3/5/12

I am a prideful ass.

OK, so... self-revelation time. I too, copy shit and then conveniently forget to mention where I got the idea. Like the fact that the idea for foiling came when I stumbled upon this:
Jewelry Inspiration




An amazing pintrest collection from a lady with a fantastic eye for design, Karyn Armour, whose many pintrests you should really check out. (OK, I did add a link to her stuff in this post so I'm not all bad, but it wasn't even about foiling...) To be more specific, one artists which she featured a lot was Amalthee Creations

Collier zen lin et chanvreBIJOU CONTEMPORAIN: metal et bois
BIJOU ATYPIQUE en tôle oxydée et papier calligraphié
COLLIER CONTEMPORAIN CREATEUR en corne polie
Among the many stunning works in her collection are a handful of which use gold foil. I was riveted and wanted to try. So there. I said it.
contemporary primitive adornment made of bone and raw silk /CONTEMPORARY ASYMMETRICAL  EBONY necklace
I of course didn't go about consciously saying to myself "Lets steal this idea then not tell anyone about it." But there you go. Phew. 
The reason this came up started with last time when I said one male reader, alek, had been scared off my all the menstrual talk. Turns out she's not only female she is, as I was informed by Tribalis, the proprietess of the glorious infinitystop.  Who I thought had gotten a little this or that bit of inspiration from me and I was huffy thinking she'd never stopped by to say hi. I even admitted to myself that this made me less likely to favorite her jaw-dropping pieces though I'm always eager to favorite pieces by names I recognize from my commenters. SO... I wasn't forthright with myself about the simple fact that the idea for these wooden sticks:
One Night's Immortality. Gold foil gilded wood assemblage earrings with antique medals.Came from:
what the beach gave up - long dangle earrings
Phew.  Yeah, I suck, what of it? You should also check out all these and more in her shop:
paneris & co - amulet pouch necklaceDans le jardin de la Sultane - mixed media dangle earringsdichotomies - chandelier earringsthe couple - dangle mismatched but ever-so matched earringsAnd don't forget the sold section:
RESERVED - Cappadocia - a dreamers pouch

So... harumph.... Anyways. Had a lovely if trying couple days in Wisconsin. The quote from this weekend from my three-year-old niece: "Manina, you got big boobs." When I was changing and she saw me in a bra. Also when she realized my mom was going to read her not one but two bedtime books, she hugged the books to herself, looked up with a beatific expression of joy (made slightly less angelic by the permanent mucus cowl below her tiny shnoz) and whispered, "Today's a special day."

My sister's house is just as glorious as it could be without slipping into ostentatious and she really deserves it. She is by far the hardest working person I know. Maybe it's a tie between her and mom. My dad? Well, thing is that he does things in my same obsessive way, which makes it slightly less like work, no matter how much time he spends. My sister, on the other hand, does it through sheer force of will on 2 hours sleep. Basically, all my family is set up to make me feel like a slug, sliming my way through life.

P.S.- Crack sale ends tonight at midnight. Thank you guys for all the love.

23 comments:

Beatnheart said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Spirited Earth said...

Lol..FYI..i've been a prideful ass
more times than i'd like to think about..

Flotsam Tide said...

So when my foiled pieces come up I'll link to this post since I got the idea from you. Thank you for sharing your sources of inspiration you have such a great radar for awesomeness.

Sharon Driscoll said...

Hey Fanciful - You have got to get yourself a copy of Austin Kleon's book - Steal Like an Artist (10 things nobody told you about being creative). It's great....and very very - oh so true! We are all influenced by one anothers work. But giving credit where credit is due is always a cool idea whenever it's possible.

Numinosity said...

I was going to tell you I thought alek was a gal from infinitystop. I'm glad you got it figured out now. She does some amazing work for sure.
xoxo Kim

Anvilartifacts said...

Awww so glad your weekend had "a special day" in it. Kids just know how to savor the little things don't they?
Do I remember correctly that Infinity shop also has amazing photography?
Wonderful photos of incredible work!

Rosie Moceri said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rosie Moceri said...

What a lovely Zen teaching Fanci. :) Isn't it amazing what we talk ourselves into? Or out of. Thanks for being so honest.

And seriously, it is hard to keep track of everyones names and businesses and blogs. I can't even keep up with my own shit!

Infinitystop is seriously gorgeous. Now excuse me while I go steal ideas from her too....

stregata said...

I thought it was hilarious when you said Alek was a man - you, the male Chinese peasant, of all people... and isn't her work breathtaking?

stregata said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tribalis said...

Now you can fly, you can fly, you can fly!!
:)

alek said...

in the early days of the renaissance there was an artist called Giotto who wanted to push the boundaries of what he observed by finding a way to interpret what he saw. pretty strait forward stuff - perspective. in those days there was no internet and the christian church had systematically destroyed everything they could get their hands on that remained from the greeks and had created a limited 2 dimensional mystical world without depth but with heirachy in the visual order. but Giotto had eyes and a brain and there was light and shadow and depth of field. everything he proposed had already been proposed by the greeks who were tremendous observers and recorders of their observations.

