Thank you, Dori, for taking the time to respond to various comments
on Art Jewelry magazine (and for warning me that I will also find
the next issue a little heavy on PMC!). I should have added that
there are lots of other things, in addition to the projects, which I
find helpful. I love the Gallery section and the “where to find
it,” and I appreciated the article, “No Kiln? No Problem!” in
the March 2005 issue, because it lets me know that if I ever did
want to do something small in silver-clay, I need not invest in a
kiln.
I find that Art Jewelry also reads well (in addition to just
"looking at the pretty pictures") – that is, if I take the time to
read, I will learn some more things. I appreciate such articles as
the one on how to proportion jewelry for the plus-size woman. Not
all of us are as pathetically scrawny as the females regularly shown
in movies, TV, and magazines. (I also liked the necklaces you used
for that demonstration.)
I also agree that WE need to submit articles for potential
publication. I keep meaning to try something along that line, but I
devote most of my writing time to talks/articles on ancient
Mesopotamia (not on its jewelry).
As for Lapidary Journal, I am pleased that Art Jewelry will not
feature anything on gem-cutting and professional jewelrymaking, but
I do think that LJ’s sponsorship of bead shows is good because of
the number and variety of project-oriented jewelrymaking courses
they offer, using some very good teachers.
I have no plans to cancel my subscription to Art Jewelry!
Jan, thanks so much for the links to Gordon Uyehara and Hadar
Jacobson’s websites! So many gorgeous things and wonderful,
original ideas - freakin’ awesome! The level of fine detailing and
the smoothly finished surfaces of both artists’ work are really
impressive. How do they DO that?
Gordon’s ammonite pendant rocks - anybody notice the little
eurypterid and trilobite lurking in the background?
Cheers,
Jessee Smith www.silverspotstudio.com
Cincinnati, Ohio, where the Ordovician bedrock is chock full o’ trilobites
My biggest ovation for AJM is for their diligence in
portraying the medium of "metal clay" rather than PMC or Art Clay
Silver. It's very, very refreshing to read an entire issue and see
projects listed without mention of a particular brand. Metal clay
techniques are non-partisan, and I applaud AJM for focusing on the
commonality.
We should probably stop calling it AJM, since there is already a
jewelry magazine with that name…
I agree with you that it’s nice to see a magazine that doesn’t focus
on beads; I for one would like to see more fabrication projects than
metal clay, but that’s just me. Dori, if you are reading this, I
would love to see some cold connection projects especially, followed
by beginning to intermediate fabrication projects with
fusing/soldering. Projects combining wirework with a little bit of
fabrication would be great too. Oh, and I’d love to see a tutorial
on resin casting…
All I can say is halleluiah sister. A few years ago the National
Writers Union did an analysis and determined that a freelance writer
making fifty cents a word working full time would make an average of
40k per year. Now when is the last time you got fifty cents a word?
A few years ago NWU “won” a case against the New York Times (Tassini
vs. NYT) that basicly held that First North American Serial or one
time publishing rights meant just that, one time. NYT had taken
Tassini’s work and put it online without compensation. The reason won
appears in quotes is that the publishing industry responded
immediately by demanding “work for hire” contracts from all
freelancers. I was Gemology Columnist for National Jeweler at the
time. I got this contract that the village idiot wouldn’t have signed
giving up all rights to anything I wrote plus they could use it, any
part of it and my name anyway they wished. And we thought Lincoln
freed the slaves!
With few exceptions, magazines exploit writers. They exploit the
fact that most of us our dying to see our words in print. This will
only change when we demand it. If you are considering writing for a
magazine, any magazine refuse any contract that is not simply a one
time rights contract. Usually expressed as “First North American
Serial Rights Only”. This has been the standard for fifty years and
there is no reason on earth that a magazine needs “all rights”.
About thirty percent of the material that appears in my book was
previously published in magazines. Thats a good way to recycle your
writing provided you don’t get taken by the book publishers but thats
the subject of a future post.
Richard www.rwwise.com
For Information and sample chapters from my new book:
If a magazine wants high quality projects to publish, from
those who are knowledgeable in the field, in order to promote their
magazine as being on the forefront in an area, then they need to
reconsider how they go about paying for their submissions. Starting
pay for a technical writer starts at $60 U.S./hr.
Here here Katherine! FYI I stopped whining (well, only occasionally)
about pay for art/writing ages ago - I just stopped writing for most
magazines. I don’t in any way make excuses for magazines about pay -
it ain’t the readership base or low revenues 'cause pay stayed low
throughout the 90s boomboom years. It’s the fact that the labor can
and will come cheap. So no more whining - now when I need some cash
when the jewelry is slowing down (I still only make a “living” at
jewelry a few months of the year), I work in business or technical
writing, where they DO pay what you’re worth - I just finished a
writing job for a big D.C.-based non-profit conservation organization
and sent a fat invoice for $95/hour.
I’m taking a similar approach regarding jewelry and pricing: I’m
developing lines that I can do in production at low overhead/costs
and sell at high margins, and that will help support my love -
one-of-a-kind works.
Katherine Palochak and others have provided some excellent insight
about topics and writing articles for niche mags. I write extension
pubs, and “how-to” instructions are not easy to compose - it’s easy
to assume knowledge not present. All the steps must included and
described with enough detail for the average 8th grader to follow
successfully! Kudos to all who forge ahead and submit such
articles.
I would add one more thought about the variety and complexity of
projects published. Ideally each issue would include at least one
basic level project for beginners, and I would suggest that those
projects be archived on the mag’s website! If the goal is to
encourage new blood in the field (to replace all the blood that is
getting old and tired ), there must be encouragment. Ergo, an
interesting, basic project in every issue.
Now, from where would these project articles come??? How about
college art department faculty all over the country - particularly
those who train secondary school art teachers. It seems a logical
way for those faculty to be published regularly (generally a
requirement of university faculty), to share their knowledge, and to
develop a resource for students and art teachers. Perhaps this
already occurs - if so, let’s hear about it.
Just a thought,
Judy in Kansas, where my lilacs are releasing the most heavenly
fragrance.
Well, “low pay” is a relative term. The amount any magazine pays for
an article is a separate topic than whether we do art for a living or
for a hobby. That’s more relevant to the “underpricing or
overpricing” issue. Certainly, no one’s forcing you to write
articles. I’m not sure how many people make a living from writing
articles for trade journals. And, I’d always thought that "artist"
and “making a living” were mutually exclusive terms. Those jewelry
makers who make their living at making and selling jewelry might not
consider themselves artists, but rather astute business people. I
think our biggest problem is that we don’t know how to be artists AND
business people at the same time.
and I dare you to distinguish it from a similar, "fabricated"
ring.
To Jackie,
The look of PMC clay in a finished piece does look different to my
eye. It has a different “patina” in my opinion. And it does have the
soft look of a clay piece. My background in clay goes back to the
60’s and the experiences have sharpened my vision to determine which
piece is a sculpted one (like PMC), or a wax-cast one, or a
hand-built one (artist’s fabrication with traditional jewelry tools).
Just my opinion.