A first person narrative
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"One writes out of one thing only — one's own experience. Everything depends on how relentlessly one forces from this experience the last drop, sweet or bitter, it can possibly give. This is the only real concern of the artist, to recreate out of the disorder of life that order which is art."
--from "Autobiographical Notes" (1952) by: James Balwin
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.
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.
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.
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.
