What's New at The Artist's Mark

 I haven't posted for some time because we have been so busy. Lots of work to do to get ready for winter plus we celebrated our 52nd wedding anniversary few days ago. But we have had time to do some new pieces.

This is the time of year I make my Viking Chain. Here's how it looks when I weave it on the dowel (about 8 inches long)

And here's how it looks after I have drawn it through successively smaller holes in my draw plate. Now about 17 inches long. This one was done in 24 gauge copper but my next attempt will be with a thicker, 22 gauge wire.

I have also been collaborating with Vickie on some pieces. Vickie is a master of polymer clay and has developed several of her own techniques while perfecting museum quality jewelry. This time we used one of her beads, featuring a technique she calls her "Burlesque Blend" and hung it on an upcycled guitar string. Vickie also fashioned the wire work and bead work while I did the connectors at the back

I was able to use the original "eye" and attach another to make a really unique clasp.

I have also been making a lot of earrings and while I won't show them in this post, I will show you the display we made using some cool driftwood and plastic mesh. I even added some hooks at the bottom to hold three necklaces and eventually everything on it will be from the "Phoenix" collection featuring upcycled guitar wires.

 

Next time I'll feature more individual pieces.

Cheers!

What's New at The Artist's Mark?

 We are now well into fall and that means I get to start making pieces with all the beautiful stones I created through the summer. But first, I have to finish off the ones I left at the beginning of spring. here's a sample of a few.

 I even finished a few popular sea glass pendants. So a lot of the empty spaces in the shop have been filled.

The last job in the rock lab was to finish a few specimen pieces. Here's one- a gorgeous piece of local plume and fortification agate..

This one is pretty special since that sparkly quartz druzy pocket goes all the way through. So my plan is to mount this to a piece of driftwood with a tea candle right behind the druzy.I've tried it and it creates an amazing effect. Look for this in the shop next spring but I predict it won't last long.

The "Real Artist" is painting up a storm and threatening to make a few mixed media statement pieces with me so stay tuned!

Winter Comes to Digby Neck

 Well, it had to happen. Apparently global warming doesn't know Digby Neck exists! We have had much colder weather than normal along with snow, high winds and the inevitable power outages and missing roof shingles.

But in between dealing with this:

we've been able to get a fair bit done in the studio. Vickie has been working primarily on art but also a bit of polymer clay. One of these is a real polar bear claw and the other a clever Vickie "fake" care to take a guess?

I've been doing a lot of work with reclaimed copper and some beautiful and unique components I recently purchased.

Also copied a design based on a silver spoon by creating a copper spoon using a technique called "chasing"- quite amazing actually to think how you can "move" metal.

As you can see Vickie is getting me out of my comfort zone- even getting me to embrace the beauty of oxidized copper patina.

And finally I got around to making myself a bracelet using a length of copper Viking chain.

So we are keeping busy and looking forward to getting into some exciting new areas in the near future.

And remember: It doesn't matter if the wine glass is half full or half empty as long as you have the rest of the bottle!

Solveig's Song

 Solveig was a unique and amazing woman whom I was fortunate to meet through my wife's family. She, like they, was Norwegian and lived in Montreal, where she had a beautiful apartment downtown and a rural chalet in St. Sauveur that was straight out of the mountains of her home country. She was an impressive woman in many ways, having married five times and standing at least 6 feet tall with a truly striking appearance- in other words, she looked like a modern Viking.

But Solveig had another side. While very wealthy, she valued and enjoyed simple things and she especially admired intelligence and determination- two traits she had in spades.

In Montreal, there was an entity known as the Norwegian Seamans' Church and while ostensibly a church, it became the hub for all things Norwegian in Montreal, including the many Norwegian sailors who visited the port. At that time, many Norwegians were emigrating to Canada and my father-in-law, Thorleif, was one of them. He arrived in Montreal with little besides a dream, having left his wife and small daughter, Wencke behind until he could afford to bring them over. And that's where Solveig came into their life. She was an active benefactor of the church and tried to help get people established. She helped Thorleif and when his family arrived, showed them much kindness as well. 

She took great interest in Wencke and even helped pay for her McGill tuition. She and her husband Larry shared Wencke's love of reading and especially science. And Solveig and Wencke both loved art and became accomplished artists. They shared another thing. Both had Norwegian names that Canadians found hard to pronounce so Wencke became (my wife) Vickie and Solveig became Silvia.

Solveig was an extremely accomplished artist and sculptor and it's a shame she didn't get to see Vickie's talent or this piece I created but I just know she would have loved it- both for its beauty and the fact that someone she knew had acquired the skills to make it. So I give you Solveig's Song.

 The necklace is made from a copper Viking Chain that I wove from 24 gauge copper wire and drew through a series of draw plates until it was 3 times as long. Then, in honour of this modern Viking, I hung a Viking axe charm framed by copper beads and spacers.

Finally, I finished it by adding lengths of metallic copper, premium leather cord (for comfort) and finished it with a hand made clasp. I can actually see Solveig wearing this and treasuring it as much as her diamonds and jewels because that is who she was.