Out of this world: Inspiration and the creative process by Pam East

 

One thing my students seem to struggle with a lot is coming up with their own, personal artistic voice. They often ask me where I get my ideas. There seems to be this vague perception that The Muse waves her wand and I'm gifted with the vision of a design, fully formed in all detail. Of course, the reality is not that simple. Design development usually involves a lot of different elements coming together over time. I would like to share the development for one particular piece with you as an illustration of the creative process. The piece is titled "The Adventures of Flerg: Chapter 1".

 

Flerg floated around in the back of my mind for years. You can find tiny space ships flying around on the margins of my notes and homework dating back to high school. Years later, on a cross country flight, I entertained my then young daughter by having her think up things for "Flerg" to do and I would draw them out. (don't ask where the name came from. It's completely random.) Flerg had many adventures after landing on earth, including rescuing princesses from towers, riding roller coasters and trips to the mall. There was even one fairly unsuccessful stint as a pirate (the eye patch over his single eye made navigation difficult).

 

All this was nothing more than doodling and completely separate from my jewelry work until two things happened.
The first thing was meeting master quilter Linda Cantrell. Linda specializes in pictorial quilts using appliqué and embroidery techniques. Several years ago she and I were teaching at John C. Campbell at the same time and I had the opportunity to see some of her amazing quilts up close and personal. These were master works from the word go, museum quality and award winning. But the subject matter was a riot! There was one whole quilt devoted to the life and times of Sunbonnet Sue. It started with her shotgun wedding (sue being visibly pregnant) and followed through the trials and tribulations of her life, including moving into the trailer park, kids with piercings and tattoos, Elvis sightings, lottery winnings and more. This was not some quick thing knocked off as a joke. It must have represented hundreds of hours of work and her skill and artistry showed in every stitch.

 

All along in my own work I had tried to create pieces that were "beautiful" and "elegant". I wanted to advance my skills and be taken seriously as an artist, so I did "serious" work. But if you look at the artwork I've purchased over the years, you can see that my own aesthetic leans heavily to the whimsical. Looking at Linda's quilt I had an epiphany. Fine art does not have to have to be "serious" to be very good.

 

The second thing happened when I was taking a Cloisonné class with renown artist Don Viehman. Although I had been enameling for a decade already, my work leans to basse taille and champlevé. This was my very first cloisonné class. I wanted to make something "beautiful" so I designed a fairly traditional rose. It was coming out lovely, but as I worked on it, it occurred to me that it was not my style at all. There was nothing wrong with it, it just didn't fit ME. At that moment I remembered Linda Cantrell and her wonderful quilts. I realized that to be true to myself, I had to make something whimsical. And Linda's work inspired me to pour the same level of effort and devotion into that as I would into a more traditionally "beautiful" piece. Flipping through my sketch book I came across some of the Flerg drawings I had done for my daughter and "The Adventures of Flerg" was born. Over the 8 day class I worked simultaneously on both the rose and Flerg. Both pieces I made that week with Don turned out well, but Flerg will always hold a special place in my heart. It's a lesson in following your own creative vision no matter where it leads.

 

Here is a link to some of Linda Cantrell's Quilts:

 

Here is a link to some of Don Viehman's enamels

 

Enjoy!

 

Pam East

 

Pam East's Website

I count this among some of my most original work. I start by making a sumi-e painting (Japanese brush painting) using ink on rice paper. I then scan the image into the computer and reduce it. Once it's reduced I can print it on to a transparency and use the image to create a photopolymer plate, which is then used to impress the clay. In this way I can transfer my original paintings to silver. I've highlighted the design using Art Clay Gold Paste.
Pam East's Website

