I appreciate all the good words about my last posting. As I have an 11-year-old already, I'm no stranger to the gear-shifting necessary in raising kids. But two! Neither my partner or I were ready for that, and it is a different kettle of fish, to put it mildly. Miles and Audrey are the most amazing little humans, and I don't play weekend daddy with them - I'm right in there with their day-to-day. I'm grateful that this work I love so dearly can support my super-sized family, but it does make a soul-satisfying run in the studio rather a rarity nowadays. I'm still buzzing about the experience of making this new object. The last step in the creative journey of a piece for me is to take beautiful images of it, that show it to its best potential. I have just finished doing that. So, before it goes onto the website's New Work space (in May), may I introduce to you (properly this time):

THE AERIAL OCEAN (MAY IT WATCH OVER YOU). 2009
Pendant: 5" x 3" x 1.25" (13 x 8 x 3cm), chain/cord length: 29" (73cm)

Materials: Spigot handle, raccoon trap jaw, mid-19th-century drawer pull, Masonic Odd Fellows glass seal stamp (1830's), 'Lepine - Paris' binocular lens and housing (1850's) - found washed up on beach, wasp nest, oil lamp wick, fresh-water pearls, jade, turquoise, garnet, shell, Czech crystal, dichroic glass, 16th-century paper, lens, faceted glass, crushed glass, paper twine made with 16th-century kozo paper, Georgian watch-winding key, sterling silver chain, brass, steel wire, copper, artist-made glass bead, steel-point engraving (1850's), linen thread, leather, soil.

Click on images to view them large...

Ding-dong, bell.

Sometimes there is a sea change in the studio, 'into something rich and strange'.

THE INNER SIGHT was a big disappointment, and it caused a great deal of soul-searching and thinking back on my last few years of output.

I came to the realization that much of what I have made since my twins were born almost three years ago has suffered from a bit of an attention deficit (or should I say Traumatic Stress Disorder!). Because my studio time has been squeezed stressfully into my childcare regime, I have not had the brainspace necessary to explore the inspiring avenues that were opening to me in the wake of my Macleay Museum studies. I was also neglecting to rummage properly through my materials, and in doing so I was often on auto-pilot - this eliminated the joyful discovery process that is so central to working with found materials. No wonder I was feeling dissatisfied.

Perhaps simply stating that fact to myself broke the spell. THE INNER SIGHT out of my mind, I set my outer sights on creating the kind of work that speaks to those impulses that had consumed me before the children arrived. And out of the ashes rose "THE AERIAL OCEAN (MAY IT WATCH OVER YOU)", a double-sided swiveling neckpiece that coalesced alchemically in the studio. It was easily the most thrilling time I've had making artwork in the last three years, and will be my own personal talisman. I will be going into the studio to photograph it properly later today.

What a note to close the studio for a month on. I know that I will return after my teaching travels energized with these revelations.

(A small postscript: this is also the first piece to feature my first glass bead! It doesn't shout out, but it can be seen where the chain joins just over the top of the pendant, nestled in the 'frame' of links.)

Wow, time is careening past. I'm in the dungeon, putting finishing touches on a few pieces in preparation for my upcoming trip to the US on a teaching tour. I'm excited to see my old friends and new faces as I travel the west and mid-west states.

(Just an aside - anyone who is taking one of Working With Wire 2 day classes, please go to the supply list and check it out again, I have added some tools that are important.)

I will post in the next few days some in-process shots of my new neckpiece entitled "THE INNER SIGHT."

No, really.

Ciao!

Things heating up as temperature soars

It's a wonder I can do a thing in this ghastly heat. Sydney is a fireball at the moment, and I wilt in summer at the best of times. My kingdom for a snowball...

So, um, what's the logical thing to set up in my studio to beat the oppresive temperatures? Of course, you guessed it - a lampworking station.

This will enable me to work glass marbles and beads into my work. I've played with it whenever I've had the opportunity over the last 10 years, but only now will have it in my studio to explore more deeply.

As you might imagine, my beadwork will be rather untraditional. Thus far I have been at work creating molten 'blobs' filled with bubbles and other textures; these look as if they've been unearthed at Pompeii. My partner Irena and daughter Mira are excited to have a hand at it as well.

I'll post next week when I'll get back into the studio for some new work. Now back into a bathtub full of dry ice.

Happy January...

The year has rolled over, and with its passing my head is turned towards the coming weeks. In a few days I'll be striking out to Southern Queensland to teach at the fantastic McGregor Summer School. This is the major residential art retreat in Australia and is in its 41st year. It will be the first two-week intensive I've taught since I lived in the US a decade ago. I'm counting the seconds.

Here's wishing you all a creative and productive start to your year. Be in touch on my return!

Studio-rama #2

SENSATIONS is now finished. I have been wrapping up several pieces as I ready to pack my tools in anticipation of teaching a two-week workshop in Queensland on January 7th. This has been a fertile time at the bench. I guess with all the child-care focus (we've got 2-year-old twins as well as a 10-year-old), my output comes in fits and starts. Add to that the fact that it has been some time since I allowed myself the time to play, and it is plain that I am bristling with avenues to explore.

A page from a beautiful 1790 book detailing the trial of Warren Hastings

will drape over the back of the can.

The splits allow for the paper to conform to the uneven surface.

A dove perches in the center.

Creating the bail, or hanging mechanism of the pendant,

out of 8-guage steel wire. A bit of grunting is obligatory here.

Creating the terminals for the leather cord.

The clasp, in progress.

The clasp, complete - a giant, oversized finish to the neckpiece.

I'm really loving this heavy steel wire - twice the guage of my beloved rebar wire.

SENSATIONS. Materials: Sterno can, steel wire, Victorian yellow glass, copper, crab claw, Labradorite, steel tack, color lithograph from 1880's, epoxy resin, book paper (c.1790), steel-point engraving (1850's), leather, paper, text, soil.

Have a lovely holiday, everyone! Thanks for looking.

- Keith

Studio-Rama #1

This is the first of an ongoing series of in-progress reports from the workbench.

Yesterday saw a good run of work out in my studio. Although I'm working on three pieces currently, I'll focus on the neckpiece below. About 15 years ago I was making a lot of work using tin cans as my structural element.
I've been off in other directions since, and it's always fascinating to me to revisit those older interests, with the added perspective of the years.

Here was my starting point - an empty Sterno can for keeping food warm. This is what the can looked like about three days ago, before crushing it. It was just the crushed can when I started yesterday morning.

After forming the dome into the back of the crushed can, I attached some very heavy-guage steel wire (maybe 6 guage??) on top and soldered where they twist together.

My bench at this stage.

Laying in the imagery that would form the background (a color lithograph from about 1880). I thinned the paper down significantly, so when I poured epoxy resin in, it would become very indistinct. That's a bead of labradorite.

The epoxy poured, objects added in (including the title, 'Sensations'), Victorian glass over the top, and here, clamped to set.

The chamber at this point. Notice how dislocated the face has become. Love that. Many people wouldn't even see the face now, but someone studying the piece close-up would see an eye, and the whole thing would change.

Building a set of bars to cage the glass in.

The cage, ready to be attached through the side panels of the tin can.

The piece as the day finished. Off to finish it (hopefully) today..