Cyndi Lavin was gracious enough to give me an artist profile on her new Bead Arts blog.
Wendy Van Camp’s Artist Profile
A little about Cyndi Lavin:
Cyndi is a mixed-media artist living and playing in central Massachusetts. She is completely convinced that life and art are intertwined. Every person is a work of art, designed to be a creative being, and life consists largely of discovering the things that he or she was meant to create.
I took workshop with Connie Fox yesterday and I thought that I’d share a few of the earrings that I made via techniques inspired by her class. This is my second workshop with Connie. It is such a genuine pleasure to learn from a giving and gifted instructor. I’m grateful for the opportunity to study with her.
Education as an artist is something that I didn’t value during the first eight or nine years that I was in business. I felt that being self-taught was more important in order to develop your own unique style. While I still feel that it is important to have your own voice as an artist, I’m starting to realize the value in learning from others. I no longer reinvent the wheel when I attempt new techniques and at a class I’m able to meet with other like minded artists and gain more understanding of the medium.
The earrings on the far left are turquoise and bali spacers. The hammered sterling station is the “eyelet” pattern that I learned in the class. The earrings are hammered french hooks. The earrings at the top have a handmade cone earwires in sterling silver with african turquoise coin shaped beads dangling below. Finally, the all sterling earrings are a combination of the cone shape and coiled swans. Learning how to create a loose enough coil to hammer after coiling was very interesting. I love the little swan hooks too.
Earrings similar to these will be part of the new line of jewelry to be found in my booth this coming spring. I’ll have them in a wide assortment of stone choices. For those of you that request copper earwires, I will try and stock a few of the new earwire shapes in that metal. Please feel free to ask me about them while you visit my booth.
Whew! I think that 2006 had to be my busiest year in business to date. I did far more venues than I’m used to and was happy to see most of my jewelry find new homes with my customers. What I have left I’m going to be photographing and popping up into my esty store which can be found at the link in the topbar of this blog. My art prints are available there as well.
2007 is going to be the year of changes for my jewelery business. I’m going to continue to do many of the new venues that I started this past year and I’ve earmarked one or two new venues to add to my schedule this year that should be plenty of fun. You’ll be able to see where my booth will be in the “event” section of my blog. Just press on the link and all the shows will be listed as they approach on the calendar. Venues for 2007 will start to be listed there as my confirmations come in.
Another change this year is that I’m currently in the process of setting up a new area in my studio to do metalsmithing. While I don’t expect to have anything of a gallery quality to showcase this year, I am hoping to have sterling and stone rings, pendants and earrings to add to my usual wire wrapped work possibly in late spring. I’ve been growing fascinated with hot metal and all the fun things that you can do to it with a torch. I’m not sure where my inner muse will take me, but it is going to be an adventure.
Despite being swamped with work due to the time of year, I decided to participate in a group necklace project slated to be sent in to the Belle Amorie contest that has a deadline in Feburary. Our group decided to have an autumn theme to our work, with the ruddy hue of copper being one of the chosen colors. The ladies of the group are all members of “Jewelryhaven” one of the many jewelry themes yahoogroups here on the net.
I was uncertain what to make as my contribution, but I decided to make up some leaf shaped frames in copper and then to embellish them with a thinner gauge of wire and a swirl to give them more substance. Each charm is 1 1/2 inches long and about 1 inch wide. The frame is made of 16g copper wire that has been either coiled or hammered and the interior is wirewrapped 24g copper wire. Everything has been tumbled to work harden the wires and make them nice and shiny.
I love to work with copper. There is something that is warm and inviting about the reddish hue and the sheen of this metal. These earrings were commissioned from me by a nice lady at Bates Nut Farm. She had the idea of the swirls, but wanted to have a fringe to it. These earrings are what I came up with.
The swirl is 18 gauge copper wire with 20 gauge hammered fringe. The small beads are ocean jasper stones. I completed the earrings with hammered french earwires also made of copper metal.
Preparations for my fall schedule of fine craft shows and vendor fairs has been slow going this late summer. I feel as if I’m being pulled in many directions at once. First by the fabrication metals classes I took this summer and by a wonderful weekend workshop I participated in with Connie Fox this past September. There have been so many new ideas thrust upon me that I hardly know what to make first or what to plan for this coming season. Needless to say, my jewelry style is going to go through drastic changes as all the new ideas filter into my old style of doing jewelry and techniques and ideas begin to mesh.
