Carla M Fox Metalsmith

The Des Moines Art Festival is now in our rearview mirror. We came, we sweated, we sold, laughed, ate, slept, packed up and are now off to the next show. This one is our dot’s in Cherry Creek, Denver Colorado. I am her helper, while she sells her amazing sculptural felted jewelry. Check it out: sarahfoxdesign.com

Des Moines puts on a great festival. Set in downtown it has a backdrop of the most amazing sculpture garden. Even though the sculptures sit in a sea of mud in the unfinished site, festival visitors stood next to chain link fences and pointed at their favorites.

Des Moines Interactive mural project, circa 2008

My personal favorite part of the festival is the interactive mural project. Here is a photo from last year’s mural.

So now is time to move ahead, plan for the next show, pay a few bills, and get back to the studio. Adios Des Moines, we had a grand time.

Carla

A man stood studying our jewelry and displays. “Does the show provide you with all this?”

Nope, each artist brings their own full 10′ x 10′ retail store to each show. And what they bring is as individual as their art. Some fly in and ship their booth and inventory ahead. Their booths tend towards the minimalist. Others come in large sprinter vans, trucks, vans pulling trailers. What is unloaded from those would put many circuses to shame. I always think this is the most fascinating time of a show, watching the various booths be put together tinker-toy style, until VOILA! a retail spot.

The Des Moines Art Festival has a leisurely set-up day. This is good. It was in the 90’s with lots of humidity. It was brutal work. Everyone moved at half speed with lots of stops for brow wiping, drinking, and dirty glances at the sun. I got a little cranky, unloading the van,  putting up the canopy, setting up the display. The ever-cheerful and nothing-bothers-him hubby, kept at it saying it was fine, good for the soul and other such nonsense. Only after I threatened to kill him did he slow up his happy chatter. When one is miserable, one does not need happiness. We set-up the big stuff before I finally said “uncle” as we retreated to a cool hotel room. We went back to work some more after the sun had gone down & finished up the next morning.

The mother of invention being a weekend of intolerable heat, I came up with an idea for a swamp cooler in our booth. My brilliant idea?

So clever, so cool, but does it work.....?

A pan of ice sitting in front of a fan. Ignoring the fact that humidity renders a swamp cooler moot, it was sorta like spitting in the wind. But it made me feel like I had some control of my environment. Dave, the hubby, played along, “Yes, dear it DOES feel cooler in the tent.”

The transition between being a solitary studio artist to a meet-and-greet retail sales person, is always a little rocky for me. I’ve had my head down nose to the file in the studio making pieces…..now its time to show them. It usually takes 1/2 day for me to get my talker going. Some of the most amazing non-sequiturs come out of me in the early stages of each show. Its as if I have forgotten how to talk while working in the studio. Our daughter calls them my “spoonerisms.” I have told customers, “If I can ask any questions, let me know and I will ankwer them.” Huh?

I like doing shows, I like seeing peoples reaction to my work. I just wish I could be more suave about it. The Des Moinians were patient with my first attempts. And as the weekend proceeded the weather cooled (sorta) and my talker came on line.

The last few weeks have been non-stop work preparing for the Des Moines Art Festival. Its a great show, wonderfully-organized, one of the best in the country. It has to be for 2 people from Oregon to travel the 1700 miles to get here. The best part is seeing the wide-open country and antelope, the worst was being eaten by mosquitos at a campground in Rawlins, Wyoming, that sat on the edge of the freeway.

We had chosen to camp our way across the country to save  money. KOA’s seem a good idea as they are clean, have showers, readily available. The one in Rawlins meets all that criteria. But it was set between some apartment buildings and the freeway. Our fellow tent neighbors lost something around 10 pm and spent the next hour opening and closing every door in their car repeatedly. But it was the mosquitos that finally undid me. I started to think real hard about camping being a good idea. And I use to teach outdoors for a living.

Grand Island, Nebraska’s KOA sat in a grove of trees next to a corn field. Perfect, until the mosquitos came out again. Once we had eaten and been eaten, we plugged in the computer and a small fan and sat in our tent seeing a thunder and  lightening storm bear down on us, while watching Jon Stewart and drinking cheap wine. The silliness of the situation tickled us. Laying in a backpacking tent, watching a thunder storm fly at us, while viewing a TV program on our computer. Man has camping changed.

View from our “window.”

Thunder storm moving in

Like everyone else I sometimes have a hard time getting focused and getting going. Life happens and when your work is in your home, life interferes with work. I’m a great believer in my ability to multi-task, but sometimes it just leads to me bouncing around like a ping-pong ball getting a little done.

Metalsmithing requires focus and attention to details. A casual moment can undo hours of work as an over-heated piece falls apart (or melts!) under a too hot torch, a careless saw cuts a kerf into a carefully etched surface, a sanding disc is allowed to go too far.

When I get to this place I need to stop trying to do many things at once and refocus. As I retreat to my studio and sit at my bench more often then not, my thinking is still scattered  and I have no idea where to start. Things seem either too easy and simple or too complex to work on until I get my brain working. What to do?

