Happy New Year... The Beatitudes...

Happy New Year and to begin...a touch of history.


For most of my childhood and adolescence I spent this night in church...I remember hating missing Dick Clark's New Years Rock n Eve...This was before YouTube or VCR's or TiVo...I just hated it.  The church was always cold  we were hungry or stuffed Reverend Bascom http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2012-05-18/news/bs-md-ob-marion-bascom-20120518_1_civil-rights-pastor-gwynn-oak-amusement-park
would talk preach the choir would sing and the bells would ring at the stroke of midnight...we- my brother mother myself  family and friends would be on our knees praying...Keeping watch.  It was watch night after all...

Wed, 1862-12-31

*On This date in 1862 the first Watch Night Services were celebrated in Black communities in America.

The Watch Night service can be traced back to gatherings also known as “Freedom’s Eve.” On that night, Black slaves and free blacks came together in churches and private homes all across the nation awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation actually had become law.  At the stroke of midnight, it was January 1, 1863; all slaves in the Confederate States were declared legally free.  When the news was received, there were prayers, shouts and songs of joy as many people fell to their knees and thanked God.

Blacks have gathered in churches annually on New Year’s Eve ever since, praising God for bringing us safely through another year.  It’s been over a century since the first Freedom’s Eve and tradition still brings us together at this time every year to celebrate “how we got over.” This celebration takes many African American descendants of slaves into a new year with praise and worship. The service usually begins anywhere from 7 p.m. To 10 p.m. And ends at midnight with the entrance of the New Year. Some people come to church first, before going out to celebrate, for others, church is the only New Year’s Eve event.

There have been instances where clergy in mainline denominations questioned the propriety of linking religious services with a secular holiday like New Year’s Eve. However, there is a reason for the importance of New Year’s Eve services in the Black experience in America.

Reference:
The African American Desk Reference
Schomburg Center for research in Black Culture
Copyright 1999 The Stonesong Press Inc. and
The New York Public Library, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Pub.
ISBN 0-471-23924-

http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/first-watch-night-service-occurs

http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/on-the-homefront/culture/music/the-battle-hymn-of-the-republic/the-battle-hymn-of-the.html
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So grateful for being forced for years to witness pray and relive history. 

Happy New Year

Sonda 

Witnessing 

Matthew 5

New International Version (NIV)

Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount

5 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them.

The Beatitudes

He said:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Salt and Light

13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5

I am a Goldsmith

I am a goldsmith...

Goldsmith:  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldsmith

" is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Historically goldsmiths have also made silverware, platters, goblets, decorative and serviceable utensils, and ceremonial or religious items, but the rising prices of precious metals have curtailed the making of such items to a large degree.

Goldsmiths must be skilled in forming metal through filing, soldering, sawing, forging, casting, and polishing metal. Traditionally, these skills had been passed along through apprenticeships"

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The above pictures are from a wedding ring commission.  I took the wife's old gold necklaces melted them down in a crucible then rolled them down then drew them threw a draw plate and made two small 14kt  yellow gold  bans for rims.  In ancient times this was also done with a crucible and hammers. Then I made a textured rose gold central ban.

I also make tools as seen above, I made the square tool steel matting punch; and I have enhanced or resurfaced this Peddinghaus  forming hammer.  This allows me to make surfaces that are unique to my work and in the world.  Limited only by my imagination.


  Rose gold is an alloy of pure gold with copper.  The difficulties come from the fact that red/rose gold has a much higher soldering and melting point  than 14kt yellow gold and I am soldering these two different kinds of golds together.  The resulting ring is below.

 Goldsmithing is not for the faint of heart nor for those afraid of making costly mistakes.  But the results can be breath taking and a treat for the eyes. I love working with different colored golds and silver.

www.turtleswebb.blogspot.com 

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Gold -The Big Bang- and a Bug...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/06/science/space/stars-gold-dung-beetles-and-us.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc&_r=0 

FALL

                                  FALL

                                                http://turtleswebb.blogspot.com/2013/09/fall.html

Take Note....

Summer...

summer

Winter is the time for hibernation reflection stopping and evaluation and summer is the time for traveling planning dreaming cultivating and working on the "FALL"
 ( http://www.turtleswebb.blogspot.com  ) .  I draw my inspiration from...stones and...(wait for it...)

August and July for years have seen me on the road...Penland School of Craft in North Carolina, Co. Wicklow in Ireland again and again and ...Cannes in France, Frankfurt and Dusseldorf in Germany, but my first voyage I don't  remember.  I will never know even how old I was 1 1/2 or 3 years old. Sometime before language, I was sent to...Humboldt in Tennessee. 

I feel like I woke up their, from the sleep of the universe. I came to consciousness there as myself...Sonda. That place, that memory is were my soul resides.  It is one of my beginnings...

This year...I am dreaming of traveling and ideas and ideas and ideas...

FALL is coming on fast.  One can see it in the changing of the light in the mornings.  One can smell it and sense it's presents mostly in August mornings...

