This weekend we'll be at Glamour in the Glebe with some new work. Here is a taste of what you'll see if you stop by.
Glamour in the Glebe
We're getting close to our first show the year, Glamour in the Glebe. This will be the first time to see our new line of jewellery in person. A few of the pieces will be in the fashion show on Friday night. We will have a table setup on Friday night, and Saturday throughout the day. If you are in Ottawa May 11th or 12th, please stop by and say hi. We'd love to get your feedback on the new pieces, and chat about what the future has in store. The show will also be a good chance to pick up something nice for the special lady in your life.
Glamour in the Glebe Friday, May 11th 18:30-21:30 - $6 admission Saturday, May 12th 10:00-16:00 - Free admission Glebe Community Centre, 175 Third Ave
Gear is Good
In any industry, there is a cycle of new tools and gear developed. In some industries that development is slow, like the jewellery industry, in others, like photography, it is considerably faster. Whenever new tools are released, there is inevitably an explosion of rants about why the latest tool will destroy the soul of the art, or that it's the greatest thing the art has seen. The photography world in particular seems to be perfecting a masterbatory cycle of pro and anti gear rants. On one side you have "gear heads" who say you need to buy the latest and greatest thing. On the other you have the "visionaries" who say you can make great art with anything, gear be damned. I'm here to say that both are wrong.
Let's start by looking at both sides of this argument.
Gear is great. I can't argue with that. Gear is what allows me to make the things I do. I can make beautiful pens because I have a lathe. I can engine turn jewellery because I have a straight line engine. I can photograph my pieces because I own a camera and lens. I started pen turning with a small Taig lathe that I bought from Lee Valley. I paid less than $500 for it and its accessories. I made over 100 pens on it, and it certainly paid for itself as a tool to learn pen making, and enhance my skills. I could not make the pens I do today on that Taig lathe. I currently own two mid-sized metal lathes; one is a modern 10x22, the other an antique 10x28. Both are worth considerably more than the Taig I first bought. Both are considerably larger (my current lathes weight close to 1000lbs combined, while the Taig was less than 20). While both of my lathes are great, and will continue to be work horses in my shop, I'm planning on building a new one that is faster and more accurate at making certain things. It is the latest and greatest, and it will be wonderful when it arrives.
For camera gear, I currently shoot with a Nikon D300. It replaced the D70 I bought as my first SLR. It's a wonderful camera and I love shooting with it. It is has plenty of resolution, it's fast enough, and while it's over 4 years old now, it still functions properly. And I've been eagerly awaiting the new camera announcements from Nikon. Wow, hold on a second, I thought the D300 was a wonderful camera? It is, and I'll continue to use and shoot with it. But it is severly lacking in one key area, HD video. Nikon has been a little bit slower getting useful HD video support into their cameras than Canon has. The current gen Nikons, the D7000, and the recently announced D4 & D800, are the first Nikons with good enough video that I'd consider using them for that purpose. Beyond my need for HD video (I want to start shooting video of the shop and my process) I'd also like my next camera to have a full frame, 35mm, sensor in it. I don't need that, but it would be nice to have. With a larger sensor, it is easier to get wider angle shots, and also get shallower depth of field. These are things I'd like for my personal photography because they support the style of shooting I like. So at some point this year I'm hoping to buy a new camera to replace my perfectly good one.
Vision is fundamental. I've spoken about vision on this blog in the past. The difference between your kid's finger painting, and Piccaso, is artistic vision. Better quality paints or brushes or canvas won't turn your 3 year old into Piccaso. You love taking pictures of the family, but the new Nikon D4 won't turn you into Yousef Karsh.
Brenda Roy was generous to share some of her knowledge and skill in jewellery making with me years ago. She taught me the fundamentals of many of the techniques that I use every day, and pushed me towards learning new skills. The tools in my shop are worth several times those in hers. Brenda continues to produce work that far exceeds mine artistically, and will continue to despite the "lack of gear" she has access to. She has greater artistic vision than I do, and no amount of gear will help me catch up. The only way for me to do that is work harder at becoming a better artist.
