Soon in my online shop.
Everywhere I go, I look. I collect images that will later make their way into my work. I am an explorer, a gatherer, a sponge. This is how my vision unfolds. Unfurled Vision ring. Labradorite and 100% recycled sterling silver. Soon in my online shop. Yesterday, I visited Alexander Calder's exhibit at the Jumex museum. I found it refreshing to see three-dimensional work that is playful and meditative. The mobiles and sculptures are so full of life, that the energy of each piece fills the large, stark rooms. Calder must have enjoyed what he created so much, that his love is forever imprinted in his art. May we all love what we do, and do work we love! The world deserves it. Moon Flower ring. Labradorite and 100% recycled sterling silver. Soon in my online shop. Today I started a new jewelry series using amethyst. I don't usually work with purple gems, but when I opened my box of stones, these seemed to shine brighter than usual. I find that lately I am living life like this: guided by my curiosity and my senses. I feel that everything seems to flow much better this way, and every day becomes an adventure. This week, I decided to follow my own advice and explore variations on a single subject: fish. I am drawn to fish both for their beauty and variety as for what they symbolize. In Greek and Roman mythology, fish represented change and transformation. For Buddhists, fish symbolize happiness and freedom; and for Christians, abundance and faith. My most recurring dreams are about fish and water, which I believe represent the mystery and wisdom of the unconscious mind, a theme that fascinates me. My dreams are vivid and I remember them clearly. They help me get to know a part of myself that is not revealed in my waking hours. These insights have helped me make wiser choices and gain awareness. For my fish series, I began by drawing as many shapes as I could in one sitting. Then I chose the ones I was most attracted to, and turned them into pendants using recycled sterling silver sheet and wire. I could make more, but I love variety and I am already exited about starting a new series. The Fish necklaces are now available in my shop. I've been getting emails from jewelers and artists, asking for advice on how to find a unique style. I don't think that style is something that is adopted or decided. Rather, it's the result of a series of choices we make as we create something. We all have preferences and inclinations, the more we are aware of them, the clearer our voice will be. Below is a list of pointers I've found helpful in my path towards owning my work. I hope they are also useful to you. Use Limited Resources / Apply restrictions The less elements you have to work with, the greater creative freedom you will have; and the clearer and more specific choices you will make. It is through each decision, that you find your voice as an artist. Having too many choices can be overwhelming. Explore variations on a same theme How many different fish can I draw? How can I combine basic geometric shapes in new ways? What forms in nature inspire me? How many styles of shoes can I imagine? In how many ways can I create texture or volume? How do I integrate text into a piece? Discover your medium Are you a carver? A builder? A lover of line? Do your senses awaken when you add layers of paint and combine colors? Do you like to meticulously construct something by hand, or would you rather develop as many ideas as you can digitally? If you find a blank canvas intimidating, make a collage of existing images and shapes. If you prefer to create an image or an object by removing elements, try etching or carving. If you'd rather work with an additive process, sculpt with clay. If you prefer soft materials, you can knit or crochet. If you like harder surfaces, learn to forge metal. Try as many mediums as you can. You will know which is your medium when ideas of what to make flow easily. Find your favorite techniques / tools Once you've found your medium, it helps to discover what tools and techniques work best for you. If it drives you crazy to cut metal sheet with a fine saw, use pliers. If you are too impatient to embroider by hand, use a sewing machine. If your designs feel too simple, use an elaborate method to construct them that will make them layered and interesting. If you are a perfectionist and everything you make feels sterile and machine made, use rough tools to enliven your work. Find the technique that feels right to create a specific idea. Discover your favorite tools and use them until they become an extension of yourself. Do things your way. Find the finish you like, not the one everyone else suggests. Combine mediums if a single one bores you. Fill your well of ideas Just like writers need words, artists need images. Walk, touch, observe, annotate, draw, film, photograph. Go out. Think variety. Learn to see and make it a daily task. How many different shaped trees or clouds can you observe? How many faces? Shapes of rocks or leaves? Visit an aquarium or a botanical garden and feast your eyes. Get visually educated Study all the artists, writers, architects, poets (creators) you can. Find what moves you and study it. Then see who influenced the artist you like, and study her too. Then continue to investigate other artists. Read Steal like an Artist, by Austin Kleon. If you are obsessed with only one artist, you will find it hard to find your own voice and you will copy. You are a combination of all of your influences, so have many. Wilson Mizner once said: if you steal from one author it's plagiarism, if you steal from many it's