Musings on beauty

The path to beauty
The same as love
Is always changing
Never not a challenge

The path to beauty
The same as love
Requires hardness
But not turning to stone

The path to beauty
The same as love
Requires softness
But not becoming a puddle

The path to beauty
The same as love
Is always uphill
Never a summit

The path to beauty
The same as love
Is
Worth
Every
Breath

Conrad Hicks

Conrad Hicks is a Capetonian artist blacksmith, he forges gates, fences, sculpture, knives, kitchenware and furniture. Choosing a more traditional approach, all jointing is done using forge welding or riveting. Forge welding is where the steel is brought above forging temperature to white heat, placed next to or ontop of another piece of white hot steel and smashed together using either hand hammers or if the piece is large enough, power hammers.

The rationale behind using traditional techniques even though they take longer, is that you cannot replicate the look and feel of pieces made before arc welding was invented without following the same path as the old masters. A hole which is drifted looks different to a drilled hole, rivets which actually hold a piece in place look different to decorative rivets, mo matter how skillfully they are wrought.

" after I decided not to use arc welding in my designs, but rely wholly on blacksmithing techniques instead. Making this decision gave me a framework to work within and challenges to overcome, forcing me to push the boundaries of design possibilities. Imposing these limitations on myself gave my work meaning and it was in finding solutions to the problems I set, that I discovered my artistic purpose. " Conrad Hicks

I find that forging a piece of jewellery directly from the poured ingot gives me the same satisfaction. Somehow the route from smelting to finished piece speaks to the overall meaning, even if the it's not directly apparent to the observer. I think this is why I would like to leave some trace of the process in the finish.

"Keep your technique simple, but always be aware that your work reflects who you are. If you conform to mediocrity your work will never be anything more than mediocre. Your hammer marks are your brush strokes; they show how much you care for yourself and your work, and they can also reveal the opposite. Be proud of your ability to create a piece by hand, and wield your hammer with confidence. It is only through the development of self-awareness that we can create something truly unique." Conrad Hicks

Ashleigh George

Another jeweller who combines words with her pieces is Ashleigh George. She draws inspiration from nature and embeds parts of scripture from the bible into her jewellery. Whilst I'm not necessarily looking to scripture for the words I bond with my pieces, her work reiterates my point that more meaning can be brought to visual form through the addiction of words and phrases.

 "Wearing The Word" is beautiful and an immense honor and privilege." says Ashleigh.

http://ashgeorgejewelry.com/about.html

Written on the back of this bangle is:

….."So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

Wally Gilbert

Wally Gilbert is a rather wonderful "poltyglot" of metalcraft. Speaking the language of scuptor, jeweler, silversmith and manufacturer of decorative elements in architecture. It seems that instead of allowing the design sensibilities of each dicipline to influence him, he rather applies his design perspective to each dicipline. In a process which is almost the reverse of what I am attempting, he creates a body of work where he is the connecting feature, not the elements or techniques.

"I think of decoration and ornament not as an extra but as integral to the expression of any culture, and the medium through which I express myself."

http://www.wallygilbert.co.uk/index.htm





Bracelet

Andy Cooperman

Andy Cooperman blends techniques from different smithing traditions. In his words "We benefit from the explorations and innovations of countless generations of smiths--from goldsmiths and silversmiths to blacksmiths and tinkers--who built the foundations of metalsmithing and our innovations continue that tradition of discovery."

Using many techniques from blacksmithing, his examples have become important in my research. many of his rings are forged from the ingot and not rolled to shape the way a goldsmith would normally make a ring.

http://www.andycooperman.com




Here's the groom's ring. 14k rose gold, forged and fabricated from an ingot. The little "rivet" detail is 14k white gold. Below are some images of the fabrication. Right to left: The ingot forged into a blank. Annealing. Using the ring bender to shape the stubborn and thick gold. This last image shows how the "tail" of the forging is notched so that it sits smoothly atop the rest of the ring.

Stephen Einhorn

Not exactly a reference but a nice interaction which shows other designers are thinking along the same lines as me.

Jeanine Payer- Poetry with jewellery

"The idea of the secret is at the core of all that I make. The words are purposefully too tiny to read easily; this is the key to understanding what I am doing. It is always a process of mystery and discovery because the words are not immediately evident, and people sometimes have to use a magnifying glass. My work values the mysterious and revelatory in the way that poetry values these qualities with words. My designs are never about the ‘bling' and they are not for everyone; its artisanal, idiosyncratic, and very private."

Jeanine Payer inscribes poetry onto her jewellery, adding meaning in ways which would be difficult with visual cues alone. This is very similar to the way i wish to use poetry and lyrics with my pieces. I enjoy the concept of forcing people to examine the jewellery, looking for meaning in both the physical and metaphoric sense.

Her website is http://www.jeaninepayer.com/about

I understood love to be the very gravity holding each leaf, each cell, this earthly star together.

-Joy Harjo

A mountain keeps an echo
deep inside itself. That's how I hold your voice.
-Rumi, trans. by Coleman Barks

Lily test in silver

I forged the lily shape in silver, starting from a bar ingot. All forming and finishing was done with hammer and anvil/steel block.

It occurred to me as I was working that I have ventured into the domain of the silversmith so I will investigate where skills overlap from the disciplines of the silversmith, goldsmith and blacksmith.

I think the main difference may be that a silversmith would start with sheet metal, cut a basic shape and then form it, where I'm starting with the blank, forging the flat shape and then shaping it.

I would like to bring my hammering techniques up to a point where all finishing is done with a polished hammer face and steel block. Then I'd like to add elements made in a more traditionally jewellery fashion, filling, sanding, setting and polishing to counterbalance the hammered finish.

I'm also going to look at making paper preforms and rolling them to see what exact shape I should be forging toward in the flat stage.

You grow me like an evergreen....

I took some time yesterday to forge a bit of mild steel. I've watched videos where people forge the floral and vegetal details used in ironwork and wanted to get some experiential knowledge of these techniques. It's not as easy as it looks but it's not impossible.

Repeating these patterns on a smaller scale is the next step, as well as practising refining the larger forms.

As to coupling the pieces with poetry, I still want to do that but perhaps use a stanza and concept for an entire range. It feels like too much pressure on one piece to convey the message. Also I found I was getting too zoomed into making everything about one piece. This way, I can make several with the same theme.

The stanza I've chosen for the plant inspired metal forms is from the song Without you I'm nothing by Placebo:

"You grow me like an evergreen, you've never seen the lonely me at all"

I've chosen this line because, unlike their plant cousins, metal flowers do not wither or change once formed, making them evergreen. I also like the idea that without the wearer, the pieces would be lonely and would possibly deteriorate.

I've included some pictures of the process of forging a lily shape, the first test pieces as well as some floral metal work done by the experts.