So who do you listen to? The gear heads and visionaries both have good arguments. With better tools you can make things faster, more accurately, with higher resolution, but without vision it'll look like crap. With better vision, your art will be more inspiring, but with a crappy lathe the pen might not be straight, or the camera might not capture the moment. The problem is that you really need both gear and vision as an artist. The trick is figuring out the balance. Some arts rely more heavily on one than the other (better paint brushes really aren't going to help you if you can't paint). Certain techniques do require more gear; engine turning requires a straight line engine, low light photoghraphy requires a better camera.
Where do we go from here? Let's look at gear first. Several artists have been kind enough to provide me with advice on the business of being an artist. One problem that most artists face is that we don't make much money. Yes I sell expensive pens and jewellery, but I'm not going to be a millionare any time soon. I help pay the bills, but without my wife's salary, I'd have to go work for a living (while I work long hours, doing what I love really isn't that hard). So rule number one, don't put yourself into debt as an artist. If you have a regular salary coming in from a real job, you can afford to carry some debt. If you're an artist, you can't. Don't buy gear that will put you in debt.
Rule number two, borrow, rent or outsource the gear you need, for the job you need it for. If you're starting out as a jeweller, you don't need to cast your own work. There are many casting houses out there that can do it for you cheaper, and better than you can for yourself. Same thing with cameras. Don't drop $10k on buying camera gear; rent it instead. You're starting out and are shooting a friend's wedding. Renting the professional level camera body and lenses that you need is cheaper than you might think. Tell your friend that the cost of shooting their wedding is the cost of renting the gear. Now you've got something to add to your portfolio, and you didn't have to spend thousands of dollars on gear (your friend will also be happier with the photos since the pro camera and lens you rented can shoot better in available light than the consumer camera you could actually afford). If you have friends with the gear you need, offer to rent it from them. I've rented out time on my lathe to people who need a lathe, but can't afford to have one in their shop. Most camera gear sits unused in a bag most of the time. Beyond saving you money early on, there are several other benefits to renting equipment. First is that you get to use the best gear out there. Better gear does perform better. More expensive lenses are sharper and faster than cheap ones. The new D4 will take better images than a D7000 in the same circumstances. Pro tools will help make you look like a professional. Because you are renting, you can also try different tools out. Try different camera bodies, or try casting in different metals. Experimenting with different gear will allow you to figure out what you really need for the type of art you want to create. Which leads us into rule three...
Buy the best tools you can afford. Before buying gear, you need to figure out what the best type of gear is for what you're doing. That's going to take research, talking to other artists, and borrowing or renting tools. Nobody can tell you exactly what type of tools are best for executing your artistic vision. You need to figure that out on your own. But you need to be honest with yourself about what you need, don't just buy it because it's the latest and greatest (unless you have a real job and can afford to do that). Notice I didn't say buy the most expensive tools. The most expensive tool isn't necessarily the right tool for you. Yes it would be nice to have the latest and greatest of everything, but it might not be what you need. As I mentioned in the gear section, I'm looking for a replacement for my D300. Ideally I want a full frame camera, 12-18 megapixels, that can shoot 1080p30 video. The D700 has the resolution and the sensor I want, but no video. The D800 has the sensor and the video I want, but the resolution is too high (I won't go into that here, but there are disadvantages with too many megapixels). The D4 has the sensor, the video and resolution, but it is way out of my price range. So now I'm looking at the D7000 for the video I want to be able to do, and maybe a used D700 for the photography I want to do. The two cameras will likely cost the same as the D800, but they will give me all of the things I want. That's the best solution I can afford (if I could afford a D4 I'd buy it instead). It is also important not to buy cheap. You are better off renting high end tools, than buying a cheap one to hold you over. The cheap one will never do the same job, it will frustrate you, and you'll end up buying the better tool down the road anyway. If I was advising a new pen maker, I wouldn't recommend they buy the $500 Taig lathe that I did. Go out and buy the $2500 metal lathe to start. If you buy both, you'll be paying $3000 for the tool you actually need. But you also don't need to buy a $30k CNC turning center either. I can't remember where I heard this quote, and I may be paraphrasing, but poor people can't afford to buy cheap things. As an artist, you'll be poor. I can't afford to buy cheap tools. They usually slow down my work, produce inconsistent results, and break sooner than quality tools. Save up, and buy the quality tool you need. While you're saving, rent the tool you need. The quality tool will probably last you a life time of use, and is worth the wait.