I love Venice and everything Venetian! I have been on several holidays there and that is the inspiration for this neckpiece. The vibrancy and colours of the masks are everywhere and fill one with a sense of fun and enjoyment of life. The harlequin pattern captures the essence of this for me and I wanted to recreate this in my piece together with a handmade look like the traditional real masks. When last in Venice I took great note of the variety of headdresses and decided on this three ball style for my mask.
The basic shape for the face was taken from a small porcelain dolls head. I made a paper template for the headdress and cut out the clay which had been textured on both sides. After shaping and drying the headdress I added the trim and balls to it and a bail on the back. The fine silver wires for the cloisonne cells on the face were added after the piece was fired and then I enamelled the piece and patinated it with LOS.
This was one of six pieces I made especially to enter for selection with the Guild of Enamellers and for which I was awarded Craftsman status.
Joy Funnell's Website

"Make a little birdhouse in your soul"
This piece of jewellery that I made a couple of years ago is what started and inspired me on the style of work that I make today. The birdhouse uses templates to create, slabs of clay that are joined once dry using slip. I enjoy using lyrics or poetry to create a wearable 3 D image. The bottom of the birdhouse pulls off and inside is a milliefiore glass heart on the end of a wire which is visible through the little arch window. I have made many variations on this birdhouse including a cuckoo clock with the inscription "one day I'll fly away", castles, bird tables, and dovecots. I have found birds a great source of imagery to work from. I have also used a little keum boo on the bird to make him stand out. I also use platinol a lot in my work as it makes the lettering stand out and come to life. I am now working with bronze clay, which I love and am starting to combine it with silver and am currently working on a pagoda, based on a ceramic one found in the music room of the Brighton Pavillion.
Xuella Arnold's Website

Metal clay, peridot tourmaline, freshwater pearl and diamond set in 14k bezel.
PERIDOT DANCING is my latest and favorite. I had a commission to make this piece. The client wanted something small. I don't do small... but this was SMALLER... I wanted depth and movement and started with a sketch made during a meeting at our local art gallery. This work evolved from a commission to experimentation. And that always guarantees to bring me bliss AND to help me create new and exciting work.

Those turn out to be my favorites too.

During the summer of 2007, I wrote a book on Setting Gemstones in to Metal Clay and have continued to create new setting methods. I will be teaching a pre-conference workshop next Summer at the MCWC in Chicago, IL, USA. The most difficult to set is the trillion or triangle... but I think it is the most beautiful. In this work I have three different stone setting techniques. The pearl with a cap, the trillion and a 14 karat gold bezel set diamond. The bail for this was created with a Makin's Extruder. These were developed for the polymer clay community, but the metal clay artisans have adopted it for their own.
Lorrene Davis's Website

In creating this bracelet, I used a variation of the Framed Beads Bracelet from my book. Turquoise was the stone needed here - it gives one a soothing feeling of well being while worn. Color is a very important part of what I do, and was taken into consideration when designing this particular bracelet.
Carol Babineau's Website

This series has very special personal significance. It is a favorite because it was inspired by my beautiful, spirited daughter as she was coming into her own. The jewelry set was created for her to wear at her first high school prom. The perfume amphora was completed at a later date when my daughter told me that the set was missing something..a special container to hold the fragrance she wore on that special occasion.
Hattie Sanderson's Website

Cindy Silas - Sea Flower Pendant

 

Fine silver, polymer clay

 

Photo by Gregory Staley

 

'Sea Flower' began as a personal challenge to create a piece where the fine silver and polymer clay truly interact and become one. Eventually it evolved to have a sea urchin-like and living appeal. It has become the first of a series of domed pendants using both mediums in an interactive way.

 

I have begun teaching combining metal clay with polymer because the possibilities are unlimited; adding polymer lowers the overall cost of your piece; and the silver can raise the value for polymer artists.

 

Everything inspires me--color, nature, graphic design, other peoples clever ideas, mastering a technique, etc., so I tend to set goals and narrow the parameters in the beginning design stages. This is necessary, so that my canvas doesn't have a million possibilities. Then as I work with the art, it tells me what is working and what isn't, and helps create itself.

