SNAG Happened

As many of you know, I was a co-chair (along with Tedd and Becky McDonah) for this years Society of North American Goldsmiths conference in Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona.  Our theme for the conference was "The Heat Is On", and in my opinion, the conference was definitely HOT!!!  In every good sense of the word!  Our presenter lineup was amazing, and they all did a fantastic job!  Thanks so much to each of them for their sizzling talks!  For more info click here.

Garth Clark
Megan Auman

Kim Cridler

Steve Midgett

Kevin O'Dwyer

Bettina Speckner

Spotlight On Artists:

Allyson Bone

Caitie Sellers

Andrew Hayes

Loring Taoka

Amy Tavern

Panelists: 

Michael Sturtz, The Crucible, Oakland, CA
Jay Whaley, Whaley Studios, San Diego, CA
Johanna Ingram, Harold Studio, Phoenix, AZ

Also, we had a great exhibition lineup that I think really blew people away.  There was some great metalwork to be seen in Phoenix this year (and many of the shows are still up so be sure to check them out!!!)  More info here. 

“Hot Under the Collar:  A Survey of Contemporary Necklaces”
May 25-May 27, 2012
Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts,* SCPA Atrium
7380 E 2nd St, Scottsdale, AZ

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“Humor in Metal”
May 25-May 27, 2012
Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts,* SCPA Atrium
7380 E 2nd St, Scottsdale, AZ

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“Heat Exchange: A Cross-Continental Survey of Enamel”
Shemer Art Center & Museum
5005 East Camelback Road, Phoenix, AZ
Heat Exchange Blog

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“Cu / 29: Contemporary Work in Copper”
April 6-August 12, 2012
Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum, Main Gallery

 Mesa Arts Center, 1 East Main Street, Mesa, AZ

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“Crucible: 10 Years of Metals at Mesa Arts Center” – Exhibition of Work by Mesa Arts Center Metals and Jewelry Instructors, Artist-In-Residence, Past and Present Workshop Artists and Visiting Artists
April 20-August 12, 2012
Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum, South Gallery
Mesa Arts Center, 1 East Main Street, Mesa, AZ

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“Offerings–Gifts for the Muse: Work by Jan Arthur Harrell”
April 6-August 12, 2012
Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum, Project Room
Mesa Arts Center, 1 East Main Street, Mesa, AZ

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“eleMEnTAL: Becky Chader McDonah – Tedd R McDonah – Lynette Andreasen”
May 25-August 12, 2012
Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum, North Gallery
Mesa Arts Center, 1 East Main Street, Mesa, AZ

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“Presidential: The Art of Leadership”
May 18-August 12, 2012
Mesa Arts Center, 1 East Main Street, Mesa, AZ

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“SNAG Showcase: 2012 Conference Presenters”
May 25-August 12, 2012
Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum, Main Gallery
Mesa Arts Center, 1 East Main Street, Mesa, AZ

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“All That Glitters: American Indian Gold Jewelry”
December 10, 2011-August 5, 2012
Heard Museum North
32633 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale, AZ  85262

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“Exhibition in Motion”
May 24, 2012, 7-9pm
The Westin Kierland Resort & Spa 

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SNAG’s Annual Juried Student Exhibition: “Fusion”
May 23-May 26, 2012
The Westin Kierland Resort & Spa (Trailblazer’s Ballroom)

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“Metals & More:  A Juried Exhibition of ADC and Arizona SNAG Metalsmiths”
February 24-September 30, 2012
Phoenix Airport Museum, Phoenix Sky Harbor (Terminal 3, level 2, in three built-in display cases)

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“ASUMetals Alumni Exhibition” and ”Current Metals Graduate Students Exhibition”
May 4 (opening reception)–May 27, 2012
Night Gallery, 2000 E. Rio Salado Parkway, Tempe Marketplace, Tempe, AZ

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Beverly Penn/Kim Cridler
May 3-June 30, 2012
Special SNAG opening: Friday, May 25, 7-9pm
Lisa Sette Gallery, 4142 North Marshall Way, Scottsdale, AZ

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There is so much more I should say about the conference this year, but I don't know where to start so I will just say this:  It was wonderful, I am thankful for the opportunity I had to help plan it, I'm thankful to all who helped make it successful, and I will see you all in Toronto next year!