How about some vision? Learning is extremely important. If you don't understand how threading works on a lathe, there is no lathe in the world that will help you. Different people learn in different ways. For some, attending a class or lecture is going to be best. For others a DVD or book will help them the most. You need to figure out what style of learning works best for you. Once you do, find the best teachers you can. Just like gear, a crappy teacher is a waste of money. Good teaching is worth the money, but not worth putting yourself into debt over. Fortunately there are more and more great teachers, and visionary artists putting their work out on the internet, and many are happy to help. As you get better as an artist, start to teach new comers to your art. Teaching is one of the best ways to improve your skills. I have a bunch of thoughts and ideas rattling around in my head on how to improve artistic vision, but that post will need to wait as they're not quite fully baked yet.
Should you keep reading the gear heads and visionaries? Sure. There is usually some nugget of information in those posts. Just understand what it is they're selling you. Visionaries will push you away from gear and technology, and towards books and lectures on how to be a better artist. Conveniently many of them are selling just that. Same thing with gear heads. Most of them have affiliate links to online stores selling camera gear etc. Of course they want you to buy the latest gear. Understand what people are selling, and take what they say with a grain of salt.
So what am I selling? I sell jewellery that most of you won't interested in. I'll hopefully start selling how to books and videos on what I make and how I make it, but again, it'll be on topics that most of you won't be interested in. I'm also selling me as an artist. I hope what I write will gather enough attention that some of you might be interested in buying my work. I'm also trying to pay it forward. I've been very fortunate to have some good friends, and talented artists give me guidance. If I'm really lucky, some of what I write will help another artist who will one day help me become better at what I do.
St. Crispin's Day
"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers."
Many people have heard this quote, and have no context for where it comes from. Shakespeare wrote Henry V nearly two hundred years after the battle of Agincourt. The battle took place on October 25, 1415 outside the small French town of Agincourt. Henry was leading a demoralized English army, suffering from dysentery and hunger, to the costal town of Calais.
The French army had a vastly superior force, both in size and health (modern estimates give the French at a 5 to 1 advantage). The French felt that their superior numbers would overcome the devastating effect of the English and Welsh archers. The French nobility were so confident in their victory, they insisted on being part of the vanguard, and guaranteed glory.
Henry was able to turn the terrain to his advantage. The archers were deployed on the sides of a narrow field, protected from cavalry by pointed wooden stakes. The men-at-arms were arrayed 4 deep across the field. The field had recently been plowed, and was bordered on both sides by dense wood, protecting the English from being flanked.
Recent heavy rains turned the plowed field into deep mud, forcing the French onto foot. Their plate armour made the walk through the mud exhausting. As they approached, hundreds were killed by archers, littering the ground with bodies. The second and third waves of French continued pushing forward, causing a traffic jam, and eventually preventing their own men from effectively using their weapons due to the density of living and dead men. The English archers eventually ran out of arrows, and joined the combat with whatever weapons they could find. The decimation of the French nobility shocked the rear guard, who still heavily outnumbered the English, and routed them.
The final number of dead is unclear. Period estimates put the French deaths up to 11,000. The English only lose 150-450 men. Henry was able to successfully lead his army home.
While Henry's speech in the play is pure fiction, it illustrates the charisma medieval Kings would have relied upon to lead armies into battle, and is one of the finest examples of English literature.
Click through for the full speech.
St. Crispen's Day Speech
William Shakespeare, 1599
Enter the KING
WESTMORELAND. O that we now had here
But one ten thousand of those men in England
That do no work to-day!
KING. What's he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin;
If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.'
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
The New Art Festival
We have been visitors to The New Art Festival in Ottawa for a number of years, and our house is filled with pieces that we've found there. A few years ago the festival became a juried show. A number of local artists and people in the arts community are on the jury. I think it has changed the show for the better; bringing in high quality artists, and maintaining a good balance of different mediums. I decided to send in a submission for this year's show, and am honoured to have been chosen as an exhibitor. I'm curious to see how this show goes. It will be my first non-pen show, and it will be interesting to see the response I get.
If you are in the Ottawa area on June 4th and 5th, please stop by the show. It is held in Central Park in Ottawa (on the east side of Bank street, just south of the Queensway). It is outdoors, rain or shine, from 10-5, and is free for the public to attend. If you do come to the show, please stop by and say hi.