Just as I was starting to kick into gear and manufacture for my October venues, I ended up with a pinched nerve and was unable to walk for a good week, let alone work! With therapy and some bed rest, I am now back to my bench making jewelry and above is the first result after my illness.
This necklace features iolite stones and sterling silver that has been woven in two different byzantine weave variations. The clasp is bali and features an iolite cab. It is a substantial piece with some weight, but not heavy.
Last April, I joined a group of fine ladies to work on a necklace that would be composed of charms made by all of us. At the end of July, the necklace was assembled by our coordinator and friend, Cyndi Lavin. All that was said to each of us was to follow an “ocean theme”, after that, what charm you submitted was up to you. Each and every charm was a unique piece of art and I’m proud to have been part of the project.
Now that the necklace is complete, each of the artists that submitted a charm will wear the necklace to a special occasion and then pass the necklace on to the next artist in the list. Once we all get a chance to wear the art piece, it will then be auctioned off on eBay and the proceeds given to cancer research.
My time with the necklace has come and gone. I wore it while visiting Spokane, Washington during my husband’s college reunion. I wore the necklace while visiting Arbor Crest and Mountain Dome wineries. Later that same day, I wore it during an evening cruise on Lake Cordelane. There is something magical about this necklace. Everywhere I went, people had to come up and touch it. They examined each of the charms, trying to decide which they liked best and to hear the story behind this piece of art. I had an enchanting time wearing the ocean necklace and was glad that I included it during this special event.
Above is the charm that I submited to the necklace. It is made of sterling silver with glass beads wire wrapped onto the hammered frame. I chose pearls and blues to compliment the ocean theme of the necklace.
If you are interested in the necklace, it will be for sale on eBay in August of 2007. All proceeds will go to cancer research. I will post on my blog more details about the sale as we get closer to the event.
Working with wire is a freeing experience. This is the first vessel style pendant I’ve created with wire.
The rim is made of 14g copper that has been formed into a rough oval. Then 16g wire was used to create the main spokes of the vessel. 20g copper wire was woven inbetween all the spokes to create a loose basket effect and then pilers tweeked each of the wires to create a flowing movement to the piece. It measures 3 1/2 across and is 5 in length including the fringe. The leash is black leather that is adjustable from 18 in length all the way to 30. You just slide the little ceramic beads until you get the length that looks best on you. The ceramic slides hold the necklace in place.
After creating the little framed pendants/charms for the necklace project, I found that I enjoyed wire wrapping and wanted to try a larger project. Thus, when I spotted a tutorial for a woven wire neckpiece featuring double holed beads in Step by Step Wire, I was intrigued. I’ve had these double drilled fancy jasper stones for years, but never could figure out what to do with them. Suddenly, they were calling to me. Their necklace had been found!
From the start this neckpiece was a challenge. I had to drill the focal beads to accept the thicker gauge of wire and getting those holes to go cleanly all the way through proved to be difficult. After switching diamond drill bits a few times, I found the right size to accommodate the wire. The first attempt of wrapping had to be taken out since I didn’t like the first placement of the stones, but after that, all was well and the neckpiece flowed quickly. I had made the byzantine chains the night before and all that was needed was to pop them into the tumbler to remove burrs and the task was completed.
The neckpiece is an 8 inch frame of 16g sterling silver with additional sterling wire creating a web to hold the mix of organic hues. Reds, Greens and Cream along with bright silver beads form the focals of this neckpiece. The chain is more of my thick byzantine sterling and it has an adjustable set of links so that the neckpiece can be worn at choker length all the way down to 18″. The clasp is a handmade big hook that has been hammered.
Due to the unbearable heat outside, I’ve been staying indoors in front of a fan. It is not a perfect solution, but I’m cool enough to be able to work and that is what is important.
My shipment of sterling jumprings arrived from Chainweavers on Friday. I was pleased to see that they were packaged in little metal canisters and were clearly labeled. The rings are nicely finished and ready to work with out of the box.
I’ve been looking forward to giving chain maille a try and have selected a series of basic chains to make for my booth this fall. The first bracelet I am making is a simple “byzantine” or “king’s link”. I’ve selected 18 gauge sterling silver round wire in a 3.5mm diameter for this first project. It has been slow going for me as I get the weave of the rings into my fingers. I’m using mismatched pilers, basically what I have on hand in my toolbox. For an awl, I’m using my soldering pick!
I’ve been working on the bracelet on and off during the day, taking breaks to cool off as I go or to help my husband with various chores around the house. With each completed set of links, I find that the work becomes easier and I find the entire process to be relaxing.