This weekend marks the newest installment of Crafty Bastards, Washington D.C.'s aptly named festival of all things craft. I was fortunate enough to do a piece for the Washington City Paper/Crafty Bastards printed program on Ian Henderson, who is a jewelry artist that blows my mind....hard. Ian creates brooches, rings, necklaces and other pieces out of repurposed aluminum wire and the rubber insulation from the wire. He's inspired by the beautiful/protective armor worn by insects, crustaceans and other creepy crawlies.
The thing about Ian's Zoa Chimerum jewelry is that it's surprising in just about every way that it can possibly be. The pieces are all made to MOVE as the wearer moves. They're also intricately/obsessively craft. Did I mention that they're SOFT? Yup... what looks like a spiky exoskeleton is made out of soft rubber insulation. It's impossible not to touch them, flex them and play with them.
Here's a short excerpt from the interview. The entire interview can be found HERE.
Are there details of your work that casual viewers might miss?
The tactile quality. Most casual viewers do not pick up my jewelry unless I invite them to, because the pieces appear delicate and sharp. When they give in to my insistence and touch them, however, they discover that they are actually quite durable and soft. They are delighted to run their fingers along the flexible spines and feel them spring back into place…Visually, the details create the rhythm in the pieces, so while they are individually unremarkable, their relationship to one another is very important. In that way, the viewer might not notice all of the individual elements, but rather the way they harmonize with one another.
What can you tell us about the line between beauty and danger that your work explores?
It’s interesting that the things we are traditionally repulsed by, when viewed in great detail, have elements within them that to most eyes are extremely beautiful—for example, the compound eye of a butterfly, the delicate veining of a dragonfly’s wings, the curvature and fractal rhythms of an uncoiling fern. There’s a certain beauty in them, and I’m fascinated by the fact that these tiny, delicate things often have poisons, weaponry, or other offensive/defensive weapons that are disproportionately severe to the scale of the animal or plant. These are tiny, fragile things that are extremely vulnerable and can be destroyed almost unconsciously by the more lumbering, overt creatures of the earth. The only way for these delicate things to have any right to exist in this world is by being deadly to the larger creatures that live around them.
Check out Ian's website HERE
Check out the original interview HERE
Check out Crafty Bastards HERE
People are amazing. That's a constant refrain of Extreme Craft--my constant wonder at the amazing things that people make when given the time, fabric, thread and gumption to turn out a masterpiece. Yesterday, Claire and I were trawling through garage sales in the Victorian village of Ferndale, looking for baby stuff. At one of the last sales we hit, we found this amazing handmade Mr. T doll.
The woman who made the doll had actually made three of them back in the day. They've been sitting in boxes for around twenty years, waiting for the right people to come and "adopt" them. I can't begin to tell you how wonderful this doll is--all of the seams are triple-stitched, the eyes have this kind Buddha-esque look in them. The bling is beautifully rendered out of chains and elastic gold thread. Magnifique!
We plan on leaving this in our nursery to perplex our forthcoming baby. May she wonder about the other babies out there with beards and jewelry.
Best. Garage. Sale. Score. Ever.
It's hard to put the gravity of the situation in Japan into words. Otsuchi, which is the sister city of Fort Bragg (a nearby California town), was completely destroyed in the tsunami that followed the earthquake. Our campus and the nearby communities are raising money through the website Otsuchi.org. There are tons of craft and art-based benefits going on to benefit the relief effort, but I wanted to highlight Handmade for Japan, which was organized by potter Ayumi Horie (who organized the Obamaware benefit a couple of years ago).
The benefit, which takes the shape of a 4-day eBay auction, features heavy-hitters from the ceramics world including Betty Woodman, Jun Kaneko...and even a small iron-glazed vase from legendary Japanese potter Hamada Shoji (who passed away in 1978). There are also prints and drawings in the auction--including drawings from Nancy Blum and Lisa Congdon.
All profits from the sale will go to GlobalGiving's relief efforts in Japan. Hurry! The auctions will end on Sunday, March 27th at 8:00 pm EST.
LINK thanks Ayumi!