Updates:
Bank St between Isabella St and Holmwood Ave is closed for construction. The best option for getting to the festival by car is to enter the Glebe via Bronson. There is plenty of street parking, and it is a pleasant walk to the park.
I have my location information for the show. I'll be in spot #26 on the central pathway. Here is the map for this year's festival with my approximate location marked in blue. I've also found out that my good friend Steve Strang will be in the booth beside me. He is a talented painter with a quirky sense of humour. His pieces are the perfect size for sticking up in a work cubical.
iPhone 4 Back
A great deal of the inspiration for my art comes from architecture; both modern and historical. Great architects such as Brunelleschi, Michelangelo and Ghery, have all provided me with enough inspiration for several life times worth of art. Then comes along the new art of Industrial Design with the genius of Dieter Rams and Jonny Ives making the daily objects of our world not only more practical, but more beautiful. Ives in particular has had a significant impact on how we view and use technology. We would still be looking at boring beige computers if not for Ives.
I'm particularly inspired by how Ives has changed the way a phone looks and feels with the introduction of the iPhone. Of all the iPhone designs, I love the iPhone 4 in particular. The problem is that owning an iPhone means that your phone looks the same as 40 million other iPhones in the world. Yes, there are cases that hide the beauty of Ives's design, or vinyl stickers to protect the back, however, I wanted something for my phone that would make it stand out a bit. So I set about making a replacement for the glass back on my iPhone.
At the turn of the twentieth century, the two most common items carried by gentlemen were pocket watches and cigarette cases. Instead of Apple and Blackberry, they had Faberge and Cartier. I wanted to re-capture the elegance and style of the early 20th century. The designs I chose for my new iPhone back are a re-imagining of a 21st century device using 19th century jewellery techniques. Large flat surfaces, like the back of an iPhone, were engine turned; not only to enhance the beauty of the surface, but to hide the daily wear and tear as well. All of the designs that follow are inspired by Faberge cigarette cases, and designed to enhance, not hide, Ives's stunning design.
Head over to the accessories gallery to get more details.
Empire pen in silver
This has been a long time in the works. Four years ago I began teaching myself to make pens. I was unhappy with many of the pens on the market, and my goal was to make pens that I would enjoy using.
My biggest issue was finding a pen that was a little bit larger than normal, but not so large to be uncomfortable for the average person. I've also found that a pen with a bit of weight to it is pleasant to use. Many years ago, Brenda Roy began teaching me jewellery making. I decided to combine some of those skills with my pen making to create silver pens. The Empire is my first pen to bring everything together in a pen that has a nice weight and feel.
I am working on a new batch of these over the next two weeks. They will include at least one new engine turned pattern. I am also hard at work on my next pen offering. It will be silver with engine turning on it, but will also include enamel. Look for that near the end of May.
While I am happy to finally be able to show off these pens to the rest of the world, it is merely a stepping stone to the projects I have in mind.
If you are interested in keeping up to date on what I'm doing, you can follow me on Twitter, subscribe to the RSS feed for this blog, or join my new email list.
The LA Pen Show, and new pieces
The end of February means a few things for me. The first is guaranteed miserable weather, and the other is escaping that weather by heading to the LA Pen Show. Unfortunately this year I won't be going to the LA show, so I only get to enjoy the bad weather. Even though I won't be at the show this year, one of my new pieces will be. I won't be revealing the details of it on the site just yet, but if you are going to the show, please stop by the Metal Write table and chat with my friend Rich. He has some beautiful pens to look at, plus he will have my latest piece on display.
Speaking of new pieces, I am working hard on two new pen models. One is an engine turned pen in Argentium, the other is a silver pen with engine turning and enamel. The enamel pen will take a little while longer to get on the site since the enamel isn't playing well with my castings. I will try to get some photos of the early work over the next few days.
If you manage to stop by for the LA show, I also recommend visiting Brian Gray from Edison Pens and Scott Franklin from Franklin-Christoph. Both have beautiful pens that are worth checking out.
Toronto Pen Show 2010
I'm heading down to the Toronto Pen Show tomorrow. Please stop by on Saturday if you're in the area.
How the iPad has changed the way I work
Anyone who hasn't heard about the success of the iPad has probably been living in a cave for the past six months. Despite its success, many people feel that it is only an entertainment device, and that serious business still requires a laptop. I've had mine since day one, and now that a few of the apps have had a chance to mature, and I've had a chance to bring it on the road with me a few times, I thought I'd write a post on how I use it.