The adage goes..."cut once measure twice"  when one is working with precious metals it more like measure thrice.  The time is now...ideas are swirling- metal and stones are en route...the anxiety of the coming holiday season and all that that means for self employed artists is raising.  Summer , l'ete pas de vacance pour moi.  It is exciting, to begin, the work of making new pieces....

Summer...

When pigs fly and the professional artist makes the impossible happen...twenty two years and counting...

Witnessing, 

Sonda   

All about Love...May 12, 2013

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/All-about---LOVE.html?soid=1102686630764&aid=A0iH9rVDz6Q

Ode to Joy...Spring 2013




Spring...

Spring's sense of humor...not funny (chez moi le 25 mars)

http://noticias.univision.com/videos/video/2013-03-19/el-equinoccio-de-primavera-entra

http://www.ted.com/talks/ron_finley_a_guerilla_gardener_in_south_central_la.html

http://thekojonnamdishow.org/audio-player?nid=23092

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Anne Spencer

http://www.annespencermuseum.com/garden.php

Vernal Equinox and the Snow Drop

Le printemps, la primavera ...mi tiempo, mon temps, a me gusta esta clima.  Mi estation preferida del ano.

 The Renaissance is coming.  Almost time to make like birds, bees and flowers.

This tiny white flower started it all. I was in County Wicklow, Ireland, working on a sterling silver teapot.  I was trying to become a journey man/person in my apprenticeship of silversmithing.  I was 'bout ready to throw the teapot against the wall and say f@#k it. But outside it was February 1999, and the first flowers of spring were in bloom.  The snow drop.  I had never really noticed...you know, flowers that small before and up close. 

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-02-19/local/37178009_1_snowdrop-galanthus-gardeners

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/a-snowdrop-pilgrimage/2013/02/19/53545322-7926-11e2-82e8-61a46c2cde3d_video.html

 But...but I was all up into the plasticity of metal and...well, there they were. I had spent stupid money and crazy time working on skill sets that had nothing to do with making a dime (I have found the better I have gotten, the further I am away from the dollar. ( Too many folk like poorly made cheap shit a la ... or ...)  This has gotten better over time, i.e. folk appreciating the time, technique, study I have put into my work.

I picked the flower; the rest was and is my spring collection.  I don't try to copy flowers ( I mean, come on--god/nature/accidents of pollination have done and are constantly doing magic with plants and animals.) I celebrate "flowerness " as a tactical visual concept, with deep bows to The  Arts and Crafts Movement, Art Nouveax and Classic Asian art (con un enfoque en Japan).

What occurs to me now, so many years later, is that my flower form series is a synthesis of both my study of metalsmithing with Jamal Mims at Sun Gallery at MICA (Maryland Institue College of Art) and, later, in Ireland--and that weird turn that was accepting a scholarship at Penland School of Craft (North Carolina), in, of all things, "landscape photography" (in 1994 I not did own a camera.)  But it all came together in the spring of 1999, after I came back from my second study trip to Ireland. Amazing!  I would travel to Ireland five times from 1998-2004, each time staying and training with Brain Clarke in his workshop in Ballinclash - Rathdrum, County Wicklow.  Here are some photos of...the Irish Years.

                                                          New Grange: Co. Meath

Kilkinney castle : view from across the moat

                                      "The Garden" or outside the studio/workshop in Ballinaclash.

Ireland!!!

                                                  Heeeeeee! I was once asked in Ireland,
                                                    "so how do you like the food?"

Irish cat...thinking "I like a wee drop of Guinness in me mouse"

Brian and Yvonne have two sons...one of whom drew this cartoon in the workshop. What was he tryin' ta say?

So yep, soldering done the ol' fashioned way, with bellows powered by our feet.

View of mi casa en Ireland

She was a true character. He name was Maureen, Irish silversmith, and, god, did she have way beautiful way with the English language!  She said once of someone's work, "the soldering was so agricultural you would have thought that he used a knife and fork".  By the by, that is an insult!

                                        Detail of Brian Clarke's chasing, repousee and slate carving.

Brain Clarke's work, a monument.

Outside the ol' school house, now the Bergin Clarke studios.

Brian demonstrating "soldering with billows": so not easy.

Door to art metal heaven (workshop door.)

I cannot remember whether I made this on my second or third trip.  It is based on an Akan symbol for fertility. I love to work in parts. It is a very complicated  piece and it moves. It is made of silver, copper, bronze, and new gold. It is riveted, slotted, and soldered.

I made models and overall learned to slow down and think out my work.  If you look closely, you can see...a turtle shell.

This was, in Brian's words, "a fancy bit of box making" on my part. I love love LOVE

the Ido period of Japan.  So I made several Inros and netsukes in sterling silver and bronze.

Inside paradise (the Clarke workshop)

                       Small bronze vase--this, I believe, was the first project I finished in 1998.

