emiko-o reware

This weekend’s MakeArt: Accessorize with Toys workshop @ SF Museum of Craft + Design was a hit was kids and adults alike! The museum’s biggest turnout yet for their MakeArt workshops, not to mention there was a surprise visit from Cabrillo College. Fellow Metal Arts Guild member, Dawn Nakanishi, brought her Metals students from Cabrillo for a field trip to SFMCD. The students got a treat to have a special artist tour (by me), plus they got to play at the MakeArt table with all those irresistable toy parts donated by SCRAP. It was definitely a fun afternoon.
There were 8 kids (7 boys and 1 girl, go figure!) in tow with moms, who worked right alongside their busy bees.

Shana & I, along with Margaret, the Education Coordinator, oversaw the makers, making sure no one hammered or hot glued a finger. The wondrous UGlu saved many a project as well, stealing Elmer’s thunder yet again. The time just flew by as everyone was deeply engrossed in their projects.

See more photos of the workshop on the museum’s flickr set, and see more images from the MakeArt table on my flickr set. More images will be uploaded in the days to come.

So much press has come out in the last week or two for all my current local shows, it’s hard to keep up! Today local cable show, “Inside City Limits“  did an onsite interview with me as well as with Christine for Jewelry_cycle. Even after doing the artist talk at the museum on Sunday, I still managed to miss mentioning stuff during the interview. Hard to think ahead of myself while concentrating on looking natural and standing up super straight. Our 20 min interviews will get cut down to 7 min each anyway. Looks like it may air the first week of December, comcast cable channel 11 and 104 (not sure what that translates into non-comcast-wise).

In newspaper land, I was shocked to hear, then see that Lionize was chosen for the SF Chronicle’s Sunday Datebook, Art section. Check them apples out! If anyone local is reading this, I would love to have your copy of this Datebook page when you’re ready to recycle….

Man, that collar is sure living up to its name, even in it’s second generation. Another winning bathroom “studio” photo! Who needs fancy lights when you’ve got glossy Pantone paper and diffused natural light!

The SF Examiner came out with an opening week article (Oct 13) by Sasha Vasilyuk, for the SFMCD shows, and the print version here used the Queen Margherita necklace, the first of the Royal Jewels series (though not present at this exhibition). Click here to read the online version.

In Blogland, many many great posts: Capitolagirl.com interviewed me about the Royal Jewels show and my process and posted to her blog as well as to PoshMama.com, where I was the Friday Spotlight.

Fellow jeweler and blogger, Amy Tavern had a great post Friday as well, titled, “I left my jewelry in San Francisco”, which included the SFMCD shows among her Bay Area artscapades.

Jewelry_cycle was a hit with the bloggers too: the lovely Cindy Edelstein of Jewelry Business Guru kindly posted us. It’s great that the media has all managed to use different images  to depict this show.

Then American Craft got in on the act for their Calendar of Events, highlighting Reed Easley’s fan:

And last, but certainly not least, JCKstyle posted our show and Aimee’s bracelet in their online newsletter:

What’s next? Now if we could only get Population 2.0 (circuit board boxers) out there for some local event….

Mark your calendars for this Sunday, Nov 9 from 1-3pm when I and fellow Critique Collective members are hosting a Meet the Artists Open House at the San Francisco Museum of Craft+Design. Artist walkthrough/tour begins at 1:30. I’ll be giving a tour of My First Royal Jewels Jewellery Collection LEGO necklaces, and the Collective will be talking about the Jewelry_cycle exhibition.

Jewelry_cycle:Artists Discover Hidden Sparkle in the Discarded is an educational showcase of wearable treasures made from re-purposed and re-cycled materials. With the idea of an exhibition in mind, co-curators Christine Dhein and Christoph Koch asked the Critique Collective to create wearable art from a variety of small, discarded circuit boards. Circuit boards are commonly made from fiberglass, epoxy resin, and a variety of metals, which is likely to be one third of the material. These metals include copper, silver and gold, which add a precious element to what would otherwise be considered e-waste. These artists discovered the hidden potential, and transformed these materials to create brilliant, sparkling jewels.

Participating artists are: Shana Astrachan, David Casella, Christine Dhein, Reed Easely, Aimee Golant, Christoph Koch, Kelly Nedderman, and myself. Shout out to Christine for working extra hard to have the exhibit be super clean and pro looking! Check out Julian on the job!

Come join us and learn some facts about environmental waste and how you can do your part to lesson your carbon footprint while being creative!  Plus sit down and make your own jewelry from recycled toy parts at the MakeArt:Jewelry + Objects self-serve table that I developed.

Shout out to SCRAP and UGlu for being awesome sponsors of my MakeArt table and workshop!

