I once was a painter. I would fill the edges and backgrounds of figurative works with plentiful plantlife. The stories that I tell myself burgeon forth with herbs, yarrow, violets and flowers aplenty. The poems and plays that I hold most dear describe the natural world, moon and vine, tree and crawling thing. The natural world abounds and spills from my heart. When I started doing metalwork I realized all those flowers and leaves could shine as pieces of jewelry, a celebration of nature’s most beautiful forms.
A trove of natural wonders in metal, brooches in hand painted copperSprays of maple leaves in copperMy boys and I at Pennsylvania Renaissance festival in 2023Pinecones handbuilt out of brass and copperLinked repousse snails in copper Mated pairs of butterfly earrings in handpainted copper Corn poppy earrings and a monarch pendant. Hand painted copperA selection of cape closures, hand painted flower buttons, ginkgo and maple samara earrings. Sterling mushroom bells
It is December 29th 2023. We are in the last few days of the year when things feel dreamlike and a bit unclear. I found a few descriptions of this time before the new year as Liminal Space and realized how much I live in that space as an artist.
lim·i·nal
/ˈlimənəl/
adjective
TECHNICAL
occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold.
relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process.
As I plan for my year ahead, lining up which shows and festivals I will create pieces for, I visualize a body of work.
It is a moment of decision and trepidation. I build and design out of wisps of thought and idea. Cloudlike ephemeral designs, some far grander in scope than I’ve created before. I juggle shards of humor and deep mournful stories, pulling a thread, attempting to discard a ridiculous idea only to have it flutter up beating its wings insistently against my cheek. All of this occurs at the edges of my consciousness.
I’m still bidding the last year farewell, still tucking away the lessons I’ve learned and a new one is tap tapping at my front windows, whispering loudly enough that I can’t ignore it but indistinct enough that I can’t quite focus on what it is offering.
For the past 10 years I have had the pleasure of being a tour member on Over the Mountain Studio Tour. It is in it’s 34th year and is the oldest studio tour in WV.
As we head into our tour weekend I find myself thinking about why belonging to this varied and changing group of artists matters.
As artists we tend to spend much of our time in a solitary space. To be in the process of designing, fabricating, refining our work it is necessary to focus inward. And then we open our doors, or lay our wares in front of our audience. To belong to a group of artisans is for me a middle space. Being among other artists is a place where the vulnerability of making craft can be understood. To be among others who have a daily or weekly, a regular practice of creating artwork, who can offer encouragement, suggestion or gentle critique from a place of understanding is a powerful thing.
I have the job each year of promoting the tour’s artists on our Facebook page and writing press releases. It allows me a deep dive into each artist’s new works, to pull our community into thinking about art if just for a moment. It allows me to stop and appreciate the process and progress of a very diverse group’s works. And to marvel at each individual’s skill and elegance of design, their sense of humor their thoughtfulness and their ingenuity.
And it allows me to reflect that back into my work with a renewed sense of purpose.
I hope you will join us this year for our tour.
Rarely is my bench this tidyYarrow crown in sterling and copperMyself and Tour Member and my host Anne Rule Thompson and her assistant
The stories of plants are endlessly compelling. Plants are survivors, innovators, collaborators. Plants are healers, killers, food, medicine, intoxicant and murderer. All the best of human stories center around the natural world. The allegories that explain our existence often utilize the elemental properties of plants. I have been working on a series of metal-smithed, hand-fabricated brooches and crowns, necklaces and earrings that focus on the most infamous and lovely of plants, fungi and flowers.
