RISD CE CLASS

I am teaching a class at RISD this fall:

Jewelry Studio: Call + Respond

 

Come join me Thursday evenings, researching at the RISD Museum + making in response

For more info:

http://ce.risd.edu/course/17446?discipline=Jewelry+%2B+Metal+Arts 

Jamestown Farmer’s Market

Kendall Reiss

Contemporary Jewels

At the Jamestown Farmer’s Market

Mondays 4 – 7 pm thru August 25th

913 Fort Getty Road Jamestown, RI 02835

fall studio – growing color

 

 

Dahlia + Lisianthus from the Preservation Society Gardens, Newport

 

 

we met at the met

when the old man took his place on stage and began to play all the room fell silent.  it was the blues – he played alongside a young man – their two pianos angled inwards. they played off of one another – with one another – i wondered who they were.  i looked at the old man, i was sucked right in.  his white hair – his thick horn rimmed glasses – his silver rings : one on each finger – his seemingly frail silhouette – his black high top chuck taylor’s sporting flames.  he was gentle yet aggressive and played with a refreshing looseness that conveyed his level of comfort with his instrument – and yet after years of mastery he was coy – humble. they jammed – i watched – and when it was over neither one of them spoke a word – and left the stage with little more than a nod of their heads.

  

i encountered them on my way out – as i was running to get my car and came to know that this man’s name is mark. sam – his son, played with him on this night, ‘a rare moment’ they said because they live in different cities. mark said his rings fly off sometimes when he is playing – but that they always come back.

photo credit: Rick Farrell | mojophotori.com

Gaspésie

each time my eyes focused i was delighted to find shades of the past, a weather beaten landscape dotted by ramshackle cottages – the kind of beauty that i seek so heartily yet eludes me so often – it still lives here for now, a way of life that seems to be constantly eroding

first take from the garden

among other brightly colored baubles, these are some of the things i’ve been creating this spring…

fancy footwork

spring studio

BBF

Bertha Beth Freeman.  My maternal grandmother’s maiden name.  Her wooden jewelry box a large flat square, was hand painted with a border of verdent green which, framed scenes of gold-leafed hunters and dogs.  Inside this treasure chest, I used to pillage for hours, fingering carefully thru her collection of things.  There were many diminutive jewels to explore, a fierce gold lion roaring, finely filigreed bees in flight, and resplendent emerald hummingbirds.  But her family jewelry was the most memorable as each piece seemed to carry with it a story; these rings and brooches and watches and necklaces passed down thru generations so that each had acquired its own unique experience – watching the world from one body or another, living out one era of history then being re-given and re-born to a new owner and a new future.  I might not have known my great-grandmother, but perhaps a little twinkle of her spirit lives in the sapphire ring she had given BBF for her 18th birthday, which now sits somewhat awkwardly on my finger.  I stare at it, thinking it looks out-of-place on my hand, wondering, where has this ring gone, and what has it seen?  The life story of this ring – the same life story of my grandmother – begs to be shared.