What's On My Bench

It was an enameling day in my studio today........

New Jewelry

New Cherry Blossom Necklace
I live on a street that is lined with big lovely cherry blossom trees. These trees are charming all year round, but they are absolutely divine when they are full of bright pink cherry blossoms. I so wish that this divineness stayed longer, but the cherry blossoms, like so many beautiful moments in life only stay for a very short time. The Cherry Blossom Necklace is a special necklace for those moments in life that are the most divine. 
Sterling silver, copper, enamel, freshwater pearls.

Renkum Artist Residency - A Little Movie.

While I was on my artists residency in Renkum Holland I created jewellery pieces based on the theme of movement, change, and growth.  I watched spring bloom around me and sewed brightly coloured felt into flower petals.  I accepted the changes that have been heaved my way recently and twisted wire into wheels.  I propelled myself to the other side of the world to solder wire into wings.  While I was doing this, my beau was making this video.  It's not until coming back to Canada until I realized how connected this video was to the work I was creating.  

Jewelry For Your Wall

When I was in Holland my workbench faced a big window overlooking a garden.  I would start my work day by quickly sketching one piece of the garden.  I didn't want this act to take up a lot of my time.  I wanted my eyes to hone in on one detail from the garden and quickly transfer it to paper.  It was like my little daily exercise before I started "the real work".

The garden I was looking at bloomed while I was sketching it.  Pinks, purples, reds, and oranges opened into life in front of me.  Each day I was excited to wake up and see the changes happening outside, and then one day I started to see my sketches differently......I started to add metal to them.  I was twisting wire that represented movement, change, and growth.  I was making these little wire tornado like earrings, so I started sewing them onto my sketches. They became these little objects for your wall......a huge stray off of my regular path.  Something I wasn't even quite sure I was comfortable with, but it felt right so I kept making them.

When I was presenting this work at our dinner in Renkum one of the artists there suggested I view it as jewelry for your wall, which I loved!

So here it is, your first glimpse at my Jewelry For Your Wall and the blooming gardens which inspired them.

Video of My Artist Residency in Holland

Being Brave

I've said before that I have a million fears. I am getting ready to leave my life for 2 months to do an artists residency in Holland. I leave in a week. I am full of fear. Now that it is here, now that this is happening I think it's all a little nuts. I'm actually stepping away from my everyday routines to live in another country for two months.......in hopes that I will create new art.......this is hugely scary for someone who is scared of everything......I don't want to feel scared, I soooo want to be brave, but my instinct, my comfortable place is to go to fear.

Why is being brave so hard for some of us? I look at the amazing people in my life. My mother, left her whole entire family in Australia, including a twin sister to move to Canada to be with my Dad. My friend Amy does a backpacking adventure on her own every year, my friend Julia has picked up her whole entire life a couple of times and started over in a new country. That's some freaking brave shit.

I want to be brave. I want to take risks. I want my art to take risks.

"I want to hear jazz with my eyes closed, and dig my toes into the sand dancing. I want to climb to the summit and yell and sleep under the stars. I want to laugh my head off and play marbles and sleep in and eat croissants in bed with butter and marmalade and spill coffee and wear lace and trip holding your hand because I am listening so closely."
-Sabrina Ward Harrison

The next time you read this I will be writing it from Holland.......

Blue Path, Kukenoff Gardens, The Netherlands.

Alchemy Exhibition

I wanted to share a couple of my favourite pieces that are currently in the exhibition "Alchemy - Transformation in Contemporary Enamels". I received the exhibition catalogue in the mail a couple of months back and danced around with excitement while looking through it. My Wedding Cake Ring is included in this exhibit and is in the company of some amazing enamelists!

The Alchemy Exhibition is put on by The Enamelist Society. Averill B. Shepps the President of the Enamelist Society opens the catalogue stating "The exhibitions are integral to the Society's principal purpose to promote and encourage enameling because they represent much of the best work that was done in the medium in the last two years. The Board recognizes the importance of producing the catalog because it represents a permanent record of current work in enameling in any given year."

Alicia Boswell - USA
Ossify
Brooch
Champleve. copper, enamel, sapphire, paint, stainless steel


Jessica Calderwood - USA
Conceal
Wall Panel
Limoges. enamel, copper, laser-cut steel, brass, resin


The Alchemy Exhibition Schedule:

• September 9 - October 29, 2011 at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN.
  
