Seasons are changing (and so should we) Challenge….

So, we’re the Aspiring Metal Smiths, right? So why does so much of our work look like we should be the Aspiring Jewelers? This challenge is designed to force us into the fullness of our team name, no matter what our main focuses are.

I’m sitting here in Minnesota…watching the leaves change and fall to the ground…watching the landscape evolve…just waiting for the weather to change so I can curl up in my little nest next to my fire for the winter. I know our friends in the southern hemisphere are getting ready to break out of their shells and enjoy the summer. The seasons are a’changing! And it’s time for all of us to take a leap and change with them! I want everyone of you to look beyond personal adornment this round, and look toward ornamenting our spaces, both home and garden.

So your mission, if you choose to accept it (and I really hope you all do) is to make something for the home or garden….Think BIG people…or at lease bigger than a piece of jewelry. You can use all the skills you already have, just supersize them. If you don’t have a big torch, think about cold connections and how many wonderful things you can do with them. There’s also not a demand to spend too much money on this one… remember both of my sculptures that have won this thing were mostly made out of copper sheet. So check out the hardware stores, the plumbing departments in particular hold tons of useful materials. Even the roofing department has flashing that you can cold connect (it won’t soldier.)

And to make it a bit more interesting for those of us that have made things for the home…you MUST include a found object…..I don’t care what it is…a chunk of broken windshield prong set for some sparkle… some doodad found in the bottom of a junk drawer….some leaves and acorns to put in a bowl you forge.

Here are some of the ideas I came up with really quickly… candle holders, soap dishes, spoon rests, bottle openers, wine stoppers, jewelry trees, coat hooks for the wall, curtain rod ends, a rain gauge with a big copper flower that won’t stop blooming in a drought, a pretty picture frame…..see, the possibilities are endless! If you need more ideas, go into “house wears” category and search for “metal”…you’ll see some neat stuff there to get the creative juices flowing.

RULES: *Make one object, bigger than jewelry, for the home or garden.
*Incorporate at least one found object
*Get the photos up on the Flickr stream labeled “seasons challenge” by…NOVEMBER 19, midnight Westcoast time!!!

And the Winner is..... ASA PEARSON!

Voting has ended on this month's challenge and ASA of Asa Pearson Designs is our winner. Asa blew us all out of the water with her brilliant entry that masterfully executed a unique point of view.






Asa has done something incredible in several of our challenges, something that clearly pushed her limits and broke new ground. I'm proud to have her as a teammate and it's a pleasure to watch her grow.

In metalsmithing, each new skill is like a treasure in your mental pocket that no one can take away. The stated purpose of this team is to grow our skills in a supportive group of like minds. I'd like to ask each one of you:

Have you grown this month?

Have you failed at anything lately?

Really struggled to get it right?

If you're not failing you're not aiming high enough.

If you're not pushing your limits, trying new things

It's all comfort and complacency,

Conserving materials and building inventory

Until it's just another job instead of the absolute ride of your life.

Have you made anything lately without your customer in mind?

bottom lines all put behind

created just for the joy of learning the craft?

If not then you ought to,

because your teammates sure are,

and I promise that one day we'll watch them go far.

Asa will be posting the details of our next months challenge shortly, and I sincerely hope to see an entry from each and every one of us. I promise you will never regret it. As always, thanks for playing, you make my world a richer place.

September Challenge Entries- Inspired by Poe

This month's challenge was brought to us by Esmeralda of Silver Blueberry who chose the theme 'Inspired by Edgar Allen Poe' in honor of Halloween and all things spooky. Since we decided to stick with the deadline this month we have less entries than usual, but no shortage of beautiful work upon which to feast your eyes.

The ever-so-talented Asa of Asa Pearson Designs created this incredible copper sculpture for our viewing pleasure, inspired by the E. A. Poe story "A Descent into the Maelstrom." Asa I think you've found your calling as a sculptor!






Clarity of Scrollwork Designs created 'Lenore', a neck torque/ lariat necklace inspired by Poe's famous poem The Raven.




Autumn of Autumn Bradley was also thinking of ravens when she made this dramatic pendant.



And last but not least, Claire of Brightstar 109 entered this lovely ring featuring a twisted tree and a lone wolf howling at a gemstone moon.

Be the Change You Wish to See

I'm enrolled in an entrepreneurship course at my local community college and my assignment this week was to write a research paper on the concept of social entrepreneurship and what it means to me and my emerging business. I chose the ethical sourcing of precious and semi-precious gemstones as my subject, knowing full well that after I educated myself I would likely find it necessary to change my business practices. I hope after reading this report you'll find yourself compelled to change your purchasing practices as well.

