A long time coming

Hello everyone!

I can't believe it's been almost 5 months since I've last posted. Too long. A lot has happened in those months. I graduated, moved into a new apartment, started a new job and many other little things.

I'm now working as a Recruiting Specialist for Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts. Since I graduated from VPA and am familiar to the University and the city it's been a fairly smooth transition. The hardest part has been making the adjustment from having a student's unsymmetrical schedule to a regular 9-5 job. In some ways it's easier-I know where to be and when because it's the same everyday. Having no homework has been a pleasant change-I feel like I have so much more free time and so much less stress. But there are aspects of being a student that I miss. I miss having such a sense of community. As a student you are surrounded by hundreds of other people working towards a similar goal, which encourages you go keep working forward. I also miss working creatively all day. My hours to work are much more limited, usually after a full day at work, so I'm really going to have to start disciplining myself to make those hours count. It's not that I don't want to be working on my own projects, I do, it's just different time management.

However, I'm not completely on my own. As a University employee I can take up to 12 credits as part of my benefits package. So I'm enrolled this semester in a graduate jewelry course. Having discussions with other artists is so valuable and I'm grateful to be a part of a class again.

This summer was a bit of a hiatus for me on the jewelry front. I was however working on various projects for my apartment-refinishing furniture etc. My new obsession has been my sewing machine. I love working with the fabrics and have plans for about 15 sewing projects. Right now I'm working pretty traditionally as far as the sewing goes but I'm thinking of ways to incorporate into my jewelry.

I also bought a jewelers bench and am working on creating a home studio. I can feel I'm starting to get jewelry on the brain again and am excited to get back to work in the studio!

Until next time,
Gitta

rings!

 Howdy everyone!

Today I thought I'd share some rings that I've made over the past 3 years. I shot them all on Sunday and I think the photos look pretty good. What do you think? (see more after the jump!)

100 pageviews

Hey everyone,

Today I've hit 100 page views. That may not be large compared to how many people there are on the internet but I'm still excited!

Cheers,
Gitta

Chopard Animal World

Hello Everyone!

I was going through my past posts today and realized that I never posted this one from way back when. Its short but I think its interesting:

As you will see when I upload some photos of my jewelry, animals are a huge inspiration to me. I love finding animal themed jewelry. When I stumbled across the 2010 collection by Chopard, a family run jewelry and watch making company, I fell in love with their designs. This collection celebrates their 150th anniversary. To see their designs click here.

Until next time,
Brigitta

Arts and Crafts lecture with Todd Conover

Hello Everyone,

Todd Conover from the SU fashion department spoke to my class today about the American Arts and Crafts movement. He is an avid collector of Arts and Crafts items and has a lot of knowledge to share on the subject.  I had no idea that the Arts and Crafts movement originated right here in Syracuse, NY. The topic of the class is metal forming and he was able to share many examples of beautiful raised and formed pieces from his collection (and of his own works). Some of my favorite pieces from his collection are unmarked items often student or amateur work. He brought in a letter opener that he bought on ebay, made by an anonymous maker that exactly matched a DIY project in a journal of the time. There was something so sweet in that 100 years ago, in a time of early mass production, a person had the desire to make and so diligently followed a pattern to have a hand made item they could be proud of. And now that item is being collected, studied by students and will be donated to an Arts and Crafts museum (although I forget which one) to be forever cherished.

A link to Todd's website can be found here (although I can't find a place to look at photos of his collection you can see his own personal artworks).

Until next time,
Gitta

Hinged Ring

Hello everyone!

Its been a while since my last post. I've been super busy lately with less than a month left in school. My classes are more demanding now that its the last chance to turn everything in, work has had me for more hours than usual, job hunting and interviews are becoming more important, and planning for my senior show is really becoming necessary. All of these things are great, exciting, important things but combined they add up to not a lot of free time for blogging. However, with so much going on I will have a lot of things to post.

I thought I'd share a glimpse of a finished piece with you. A few posts ago I showed you a silver ring that I was going to submit to Lark Books 500 Rings. Well, I finished the ring and submitted it. I don't want to spoil the surprise in case I am chosen to be in the book, but here is a cropped image of the finished ring to give you a sneak peek of the final piece.

I am close to completion of another piece but I might hold off on posting a picture becasue it's going to be in my show and I don't want to spoil all of the fun!