Getting some of my exhibition pieces ready for the upcoming SCRAP show, which opens Monday, Nov 3 here in SF, called Recollections: Celebrating 30 Years of SCRAP. I can’t tell ya how much I love SCRAP (Scroungers Center for Recycled Art Parts)–I don’t know where I’d be today as an artist without such an inspirational source of materials. Even more fitting is that my Lionize II collar is on the postcard and PR, being that it is the reincarnation of the original Lionize collar which was the first serious exhibition piece i created 10 years ago from materials I salvaged at SCRAP.

The Market Street Gallery (1554 Market St, SF) is again hosting this SCRAP show, this time featuring 18 artists, which appears to be mostly female, including moi and my fellow recycling cohort, Christine Dhein.

I heard that the Bay Guardian had selected this show as its Monday Pick of week, very cool, and it didn’t occur to me until tonite as I was flipping through this politically laden issue (what to make of Prop H?), that hey, the show must be featured in THIS WEEK’s issue, since the opening of the show is Monday. Lo and Behold, almighty, can you believe what I saw:

Here’s a closeup–even has artist and photo credits–yeay!

What an amazing month it has been for PR!  For those who want to see the show, it runs Nov 3-25th, with an Artist Reception on Saturday, Nov 15 from 6-8. On Saturday, Nov 22 there will be a silent auction for which I’m donating the Mondrian Limited Edition bracelet (see right).

To attend the auction event, there is a $30 entry fee, the proceeds going to SCRAP; word on the street is that Ruth Asawa is donating a piece! Could be worth it to check out the auction….

For more info on the show and events, go to The Squid List.

Tomorrow: I hunt down the address of the SF Examiner’s Circulation Desk and get me that Oct 13 issue that apparently my LEGO necklace is featured in!

Last Thursday, Oct 16 was the artist reception for my show, My First Royal Jewels Jewellery Collection, at the SF Museum of Craft+Design. Finally, the day had arrived after an intensive, adrenalin-pumped month of prepping, making, photographing, and installing. Wow! I still can’t get over seeing my name all huge in vinyl wall lettering. My first solo show, and boy does it look sharp! It’s so exciting that it has a nice long run through Jan 4, 2009.

Here I am finally taking a moment to catch my breath and take it all in. Salut! Photos taken by the ever-gracious Matt Cantu, who made the digital interactive component of the show possible.

I really dig this angle, where you can see all four pieces, including Maharajah’s 6th necklace (in the mirror).

I feel that people really responded to seeing the process of each piece, through the drawings and historical photo reference. Above is The Duchess 2, based on a Cartier necklace and Harry Winston pendant. Below is The Duchess, based on a Cartier bib necklace.

Luckily, no one tripped over or got tangled in the brass ball chain that secures the necklaces to a fixed surface. It actually adds a bit of jewelry-esqueness which I like.

Turnout was super, considering it was an invitation-only event. Best part for me is observing people interact with my work, especially when they have that AHA realization that: A. They are allowed to try on the work,  B. It’s LEGO, and C. They can take a photo of themselves in that proud moment, wearing the work. And hopefully by the end of next week, these self-portraits will be viewable via the museum’s Flickr account. Stay tuned for more info on that front.

We’re planning on having a docent tour/walkthrough/2nd opening, very casual, sometime in November (tentative date: Nov 9, Sunday). The Critique Collective’s Jewelry_cycle show (see Julian at work!) will also have a walkthrough/tour at that time as well.

In case you’re near Union Sq and want to check out the shows at the museum:
SF Museum of Craft+Design
550 Sutter St @ Powell    SF CA 94102
Open Tues-Sun: Tues-Sat 10-5, Thur 10-7, Sun 12-5

Fellow Critique Collective member, Reed Easley, was featured with her bridal bouquet today on Craft magazine’s blog! And right after her wedding to boot, which was this past Saturday. The Collective definitely had a hand in creating crafts for the wedding; Shana Astrachan in particular created these fabulous vintage rafia flowers from a loom she bought from Cathy of California while we were at Maker Faire. Together we created the base by carving it from a large styrofoam sphere and covering it with pleated white cotton, tulle, and a large satin bow. The handle was a screwdriver wrapped in floral tape and inserted into the foam base, a perfect solution for our tool-loving bride! Amazing how innovative one can be at the witching hour on deadline! Perhaps Shana will start a line of bridal bouquets…..

Last night was the opening of the Wearable Art Exhibition at Dunedin Fine Art Center (DFAC) in Dunedin, Florida. I alas, could not attend, but my necklaces are on exhibit there through August 17. The Duchess and Snow White are making their 2nd Florida appearance of the year, and Lionize II has come out of early retirement just for the occasion. The show ties into DFAC’s Annual Wearable Art fashion show (August 16), which looks extra fabulous and a fantastic finale to the exhibition.

I’m one of 6 artists in the show–the others are: Jennifer Bewerse, Jason Leigh, Maria Saraceno, Kim Michelle Coakley, and Leslie Fry.