Me, That’s Who!

For a long time now, ever since I began selling my woven wire pendants actually, people have asked for “smaller,” “simpler” and/or “silver” designs. I’ve been so often told “I really love your work, but do you have something that is…(insert one of those words?”).

As an artists working with a specific set of materials, it’s been painful. At the start, wire weaving was new to me and I was truly enjoying the creative experience. I understood why someone wanted “not copper,” and I made woven sterling wire pieces hoping to accommodate them, but it hurt when I knew what they meant was “not wire weaving.”

Eventually I, too, began to understand why wire weaving wasn’t as attractive as a pendant set in a simple metalsmithed setting. What drove it home for me was when I read, somewhere on an internet discussion forum, that “wire weaving is for those who don’t know how to work as a metalsmith.”

Ouch!

At heart, I knew this was true to a large extent. Metalsmithing requires more tools, a stable space to work, and instruction at a more committed level than wire weaving, even if one goes the route of being self-taught. It is a larger investment that many who are just starting out are leary of taking on. You need a torch, for crying out loud! That’s like having a pet dragon! And if you go on You Tube and look up “Silversmithing,” you’re almost assured to see someone with a fairly extensive studio bench which includes a professional level torch.

You might hear someone say “you can get buy with a hand held torch from (they’ll probably say Harbor Freight), but when I read that, that little voice in MY head responded with “Yeah right. Go Big, or Go Home!”

It was disheartening, because I believed that voice for quite a while.

As well, my studio space back home in New York is fairly new, and each spring when I return, I’m not sure if I’ll have it for the rest of the season. I’m looking at that possibility again in another two months, in fact.

To me, it seemed implausible to work with metalsmithing tools in the way I have been doing my cabochon crafting. That is, part time in a true studio, and part time on the road where I stow everything away in my van and haul it out to work in a municipal park or on public lands.

For sure, it HAS been a pain to work on my lapidary like this. Sometimes I dream about finding a “real home” to live in again, just to be able to work until any hour of the night, get in a few hours and leave my project knowing I’ll come back in a few hours. Not having to pack things ALL away after a session!

But, I’ve done it. And I’m going to do it with metalsmithing. And I’ve started buying my tools! Including this beauty….

The pendant in the image at the top of this post is my first finished work. It includes one of my own cabochons, and I’m please with the results. I know that down the road I will look at it and find myself smiling at my inability to see just how crudely crafted it is. At least, I had BETTER be able to see a pretty good jump in my skill level and design sense!

I had been wanting to learn metalsmithing for a few years, and had planned to spend a season at the rock club I belong to in Quartzsite doing just that. It was in the winter of 2020 when I told myself “Next year, you come back and learn to silversmith.”

We all know what happened in the months following the winter of 2020. Covid happened. And there was no way I was going to sit in a crowded room full of cowboy types who understood the concept of a masked man during the wild west but not the pandemic.In fact, the club specifically stated that, though shop forepersons could require masks be worn during their shifts, the club would not require it in general, nor would the be mandating any safety measures regarding distancing or sanitizing surfaces. “You’re on your own” was the exact wording, as I recall.

The next year(2021/22), the virus was raging in it’s 3rd or 4th round, and people were passing it around like a joint at Woodstock. Now, in 2023, it’s STILL with us. My brother in law has it(again) as I type this post(and, he’s been through the series of vaccinations).

But, I decided that we’d gotten to the point that, if I got iCovid, I’d likely not die. That was my bigger concern; that I’d die out on the road and my dog would end up either left alone in the van as I succumbed, or be put in a shelter when I entered a hospital.

Okay – I took a seriously negative digression there…. Back to metalsmithing!

I finally got a session in at the club and got my pendant to the point I was ready to place the stone, burnish the bezel, and polish the finished work. I did that the next week and was SO happy. I knew I was on my way.

Then, I came down to Tucson to see the big gems shows. I figured I’d go back to Quartzsite afterward and really throw myself into learning the craft. But, there was a small issue…..

I found myself, a few days ago, waking up to a feeling of drudgery about going back to Quartzsite for the rest of the season. If you’ve spent more than an afternoon in Quartzsite, you can empathize. The town is not fast-paced and well-stock with modern conveniences, to put it nicely. The internet signal is slow to non-existent. The library is the only place you can sit inside and work on online marketing. Publicly available electricity is rarer than water in the desert. The restaurants…what can I say but “Bless their hearts.(if you catch my drift).

And yet, I soldiered through several seasons at Quartzsite enduring these things and telling myself it was the price I paid to get my work done.

Well, this time, when I had that despondent feeling, a little voice in my head said “I bet there is somewhere in Tucson you can learn smithing at a relatively low cost.”

I asked on a Facebook Group that I’d just joined, and got some suggestions. Great ones, for someone actually living in the area, and with a few hundred dollars to drop for a series of classes or workshops. I figured there was a lapidary club, and so I googled. There was a lapidary club in Tucson! And, they have a metalsmithing shop!

I hightailed it down there and joined the next day. Saturday I’ll go for their monthly meeting, to get a feel for things, and work in the lapidary shop afterwards.(the lapidary shop is very well appointed, with Genies, a Titan, several Poly Arbors, saw to cut slabs for member use, and even a vacuum stabilization chamber, for use in stabilizing stones like turquoise, that are difficult to work with when not bolstered by the stabilization process.

My hope is that Tuesday will be my first instructional class in metalcraft. Hopefully, I’ll be getting four weekly sessions with instruction, and studio time in between, before I begin traveling back towards the northeast for the warmer months. If that happens, I feel I’ll be confident enough to proceed on my own. If not…I’ll proceed on my own with less confidence.

Look for sterling silver pendants to come in the Talisman Too Galleries in a few months(maybe sooner). And, if you don’t yet follow me on Instagram, you’ll want to if you have interest in my journey. You can find my Instagram profile at https://www.instagram.com/talismantoo/!

Meanwhile – which of the cabochons in my shop do YOU think would look good as a pendant?