Toscana Americana Workshops

Instructor: Warren Feld
Cortona, Italy
April 18-25, 2009

718 Thompson Lane, #123
Nashville, TN 37204
615-292-0610
warren@landofodds.com

Contact Toscana Americana

ITINERARY - DETAILED:

Brief Synopsis: How do you keep beadwork and jewelry design essential and alive?

In this week-long series of workshops, for both Beginner as well as more Intermediate level beaders or jewelry makers alike, we will be examining traditional Etruscan jewelry, and how we can understand it from the vantage point of good jewelry design principles.

We will learn and practice some basic techniques of bead stringing and bead weaving.

Then we will do some thinking, planning and experimenting with these techniques and principles in order to create contemporary interpretations of two or three Etruscan pieces of jewelry to see what we can achieve.

DETAILED ITINERARY:

6/28, Saturday – Arrival in Cortona
- arrival
- welcome
- dinner

6/29, Sunday – Cortona

THE PARTS
Morning Session:

- Orientation to Beads, Jewelry Findings, Stringing Materials, Tools

Discussion. Review with Samples. If you are serious about bringing a design perspective to your artistry and craft, you need first to orient yourself to what “quality” means relative to the pieces from which you can choose. Quality refers to such things as durability, functionality, wearability, context-sensitivity, and move-ability. It means that your resulting piece is also classy and elegant, not merely functional. It refers to understanding what happens to all the pieces, as well as your stringing materials, over time, as the piece is worn. It means preparing yourself to make choices about what to include and not include in the jewelry you design. In our Orientation, we will review quality and design considerations relative to beads, metals, and stringing materials. We will go over some things to think about when purchasing tools.

Afternoon Session: Weaving (This session will conclude on Monday morning)

THE TECHNIQUES
- Basics of Bead Stringing and Bead Weaving We will cover these topics:
o Pros and Cons of Different Kinds of Clasps and other Jewelry Findings
o Understanding Basics of Three Competing Jewelry Design Perspectives
o Understanding Jewelry’s Role in Cognition and Physical and Social Orientation of Viewer and Wearer
o Understanding “support systems”, particularly the “clasp assembly”
o Crimping using cable wire, crimp bead, crimp cover and horseshoe
o Making a bead-strung bracelet using needle and thread, and tying a special knot
o Weaving technique, with focus on managing thread tension
o Wire Working technique of making plain and coil-wrapped loops on head pins and eye pins

- For Beginners: The Square Stitch, first using 4mm cubes, then 8/0 seed beads
- For Intermediate: Ndebele (Herringbone) Netted Tube, first using Nymo or C-Lon Thread, then using FireLine thread, all in size D

Discussion, Practice Techniques, such as crimping, bead stringing with needle and thread, and bead weaving with needle and thread, Make Projects. The good jewelry designer is able to bring a multitude of skills and abilities to the task of creating a piece of jewelry. This afternoon, we review the basics of bead stringing, including practicing crimping using cable wire, crimp beads, crimp covers and horseshoes. Then we learn how to make a bracelet using needle and thread, including how to select and use the thread, and how to tie a special knot.

Bead weaving is a collection of hundreds of different stitching techniques and strategies used to create pieces that approximate a piece of cloth. For Beginners, we will learn the square stitch, which is very basic, and make a length with this stitch that you can later finish off as a bracelet. For more Intermediate Level beaders, we will learn how to make a netted tube using the Ndbele stitch. We will make a length with this stitch that you can later finish off as a bracelet. In both cases, we will pay particular attention to how best to hold the piece while working it, and how to maintain your thread tension.

Wire working and wire wrapping involves various techniques for shaping hard wire, or turning hard wire into structural components. In bead stringing, we often use head pins and eye pins to create dangles of various types. The key technique to learn here is how to make a loop at the end of the wire, so you can slide this onto a string, allowing it to hang as a dangle or pendant. Making a simple plain loop is a basic wire working technique. Making a coil-wrapped-loop is a wire wrapping technique. We'll practice both.

6/30, Monday – Cortona
Morning Session: (continued from Sunday Afternoon)
- Basics of Bead Stringing and Bead Weaving

Afternoon Session:

DESIGN THEORY/APPLICATIONS: COLOR
- Color and Beads

Discussion and Review of Color Concepts, Particularly as applied to Beads and Jewelry, some Trial and Error Exercises on a Bead Board. Jewelry Design usually begins with an understanding of Color Principles, Schemes and Interrelationships. Why are certain color effects pleasing, and others not? While most Color Classes focus on color and paint, here we review color, as it specifically applies to beads and jewelry.

