ware jewelry store - cw

Just a quick footnote on the new website: www.warejewelrystore.com. I learned a little about photography and practiced photographing the work on glass! The pictures are more three dimensional and show the work a little better than my old method! Always something to learn!

"CRUSH" - ring..................cw

A trial run on a ring

Overheard......................cw

The other day I was teaching art class and had taken in several of the "CRUSH" series for a friend to look at for a birthday present for her daughter. Many of the kids were intrigued, but my favorite was an exchange between two boys. One said, loosely quoted, "I love these, how much are they? I want one, I need to get it on my Christmas list." The other said, loosely quoted, "$40.00 for a can?" And there you have it!

"CRUSH" continues...................cw

Photos of some of the recent additions to "CRUSH," the recycled jewelry project by me, Carol Ware. I am experimenting with more colors, shapes and soon textures! Right now, these pieces are in square tubes, cylinders, flat squares and small and large discs. The variety of colors is from the cans. My current fave is the Pellogrino Limonata. The yellows and blues from the cans remind me of atlas pages which I love. Also fun are the Coke Zeros because they are black on a black neckwire-if only I were going somewhere in a little black dress rather than the usual grungy black t-shirt.

"CRUSH" - cw

One example of "CRUSH," a jewelry project by Carol Ware. One aluminum can is crushed with a lot of force and formed in to a geometric shape: disc, square tube, square, cylinder, etc. The sound of them crushing is kind of exhilarating. After crushing, more work and voila! Check out http://carolkaryl.bigcartel.com/ to see the variety! The only bummer of this project is that I now buy beer in cans-ick-and my defeat of the Coca Cola habit is a thing of the past. We are recycling cans from friends, job sites, etc. as well. I need to find a friend who drinks the Red Bull shots-I have an earring idea!

Bronze Jewelry at Last - cw

Finally, the wax "chocolate" pieces have made it to bronze! Today, I patinaed the metal using a big variety of chemicals to achieve a variety of colors. A lot of fun!!!! Tomorrow they will be on hand sewn, hand dyed silk strands-look for them on the website. www.carolkaryl.com.

"Roadkill Metal" - cw

This is a work inspired by the squashed metal pieces that I love...(see Material Matters 3 posted below). Tin has been bent, folded, hammered, stamped, trod upon etc to achieve this effect. It is then patinaed with silver black and polished so the black stays in the recesses. I am fiddling around with hanging these on silk which would be reminiscent of old armor (specifically Japanese). Today it hangs from a 16" grey cable neck wire - a little more contemporary. These ideas are also being pursued in bronze and copper which will have a wider variety of patina options.

Shape and color - kd

Some new pieces-- the result of cutting, collaging and generally breaking out of the round.

The likeness and unlikeness of things - kd

Mushrooms have sprung up after the rain, bringing to mind how things can be like and unlike one another (not to mention that some things beg to be photographed).

Candy Necklace - cw

This morning I found these clay strands that were originally the tail of a bird that I made in a clay class with my daughter. Fiddling as usual, I thought maybe it would make a fun necklace. It reminds me of the candy necklaces we used to get when we went rafting down at the pier as kids. This is a rough sketch-glazed low fire clay on steel wire-though I do like that quality. This piece just slides over the head and then the wires can be shaped to sit as one likes.

Tin Relatives - cw

Tin pieces usually used for lathing are transformed by hammering, stamping and painting. Some have a lunar quality that responds to the Moonshells created by Karyl. Others are simply about the beauty of crushed metal (as in Chamberlain autos) or the mystery of an old fence post that has been painted over and over by many different people. These also relate to the crushed aluminum piece I posted earlier. Frankly, as I type this this, I am realizing how much further I want to push this idea. I have barely scratched the surface...............................metaphor stumbled upon. To see these in jewelry form, please visit our website www.carolkaryl.com

Vintage kimono - kd

As I looked over these collages I made from unfinished Moonshells, I thought about one of my prized possessions-- a1950's vintage silk kimono. It's the one object I own (as opposed to books or music) that's greatly influenced almost every aspect of my artistic sensibility.

I bought it over 10 years ago in a boutique in Dallas and have worn it only a few times. For a couple of years it was displayed on the wall, and since then it's been in a garment bag in my closet. But even when it's packed away, the kimono groove stays with me, haunting my imagination.
There's a slightly skewed sense of color, pattern and geometry that feels just a little off-center, an unbalanced sense of balance which I really get and which definitely comes through in my work.

Once I got started thinking about this, I had to find other kimonos to look at and have posted some I really like on my other blog: http://www.kdokosart.com/

Synchronicity - kd

It always interests me to see the differences in Carol's work and my own. We often share similar sources of inspiration, but how they are expressed in our respective work couldn't be more different... that is until I saw the piece of crushed aluminum she posted (see below http://carolkaryl.blogspot.com/2009/08/material-matters-3-cw.html ). It really is quite like the this one particular Moonshell, which I had been meaning to photo before I finish it. It shows how I've been using more and more layers of varnish to build up the surface.

The beauty of Carol's aluminum piece comes from wear, something bent and broken down, whereas the Moonshell is the result of something which has been built up over time. Oddly enough, the two works manage to meet in the middle.

