Of Snake Tails...

In Progress

I didn't set out trying to make a piece the looked like a snake's tail.  But that's what it looks like to me.  Snakes are not usually something I look to for inspiration, but I respect them like all other animals, and enjoy seeing them in nature when the opportunity arises. And if they are poisonous I like them at a safe distance!

Maybe I chose to make this piece that looks like a snake's tail because it says something about my life right now or how I am feeling.   Or perhaps it was the pretty little snake I found under a rock one day next to my hives.

Once in graduate school we had a seminar with Charon Kransen.  He spoke to us about ideas and inspiration.  And one of the things he said has always stuck with me.  It was something to the effect of:  True work never lies about the artist.

I'm not exactly sure what this piece is saying about me right now, but never the less I am pleased with its execution and the way it turned out!  I incorporated some found rubber I liked, recycled antique roofing copper that was die-formed, and sand casting to reproduce the bail I had first carved out of copper.

Finished Piece

Have a lovely Thursday everyone!

Jesse

A Portrait of an Artist

A year ago one of my students in a workshop Linda, said her and her husband were visiting from the Vancouver area. She mentioned that her husband is a photographer and loves to do portraiture of people in their natural work environments. She said he had already done quite a few in San Miguel but is always looking for more people. She gave me his information and when I had a look at his site I was really blown away. I got back to Linda and said I would love to be included in a shoot if it worked out.

Last year it did not, but this year when they were here visiting again we got it together. We set up a time a few weeks ago and I was really thrilled to be able to invite Linda and her husband Richard Paris to come for a visit and shoot here at my studio.

The whole experience was fun, and they were both such a pleasure to work with! This was really good because Richard took fotos for 4 full hours to get all the details he wanted just right. Have a look at the great shots Richard ended up with, giving an insiders glimpse of me and my studio! And if you have not seen his work before, it's really exceptional so go and check out his website when you have the chance!

www.richardparisphotography.ca

Happy April 1st everyone!

Jesse

Speaking Your Language

I think the people you are meant to encounter will always find you in this life, whether they be new friends, partners or even clients.

This weekend I participated in a nice little art walk they did in my neighborhood.  There were maybe 100 people that came through my studio those 2 days, most were pleasant and showed an interested face but only a few really stuck out in my mind after the cards were folded.

My Bench

One woman I know came early one day and bought a tiny little sculpture she said she had been thinking about since last year.  She said if I still had it, it was meant to be.. well indeed I did still have the object and so it went home with her even though it was the last thing I ever would have expected anybody to buy!

Anti-War sculpture

I also spent time chatting with some old friends as well as meeting a few new interesting people.  A woman I met for the first time is a beekeeper and we hit it off right away, and we talked for quite a while.

Just like those few “right” people who found me this weekend at the art walk I too found some great  new friends last spring when I did the 2-week Residency at Haystack mountain school of crafts. Some of the people were a joy to be with at the time and I have not talked to them since, others I have almost weekly contact with and I suspect I will be in touch with for years to come!  Among those I met at Haystack a few have had a very positive affect on my career in the past year!

One of the great recent opportunities for me has been getting to know and working a bit with Whaley Studios in San Diego because of one of my friends from Haystack, Tara Magboo who works there.  Among teaching some great classes Whaley studios does an online interview of a great person in the jewelry field once a month. In January I was lucky enough to have them interview me!  So if you would like to know a little bit more about me and my work please check out this link:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/whaleystudios/2015/01/15/metalsmith-benchtalk-with-artist-and-jeweler-jesse-bert

That's me casting.

Happy Miercoles everyone!

Jesse

Food For Thought

 This brooch was made for Cristina the woman that owns a small studio in Mexico City called Taller Tierra y Plata. It is a wonderful place, I have given a class there at least once a year for the last 7 years.  It was going to be Cristina’s birthday and since her sister already knew my work, she contacted me to make a gift for her. 

 

Making this present for Cristina was something I was happy to do because Taller Tierra y Plata has played an important role in my professional development over the last 7 years.  At first I wasn't sure what I was going to make but Cristina’s sister gave me full artistic freedom.  So on my next trip to Mexico city I stopped in to visit Cristina at her studio and drop off some of my honey. 

 

While I was there I took a look around because apart from making jewelry Cristina is also a designer and potter (a good one I might add).  She always has cool contemporary designs she is working on, and one was a ceramic "molcajete" form.  Molcajetes are traditionally made out of volcanic rock, and used for making and serving salsa here in Mexico.

  



Molcajetes



 

I liked this object a lot, and it sparked in me an idea for the piece for her.  

Here in my studio I already had a mold for the hydraulic press to make a "metate" form, which in some ways is sort of similar to a molcajete.  But I didn't really like the mold for the metate shape for this piece, so I made a new one that looked alot more like a molcajete. 