 

After firing and finishing the fine silver, I added the polymer, which can be baked in an oven. The polymer colors for this piece needed to be subdued in order to interact and not overpower the silver.
Cindy Silas's Website

This piece was designed for a moon themed art show. My idea was that the vessel would be used in an illumination ceremony held on a moon lite night in a forest clearing. You would put your secret in the vessel and it would be transported to the moon for safe keeping. With the burden of the secret lifted, you continue on your journey of enlightening self-transformation. It has a little of everything in regards to the decoration. That it happens to look like a spaceship, adds to the narrative.
Gordon Uyehara's Website

Sterling and Fine Silver, 18k gold, montana sapphire, Favrile Glass (Tiffany Studios), cultured pearl, trilobite, found objects (leather, velvet, 24k gold foil, sterling silver, wood, brass); acrylic paint, mica.

 

Birdsong

My cousin Michael and I were going to become ornithologists. We talked about it and we went out on walks to see the birds.

But he became a psychologist and I became a speech therapist and finally a jeweler.

What is it that draws one away from what one believes is most engaging and interesting in life.

Is it that we were so young that we couldn't make that courageous decision about what we should do with our lives?

Michael also became interested in photographing wildlife, so I guess he was able to satisfy the urge he had to be closer to Nature, though at the photographers necessary distance.

I, on the other hand, moved to the country, bought a farmhouse and planted gardens.

I fall asleep to the lullaby of Spring Peepers and wake up at night to hear the foxes barking outside my bedroom window.

I get up in the morning to the sound of morning doves, songbirds and jays forcing the sun to come up.

 

Michael took his own life so many years ago and no longer hears the birds that I hear.

I wish that I could share the life I've found with Michael. No, What I really wish is that I could have brought him to a place of peace, so that we could have shared all the joys and birdsong I have had since losing him.

 

Why birds?

Think of their freedom; juxtapose their seemingly effortless navigation of the air, their soft beauty and their hard lives, scrabbling for insectival sustenance or subsisting on the dried fruits of the hillsides, their exquisite feathered structure, their colours, their sharp songs and beaks and claws.

They draw for me the dichotomies of my life, the struggles and the pleasures, the gentle, feathered joys and the brittleness of pain.

It's why, I think, when I watch them, I am encouraged to savor the sweetness and wince at their forced labors. I don't believe that Michael could accept the necessity of that amalgamation.

He fought hard to avoid seeing the dangerous wildness in the lives of birds and, when he could no longer deny its presence, in birds and in all living beings, he absented himself, distorting his life into a constant denial of its validity.

Perhaps I generalize his choices too easily, but, he is gone and cannot argue them with me anymore.

His soul, like the birds he so loved, has flown, separated from his life on this planet and, divorced him from those who he left behind.

I miss his passion.

 

copyright 2007 Linda Kaye-Moses

Linda Kaye Moses' Website

I love making boxes and lentils. This is one of my favorite pieces and the first in a series of four seasonal pendants. I molded the bamboo design and attached it to the base lentil with a technique I call appliqué. I made a recessed bezel for the peridot cab and then, after firing, added gold to the bamboo leaves using the Keum Boo technique.
Deb Fitz's Website

I wanted to make a box to hold a removable pendant containing a relic. I was experimenting on making hinges and this was my very first attempt to make a metal clay hinge. It was a challenge because I had only recently started working in metal clay and had no idea on how I was going to make a hinge. I constructed the box over cork clay. I rolled a tube of metal clay, dried, sliced three sections and hand drilled holes. Then I attached the metal clay tubes before firing. After firing, I added the hinge pin and catch. I added LOS patina before placing a polymer clay picture transfer to the opening in the back and attaching a hook on the top of the inside of the box to hang the removable pendant. The pendant has a picture of a saint in front and contains the saint's relic on the back. My hinges look a lot better now, but this reliquary remains my favorite creation, because it gave me a sense of accomplishment.

The natural world is a source of constant inspiration for me and pine trees are a particular favourite. This piece resulted from my experiments with free-form drawing with a syringe. I first created the frame by cutting it out from a sheet of clay. This was laid on a ceramic tile. I then syringed the design over the frame using techniques to suggest different textures between the pine needles and the cones. The whole piece was dried on the tile and then carefully removed and fired. Finally I backed the piece with blended polymer clay in blues, greens and purples and attached glass beads as drops to suggest dripping branches of pine trees in the rain.