Jo Brody-Jeweler, Printmaker, Educator, Connector-Portland, OR

Felting Fun

jobrody — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 20:55:15 +0000

I was driving along SE Burnside the other day and I pulled the car over abruptly to inspect a curious and tactile piece of street art: a crocheted tree whose trunk was covered in rich green circles of granny-esque doilys knitted together with expertise and Portland DIY humor. The tree had been attacked by yarn bombers.

The yarn bombed tree was right outside Gossamer, a shop that has been celebrating the art of felt making and other yarn-y crafts since its arrival in 2007. The crocheted tree? A gift from local knit and crochet artists to the humored shop-owner in honor of Gossamer’s 5th anniversary. Granted Gossamer’s relative longevity in the world of SE Burnside shops might be attributed in part to the rise in the early 21st century of Portland, Oregon as the world epicenter of homespun craft-makers. Still, Gossamer has all of the elements of a mainstay supplier for crafters working in the fine art of felt making: a knowledgable and kindly founder/owner, Rose Sabel-Dodge, well-stocked supplies with surprises and necessities alike, exciting exhibits demonstrating accomplished work in the felted arts, and intermittent classes ensuring a new crop of felt-makers will be grown right here in Portland.

I was in the shop that day to source organic-looking felt for earrings I make using hand-stamped silver discs. The earrings are like little billboards for quirky two-word sayings. A way of wearing one’s sentiment on the ears. I make a crop of these earrings periodically to satisfy my love of working with felt.

I have high hopes of working more in felt, having learned several types of felting techniques already at the healing arts workshops I facilitated when I ran the breast cancer healing program I co-founded. I plan on taking a needle felting class as soon as possible. Mostly I love knowing that there’s a shop in Portland for every creative pursuit under the sun. Or clouds in the case of my dear hometown of Portland. Let your felt flag fly, Portland crafters! And make it out of felt, please!

Cloudspotting and Monoprint Magic

jobrody — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 20:42:04 +0000

I had the opportunity to spend the weekend on beautiful Bainbridge Island near Seattle with my friend, the talented artist, Wendy Orville. We have been planning this visit forever but our busy lives kept conspiring against us. Finally, though, the clouds parted and we made the time. Funny that I mention clouds. Wendy has been making quiet, powerful images with trees and clouds as primary subjects for some time now and I really loved the chance to see her current work up close and learn some of the techniques she uses to make her elegant and spare monotypes and discover more about her passions and her process.

I love taking photographs of clouds. I do it almost unconsciously as I whip my iPhone out and record a fleeting moment in the sky, making a monotype of sorts, recording an image never to be repeated in quite the same way. That Wendy and I have been obsessed by clouds at the same time is no accident. Ever since we met around 15 years ago in Taos, New Mexico while selling our wares at a craft fair on the central Plaza we have been kindred spirits, seeing art in the sky and speaking the same language of the heart. Our mutual move to the Pacific Northwest has allowed us to keep our friendship alive, even while separated by a long stretch of highway and the demands of family and work.

Our planned weekend of making monoprints in her spacious and well-equipped studio was only enhanced by the presence of her easygoing kids who knowingly steered clear of the artists at work. Wendy was so generous with her time, especially considering her life is about to get much busier with new gallery representation at Prographica in Seattle and being deeply involved with the soon to open Bainbridge Art Museum. We managed to steal 5 hours in the studio and I am pleased with the results.

Using a photograph I took (while attending the Crested Butte Film Fest last month) as reference, Wendy showed me how to lay down stripes of rich Prussian Blue ink, one stripe being pure ink, one stripe having transparency gel mixed in and one stripe just transparent gel. This technique allowed us to make a ground of gradated color, a way of expressing the sky, the horizon, and the land. After using the brayer roller to pick up the ink and rolling it onto a plexiglass sheet, Wendy taught me how to scratch in my design of clouds, wiping off ink to leave a band of bright white and bringing in darkness and depth to the belly of the clouds with an inky rag and my fingertips. Wow–I was having serious fun! After making the plate of clouds and printing it on her large Takatch etching press I inked a piece of mylar shaped like a mountain with deep dark Prussian Blue ink and printed that onto my piece of paper onto which I had earlier printed my clouds.

Can you see the image is reversed from my photograph? Can you tell that I am hooked on monotype printmaking? It is so meditative and direct. There are definitely many techniques to learn and Wendy is a master! Check out her work on her website and watch her at work in this video chronicling the making of the Bainbridge Museum of Art. As for me, I’ll continue learning to see, draw and make prints along with making my jewelry. I guess you could call me a Jo of all trades. Maybe one day I’ll be a Master of One!

