me in that he left a great love (his, photography; mine, creating art) behind a number of years ago and is just getting back to it. Actually, I've been hammering him about it for a few years, and keep trying to create situations so he gets the chance to use it, not lose it. And I get photos of myself or my artwork. So far we are both happy about it. We may even collaborate on some piece of art together on down the road.

So, what I'm aware of is that I have achieved at least three things that I set as goals in earlier posts: clean up my art studio; meet with Linadria around marketing my jewelry biz; and have Michael photograph the studio. Yahooooo! Why there seems to be a trend here -- just set a goal in a blog entry, go see what happens, then write about the results. Intention does work -- at least in cyberworld! Magic!

The 3-D Oriel posted above, The Actress and the Critic, was finished this week, too. You can find it in my Etsy Kentucky Girl Shop.

A Continuous Process, But Not Linear!

Well, I cleaned up my studio as good as I could to make my deadline meeting with Linadria, and all in all I think I gave her a pretty good sense of how I go about making my oriel pendants. I was a tad nervous of being watched as I soldered...I kept thinking I had to hurry...or be perfect....But I realized that wasn't the issue, the challenge was to stay present and to let things flow. We spent time talking "biz", the different avenues to explore, possibilities of where this small jewelry business of mine might go -- but the time was more about putting our two bodies in the same place and to see where things went in the moment.

My intention is to see my business grow as an expression of my self. And there is no accident that the most challenging part of the hour was describing for her who Kentucky Girl is -- she wanted to get a sense of what that name meant to me. For those who read, or will read these posts, Kentucky Girl was one of the names I chose for my business name, but then I got a lot of feedback that it really didn't fit my image or teh things I made. However, I wanted to get a shop up in Etsy right away (this was March 08) so I named the shop Kentucky Girl (see link) and figured if I sat with the whole thing for a bit, a more professional name would appear. It did: Oriel Pendants (more on that later) is my registered business name, but I still like Kentucky Girl!

Isn't this funny...I have spent my whole life searching for who I really am...the person or being that I am under all the trappings (born in Kentucky, an elderly mother, 1 brother, 1 sister, married twice, divorced once, live in California, etc., etc.), and I'm just not ready to get rid of the Kentucky in me. Who says I have to right now? Life is and has been and will be a continuous process, and learning who you really are is not linear! I am becoming closer, though, I can just about feel it...

What would it feel like to not doubt who I am? To feel my mane blowing in the wind?

Oriel: Mairzy Doats with Beaded Necklace. See at Etsy Kentucky Girl Shop.