GOING INTO DISCO FLEA
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J Woodruff Designs: Handcrafted metal art, kinetic sculpture and fine jewelry created to evoke wonder, joy, and harmony.
GOING INTO DISCO FLEA
I've been to big street fairs from Boston to San Francisco, Charlotte to Chicago. White Linen Nights in the Heights is a spectacle participated in by about 20,000 people. It is very special to me. This is the neighborhood where i grew up. The event is remarkable for its simplicity and grandness. Set your calendar for next year, first Saturday of August. When you look at my work, you are looking at the Heights and Oak Forest, two of the neighborhoods of Houston, Texas.
Here are a few items that I made up Friday night that were sold on Saturday
The rutile is a special piece with a hammer-chased bezel and bail.
This one did not stay around long enough to be documented. I have already gone back into my collection and pulled two more for the pipeline.
First etched with a small wire brush on a rotary wheel, then torched, carefully manipulating the flame to being color-texture to different parts of the metal. Protected by Color-Loc
The tips of the wire in this pendant were hand tapered to create the curled ends.
As I shared with my patrons at While Linen Night, I'm having a swirl fest. This is a 6-week exercise leading to Septemberfest 2015 at the Museum of the Southwest in Midland, Texas.
This afternoon I grabbed three pieces of copper with hand-tapered and curled ends. I then fashioned swirls with my fingers. There are a number of real ways to do this in the textbooks. A more consistent curl is achieved by using steel tools and making templates. These studies are to develop an organic form that is most fully expressive.
1 week before While Linen NIght in the Houston Heights. I grew up in the Heights. The project has shifted in the study of hammers and files.
This week's study leads through hammering and filing. I witness very fine work by other artisans whose primary tools are the hammer, the torch and the file. They will even put the final polish on by hand with felt cloth.
The secret according to Nile Fahmy, likes in the tip. These were ground on a wheel. I have progressed to doing them by hand with a file, the results to be shown in subsequent posts.
This is the night before the Discovery Green Flea by Night, where some customers know new things are coming.
Harmony Turned on Side - Ometron - Rossette Encross
Of course this is true every place we demonstrate our wares for a premier is merely the beginning of a new phase of study.
We are now 1 week later and 1 week before While Linen NIght in the Houston Heights. I grew up in the Heights. The project has shifted in the study of filing.
HERE are a few of the items which I have made in the past week to take to the Discovery Green Flea Market at night in sparkling downtown Houston...
I built 10 new mobiles using a new octagon which will throw a lot of glorious rainbows when placed in a sunny window.
Remember today Aristotle's dictum: Do good and avoid evil.
Here is a gallery of some of the jewelry pieces I have on hand. We have just completed the Spring season and are about the commence the Summer. We have seen some rain and expect to see more. Production is something that goes on every single day rain or shine.
(Click on the images ;-))
Copper vessel resting against a wooden anvil fashioned from a scrap of wood. The wood was used in the construction of the Red Studio where the vessel was formed.
Rocking at Stubbs an image from my painting on the side of the vessel
Inspired by pottery glazes I've seen over the years.
I acquired a crystal that didn't seem to balance like the typical pieces which we select to be made into mobiles and pendants or earrings. I usually work with crystals that point to the center of the earth when they are fastened into a setting for a pendant or a mobile.
This rock does not align comfortably with the center of the earth because it is not gravitationally centered.
More can be said about these bands, however, I want to address the integrity of this stone.
When allowed to find its on natural alignment with gravity, the crystal shows the perfection of its integrity.
I had a piece of copper that I had colored with Prismacolor Pencils. I fabricated a setting for it during the first musician's set at the First Saturday Arts Market. The game here is inspired by Taureg jewelers whose dramatic silver work is produced with very few tools under ancient conditions.
Finished product...
Starting place
Marked and partially cut fire-patinated copper
Tabs cut and bent to fit the piece which had originally been rectangular but had been distorted with a specialized hammer (cross peen).
Tab in the back used to roll out a tube for a bail
I tapped the tabs with a punch to give a texture and to seat the tabs
Finished.
Next month's projects commence today--Working to First Saturday Art Market for March 7, 2015
This is a study of the ebb and flow of this box....
A lot of these things are like life-problems to be worked out...
(To be continued...)
Just a few of the new things for the Discovery Green Flea...
I found a tiny stash these rare quartz points from a flooded mine that has been off limits for the past 25 years. I am a bit of a hoarded and needless to say, I've had them for decades.
They are tiny and brittle, but I can wrap them in wire with an expectation that they will stay. Here I have combined them with tiny awesome amethyst points I found over at Crystal Works in Austin, Texas
I found myself sold out of 'popularly priced' mobiles. So I made a few...
