More Bamboo: Work Begets Work

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Robert

PORTION OF BACKYARD BLACK BAMBOO GROVE, which is perhaps 25 feet/7.6 meters long, surrounded by a thick plastic wall to prevent this invasive species of running bamboo from growing out of control. Note the variation in color of the stems or jointed culms, from medium brown to almost black, which only occurs in plants two years or older. It is not the stems that are used for jewelry but the branches, on which the leaves grow. INSET: IN PROGRESS TWO CULM BAMBOO TORQUE; Separate pieces of bamboo are joined by wrapped, annealed silver tubing; portion of pendant is wirewrapped with copper. Photographs: Robert K. Liu/Ornament.

Artists fear the creative vacuum when we can’t think of what to do next or nothing draws you back into the studio. Fortunately, my love affair with bamboo jewelry has few such barriers, only periodic frustrations (Liu 2012a; The Workbench Blog 2012b). I first got interested in making black bamboo torques through steambending in 2010; this method enables very precise results, but takes too long as a practical way to make jewelry. A bamboo grower suggested I try heatbending, in my case, with propane or acetylene torches, starting in late 2010. This method worked, but like all techniques, required a substantial amount of practice before I felt confident. With sporadic attempts (all recorded in my jewelry notebook), I did not really achieve results that satisfied me until the end of 2011. By the beginning of 2012, I felt good enough about my heatbent bamboo torques that I began giving them as gifts and in March of 2012, I started selling them at Freehand, a Los Angeles craft gallery. While most of my bamboo jewelry is worn by women, some men also either wear them or appreciate them.

BAMBOO TORQUE TERMINATIONS AND PENDANTS: Soldered brass tension mounts with fluorite crystals, various bead terminations.

While our backyard grove of black bamboo provides a very sustainable yield of material for my modest jewelry production, it is not really free. The plants require watering, fertilizing and culling. Fast growing grasses like this running bamboo have rhizomes that easily fill out a given space, resulting in overcrowded plants dying or becoming malformed. Interestingly enough, bamboo dies from the top down, with the dead part losing that desirable culm pigment and turning a mottled gray, thus no longer useable for jewelry. The solution is to check their condition and prune periodically, so that dying plants can be saved in time for use.

TIGHT HEATBENT CURVES: Single bamboo culm torque with bend to suspend ethnic elements, earrings with silver earwires and a ring.

INTERTWINED CULM TORQUE WITH TIGHT RADIUS PENDANT: Beads from the African trade are used with the pendant/terminations.

Our culled plants, which consist of a jointed stem, called the culm, and the branches which grow out of the nodes or joints, reach heights of 15 to 20 feet. The main culm is too thick for heatbending into jewelry, so I only use the branches. It takes an hour to an hour and a half just to trim the branches and their leaves, using cutters and cutoff wheels on a Dremel power tool. A 20 foot/6.1 meter bamboo might yield only 30 useable branches. With some heatbending procedures, such as bends of very small radii, the failure rates exceeds 90% or more, especially if the bamboo is not freshly cut and/or has been exposed to the sun for too long. To have an adequate supply, you need five or more culled stems, plus the labor and time to trim them.

THICK SINGLE CULM TORQUE WITH 19TH CENTURY BALKAN PENDANT: Pendant is of gilded, cast and fabricated brass, with real carnelian and imitation turquoise of glass, mirrored in the terminations. This torque is an example of how ethnographic artifacts can be utilized.

TORQUE WITH PENDANT/SLIPONS: Fluorite pendant, glass and metal slipons, Chinese cinnabar terminations.

DETAIL, SILVER TUBING WRAP: Annealed tubing is anchored in culm, decorated with beads.

Most of the information on heatbending bamboo refers to bending large diameter culms for furniture. For this purpose, the internode septums or partitions are broken through, and the inside of the culm filled with fine sand so that the walls of the stem do not buckle during bending. This is not necessary with the small diameter branches used for jewelry (from 0.3 cm to slightly less than 1.0 cm) but most practitioners advise using freshly cut bamboo, which greatly increases the percentage of successful bends. One blogger recommends heating the bamboo to above boiling temperature, which is close to scorching of the skin of the bamboo, when the lignin and pectin of the culm soften and allow “a bend radius of sixty pole diameters.” (Retrieved 1/1/2013 from http://blog.bamboofencer.com/all-things-bamboo/bending-bamboo-not-trivial/). With bamboo heatbending, the torch flame achieves two purposes: heat-coloring of the skin and softening of the bamboo to allow bending. The former process makes working with black bamboo so rewarding, as the subtle enhancing of the skin colors and patterns by the heat, coupled with the inherent structure of its culms, combine to produce a structure that is visually and tactilely rich, yet light, strong and still pliable, and actually has greater tensile strength than steel (Retrieved 1/10/2013 from http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2008/04/12/stronger-than-steel.html).