 

The molcajete die form is pressed out of old roofing copper.  The brown die-pressed form above it that kind of looks like escaping vapor was a sample I did some time back that has been floating around my parts bucket.  It doesn't represent something specific for me but seemed to match very nicely the theme or scene.  It could be vapor perhaps or as my father said: chocolate, or even wisps of thoughts, inspiration and ideas!  I know that Cristina also really likes to cook, so I thought the molcajete to be very fitting.

 

Bits and pieces before everything came together.

 

 

Just recently I got back one of my pieces from a gallery which had a round silver stamped area with a black glass button in the middle.  I liked it so much that I decided to reproduce it in this piece. 

Do you see that little black button? 

 It comes from a collection that my great grandma Castle had that got passed down to me from my maternal grandmother.  The ruler was an old ivory piece that was given to me by a friend in Mexico City, it seemed to fit the composition nicely given that Cristina is an artist and designer. Since it was already broken it was easy to modify it to fit the parameters of this brooch. 

 

Finished piece!

 

May food or what ever source fills you, lead you to your next great burst of creativity and inspiration! 

 

 

 

 

Do You Know Where Your Stones Come From?

As many of you may already know I don't often use stones. 

I do mount bits of things in my work but stones are rare, and if I do use them they have to be well how should I say.. a bit out of the ordinary!

Of course it would be nice if I had a "before" shot, but I don't...  

Ones of the times I was in the village of Mineral de Pozos I picked up this sandstone piece that had a nice bit of orangish quartz drooozy on it.  

It sat in my studio for a long time 

and 

today, as I was preparing stuff for the 2-week residency program at Haystack in Maine this summer,

it spoke to me.  

So I called my friend Kim and he was nice enough to let me use his equipment to cut it up and make it into a few nice little shapes.  

Many might not like it as a stone or say that it has very little value because most of the tops of the little crystals are broke off, 

but it's something special to me because I know where it came from.  

I wonder if some one I know might call these stones Wabi-Sabi?  

And so these nice bits will get packed away for my trip to Maine, 

perhaps something very cool will come from them during my time there!!

Jesse

Torres de Fundición (Foundry Towers)

It's fall again and the end of rainy season here in San Miguel, and it's still raining!  Usually by this time our rains have tapered off.  We’ll see how long it goes on.  The rains are a  good omen for many people including those who work the campo bringing in the crops,  and for people like me that keep a few bees.

I love to see the country side filling up with those fall wild flowers, and it's starting to happen again.  I am hoping for a good honey crop this year but you never know.

Foto by David Tarrant

One of the riches for those of us that are makers is sometimes giving hand made gifts to those people in our lives that make a difference.  Juan Lopez is a friend of mine that lives in the rural village of Mineral de Pozos here in my state of Guanajuato.  He is a humble farmer and wonderful mason that supports his family through the work he does.  Juan is the first one that introduced me to the details of apiculture by taking me with him to harvest honey from a wild bee hive.  The hive was located in one of the many open mines found in Pozos and the whole undertaking was quite a process.

In return for what Juan shared with me I decided to make him a great belt buckle, and knowing who it was going to and why I was making it made the creative process even more fun and inspiring!

The buckle has a brass backing plate a little over 1mm thick.  It is embellished with a bezel set piece of turquoise from Arizona, hand cut by my friend Kim Savora.  A small decorative antique piece of metal that came from an old hacienda, a decorative scroll of brass made to match the design of the belt.  The scroll is black, it has a hard permanent patina because it came from a plaque on an antique piano, and last but not least is a saltwater etched drawing on copper.

The copper etch is of the 3 foundry towers in Pozos that Juan knows well, located just a couple hundred yards from the plot of land he works and sews.

This last process of salt-water etching was first taught to me by my friend Kalaya Steede, it's great fun.  I am excited about having the opportunity to share this fascinating technique 

with my friends and students here in Mexico over the coming months by teaching 2 different workshops.  The first will be at Taller Tierra y Plata located in Mexico City, October 22 to 24, and the second at Mares 

Taller in Merida, Yucatan, November, 14 to 16.

Hope to see you there!

2013 Buckle Workshop in Mexico

Now that all the holidays have passed it is time to plan that next vacation and get 

Buckled 
in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Buckle Workshop

August 23-25, 2013

by Jesse Bert

Discover the difference of being in an artists personal studio.  Where a small class size will assure one on one interaction with the instructor.

Start the day with a walk on old cobblestone streets, where you will experience being in another world that has changed very little over 400 years, to Jesse's studio which is located in the heart of San Miguel.

