My newest pin is this copper fish, finished today, November 7, 2002. I started it years and years ago when I took lessons at Ridgewood NJ adult school under Ani Gedickian, since married and the mother of children.
Email marciawilson@earthlink.net
MARCIA SANDMEYER WILSON JEWELRY
My newest pin is this copper fish, finished today, November 7, 2002. I started it years and years ago when I took lessons at Ridgewood NJ adult school under Ani Gedickian, since married and the mother of children.
Now that I am taking lessons at the Newark Museum with Sue Sachs, I am completing a lot of half-baked projects. If you look at the curly cues the clumsy ones were made a long time ago, and the crisp new ones were added today.
The raised bumps were made from a center punch bought at a hardware store. I call them "pleasure dots" because they are fun to touch.
Here is a self portrait as queen I finished October 17,2002. I made it out of scraps of copper, brass and silver from various and sundry places.
the texture on the dress came from a copper plate that I was sorting out to give to the thrift shop but decided to cut it up with tin snips instead. This started from a pie-shaped wedge of a textured plate which I rolled thru the rolling mill until it was quite thin. It is no longer textured, but the pattern stayed anyway. Interesting, eh?
These three pins are about half finished. Sorry that my flash washed out all the details but I like the general feeling of their shapes.
Once again, I am using found materials and scraps, which I solder together, then roll thru the rolling mill, texture with a nail punch and chasing tools, and solder again. I work by trial and error, mostly error.
I used to make jewelry about 10 years ago, but gave it up. Now I'm starting again, taking lessons at the Newark Museum Arts Workshop with a wonderful teacher, Sue Sachs. She leaves me alone to do my own thing yet when I ask for help, she knows all the right stuff.
I like lessons at The Newark Museum because the equipment is new, the classroom is sunny, and I just like the place. I spend all Thursday there, taking jewelry in the morning, doll-making in the afternoon, with lunch in their atrium cafe in between.
Here is a photograph of me at my workbench October 10, 2002. I'm holding a pin in my right hand and the beginnings of a cat pin in my left hand.
Today, October 24,2002, I finished the cat pin. Here is the result. I made it from scraps. The nose is half of a bead made and discarded by my friend Ann Davis. The body of the cat is also made of Ann Davis bead halves. She had soldered them onto some sort of framework as if they were each going to be caps on the end of a kind of openwork tube, but she had twisted the tube when she scrapped it.
I smashed it with a large hammer and ran it thru the rolling mill a few times, anealing it in between sessions.
The eyes of the cat are some sort of brass pimple shapes that I got from goodness knows where. They were in my junk box and I slammed them with a hammer so now they dimple in instead of out. The ears and neck and front leg of the cat are all one piece, part of a flattened silver spoon, if I remember correctly. The split between the ears started as an accidental tear which I encouraged.
The cat's tail is made of electrical wire, stripped romex, which I flattened in the rolling mill and then twisted into a sort of coil, bashed a few times with a hammer. In this photo the tail is polished; up above the copper wire is still black from liver of sulphur. The ghouly look on my face is from wondering if the self timer on my camera is going to work.
The second leg of the cat is made from a piece from the scrap bin of a jewelry class at Ridgewood NJ high school where I took jewelry lessons in adult school at least 10 yrs ago with Ani Gedickian. I love to salvage things from scrap bins of students. They have so much energy in the way they pound and cut out metal.
The two hind legs of the cat are two parts of the same piece of brass, which split in a funny way when it was cut in half. That may also have come from the scrap bin.
I might submit some pieces to the Newark Museum gift shop for a sale of jewelry from our class. I agreed, but only if I can price them "too high" so they can come home again.
When pricing things I make I imagine driving home with the money received, and without my piece. If I am crying in my imagination, then I know I priced it too low. If I am feeling guilty, then I priced it too high. So I try and make a price that will satisfy me without guilt and without tears.
The true value of a piece is how much I like it over a long period of time. Some things grow tiresome; others are a joy to live with, worth every penny and more.
Here is a closeup of the pin in my right hand. I made it out of an old spoon and some scraps of copper and a 14k gold star for one of the eyes. I did not polish it very well so it does not look shiny.
The second pin I made is another woman's head... also made of scraps of brass and copper and silver. I used a nail punch for a lot of the patterning, as well as some chasing tools, and I used a "dapping punch" to make the boom-booms stick out.
I hope to improve my workmanship as time goes on, but the most important thing for me is to have a good time.
When I work at jewelry I feel as if I am in occupational therapy at a hospital somewhere. It's just relaxing, mindless kind of work, hammering and cutting and drilling and soldering. Just plain fun.
Here I am having fun in class. haha.