A real leaf

In honor of the rapidly approaching fall, I'll be photographing a leaf every now again and posting them here. Yes, it's a new blog feature! Exciting, no?

I love using leaves as inspiration for my Wabi-Sabi Collection designs, as you may have noticed, and as I was out for my morning walk today, I kept noticing all these beautiful leaves that had fallen, and thought it would not be difficult to document them and save the photos for purposes of future inspiration. So here we are, with our very first in the series!

What counts as a beautiful leaf to me isn't your usual autumn leaf caught mid-transformation between red, yellow, orange, and green-- although those are very nice--I like them with even more character. I suppose any fall leaf is a bit wabi-sabi, but I especially like the ones that have been chewed by insects, trodden upon, whipped by the wind, colonized by fungi (like whatever's causing the black spots on this one). These are leaves that have really lived, if you'll allow me to anthropomorphize.

A Useful Tip

One more resin-related tip, and then I think I'm out of tips on that subject.

You can of course cast resin, as the photos on the resin box probably advertise, but you can also brush it on-- that's what I do to coat and protect my pieces. What to use for the brushing-on, though? You can't really clean resin up very easily, so you don't want to use a regular paintbrush. Sponge brushes are a good choice, but if you're doing it often, at a single use each, that's wasteful and will quickly become expensive.

My solution: Go to a local furniture store and be nice to the salespeople (who will be very disappointed that you aren't there to buy something), and ask if they have any scrap foam padding you can have. They use it for moving furniture, and usually there's a pile of it in the back room somewhere. Once you get this foam, a) store it in a closed trashbag so it doesn't get lint on it, and b) cut it into pieces and use them as little foam brushes. There's no handle, of course, so you fingers will get all up in the resin-- but you're wearing your trusty nitrile gloves for safety, so that doesn't matter, right?

Overthinking Jewelry: words

Back to words, then. Words on jewelry. Here's my approach:

Words have what linguists call 'argument structure'. 'Argument structure' refers to what goes with a particular word in a sentence. For example, some words need an additional word to go with them, as an integral part of their meaning-- you might see such words as carrying an empty slot along with them that has to be filled with another word. Verbs are the best examples of this: if you hope, you're hoping [for something]. If you create, you're creating [something]. There's a little empty piece that can be filled in. Not just the object, in fact, but also the subject: [You] are creating [something]. And also indirect objects are sometimes required: [You] give [something] [to someone].

Ok. So, nouns generally don't have much argument structure. Most nouns are ok just floating out there on their own, and they're complete that way. They make great labels, but they don't leave much to the imagination. There's not much crying out to be filled in, meaning-wise. I generally stay away from nouns on jewelry for this reason.

Verbs, on the other hand, have one or more empty slots in them that have to be filled in at least subconciously in order to make much sense: subject, direct object, indirect object. All of these are things that a person reading the word will have to supply in order to make sense of the word. On jewelry, this can be wonderfully imaginative and unique to each person. So I love using verbs on my jewelry! When you see a pendant that says give, you still have to do some work: give [love] [to everyone]? Give [money] [to the needy]? Give [time] [to your family]? All of the above? It gets you thinking a bit, and allows each person to come up with an interpretation that's meaningful to them personally.

Next we have adjectives and adverbs. These are interesting because they too 'require' things be filled in-- nouns, of course, in the case of adjectives, and verbs in the case of adverbs. So that takes us back to my stance on nouns and verbs-- I will use both adjectives and adverbs in my work, but I'll take an adverb over an adjetive any day. If you put an adjective on a pendant, it's sort of taken by default to refer to the person wearing it. "Brave", for example. "Ok, the wearer says she's brave." And that's kinda the end of it. Turn it into an adverb, though, and suddenly all sorts of questions are raised-- do what bravely? You understand there to be some verb lurking there. Then you have to fill in its argument structure. The imagination is fully engaged at this point. It's a bit more work-- ok, a lot more work-- and some people may simply choose not to engage with the piece, but others (especially the verbally talented among us) become absorbed, as they create meaning, and build a little world around the verb I've given them.

My absolute favorites are the prepositional phrases that describe manner or time. The principle is the same as for adverbs-- they evoke an event, the contents of which is left open for the viewer (or coauthor as I sometimes like to think of it) to construct. "After the moon rose", or "with a careless joy" beg for more information: what happened then? What did she do so joyfully?

Friday Cat Blogging

We had a new deck built! This a cause for great celebration-- the old deck was 10x10, and between the grill, table, bench, and plants, you couldn't fit more than a couple of people on it without it getting crowded very quickly. Plus, some of the boards were starting to look very precarious.

The new deck sports cool horizontal railing, now up to code with the required spacing between boards so no one gets their head stuck. The problem is, it's now also too narrow for the cats to jump on and off. It's just too high for them to jump from the top railing to the ground. Well,
we've rigged up a temporary system involving a protruding plank that they are managing to use, but it's hidden so that generally speaking, the way on and off is not clear. All this means that Vindaloo, who normally isn't allowed outside at all, can venture onto the deck a little, under supervision.

It's all very exciting for her. Here she is, nervously checking out the plants and looking for escape routes (which she will not find! Hah! Trapped!).

The little deck off to the side there is "Joanna's Deck of Solitude and Contemplation". Its front railing is cleverly removable so we can take stuff on and off the deck easily. Our carpernters rocked.

Gingko necklace and earrings

Here's just one of the new designs I've come up with this past week: the Ginkgo. Stylized leaves of textured paper and pigment, hammered wire integrated with a thick dome of resin on the back. The pendant has a generous dose of 24k gold leaf for sparkle.

The color shown here I'm calling Aubergine (because it sounds so much fancier than "eggplant" and is more familiar to most than "biringanya", the Swahili word for this tasty, richly hued vegetable). I also have an Autumn Yellow version (the color that actual ginkgo leaves turn in the fall) and a Summer Green, with silver wire and leafing.

The Artisans

A hearty welcome to the latest gallery to carry my work: The Artisans of McLean, VA. It looks like a fun shop, and I'm thrilled to have my work there! Winging their way thither are some cute polkadot earrings, mosaic earrings in fall colors, and a couple of Falling Leaves pendants.

A Useful Tip

Today's topic: gold leaf. Gold leaf is gold that has been pounded until extremely thin and light as a feather. It comes in packs of 25-3x3 inch sheets, and it can be tricky to wrangle. It floats on air like ash. Here's my tip: if you're working with gold leaf, a) remember to shut the windows so there's no breeze, and b) try not to exhale. If you do have to breathe (you greenhorn!), turn your head away from the gold leaf. Under no circumstances should you sneeze.

If you do sneeze, don't bother trying to catch the pieces while they're wafting around the room. Just keep your eye on the largest pieces until they settle somewhere, then use your brush to pick them up again. And try not to snort in exasperation as you do this, or you'll just be going through the whole routine again.