As with any version one device, there were serious limitations on how the iPad could be used at launch. App developers had a few months to write some code using a simulator, but until you actually get your hands on one, it is difficult to know what will work and what won't. Even today, it has only been a little over six months since Apple revealed it to the world. All of the apps that I'll talk about have been actively developed during that time, and all are far more useful today than at their launch. If you tried one and didn't like it, give it a second chance.
As an entertainment device, the iPad is without peer. Access to the net, Netflix, ebooks, music, movies, games and comics, means that it is impossible to get bored with one of these in your lap. The interface is also simple enough that anyone can use it, no matter how old or young, or how inexperienced with technology they are. So what about business? Can you buy one and get rid of your laptop? The answer is probably.
The first thing you need to make it an indispensable business tool is Dropbox. Dropbox is a cloud storage solution that makes it simple to access and synchronize files on multiple computers at the same time. Unless your business involves large files, such as large video files, the free account works great. You get 2gig of space on their site for free. No strings attached (if you use the link above then both you and I will get an additional 250mb of space). While there is a free Dropbox app for the iPad, its power comes from the other apps that can access documents directly in your Dropbox. On the computer side of things, when you install the Dropbox client, it will create a folder that gets synchronized with their servers. Anything you put in there will be automatically uploaded to the cloud. If you have two or more computers, they can both share the same account. When a file is added or modified on one, the other downloads the changes without any prompting. Because the files are uploaded to the cloud, both computers don't have to be turned on at the same time for this to work. It also acts as a form of backup in case something happens to your computer. I started using Dropbox as a way of backing up my CAD files, and keeping them synchronized between different machines.
The first app to buy is GoodReader. Its primary job is to be a PDF reader. Early on it was the best PDF reader available, and I was happy to find it. Now it has become so much more than just a reader. First off it has support to download documents straight from your Dropbox account. This makes it easy to get files from your computer, onto the iPad. Most of the documents I need to read for the business are in PDF now. If they aren't, then I turn them into PDFs. I really don't want to carry around paper versions of the various manuals and source books I own, or the CAD drawings I use for making my pens. I carry the iPad between the office and shop and I always have my resource material. Once you have downloaded them onto the iPad, you can easily organize the documents into folders within GoodReader. I keep magazines in one folder, pen drawings in another, etc. In the most recent update, support has been added to annotate the PDF files. The ability to add editable notes to my PDFs has made GoodReader indispensable. All annotations can be saved back to the original PDF, and forwarded on via email to other people.
Next up is Elements. I spend a lot of time writing. I'm not always able to, or interested in sitting down at a computer to work on my documents. This is where Elements comes in. There is nothing fancy here; this is a no non-sense text editor. You can not format the document in any way. Just plain text. For many people this might sound like a step backward, but when writing, the ability to format the document can often distract from writing the content. If I want to write a blog post, or lecture notes, I want to get the meat of the writing done, then worry about formatting it later. The best part of Elements is that its default state is to use Dropbox to save your files. No need to import or export your document every time you move from the computer to the iPad. Now I can sit down on the couch, or at a restaurant and work on any of my projects as I feel the desire.
I originally started using CC Terminal on my iPhone. It allows me to charge customers purchases to their credit cards while on the go. Handy when someone wants to buy a pen at dinner, or while at a pen show. It also sends out an email receipt to both you and the customer, including their signature. I have mine linked to my Paypal Pro account, but other merchant accounts are available.
Portfolio is a little pricey, however, it does offer a lot of flexibility in creating product portfolios. I am often asked what I do, and handing the iPad with Portfolio running on it to someone is the next best thing to having all of my pieces with me.
Other small apps like NewsRack, Twitter and Wordpress allow me to keep up with news from around the web, as well as update my different online content.
A month after getting the iPad, I realized that I hadn't turned the laptop on once. It was sold the next day, and I haven't missed it in the months since (I certainly don't miss carrying around the additional 6lbs it weighted over the iPad.) I've also found that my daily desktop use has dropped significantly. Instead of writing email, and surfing the net sitting at my desk, I'm doing those on the couch, or in the back yard. I now use the desktop for high end CAD work and video editing. I am still searching for an app to use for inventory control. I may end up building one myself since I haven't found anything I would buy yet.