Silver Lace–new line for December

jobrody — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 23:09:46 +0000

I landed on the idea of lacy silver accidentally, when I was fooling around with Precious Metal Clay(PMC) in a syringe. This is a form of PMC that is most often used to repair cracks in metal clay work or to join one piece of silver to another. I like the look I discovered after squeezing the clay out in long squiggly lines to form irregular and lacy patterns. The best part comes after the clay has been fired in the kiln, necessary for “sintering” or fusing the silver particles together and burning off the organic clay binder. After firing, I work harden and texture the lacy fine silver pieces at my jewelry bench. Hammering is wonderful for stress relief and has the added benefit of making divets and grooves in the metal in which to concentrate the darkening or oxidation. I darken the clay using the organic & very smelly product, Liver of Sulphur (neither word is nice alone and together, well, can you say STINKY??)

I had the chance to see some actual lace work in Brittany on the West coast of France this summer and I was very inspired to incorporate some of it’s delicacy and beauty into my own metal work. The most remarkable manifestation of Breton lace is the “Bigouden”, a tall cone of white lace that sits atop the head of traditional Breton women. Apparently the height of this extremely tall bonnet has kept getting taller and taller through the centuries, topping out in present day style at a foot tall!

The local costumes of Brittany are one of the many charming things about the region and I recommend a visit, especially the perfectly preserved medieval market town of Quimper, where we visited the family of our former exchange student. The cathedral in the town center is thought by many to be more majestic (certainly easier to gain access to!) than Notre Dame, it’s contemporary.

jobrody — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 20:48:32 +0000

Carved Eraser Printmaking Oct 11 6:30-9:30PM

Basic Beading Oct 13, 10-2

Found Treasures Oct 14, 10-2

Far Away in Portland–theater you can be in

jobrody — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 17:55:02 +0000

I saw you looking at that fair boy’s hat. I hope you told him it was derivative”.

-Todd, played by John San Nicolas, in Shaking The Tree’s play, “Far Away”

While not the most important line in this brief and intense play (playing Thursday-Sunday at SE Portland’s Shaking the Tree theater company until September 22nd), it was a hilarious delivery and made the audience laugh. A lot. That’s saying something, given the serious nature of the play–a dystopian (I looked for another word for this cliché but this was the best one) war piece with little in the way of pat resolution. (The “derivative” line was all the more funny to me, having worked as a silly hat maker for 7 years).

The line was delivered during the second of three scenes and takes place in a silly hat factory where Todd is woo-ing Joan, whom we saw as a younger girl in the first scene. In that first scene, young Joan uncovers a dark reality–she is living in a time of world wide war and no one is to be trusted, even family. Although the specifics of the war are left vague, we know that Joan’s Aunt Harper is involved, along with her husband, and that abduction, torture, and deaths are becoming common place. I saw the play twice, and found the following review in the Oregon Arts Watch website very helpful, in order to get a framework for the nature of the storyline and more information about the English playwright, Caryl Churchill. Upon further investigation, I turned up this review in an online science fiction journal, of the play itself rather than a particular production. It gives an incisive look into one man’s passion for the play and it’s staying power.

I strongly recommend seeing the Shaking The Tree production of the play before it closes. Director Samantha Van der Merwe’s staging is incredibly fresh and creative, especially given that Churchill gave no stage directions at all in her manuscript. The four actors, Annabel Cantor, San Nicolas, Beth Thompson and Patricia Hunter, are all wonderful. The talented and experienced ensemble does an admirable job of delivering brilliantly Churchill’s lines and insinuations about war, corruption, and brutality, infusing them with wit, mystery, and raw emotion. It is an intriguing and thought-provoking play, particularly if you have ever railed at the absurdity of war and it’s trappings.

Here’s one of the most original moves Director Van der Merwe makes in her staging: she opens up the cast to local artists and community members who wish to participate as set designers and casting extras! What fun! She put out an open call this spring and summer for artists to make preposterous hats to be used in a “Spectacle March” during the September run of “Far Away”. Details vague. My husband and I couldn’t refuse and contributed an enormous dragon hat made out of a 5 gallon jug for the head and eggshell cartons for the teeth. The hat is worn by means of a bicycle helmet to which the dragon sculpture is attached. This outlandish collection of hats are then parceled out to a gathering of local folks who show up each night of the play’s run. After choosing a hat to wear and being given drab prisoners’ costumes, the “prisoners” parade through the play led by a surly drummer, cigarette dangling from mouth. The audience sees the fruits of Joan and Todd’s millinery labor in action. Death marches dressed up with couture. No matter how artfully designed the propaganda is for war, it still comes down to blood and guts.

