A New Arrival

No, not a baby! The good news is that I am expecting a new laptop to arrive tomorrow. For the last five years, I have tried to limit computer-related distractions in the studio by keeping the computer at home. However, I have realized that saving all of the computer work until I get home can be detrimental to communication, such as my blog. So, finally, I am going mobile. Add to this the fact that my new computer will have an empty hard drive as opposed to the current hard drive, filled to capacity. Photo downloading should be much less of a struggle.

Now to the most pressing question...can I keep the facebook related procrastination at bay?

Open Studio!

Custom ring of blackened silver and paisley-cut rhodolite garnet

Considering the recent upgrades in my studio, it is fortuitous that the annual Atlantic Avenue Artwalk is this weekend. Although, I didn't get on board in time to be in the official listing, there will be several other studios in my building open over the weekend, and I decided to open as well.

In addition to some of the new work, I will have some older designs at great prices and the paintings of my husband, Jun Ishida, will be on display. All along Atlantic Avenue, there will be art on display, whether it is on the walls of local merchants, or in some of the hidden studios along Atlantic and neighboring streets. Have a look a the schedule for details about all of the performing art events as well as special deals offered by local restaurants.

For more information
natasha at natashajewelry.com
646-339-6955

Hope to see all of my New York readers there!

Highlight of Snag

Fred and I pose during the opening reception

I made a quick trip over to Philadelphia for one day of the SNAG conference last week, and to my surprise, I saw my professor from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Fred Fenster. He generally doesn't go to the conference, much preferring to stay home and work in his studio. He is the person that taught me what I know about making holloware as well as many other skills; toolmaking, craftsmanship and pewter, to name a few. It was hard to leave, as I had a just a short time to catch up with him, along with the many other friends that I ran into at the conference.

Sorry as I was to leave, I had plenty of work waiting for me back in Brooklyn. After five years of sharing a studio, I now have the space entirely to myself. All week I have been re-arranging the layout of the studio for maximum efficiency and creative flow. I have a soldering area that is seperate from my small workbench and I will have a wall that is dedicated to inspirational images, and my own drawings. I am planning to have a party soon to inaugurate the redesigned space, details to follow once I figure out a date.

Getting back to the conference, there was an informative seminar focused on professional development, but I will leave it to Gabriel Craig, Emiko Oye and Lynette Andreasen to give their insights.

Changes

As of tomorrow, I will be the sole occupant of my studio. I have been sharing the studio for 5 years now, but my studio mate has relocated to upstate NY, so she will be setting up her studio there. This is a big change for me. It involves replacing some of the tools that she has very generously allowed me to use over the years. It will also give me more space to work with. At this point, I plan to use some of this space as a consultation area for meeting my ever-increasing number of custom work clients.

I am also thinking about my past work as a sculptor. Mabye the extra space will inspire me to make larger work. I have been talking about that for some time now....

Starting tomorrow is the Society of North American Goldsmiths conference in Philadelphia. I had planned to attend the whole conference, but with the trip abroad and my upcoming equipment purchases, it's not in the budget. However, I do plan to go tomorrow for a special seminar on professional practices, and I hope to catch up with some colleagues and friends afterwards.

Later this week, I will add more Bali photos to the flickr account and talk more about that lovely place!

Back to New Yrok

Dance headdresses on display.

I have now been back in the US for a few days. I am not quite fully back in my mind, however, and all of my dreams still take place in Bali. Aside from the confusion and jet lag, I feel very refreshed. It is great to remember that there is a whole world out there, and most of them aren't thinking about an economic crises. I was talking to a Balinese guy and he tried to tell me not to go back to the US because of pig flu. I though there must be some kind of translation issue going on because I had no idea what he was talking about. Besides the internet cafes being slow, I just didn't want to spend a lot of time there, with all the charms of Bali at the doorstep.

Most of my time was spent working on the costumes for the show with Akim Funk Buddha and the Starship Crew, and studying Balinese dance. It was a challenge to arrive and very quickly get to work sourcing materials and working with tailors to get everything sewn in time. I had to make some bodysuits and finding an overlock machine in the town we were in, Ubud, was quite a challenge. I ended up learning how to make a bodysuit pattern on the fly. It was also a stretch of the imagination to go to the market and try to create from what was in front of me, rather then what I envisioned finding. In the end, the costumes looked great and that was very gratifying.

Off to Bali

It seems as though there has not been that much going on in my jewelry life lately. It is true that it has been squeezed in, between all of the preparation for my trip to Bali. I wil be departing in a few hours. I would like to share some of the jewelry making techniques there, although that will depend on how easy it is to download and post photos from an internet cafe there.

I do have a workshop planned for early June that will draw on some material that I collect in Bali. It will be in early June at the Newark Museum. The focus will be on filigree, which I have been using extensively in my latest work, and is also a highly developed technique in Bali.

While I am gone, there are some interesting, annual events going on here on the east coast.

SOFA NY

Smithsonian Craft Show

In the meantime, I definitely learned two Indonesian words:
perak- silver
emas- gold

Bali Spaceship

Akim Funk Buddha, the leader of the crew

As I mentioned in an earlier posting, I am off to Bali in a couple of weeks. Two members of our crew are heading there this week, so I set up a blog to document all of our adventures and discoveries in Bali.

Have a look: Bali Spaceship

Pardon me if I post over there a bit more in the coming weeks!