Recently, one of my friendly followers wanted to know at bit more about a day in the life of a jewelry designer. Instead of describing my tedious days of hammering, torching, filing and polishing, I’ve decided to let you follow one particular project. I’m designing a piece right now for a ball – an LED Ball at the Museum of Arts and Design aka MAD Museum – that I will be wearing in the Spring. When I say LED Ball I really mean LEDs, as in lights. I thought this would be a great project to show you because it has a very good probability of failing and that could interesting in itself.
LEDs
First I have to admit to one thing, I’ve been reading a lot of historical romances recently, and I have to say that I’m completely stupefied by what women wore to balls. There are gowns, pelisses, corsets, bodices, stays, kirtles, chemises, gloves, garters, stockings, lace and that’s just the beginning. So, when I was invited to the MAD LED Ball, I thought I would design something outrageous that I read in a book. I’m so terribly predictable. I still don’t know what it is but I assure you, it will be audaciously delicious.
So what does one need to make wearable LED art?
1. Power source
2. LEDs that are different colors and flexible, ie can conform into shapes
3. Programmable LEDs for blinking or even blink to music [yes, I know how to program] I will be using Arduino, I think.
4. A design
5. Time period to build it, try it out and fix the glitches.
I’ll try to keep you up to date on the progress weekly. I suppose I should make a schedule now. If you have any suggestions, let me know!
And just when you thought I couldn’t tie this into something supernatural …
Happy New Year everyone! Last year I swore I would write more and I did. This year, I promise to write even more and more about design. I’ve already explained why I don’t write more often – I’m dyslexic and my spelling is sometimes unforgivable, but I will ask you to forgive me in advance because I do have a lot to say and share.
Recently, I’ve read a long essay from Umair Haque who is an economist. I know, you’re thinking BORING, but let me just quote something here from his BETTERNESS: ECONOMICS FOR HUMANS:
“What if the great challenge for enterprise in the twenty-first century is no longer merely manufacturing the alluring, spotlit glamour of mass-produced opulence, but cultivating a more authentic plentitude that matters in human terms? …I call this positive paradigm betterness; in contrast with business, it’s not about being busier and busier (to what end?) but about becoming better.”
Wow! I think he’s talking about ME! Of course I want to be better – all designers want to be better, more innovative, more precise, more functional … I want to make better jewelry for you. Obviously, I can make very beautiful custom posh pieces, and I still do a bit, but I recently decided that I just want to make better meaningful pieces from universes and myths I love for people who share my passion for good stories.
And to make things even better, I’ve also decided to write stories for some of my pieces. When I mean stories, I mean 200 word stories and/or descriptions. Most of my emails ask me about my inspiration so, I thought I should just makes stories for them and share my references. I am a huge fan of Indian tales. I read the Mahabharata and Ramayana every year [abridged, of course! P. Lal translation] so you may recognize my myths and storytelling from here.
So, onward and upward and maybe a little nap on the side.
Impromptu observation: who knew my kale would still be growing in this strange New England Winter.
When I read, I see the entire book like a movie in my head. And, when I am done reading a book I love, not only do I feel like I’ve seen the movie in HD with surround sound, but actually have visited the places and met the characters in the book. I’m not sure it’s like that for everyone, but A Discovery of Witches [ADOW] was a book where I could picture every character, house, building, piece of clothing, furniture and of course, jewelry. I could taste the wine and know how it is to read by candlelight. It was the one of the most sensual books I have read in a long time. When I decided to make jewelry from ADOW, I already knew that it would be difficult to replicate the memory and feeling of the objects as I read it for the first time.
Matthew Clairmont, the hero in ADOW, wears an ampulla from Bethany when he thinks he may murder someone. The ampulla is also thrown into the fireplace of a magical house where its contents become somehow activated. Obviously, this object has a lot of significance in the book and had to be designed both as a personal and magical object. An ampulla is first a vessel. As a pilgrim’s talisman, it holds a few drops of holy water and worn during the pilgrimage. Here are a few examples ampullæ that I researched to inspire Matthew’s talisman.
ampulla 6-7th c, earthenware
14th c ampulla, tin
Ampullæ are common and come in all sorts of material – glass, ceramic and metal are the most common. In fact there is an ampulla in the crown jewels of England. Matthew wore his regularly over a few centuries. It was ancient and worn by time and Matthew’s touch. Below is his ampulla. I designed to be like him. Forthright, strong and mysterious. It is made of solid sterling silver and feels heavy and solid in one’s hands. It is crimped shut so that the precious holy water does not come out. It feels like it has the power to stop someone from killing. Its austerity holds the secret of Lazarus. Hope you like it.