Where it all began!  This is a photo of snowdrops in Yvonne's garden in Ireland in 1999.  The snowdrops that begin this essay are mine, from my garden, Beulah Land.  Who would have thought?

Nope, I did not throw said teapot against the wall.  The chalice was a @#! too. The spoon...aah, the spoons! so much more civilized to make.

This was a series I made after my second trip to Ireland.  The large copper flower, a la Little Shop of Horrors is the size of your fist.  And the other small silver one...yep.

Spring is coming....

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In 1999 I also started writing about my travels. This article was published in The Washington Guild of Goldsmith's newsletter spring 1999

Through the Plasticity of Metal: Silversmithing in Ireland with Brain Clarke

By: Sonda T. Allen

Have you ever been unhappy with your current level of technical skill and longed to learn a new technique from a Master?!  Well, last August I took a break from my artistic life of isolation and production and flew to the Emerald isle to study with Master Silversmith Brain Clarke. After my flight from BWI to Dublin, Brain met me at the train station in the picturesque village of Rathdrum; and thus began a marvelous adventure in which I ate, drank and made friends, but above all learned more about my craft.

In the tiny village of Ballinaclash, Brain runs the metalsmithing workshops while his wife, Yvonne Bergin, a textile artist, is the general hostess and takes care of the lodging and cooking for the students (vegetarian, vegan and carnivore alike).  In general, every student has his or her own room with beautiful views of the Irish countryside: three meals a day are served in a lovely dining room overlooking the flower garden, and on most days Yvonne surprised the students at the daily 'tea' break (eleven's) with delicious homemade sweets, biscuits and cakes.

The workshops was, as they say in Ireland, 'Brilliant'.  It consisted of two weeks of hands on training in the Plasticity of metal. In the first two days we raised a bowl with a stand, utilizing a method of crimp raising developed by Brain Clarke in his more than 30 years of experience. This method involves using Delron mallets and steel stakes designed and made by Brian. After two weeks of intense work, I had an amazing copper bowl with a bronze stand.  Brian cheerfully informed the class that this exercise is the basis of silversmithing, 'and wasn't that easy?'  Meanwhile I who, hadn't lifted a hammer any heavier than a ball-peen or goldsmith's, was wondering where my right arm had gone.  The process of raising a flat sheet of metal is magical, but it ain't easy!

The remaining week and a half was spent defining and finishing my own projects: a small chalice and three spoons.  Brain's workshops are master classes.  There are no more than 6 students each two week course so there is a great deal of individual attention and instruction. After the first two days, we took a trip into the city of Dublin, where Brian took us to the National Museum of Ireland to see ancient, medieval and modern gold and silver pieces, (*one of Brian's sterling silver coffee pots is featured in the permanent collection there), the* Designyard (the leading gallery of metal arts in Ireland) and several tool shops.  On the weekend, we took a trip to New Grange, a five thousand year old underground passage tomb in County Meath where we were actually allowed inside to see the spiral stone carvings! In the middle of the second week, we went to the Kilkenny workshops in County Kilkenny. These workshops are artists' galleries and working/selling studios set up in the stable yard of the Medieval Kilkenny castle.  There we met other fine craft artists in various media including pottery, textiles, paintings, gold and silversmithing.

Among the many good things about my Irish adventures was the opportunity to meet other metals people. In the workshops, I met Konstantin Hofermaier who was a master goldsmith from Germany. He shared information on Etruscan chain making and granulation. Meryl Hutchinson, from England, had come to metal through a degree in ceramics. Babette Rittenberg, from New Orleans, who maintained her own studio and had worked with Thomas Man. Patricia Russell, from Oklahoma, who is* a gallery owner, standard poodle enthusiast, hair stylist and who at that time was also a beader who wanted to incorporate chasing into some of her designs.  I had been making jewelry for the past seven years and thoroughly loved the break from crunching out production items, both for the skilled artists I met and for the chance to do challenging and original work and being able to be one with a piece of metal.

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*The Designyards was closed the last time I visited Ireland in 2004 but Temple Bar area of Dublin was still full of art, music and beer.

*Brian Clarke  http://www.silversmithingworkshop.com   is arguably one of the finest living silversmiths in the world today.

http://www.museum.ie/en/news/press-releases.aspx?article=ac9e95c0-703f-443f-a58b-eb04281cb871

The National Museum of Ireland now has acquired (since I wrote this piece) several more piece of Brian's work. He, along with Michael Good, discovered how the ancient Celts made the gold torcs before the bronze age. This ground-breaking historical information is also on display at the National Museum of Ireland  The Prime Minister of Ireland presented one of Mr. Clarke's silver chalices to his Holiness, the Pope John Paul II.  Best yet, the workshops are still open, and one of my deepest wishes is to go back just one more time before he stops them.

Wait for it--spring is coming. Yes, somewhere in all this, with a nod towards Tennessee and France, a gardener was also created.

Witnessing,

THIS IS MY STORY,  THIS IS MY SONG...

Sonda