Until next time,
Gitta

P.S. Just a reminder that my BFA show will be on Friday, May 13 at the Delavan Center from 6:30-9:30 pm. If you are in the Syracuse area I would love, love, love if you popped by to say hello and see some beautiful artwork!

I wish I was back in Munich

Hello everyone,

2 weeks ago I was in Munich to see the Schmuck exhibit at the  Handwerk fair located in the old airport of Munich. It was an amazing trip with jewelry filled days from start to finish. Not only did I get to see important works of contemporary jewelry up close and in person, I got to meet several of the artists. I met Bettina Speckner who is one of my all time favorites. Click here for a link to her website to see her beautiful works. One of the best moments of the trip was meeting Karl Fritsch. Fritsch is a real rock star of the jewelry world and his work was all over the galleries in Munich. The other girls in my group and I bought his book, got his signature (and an original sketch of a ring), and a photograph to document the moment. I can honestly say I was completely star struck. Here it is!

left to right: Kelly, Tessa, Karl, Laura, Me, Barbara and Melissa

Until next time,

Brigitta

Goodbye Syracuse, Hallo München

Guten Tag jeder,

Sorry for the lack of posts this week, its been pretty hectic here. I am heading to Germany on Monday with my professors, our grads and some of our undergrads. We will be there for a week checking out the jewelry scene in Munich. I don't think that I will have Internet so I'm going to have to put a halt to the blogging so don't expect any posts next week. When I get back though, I'm sure that I'll have plenty to share.

auf Wiedersehen!
Brigitta

Visit: Set in Style

Hello Everyone,

There's a beautiful jewelry exhibition at the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in NYC. A selection of designs of Van Cleef and Arpels will be on display along with their renderings. The display is running from February 8th to June 5th. I haven't gotten to NYC to see it yet but hopefully I will be able to take a trip there before it moves. If you are in the New York area I recommend you take a few hours to take a look-I'm sure it won't disappoint!

The website can be found here. I really love the video "Set in Style: The Process". Seeing jewelry like this made by hand is amazing.

Until next time,

Brigitta

Memories into Metal

Hi Everyone!

I know, I know- two posts in one day can you believe it? But I had some exciting news I wanted to share with you. A few weeks ago I was interviewed by the lovely Rose Picon from the Connective Corridor online news letter. The news letter features artists in the Syracuse area and this month I was chosen! Here's a link to the article:
http://connectivecorridor.syr.edu/2011/02/21/turning-memories-into-metal/

Its a sweet article about one of my series of jewelry and has a few pictures of some of my work. I hope that you all enjoy it!

Until next time,
Brigitta

500 Rings

Howdy Everyone,

I hope that you have all seen the Lark Books 500 series. They are beautiful books of contemporary jewelry. Each book is arranged by theme-there's 500 brooches, 500 vessels, 500 boxes and lockets, and so many more! For more info about the 500 Series visit the Lark website here:
http://www.larkcrafts.com/500-series/

Lark Books is publishing a second 500 Rings book with submissions due March 30. I have been working on a ring that I plan on submitting. Its not complete yet but it will be soon. Here is a photo of it in its current state.

I carved all of the details out of wax and then cast it into sterling silver. It hinges open to reveal a compartment. The dome of the ring is comprised of flowers based on the Victorian language of flowers. Lovers and friends used to send secret messages in flower bouquets with each flower having a different meaning. I used daisy, forget me not, helenium, cypress, willow, flowering reed, and yew. The band is made up of files and a stylized crow. Can anyone guess what the message is?

If anyone else is interested in submitting to 500 Rings here is the link to their submission page:
http://www.larkcrafts.com/submit/calls-for-submissions/#500rings

Until next time,
Brigitta

Electroforming continued

Hello Everyone!

I have an update on my electroforming project. After about a week of cleaning the copper daily, my pieces have finally been sufficiently plated. Here are some photos of the results. I'm really pleased as to how they turned out and I think will make a beautiful finished project. The bumpy growth is due to rapid build up of the copper. This can be caused by having the voltage too high or the piece being placed too close to one of the dangling copper plates. But as they were natural forms and were already sort of lumpy, the bumps don't bother me at all!

My group of five objects

The smallest of the wreathes.

And the largest.

A detail of the leaves of the largest wreath. You can see the bumpy texture the object got.

Another wreath.

In this picture you can see where I cut off the copper wire that was attached to the piece. The dark spot is glue. You can see around the lgue the thikness of the copper build up. The pieces are still pretty delicate. 

