Search results matching tags 'Art Jewelry magazine' and 'behind the scenes'

Casting grains: the Thanksgiving turkey stuffing of the jewelry world.

Addie Kidd — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 20:07:00 GMT

So, yeah...I'll admit that headline was a bit of a stretch. But I'm excited about two things today - tomorrow's Thanksgiving, and the casting grain I just got in the mail. I had to figure out some way to reference both.

Aren't they pretty?? All tiny, sparkly, shiny, and new!
I ordered a pound of bronze (pictured at right) and a few ounces of fine silver. [If you weren't already familiar, casting grain is metal in raw form; its small size makes measuring and melting easier.]

Now, are you ready to hear about my klutz move of the day?
(Yes, I have one practically every day. I think it's in my genetic code or something.)

I wanted to melt my casting grains the second after they arrived on my desk. But I needed to get a photo or two first for the magazine. [Be on the lookout for my casting project and article in the May issue of Art Jewelry magazine!] So I reluctantly dropped the two little bags of casting grains off at our photo department.

Today, Jim Forbes, one of our staff photographers, called me down to get my opinion on the shots that he'd taken. They were beautiful, of course - much better than my little snap shot here. So I officially approved them, grabbed my casting grains, and headed back to my office.

On the way back, I decided to detour to the washroom. No problems so far, right? So I set my two little bags of casting grains on the sink counter.

Just to set the scene, the silver grains came in a tiny zip top bag, so they were safe. But the bronze grains were in this cloth bag shown here. [I think it looks like a miniature money bag that robbers in cartoons would steal from the bank. That makes me want to draw a big "$" on it!] Well, since the cloth bag only has a draw string it wasn't exactly secure.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

Before I'd realized what I'd done, the bag full of bronze casting grains shifted on the edge of the sink counter. The next sound I heard was the multiple "PINGS!" of itty-bitty casting grains spilling out and bouncing on the tile floor.

Oops.

I scooped up the bag before too much damage was done, but there were still plenty of grains rolling around. So now I'm on my hands and knees on the washroom floor, crawling around under the sink and counter, trying to retrieve every little elusive grain.

How dignified.

Luckily, only one other co-worker walked in at that moment to witness me in all my klutzy glory. She only laughed a little bit, and she even helped me spot stray grains, which was nice. I think I got most of them, though I know one bounced down the drain.

So the moral of the story is to put all your casting grains (or any other tiny thing, like gemstones) into zip top bags. And close them.
And just for safe measure, keep them away from me.

Happy Turkey Day!

~Addie~

Video gives sneak peek inside Ford Forlano studios and how they make polymer clay art jewelry

Kristin Sutter — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:26:00 GMT

If you like polymer clay jewelry, chances are you've seen work by Ford Forlano; that is Steve Ford and David Forlano, with Maryanne Petrus-Gilbert doing metalwork. We first featured Ford Forlano's work in "A Rarefied Medium," an article by Ronna Weltman (September 2006) about A-list polymer clay jewelry. If you've never seen their work, prepare for a treat. For me, Ford Forlano pieces never disappoint. The texture, the shape, the color — the pieces are always exciting and elegant. When I'm feeling creative, I tend to work better on my own. So it was really interesting to learn more about the team's collaboration in this video.

It shares not only great images of their studios and finished pieces, but also a bit about their history and how they continue to work together. Check it out!

—Kristin

Want to see your work in Art Jewelry magazine? We've made it easier to submit.

Kristin Sutter — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 21:00:00 GMT

Have you ever wanted to do an article for Art Jewelry so you could teach your fellow jewelry makers how to do a technique? Or have you ever thought that your work would look great in Gallery or Beyond Jewelry? If you have, we'd love to hear from you. Check out our new PDF "How to Pitch a Story Idea to Art Jewelry" (hint: you can do it in 4 easy steps) and our newly revised "Art Jewelry Submission Guidelines" here. We admit, understanding how the publishing world works can be a little daunting. Hopefully, these documents will make it easier for you to navigate the quirky world of magazinery. And stay posted — we'll have more helpful documents available soon.

—Kristin

How Art Jewelry editors pick the projects for each issue

Kristin Sutter — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 21:38:00 GMT

Today we had our issue-planning meeting for the July issue. For those of you who enjoy thinking about a design for a piece of jewelry, making various sketches, playing with shape and color until you get an idea just right, you'll understand how exciting these meetings are, because we're essentially doing the same thing — playing around with the contents until we get the balance just right.

First of all, we unwrap everything — it's like Christmas. We open the boxes containing the jewelry that's been submitted for projects, and we put all the pieces on makeshift display. When we've finished ooh-ing and aah-ing, we start by considering what will be going on in the jewelry-making world when the issue hits the newsstands. Since the Fourth International PMC conference will be going on in July, we wanted to make sure we had a good selection of metal clay projects for our July issue.

