So You Want To be An Artist (Part 2)

When I reached my early 30’s I began realize that I could not keep up the pace of my first years as a metal smith and I needed to come up with a plan to end the cycle of boom and bust. Boom when I finally sold a piece of silverware and bust during the long intervals between sales. Lets face it, being a "starving artist" is OK for only so long…pretty soon it gets to be a bit of a bore. I believe that almost all artists hit this realization at some point, but continuing the essence of their creative drive while securing stable income is quite a trick.

Actually it isn’t a trick at all; it is an absolute necessity and necessity is the mother of invention..

So You want To Be an Artist (Part 3)

One of the few things I had made, almost from the beginning, that were regular sellers, were hand made belt buckles. Most were made using a decorative technique called “repoussee” which creates a relief design on the surface of the silver using punches and small chisels called “tracers”. One sees this kind of decoration on old tea pots and bowls. I used it to create one of kind buckles featuring whales, sailing ships and other somewhat more whimsical designs.

Customers could have a one of a kind buckle made using a design which I drew for them and featured any animal or theme they wanted. These buckles could take as long as 3-4 days to complete and I usually sold them for around $100. Ha! At that price one can see why they were good sellers.

It wasn't long before I learned about rubber molding and lost wax casting. This was a process where I could make inexpensive copies of some of my most popular buckle designs and offer them for a lot less money than the "one off" versions. I started with half a dozen buckles and with the rubber modls could make copies which I offered in brass and sterling silver. At the time I was working out of a shop on the waterfront in Newport and the season for tourists was pretty short. I had to figure out a way to sell more buckles all the year around

Enter Joe Kadison, an independant sales represetative who carried a line of clothing, nautical gear and accessories and sold them to stores all over the eastern seaborad. He loved my buckles and he convinced me that he could sell them to some of his accounts. I agreed to give it a try and before long I found myself selling to stores from Maryland to Maine.>

So You want to be an Artist (Part 1)

The Artist As A Young Man.

In 1972, when I started working in silver, I tried to make all of my designs one of a kind works of art; masterpieces of the silversmith's craft. I carefully honed my skills, expanded my repertoire and more or less went on a metal smithing binge; working 50, 60 hours a week in my workshop. I was trying everything. Spoons, boxes, wine goblets, belt buckles, plates, trays and eventually a tea service. There didn't seem to be anything I couldn't do if I set my mind to it. I was 24. I I was single. t was Newport. It was GREAT!

But after several years of this creative blitz, I came to the realization that I might go broke trying to sell my "one of a kinds". Frankly, few people wanted to spend thousands, much less hundreds of dollars on handmade silverware (my first love). I wanted it to be the 18th century, when one's personal wealth was measured by the value of his "plate" or silverware not by their "life style". But when my 30's loomed I started to reconfigure my life plan.....and my creative parameters.