PENDANT AND SLIPON DETAILS: Ethnic components, beads and metal elements provide color and contrast.

TERMINATION PROCESS: The solid node has been drilled/burred; balled wire/bead will be inserted.

Since many of the basic bending and jewelry techniques for bamboo jewelry have been described in my previous articles or blog (Liu 2010, 2012 a, b), I will mainly talk about what I have done since. Essentially I like to work in series, which many other craftspeople also prefer; I have always loved variations on a theme. In fact, when working with bamboo, ideas generate faster than I can put into practice. At first, I concentrated on basic culm bending, including single and intertwined culm torques. The basic heatbending requires a wood mandrel, but increasingly I do the final bends with a gloved hand. I need to shape the bamboo torques in both lateral and vertical planes to fit the neck and the curvature of the chest (see Liu 2012c about factors important to how a necklace fits). Since all torques need terminations, I gave this aspect a lot of attention; mostly decorating the ends with beads and artifacts, using various cold-fastening methods. Some of the terminations required metalworking, like those that had soldered tension mounts. Along with the terminations, I worked on ways to enhance the bent culms, with wire or tubing wrapping; this wrapping started as a way to repair culms damaged through bending, but because it is so pleasing, it soon became a design element. To add visual interest and volume to the rather thin bamboo torques, I then started to make pendants and other objects that could be slipped onto the culm. I call such items slipons; they and the pendants move freely on the torques. The terminations were usually made large enough to trap or prevent the pendants or slipons from coming off, although some pendants can still be removed. The pendants or slipons consisted of beads or other cultural artifacts, fabricated metal, slices of large stems or heatbent culms with very tight radii. Since every metal jeweler has a scrapbox of odds and ends, I used such material, along with brass/silver tubing to fabricate a series of Scrap Geometric pendants. The contrast of bright metal goes nicely with the dark bamboo culms. With the addition of pendants or slipons, these bamboo torques essentially functioned like neckwires (Liu 2001). Their opening is at the back of the neck, versus those torques without pendants, where the opening is in the front. For this type of torque, the terminations provide the visual interest and focal points.

BLACK BAMBOO TORQUE WITH SCRAP GEOMETRIC PENDANTS: Pendants of brass, copper, silver, some not finished, along with slipons of industrial brass.

After heatcoloring and bending, the skin of the torques do not need additional finishing, although one can use a plain cotton buff or even use polishing compounds, then buffing with clean cotton. The nicest finish occurs on the steambent torque; but I am not sure if it is the combination of steam and heat.

SLICES OF LARGE STEM OR NODE: These will be finished as slipons; one has copper sheet inset.

EUCALYPTUS MANDREL, TURNED BY PHIL AUDIA: Note grooves; held in vise when used for heatbending.

Besides the sustainability of using a material like bamboo for jewelry, as well as its beauty and relative permanence, what I really like about making bamboo jewelry is that it draws on so many skills and interests. Woodworking, metalworking, beads, jewelry components or artifacts can all be applied, as long as one had a modicum of manual skills, imagination and tools. This is an ideal situation for today’s craftspeople, who so eagerly embrace and cross media and tools in their work. I hope to teach this stimulating type of jewelrymaking to others in the craft community and explore together the possibilities of bamboo.

SINGLE CULM BAMBOO TORQUES WITH PENDANTS; One has tight radius bend pendant, others various ethnographic artifacts and fabricated elements; note variety of terminations, copper wirewrapping.

REFERENCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY
Liu, R.K. 2001 Neckwires. Elegant Utility. Ornament 24 (3): 60-63.
—2012a Bamboo Jewelry. A Sustainable Resource. Ornament 35 (3): 60-65.
—2012b Design Discussion: Problem Solving. Retrieved January 2, 2013, from http://ornamentmagazine.com/blog/2012/08/08/design-discussion-problem-solving/
—2012c Clasps. The Vital Link. Ornament 36 (2): 62-67.

Posted in Editor's Statements, Jewelry | 5 Comments

Philly Craft Show 2012

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Patrick

The Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show 2012

Mary and Stoney Jackson. Mary Jackson designs beautiful, traditional Southern sweetgrass baskets, and has been featured in Craft in America on PBS.

