Interviewi with Millie Marotta - creator of adult colouring books

I was able to interview the lovely Millie Marotta - creator of beautiful adult colouring books with Culture Toronto recently.

Animal Kingdom is so intricate and I am looking forward to many days of colouring in the lines.

Check out the interview at Culture Toronto here.

enamel in jewellery, enamel in teeth

I'm halfway through my fourth semester of Dental Technology at GBC and it's a busy one. It's our first semester working with porcelain for our restorations and it's challenging like all things in this program are. 

Luckily for me my enameling work is very similar in some ways. 

Like in enamel jewellery, creating a porcelain tooth is very technique and time sensitive. You need a steady hand, you have to balance things in precarious manners, and you can either be pleasantly surprised or horribly devastated upon opening the kiln.

Like in jewellery, you can open the kiln and find that your piece fell off it's stand and is now in a pool of enamel material.

Like in jewellery, you can pop in a piece covered with powder that is delicate and hard to handle, but in the end becomes a glossy, weighty piece that is better than you imagined. 

ten things that i love recently:

01. the movie Pitch Perfect

02. hot chocolate milk black tea

03. metallic nail polish

04. Radio by Lana Del Rey 

05. deep fried squid tentacles (I normally hate deep fried food)

06. the game Cards Against Humanity

07. pink/peach/salmon coloured tops and dresses

08. hemp hand protector for my perpetually dry hands 

09. this Shakespeare insult generator

10. the novel Code Name Verity

ideas that i like to visit

I am inspired by so many things.

Some appear more frequently than others

and some are sitting on the sidelines for now.

Some things are more easily made into tangible things - aesthetic things.
Some are just ideas that I like to visit again and again.

 [Woven Enamel Necklace in Pastel Turquoise Enamel, available here]

When I first applied for art school, I didn't know that I would have to choose a major. I had this grand idea that I could just be an artist and do whatever art form I chose for four years.

I eventually chose jewellery but I still took classes in textiles, ceramics, woodshop, metalshop, furniture, and bookbinding.

[Scalloped Enamel Earrings in Grape Purple, available at Organic Metal Gallery and Etsy]

So it doesn't surprise me that my jewellery can be inspired by scalloped collars, or woven forms, or the colour of glazes.

I love the fragility of fabric, how it's held together by infinite numbers of tiny threads, as well as the strength and durability of metal. I think it's something I need to explore some more.

working on the shop

I've been off school for almost three weeks now, but my breaks are rarely real breaks. I'm one of those people that enjoy being fairly busy.

It's hard for me to be idle.

[faceted bronze necklace with sterling silver chain, limited edition, available in the shop now]

I'm excited to make some new cast work in silver, add some more textured aspects to my work. So I've been playing around with some wax at home until the studio is open again from the holidays.

And I've been busy taking photos of some of my jewellery, editing them and putting them up in my online shop. It's the most full my shop's ever been, and I'm looking forward to filling it up some more since I have a lot of pieces I should have in there.

Maintaining the shop is quite a bit of work, more than you'd think. I wish I had an assistant...

Beauty in useful things

I feel like a lot of artists of my generation are having the same problem.
We are torn. Indecisive.

Unsure that what we are doing is worthwhile or beneficial.

By being an artist am I being selfish with my life?

Could my efforts be put towards something else?

Does what I do matter to anyone but myself?

Do others understand this need to create? 

What do my dreams and wants matter?

I love to make beautiful things, but there is beauty in useful things too.

I like Dental Technology because I feel like it merges practicality with my artistic nature.

I like the feeling that I can help someone, 

that I am making something useful and necessary.

There is art in it.

There is symmetry, subtlety, curves and textures.

There is the satisfying sound of something clicking right into place.

Trying to find balance is a hard thing to do.
It does not come about by accident, only by design.

a ring in steps

I've always been interested in seeing process work. In my final year at OCAD University we had to document all stages of our work, and I've been doing so for the past three years. 

Most people don't know how jewellery is made. They're visibly shocked when they find out that their rings can start off as small grains or flat sheets of metal - that it is by our hands that they come to be.

If you're interested in a ring like this, they're all one of a kind and you can find them at my etsy shop here.

the bigger picture

There is always the bigger picture.

That something to work towards -

that something worth fighting for.

It is something I need.

For some reason I am always so close.
So close I can see the outlines of it.
So close that I start to move things around for it -
that I make decisions based on it.

And I start to consider it mine.

Now, I can make plans, but I am not the only planner.

I can want things, but when I don't get them

I have to consider that they would not have been good for me -

that they were never meant to be mine.

for whatever comes

I believe in signs - that some things are not meant to be.

I trust in them.

What point is there to fight what is not meant to be yours,

when your path is meant to be another path?

But I also believe in fighting for what you want,

in giving your all,

in just waiting and seeing.

The trait I admire most is strength -

strength of will,

and strength of character.

Because it was what I wanted for myself,

and what I always strive to have.

Because what I always ask and seek for in the end, is 
to be strong enough for whatever comes.

timing

Time is a funny thing.

It cannot be rushed
and it will not wait.

Patience is the hardest thing I've had to learn in my life.

With it, almost anything is bearable.

With it, good things come.