Material Matters 3 - cw

This is just a cool piece of aluminum I found years ago. I love its squashed and textured surface and would like to capture something like it in the metal jewelry pieces I am working on. At first when I saw it I thought it was light bouncing off of a wet leaf.

Material Matters 1 - cw

"Hey, are those chocolate?" I was asked numerous times the other evening as I cut out shapes during my son's Tae Kwon Do class. What a great idea I thought, but no, these are wax and will soon be bronze. This is the initial, super rough beginning phase of a jewelry series that will be quite sculptural in nature. Each piece is unique - I am making up the designs as I go and have several thoughts on the hanging method, from handmade chain to ribbon. It is fun to imagine jewelry in chocolate - I always loved those brightly colored candy necklaces when I was a kid. These will be cast at Shidoni Foundry which is a foundry for sculpture where I used to work. Then I will finish the metal work and apply patinas which is more work I truly love. Applying the chemicals and heat and watching the metal change is alchemy in action!

Material matters 2 - kd

............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... I've been thinking about two things-- layers and texture. On the purple Moonshell above, I scraped back through the paint and varnish, much like the drawings you do as a kid when you color on a sheet of paper, put black crayon over the whole thing and then draw through the black to expose the colors.

But I want more depth to work with, so I was talking with Carol about that, about plaster specifically, which would give a nice surface to play with, spatter, scrape back to the fiber, do as I like. I don't like art stores, I prefer to work with whatever I kind find close by, so I looked around to see if there was something I could mix with the gesso that would make it thick and give some texture.

Some sand I collected from a pile in the pasture behind the house produced a predictably grainy surface (top photo, right). For the whiter piece (top photo, left) I used some baby powder that's been sitting around the house waiting for someone to use it. I'm really excited about that one, because as you can see, it crackled when it dried, like a river-bed. Having grown up in New Orleans two blocks from the Mississipi River and walked the dry bed many times when the river was low, the crazed pattern of dried fine powder resonates with me. This material has definite potential.....

A room with infinite views - kd

............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................This is where I work. It used to be a kitchen, which is perfect because what I do here feels very much like what I do when I'm cooking-- learning by doing, and making things from what I've learned. It's a small space (7' x 11'). In it is a card table, a straight back chair, a fan for drying paint, and my favorite arm chair facing the window. I sit in my chair and dream and sketch, looking up into a huge old oak. The branches, like my thoughts, are dendritic, infinitely splitting and reaching for the sky.
I feel extremely fortunate to have such a view, but I wouldn't say that my imagination is dependent upon a tree.

To do good work you don't need a big space, a lot of gear, or a view. In general I find I do better work with less-- less money, easily available and fewer materials. Against the absence of stuff, my mind is thrown into relief. I learn more, my explorations go deeper. There is no interruption in the flow of ideas, no stopping to switch between different techniques and media, between facilitating and creating. My thoughts are disparate enough in themselves. Using fewer things allows me to express my ideas fluidly.
What you do need is a place that is yours, a little space, time, and silence-- like Virginia Woolf says, a room of one's own -- a place where you can dream and do, taking the threads of your unconscious and making them into something real.
And ultimately, if you think about it, the most important room you will always have is the one you have in your mind--- a room unbounded by walls, a room with infinite views.

- I first published this post in January09 on my blog www.kdokosart.com .

Tree of Knowledge-Om - cw

............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ This is one of my original drawings from the Tree of Knowledge series. This body of work explores humans' interest in symbol making and the dividing and unifying nature of symbols. The body of work so far explores the structure and foliage of the tree; the symbols of what we have manifested. The next drawings will explore the notion of root blight and the symbols of ideas and entities that are eating away at the structure and health of the tree.

New jewelry shapes and finishes - kd

I've been thinking out-of-the-circle lately and am happy with the results. Here are two Moonshell necklaces (front and back), inspired by Asian laquerware, that are spatter-painted on one side. I'm using more and more layers of varnish to build up the thickness and increase the depth of the finish.

Tree of Knowledge 5 and 10 - cw

These are two pieces that will be in the grand opening of the Encaustic Art Institute in Cerrilos, NM on September 12, 2009. They are graphite, transfer, silver leaf and encaustic on paper. These are part of the Tree of Knowledge Series, more of which can be seen on my website
http://www.carolwarestudio.com

What are moonshells? - kd

...............................As an artist I like to look around and see what I can do with found objects and materials, to try and disover new potential in the common and the everyday.
A year and a half ago I moved into a home filled with things left by various members of my family who have lived here over the years. Among the things stashed in closets and chests were lots of spools of cotton crochet twine which my mom used to make lace curtains. I really liked the pattern the twine makes wrapped on the spool, so one day I wrapped a bowl in a similar fashion. To get the string cast off the bowl I had to cut a lid in the top, and as a joke held it up to my ear as an earring thinking "that's an earring only Beyonce could wear. "
But some of my friends thought the idea had real potential so I began experimenting with different techniques to make something that would be viable as jewelry. Along the way I noticed that some of the raw, unvarnished pieces have a ghostly, lunar quality while others seem more like sand dollars or seashells. Some of them just look like they're from outer space -- ergo the name, Moonshells.