The Book Guild - Chapter 20

Welcome to the fourth edition of The Pulse -- The State of the Art -- a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. Nearly 150 artists have answered a list of questions which make up The Pulse. Their responses will be presented as a series of online and print projects. Secret Sunday was the first project and the links to all the secrets can be found on the sidebar of my blog. The Book Guild is the second project and Chapter 20 starts right now!


All artists participating in The Pulse were asked to name their favorite art books. The Book Guild will present this list, along with links, book reviews, giveaways, and interviews with many of your favorite authors. And as members of The Guild, I am hoping YOU will participate by leaving comments related to the books in each post - for example thoughts, book reviews, personal experiences, or a link back to your own blog posts that include artwork based on a project in the listed book.
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Chapter 20: Stephanie Lee

Kecia Deveney and Jen Crossley both chose Stephanie Lee's Semiprecious Salvage: Creating Found Art Jewelry as their favorite art book.

Stephanie shared the following with The Altered Page...

"Writing this book was an awesome experience for so many reasons. Of course, the process of a little piece of jewelry going from my worktable (a rickety old dining table shoved in the corner of our cramped living room at the time) to an actual book sitting on the shelves of a book store near you was an amazing learning experience. Call me naive, but I had no idea that so many steps and amazing people were involved! I loved every new bit of information that came my way that helped me understand the process.

But the biggest (and ongoing) eye opener for me was realizing that the topography of creativity is as rugged and textured as any Americana skyline. There is no singular mountain of skill we are all climbing where there are people higher and lower than you, in a clear, straight line. Never in a million years, did it occur to me that my book would forever be "new" to someone, somewhere out there...that there would forever be a someone whose eyes were just being opened to this realm of creativity.

In the classes I teach all over this country, I am so grateful to be able to share some small tidbit that makes one person's eyes light up with possibility. In those same classes, I walk away with my head spinning from the creativity that bursts out of all the amazing designs that the students create from what I have shown them. Things I would have never thought of myself.

I guess I figured this book would be seen by all who might ever have interest within the first few months of availability and then quickly be tossed aside as the next better thing came along. Even more surprising, was the realization that seasoned, experienced jeweler's would be intrigued by my basic, cave-womanish approach to metal construction and scoot a little sideways on their upward climb to knowing everthing - taking a little pleasant detour through my approach. This approach being born mostly of a sort of cluelessness to how thing are "supposed" to be done and figuring out some way myself to make something work with what I had on hand. An approach which I am hoping to refine with each minute at the work table.

This is the ways things are. We all want to figure out how to make something work and what it will look like when we are done. We hope it will speak of what we want to say, and, even better, be fun to create in the mean time. We look left and see our fellow climbers and learn from them. We look right and are able to teach other fellow climbers. Status looses ground here where we are all traversing the valley's and hills of creative pursuit when a love for learning takes the lead."

Thank you Stephanie!

You can visit Stephanie at her blog Semiprecious Salvage.