A Study in Contrasts: Benchtop Sneak Peek

Last week's blog post may have you believing that my studio is quite clean and organized. Poppycock! Just a few feet away is the chaotic workspace of Brendita-the-Spastic-One! And so comes my theory of balance. 

First, a left-to-right (now top to bottom) scan of the main workspace in my studio:

  

 

 

(Now, a moment to rest your eyes and regain some composure.)

The lesson here -- at least what works for me -- is that having an organized starting block is important to getting one off and running in the creative process. For many creatives (including moi), beginning is probably the single most important thing we face. But the messy, everything-up-in-the-air part is where the genius comes in.

In the chaos, you'll find new juxapositions of objects you may never have thought of combining before. In the pile, you'll gain a clarity that comes from being able to work multiple projects at once. In the jumble, you'll gain a momentum that has you producing more.

These two works have recently erupted from the hot bed of disorganization:

 

I guess (for me) slow, steady, and cluttered is what wins the race!

What's Your RL/EO Quotient?

Sometimes I astound myself (in a not-so-good way). You'd think after 47 years, I'd know me pretty well. And to be honest, most of the time I'm pretty astute about what makes me me and what I can and cannot do. But this last little task I took on just hammered home the point that I'm a little dense in the what-can-be-accomplished-in-real-time-and-space world (a.k.a. what you can get done in real life).

You see, this girl's an eternal optimist. And, she's a little slow on the uptake when it comes to committing to deadlines. She says "yes" automatically before weighing a project's actual doing-ness. I blame it on my analytical side -- the side that on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the largest) is a .5.

So, next time I nod my head to drawing 70-plus sketches of 30-plus projects (which guide readers through the process of making the jewelry in say a book called something like Steel Wire Jewelry), I'll say I need two months instead of one. And I'll really draw sketches instead of schematic models that look like they're from an engineer's drawing board. And I'll start the project before there are only two weeks left to deadline. Ahem ... did I say that my procrastination quotient of big projects is also a .5?

What's your Real Life (RL) vs. Eternal Optimist (EO) quotient?

What's in a Name Anyway?

Well, I'll tell 'ya -- more than one would think!

With today's emphasis on marketing and search engines, and -- well that's about the crux of it, marketing and search engines -- things (book titles, that is) need to be straightforward, simple, specific, and (yes, I'll say it) boring! That's okay though, 'cause a good, minimal title is weighty enough to counterbalance all of my uber-creative copy inside (which frankly, confuses even me at times!)

What am I droning on about (you analytics ask)?

I just received the formal title for my next book. It's moniker is Steel Wire Jewelry. The equally important and obviously encoded subtitle is: Stylish Designs, Simple Techniques, Artful Inspiration. You got it! All very good words to describe exactly what is inside the book -- style, design, simplicity, technique, art, and inspiration. There you go, and there you have it.

I'm not complaining. Or, am I? The early-career marketer in me says, "Yep! Get it out there, and get it far and wide." The creative-type in me says, "Good God, can't anyone think a little? Would it kill them? Do we have to spell out things at a fourth-grade level all the time?"

Then I pan back a little, take a few breaths, and envision my little book ... on the Barnes&Noble shelves ... among tens of other wire books ... hundreds of other jewelry books ... thousands of other craft books ... and millions of other books books ... and, that's just one store. And then I say:

"I LOVE simplicity. I LOVE the name Steel Wire Jewelry! And, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE search engines!

(And I'll "wow 'em" on the inside!)

Thank you, Title Team!

xoxox!

(Pssst! Next comes the fabulous cover art . . . !)

Where'd the School Year Go?

Seems like I just submitted my proposals to teach at the 2010 Bead&Button Show (actually, that was last July -- time flies) and now the Show's almost here! I'm kidding, really. (Thank goodness that June is several months away and the boys' school year has three more quarters to go -- plenty of time to raise those first-quarter grades!) The good news is that Marlene and crew at Kalmbach Publishing Company have recently announced the classes and workshops we teachers will be offering.

I am super-psyched to present four iron wire classes and one surprise! I get to teach a three-day Fundamentals in Resin workshop early in the week! Look for the complete catalog late this month and sign up in January!

Here's my roster:

Maniacal Jewelry Pound
A three-hour wacky and wonderfully loud pounding of iron wire: a great chance to try the medium in a shorter time-frame.

Found and Captured

Create custom captures (bails) for all your fabulous cabochons and found objects.

Create Your Style with Swarovski Elements presents Winterfrost Pod

A beautiful combination of iron wire and flashy crystal.

All plain-loops! Simple-dimple!

A Pound(ed) Heart

Try your hand (and hammer) at forging 12 gauge iron wire. Grrrr!

Fundamentals in Resin by Brenda Schweder

A three-day intensive play-date where

 you discover and/or re-explore resin, resin, resin!

What's Tangled and Mangled and Colorful Throughout?

Peek of the Week No. 2, that's what! It's been a month since I shared Peek of the Week No. 1 on September 10th. Today I'd like to introduce Peek of the Week No. 2. In true Brenda form, you may have guessed it involves two of my favorite things -- Irish waxed linen and (of course) iron wire. But what gauge? How is it tangled? Is it a bracelet, an earring, a brooch? I'm such a trickster for keeping you guessing!

Smokin' Mirrors & Inquiring Minds

Not everything is as it seems. Sometimes it's better; sometimes it's worse. Sometimes it's both if we step back a bit.

We dig for answers when things seem picture perfect. We want to know that others are like us -- a little less than perfect. We spend money to know the truth about other people's lives (my husband Jim's Granny Aurelia was a longtime National Inquirer subscriber), we research and Google! any little curiosity, and we take back stage tours to get an inner sanctum glimpse at how things really work on the big stage.

I got my own little peek at the "better and the worse" of my work this week when I visited Deone Jahnke's photography studio. We (she worked, I "assisted") shot six of my better pieces for the gallery section of Iron Wire Jewelry (coming out Fall, 2010).

The shoot went like clockwork, but I got a chuckle when we prepped this necklace (Scrapyard No. 1) by dangling it from a pole with gray duct tape (see evidence, lower left). VERY classy! Check out the little mirror propped on a tiny box with paraffin wax (another photog trick to bounce light around) and the adorable Ms. Jahnke's left hand and camera zoom lens.

Funny how the before (what the camera shows us) and the after (the "bigger picture") vary a teeny, tiny bit! Just thought your inquiring minds would want to know!