This year’s Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show took place during an intense time in our nation with Hurricane Sandy and the 2012 elections, within days of each other. The former probably contributed to a lower turnout of attendees in the first two days, which affected both visitors and artists. However, speaking with a fair number of artists, it seemed that many still had normal sales. For the last several years of my attendence to the Philadelphia Craft Show, as well as the Smithsonian, I’ve often heard how much one show may vary from the next, and how a show good for one artist may turn out poorly for another. One comes to expect variance. The craft field has definitely been affected by the economic downturn, but many artists have been adapting as best they can to the changing terrain as have many other small businesses. That a fair proportion were still having good sales despite the lower turnout is hopefully one barometer for recovery.

Mary Donald, a Los Angeles jewelry artist. Donald creates organic forms using inorganic plastics and other leftover materials. See Ornament 35.5.

The Savannah College of Art and Design booth at the craft show.

The Craft Show itself has a very reliable reputation as one of the best in the United States, and despite the emotional environment did not disappoint. Over the years it has kept a good balance of highly skilled veteran artists, while bringing in new elements. The Savannah College of Art and Design was again present this year, with work by students in jewelry, sculpture and other disciplines. Work by Shiying Gao and Jing Lin, from the college’s Jewelry and Objects department, had nearly all sold by Friday, a testament to the talented students and work the college brings to the show. Two recent graduates, Bongsang Cho and Hsiangting Yen, were admitted this year as emerging artists.

Francesca Vitali and her beautiful daughter Penelope, with Kiwon Wang; both are paper jewelry artists.

Peter Boerger, who makes handcrafted wooden frame glasses. He has succeeded in making them reasonably strong for the material they are constructed from, so they are aesthetic and functional.

The University of the Arts, now in its second year, also had an alumnus in the emerging artist section. Aliyah Gold’s work uses organic materials, such as beeswax and snakeskin, and she describes her pieces as taking the basic geometry of organic structures.
The University’s booth also had an excellent display of jewelry, furniture, wall sculptures, and clothing. These school booths have provided valuable opportunities for students to interact with an audience regarding their work, as well as being involved in sales and running a booth. Kutztown University is the third addition to Philadelphia’s school booths this year, another Pennsylvania local. The Philadelphia Craft Show has been a good example of innovations within a show, with its international section, emerging artists and now inclusion of school booths, all broadening the show’s diversity without reducing the high quality of work.

Jewelers Roberta and David Williamson, at their wonderfully eclectic booth.

Janel Jacobson is a master carver, and an expert in Japanese netsuke carvings. She has recently begun to create wooden jewelry again.

Although the selection varies depending on the jurors for that year, the Philadelphia show consistently includes a solid core of skilled veterans who continue to push their work, as well as bring work of beautiful aesthetics. The former isn’t easy, as the creative process goes in cycles, and often requires periods of recharging and experimentation. However, these artists, among the best of the best, frequently manage to accomplish this combination with great success.

Several pieces of Karen Gilbert's work. See the third necklace from the left, with a piece of copper ore as a centerpiece.

Karen Gilbert.

For example, this year Karen Gilbert has begun to include pieces with raw ores, like copper and hematite, and unfinished stones as part of her necklaces and brooches. Although several artists use uncut precious and semiprecious stones, as does Gilbert, the ore represents a new direction. Novelty, however, is not the real point of artistic development; it is the introduction of new elements which harmoniously incorporate into the piece’s aesthetic. This is noticeably true of Gilbert’s latest work.

Francesca Vitali, a paper jewelry artist who has certainly elevated the field, has also created new work that continues to show her love of the craft. Recently her baby daughter Penelope has taken much of her attention, but that hasn’t prevented her from developing new techniques. Self-taught, it often falls to Vitali to discover for herself new ways of manipulating paper. She is a researcher, one could say, or perhaps a student of the process itself. A three-dimensional, almost moebius loop form is one of the successful fruits of her efforts.

A recent moebius loop-like piece that demonstrates a new technique Vitali has discovered.

In discussing issues of the craft world, most craft artists recognize the need for artistic education. In craft, however, its education really involves the teaching of how things are made; although not all craft is derived from functional work, ceramics, basketry, glass, and clothing all represent objects that were used in daily life for hundreds to thousands of years. Jewelry too, for much of the world, has been intertwined with, not secondary to, everyday life. This constant exposure to the making of things is something many people haven’t experienced in modern life. However, without the understanding of the time, effort and skill required to create something, how can one understand the difference between a handmade ceramic pot and a store-bought one?

For the readers of Ornament, craft’s intrinsic value is recognized, whether because of conscious reasons or a subtle understanding that nearly defies verbal explanation. However we arrive at our appreciation, the key nowadays seems to be in communicating that appreciation to everyone else. How do we do so? I welcome readers to provide their own suggestions.