 

I have a big show opening next week!  The show is titled eleMEnTAL and features the work of Tedd McDonah, Becky McDonah, and myself.
I hope to see you all at the reception next Friday, but if you can't make it, the show will be up through August 12th!  Details below!

eleMEnTAL

Featuring Arizona Artists Becky Chader McDonah, Tedd R. McDonah, & Lynette Andreasen

When:

Friday, May 25 - Sunday, August 12, 2012

Where: 

North Gallery: Mesa Art Center, (480) 644.6500

One East Main Street

Mesa, Arizona 85201

This exhibition brings together three Arizona metalsmiths, whose aesthetics complement each other but retain their individual forms of expression. With precious and semiprecious metals and stones, these artists create reliquaries and containers, fishing lures, jewelry and other intimate art objects that beacon closer examination. Beyond the elegant surfaces, the work provides a deeper conversation on relationships, attraction, heritage, status and other implications of society.

Opening Reception: Friday, May 25, 2012 (7-10pm)

FREE and Open to the Public
• Musical Entertainment by JT’s Island Steel
• Artists in Attendance
• Benefit Raffle Drawing (Raffle items on display and tickets available for purchase starting Friday, May 18. Contact Betty at 480-644-6567 for more information or visit Mesa Contemporary Arts’ front desk.)
• Light Refreshments and Cash Bar

Rosette Collar

This is one of the new pieces I just finished for my upcoming show at mesa art center.  

Rosette Collar

silver plated copper, sterling silver, fine silver, freshwater pearls, antique chandelier crystals

I outlined most of the process of making this piece below-with pictures!

 I had the parts waterjet cut from copper sheet metal.  To give you a sense of scale, the copper piece below is 36"x36".  The parts for this necklace are towards the bottom-they look like flowers but have little tabs sticking out all around the petals.  I had several other pieces cut for other projects as well.  Normally I do all my piercing by hand, but I ran out of time and had things I wanted to get done for the show and this saved a TON of time. 

 These are the parts once cut.  The waterjet cutting also makes finishing super easy because they are cut perfect-no need for filing, just a little bit of sanding!

As you can see, the longer tabs on these are bent around the back and soldered, to form links for the jumprings to join each piece. 

 

 Here they are all set up for soldering.

This is after they have been soldered, connected with jumprings, and the jumprings soldered closed.

After that I took it to a silverplating company and had a really thick plating put on the whole chain.

This is after the patina was put on, and the crystals were set.  I just used a wood dowel and a bezel pusher to push the prongs over the edge of the crystal and into place.

 

And this is the finished piece.  I forgot to take pictures while I was adding the pearls.  They are just attached with a fine silver pin, balled on both sides of the crystal.

I really want to keep this one!

SNAG - The Conference: Seattle 2011

Attending the SNAG conference this year was really different for me from the other years I have attended. Since I am co-chairing the conference here in Phoenix next year, I went to this years conference with an entirely different perspective. Looking at everything from the angle of planning it made me see everything in a different light. I also spent a lot of time in meetings, so I missed out on some events I wanted to attend, and really missed out on socializing/networking in between sessions and such. I'm not saying it wasn't a great year, just different from my past experiences. In some ways it was a lot better. The first year I went to the conference I was totally overwhelmed. There were so many people, and so many big names. I felt so tiny, insignificant, and kept asking myself what on earth I was thinking attending such an event. Afterward though, I realized how important the experience had been, even if I was shy and didn't fully take advantage of all that was available. I knew I wanted to go back the next year, and I did. Each year I've attended I've gotten more out of the experience. Learned more, absorbed more, observed more, met more people, come out of my shell more, and its been wonderful. I fully believe that attending these conferences is important. It's important to know the other people working in this field, important to make friendships, important to see the work in the exhibitions in person, important to listen to the talks and expose myself to what is contemporary metalsmithing. I always leave the conferences feeling totally invigorated and ready to get back into the studio!

Anyway, this year was no different in that regard...it was a great experience. I just leave the conference every year wishing I had had time to experience a little more, do a little more, see a little more, talk a little more, etc. I guess that is why I keep going back!

The Seattle conference kicked off with the traditional pin swap. Everyone makes tons of pins to trade and then walks around trading and meeting people. I didn't make trade pins (major bummer, but I just didn't have time) but I did get to walk around handing out promotional magnets for next years conference here in Phoenix, so I met lots of people that way. It's always really fun to meet people that I am so familiar with online, but have never met in person. Strange almost, to know so much about someone without ever having met them...but I guess that is what the internet has done to us!