Portland’s small theater scene offers up some surprising and iconic gems. Get to “Far Away” before it closes for some dark yet tasty food for thought.

Dreaming of Paris…Going to Paris!

jobrody — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 23:09:32 +0000

At home in Paris I take a milk bath two times a week, but here on the road it is more difficult. I miss them.

-Anna Held

I have always had an obsession with Paris, ever since I went there as a 16-year-old high school exchange student. Never mind that I was housed in a dismal suburb with a dysfunctional, anti-semitic girl and her family. I learned all sorts of obscure or embarassing words in French (squirrel, pregnant) and begun to dream in French. I continued my French studies through Freshman year of college and have made many French-American friends with whom to practice my French, and bought scarves a plenty since then. I have always aimed to capture that elusive French style in my own dress and lifestyle. Can you say “coffee in a bowl”?

Not that I have ever taken a milk bath but, Damn, those French just have a way of taking care of their sensual side. Whether it’s cooking simple and delicious food seemingly effortlessly or throwing a scarf on without thinking twice about how to tie it, the French just seem to have style in spades.

I haven’t been to Paris in 25 years and I think it’s about time. I have been to France several times, when we exchanged our home with a Barcelona couple for a month two summers ago. We went to glorious Provence, and to under appreciated Toulouse, to see the Tour de France. We got “stuck” in Toulouse when our car died and had to wait for repairs. Toulouse is beautiful, the real, un-touristed France.
But now it’s time for Paris! I am celebrating TEN YEARS cancer free and we are GOING TO PARIS! I am so excited I am jumping out of my skin! We will be staying with dear friends who have moved to Le Marais, an historic and central area known for it’s gay bars and orthodox Jews. Perfect! I will be sketching in cafés with my husband, and eating amazing food with our friends who have been scouting out the best créperies and bistros for a year. We’ll also drive to Brittany for 3 nights, staying in the beach town of Concarneau and visiting the rustic and traditionally Breton town of Quimper. I’ll let you know if I take a milk bath. I will definitely eat crepes! Au revoir!

Betty Love!

jobrody — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 01:07:12 +0000

I went on an artist’s date today. An artist’s date is a concept from Julia Cameron’s Artist’s Way, a runaway bestseller that promotes, among other nurturing practices for artists’ block or insecure artist syndrome, the taking of a couple of hours for oneself, alone, to be inspired and re-filled when the cup hath run dry. The idea is that during an artist’s date, simply spending time visiting an art gallery or museum, or walking in the forest, or eating brunch at a cute diner with only your sketchbook for company, provides inspiration and self soothing that is often missing in one’s busy life.

This is exactly what I did today, when I visited Portland’s wonderful Museum of Contemporary Craft to see the Betty Feves exhibit. Betty Feves(1918-1985) was a pioneering modernist ceramicist living and working in the Pendleton area of Eastern Oregon. Her use of local clays, colors and monumental landscape forms put her at the forefront of the “think globally, act locally movement” that has morphed into the regionalism that is all the rage in nearly every art media today. Her humble persona as a farmer’s daughter and a working mom is appealing and down-to-earth, but it is her mastery over form, color and texture that make her a giant in the world of modern ceramics.

Some of her works are lighthearted, almost humorous, with big faces and a clash of textures that make one smile. Much of the work is so large and muscular it feels as if it were forced up through the ground by a seismic event. Namita Gupta Wiggers, the museum’s curator and now, Director, has done a marvelous job of elucidating Ms. Feves’ artistic process and personal voice, as described in an informative article in Oregon Arts Watch.

My artist’s date was a huge success.I feel inspired, moved to make work that is truly me, as Betty Feves insisted upon throughout her career. Fortunately The Contemporary Crafts Museum on the Park Blocks in Portland’s Pearl District will be open through July 28. Please go!

Mt. Tabor Art Walk Is Coming Up

jobrody — Fri, 04 May 2012 18:17:58 +0000

How do I love Studio Tours? Let me count the ways:
1. You can peek into other artists’ houses.
2. You can peek into other artists’ houses.
3. You can peek into other artists’ houses.

