Kim Cridler Studio Visit

Kim Cridler Studio Visit
Originally uploaded by sarah.holden

Yeah!! Our studio visit with Kim Cridler yesterday at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee was so much fun! Kim came with a drawing of a project to make, some steel, solder and flux and the entire studio started working on constructing the pieces. By the end of the day we had a sexy curvacious candelabra as the reward for our efforts during the day! We had some wonderful energy in the studio and it was nice to have a fun day together. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful community!

Check out some of my favorite photos from the visit here

Samples

Samples
Originally uploaded by sarah.holden

Samples

Samples
Originally uploaded by sarah.holden

Just some samples I've been working on..Even though these paper clips I just holding the pieces together, I think this piece could be beautiful with a filigree element there.

Innovative Lamp Design

I love these lights designed by New Zealand Graduates. Initially the actual lamp was intended to be fabricated out of the packaging used to ship it, which wasn't able to be completely satisfied, but pretty close. I love the cardboard and how you can move them around the room. Seems like this is a challenge someone else could try too. To design something that is fabricated out of the packaging used to ship it.

10 Inspirations from life

1. Morwenna Catt and her amazing phrenology heads. She makes a variety of fairly grotesque stuffed pieces, body parts and animals, all utilizing a gritty, frightenting aesthetic, but accomplished very well in fiber, so it really makes you re-think the grotesqueness of it all. Her use of line in her drawings makes me understand the objects better and I love how she incorporates x-rays into her work...very smart but discussing the same thing, insides..







2. The paper folds of another UK artist, Polly Verity are totally blowing my mind right now. I am trying to wrap my head around how she makes these folds. I've been scoring my paper and trying to make my own patterns which is so incredibly tough. What she has done with paper is so amazing, and I know if I can get anywhere close in paper, what I could do in metal has an incredible amount of outcomes. More to come on this...this is on my backburner..I am slowly trying to figure this out while I am working on other things. PS--Polly, you are AMAZING..





3. Uber cutie pie Susie Bubble and almost everything she puts up on here blog, (including that amazing jacket that looks like skin!!!) Style Bubble is her blog, and it is so much fun to look at all the funky dressers out there..makes me feel not so weird compared to what I see here. Also found on her awesome blog...





4. This work by PristineSmut


and...





5. These amazing garments by Irina Shaposhnikova. See the entire runway show here...it is truly amazing.. Russian born Shaposhnikova who just completed her MA Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp has created this amazing collection of garments which are not only extending the body, but also act like a setting and have "set" the body for all to see.




6. Which reminds me incredibly of historical garments like bustles, corsets and panniers which I find especially interesting. Not just the way in which they exaggerated and manipulated the body, but the way in which they became a moral and ethical staple in required dress of a woman. And how now we talk about how cruel they were, but we have now turned to exaggerated exercising and surgery to perfect the human body..Which is really worse?








7. The raunchy, weird, disturbing work of Cistas, from Budapest. I like how he brings the inside to the external, and just makes you do double take...these animals are not friendly..or maybe they are, they just look horrible. I really want to investigate these little buggers..I feel like if I could look at one up close I would discover a lot that I can't from these pictures...truly disturbing..






8. The beautiful work of Nikki Bergman. She graduated from New Paltz, and I know she calls these pieces fetishes, but I can't find much more about them, although I would LOVE to find out some more about what she is interested about fetishes...I'm a fetish fan too. I can't even remember where I got these images, but I look at them all the time.





9. These lovely fashions by Leanne Marshall. I love how they look like the beautiful paper folds that I am trying to figure out and I love how they fall on the body. I think fashion is so interesting to me because of what it communicates about the wearer. Jewelry does this as well, so I guess i am mostly interested in THAT..this non-verbal cultural communication that we all seem to understand through ornamentation. Super interesting when you really start to think about it..




10. Husband. Just cause he's so super cool.

Renegade Craft Fair Chicago

The work in this booth by Mike and Mary Jewelry was probably my favorite of the day. The presentation of the work was eye-catching, at the perfect level for the hand and fairly easy to access, compared to some booths were people were literally on top of each other to try stuff on. I also think this work was at the perfect price point for this type of venue. Most rings were $45-$65 and even the higher end of the necklaces were only like $150. I wonder how well the work sold..it was busy everytime I passed by. Most of the designs were clean and simple, really appropriate for this crowd. I really enjoyed this work. Some of my favorites below, from their etsy site. Although my favorite piece was a necklace with little rolled sheets of silver making swirls inside..not on etsy or their site..must have been new..I loved it..

Made with Love and a HAMMER..very simple, elegant designs with nice catch phrase by Freshie and zero from Nashville.

great hangers...

Look at this presentation!! A shelf of books..but wait! Those are all purses, lined up like the books they used to be before they were repurposed to be vessels.

This work was a group of 5 metalsmiths from Kalamazoo that ran the booth together. I did notice that there were a lot of collaborations, where people were sharing booths to either share the fee or try to attract as big a crowd as possible. Very Nice ladies!

Look at these great little lasercut and burned boxes that the work came in..very cool. Wish he would have played up his presentation of the work better though..he could have made the whole booth a laser cut wood setup like those little boxes..

Welded wire jewelry sold as such so those little weld marks are the "jewels"

I saw this a few times, lentils or rice being used to hold jewelry pieces..and I think it worked well, especially if the color somehow contrasted the work and made it really pop!

These necklaces were really great! Hand dyed ribbon wrapped around circular frames..I don't wear necklaces like this really, but I really LOVED these pieces by Lauren Wimmer. They were the perfect balance of chunky and sweet. Really really lovely... This one was my favorite...

LOOK at those great fluffy purses! I had already blew my wad by this point, but those purses are so so great...

So...I also really loved this work by Sasha Bell, but I think her work was underpriced..Starting around $20 for flat hoops (a bit smaller than the ones pictured below) and only $48 for these amazing balled out "studded" hoops....pricing is just so hard though..I wonder how well she did..