My Life In Jewels

I've been working on a new side project for the past little while.  I have started a new blog called My Life In Jewels.  I created My Life In Jewels because I wanted a place to tell my personal jewellery history and I wanted to learn other stories of jewellery.  I know that lots of people have pieces of jewellery that mean something to them and I want to learn about those stories.

Please have a look and if you have a story that you would like to share with me, I would be honored to share it on my blog with creds and links to you.

I want my love to make me a better version of myself....

I've said many times that for me Jewelry is about love. It has a history, it has an intention, it has a story.

I try very hard to walk through this world keeping in mind what really matters and asking myself, What do I want my love to look like? How do I want to give love and to be loved in this world?

This year I want love to be honest, the type of honesty that takes away your fears. I want my love to have good intentions, I want to see past what's in front of me and see what's really there. I want my love to have no expectations - it's here in front of me, in front of you right now, right at this moment and that's all I know. I want my love to make me a better version of myself. I want my love to build something amazing. I want my love to be brave. I want my love to let go of all of the hurt from the past. I want my love to trust. I want my love to fly.

I've been collecting public declarations about love............If you find any in your world send them to me and I'll add them to my blog.

Artist Residencies

I'm preparing to go on my first Artist Residency this spring. Since deciding to go, I've had lots of questions from people about the why, what, who, and how of of it. So, I'm going to tell you all more about it here and hopefully inspire some of you to start looking for your own residency experience.

I first really learned about Artist residencies last spring when I attended my first Society of North American Goldsmith's conference in Seattle. We heard an artist named Heidi Schwegler speak. She talked about her experience of doing 4 residencies in 1 year. I remember feeling inspired. How blissful it sounded to travel to another country to make art. She said she wasn't sure how she would be able to do the residencies financially and work wise, but she just started applying. When she got accepted to 4 in a 1 year period, she said everything just started coming together for her. This got my mind ticking a little.....

When I got home from that conference I started to look into residencies. Being a Jewelry Artist, I have always had some trouble calling myself an "Artist"........ I didn't go to Emily Carr, I don't have my Masters in Fine Arts....... I went to VCC a local community college and earned a Diploma in Jewelry Art and Design, I've taken numerous art and jewelry classes from other local artists, I've participated in national and international exhibitions......but still I have some trouble calling myself an Artist, weird yes. So to even look into artist residencies I felt somehow like an impostor. I found some really great websites, (listed below) that had tons of information on them. I was excited to see that there are residency opportunities all over the world and that they all have different requirements. For some you might need your masters in fine art, while others really want to offer space to emerging artists. Some are communal experiences, some are more solo driven. Some you can go for a couple of weeks, others can be months or a year.

After finding a handful of residencies that interested me I asked my beau if he would be interested in applying too and going together to one if possible. His response was, "But I'm not an artist, only you are", hmmm, interesting. My response to him, "But you've made a movie, and you have played and toured in bands nationally and internationally, and you haven't worked for anyone but yourself in over 15 years"............So.......we started applying...... two "non artists" started to apply to artist residencies, submitting proposals of work we wanted to create while on the residencies. And we started to get accepted.

We are now getting ready to go to Renkum, a small town in The Netherlands. Where I will create 30 (gasp) new one of a kind pieces of wearable art, using various types of metal wire, fabric, and found objects and he will write a script for a new movie. You know non artist type stuff!
This amazing opportunity is through an arts organization called OBRAS. They have residency opportunities in both The Netherlands and in Portugal.

The most comprehensive list of artist residencies that I found was this:

www.resartis.org
You have to just start looking through them to see if you want them and if they might want you. Some of them do require a lot of experience, and some prefer that you are emerging.


Here is a video that Heidi Schwegler made during one of her residencies. It was really this video and hearing her speak that inspired it all for me.

Wrest 01 from heidi schwegler on Vimeo.

And........There's still time to help me make the most of this experience. I have a little crowd funding project going on Rocket Hub right now. $20 of support gets you a hand written post card from Holland, and who doesn't want that?