Clothing artist Sandra Miller, who creates sumptuous knitted garments.

Ultimately, every craft show has had to make decisions of how to deal with the changing environment of the craft world. While each show has its own audience and location that requires different solutions, what can be mutually learned is by examining what a particular craft show has experimented with, and analyse its success, and the beneficial effects it has on a show. The school booths, for example, have been an effective way of both introducing young craft artists to the craft show environment, as well as introducing the audience to these new creators. Several other craft shows have also recognized the worth of these school booths and added them to their own programs. In a time where pragmatic innovation is required to resolve new found challenges, the Philadelphia Craft Show continues to be a guiding light.

Polymer clay artist Kathleen Dustin, who creates purses and jewelry that defy imagination.

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Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show 2012 Article in Ornament 36.1

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Design Discussion: Problem Solving

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Robert

FULANI SILVER EARRING (5.9 cm wide), in sterling tubing mounting so that it can be used as a pendant, strung with Ethiopian silver beads and European glass rings. The ends of the earring are held in tubing by friction and easily removable. I try to follow the philosophy of museum conservation, where every procedure should be reversible.

How do you solve design problems? I have always liked using artifacts in my jewelry, so often I have taken an existing object, of either ethnographic or ancient origin, and adapted it to use for wearing, but with minimal alteration to it, so that it can usually be converted back to its original status if necessary. When making an artifact wearable, its form essentially dictates how you mount it so that it becomes something wearable, yet is still securely protected (Ornament Vol. 4, No. 2).

CHINESE LANTERN FLOWER CALYX, finished earring (3.7 cm long), brass mockup with partial covering of model airplane material and gold wire armature before forging/forming.

At other times, I am inspired by something from nature, like a flower. Due to the fragile, ephermeral nature of most flowers, translation into something wearable, durable and resembling the real flower is difficult. This was the case when I made Chinese lantern flower earrings, replicating its structure with a metal armature and model airplane covering (Ornament Vol. 26, No. 2).

WRANGEL ISLAND GARNET CRYSTAL, in sterling armature pendant, 4.1 cm height. Photographs by Robert K. Liu/Ornament.

FLUORITE CRYSTALS in gold armature; crystal removable as shown. Earrings are 3.5 cm height.

Like many people, I also have an affinity for the beauty of geometry in natural crystals, like that in garnet or fluorite. A fiber artist friend, Jo Ellen Traylor, gave me some wonderful garnet crystals from Wrangel Island, Alaska. To thank her, I made a pendant with one, using a trapping technique. About the same time, I was exposed to cubic fluorite crystals, with their stunning octahedron or eight-sided structure. In my first attempt, I made a wire armature so that they became earrings, with the crystal held by gravity within a framework, possibly not secure enough for daily wear (Ornament Vol. 31, No. 4). This year, when Jill DeDominicis, then our assistant editor, showed me a bag of Chinese fluorite crystals that she and her partner Phil Audia had bought at the Tucson gem shows, I could not resist working with them again. Not wanting to alter their structure but desiring to make the mounting secure enough to withstand wear, I designed a type of tension or compression mounting. This consisted of a diamond-shaped wire that cupped each of the 4-sided ends of the crystal, held together under tension by a forged crosspiece.

FLUORITE CRYSTAL PENDANT, in a brass compression/tension mount, hung on rubber cord. Pendant is approximately 4.0 cm high.

CHINESE FLUORITE CRYSTALS earring set in brass and sterling silver, 6.6 cm long. Earwires slightly forged after forming to work harden them.

It could be used thus either as a pendant or if an earwire were soldered to the crosspiece, become a pair of earrings or a termination for my black bamboo torques. The making of this type of mounting coincided with my exploration of black bamboo as material for torques (Ornament Vol. 35, No. 3) and earrings. I was quite happy at finding a way to combine these two interests and developing what I thought was a clever way to mount crystals and most likely, spherical objects. Later that June, I went to the Contemporary Crafts Market in Santa Monica, CA with my middle son Jon. There we saw a booth called “Got All Your Marbles?”, run by a firm that made a full line of manufactured jewelry based on tension mountings, so that you could wear marbles or other round objects as earrings, rings, pendants, etc. So much for inventing something new!

HEAT BENT BLACK BAMBOO TORQUE, with terminations of brass-mounted fluorite crystal and Chinese cinnabar bead my late mother gave me in 1980, when she visited China again. Torque is 14.5 cm wide, pulled apart to fit on neck; black bamboo is both very light and strong.

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