On the left is an earring sent to me by a customer. This is a nicely made sailboat, obviously fabricated, with silver sails and an amber boat. But there is only on earring. An emotionally charged piece, one of the pair was lost and I was asked to make a new pair as a close replica. I took on the challenge.
Really - how hard could it be?
The first step was to buy, cut, aand polish amber for the boats. One road trip later, I had a little (well, a lot!) of help from my friend Sue and her husband Tom. They shared a great meal, lots of wine, and lots of fun, along with their lapidary equipment and lots of support. I left the next day with a handful of polished amber boats, a new lapidary passion, and the feeling that the tough part of this job had been accomplished. Only the silver sails were left to make now. Not a problem.(Can you sense the set-up here?)
Well, it wasn't as easy as I thought.Due to a fragile ego, I left out the photos of the mangled sails. No need to share all that. Everything kept falling apart. Nothing seemed to work. So what to do? Get a little help from my friends!
I passed around my sad, mangled sails at a dinner get-together with some jewelry buddies, and I listened to several possible solutions. Thank goodness for friends! A couple of mangly (yeah, it's a word. Now.) attempts later, I came up with the reasonable replica here. Whew.
My customer has happily asked for three pair of earrings to be sure the sentimental piece is always available. Here are the almost finished sails and boats for the 3 pair. At the left is the original earring, with a new bail for it's future life as a pendant.
Stay tuned to see the shaped and cleaned up pairs.
Boy, will I be proud (and relieved!).
From Feb 7 – 8, jewelry artist and gallery owner Thomas Mann visited the Poconos, PA to speak to artists and students at East Stroudsburg University. Tom brought his gallery exhibition “Storm Cycle” (link to a video or site), which gets us up close and personal with the aftermath of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Tom collected bits of personal paraphernalia left after the storm floods retreated, and created gallery art that includes stories about the individuals and families that owned them. The more I read of his personal accounts, the more meaningful the art became for me.
Tom stayed for two days to present “Design for Survival”, a 2-day course designed by Tom to meet the needs of artists who are too inexperienced in the world of business to create sustainable businesses based on their art. Often lacking business training as well as experience, many talented artists and craftsmen burst upon the crafts scene, excited to sell and become known in their fields. Very often working from home with little overhead, they typically charge too little for their work to really maintain a business, inadvertently undercutting experienced artists who have priced their work to survive as a sustainable business. They close up shop a few months or years later, disillusioned and frustrated by failure, and not understanding that they actually put themselves out of business by ignoring the rules of a sustainable business. Does this scenario hit just a bit too close to home? Most of us have no idea of how to price our work or run an arts-based business that can survive the competitive and ever-changing market. Tom has created “Design for Survival” to meet this need, and to help artists find lasting success in the business of craft. 