An Incredible Opportunity

I am constantly humbled by how quickly life can change.

How suddenly we can lose someone we love.

How much time can pass before we realize we've forgot about our dreams.

Which is why when offered the the opportunity to do a 2 month artist residency in Holland I said yes, even though I had no idea if or how I could make it happen. So here I am launching a fundraising project on Rocket Hub to help me raise some money to make this incredible opportunity a reality.

For those of you not familiar with Rocket Hub it is a platform for Crowd funding. The idea is that a bunch of people give small amounts of money to help someone reach their dream. A beautiful concept! In exchange for your support I am offering some really great thank-you gifts like post cards from Holland, and of course jewelry.

Please check out my project through the link below and if you can offer any support I will be very appreciative, even the smallest amount helps greatly.

You can feel the past in precious metal......

Jewelry has a history. It has a past. It has experienced love and hope. It has experienced heartbreak and painful endings.

I often have people asking me if I can make something old into something new. I get it. We have jewelry that once was and now is not. We have jewelry that just sits somewhere dusty.

I appreciate the desire to turn it into something we actually want to wear. But I also appreciate the history of a piece of jewelry. You can feel the past in precious metal, it has an energy. Even the pieces that ended in heartbreak once experienced the energy of great love. And heartbreak also has a painful honest pure energy that is beautiful.

So, I'm mixed about turning our history in jewels into new pieces.......

Here are two pieces of my history in jewels. These are my two earliest memories of jewelry. They were both given to me by my Nana and Grandpa, who lived in Australia. The brooch was the first piece of jewelry I ever got. It is hand engraved. It is not perfect, which makes me love it that much more. The bird necklace is enameled, some of the blue enamel in the middle of the bird has chipped off, but I would never try to fix it because that chip is part of my history.

Working in Collaboration - September Shop

I am an independent artist and business owner. I work inside my own head, I make my own decisions, I create based on what moves me.

However, for the past couple of months I have been working in collaboration with other artists. Working in collaboration has it's challenges. I have seen who I don't want to be and I have seen who I strive to be. Working in collaboration also has it's connected amazing moments. For the past few months myself and 4 other artists have been preparing for the opening of September Shop. We have faced thousands of back and forth emails, last minute curve balls and the sudden drop out of one of the artists, but what we have created is an amazing beautiful shop that I am so proud to be part of.

I am inspired by all of the hard work that each of us has put into this 1 month venture. These women are talented, dedicated, and delightfully creative. I have learned a lot from my experience working with them and I am excited to finally share the opening of September Shop with all of you. If you are in Vancouver you must come and see the beautiful space that we have created. September Shop is only open from Saturday September 3rd until Wednesday September 28th Tuesdays-Sundays 11-5. Many of the pieces that we have created for September Shop are one of a kind. You don't want to miss this one! Trust me.

September Shop Address:
196 Kingsway Vancouver BC.




September Shop features the work of:

• Flight Path Designs – graphic inspired leather accessories

• Laura Bucci Handmade – image/text compositions transferred to functional fabric-based personal accessories and housewares

• Nana Fro Textile Art – textile hand dyed items for the body and the home

• Patsy Kay Kolesar Design – art jewelry combining ancient techniques in metalsmithing with contemporary techniques in enameling

• twofolds textiles – textile artist producing clothing and fashion accessories employing weaving, piece-dyeing, embroidery, and ceramics

Inspired. Connected. Nourished. Creative Spirit.

Inspired. Connected. Nourished. Creative Spirit.

These are my words.

These are the words that hang taped to my hallway wall above the painting that my 2 year old nephew and I created together.

These are the words that represent the way I want to feel EVERYDAY of my life which came to me via Danielle Laporte's Spark Kit.

My past 4 days were spent in Seattle at the the SNAG conference and I felt these words fill me up and take me to a place of enthralling enjoyment that I don't get to very often.

