[Jewelry making - Article 00370] - Re: [Orchid] Article: Minimal Metalsmithing

[Judy Haupin-Silver Gold'N Glas]

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    After reading the discussions both on the Orchid listserv and the
    Yahoo Metal Clay discussion group, I've been struck by the
    similarlities in Nanz' messages and many I read when digital
    photography was starting to make headway into the phtographic world. 

    I started out in Photography in 1968 with a minolta srt. Over the
    years, I perfected my craft, studying with wonderful artists like
    Ansel Adams and Galen Rowell. I had a full B&W darkroom setup and
    when cibachrome rolled around, I moved into color processing. 

    Then Digital came along. it was first viewed as a fad. then for the
    point and shoot crowd - not "real professionals". today I doubt that
    there are few professional photographers around that don't have at
    least one digital camera. and unless you bulk load your own, it's
    getting harder to find black & white 35 mm film - or color film in a
    variety of low exposure rates for that matter. There will probably
    (hopefully) always be film for photographer who chooses to use it,
    but digital photography has become an additional tool that most
    serious photographers wouldn't to give up. 

    Nanz and other metalsmiths who denigrate metal clay are perhaps as
    short sighted as the early naysayers of digital photography. 

    why not just see it as one more tool in your arsenal, rather than a
    threat to jewelrymaking on a grand scale? Are there situations where
    I would not use metal clay? absolutely. but there are many
    circumstances under which I'd much prefer to use metal clay to the
    fabrication techniques I learned at the Maine College of Art. 

    I just completed a lovely two-sided pendant with a large bezel set
    turquoise cab on one side. Both sides have deeply incised designs
    taken from navaho and hopi woven baskets, highlighted in LOS. The
    pendant is complemented by an incised toogle clasp, using the same
    designs as the pendant, but in miniature. 6 one-inch lozenge beads
    with similar native american designs are strung as a part of the
    necklace. These were all made in Art Clay Silver, and the native
    american designs were quicky sized and produced using photopolymer
    plates. the plates for all the pieces took less than a half hour to
    produce. The entire necklace, start to finish, to less than a day to
    conceive, fabricate and finish stringing. carving or creating rolling
    plates to create the same incised designs would have taken much
    longer and the end result might not have been as good. 

Judy Haupin
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