Thinking in 2D

I have been making bookmarks from copper wire for a while now and I always amaze myself when I get a good design that is both visually appealing as well as functional. In the beginning I made the mistake of crossing wires. In other professions when you cross the wires you might get a shock or worse, but in cold forging wire, you just get a ruined piece if you try to hammer the crossed wires and since all of my bookmarks need to flat to be functional, crossed wires are no-no. This all leads me to the fact that my bookmarks have to be one continuous piece of wire. If you have ever tried to draw a picture without picking up your pencil and without crossing any lines you understand this dilemma. It's a little nerve wracking at times! When I have a specific design I am working on it can take me hours or even days to get it "right". Often I have to pick and choose the details of an item to include so that for instance, a violin still looks like violin. It's a balancing act and a puzzle at the same time. I hope you enjoy all of my designs I have puzzled out for you and keep watching for new ones.

The snake pose

I headed down to the pool this morning to do my yoga by the water and my dog wouldn't stop barking. I kept telling him to hush. He wouldn't. So I went over to see what the fuss was about. At the other end of the pool on the warn concrete was a black rat snake. It was a couple feet long and half settled into a crack in the concrete. I left it there and returned to the warrior pose and my dog seemed satisfied having shown me the intruder. It got me thinking though. The way that the snake's body twisted and turned. I have scoliosis and my back feels like a snake sometimes, twisted and curled, which is why I started doing yoga. I wanted to somehow straighten my back, strengthen it and lengthen it so that my back won't hump over and make me one of those hunchback ladies that I've seen growing up who can't reach their own hair to brush it. This snake gave me a great visual to use while doing my poses, imagining my back like a snake, muscular and able to unfurl itself from its gnarled twist.
Maybe that's why many of my pieces have snaking curves. It's my subconscious trying to balance my twisting and curving spine. Whatever the case may be, mine will be a lifelong struggle to keep my back from collapsing on itself. So I suppose I will continue making writhing serpentine pieces of copper and metal.