Inspired. Well, hello Lola Brooks. We listened to her speak on the first day of the conference and this really set the tone for me. She was engaging, intelligent, incredibly witty, and desperately inspiring. She also was wearing a denim pant suit and after she spoke I had to resist the urge to run up to her, tell her that I loved her and that I too own a denim pant suit.

Connected. I took the train down with 3 other jewelers. Simone Richmond, Stephanie Menard, and Brendalynn Avender. We shared a room together and we shared the experience. I don't remember the last time I giggled so much, had so much fun and so little sleep. We talked art, jewelry, geeked out on tool and stone shopping, shared our passions and dreams, analysed love and boys, and helped each other to navigate the twisted path of being an artist.

Nourished. Sharon Massey took one of my cards and told me she really liked my work. Deb Stoner took one of my cards and told me I had great images. The fact that I'm even near their radar makes me believe in possibilities and confirms that I'm moving in the right direction.

Creative Spirit. Everywhere you looked at this conference people were wearing art. Amazing, beautiful, creative, interesting, innovative, hand made art jewelry. I was submerged for 4 days with a thousand other people who all share my passion for taking risks, and trying new things.



Lola Brooks. Image taken from the American Craft Magazine article about her.


Here we are. Stephanie ($27 dollar Sandwich) Menard, Patsy (what happens at SNAG stays at SNAG) Kolesar, Simone (we love drunk Simone) Richmond, and Brenda Lynn (WTFBL?) Avender.


This ring was my favourite ring from the many amazing pieces at the Ring A Day show at the Punch Gallery. It's created by Victoria Takahashi, made of wood, mixed metals, polymer clay, dyed leather, and acorn cap.


A very sweet girl gave me this hand made patch. (I don't have her name, so if anyone knows who she was please let me know and I will give her the credit and link on my blog) I love this. This captures the feeling of my whole conference experience.

Metalsmithing IS for Lovers.

Thank-you to everyone who made my first ever SNAG conference one of the most Inspiring, Connecting, Nourishing, and Creative weekends of my life. xo -patsy.

A Ring A Week

I'm very excited about a new little jewelry project that I am a part of!

Starting this week until the Culture Crawl in November I will making "A Ring A Week". Myself and 4 other jewelry artists at The Onion Studio will be participating in this project. Our rules are:

• We each have to make one new ring every week starting May 1st until the week of the Culture Crawl - all designs have to be one of a kind and something that we've never made before.
• They can be made out of any materials - not just metal. They crazy, bizarre, experimental, functional or non-functional- As long as they go around your finger.
  
• They all must be for sale during the Culture Crawl - This is the exciting part for all of you! I have to warn you though - that I will likely be making all of mine in my ring size, which is a 5.5 - 6.5 depending on the finger. I know this is slightly unfair, but getting to wear a new ring each week will make this project even more exciting for me. People think that I have a huge stock of personal jewelry, but I am always making jewelry for other people, so I really only keep a few pieces to wear myself. If you are my same ring size then come early to the crawl this year, cause there will be lots of pretty rings made just for you, tehehe.

The other participating jewelry artists at my studio are, Simone Richmond, Linda Read, Heather Matwe, and Jessica Taylor.

And now the unveiling of my Week 1 Ring:

"Finding Balance" - A quirky fun little ring made as a reminder that "Finding Balance" isn't as important as being able to laugh at yourself and know that you are real - flaws, neurosis, bleeding heart and all - accept it, laugh at your not so cool moments, and move on.

Getting Ready for the SNAG Conference

At the end of May I will be attending my first ever SNAG (Society of North American Goldsmith's) Conference. To say that I'm excited doesn't even start to describe how I'm feeling about doing this. I live, breathe, sleep, inhale, think about, talk about, love - making jewelry. To be surrounded by my peers and mentors for 4 days talking about all things jewelry art and business is going to feel incredible.

I will be a part of the trunk show which features emerging artists, which is a little scary for me but so very very exciting.

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.