research. Study other mediums and other disciplines. You will make a much more interesting jeweler if you combine architecture, poetry and biology into your work, than if you only study other jewelers. Everything informs your work. What are you attracted to? Use Pinterest or Tumblr to find images that excite you: clothes, decoration, places, objects, postures, faces, etc. Carry a camera and shoot whatever catches your eye. Then look at what you’ve selected on the web, and what you've photographed. Are there visual elements that repeat themselves? Styles you are jealous of? Eras you are obsessed by? Are you a minimalist, or do you love baroque? Are you into bright coors, or muted tones? What stories turn you on? What books do you read most? What subjects fascinate you: science, psychology, politics, literature, music, religion, etc.? Make work for yourself Make the clothes or accessories you would wear. Write the music you want to hear. Decorate a space you would love to inhabit. There will always be others like you who will find your work appealing. The more specific you are in your tastes, the more unique your vocabulary and vision will be. I will be closing my Etsy shop tomorrow, as I am having a large sale in Mexico City to celebrate five years as a jeweler, and then I'm off to spend Christmas season with my parents in Nayarit. 2014 has been an interesting year. It wasn't an easy year emotionally. I had to adjust to big changes in my life and in myself. I lost my belief in God. I mourned my aging parents. I separated from my live community of artist friends. I spent a lot of time alone. I spent a LOT of time alone. I also became more engaged in national politics, was infuriated and then saddened with social injustice and government corruption, and nearly migrated to another country because of it. There was also a lot of light this year. Abhaya (my life partner) and I celebrated seven years together. It has been a beautiful union, and I am blessed to have him in my life. I also spent many special, memorable moments with my mom, my dad and my sister. I launched this blog, and realized my dream of making one-of-a-kind pieces only. I recovered my love of drawing. Improved my photography and writing skills, and listened to many great stories while I worked in my studio. I am calmer, stronger and grateful to be on my path. I look forward to a new year with regained confidence, clarity, and many new ideas I want to explore. Thank you for coming with me on this creative journey. Your encouragement and support has fed my soul. May you also find meaning in your path, and take each step with courage, wisdom, and trust in your self. I’ve never been good at making something out of nothing. I need to start off with a tangible element to then imagine what comes next. I am intuitive in the way I create. This is why I have never been comfortable with painting: I am paralyzed by a blank canvas. In my kitchen, I am great at improvising a meal. I see what ingredients we have, and then my imagination takes hold. I don’t like to follow a recipe. It feels limiting, and because there is no room to express myself, the outcome tends to be dull and tasteless. Even when I bake, I like to imagine what flavors will do together, and what textures will work best. I have the same way of working when I make jewelry. I always begin with a stone, wire or sheet metal of a certain caliber, and wonder what I can do with it. Wire in particular helps me think. It’s easy to bend, and I can quickly make simple shapes that I then move around and combine with others. Does the result feel balanced, harmonious, dynamic or static? Is it interesting? My latest earrings series embodies this approach. The Wire Drawing earrings are for sale in my shop. There is a part of me that worries that I will run out of ideas. How many more rings can I design? How many more variations can I make using the same materials? Before I begin a new piece, I always ask: what can I do differently? What if I try… so my mind becomes attentive: a design on my kilim rug becomes the border around a moonstone; the pattern of muffin tin outlines an amethyst; a frase—picked randomly from a book—evokes fields of grass, which becomes texture on an earring. The trick (I find) is to stay connected to my work by working as constantly as I can. Breakthroughs occur in the small decisions that I take, moment to moment, and that’s how one day, a path full of possibilities opens up. The scenery changes, the vistas become expansive, and I see years of ideas line up ahead. I can do this forever! I think exitedly. But then I remember: the cycle of excitement/boredom is the nature of this game, and I get back to work. These rings will be for sale at the Lonja Mercantil on September 20 and 21. You can see the event details in my previous post. After working on my jewelry for most of the day, I find it relaxing to draw in the evenings. On weekends, I love visiting bookstores and drawing anything that catches my eye from the books I find. Rather than just sketching ideas for jewelry, I notice that lately my drawings are becoming more elaborate and storied. There is something physical and primal about making marks with a pen, and I find my mind quickly becomes attentive to each line as it appears on the surface of the paper. I always carry a notebook wherever I go. I never know when an idea will come, and if I don't catch it when it arrives, it will go find someone else who will. A friend of mine came by my studio the other day and excitedly said, show me the machine you make your jewelry with! The machine? I asked, puzzled. You mean these? I