Anyway, the next day I listened to the speakers, Glenn Adamson, Lola Brooks, and Damian Skinner.
Lola Brooks (above) was amazing. Her talk, "Love and Other Indoor Sports" was one of my favorite presentations at the conference. Hilarious, well spoken, engaging, shocking, intelligent...I was in awe and hung on every word. The lady has some serious hoarding tendencies, but she knows it and I have to say, her collections were pretty incredible! Also, prior to the conference I was very familiar with her work, but had no idea really what the context was, so it was wonderful to hear her talk about the ideas behind the objects.

That night we went on the exhibition crawl and I walked until I could barely move! Being 9 months pregnant at the time of the conference (and not used to hills) I was huffing and puffing my way around downtown Seattle! But, I managed to make it to several of the exhibitions (unfortunately not all of them) and was not disappointed. The exhibition crawl for me is always one of the highlights of the conference. So much great work packed into such small spaces. I always go home dreaming about it...always wishing I had a photographic memory! There is never enough time to absorb it all.

On Saturday I attended the professional development seminar and saw speakers, Valeria Vallarta Siemelink, Masako Onodera, John Grade, and Miel Margarita Paredes.I have always liked Masakos work (above and below), but had never had the opportunity to hear her speak about it. I love getting to hear from the artist what their work is about, and about their studio practice. I especially enjoyed hearing about her material choices and her research into Urushi Lacquer.
John Grade (above and below) is an artists whose work I was not familiar with before the conference. The beauty of his images and his honest and open dialogue about how he goes about making the pieces and what influences him sucked me in right away. I am always totally in awe of these artists that undertake such huge projects that require dozens of people. My own world is a much tinier place! Also, the temporary nature of his work was really intriguing to me. I spend so much time focused on how to make my work last forever that making work to last only a short durations is a completely foreign idea to me.
Miel Margarita Paredes (below) is a metalsmith whose work I pretty much worship. That lady has some serious talent. And after listening to her speak (although it was already assumed) it was obvious that she has a killer work ethic as well. It was really interesting to hear her talk about how she has taken her metalsmithing skills with her into a career making steel armatures for an animation company. How cool is that? One of my dreams is to someday be involved with making a prop or costume accessory for a movie. Miels talk gave me a little hope that it may even be an achievable dream!
Saturday night was the exhibition in motion (below). I have to be honest here...usually this event is one I really like, but this year it was...weird. The whole idea was to combine jewelry/wearable metalwork with dancers who would sort of animate the work. Apparently the dancers never saw the work they would be performing with until the night of the exhibition (or at least that is what I heard, and judging from the performance I think it was true). The dance was all improvised, modern, I don't even know what to call it...other than strange. The work in the exhibition was great...I think I would have rather just seen it sitting on pedestals though. The music was weird, the dancing was even weirder, and it seemed to go on and on forever. The dancers were performing with several pieces all at once and it felt really chaotic. And, I'm pretty sure a couple of pieces that were supposed to be in the exhibition got completely forgotten and weren't performed with at all. I'm sure it appealed to some, but I have to say that this years exhibition in motion was not my thing.

Sunday was the last day of the conference. I listened to talks by Lori Talcott and Stacey Lee Webber (below).
Lori Talcott (below) was my other favorite presentation. She talked about her background and the fact that she is a 4th generation jeweler. 4th generation!! That's amazing! She talked about her influences, inspirations, and what motivates her personal work. She showed some wonderful images of historical and folk jewelry that still have not left my mind. She talked about different mourning rituals in different cultures and it got me thinking about how important research is to fuel our work. I would be willing to bet that she spends as much time researching historical work as she does making her own work. She talked about a mourning ritual in Papa New Guinea where the people wear 100 necklaces and remove one each day until their mourning period is over. Her talk left me feeling so motivated to get home and read, get in the studio, and then read some more! It was so interesting...I soaked up every bit and wanted more, more, more!
That afternoon was the trunk show, which turned out to be a huge success! I had little to no expectations. This was the first year they held the trunk show, so really there was no precident. I didn't have time to make new work, so I took a lot of older stuff to sell. I didn't imagine I would sell much since pretty much all the conference attendees are jewelers, but I ended up doing really well. I sold more in 2 hours than I normally do in a 2 day art fair. Crazy! And it was really cool because I got to see my work go to people I knew, or knew of...its so nice knowing that my jewelry was going to good homes!
The conference ended with the final night party. They held the "Passing of the Torch" ceremony where they passed the torch on to Tedd, Becky and I as the co-chairs of next years conference. Of course, we had to dress the theme (matching t-shirts, sunglasses, chili pepper necklaces, and cacti props) We are pretty excited about everything we have planned so far...SNAG 2011 was great, but SNAG 2012 is going to be one HOT conference!