In general, we go on to talk about cover pieces. Of course, we think that all the jewelry we accept is beautiful, but we need to make sure that the cover piece is especially striking, not only because we want to get your attention, but also because it has to hold its own amid a bunch of words on the page and a bunch of other magazines next to it on the newsstand. Sometimes, we save certain pieces for cover pieces, so a piece that's especially stunning might have to wait a few issues to get into the magazine.

After we pick our must-haves, we start filling in the rest of the issue with all the other media we want to cover: metals, polymer clay, mixed media, wire, chain mail, enameling, etc. and technique articles. We want a balanced variety of media and skill levels so that all of our readers, from beginner to advanced, are able to learn something exciting in each issue. We also consider visual style: If we choose a project that's very precise, we may try to choose another that's more organic or rugged.

At the end of the meeting, we do one last check: good mix of media, good mix of skill levels, good mix of styles. And we ask ourselves: will it be beautiful? If the answer to all these questions is yes, then the real work starts.

Making Art Jewelry magazine better

Kristin Sutter — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 16:06:00 GMT

The editors and designers of Art Jewelry meet every year for a retreat, where we look at what's been successful in the past and what direction we'd like the magazine to go in. To prepare for the meeting, we often raid bookstores and buy magazines that are accomplishing a little of this, a little of that — the stuff we want to incorporate into our own voice.

Last Friday I pulled at least 20 magazines off the rack. But as I looked, I started to get frustrated, because I realized I didn't like a lot of them, for their content or their design. (Of course, I also found some excellent magazines that I'm excited to share at the retreat.) Personally, I enjoy women's magazines and home-decor-type stuff for about 10 minutes. Then I get overwhelmed by a feeling of failure: my home will never be that neat or color-coordinated (who buys only orange books to place just so on their shelves?), my appearance will never be that calculated (I think this is worth a try, but I don't even have children and I can't find time to brush my hair in the morning; thankfully, my hair stylist works with me on this), and my "decor" isn't really worthy of the term. The design of many magazines is as overwhelming as the content. There are odd lines and colors and icons, and navigating them feels like trying to find your way on an alien planet's subway system. Or the pages are cluttered with an uncaptioned confetti of pictures.

But for me, being overwhelmed soon turns to being annoyed. Instead of feeling like a failure, I start to feel like it's the message in those magazines that's wrong, because I think that people should follow their own bliss, should put time and effort and money into what matters most to them, not into what matters to the collective of women's magazines, the home and garden world, or the industry's fashionista manifestos. This experience reaffirmed for me that it's good for me to be at Art Jewelry, a magazine that exists for the sole benefit of those people whose priorities, in my book, are admirable. For those people who are following their own bliss, putting effort into what matters to them.

I've always cared a lot about Art Jewelry, but meditating on all this makes me even more determined that Art Jewelry should be that excellent magazine that people buy off the newsstand, excited to read it and share it with friends. There are, as always, a few areas of the magazine that I think we could improve. But I'd really like to know what would make the magazine better for you. If you could have anything you wanted from Art Jewelry magazine, what would it be?

I'm excited to hear your thoughts on this! Thanks, in advance, for sharing!

–Kristin

Fun at the One-of-a-Kind Show in Chicago!

Kristin Sutter — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 21:09:00 GMT

Lunchtime on Dec. 7, 2007, found Jill, Addie, and I (plus Addie's mom and a friend of Jill's) at bluprint, a restaurant at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. We met there to fuel up in preparation for the journey we were about to take through the floor of the One-of-a-Kind Show, which was going on above our heads about seven floors up. I ended up taking a picture of my gourmet mac & cheese.

I wanted to show the picture to Naomi Fujimoto, senior editor at BeadStyle magazine, one of our sister publications. Naomi has a thing for gourmet comfort foods. The food was so beautiful that everyone wanted a picture of their as-yet-undevoured dish.

Yum!

Thus sustained, we took the elevator upstairs and spent the next five hours inundating ourselves with beautiful works of art. Most notably — you guessed it — jewelry. Many times, we stopped by a booth and asked that all-important question, "How did they do that?" (When we ask that, we know we're seeing something magazine-worthy.)

When we're scouting for jewelry artists, we try not to take too much time away from the jewelers; we understand that they're at the show to sell their work. But many people were gracious enough to take the time to hear us out about why they should submit a project or an image for gallery. (If you're thinking of submitting something, we'd love to hear from you! Check out our guidelines.)

Some artists encouraged us to try on their work for fun — and how could we resist!! Of course, some of us went home with a couple you'll-regret-it-forever-if-you-don't-buy-it pieces.

So, thanks to the art jewelry community for delighting us! We hope to return the favor! (If we did our scouting job right, you'll be seeing some fabulous work in our pages in the coming year.)

–Kristin