Holy shit! I'm left speechless by this "energy saving" kiln ad from a 1976 issue of Ceramics Monthly. I don't know why the "Crusader" isn't the dominant kiln on the market in 2011!
I thought you might enjoy this ad for the tres "Whole Earth Catalog" ad for a DIY "Volkswheel" pottery wheel from a 1978 issue of Ceramics Monthly. Marketing isn't quite what it used to be.
The Dream Dreamed Me by Virginia Fleck, recycled plastic bags
It's been a crazy couple of weeks for me. I apologize for the lack of new content on Extreme Craft. I was speaking at ReuseConEx, the first reuse conference that brought together politicians, policy wonks, activists and artists to see how everyone could get together to promote reuse instead of merely recycling.
Reuse is less energy-intensive and more cost-effective than recycling. Houses can be deconstructed into their component parts, which can then be reused in new construction. Reuse makes sense no matter how you look at it.
Artists have been involved in reuse for as long as there have been artists. Creative reuse in art may not be the way to save the world, but it is the best way to communicate the message behind reuse. Last year, I released my first book, 1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse, which is a collection of 1000 images of jewelry, clothing, art, design and technological geekery. As a follow-up to the book, I was asked to curate an exhibition based on the book for the American Conservation Film Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.
The result is Renewal Notice, which features 32 artists from the book. Featured artists include Circe Torosian, Virginia Fleck, Krista Stumph, Alicia L. Woods, Jessica Plymate (Aaorta Apparel), Caitlin Phillips (Rebound Designs), Claire Joyce, Mandy Curl (Mandinka Designs), Marcy Bruce (Mae Henry), Sweater Hospital by fibrevolution, Kelly Wakefield-Beytia (Tresijas), Becky Johnson (Sweetie Pie Press), Valerie William, Christine Terrell, Dana Damm, Globalcoolo by Patrizia Iacino, Harriete Estel Berman, Juliet Ames (The Broken Plate Pendant Company), Kristin Lora, Monica Topping (Rock Chick Designs), Dan Jones (Tinkerbots), Henry Owings, Jim Rosenau (This into That), Jeff Davis (Vinylux), Christine Claringbold (Eye Pop Art), Boris Bally, Amanda Siska (Bread and Badger), Bryant Holsenbeck, Pattie Chalmers, Ben Schachter, Stanton Hunter, and Margaux Lange and Hilary Pfeifer.
The Exhibition will be held from November 4-7 at the gallery of the historic War Memorial Building in Shepherdstown. Shepherdstown is located 1 1/2 hours from Washington D.C. and Baltimore.
Recycle 2 Vibrant Orange Bracelet by Harriette Estelle Berman, recycled plastic (photo by Emiko Oye)
Lone Star Beer Ring by Christine Terrell, upcycled litho steel
Credit Card Cardinal by Bryant Holsenbeck, Recycled Credit Cards
Monite Man by Dan Jones (Tinkerbots), Found Objects
D.P.W. Platter by Boris Bally, re-used traffic signs, copper rivets
Since this is a film festival, I'm including a short video program in the exhibition, featuring videos by Claire Joyce, Jim Rosenau, Hilary Pfeifer, Krista Stumph and Bryant Holsenbeck.
If you live in the Washington D.C. area or in West Virginia, I'd love to see you at the festival! Contact me at garth (at) extremecraft.com if you'd like more information. There will also be a lecture and book signing on Friday, November 5th.
A big thank you goes out to all of the participating artists and the folks at the film festival. I'm looking forrard to spending a few days up in the mountains with some great art. See you in Shepherdstown!
In addition to living in earthquake country, I happen to live in Humboldt County, the capitol of pot culture in the U.S. It seems like every month or so, MSNBC, Fox or the LA Times puts out an article or segment whipping the public into a frenzy about grow houses and Mexican drug gangs that are out to behead innocent grannies. One "documentary" actually followed a DEA agent through a National Park as he talked about the drug gangs. When he stumbled onto a grow site, he actually pointed to a tortilla wrapper and a sexy Mexican novella as evidence that MS 13 is out to grow jazz tea and hunt your grandmother with their machetes.
What these articles never seem to do is focus on the POSITIVE. I'm not just talking about the increased availability of tasty baked goods and chocolate in our area.