what am i saying?going off on one - tangent thoughts - acknowledgement, so you see something, gold leaf  - used in jewelry by a very talented creator and you think, i want to play with that. the gold leaf is not original, you are not the first person to have discovered it. nether is the talented jeweler who has given you the idea to use it neither am i who was given it by a friend who had saved it from her grandfather. but in using it - in learning to use it you have come up with your own interpretation of it that is within the field of your creativity. its your idea.
do materials really need this acknowledgement, they are vehicles of your design. you are already entirely original whether you use gold leaf or shit. you acknowledge getting the idea for your wood earrings from my wood earrings, but yours are yours. entirely yours it dosnt need that acknowledgement. everything in the world is already there to be used. steal it, interpret it and make it your own. 
its only because of the internet that there is all this fuss about who is taking what from who - if you are original you have to accept that you will end up eventually on a Campbell's soup label - it dosnt matter its all about the process anyway  - the sheer enjoyment of putting things together when they flow and hum.
don't get me wrong - please, i am infinitely grateful to have been featured on your blog - amused that it has come from a gender confusion. you are an extremely generous and original creator, you share and you learn and you evolve and your output is phenomenal because you have the drive of a genuine artist.
so in this very very long winded (somewhat socially inept) way i also acknowledge your influence on my work, i thank you for the materials you have shown me and i would fav every single item in your shop if it was not so indiscriminate and i would comment more, but i have precious little time as it is and someone always seems to have said it before me.
like tribalis - who has said it so much simpler and clearer than me - fly!
thank you marina

Anonymous said...

Aaahmen to that.

Michelle York said...

Here I was..all the plans in the world for the day and you come along with this incredible posting with all the links..Urghhhh..Oh Disciple, where are you when I need you?
Thanks for the blog Marina..

Michelle York said...

Hmm, my finger had a hiccup..almost got it right..DISCIPLINE..was the word I was looking for..Can't be a disciple without discipline eh?

Anonymous said...

Alec you put that so eloquently, I love the idea of sharing ideas and if we were all given the same beads and metal to work with, you just know that each of us would create something that was both different and in their individual style.

Anonymous said...

Smacks self round head- Alek, apologies x

dinnaforget said...

I make stuff too, and I steal from you guys all the time. If I ever get around to selling my stuff, I'll owe lots of brilliant people some major acknowledgments. Marina and Alek, you have both been responsible for showing me a path out of the overly fussy maze I tend to get trapped in with every new project. The single idea of using steel wire, for instance, has freed me to experiment without the fear of wasting all the sterling & gold I used to believe was an essential material for a serious jewelry artist. Anyways, the way I deal with the guilt-ish feelings I occasionally have when I try out somebody else's idea in my own work is...wait for it... when I see something for sale in your shops that I love, I buy it. Not eveything I love, of course, I'm not made of disposable dough, but the things that strike me as really geniusy I buy. Even though I could re-create them if I wanted to, I don't, because I can't re-create the most important thing they offer: the wonder and mystery of another person's mind and inspiration. You guys rock my world.

Chelsea said...

You're easy-going on everybody else and hard on yourself. You *tell* us all to copy you and be free about it, but you call yourself mean names when you do it. I mean, credit and all that is good, yes. I guess the real question is: how would you best like US to credit YOU for the inspirations you give us, huh?

rubyd said...

I think its really called inspiration..not stealing. It's the looking that generates ideas. Then its the artist who breathes that special something into them.
I love what Alek had to say about your dazzling creativity and output. I am in awe of it.
I also find Alek's work rather startling too.
Both of you are artists first- actually creating mini sculptures or assemblages that have their own true life.
If one just saw the image without reference to size on some of your work, it could just as easily be an 8 foot sculpture!

alteredarcheology said...

This is the first comment I'm ever leaving on a blog, hope I'm doin it right. I've admired your work for quite awhile and finally treated myself to a few Fancy originals awhile back. I LOVE my pieces! the bracelet I bought even has those cool sparkly headpins from your tutorial. Anyway, since then I've been uber inspired to try my hand at some more earthy projects. I've only been making jewelry a couple of years but I am an assemblage/collage artist so this feels really natch. I am SO happy that I found a place among not only you Marina, but all these amazingly talented artists where it's ok to use the old steel wire from my chainmaille making days in the early 90's, and the black patina dad gave me years ago from old stained glass projects. "I've always hated shiny shit". I'm finding my voice thanks to all of your inspirations! I hope one day to be an influence and inspiration myself. Wow, this got lengthy, that's what happens when I get more than 10 minutes away from my 2 year old. ;))

quisnam said...

This is me stopping by to say hi. I've definitely been influenced by you, not least because you've helped me to find my artistic voice and be brave in my work. I'm a little shy about commenting on others blogs but I did want to thank you for being so generous. Kate

Penelope said...

Ideas don't belong to anyone, they're product of the The Muse. Honestly we've been harassing one another for so long now I have no idea what started as my idea and what I stole from you and vice versa. So it is with others- some stuff I come up with and then see it later and think 'cool they did it too' and other stuff I see that's earlier (and the same) as something I've done and think 'did I get that idea from them?'

The gold foil for example- I remember not long ago I bought a gold leafing pen intending to foil some metal; it was a self-generated idea borne from figuring the cheapest way to replicate ancient Etruscan pieces. I didn't tell anyone (even you! GASP!) because I forgot about it until I saw your blog post where you first showed us your foilwork. But it didn't bother me- you weren't the first to foil (as illustrated above) and I won't be the last.

The point I'm making here is that ideas flit and fly all over the place - to stand up and declare something as your invention is a waste of time and slightly foolish- I hadn't seen anyone else hammer bangles for earrings before me but it's numb-headed to think someone hasn't done it before- it was such an obvious idea!

There's nothing new under the sun- any artist who sees an element of their work in other people's should give thanks that at least someone has recognised their talent. As for you- I don't think there's an assemblage jeweler on Etsy that hasn't gotten something from you, whether or not they know it. You are a pioneer.