I recently decided that the best thing I can do at this point is to start making box clasps. Technically box clasps are fairly difficult, but I’ve done enough to be fluent in them. I know each step, how to do it, what order to do them in. Making them challenges my skills as a metalsmith, with the precision, cutting, soldering, measuring, filing; but I know what to do and have no questions as to sequencing, what temperature solder I need, what the pitfalls are. Making box clasps brings me back together and centers me on the here and now.

All the intricacy and detailed labor of the box clasp is hidden on the inside. My version of the clasp is actually a box within a box. I was taught to make a tight precise fit to insure years of trouble free wearing. It is more time-consuming but ultimately produces a clasp that will last indefinitely and never release unexpectedly. It makes me proud every time I sell one as I know its a special item with a great deal of my efforts and thought put into each clasp.

Below is the very condensed version of the making of a box clasp plus a peek at its inner workings.

1. The inner box is made & a slot carefully filled to accept the tongue of the clasp.

2. The tongue with the trigger is soldered and carefully filed and fitted to the box.

3. The etched sterling top deck is soldered in place and a the slot for the trigger is pierced & filed into a tight fit. This photo shows the box within a box, part of this clasp.

4. Once the bottom plate is added the tongue continues to get refined so it has the pleasing and important “CLICK” when it is fully engaged. Then the findings are soldered on, it is thoroughly cleaned, and is ready to be patinaed and added to a necklace.

5. Finally the clasp becomes the central part of a necklace. In this case a rough cut carnelian necklace with yellow turquoise. Its ready to go to a client.

When visitors come to our home the first few times, they seem to feel obligated to bring bags of groceries. Its not that they think we won’t feed them, but the concern is that because we live  far from civilization, provisions must be brought, lest we all miss out on favorite foods. While Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s are a mere 40 minutes from our home, I don’t dissuade this bringing-of-food. I like to see (and eat) this manna from my friends and am always intrigued by what each guest feels is necessary.

Our last guest went even further. He brought his favorite kitchen utensils as he is the dweller of a small-kitchened condo, and he wanted to stretch out and cook dinner in our large kitchen with a view. I fully encouraged this turn of events. If he wanted to cook, I would happily vacate the area for him to play.

While Brad oriented himself to his weekend bedroom I rummaged through his food bags to see what delights awaited us. I came across a little red aluminum pot that sprouted antlers. Intrigued, I set it out and studied it.

What's that?

I was instantly in love. Whatever it did, I had to have one. While I put away the groceries, Brad demonstrated his little machine and made me an incredible cup of espresso. This little machine works like a percolator, once the water is hot enough it bubbles up through the coffee, into its antlers, and streams espresso into cups. It was the best I had tasted. So not only was it cute, but its simple, Italian, and made the tastiest espresso our house has seen. I now NEEDED one.

Within 15 minutes I had googled it, found one, and ordered it. Filled with espresso from Brad’s machine I spent the weekend bouncing off walls. Mine came a few days later. And it is in daily use as I make my morning lattes. Now I need a new song + new lyrics to go with my new Italian Bialetti stove top espresso maker.

Rudy

“I so admire how creative you artists are. Where do you get your inspiration?“

…..waiting for inspiration

Good question. Every time I am asked that question I am flummoxed. Inspiration is a tricky thing. When I am very lucky, or very good I walk into just the right spot in my studio and ZOT! a truly great idea comes to me in a flash. The 3 rings in my top banner were a marvelous Zot moment.

My friend and fellow jeweler, Jack, challenged me to get over my prejudice to diamonds. I’d always thought they were over-hyped, stupid stones, boring, transparent, clear, no color; plus there are millions of them around.  Bah humbug, who needed them when there are so many other fine stones in the world. But Jack nudged some of my thinking around and I started relooking at diamonds.

My main gripe with diamonds is that much of the jewelry made with them, makes it all about The Diamond. I am a metal worker. I want my work to be all about well… My Work and the diamond’s just a punctuation to my designs.

My 3 rings above came from this double-dare of Jack’s. The idea formed in a quick moment of insight, fully-developed. I even found some colored diamonds to use. Bliss. I regularly thank him for his goading.

But mostly my designs are hard fought.

Jetsam & Flotsam

I am currently working on a design I know isn’t that good. But the damn thing will not vacate my head until I make it. I know it will end up in my scrap pile…I have days like this. Its like clearing a plugged drain. Once I have design out of my head and at least partially realized I can go on to other things. I have a whole pile of dumb ideas that I poke at from time to time, trying to figure out why I made them. And sometimes they lead to inspiration, often not.

Usually my designs are evolutions from past work. No Eurekas! just hard slogging work. I make something like it or love it, look at it, start to examine it, think about it, and have a better idea of how to do it next time. This drives Dave-the-husband crazy. Why must I keep messing with great designs?  Why do I move on to my next NEW IDEA, when I have so many old great ideas I can still make? I  dunno. I think that’s what it means to be an artist. We are always looking ahead to see what’s there, how we can do it better, how it can change, evolve, morph into something else.

So when I go back to work, and I do find its work; divine inspiration is a rare event, no matter how good I am, or how many different places I stand in my studio waiting for it to happen.

Carla