What Humboldt county DOES have is a bunch of amazing glass artists. The need for smoking accessories brings out the artistic (and entrepreneurial) side of many of our residents.
I honestly had no idea that there was such a large subculture of glass artists focusing on stretching the boundaries of glass pipes, but it doesn't surprise me. The above YouTube clip is a trailer for a forthcoming documentary about pipe culture by M. Slinger called Degenerate Art: The Art and Culture of Glass Pipes. Holocaust-insensitive title aside, the scene seems to be ripe for some documentation, and perhaps some appreciation from the rest of the art and craft world.
As you might guess, function is somewhat arbitrary in many of the pieces that come out of this scene. An $8,000 glass pipe is really no different than what ceramic artists have been doing with teapots for years. Nobody is going to brew up a steaming pot of tea in a Sergei Isupov teapot, so the lack of functional use shouldn't be a deal-breaker.
In fact, the function of these pipes is mostly metaphorical. Slinger and his fellow glass artists are philosophical when it comes to function....as they have to be so as not to end up like Tommy Chong. The pipes will be displayed and treasured by collectors, monuments to human creation...and the impulse to change the situation one's situation is in.
A few years back, many of the glass artists featured in the documentary came together in Arcata, the town next to me, to work on a gigantic collaborative pipe sculpture. The creation of the "sculpture" is documented on Slinger's website, thataintart.com.
Lots of the work that comes out of this network of artists is free of day-glo head shop kitsch, but some of the artists take kitschy psychedelic imagery and warp it back on itself. Many of the artists profiled in the documentary have been showing their work together in fine art galleries, inviting both the scrutiny and increased attention that broader exposure can bring. It seems like some of the artists actually know their way around an artist statement!
The quasi-legal nature of their art is all part of the fun. I can't wait to see the artists talk about their run-ins with the law in the documentary. Slinger and Co. have also started a book imprint called Grit City that sells beautiful monographs about their art. Their first book was entitled "Smoked", and it has already sold out. A second volume of "Smoked" will be coming out this summer.
C'mon, Corning Glass Museum! C'mon, Pilchuck! It's time for you to ditch the second-rate Chihuly knock-offs and prove that you're down with some real glass art. What are you ashamed of? As for the rest of you.... it's time you stopped living like you did when you were in college. You know you can afford to ditch the crunched up beer can or hollowed-out apple and invest in some real functional art.
LINK to Degenerate Art show at the Mark Wooley Gallery
The C word is misunderstood.
The C word is a work of art.
The C word is cutting edge.
The C word is passed down from generation to generation.
The C word is desireable
The C word is unique.
I'm fairly bursting with things to share with you that I didn't get to post on Extreme Craft during my unintended hiatus. At the top of the list is writing about a campaign by craftscotland, an outgrowth of the Scottish Arts Council.
This one minute short is just one of the efforts by craftscotland's new CEO, Emma Walker, to build awareness of craft in Scotland. The spicy ad campaign, entitled "The C Word" has been rapturously received by the public in the UK, as it has been spread through television airings, as a trailer before movies, and of course, virally.
They do things different in Scotland...at least craftscotland does. Craftscotland is sneaking their message into as many places as possible, including placing Scottish craft onto movie sets, commercials and other unlikely (but highly visible) venues. The organization understands that craft has a brilliant history in Scotland, but it also occupies a significant place in contemporary culture. By calling the campaign "The C Word", craftscotland is commenting on the fact that until recently, many artists and craftspeople cringed when they heard the word. In the United States, prominent museums and learning institutions dropped the name "craft" from their names, just when a major craft resurgence was brewing. I would suspect that the term "craft" had similar associations in Scotland.
Just as gay rights activists reclaimed the "Q" word and African-Americans tried reclaiming the "N" word, craftscotland is bringing together generations of makers and a new generation of eco-conscious consumer, rallying them around "the C word". I certainly didn't need a government organization to empower and legitimize me, but it's interesting to see the suits taking notice.
I live in an area where handmade is more than a marketing ploy--it's a way of life. People all over the world are discovering that the C word is above all....sexy.