DESIGN THEORY/APPLICATIONS: THE DESIGN ELEMENTS

- About Jewelry Design and The Design Elements

Discussion and review of ”design elements”, and some Trial and Error Exercises on a Bead Board. Jewelry Design helps you answer the question: Why do some pieces of jewelry draw your attention, and others do not?

Jewelry Design is the application of basic principles of artistic expression. The jewelry artist applies these principles by manipulating the elements of the piece. This morning we will get a better understanding of what “manipulating” and “elements of the piece” mean, from a design perspective.
. These elements might include:
- the Positioning and/or Ordering of things
- the Volume or Area the piece takes up
- the Scale and Size of the pieces
- the Colors, Textures and Patterns of individual pieces, and/or sets or groupings of pieces
- the Forms and Structures (identifiable sets of pieces, highly integrated)
- the Materials
- the interplay of Light, Dark, Shadow, Reflection and Refraction
- the clasp assembly and other supporting systems

During the rest of the week, we will be focusing on 10 principles of jewelry design composition, discussing them intellectually, and trying out techniques to put these principles into practice.

- History of Etruscan and Roman Jewelry

Discussion. Review with Images. Beads and jewelry have been used throughout time, and across every culture, but not necessarily in the same ways or for the same reasons.

There is considerable artistry and craftsmanship underlying Etruscan jewelry. They brought to their designs clever techniques of texturing, ornamentation, color, relief, filigree, granulation and geometric, floral and figurative patterning. While their techniques were borrowed from the Greeks and other Mediterranean cultures, the Etruscans perfected these to a level of sophistication not seen before, and not often even today.

While Roman law outlawed the wearing of more than one ring or more than ½ ounce of jewelry at any one time, the Romans loved their jewelry, and wore many pieces, in spite of this. Most Roman jewelry designs were rigid interpretations of Greek and Etruscan jewelry.

- Intro to Contemporizing Traditional Etruscan Designs

Discussion. Design elements are those things within the piece that the jewelry artist can manipulate, such as the use of color, line, forms, textures, patterns and the like. We will review images of a range of Etruscan and Roman necklaces, bracelets, amulets, earrings, and discuss in terms of the use of design elements within the pieces. We discuss what it might mean to contemporize these pieces. In other words, how would we manipulate the design elements to end up with something that was contemporary, paid some kind of reference or homage to the traditional piece, and was also a satisfying work of art.

What does it mean “to contemporize”? If you walked into a Museum of Contemporary Art, you would find some things that were abstract, but other things that were realistic or impressionistic or surrealistic. You would find a lot of individualized expression – works associated with a particular artist, rather than a particular culture. You would find a wide use of modern materials and techniques and technologies. You would find unusual or especially noteworthy assemblages of pieces or colors or textures. You would find pieces that in some way reflect modern culture and sensibilities – fashions, styles, purposes, statements. The exhibits would change on a regular basis, and you would also find something new and different to experience and marvel at each time.

Traditional Art, on the other hand, suppressed individualized expression. Instead, whatever the art form, traditional art emphasized a restatement of its cultural narrative. That is, artists, working within that cultural tradition, would use similar materials, similar designs, and similar motifs. The artwork was a symbolic representation of that culture’s values and self-image. The “doing of the artwork” was a reaffirmation of one’s place within that culture. Simply, if you did the same kinds of things in the same kinds of ways as everyone else, this reaffirmed your membership within that group and culture. And if you visited a Museum of Traditional Art, there would be many displays of wonderful, sometimes elaborate, pieces, but the exhibits would never have to change.

Contemporizing Traditional Jewelry has to do with how you take these particular forms and techniques, and both add your personal style to the pieces, as well as make them more relevant to today’s sense of fashion and style. This may be trickier than it might first appear. To what degree should you reference the traditional design elements in your contemporary piece? Just the colors? The colors and the pattern? The stitching, stringing or other techniques? The structural components, as well? How do you break down the traditional piece, in order to better understand it? And how do you use this understanding to figure out how and what you should manipulate, as you design and construct your contemporary piece?

This week we will use our emerging understanding of good jewelry design principles, and how they help us manipulate elements of design, to begin to develop a framework, as well as some project examples, for contemporizing traditional Etruscan jewelry. We will be using both bead stringing as well as bead weaving techniques toward this end.

7/1, Tuesday – Florence

Morning and Afternoon:
- Visit bead store(s), including Beaded Lily (in the Oltrarno)

Sdrucciolo Dei Pitti 13R, 50125 Florence
(Five minutes from Ponte Vecchio between Palazzo Pitti and Piazza Santo Spirito)
Hours: Mon 3-7, Tue-Sat 11-2 and 4-7, closed Sundays

- Visit glass bead making studio (in the Oltrarno)

Glass studio is one block from Beaded Lily

- Visit area with high end boutiques, and sketching and taking notes of contemporary fashion jewelry shown (in the Oltrarno; elsewhere)
- Museum(s) visit

A strategic opportunity while you explore Florence to shop, research and sketch contemporary jewelry and beadwork, as well as some jewelry antiquities.