This is how it’s described in ADOW: “’It’s an ampulla from Bethany.’ It was shaped like a coffin and just big enough to hold a few drops of holy water … He drew the leather cord from the neck of his sweater and touched the worn, smooth surfaces of the Lazarus’s silver coffin.”
Well, it seems that fans have spoken. My contest to help me make a charm for Oliver has evolved into a Morganville adornment rally. I’ve got more emails suggesting Morganville jewelry in general than just about Oliver, so I’m going to give the fans what they want!
It’s almost the new moon, so I think it’s appropriate to start again from the top. I need help developing more jewelry for The Morganville Vampires Series written by Rachel Caine. Here’s where the jewelry lives now: The Morganville Jewelry Store.
There are two book series that I secretly adore – OK well, it will not be a secret soon. They are dark, gritty and heavy adventures. They are about characters who have deep secrets that need to be healed … some of them just trying to survive until the next swig of Grey Goose or a pop of a pill. One is The Black Dagger Brotherhood series by JR Ward, the other is The Downside Series by Stacia Kane. Today I’m going to talk about the former.
These brothers have stories, that even without the steamy romances, would be enough for me to read them. Evil parents, sibling rivalry & guilt, deep scary secrets, hidden monsters … you name it, these brothers have experienced it. Needless to say, everyone who reads about them is touched by their redemption. I am not immune either. In fact, my favorite brother is Vishous. I won’t go into his story other than he has mommy and daddy issues as well as duties. Maybe I can identify with that coming from a very conservative, genius Asian family who still don’t quite understand what I’m doing with my life. In any case, I’m not the only one. Everyone one has a favorite and I’ve attempted to manifest these warriors for all to wear. Here is an example of some inspired BDB charms. All of them will be up on www.cadsawan.com/thestore.html soonest. Hope you like them.
“No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace
As I have seen in one autumnal face.” ~John Donne
Happy, Happy Fall Everyone!
Just when we thought the new website was finished, alas – Amazon has asked that we make more adjustments to the photos. So please sit tight, a lot is on its way – some you’ve already had a taste of, some completely new.
Before the holiday season takes off, I want to thank a few people who made a lot of these pieces come to life and who have helped me get here: Sherry; The Girls ; Anna, Karen & Christine ; Indira [my patient assistant who is very gifted in everything dragon]; Brett [my social media guru]; Rachel Caine, Cat & Sarah Weiss; and Nimbo & 3rd wheel. There are really too many authors to mention, but I think everyone knows the ones I love because I mention them daily! It really takes a lot of people to make cadsawan jewelry function, and I am thankful that I can create objects that mean more than the metal they are made from.
Happy Autumn,
Janet
P.S. THANK YOU JEWELRY LOVERS AND MY FANS!!!! XOXO
In April, I got an e-mail from Rachel Caine forwarding another e-mail from one of her fans, Journey. She shared a link to a symbol that represented Mercury and thought that it would be perfect for Myrnin’s symbol if it were turned 90˚ clockwise to represent an “M” [see below]. I really liked the idea a lot but thought it needed some “bunny slipper” tweaking.
Mercury Symbol
First of all, I only design for books I adore and as you may know, Rachel Caine is the author of the fantastic Morganville Vampire Series – which I more than adore. This series is for the younger YA crowd and I continue to marvel at the universe that Rachel creates in Morganville. Since I live in a very private community here in Connecticut, I now believe more than ever that vampires are running this town. Myrnin is the mad professor/alchemist and mentor to Claire, the other genius in this series. Can I say that I love having female protagonists being genii! Anyway, while I was designing the symbol for Myrnin, I thought that the above symbol didn’t represent his mercurial personality, i.e. it didn’t truly capture his madness-genius-bunny slipper wearing side. [And if you want to know if I’m going to make bunny slipper jewelry, the answer is NO.] So I re-designed this symbol that captured genius + jester and posted it on my Facebook page.