• November 14, 2011 to January 13, 2012 at the Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN
  
• March 9 to June 3, 2012 at the Metals Museum, Memphis, TN

A Ring A Week Exhibition This Weekend!!!!!!!

5 Artists
28 Weeks
140 One of a Kind Rings

The Onion Studio Building 1103 Union Street

On exhibit and for sale at this weekend's Eastside Culture Crawl.

Friday November 18th 5-10
Saturday November 19th 11-6
Sunday November 20th 11-6

Little Details, Little Moments......

If you know my work a little, you will know that I like lots of lovely details.

I like swirls and twists........


I like colour, texture, pearls, and patterns.............



I also like the little moments in life.........

I like the little glances, the small kisses, the fluttering feelings.

I like getting distracted while walking down the street by the deep fuchsia colour of a blooming peony.

I like the heady scent of the freshly watered marigolds that stops me in my tracks and keeps me from getting where I'm going on time.

I like to stop to pet the purring cat on the sidewalk.

I like to take a break from my run to watch 12 baby Canadian geese fall all over each other.

I take comfort in the little details and the little moments.

I have a lot of change going on in my life right now. Good change, great change, exciting change, change that scares the bejeezus out of me. So for my Week 7 ring a week I went back to what is comforting for me. This ring has lots of lovely little details. A silver ring shank that is hammer textured. I've added 24k yellow gold bits to the ring shank. Set in the tubing is a little pink felt "petal" and then stemming from the petal is silver wire dotted with pretty pink pearls.

Steel Wire, A Ring A Week...and What Happens Next.

What comes Next?

As an artist and business owner I never quite know what will come Next. I can write business plans and goals but they can change in an instant. Opportunities come up that I have to grab onto. Inspiration hits and a new idea and new direction unfolds. I've accepted this constant flux that my world works in and I'm always in awe of the new places that my art and business take me to.

For the past couple of weeks I have been playing with steel wire.

This is Next for me.

It is different. It is not what I expected.
It sat on my table for months.
I looked at it each day thinking about it, but not quite sure what to do with it. Then one day a few weeks ago I picked it up, I unraveled some of it and I started to see it differently. I have been twisting it, looping it, playing with it in my hands and with my pliers. I've been getting to know it. I've been letting it get to know me. I'm not sure what will come out of it exactly. But it feels right for this moment of my life and I'm willing to lean into it and see what happens Next.

Here's whats happened so far:

Week 4 Ring for my Ring A Week project.

Week 4 Ring Version 2.

Week 5 Ring for The Ring A Week Project.

I've fallen for these little wire wheels and I keep making them in different sizes. I'm going to try enameling some of them and turning them into a neck piece.



What is also happening Next for me is September Shop. September Shop is a Pop-up Retail venture for the month of September. It will feature my jewelry and the work of 5 other local female artists. You can join our Facebook page if you would like to stay in the know. I would love to see you at our opening Gala, it's going to be an exciting and playful September!

Embracing Change

Timing is everything........

When I display my jewelry for shows I like to share the stories behind the pieces. This past Culture Crawl I had my Love Story Necklace displayed on one of my mannequins. Pinned to her torso I had my favourite quote by Mary Oliver,

"To live in this world, you need to be able to do three things:
to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones
like your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go, to let go."

People stop and they read it, and for some people it resonates. I had one woman come up to me and say "it's nice to see a designer who gets that jewelry is all about love"

It sounds so simple, but it means so much to me. Jewelry is about love.

This afternoon when the sun was shining I took my sketchbook to the park up my street and I started sketching new jewelry designs. I just started moving the pencil and drawing what ever was hitting me....but nothing brilliant was hitting me. Then I started writing....."It's always about the emotion for me, the thought, the moment, the feeling that inspires the piece.......So where am I at today? What am I feeling?.......I'm embracing change......I'm waiting with great respect for the Cherry Blossom trees on my street to bloom........I'm being open to the possibilities......and I'm letting a little bit of hope back into my life."

After connecting with where I was at, I started sketching again....and the designs came to me.

Timing is everything......

Jewellery Sample Sale

Jewellery Sample Sale

Patsy Kay Kolesar Design &
Simone Richmond Jewellery

Sample Sale, Cookies, and Tea

We're having a SAMPLE SALE, baking some cookies and brewing some tea........

