I can imagine there is a great deal of trial and
error - so what was your first big disaster?
And what did you learn from that moment?
What was the piece you consider your first
big success?
I remember this very vividly. When I
started out everything was difficult, but it was the
desire to make a beautiful, shiny piece of art with
my hands that kept me going. I had looked at
squash blossom pendants for years and always
marveled at the interesting shape and technical
ability of the artist to create such a unique object.
I failed a few times, and it took me forever, but
the first time I made a squash blossom I felt like I
had the keys to the universe. It felt like I had
somehow unlocked a secret door, or reached a
point that I had previously thought was
unattainable. It was the moment when I realized
that I could actually be a silversmith, and it
wasn’t some harebrained idea I’d cooked up. I
look back at that piece now and see everything I
did wrong and how uneven and funny it looks,
but I keep it as a tangible piece of validation. It’s
a reminder that things aren’t as unattainable as
we think they are.
Sand casting had been a mystery to me for a
long time so earlier this year I decided to figure it
out. It’s a tricky process that involves a two-part
mold of packed sand, and you pour molten metal
into a void that you’ve carved out of the sand.
The first time I tried to do it my mold wasn’t held
together tightly enough and the silver poured
right through and out bottom. I lost about $100
in silver so that was a bit painful, but the good
part is that I redesigned and made new molds
that were easier to use. If there’s one lesson to
take away from silversmithing, it’s that there are
no shortcuts. You can’t rush anything, or only put
in minimal effort, because it will absolutely catch
up to you later. My original mo lds didn’t work
because I didn’t think the process through to the
end, and naively thought everything would fall
into place with a bit of luck. Amy Hempel
summed it up nicely with her quote, ““There's no
such thing as luck. Luck is where preparation
meets opportunity.”
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THE CONE - ISSUE #15 - 2018