7/2, Wednesday – Cortona
Morning Session:
- Discuss the trip to Florence. Show and Tell. Observations, Insights, Learnings.

DESIGN THEORY/APPLICATIONS: PRINCIPLES OF COMPOSITION

- First Six Principles of Jewelry Design Composition
Discussion and review of first six of 10 principles of composition, and some Trial and Error Exercises on a Bead Board. We will evaluate some Etruscan and contemporary pieces. We apply Principles of Composition by manipulating the elements of the piece
This morning, we will introduce the first 6 of 10 jewelry design principles of composition. These are,
a. Rhythm
b. Pointers
c. Planar Relationships
d. Interest
e. Statistical Distribution
f. Balance

Afternoon Session: (this session will continue tomorrow morning)
- Contemporizing Traditional Etruscan Jewelry – Bead Strung Project

Discussion, Work on Projects.
- Discuss what kinds of things we can do to contemporize the traditional Etruscan pendant-drop necklace
- Begin to assemble a contemporary necklace, based on our discussions; may work individually or in collaboration
- Discussion, Critique

May work individually, or in collaboration. You can approach these design projects at many levels, depending on your experience. I’ll have some loosely-structured instructions, which you can follow and personalize. Or you can create your own pieces start-to-finish, given your own creativity and understanding of design principles. These projects are a way to rehearse what we are learning. Some may succeed on first try; others may need fine tuning or re-thinking. By “doing”, it provides your brain, eye and hands some experiential learning.

TRADITIONAL ETUSCAN BEAD STRUNG PIECE

CONTEMPORIZED PIECE

MORE ELABORATE CONTEMPORIZED PIECE
WHICH MIXES BEAD STRINGING AND BEAD WEAVING TECHNIQUES

7/3, Thursday – Cortona
Morning Session:
- Continue With Contemporizing Traditional Etruscan Jewelry – Bead Strung Project

Afternoon Session:
- Last Four Principles of Jewelry Design

Discussion and review of last four principles of composition, and some Trial and Error Exercises on a Bead Board. We will evaluate some Etruscan and contemporary pieces.
The reason we learn these principles of design is to help us answer the question: Why do some pieces of jewelry draw your attention, and others do not?
The last four principles of composition are:
g. Dimensionality
h. Temporal Extension
i. Physical Extension/Finishing
j. Parsimony

7/4, Friday – Cortona
Morning Session: (continues in Afternoon Session)
- Contemporizing Traditional Etruscan Jewelry – Bead Woven Project

Discussion, Work on Projects.
- Discuss what kinds of things we can do to contemporize the traditional Etruscan butterfly necklace
- Create a few geometric shapes using twist bugles in a girder system
- Design on graph paper or sketch, and then create one approximately 1” butterfly segment, using a beadweaving technique or combination of techniques, such as the Triangle Stitch, Chevron Stitch, Peyote Stitch, Brick Stitch, Right Angle Weave or Beaded Bead
- Create one small beaded cabochon segment, using Peyote Stitch
- Creating a Hinged or other Support System to attach the butterfly segment to the beaded cabochon segment
- Discussion, Critique, More Design Thinking and Working in reference to the traditional Etruscan butterfly necklace

May work individually, or in collaboration. You can approach these design projects at many levels, depending on your experience. I’ll have some loosely-structured instructions, which you can follow and personalize. Or you can create your own pieces start-to-finish, given your own creativity and understanding of design principles. These projects are a way to rehearse what we are learning. Some may succeed on first try; others may need fine tuning or re-thinking. By “doing”, it provides your brain, eye and hands some experiential learning.

TRADITIONAL ETRUSCAN PIECE – BUTTERFLY NECKLACE

SOME CONTEMPORIZED TOUCHES
Using bead weaving techniques (brick-stitched butterfly and peyote-stitched beaded cabochon) with less linear positioning of the butterflies, more complex hinged connectors between segments

MORE ABSTRACT CONTEMPORIZED PIECE
Using a bead weaving technique, with jointed connectors between segments
[The geometric girders component based on the work of Kathryn Harris
in her “Ka-Ching” necklace.]

Afternoon Session:
- Continue With Contemporizing Traditional Etruscan Jewelry – Bead Woven Project

7/5, Saturday – Finale and Departure

BECOMING A SUCCESSFUL JEWELRY DESIGNER
- Review and Discussion of Ideas and Techniques Presented During the Week
- Developing a Personal Style
- Promoting Your Work