{"id":103,"date":"2009-06-06T09:53:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-06T16:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/andescruz.userblogs.ganoksin.coms\/?p=103"},"modified":"2009-06-06T09:53:00","modified_gmt":"2009-06-06T16:53:00","slug":"what-inspires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/andescruz\/2009\/06\/06\/what-inspires\/","title":{"rendered":"What Inspires?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A small group of Etsy Metal members with their own blogs write a short article on a given day subject. We will be doing this the first Friday of each month and our topic this fine June:<\/p>\n

I posed the question about Signature styles. Where does yours come from\u2026 or, if no signature style, What inspires you to create the way you do?<\/p>\n

So for me, I don\u2019t have a clearly defined Signature style, in that all my works do not look like they belong in the same family. Sometimes nor do they even look as though created by the same artist.<\/p>\n

So; What Inspires?<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

I chose this ring as a photo for this blog post. It is my newest creation, as well, it is a specific style I love. So I will talk about that, to begin.<\/p>\n

I made this ring for myself, so being that, it frees it up into the realm of needing only to please me with it\u2019s design, and style. Nor does it need to perhaps compromise into a style I feel my clients are more likely to purchase. Now on that note, I do mostly follow my inner vision, with not a heck of a lot of thought to \u2019sell-a-bility\u2019; but , it is a consideration. The things I like mostmay<\/em>\u00a0be a bit too far into left field for my lovely clients.\u00a0 $\")\"$ <\/p>\n

Building this ring for myself was a true treat. I love jewellery. and I love rings. I love making rings. And I also think as an artist, you are you own best advertising. So you wear your own stuff, You make sure they\u2019re fantastic pieces, and you make yourself wonderful gifts you love\u2026..<\/p>\n

The elements in this ring I love:<\/p>\n

\n
weight. The ring shank is 2.5 to 3+mm thick. So it has weight, feel, substance. You aren\u2019t going to bend it or dent it, or break it.\u00a0 It\u2019s a weapon in it\u2019s own right.<\/li>\n
origin. I started by recycling scrap silver, melting it down in to a roughly rectangular shaped piece of metal; in a crude \u2018crucible\u2019 made by carving a depression into charcoal soldering blocks.<\/li>\n
width. this is a wide ring. it is in fact as wide as humanly possible for the finger it was created for, that i may still comfortably bend my finger. And not a mm less\u00a0 $\")\"$ <\/li>\n

finish.\u00a0 I take the\u00a0 roughly shaped ingot, and proceed to hammer the crap out of it, forging it down, until it is a thickness I like. approximately 3mm.\u00a0 I have\u00a0 a small old rough anvil. And what is fondly my \u2018Divine Hammer\u2019. The hammer is a small sledge hammer from a hardware store. Small handle, big head, and textured. Not your typical Lovely goldsmithing tool. Why is it Divine?\u00a0 The texture it imparts. It is textured with concentric circles on the faces, and I adore the markings it imparts into the metal. The remainders of the labour put in.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
So what so I love? I love rings. I love big, bold heavy rings. I love the feel of the weight on my hand. The substance. The presence.<\/p>\n
What makes it my inspired style? All of this, and more. When I create for myself, I go always for a big, bold, heavy ring. Unusual stones. But more so it\u2019s the finish. I love the marks left by the hammer, a big file, sandpaper. It shows spirit, and love, and gives it what I call an \u2018Industrial<\/em>\u2018 feel. It reminds me of times gone past. Makes me think of steel tools, factories, and blacksmitheries of 1oo years gone past. I use a dark patina on rings like these to accentuate the markings even more; and to give the silver a gunmetal color. This to me is pleasing. The combination brings shivers of joy. I love the sense that I have combined elements, and time frames. I feel that the overall all feel is that of a relic dug up, created centuries ago, when tooling was crude, and working metal was hard. But yet, also, I think my work often looks futuristic. Modern. Otherworldly. So melding these\u00a0\u201cfeels\u201d<\/em>\u00a0into one piece? True inspiration. I love the outcome. looks old, looks like it\u2019s from the future. synergistic winding of the two. Into one small glittering weapon like package, just special, for my finger.\u00a0 $\")\"$ \u00a0Love. Sigh. Bliss.<\/p>\n
The visions of tooling, in a small way to remind me of my roots. Keeps me grounded to the real aspects of metal. melting to molten, shaping, forging with hammer, creating. This is hard work. The marks remind me of the process. And even the path the metal took to come from the earth to come to my hands to be shaped. And, my blood carries lineage of blacksmiths. Maybe it comes down to that. I like to move metal. hammers and anvils give me shivers. Purposefully placed hammer marks are not a detraction of pieces unfinished, but a pattern to entice the eye and the mind, to unleash creativity\u2026..<\/p>\n
That\u2019s my inspiration\u2026 and music.\u00a0 $\")\"$ <\/p>\n
The EtsyMetal Team members also participating in the Blog this month:<\/p>\n
http:\/\/cynthiadelgiudice.blogspot.com\/<\/a>
\n http:\/\/andescruz.wordpress.com<\/a>
\n http:\/\/daniellemillerjewelry.blogspot.com\/<\/a>
\n http:\/\/sarawestermark.blogspot.com\/<\/a>
\n http:\/\/bcyrjewelry.blogspot.com<\/a>
\n http:\/\/etsymetal.blogspot.com\/<\/a>
\n http:\/\/ashleyakers.blogspot.com<\/a>
\n http:\/\/tangerinetreehouse.blogspot.com<\/a>
\n http:\/\/ninagibsondesigns.blogspot.com\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
www.kerinrose.blogspot.com<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n
http:\/\/discomedusa.typepad.com<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 A small group of Etsy Metal members with their own blogs write a short article on a given day subject. We will be doing this the first Friday of each month and our topic this fine June: I posed the question about Signature styles. Where does yours come from\u2026 or, if no signature style, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/andescruz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/andescruz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/andescruz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/andescruz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/andescruz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/andescruz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/andescruz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/andescruz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/andescruz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}