For those of you who came to our studio during the Culture Crawl on the day we had our seconds table.....you know what incredible deals we had there. Our seconds table was HOT and everything on it sold out in less then a day.

We will be offering seconds, samples, and lines from times past at some amazing prices. This is our first ever SAMPLE SALE and if you're a sample sale junkie like myself then you know that the first one is always the best.....

Join us this Sunday
February 13th from 1pm - 4pm:
Please email me info@pkkdesign.com and I will email you the address of the sale.

Patsy Kay Kolesar Design In the Media

Patsy Kay Kolesar Design - Some of my more famous moments........


I was chosen as 1 of the 5 cool Culture Crawl finds......such an honor! You can click on the picture to link to the full article or you can scroll below to read the lovely write up about Patsy Kay Kolesar Design.

Patsy Kay Kolesar Design (The Onion Studio [1103 Union Street])
This Vancouver Community College jewellery-art-and-design grad indulges her love of colour and pattern in a unique mix of enamelwork and metalsmithing. She sifts enamels through silkscreens to achieve the scrolling patterns on the discs and ovals that typify her artful pieces, which somehow end up looking ancient and contemporary at the same time. What’s new: As well as her ready-to-wear pendants and earrings, look for stunning one-of-a-kind pieces, like the She Said Yes necklace, replete with twisting sterling silver, damasklike enamel, and pearls in pink, white, and chocolate brown. “They’re all exploring love and the complications of love stories,” Kolesar explains of her pieces. Price range: $45 up to $450 for the most elaborate one-off creations.

My beautiful photo used in this article was taken by Abbye Dahl.


September 2009 - One of my images was chosen for the Vancouver One of a Kind Show's marketing campaign. It was used on billboards and buses. This photo was taken by the very talented Fashion Photographer Mike Lewis.


This is a close-up of my name on a billboard.....no big deal....really, just my name on a billboard, whateves.

The She Said Yes Necklace was chosen to be part of a national exhibition in Toronto, at the Zilberschmuck Art Jewellery Gallery. The exhibition was entitled "Connection". Jewellery Artist's were asked to create a piece reflecting on the word "Connection". I created the "She Said Yes Necklace" Jewellery Magazine did a little write up about the exhibition.

Eastside Culture Crawl - What it means to invite you in

In the spring I moved my studio to the Eastside. Along with moving into a space shared with some of my best friends I was also moving into a space that was a part of the Eastside Culture Crawl.

The Eastside Culture Crawl has been happening for 14 years in Vancouver. It officially began in 1997 with 45 artists in 3 Strathcona studio buildings, The Onion building (my studio) being one of the 3 originals. The first event was attended by a few hundred people. Now 14 years later there are over 300 artists in 60 studio buildings and the event is attended by over 10,000 people.

The Culture Crawl has to be one of my most favourite events that happens in Vancouver. It is such an incredible honor to be participating in it. For this weekend only we will all be opening up our studios to the public. Usually our studios are private. The days I go to my studio I will wake up at around 6am, roll out of bed, make coffee and head straight there. I will stay there for hours.....sometimes taking a break, walking down to the Union Street Market to get more coffee. I will chat with the other artists in my studio, inspired by the creative energy in the building. My creative process is mostly solitary, it's inside my head, it's inside my soul. My creative space, my studio is also mostly solitary, it is small, it is filled with things that I love -tools, metal, and things that inspire me -a picture of my baby nephew, rough pieces of sky blue larimar and royal blue lapis lazuli.

When we open the doors to our studios we are saying something bigger then come and buy our art. We are letting you into our creative space, the place where we explore, take risks, make mistakes, and some moments create things that are exceptional. We are asking you to feel something, the creative energy that moves us to keep going back into our studios. We are asking you to experience art, and to get to know the artists. We are even hoping to inspire you a little and inviting you to come over to our side, to draw, paint, stitch, move metal...............join us......

Prepare to be Amazed

The Eastside Culture Crawl
Friday, November 26th 5pm-10pm
Saturday, November 27th 11am-6pm
Sunday, November 28th 11am-6pm
The Onion Studio 1103 Union Street
Vancouver, BC
www.eastsideculturecrawl.com

Weddings and Pretty Things

Delighted to be featured on the lovely New York blog
Weddings and Pretty Things........