replied, and showed her my hands. Her visit made me realize that in sharing my process, I have been guilty of the curse of knowledge. In their book, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, authors Chip and Dan Heath describe this curse by saying that the more you know about a specific subject, the harder it is to explain it to someone who knows nothing about it. Since I too enjoy learning how others do what they do, I decided to document each step of my jewelry making process for those of you who have never seen it before. My method for making a ring is simple and probably medieval, but I love how immediate it is, and how anyone who wants to learn to make jewelry can do it with simple tools and a small investment. I begin by drawing the outline of a ring pattern I previously made on a sheet of 100% recycled sterling silver. To discourage toxic mining, I only use silver that is extracted from photographic proceses. After I cut the basic outline with metal shears, I saw the final shape of the ring using a blade that is so thin, it usually breaks. You can see the delicate broken blades to the right of the adjustable saw frame. As I saw, I pass the blade through candle wax to ease cutting. I use my hammer to give texture to the silver sheet, and to stamp my logo and sterling silver mark in the center, using custom steel punches. I smooth the rough edges of the cut-out ring using files and sand paper. I then re-heat it with my torch, to make it maleable enough to wrap around a cone-shaped metal tool, called a ring mandrel. I use a rawhide mallet to help me hammer and shape the ring without damaging its surface. The ring mandrel has measurements that help me determine the ring size. Once the ring is fully formed, I continue to work on the design elements that will be soldered on the front of the ring. To heat silver, I use a small butane torch like the one used by Chefs to make crème brûlée. Sterling silver always fuses into a ball whenever you heat it long enough. I use scraps of sterling silver sheet to make small balls which I will then individually solder onto the ring band. I flatten each silver ball with a hammer. Then I use tiny bits of solder (a silver and copper alloy that melts at a lower temperature than sterling silver) to fuse each silver ball to the surface of the ring, using my torch. To complete my design, I cut two strips of sterling silver wire that I will solder alongside the central row of silver balls. I place the ring band on a heat resistant firebrick surface, and carefully solder each ball and length of wire using my torch. The soldered ring, before I give it its final patina. To darken or oxidize the ring, I soak it in liver of sulphur diluted in hot water. This smells like rotten egg, and is my boyfriend's least favorite part of my work, since my studio is inside our apartment. I rinse the darkened ring in cold water mixed with sodium bicarbonate to stop the oxidation process. To finish the ring, I polish the raised design with fine steel wool and a file board. I leave the rest of the ring dark. With wear, the ring band will eventually abrade and lighten, but the recessed areas will always remain dark. The ring is now complete. Years ago, when I was going through a creative rut, I decided to take action and commit to making ten drawings a day for at least one month. I used inexpensive paper, a pen, and began. The only guideline was to make ten drawings a day. It didn't matter what I drew or how well I drew it, what mattered was to make ten drawings every day. This exercise changed the way I understood creativity. It made me realize that what mattered was to make the space to explore, and to do it diligently every day. Slowly, as my inner judge quieted down, I began to connect to a space where time and identity disappeared and I became one with the act of drawing, thoughtless, present and absorbed. In his book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Mihály Csíkszentmihályi describes this state by explaining that when your psychic energy is fully engaged in a task with specific goals, achievable challenges, and no distractions, this energy expands, and you emerge with a strengthened sense of self. This is why we choose to keep doing those activities that although may not be easy, or effortless, are deeply satisfying. In time, I discovered that the more I drew, the more I observed the world around me, the more ideas I got, and the more alive I felt. My mood improved, I felt more confident, and my life felt more meaningful. I became an explorer, a documenter of all that crossed my path. I also found I could combine my many interests in fashion, film, literature and crafts under one umbrella: drawing. As I drew, I created my own world, one where I set the rules of what was possible. Today, drawing continues to be my playground. It is the most direct way for me to connect with my well of ideas and to think on paper. Drawing is my daily meditation and the place where my strongest work comes from. Quote by Kate Forsyth. |
welcomeI am Jennifer Musi, the jewelry artist behind MUSIBATTY, and this is my blog archive.
Here you can find posts from December 2013, to May, 2016. I will no longer update this site. Please click on the link below to see my recent work. @musibattyOn Social Media
ConnectRespectI made this blog to share my work with you. I believe in generosity and I want to live in a world where we all inspire each other.
All of my designs and photographs are copyrighted. If you would like to reproduce them in any way, please email me first. Archives
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