Copper with patina, distorted in color by the iPad lens, nonetheless cool in its own right.
On Lovers Lane...well Hwy 71 to spread LOVE & JOY to all our friends @1stSaturdayArtMarket!! We are so EXCITED to kick off the month of love this way!
The next neighborhood over from mine in Austin is Mueller, which is a redevelopment of the Old Mueller Airport. In order to build the neighborhood and not flood all of East Austin, they had to build an extensive retention system to hold back the water. They went a step further to pump purified waste water from the purification plant on the Colorado River back to Mueller to be used for irrigation. An extensive lake system with park land around it was built to manage this water.
Nile Fahmy came back by popular demand to give another masters class in forging of metal jewely components at the Creative Side Academy. Here are a few pictures of the results. His website, The Tattooed Tinker Studio is worth some time. Currently he is directing his efforts to the art of raising vessels. He says the 24kt plating inside the silver cups make the spirits taste better. I thought I would show a few of the tricks I learned from this master who at age 35 has 30 years' experience.
This piece is about the size of a jumbo shrimp. It started out as a 1 inch by 1 ½ inch piece of copper which I fabricated using the fold form technique invented by Charles Lewton-Brain in the 1980’s. This technique will show up in our Spring jewelry line. I might make up a few shrimp.
According to the internet, "You'll be hard pressed to find a more unusual flower with such a deeply rooted cultural and historical significance as the calla lily." WE'll be seeing more of these. I can also see where the techniques used here will work well with the shrimp.
We have been featuring leaves in our designs. I wanted to pick up a few more leaf tricks.
Many new variations and avenues of creativity are suggested by this form
On my way back to work after class one day I stopped off at Crystal Works (11th and North Lamar in Austin, Texas). There I discovered a box with several pounds of the very finest quartz points I have seen in 30 years. The photograph doesn't show just how brilliantly vibrant these are. I made a stand for one of them and I look forward to making a few more.
Rain or shine we have a GRAND TIME!! Well, we have really enjoyed the rain in Austin and are now on our way to celebrate life "Flea" style at the "Disco" in Houston. That is to say the Disco Flea on Discovery Green https://www.facebook.com/DiscoveryGreenFlea by the Brown Convention Center down town! Come see us and join in the celebration with live music, food and fun!! The local art is quite fabulous too!!! No worries about getting rained on, clear skies ahead!!
* http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.discoverygreen.com%2Fflea&h=KAQGieYfL&s=1
This is from an exhibition of paintings that Jane Austen saw when she visited an exhibit at the British Institution in Pall Mall, London in 1813. The exhibition was recreated by University of Texas English Professor Dr. Janine Barchas with a very entertaining little essay.
When at the Discovery Flea by Night in downtown Houston I show a lot of post earrings made from Austrian Crystal. These are usually kept under wraps when I show at juried Fine Art and Craft Fairs such as the First Saturday Arts Market. Recently I took an inventory. I also photographed them, to get a handle on the complete collection. I thought I would open the door to the back office and let you peak in. Click on the picture and it will move to the next image. These are not intended as fine art photos. They give me a visual breakdown of what is in stock so I can plan for the Fall season. By the way, if you really want to see a great collection of these classic earrings, while in Austin go to Crystal Works on 11th and North Lamar.
Bronze and 14kt gf wire
Under a different light source--same lens, I get to see some details not really apparent to the naked eye. I may or may not buff out the tool marks. I WILL twist off the gold wire end.
The way Jefferson Woodruff looks at a piece of art that he has created is not the same thing as the work of art itself. It is an independent, created phenomenon. I created it. The piece has a life of its own. Part of its life--the majority of its life it holds a dialogue with the person who has claimed ownership of the conversation.
Just because I've been here 35 years doesn't mean that i know every thing. For this reason I have created the position of Fun and Fashion Officer and appointed Celeste Landrum into that role. Customers at my shows are acquainted with Celeste. SInce she was not even born when i started, she brings to the table a different , yet compatible, point of view. My bringing this up is to focus on the leaf pictured below.
My own way of doing things is to finish the piece and throw it on the table. Then I expect customers to walk up and spot the 'brilliance' in the middle of a jumble of stuff. Celeste is no longer permitting this practice.
These four pieces will be worn with copper or silver wire chokers. The copper will treated so as not to leave a ring around the neck, by the way. I have made these chokers over the years, usually as a quick way at the pop up store to accommodate the request of a customer. For these four pieces, the choker will be integral with the design. They will not be finished until the chokers are complete. I can make a 'sufficient' choker as a no brainer. However, this week I will design them and in doing so share the trial and error.
We start with 14 gauge square wire to play with form. I will throw this in a pile after I craft the intentional Error Number 2, This report will be updated.
This is the second pass....