Sightseeing in Washington

So, I'm horribly behind in posting about the SNAG conference and my trip to Washington, but what else is new? I've been awful at blogging lately. Actually I'm behind on everything lately. This baby is sucking the life out of me...literally! She is due in two more weeks and I am hoping that I get some of my energy back then...but I know the next stage is extreme sleep deprivation, so you all will just have to stick it out with me! Sorry:/

Anyway, I went to Seattle a day early with some friends to do some sightseeing before the SNAG conference got started.We rented a car and drove through some really beautiful parts of Washington. We headed to the Olympic Peninsula and stopped at a beach along the way.As a desert girl not used to seeing big huge trees or logs, I was totally fascinated by all the wood on the beach!We also stopped and did a little nature walk through part of the Quinault Rain forest, which was amazing!

There was green everywhere!!I couldn't get over the furry trees. So weird!
This was a gorgeous lake somewhere along the way.And of course, we had to stop in Forks. HAD to.Its so strange to me when I go to places that get that much water. Phoenix averages about 8 inches of rain per year. Per YEAR. I'm such a desert girl!
Anyway, sightseeing was super fun and totally worth going a day early. I will post about the conference soon!

Trunk Show at the SNAG Conference in Seattle

I had a great time at the SNAG conference in Seattle! The trunk show was a huge success, I'm so glad I participated! Here are a couple of pictures (sorry I didn't get better ones!) of the event. It was so crowded, it was awesome! Anyway, I did really well for a 2 hour show and found great homes for some of my favorite pieces of jewelry. I get so attached to things that it makes me really happy when my work goes to good homes!

I also have a lot of jewelry left over which I will be posting in my etsy shop sometime in the next week so keep an eye out! Thanks to all who supported me at the trunk show, the love is much appreciated!Oh, and more posts from my Seattle trip coming soon as well:)

Trunk Show In Seattle!

So, I realize I've been terrible at updating this lately. And the reason for that is that I've been insanely busy...and that I have a ton of things to post! I just finished teaching for the session (I have the ENTIRE summer off) so I will have lots of time to redeem myself shortly and show you all what I have been up to. But, before I do that, I have to jet off to the SNAG conference in Seattle. While there I will be participating in the first ever SNAG trunk show. I hadn't actually intended on participating (because I knew I was too busy to make the inventory I would want to take) but someone had to drop out and I got asked to fill in. Soooo, I will be participating in the trunk show with some older pieces and a handful of new jewelry to sell. Lets hope I can make a ton of new work between now and Tuesday...(hahahaha).
I will try to post pics before I head out but I am not making any promises...

Going Presidential

The Society of North American Goldsmiths is having a fundraiser!! The fundraiser is an auction of work donated by a prominent group of artists, all former and current presidents of SNAG. Check it out here. Bidding ends tomorrow at midnight!

The Heat is ON!

In the last month since I have been out of school I have been managing to stay really, really busy. I don't think I have officially announced something really big I am involved in yet, so I'm doing it now! The Society of North American Goldsmiths has an annual conference every year, and in 2012 it will be coming to Phoenix. I am Co-Chairing the conference along with Tedd and Becky McDonah and we have already had tons of work to do.
The conference usually has about 800 attendees, and SNAG has an overall membership of over 3000.
The hotel has been confirmed, our conference will take place at the Westin Kierland Hotel in Scottsdale. Mostly what we have been really busy with is securing exhibition venues. We are still in negotiations with several exhibition spaces in town, but have already secured spaces at Mesa Contemporary Arts, and the Heard North Museum. Exciting!
We also have a conference theme which is, "The Heat is On!", because the conference is in Phoenix in May. Its going to be hot! Also because of all the ways that theme can apply to the field of metalsmithing. We also secured an awesome graphic designer to brand the conference, Melissa McGurgan.
Phoenix 2012, its going to be HOT! I'm sure I'll post updates on how the conference planning is coming along, but that is all for now.

SNAG Brochure

My work was recently featured in an advertising brochure SNAG just put out. Look for me under the student benefits section. Here is the inside:and the outside: the student insert (Here I am!):

and the membership insert

Thanks SNAG!