Untitled Work in Progress

If you would have told me 4 years ago that I would be working in watercolor, I’d have laughed at you.  Too finicky.  Too much work.  Too time-consuming.  Yet here I am.

These days I don’t have time to sit for 8 hours like I once did in art school studio classes.  Which I recently discovered wasn’t a bad thing.  In fact, it forces me to slow down.  I’ve imposed a rule of only working an hour at a time now on a single piece of art, because I realized that the danger of working large amounts of time is that rushing need to be finished.  Rushing keeps me from learning a medium.  Rushing keeps me from really figuring out how to become better, because art to me is a constant movement towards improving and mastery.  I’m not there yet.  I doubt I ever will be.  But in this case, rushing is what has kept my work in the past from being the very best it could be.  Not allowing myself to stop when I was mentally tired of something has kept me from actually growing as much as I can.  Art is about quality, it’s not about quantity.  Sometimes I forget that.  Or sometimes I need to be humbled by that reminder.

Tiny Shop Update

I’ve put up my newest two offerings into my Etsy shop today.  I cannot express how excited I am for this collection.  It’s a little rustic, a little artistic, a little romantic, and a whole lot wonderful.  There’s just the right amount of wanderlust with a good measure of appreciation for the natural world around us.  While I love my filigree work, I’m finding that my latest pieces are possibly me reaching maturity as an artist.  I’ve been working towards finding my voice and aesthetic for a full decade when it comes to jewelry, and I think maybe I’m finally tumbling into it.

I’m also not sure I’m going to be able to outdo myself after this necklace…

Over the last 6 months I’ve been adding little luxuries from Europe into my supply stash.  The Art Nouveau-style French coins from the 20s and 30s were an absolute must for me.  You’ll find them spread throughout this collection in bracelets, necklaces, and earrings.

Antique buttons and lace are a regular occurrence in my work.

But what I’ve been enjoying the most lately has actually been soft-soldering.  Specifically glass pendants.  This one has a dried eucalyptus leaf carefully preserved between sheets of glass along with a remnant of antique whitework.  While it looks like lace, it’s actually a style of embroidery that has been around since about the 16th century.  This piece isn’t that old obviously, but it’s lovely all the same.

This necklace is available for sale at my Etsy shop.

Secondly, I have a lovely pair of solder-top Crazy Horse Jasper earrings.  They’re delightfully rustic and hang from sterling silver earwires that I’ve made.  They’re so simple that I don’t have much to say on them… Other than I’d like to keep them for myself, and I need to remember to make myself a pair!

For those looking for a budget-minded present, these would be perfect.  They’re available here.

There will be more to come!

Transitional Collection, Spring/Summer 2016

My aesthetic typically keeps along the same 2 lines where either I’m in love with neutrals or I’m in love with bold colors.  There is a definite struggle of artistic identity there, but most of the time I like to think my pieces for the most part express some part of human complexity.

So I’m trying for something just a little different this year.  I’m going to attempt to release a concentrated collection of pieces that are loosely focused on a theme for the season, with transitional collections in between each major season.  I have no idea if this is actually going to work or not, but I hope maybe it will help me streamline what makes my work distinctly my own instead of an eclectic collection of pretty things I like (which, hey, is actually a very large part of me, too).

Above is a picture of some of the focal pieces and stones for this first collection.  It’s inspired by The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, which if you’re not familiar with the book I highly recommend it.  Edith Holden’s work as a naturalist of the British Countryside is absolutely amazing.  I spent countless hours looking through it as a child, and it’s such an important artistic inspiration to me as a whole that I own 2 copies.

For this collection you’ll find pressed flowers, leaves, and bits of Edwardian-era lace trapped in glass.  You’ll find romantic antique keys imported from Europe and Art Nouveau-style French coins.  You’ll find bits of nature, and perhaps a few tiny deviations from the theme (for instance the antique Catholic icon pictured).  Rustic soldered jaspers and agates.  Pearls and silk.  Watercolor, neutral fabrics, and unapologetic femininity.

I’m rather excited by what I have in store.

The Mission of This Blog…

Today my planner says I’m supposed to write and post a mission statement to start this blog. That is a great plan, but I haven’t really nailed down what my mission statement as an artist and one-woman company should be. It’s held me hostage on starting this blog and a business plan. Basically if you don’t have a mission statement for this sort of thing, apparently no one is going to know what you’re about.  Or that’s what basically any business blogger and most of the small business training I’ve had has told me.

Here is the problem… Sometimes I don’t even know exactly what I’m about. Sometimes it changes. Sometimes I wander along aimlessly before stumbling into a new passion that lights up my soul for a few months and before it rolls into another space where I’m a bit indifferent about the subject. It’s actually one of the reasons I enjoy writing, because it gives me an excuse to research whatever it is that I’m immensely interested in at any given moment.

Having sat down and listed out the things I wanted to focus on for this blog, I decided on the following general categories:

This blog is going to be very much about art. I want a place to document my journey as an artist, my inspiration, my process, and my triumphs. I wear a lot of hats. A lot. Artist is the easiest label for about 20 different hats I wear, since I work in a multitude of mediums. Currently painting both in watercolor and digitally have caught my interest. I sculpt. I work with fiber. And more often than not I make jewelry and am passionate about metalsmithing.

Which brings me to fashion, which really is just an extension of art to me, but one of the first things I wanted to be when I grew up was a fashion designer. I’m interested in design, clothing, and beauty that channels the Victorian and Edwardian aesthetic in all its forms, from Art Nouveau to Pre-Raphaelite to Belle Epoque to the Reform Movement.  I am so deeply in love with all artistic and design movements from this era. It bleeds into everything I create or style. This may actually be the over-arching theme of the blog.

(Though you won’t see me giving up my general vintage roots any time soon.)

But since my blogging tendencies tend to delve into my life experience as much as my life’s work, I wanted a place to talk about chronic illness and disability. I want to talk about disability rights, my struggles as a woman and artist living with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, and offer up some of the ways I’ve figured out how to make life a little easier. I want a place to talk about what it’s like to be an artist with a mental illness, because I believe talking openly and honestly about both mental and physical health is an important part of not only coming to terms with my own reality, but also helping erase the larger stigma behind neurodivergence and chronic illness. This is part of me, of who I am, and the truth is that I cannot hide it. Nor does the world need to be sheltered from it.

And honestly? I want to share some recipes with you, especially if you happen to be gluten-free or egg-free, because cooking on a restricted diet is overwhelming. Especially at first. Especially when you’ve got a disease that causes fatigue and you’ve got a small child in your house. This won’t necessarily be a food blog, but anyone who knows me knows that I can’t help but share recipes or take pictures of produce. If you’re coming to this blog due to food allergies or intolerance, you are new to this diet change, and you are freaking out (which is 100% normal and part of the experience) please take my hand. Over the next year or two, I’m going to be hopefully walking through what to do.

With all of that said, welcome to my blog! True to the name of my jewelry and art, Wunderkammer by C. Laurentine, this blog serves as a cabinet to house the collections of wonders and rarities that make up my life. I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I will enjoy writing it.