Myrnin Symbol Re-Designed
Everyone liked it, but when it came out of the oven, I didn’t. It was too small and too dull for him, so made it a bit larger and I came up with the below. I thought it was more whimsical. For those who know alchemy and astrology, you will recognize the sign of Mercury on both sides of the “M”. What do you think?
Myrnin Symbol Prototype
I NEED YOUR HELP!! Before I make it available to you, I can’t make up my mind. Do you want it suspended as a necklace from both sides so it hangs symmetrical like the above or do you want it as a charm hanging from only one side so it dangles? My immediate feeling is to dangle it and have a dark purple ribbon as the necklace. Please leave me a comment and let me know if you like it and what I should do!!! Thank you.
P.S. This is our accidental rooster. We thought it was a hen, but he’s crowing like fool now.
I have been a shade anti-social lately and continue to be because of the web re-design … oh and the business re-design … and yes, the collection re-design. Monumental! This means that this fall will be exciting, but at the moment Cadsawan Jewelry is about as gripping as appenzeller [aka swiss cheese]. However, here is something that I’ve been working on for a while. Hope you like it. It’s the ancient vial that is worn around the neck of Adair – the master villain from Alma Katsu’s The Taker or at least he is in this book. The tiny, intricate, slender vial is suppose to hold drops of the elixir of life – in Harry Potter talk. The trilogy is about immortal love, hate, possession and hopefully redemption. If you’re going to Comic Con in San Diego, please stop by and get a book signed and check out the original piece on Alma’s neck.
It’s almost summer and I find myself busier than ever. Shouldn’t life be slowing down? My to-be-read book pile is now teetering along with my tomato plants. Time to cage them. I suppose those things can take the back seat while I’m on my quest, you know slaying dragons and all that. Here are some things I’ve talked about and discovered on my journey. Hope you like them.
Wish Ribbons/Airplane - wish to travel
aztec fertility goddess/work in progress
poppy ring/plucked from the Catalonian countryside/work in progress
The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry. My theme for May.
I do apologize for not writing sooner, but real life has a way of thwarting my plans. May just went up in smoke. How come I have piles of laundry? And, why is it already Memorial Day Weekend?
Despite a start-and-stop kind of spring, I am happy to announce the upcoming month of June will be packed with new jewelry and news that I think all of you will be thrilled about. You will see the finished collections of the inspired Black Dagger Brotherhood [i.e. make your own charm necklace or bracelet], The Cuvil Animals, Senhor do Bonfim ribbons and the long awaited Goddess charms. New book projects include THE TAKER by Alma Katsu [Fall 2011] and a new improved Phoenix for M.J. Rose’s Reincarnation Series.
One thing out of the norm I rallied to do was to visit Book Expo America on the last day for 2.5 hours. I went to meet with Alma Katsu [who is, by the way, the sweetest person ever! I think you should all buy THE TAKER when it comes out] and wasn’t even intending to go inside when someone said they were handing out BLOODLINES at the Penguin stand. Well, there weren’t any left and I couldn’t attend Richelle’s signing earlier in the week, so Karen at For What It’s Worth told me that she had an extra copy and here it is!!! Everyone should follow Karen on twitter @teamsheltie! Thanks, Karen.
Bloodlines by Richelle Mead
I ran around the booths looking at book covers and authors that caught my attention. I know that publishers have leading titles, but I really wanted to know the in-house favorites or the dark horses on the list. You know, a book only comes out once, and there are so many, so I like to cherry pick them and talk about them a lot. Here are two FANTASTIC BOOKS that I’m sure you’ll find time to read: WARM BODIES by Isaac Marion Zombies in love! Really! It’s already in film production. Here’s the book trailer, and, um, I’ve always wanted to make zombie jewelry! WARM BODIES book trailer (Official). The other book that I’m very excited about is THE GONE-AWAY WORLD by Nick Harkaway. From his website:
“And yes, as you may have heard, there are ninjas. Very few serious books have ninjas. This is one of them. It’s also a comedy, of course, because serious things are funny.
Beyond that, though, despite the fact that four billion people die and very awful things happen to our heroes, it’s a book which makes people smile. A friend of mine said it was like watching a seal play with a ball.”
Ninjas, need I say more? Let’s see, what else did I have to share with you? Nothing really, just a pair of door handles on a church in Manhattan. NYC is just a city of inspiration.