The fiery brightness of precious and semi-precious gemstones have been desired since ancient times, but too few consumers realize that beauty comes at a painfully high price to developing nations around the world. Reports about the traffic of precious gemstones read like a who’s who of human rights violations and include everything from child labor to apartheid to modern day slavery. The occupational hazards of gemstone mining, cutting, and polishing make the use of child labor in these high risk professions even more reprehensible. Many consumers have a vague understanding that proceeds from the sale of precious stones have been used to fund atrocities leading to the term “conflict diamonds”, but rarely do they understand the scope or size of the problem, and virtually none are aware that the average Garnet or Amethyst was cut by a 12 year old boy in Rajasthan (Hoppe, 2005). Child labor in the gemstone traffic is a serious societal concern deserving global consideration and that consideration will only be effective in addressing the problem if it is aggressively championed by industry leaders.

The mining and production of precious stones has a long and checkered history. A hundred years before the concept of a fair trade initiative even existed Cecil Rhodes, the founder of De Beers, was busy building an empire by robbing indigenous peoples of their resources. Rhodes, who was infamously quoted as saying "I prefer land to niggers” (Sweet, 2002), went on to develop a conglomerate that maintained an 80% monopoly on the global diamond throughout the 19^th century (Cowen, 2000). Because some of the richest deposits of precious gemstones have been found in the poorest of counties such as India and Africa, these discoveries often lead to exploitation, apartheid, and the disenfranchising of native interests in tribal land. Even today large, well-funded foreign mining corporations are seeking to prevent the native Inuit population of Greenland from using simple hand tools to mine rubies on ancestral land as they have done for generations (Madsen, 2010). A quick web search of the name of almost any third world country pared with the words “Gem mining, production, human rights violations” will return multiple results from highly reputable sources. Civil rights violations are so pervasive in the history of gemstone production it is virtually impossible to put an accurate figure on the damage.

Underage child labor is the foundation upon which the international house of gems is built. According to Meghan Hoppe (Hoppe, 2005) of IHS Child Slave Labor News:

In 1993, India exported more than $1 billion worth of gems, which is the major export by value from India to the United States. "The majority of these exports are diamonds, which are processed and polished in Surat, Gujarat, and emeralds that are polished in Jaipur, Rajasthan…The Operations Research Group in its 1993 report singled out the diamond-cutting industry in Surat, Gujarat, of special alarm for child labor. It found children, generally boys between 12 and 13 years old, polishing diamonds for a standard of seven to nine hours a day in unhealthy conditions… In addition to diamonds, children also polish emeralds, sapphires, rubies, lapis lazuli, turquoise, corals, garnets, amethysts, and topaz

Children who belong in middle school operate drilling machines and use hazardous chemicals with little to no safety equipment while the younger ones sacrifice their bronchi at the polishing wheel. To top it all off, for the first two years of indentured servitude a child is considered an ‘apprentice’ and works for no pay. Hoppe goes on to say:

Workplace conditions are commonly bad. They are congested, poorly lit and ventilated, and over half of the industry's workforce suffers from work-related ailments such as kidney dysfunction, lung disease, stomach problems, wheezing, pains in their joints and eyesores. These are all ailments that could be prevented if measures were taken to control industrial health hazards. Doctors in the area revealed that more than 30 percent of the children get tuberculosis, seemingly due to unhygienic conditions, overcrowding, and malnutrition. Children complain of body ache and finger tips scraped by the polishing discs. The most frequent complaints are eyestrain and allergic dermatitis because of regular use of dirty water.

India is bad enough, but Africa is a hundred times worse. The beautiful lavender Tanzanite comes to us direct from Tanzania where child slaves dig it with pickaxes in rickety, water-filled shafts inside mines topped with razor wire and guarded by attack dogs (LoBaido, 2001). As Marsha White of the Gaurdian so eloquently put it “Many children worldwide are obliged to work, simply in order to eat. But that is no excuse for them to be involved in the "worst forms of child labour" (White, 2002).

An in-depth understanding of the issue begs the question of what is society in general and industry in particular doing to address the unethical origins of most of the world’s precious stones. De Beers Diamond Jewelers has the following to say in their statement on social responsibility:

The World Diamond Council has worked successfully with the United Nations, governments, and groups such as Global Witness and Partnership Africa Canada to introduce a system for the certification of the source of uncut diamonds to prevent the trade in conflict diamonds. This system, known as the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), was formally adopted in November 2002, and came into operation on January 1, 2003. Andrew Coxon, President of the De Beers Institute of Diamonds, is a founding member of the World Diamond Council and spearheaded this initiative on behalf of the diamond industry. Today, as a result of the Kimberly Process’s success, 99.8% of the world’s diamond supply is conflict free (De Beers, 2010)

This sounds all well and good, but recently several of the founding members of the Kimberly Process have resigned alleging that the system is “failing effectively to address issues of non-compliance, smuggling, money laundering and human rights abuses in the world's... diamond fields” and “have effectively condoned diamond smuggling - the very thing we were established to prevent" (IRIN, 2009). When asked about the use of child slave labor in the diamond industry Roger Van Eghen, spokesman for De Beers, told the Sunday Herald the company had no influence over working conditions and "…they should really write to the employers' unions in the countries concerned. We did say we would supply one of our people to go along as an observer. At the moment, we don't think we should be doing any more than we have offered to do and have done in the past” (Nutt, 99).

