In my last two blog posts, I talk about something I made up—my Aha String Theory—where a series of Aha Moments make up an Aha String. The third of my three moments came to me during a podcast interview that Ricë Freeman-Zachery did with Keith LoBue, the American Stuffsmith and jeweler living in Australia.
Keith is also one of my very top work influences and wrote the forward for my latest book, Steel Wire Jewelry.
All three of these Aha Moments have to do with the “rules” of art and jewelry making—or at least my preconceived notions (either by what is custom to the practice, or what I’ve gathered in this little artist’s head during my almost 49 years).
My first two Aha Moments were inspired by Christi Friesen and Sally Bass. Christi identified how completely new methods to working materials can be achieved by an approach from a disparate background, and Sally freed me up with the notion that having no prejudice of materials or technique opens up new vistas.
Keith furthered Sally’s notion of “no prejudice” in his ultra-Keith way. Many times, trained metalsmiths feel that their jewelry is not authentic if they don’t fabricate every little piece by hand. And Keith certainly constructs many of the elements in his jewelry—one example is the hand-carved wooden chain that graces the very top of handle to The Diary of an Antiquary (see the finished piece or Keith’s blog about the making of it. But, where metalsmiths might predominantly look to sheet metals, wire stock, and other raw resources, Keith looks to found objects. He sees a key or a bullet casing, for example, as a connector or clasp, instead of the thing as it was originally intended.
And, he told Ricë that he’s not a fabrication snob, where he feels he has to make every component by hand (often he uses upwards of 70 components in any one of his pieces), but he may use, say, a store-bought pin-back when it makes sense in the piece. His thing is that each part should be properly attached and worked into the whole.
This was my Aha Moment from my favorite Stuffsmith—that the irony of predominantly using found objects in works of art is that the very method flies in the face of fabricating everything by hand! As a matter of fact (here’s where I run with this idea for my own purposes), by using found objects in works, artists start with a baseline narrative. There’s already a story, a history, or a direction to be discovered. That, if you sit quietly with the materials at hand and let them speak to you (Keith back in here)—let them move with you in a direction completely new to anything you have done before—you reach new heights and new, fulfilling levels of creativity. Keith refers to himself at a caveman jeweler, but I’ve never bought it. His work is as elegant and refined as the mind behind it!
*** My next blog will have to do with PerfectionFrozenism. Does this have anything to do with you and the way you work?
