It doesn't matter what material you work in,
the creative spark will find you!
With a BA in Art History (Harvard University, 1985) and a Masters in Early American Decorative Arts (Winterthur Program, University of Delaware, 1992), Jessica has expanded her self-taught craft techniques with more formal training in metalwork (Penland School of Crafts, NC, and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, ME), papermaking (Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, ME), and stone carving (Corcoran School of Art, DC).
She holds professional memberships in: American Crafts Council, Bead Society of Washington, DC, James Renwick Alliance, Precious Metal Clay Guild - Certified Teacher, Society of North American Goldsmiths and Washington Guild of Goldsmiths.
1. What led you to designing and creating jewelry/sculptures? And 2. Are you a full time artist and how did you make your way there?
I have been a full-time artist, but recently I have been supplementing my income in order to more easily pay for my daughter's college tuition. When I worked full time as an artist, for about 15 years, I started by applying to smaller craft shows (Washington Bead Society) and then improved my application images and honed my skills until I got in to progressively larger and more recognized/selective events (Smithsonian Craft Show and Washington Craft Show), building up a clientele that often contacted me between shows for follow up purchases or commissions. I also did the ACC Baltimore wholesale show once and had a few more limited wholesale series that I sold to about 10 galleries for a few years. I focused on two fairly distinct media and styles, both of which offered a nice niche within the highly competitive jewelry shows. My woven beadwork (almost entirely jewelry
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| Influenza Necklace |
entirely jewelry and more accessible, formally, to buyers - colorful and very wearable) and paper shrunk over wire (more distinctive and unusual and with potential to grow larger as sculpture). While it was hard to divide my time and attention between the two media at times, I found they each feed a different part of my creative impulse, so I could never decide which I prefer and I carried on in both.
3. Biggest challenge as an artist?
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| Reclaimed Plastic necklace |
My biggest challenge (at least these days!) is juggling the time I spend on my personal/family life with the time I devote to my creative work. I find it difficult to focus adequately on either sometimes. The changing art/crafts market is also a challenge - people seem less inclined to make an impulse purchase and fewer people seem to be attending high-level art shows (at least in DC and with the intent to buy instead of just browse). I struggle with trusting the saying that if you make what you love the rest will follow...it is so hard to leap into the void and forget about the business side of making art for a living!
4. Describe your creative process?
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| Leafy necklace with pearls |
I work all the time, at least in my head. I keep a notepad handy in case I need to jot down an idea, but sometimes a napkin or receipt will have to do! I work on many projects simultaneously. This is largely a holdover from when I did more weekend shows and needed to keep my inventory full. But now I am used to it and like percolating many ideas simultaneously. They often influence each other. It's fun to see ideas evolve in parallel. Sometimes I will use a smaller jewelry piece as a maquette or small sample for a larger sculpture piece.
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| Chrysanthemum pendant |
My home is my studio these days. I am fortunate to have a back yard with a cement area over a half-sunk garage where I can conveniently make my paper sheets in nicer weather. For the paper jewelry and sculpture, I generally make a series of armatures and then make a dozen or so sheets of flax paper in order to cover everything at one time. Recently, I have been using a pour mold (instead of a dip mold) so I can make one sheet at a time more easily. This is particularly useful when I am trying out a new form rather than making a few final pieces.
5. What inspires you?
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| Deconstructing HPV | |
I am most inspired by forms found in nature, both larger objects that we can see readily (leaves, waterflow patterns, mineral structures) and microscopic ones (viruses, cell structures). I am particularly drawn to universal forms, like the golden spiral - I am amazed at how basic mathematical ideas explain so much of our world.
6. Tell me about the technical process you employ in your work.
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| Elizabethan Collar - Sea Urchin |
Paper over steel: In order to make my paper-over-steel work, I have to make the armatures as well as the paper. I make the armatures using wire (usually steel, but often sterling or niobium for the wearable work) and sometimes (but rarely, these days) basketry reed. For the wire armatures, I form them using as few pieces of metal as possible and cold connections, meaning that I bind the forms from very long pieces of wire instead of soldering smaller ones together. I like the way the bound connections accentuate the form and add strength to
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| Radiolarian |
the pieces. However, as my work as gotten larger, I have realized that eventually I may need to weld the larger elements to accommodate increased weight and difficulty in bending higher-gauge wire. I cover the armatures with still-wet paper made from overbeaten (8 hours at a low setting in a Hollander beater), uncooked, unbleached flax fiber. This is necessary because the pulp has to be gently crushed for a long time (not chopped up) in order for it to shrink adequately as it dries. The uncooked paper has an intrinsic stickiness that lets it adhere to itself, so no glue is needed. As the paper shrinks, it gets quite taut and thin, but stays very strong and hard to puncture. Once the paper has dried, I infuse it with beeswax (especially the wearable work), making it waterproof and more translucent.
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| Curved Crocus earrings |
Beadwork: All of my beaded work is hand sewn off loom with a needle and thread. I use primarily Japanese glass seed beads and bugle beads and black nylon thread. Sometimes I make custom findings that include armatures that I can sew onto (especially for earrings and pins).
7. How would you describe your artistic style and how has it changed over the years?
That is a hard thing to do! I think my style for the beadwork used to be more representational and now it has gotten more abstract (but still inspired by "real" things like viruses and flowers).
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| Toothed Cowrie |
My paperwork started out very leafy and botanical and has moved in a more mathematical direction - I now make linked necklaces that are like puzzles and the sculpture is often based on deep sea creatures or microscopic organisms that have distinctly geometrical forms.