If industry is failing to adequately address the societal concerns the gem trade engenders then society must lead the leaders to effect a permanent change. Awareness and national exposure can lead to a grassroots change in the way that we do business. Fair Trade Gems encourages consumers to “vote with your dollars” and make ethical statements with their purchases. The major jewelry chains must exercise their purchasing power to demand ethically sourced gems. Artisan metalsmiths must become aware of how and where their stones are sourced and demand the ethical cutting and polishing of the gems they purchase by patronizing companies like Columbia Gem House that strictly adhere to Fair Trade Gems Protocols. Consumers of fine jewelry must be willing to pay adult wages to artisan workers instead of accepting the slave labor of small hands in exchange for a couple dollars off. The world must stand up as one and make it matter that we’re adorning ourselves with another’s pain. This alone will make industry understand that another day has dawned and we will no longer tolerate the flagrant abuse of our youngest resources. So take a moment and spread the word, take a minute to change a mind, do your part to change the world.

References

Cowen, Richard. (200, March) Diamonds, Gold, and South Africa. Retrieved from http://mygeologypage.ucdavis.edu/cowen/~gel115/115ch15diamonds.html

De Beers. (2010) Statement of Social Responsibility. Retrieved September 19, 2010 from http://www.debeers.com/page/socialresp

Hoppe, Megan. (2005, May) Child Slave Labor in India's Diamond Industry. Child Slave Labor News. Retrieved from http://ihscslnews.org/view_article.php?id=61

IRIN Global. (2009, June 22) Credibility of Kimberley Process on the line, say NGOs. Retrieved from

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=84949

LoBaido, Anthony. (2001, Dec 10) Africa's New Bloodstained Gems. World Net Daily. Retrieved from http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=11824

Madsen, Niels (2010, March 3) Greenland Moves to Formalize Apartheid System in Gem Exploration. Retrieved from http://www.truenorthgemsapartheid.com/greenland-moves-to-formalize-apartheid-system-in-gem-exploration/

Nutt, Kathleen. (1999, December 26) Festive Gems Polished by Child Labour. The Sunday Herald. Retrieved from

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4156/is_19991226/ai_n13943975/

Sweet, Mathew. (2002, March 16) Cecil Rhodes: A Bad Man in Africa. The Independent. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/cecil-rhodes-a-bad-man-in-africa-654195.html

White, Marcia. ( 2002, May 4) The Gaurdian. Retrieved from http://www.betterbytheyear.org/burkina_faso/burkina_case_study3.htm

September challenge

Okay teamies, it's time for a new challenge! I already revealed that we were going to explore the mysterious and the macabre. I challenge you all to make something that is true to the spirit of Edgar Allan Poe.

Interpretation is completely free. A corpse under the floor, a raven, something that ticks, a black cat, whatever you like! There are no rules regarding material or techniques, I'm pretty sure you will all challenge yourselves.

The deadline is October 3rd. I wanted to have the deadline at a full moon but unfortunately that doesn't happen until October 23rd. ;) At least we can have it at midnight, EST.

Good luck and think spooky thoughts.

"Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before. " Edgar Allan Poe

And the Winner Is....

The voting has closed on our August Aspiring Metalsmiths challenge and the winner is....

Esmeralda of Silver Blueberry with her incredible Jade and silver necklace and earring set designed for Gong Li.



Carole of Caroleaxium was a very close second with her pendant inspired by Anne Rice's garden gate.


And Clarity of Scrollwork Designs came in at third place with her Maya Angelou inspired bird cage necklace.


Thanks to each and every artist who participated in this month's challenge, beautiful work everyone!

Next month's challenge will be brought to us by Esmeralda and word on the street is it's spooooky, so stay tuned for all the details!

Star Struck - August Challenge Entries

Our challenge this month is brought to us by Jessica of ABellaBlue who challenged us to create a piece for a celebrity or other famous person or character based upon their personal style, vibe, and overall look. As always each of us interpreted the challenge in our own way and we have some incredible work to present this month.

Gloria of Hemlock Hollow is a True Blood fan, so she created a clever baby vampire fang ring, a treasured momento for Sookie Stackhouse.



Esmeralda of Silver Blueberry entered this stunning necklace and earring set, a red carpet worthy ensomble designed for Chinese actress Gong Li.



Claire of Brightstar 109 created this Norse-inspired pendant for the hunky Viggo Mortensen featuring Odin's raven from Viking myth



Clarity of Scrollwork Designs created a miniature bird cage for Maya Angelou, inspired by her autobiography "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings."



Addie of Scrap Metal was inspired by Madeleine Albright's love of pins and created this beautiful brooch.



And last but not least, Carole of Caroleaxium created this incredible hinged pendant inspired by Anne Rice's New Orleans garden gate by which the author is often photographed.



I think this month's entries are the best yet and I can't wait for voting to begin. Remember that voting is for team members only so if you're not a teamie please restrain your gushing to the comments section! Voting ends at Midnight on Friday...may the best woman win!