All posts by Amy

featured in our first Heat Exchange exhibition in 2012.
Heat Exchange 1

In the Mail

I finished the work just a few days ago and sent it off after a bit of a struggle to complete it. I often drag my feet at the end and this time around was no different. It’s those small details that cause me to procrastinate. Anyway, I am pleased with the final pieces…I also wrote a short statement which I am really happy I did. It helped me to make sense of it all. I have posted it below.

“These works are about singular moments collected while observing the winter landscape around my current home in North Carolina and my childhood home in New York State. The moments were solitary and quiet; some deliberate, others accidental. Through a process of experimentation with liquid enamel on steel, I reinterpreted and captured these moments, presenting them in ghostlike translucency, as echoes of the memories. Each enamel piece is also accompanied by found objects that are aged and worn. When arranged together, the enameled and found objects establish a narrative for the recollection of my observations.”

I posted more images on Flickr, including some details.

Thanks so much for reading.

Amy Tavern

featured in our first Heat Exchange exhibition in 2012.

Heat Exchange 1

Initial Compositions

I had to take a short break from enameling to devote time to other things including planning classes and my upcoming European trip and also to teach a chain-making class. Once I returned to my assortment of samples I felt like it might be time to start considering how the pieces could work together, what steps I needed to take to move forward, whether or not I needed more samples, and so on. ( I start teaching a two-month class in less than two weeks here at Penland and I know my time will be extremely limited then. It really is time to shift from making components to making pieces.)

I am imagining collages or compositions of several elements: an enameled shape, some found steel, a rusty piece, a copper or brass hollow form. These pieces will be held together with rivets, bezel or tab settings, and/or some stitching perhaps. I work well with lots of elements in front of me. I enjoy the process of moving things around 3-dimensionally until a composition feels right, balanced, interesting, complete…I imagine the work as a series with similar but slightly different components. The images I have posted today are a group of sketches. I’m looking forward to seeing how things change once I begin constructing the pieces. Oh! And they will be large brooches!

The enameling is fairly simple as you can see. It’s mostly atmospheric, but I do like the stark quality each has and what they do for these initial compositions.

Thanks so much for reading.

Amy Tavern

featured in our first Heat Exchange exhibition in 2012.

Heat Exchange 1

First Samples

1 Comment

I love making samples. Love. This is something I have discovered since becoming a resident artist at Penland. I have spent a lot of my time over the past three years exploring process, technique, and materials and made many, many samples. I realized the other day as I worked on my enameling what a luxury it is to be able to have the time to make samples. It really is. There are so many things we artists have to do in a day that it is challenging to carve out the time to explore. I am enjoying learning a new material and process and like making sample after sample just to see what happens if…I layer, over-fire, sand blast, stone, scratch, draw, drizzle water on a dried enamel surface, fire before the surface is completely dry. The aim is to learn and get comfortable through exploration and, ultimately, to find that distressed, messed-up, aged-looking, imperfect surface that mimics that kinds of things I am inspired by.

My favorite discoveries so far include incising lines on the surface of the metal as well as on the surface of the fired enamel using my flex shaft and a cutting or separating disc, over-firing, and dripped water on the surface of dried enamel. I have posted images of these findings here. The are tons more on Flickr.

incised lines, layered liquid enamel

over-firing, layered liquid enamels


dripped water, layered liquid enamels

I am really enjoying this time. Really and truly. Now I am beginning to consider the sample as more than a sample as many of them are turning out rather nicely. I hate to discard them for more “serious” pieces and so I’m thinking these samples might turn into the finished pieces. More on that later…

Thanks so much for reading.

 

Amy Tavern

featured in our first Heat Exchange exhibition in 2012.

Heat Exchange 1

Thinking Points

4 Comments

I’ve been collecting visual information since I last posted here. Lately, I find myself drawn to the winter landscape of my home in North Carolina–it’s quiet and stark, everything is  “dead,” for lack of a better word…but everything is so beautiful! The dim and golden light, the gorgeous palate of brown, white, and gray, the movement of trees and grasses in the wind…

I drove to New York to visit friends and family for Christmas. It’s a long drive, providing 14 hours of thinking time. I noticed these same things as I drove through Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and then New York and couldn’t help but think about them. This is when I knew they were going to influence my enameling and be the starting point for my new work. I took lots of new pictures and sorted through files of images from the past on my computer, gathering together my favorites for this specific project. I have posted several images here and started a set on Flickr for all of them to be together and for you see, if you like. I have also posted some images of things I made during a wonderful enameling class with Helen Carnac. I see a similar thought pattern in these pieces, too.

Thanks so much for reading.

Amy Tavern

featured in our first Heat Exchange exhibition in 2012.

Heat Exchange 1

From Way Over Here…

Hello! My name is Amy Tavern and I am a studio jeweler.  I live and make my work at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina where I have been a resident artist since January 2009. Over the past three years I have done lots and lots of exploration of my medium, other materials, and process.

Bow Cluster Brooch with Tassel. Sterling, spray paint, cotton string.

The work I make primarily involves spray paint on sterling silver. I layer different colors and then once the paint is completely dry, I scratch the surface with files, a scribe, and heavy- grit emery paper. My use of spray paint comes from my love of graffiti, the scratching comes from my love of distressed surfaces and signs of age.

Leaf Crystal Brooch from Fabricated Memory: Jewelry Box, 1980. Sterling, spray paint.

Most recently I completed a large body of work for my first solo exhibition. The work was based on my personal history with jewelry. You can read my artist statement here and view the two collections here and here.

The front cover of my enameled book. Enamel, steel, book cloth.

Although not an enamelist per se, I have done some enameling and have wanted to focus more attention on it. During the summer I made an enameled book while Elizabeth was teaching a class here at Penland. Something went “wrong” during a firing of one of my steel pages, but Elizabeth suggested I look at it in another way. This “mistake” will be my starting point as I begin work for this exhibition.

My studio.

Thanks so much for reading.

Amy Tavern

featured in our first Heat Exchange exhibition in 2012.