This year I joined a flickr group called Ring a Day. It was started by Nina Dinoff as a challenge to jewelers of all types, to be inspired each and every day of 2010. The challenge is to create a ring and then post a picture of it on the Ring a Day gallery. Sometimes the pictures don't get posted until a few days later (almost always in my case). But the day of creation is listed, so at the end of the year, there should be close to 365 rings for each participant.
This has been a fun and inspiring challenge. The concept of a ring is all that is required, so we've come up with some silly and some artsy examples. There's a freedom to this, to play with different ideas or techniques. As an artist, my creativity floodgates are open. Some days I can't stop writing in my sketchbook all the ideas. It's wonderful to think, maybe I'll actually get to try most of them, since I've dedicated a part of every day to it. And I've been pushed to make some ideas that I've had gathering dust (always a good thing for an artist to do).
It's also becoming a bit of an addiction to watch each day as new rings are added to the group. There are so many artists with different styles and approaches. If you take a look, you are sure to be surprised, awed and have a laugh too. I'm reminds me of the Lark 500 series books. This summer I was traveling for a month. Suitcase space was precious, but I packed both 500 Wedding Rings and 1000 Rings books. Why? It just gives me energy and inspiration to see forms of pure creativity. I get the same surge checking out the new additions to the RAD gallery. So do take a look and enjoy!
The link to the whole group, with over 100 members is here. The link to just my (Mary Lu Wason) ring entries is here.
Tears for Haiti
Since we are making the ring each day, they are reflecting our lives and concerns, in some cases like a journal. As you can imagine, this past week our concerns about the conditions in Haiti have shown in the rings.
On January 13th, as the news of the earthquake was on my radio, I decided to make a carved ring. Often when you see a carved ring, it was originally carved in wax. Wax is easier and more forgiving than metal to carve. It's also less wasteful, which is important for gold or other precious metals. But carving in metal is more immediate. When it's done, it's done - no casting. And the final product is one of a kind, a testament to the time involved, unique to a memory. I wanted something to reflect my concerns of that day.
It took me several hours to work from a ring of square sterling silver metal, to the ring pictured here, which I call Tears for Haiti. Stylized tears flow one to another, in a circle of silver.
I am donating this ring to be auctioned, with other rings from the RAD group, to raise funds for Haiti relief. Thomasin Durgin of Metalriot has generously offered her time to run the auctions soon. Watch her blog for updates. I'll post details here too, when available.