Here your adventure in the studio will begin.  You will learn to make appropriate finding of your desired size and soldering them to the backplate.  You will also learn how to texture, rivet, torch fire enamel, and give your piece depth by using a hydraulic press.  At the end of three days you will leave with one breathtaking buckle of your own creation!
The buckle pictured below is an example of all the techniques you will use in this class.  

by Jesse Bert

Hydraulic press

That is me with Jesse below making MY buckle last year in San Miguel.  It is kind of hard sawing while being watched.  Hahaha.  Go here to read about some of my great adventures south of the border last August.

Me and Jesse in his studio.

Wow!  Three days to create a buckle of your own design!
Sign up soon because class size is limited.

3 day workshop $375 (does not include lodging or airfare)

50% deposit of the total due is required at time of registration.  Full payment is due by July 26, 2013.  Please pay by check or I can arrange for payment using PayPal.  Just email me!

Kalaya Steede

New Orleans, LA 70115

steedenk@gmail.com

Airfare and lodging is not included.  Please contact me with any questions or concerns that you may have.  Really...ANY concerns.

Journey of an Anvil

As many of your know or maybe not know, I like tools a lot!   So much that I make them! They are a very important part of what I and the rest of the jewelers out there do and thus begins my journey…

I found this used but beautiful little hand-forged anvil at an antique place here in Mexico.  It is quite small 11 inches to be exact.  I suspect it was originally a Farriers anvil (used for making horse shoes).  Since it originally took the abuse of red-hot steel it will hold up to silver quite nicely, and will make a wonderful jewelers anvil, after it is sanded a little.

The little beauty.

Since I already have one just about this size, which I found a number of years back, I offered to sell it to my friend, Kent, that also does some jewelry work here in San Miguel.  He was quick to snap it up.  I then offered to mount it for him if we could find a good dry hardwood stump.  After a little asking around our friend Zach was generous enough to donate a nice big log of Mesquite wood to the cause, which is more than hard enough… and thus the project had begun, not the least of which was cutting this baby in two! 

That 150 year old hand saw my dad gave me still has an awesome tooth and cuts very straight but even so it still took me 40 minutes to get through it!  

Here I am putting wooden pads with bits of leather for stability of the base.

I have feet!!!

Drilling a hole so I do not have to chisel so much wood.

I chiseled a square for the base of the anvil to sit in.

And Violá...mounted and finished!

Not too shabby, eh?  I enjoyed myself tremendously!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Jesse

End of Summer Sale

Yes...summer is just about over and the days have been beautiful in San Miguel.

A low of 50s and highs of 80 degrees Fahrenheit!  Let me give you a comparison.  In New Orleans it is a low of 80 and a high of just plain HOT!  It is so hot they do not even give you a temperature...they just say HOT on the weather forecast!  hahahaha!  Let me just say it was close to 100 degrees the other day.  Time to head on down south of the border!

$75 off if you sign up before October 1, 2012 for the Unbuckled workshop.

That way you can beat the heat and enjoy the cool mountain weather!

Here is to a great Tuesday!

Back in New Orleans

Jesse will be returning to New Orleans in February 2013 for two, two-day workshops at Thomas Mann studioFLUX!

Last April 2012 he taught a workshop at studioFLUX on how to make Mexican stamping tools.

In February the theme will be...

The Breakfast Set

Go and check it out to see what it is all about here.

Have a great Monday everyone!

Workshop: Unbuckled

Jesse Bert

San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

November 9-11, 2012

Join Jesse for a workshop at his private studio in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.  San Miguel has been a mecca for artists and writers since the early 1950's.  Go back in time and visit a town that has changed very little over the last 400 years, with its cobblestone streets and rich architectural detail.  

This year's workshop will focus on the construction of belt buckles.  

Botas by Jesse Bert

As I have mentioned in earlier posts, Mexico has been and still is very close to my heart.  A place where people are friendly and the food is amazing!  So why not plan a workshop and a vacation at the same time!

While working with Jesse in his studio you will be introduced to the ins and outs of belt buckles.  Students will create a dynamic buckle of their own design. This will include making appropriate findings for securely attaching a belt of their desired size and soldering them to the backplate. 

Some of the techniques will cover textured metal and riveting,

torch-fired enamel (oh yeah...fire!)

and the hydraulic die press.  

All at the same time enjoying what San Miguel has to offer.  

At the end of the workshop we will offer an optional one day excursion (for an additional cost) out to the 17th Century Spanish Mining town of Mineral de Pozos which is located one hours distance from San Miguel.

Sounds like fun, yes?

  

3 day workshop $375 (does not include lodging or airfare)

50% deposit of the total due is required at time of registration.  Full payment is due by October 26, 2012.  Please pay by check or I can arrange for payment using PayPal.

Deposit before 10/29/12

Kalaya Steede

New Orleans, LA 70115

steedenk@gmail.com

Airfare and lodging is not included.  Please contact me with any questions or concerns that you may have.  

This blog was set up so that we can pass along all the goodies.

Remember...class size is limited.  

Hope to see and meet some of you there!