Seriously, walking around different neighborhoods is always interesting, especially in a city with as wonderful neighborhoods as Portland has. But when you add the added bonus of having a map which shows you dozens of artists’ homes that are open to the public, with artwork for sale and working art studios cleaned up, and demonstrations of their work process happening, this is the simply the most fun that I can think of!

Mt. Tabor, my neighborhood for the past 12 years, is a leafy, elegant old ‘hood with loads of classic bungalows and other cool architecture. Mt. Tabor Artwalk has been an event for the past 7 years, but this is the first year that I have shown my jewelry! My husband, Mark, has been a part of the art walk for many years, showcasing and selling his mosaics and it has been a great time to meet and greet neighbors and art enthusiasts as they walk from artists’ home to artists’ home, checking out (and buying) art.

If you live in Portland, please make time to jump into the Mt. Tabor Art Walk and make sure you visit #8 on the map! That’s us Brody artists, making good use of our huge bungalow basement, cranking out jewelry, mosaics and other works of art! See you on May 18th and 19th! Visit the Mt. Tabor Artwalk website and download a copy of the map today!

Silver Clay is Cool!

jobrody — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:07:09 +0000

I spent this past weekend selling my jewelry and prints at the Buckman Art Show and Sell, a fabulous annual fundraiser for the only Arts Elementary Magnet School in Portland. My silver jewelry was of great interest to my customers, because the details and textures you can get in a small, intimate scale are almost like little prints and tiny things always charm people! I love the metal clay work for this reason–it is akin to printmaking, a discipline I am in love with and am continuing to learn about in my 2-year Fine Art Certificate Program at Pacific Northwest College of Art, here in Portland, Oregon. Currently I am taking an etching class, learning about the techniques the old masters used to make intimate and intricate artworks that we still admire and emulate today.

When I form a lump of Metal Clay into a piece of silver jewelry, I start by rolling out the clay to make a flat ground, much like a prepared substrate for the printing press. Onto this surface I push textured material from diverse sources, including rubber stamps, polymer or fiber. In this sense, I am working the surface into an intaglio print, with the indented surfaces being able to take a darkening agent, or patina, so that the image or texture comes into sharper focus. The result is a miniature etching, a small piece of unique art, because each image is printed individually and is one of a kind. Each time I press my texture into the clay, a different result happens.

The piece pictured in this blog post is a thistle, one of my favorite flowers. The thistle is the symbol of Scotland, where I spent a semester in college. The thistle and other wildflowers feature in my artwork regularly. I was happy when I found I had an old rubber stamp with the image of a Celtic tree, including thistles, a bird of paradise and other flora & fauna (I love using that phrase!). I use this texture plate frequently since there are so many little areas from which I can grab a texture. Do you see which thistle I used?

Volunteer Today!

jobrody — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 19:21:00 +0000

A year ago I was laid off from a job I had for six years, a job I created because I felt a need in the community. (You can read all about it in the Healing Arts section of my website.) It was sort of an accident that I ended up getting paid for work that felt so good to my core. The Healing and Empowerment Program at Quest Center for Integrative Health served many people but it also served a need in me, the need to express gratitude for having made it through cancer treatment and for getting a big reality check every day about how lucky I was /am to still be here, living my life. That’s what volunteering can be like! Not only are you helping others, you are getting something out of the bargain!

CHAP Volunteers! from Celine O'Malley on Vimeo.

Recently I have been volunteering at Portland’s Children’s Healing Art Project, a very cool organization that brings the joy of art making to sick kids in area hospitals and their families who are needing support too. You might think that I am working directly with kids, stringing golden beads with them for the Million Bead Project or getting messy with paint and glue side by side with smiling kids hooked up to IV’s. Nope! The way CHAP differentiates those people who just need some extra community service or school credits and those who are going to be able to make longer term connections with the kids is to have volunteers make a 6-12 month commitment to working on projects in the CHAP art-y offices, gathering up art supplies, splatter painting their signature envelopes for event invitations or, and this is the fun activity everybody loves, gluing sequins on the brightly kid-painted items to be auctioned off to further support CHAP’s mission. My 16-year old son has started accompanying me to volunteer, needing to do some volunteer hours for his High School Honor Society Club. I am trying to model how it’s not the glamourous work that really needs the getting done but the behind the scenes work that any service organization runs on. And it’s fun!

SO…. here’s my pitch: Want to feel good about a couple of spare hours during the week that you weren’t using any way? Volunteer Today! Maybe at CHAP or maybe at some organization whose mission you can really get behind. It feels good and makes the world a better place.