The next step for these pieces is a trip to the burn out kiln. The pieces still have the orginal twigs inside the copper plate. These will be placed in a hot kiln and the material removed by burning it out. Then the pieces will be hollow.

Until next time,
Brigitta

twig ring

twig ring
Originally uploaded by Brigitta Elise

Here's a ring that I made a few years ago (2009) I think. Sterling silver, found twig. Even though its a bit old, I still think its and interesting piece with potential for further exploration.

Electroforming

Hello Everyone,

I thought it might be interesting to show you all a little bit about the process of electroforming. Electroforming is a plating process. Anything can be plated-plastic, natural objects, fibers (like your baby booties that are forever bronze)-it just needs a coating of copper (or silver paint) so it can carry an electric current. The object is attached to a copper rod which is then dangled in a bath of electroforming solution that can carry an electric current. There are also copper plates suspended around the bath on a copper ring. These plates provide the copper that will plate the object. When a negative current is applied to the objects you want to plate and a positive current is applied to the ring with the copper plates, some copper is robbed from the copper plates, travels through the solution and is deposited onto the copper painted object resulting in a copper coating. This coating grows depending on how long the object is in the solution. It could take a few hours or a few days to build the coating desired.

Right now my pieces are still in the bath being coated but I will keep you updated with the rest of the process.

I want to make some twig wreath brooches which I will later enamel. I could have cast the wreathes but they were a bit large for our casting flasks. And electroforming will result in a much lighter product than casting. I've only tried electroforming once before and the results were not what I had hoped for so I wanted to try the process again.

Here is one wreath. Real twigs were coated in copper paint.

A detail of another wreath with leaves.

The electroforming bath. The wreathes are hanging from the bar across the bath and the plates are suspended from the ring around the bath. A fish tank heater keeps the bath at around 72 degrees and a bubbler is used to keep the solution moving. The puffy Xs floating on top of the solution prevent evaporation. A lid is also kept on the plastic tub.

Until next time,
Brigitta

blog feature, munich and other thoughts

Hello Everyone,

I've been pretty bad about updating things recently, but my new goal is to post 2 times a week-Mondays and Thursdays. They'll probably be pretty short posts because I lead a pretty normal life with out too much major excitement.

As you could probably tell by my last post I've been pretty down lately. This is unusual for me. I'm attributing it to the end-of-college jitters. Its a confusing and overwhelming time. Trying to sum up the past three and a half years and figure out where I am/my work is now and where I would like to be after graduation is a lot to think about. So its been a slow semester but I feel like the ball is starting to creep along.

I do have some exciting news though:

1. I was feature on someone's blog! Jada, a sweet SU student, got my contact info. from a mutual friend and was kind enough to take the time to interview me. The article can be found on her jewelry blog here: http://crosscityjewelry.blogspot.com/2011/02/designer-spotlight-brigitta-stoner.html. A huge thanks to Jada! You were such a pleasure to work with.

2. For spring break I will be in Munich, Germany. 2 of my professors, 3 grads and a handful of undergrads and I are taking the trip over the pond to see some amazing jewelry! (I might get to see my beautiful German again friend too!) Its going to be an amazing, action packed trip. Here is a glimpse of our itinerary:

Schmuck and Talente at Internationale Handwerksmesse
Pinakothek der Moderne
Glyptothek
Open House at the Academe of Fine Art

Until next time,
Brigitta

new year, final semester

Hello Everyone,

19 days ago a new year began, yesterday a new (and for me the final) semester of college began. While I may be a little behind for the whole New Years Resolution thing, this new semester has gotten me thinking about what I want to accomplish and change for these last 4 months of college. Right now they are ambiguous thoughts floating around in my head but I hope that soon (maybe in the next week) I will have a more concrete idea of what my hopes for the semester are and be able to share them with all of you.

My final winter break was a busy one. I was living in NYC with my sister Kirsten and her 2 roommates while working an internship at Lucky Magazine in the Accessories Department. The long days and hard work kept me busy all of the time. I did, however, get to spend some quality time at home in PA. What was supposed to be a 4 day Christmas visit with my mom and family turned into a lovely week long stay when my bus back to NYC was canceled becasue of the terrible snow storm that hit the city. I am happy to have had this time at home becasue 2 weeks later my precious little dog, Scottie, became suddenly ill and had to be put to sleep. Right now my heart is too raw to think or say anymore about him other than I will always love him.

Until next time,
Brigitta