Tuesday, August 30, 2011

The Stuff of Life & The Life of Stuff


Only a couple of posts in, I'm still tweaking and refining this blog, trying to figure out what exactly is its purpose and what I want to say.  So, to narrow the focus a bit, I'll start by looking at my blog's actual title (ha!)--Bric & Brac--which aside from being the moniker I've bestowed (somewhat arbitrarily) upon my jewelry line, actually describes pretty well my interest.  Bric & Brac comes from bric-a-brac, of course:
noun /ˈbrik ə ˌbrak/ 
Miscellaneous objects and ornaments of little value
I find bric-a-brac to be extremely interesting and revealing: in small objects that could often be overlooked is wrapped up history, personality, function, and the lack thereof.  These objects have a story.  This is a quality I hope to convey when I make jewelry.  It's why I like incorporating repurposed, miscellaneous objects.  Since becoming involved on Etsy, it's something I've appreciated about the site as well.  It's a site filled with people who have a similar reverence for the simple beauty of objects, who put care into their creations or their vintage finds.

So between my jewelry, my work on Etsy, my blogging, and the way I live and look at my everyday life, I think objects serve as a good link.  In my blog, miscellaneous objects of little value (or slightly more value) will become windows on the world.  Whether found in the streets, in shops, or in my own home, there are myriad stories to tell!

To get the ball rolling, I'll look at an often overlooked (you can see by the mess!) but rather intimate part of my life: my desk.  Here where ideas are born and sometimes lost, where I've collected a most miscellaneous assortment of goods, and thereby all the stories that go along with them.  I won't tell you the stories, of course, but I think the photos speak well enough for themselves.







(Just wait until I start opening my drawers!)

Readers--or whoever is out there--what objects are typical of your everyday life?  What literal drawers can we open to understand you?

Monday, August 22, 2011

Creating an online "self"

For a person of my generation, I have always been rather resistant to new technology.  In high school, I was reluctant to get my first cell phone, and I elected to take a film photography course rather than one in digital.  Today, I work in an old fashioned, independent, paper book store (and am hanging on tight to my paper books!), and I adamantly use my low-tech flip phone, probably now more out of spite than anything else.

In short, I feel like I would have been the last person (who came of age in the 21st century, at least) to say that I have a blog.  And a Facebook.  And a Twitter.  And a shop on Etsy.  And that I've spent the last two days trying to figure out how to create my online "self" and reach out to the Internet in hopes that it shows me a little love in return.

Ironically, it all began when I decided I needed a distraction from the highly abstract task of emailing out resumes to dozens of job opportunities that may as well have been going into the abyss.  I wanted to do something I loved, namely using my hands to bend wire and match beads and make beautiful jewelry.  And a great forum exists online for selling my handmade jewelry--Etsy--with millions of potential consumers around the world.  The problem now is letting them know that I'm here and I make beautiful jewelry and they should look at ME!

Having blogged a bit before, and enjoying writing in general, this blog seemed like a natural place to branch out.  But then Twitter seems like a good complement for its interactivity, so then I went there.  Then comes sharing the two on any other sites I am on, and all of a sudden I'm spiraling out of control in a cyberspace web of my own personality.

So here I find myself, on the one hand doing something that millions of people are already doing every day, and on the other hand doing something that feels very unnatural (to me anyway).  I'm starting to figure out who I am as a person in real life--and still have ways to go--but now I have to create essentially from scratch my internet persona.  What do I want to tell the world in my tweets?  In my blog?  On my Facebook?  Who will listen to me?  Who will care?  And after all is said and done, will I actually sell any jewelry??

(Cue shameless plug for Etsy store.  I make nice jewelry.  Check it out here!)

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Welcome to Bric & Brac!

I am a strong believer in the beauty of everyday life.  For me, art is the little things that make you stop and think and take life a little beyond the ordinary.

This is a blog to record art: made, photographed, exhibited, found on the side of the road, etc.  I hope to share the world as I see it, and eventually to accept submissions from readers.  I want to know, what do you think is beautiful?  If we get a community sharing the unique things we all notice and appreciate--something others might overlook--who knows the possibilities!  I hope we will be able to walk outside and see the world in a new light, question something we've never thought about, and see beauty where before there was none.

This blog is also a platform to promote my new Etsy site, bricandbrac.etsy.com.  After 10+ years of making jewelry for family, friends, and myself, I have decided to take a chance and bring my crafting to the internet.  Jewelry is wearable art, after all, and I love the challenge of taking unique materials and making something functional and beautiful out of them.

Art is not a single, untouchable entity.  It is interwoven with life.  It is the utilitarian and the decorative, what we see and what we create, and the bric and brac in between.

(Also, if all of this seems dreamily idealistic, that's because it's midnight in late summer, and that's just the kind of mood I'm in.)