First Bagues-Masriera International Enamel Award

I just found out that I have gotten into my first international exhibition. Pineapple Vessel is going to Spain! The show will open at the Reial Academia Catalana De Belles Arts De Sant Jordi in Barcelona. Dates for the exhibition are not available yet, so I will post them when they become known.

Update: No word yet on exhibition dates, but I do know my piece has made it through Customs and is at the Academy.

Reassembled: Kent State Alumni Exhibition

Kent State is celebrating their centennial this year and the Art Department is holding an Alumni Show for the students of the Jewelry, Metalsmithing and Enameling program in the Downtown School of Art Gallery. My piece, White Ring (an image can be found in older posts and at flickr- click the badge to the right), will be on display. Please stop by if you're in the area. The opening reception is Saturday, October 2nd, from 5-9PM.

New Crochet Works and a Light at the End of the MFA Tunnel

I have finally gotten around posting images of my new work from last semester to a few of my different sites. All of the new images can be found at my DeviantART page and flickr page. My main website probably won't be updated until the holiday season as I have a relatively involved re-ramping of the site in mind. Above is Ring V and Wire Ring III is below.

I've begun my last year as an MFA candidate, so updates might be more infrequent until I have defended my thesis; however I will continue to post information on shows as my schedule allows.

Ohio State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition 2010

The Ohio State Fair and the Fair's Fine Arts Exhibition opens this Wednesday, July 28th and will run until August 8th, 2010. Enamel Bowl I and White Ring will be on display for the duration of the Fair and are pictured above. Please stop by to see them in person! The Fair's website can be found at this link.

Emerging Artists At Ohio Craft Museum

The "Emerging Artists: Ohio Connections" exhibition at the Ohio Craft Museum opens this coming Sunday, July 11th. The show will feature artworks by young Ohio artists. Two of my pieces, Untitled Necklace and Doily Vessel, seen below, will be on display. To see some of the other works that will be at the show, check out the Ohio Craft Museum's website.

"Crocheted Cavalcade"- Get Hooked this Friday!

My first solo exhibition takes place this Friday, March 5th in Los Angeles! If you're in the area, please stop by! My bag design will be pre-released that evening and go on sale at other Harveys locations and online on the following day. The show will run until May 6th, 2010. Find the bag online here.

Threadknits Contest

Bouncing around on the web, I randomly came across this contest for Threadknits. The idea is to crochet or knit an item of some sort based off of a printed Threadless design. I thought it might be a nice change of pace to crochet something from yarn for once and take a break from all the wire. So much easier on my hands. Image of the finished product below and more can be seen here.

A warm and cozy hooded scarf. And probably this year's Halloween costume.

Argentium Silver Jewelry

My program was given a trial run of the argentium silver that is now available through many suppliers. Below are the results from my experimentation. I like how the argentium crochets, but trying to clean it following the methods recommended online and other from other sources (like heating it in the oven to make it anti-tarnish) were not successful. One piece, Untitled Necklace (below) was definitely tarnishing. Thankfully, it liver of sulfured beautifully.

Both of the crocheted elements in the pieces are the argentium, with the chain and stick pin created from traditional sterling silver. Untitled Brooch, below, maintained its untarnished state. I'm unsure at the moment if I'll consider argentium in the future for crocheted works.

These and other shots, as well as images of more new work, are now up for viewing on my flickr page. Or click the moving icon in the upper right hand corner.

Intro Opening

My sister, my boyfriend, and I were able to fly out for the opening for the "Intro Art and Fashion Competition" at Harvey's this past friday. Above is a shot of my displayed work and tote. The gallery looked awesome! Everything was displayed nicely, and while all the artists' work was very different from the others, all the different styles meshed together really well when they were hung.

Close up of my designed tote above. We were asked to make a button design to go with the campaign theme the competition has. A fellow grad student helped me make this since I don't own photoshop or know how to use it as awesomely as she does.

Finally shot of the gallery and shop space. The turn out was amazing! There were so many people it was kind of difficult to move around and it remained a full house right up until the end.

If you would like to vote for a tote, please go here.

Intro-Art and Fashion Competition

I've been selected as a one of the 10 semi-finalists for "Harvey's Intro Competition". My art and designed tote bag have been sent and are in California, and the show is Friday, Nov. 6th. If my bag is one of the top three as voted for by the public, my tote goes into production and I get to have a solo show of my work at Harvey's gallery on Melrose Ave in LA. Voting online begins Saturday, Nov. 7th here. Please support me and vote!

Mural at St. Leo's

Back in May, my uncle, a priest at St. Leo's in Cincinnati, Ohio, asked if I would be able to possibly paint a mural for the church that would function as a prayer wall and depict members of the parish. I told him I would be able to do it if I could convince some of my friends, who happen to be graduate painting students, to help. Said friends agreed and we began work towards the end of August. Finally, the beginning of October rolled around and we had completed a mural. There was a nice dedication ceremony to celebrate the murals we and another artist had done on an additional wall on the church's parking lot by a local artist. The finished mural is above. In the center, there are petitions written around the openings in the grate, and people can leave intentions and prayers there.

A group shot above of about half of the painters involved.

One to give an idea of scale. The mural goes from around 3 feet to 5 feet tall.

Signatures from everyone who painted. For the first mural I've ever planned, the end result was a great success. Thanks to everyone who made this possible!

“L'art de la Joaillerie” at Thomas Moore

I have gotten four pieces into a jewelry and small scale metal work exhibit at Thomas Moore's Eva G. Farris Art Gallery. The pieces are Domes Neckpiece, A Touch of Henna, Doily Vessel, and Pineapple Vessel, and all can be seen on my flickr page. The exhibition card is below and the show is up until November 14th.

Gallery Hours:

Monday - Thursday: 11 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Friday: 1 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Saturday & Sunday: 1 p.m. - 4 p.m.

More Summer Work-Fused Glass and Glass Beads

They're low quality, but finally some images of work from two other workshops taken over the summer. I had the opportunity to learn how to make glass beads and fuse glass. With the fused glass, I was able to experiment with crocheting fine silver wire (black piece on left side) and copper and foil (white piece on top right) as inclusions in the glass. The glass beads will most likely be used in some crochet bracelets and the fused glass cabs for production pendants and rings.

Summer Work-Enamel

As the end of summer looms near, looking back at it, I'm pretty sure this is probably the most hectic one I've had since entering higher education.  Between a required summer class, three workshops, moving to a new apartment and a couple of weeks in Japan,  at the very least, I'd say it was busy.  Below are some images of enamel panels I created for a summer class.  They range in size from one triptych that is comprised of 4x4 inch squares to diptychs and triptychs that are assembled from 8x10 inch and 10x10 inch panels.

Ohio State Fair

For my first post, I'm happy to write that my piece Pineapple Vessel has been excepted into the Ohio State Fair.  The piece  is pictured above and other shots of it can be found at my Flickr page (click the badge to the right of the blog posts).  Pineapple Vessel was created with crocheted fine silver wire and enamel.  The enamel is suspended within the openings of the crocheted wire in an enameling technique referred to as plique-a-jour, which causes the enamel to appear transparent, mimicking stained glass on a much smaller scale.