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| Fused shapes - recycled plastic |
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I continue to add new techniques to my work (always have, always will), including fused painted recycled plastic bags, felting, and found object collage. And I have an ongoing obsession with wire mesh.
8. Any big plans for the future? Other shows, etc...
I have an upcoming group show and sale in Potomac with a wonderful group of artists working in a range of media. We call ourselves Artfinity and the show will be the weekend of November 22 and 23 (details are on the calendar section of my website - jbeelsdesign.com).
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| The View From Within |
Also, I am working on a 3-person show (with Elsabe Dixon and Inga Hamilton) called Call and Response for the Episcopal School in Alexandria this April through June (details will also be on the website, as they develop).
9. If someone wants to purchase a piece from you (away from the show) what is the best way for them to contact you?
Email - jessica@jbeelsdesign.com The images on my website are largely for information and not necessarily what I have in stock. I am always happy to send images of what I do have in stock and will work on custom pieces.
With a background in studio art, Rachel has a BA in art history and English literature and a PhD in 19th century art history, with a special emphasis on American art. She is the curator of the book Masters: Polymer Clay and has been involved with the Polymer Art Archive since its inception. Pieces of Rachel’s polymer art are in the permanent collections of many American museums.
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Winslow Homer
Leaping Fish Pin
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Rachel Carren’s
work is influenced by her love of textiles and her extensive art history
background. Printing patterns inspired by historic painters onto fabric
like swaths of polymer, Carren defines the color and ornamentation which forms
the basis for her jewelry.
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| Bonnard inspired collection |
1. What led you to designing and creating jewelry?
Not exactly sure about the jewelry part, however, my work is influenced by textile arts and historic painters.
2. Are you a full time artist and how did you make your way there?
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| Monet bangle |
I am involved in the arts in several ways. I am both a maker, an art historian and now, I research and write about polymer art. Sometimes one takes precedence, sometimes the other.
3. Biggest challenge as an artist?
Finding enough time and balance.
4. Describe your creative process?
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| Hokusai Circle in Square |
I am a tortoise. Mostly, my ideas grow from observation, previous work and extensive experimentation to resolve problems and find resolutions.
5. What inspires you?
Textile art, extant historic art, geometry and the interchange between art and the cultures that create it.
6. Tell me about the technical process you employ in your work.
I use polymer, a synthetic modeling compound, to create my work. First, I mix a custom color palette, which is used to create a blend; this blend is then sheeted like a piece of fabric. Next I apply a pattern of pigment using textile inspired techniques. I make my own silk screens and often use layers of screen printing. The printed sheet of polymer becomes the material from which I form my designs.
7. How would you describe your artistic style and how has it changed over the years?
Classic. My surfaces tend to be complex so my compositions are based on the simplicity of basic geometry.
8. Any big plans for the future? Other shows, etc...
I’ve recently figured out how to weave polymer into cloth. Aside from constructing garments out of this fabric, I’m interested in incorporating it into jewelry designs.
9. If someone wants to purchase a piece from you (away from the show) what is the best way for them to contact you?
Nella Fischer is a local silversmith who while primarily self-taught has honed her skills with workshops and classes at the Art League School of the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, the Washington Guild of Goldsmiths (of which she is a member) and at the Touchstone Center for Crafts in Farmington, Pennsylvania.
“Most of my work is done in sterling or argentium silver and includes stones, pearls, beads or other non-metal objects. The design may be inspired by something I have observed, from something I imagine for the non-metallic object that I plan to incorporate, or from something that I wish to communicate.”
1. What led me to designing, etc.
At first, I was struck with the ease of doing something with metal wire
or sheet to create a wearable piece of jewelry. I was also interested in making something (not just buying) that I would wear. Even though those were naïve ideas, they were doable. Next came the challenge of making things that someone would actually buy.
2. Am I a full time artist?
No, I am not a full time artist. I started working in metal after I retired from a 30+ yr. career in government administration. But I had been making beaded jewelry, sewing, and working on creative projects for the house. So I was not intimidated in taking a metal’s class to see how jewelry was made. But thankfully I don’t have to work any more hours than I want to.
3. Biggest challenge...
Designing and making pieces that show creativity as well as technical skill. Pieces that are well made, have appeal and meet client’s desires and/or needs. Pieces that are unique in some noticeable way.
4. Creative process...& 5. What inspires me...
I’m often inspired with a design by something that occurs to me when looking at a stone or a bead. Then I try to capture that idea in a drawing. Sometimes I get an idea from something I see around me that leads me to see how it can be incorporated in jewelry. Seeing exhibits, photos or drawings of other’s works also inspires me.
6. Technical process...
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| Grasslands |
I usually draw what I plan to make and then decide on the purpose and size. Sometimes I make up a paper model, then decide on specific metal or material to use. If I have a stone I want to make into jewelry, my design usually centers on that stone and the inspiration that I get from that stone—how I picture it in my mind. The selected material then determines how it will be treated—for example, will the metal need to be reinforced with an edging (frame) to give it strength as well as a “finished” look.
7. My artistic style & how it’s changed...
I see my style as conservative/contemporary, wearable by most women, both working and non-working. I’m guided by what I see as commercially popular but work at not duplicating those ideas. I want it to be obvious that “this is a hand-crafted piece of wearable art.”
8. Plans for future...
For the remainder of 2014; [Renwick] JRA Day show on Dec. 6. I also make jewelry that is sold at ViVian’s, a craft shop in Charlottesville, Va., as well as a potential Holiday Show at Glen Echo (that is not certain, although I’ve been in the show the last few years).
9. To contact me—by e-mail: nellafischer@comcast.net or by telephone: 301-598-9417
Wonderful interviews with all three very different artists.
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