MAKING... Always & Again...

This photo marks the beginning of GRB & Monica's new experiment: setting-up a sales point with other Makers in a newly opened shop at 106 Pike Street... a block away from the Market.

It's long been a dream of mine for the bells to have a presence in Seattle's famous Pike Place Market, since I lived nearby for the first four years after moving from Sonoma County, Northern California. Finding the first of two apartment/studios to live in downtown Seattle, close to the foundry...    now again... & this  ...  it's been keeping me busy. Busier than I wish... as I dance with retirement. Dancing harder, I must say, than than that R word suggests in English. 

These last several years I've come to the inevitable realization that I can no longer accomplish credible quality in the creative wax-carving which has been my artistic endeavor for the past five plus decades. My dexterity, but more, my vision, cause me not to belabor some loss; but I celebrate taking joy & satisfaction in what & who I am... what I have done. I love the stories of artists working unto death, but/so... I will be working in media other than bell-making. 

I began my career with a BFA in painting from The University of Denver. My fascination with jewelry began as a part-time job during college, when I learned a few rudimentary skills like soldering charms on bracelets & simple ring sizing, which encouraged me to begin constructing my designs in silver & gold. It was thus a process of self education... which I came to believe is actually the best way to learn. I began working both modes & media contiguously for years showing & selling both paintings & jewelry wherever I found clients. 

I discovered I could sell jewelry easier than canvases... particularly custom pieces & wedding rings. Learning to carve the sculptural wax models in order to cast the rings or sculptural pieces I loved as my art, contributed to making my business for a decade or more. 

Most of that work was one-of-a-kind commissions... or the few limited edition pieces, which made me aware of ways to increase my production business. By increasing affordability, I learned the joy of reaching many more appreciative clients. 

An impulse to explore making a series of resonant bell forms launched a new line in 1981 of these ancient resonant objects...  freeing me from a lingering distaste for the elitist aspects of gold & gemstones... the too-delicious parts of such creativity. I was bucking the usual direction such business. 

While becoming "the bell guy" on Vashon Island's open studio tour for several decades, I've been moving around playing any number of notions & explorations, in numerous media for these many more years of work. So I plan to continue dancing & morphing through even more incarnations of new creativity into the now of my retirement years.  

I'm passing the bells along into the competency of Monica Street, who visited one of those open studio Sundays to surprise me with her rather intimate knowledge about the bells. Intrigued, I finally, rather bluntly, turned to ask "who are you?"! Turns out she had been working at the foundry under the gag order of silence common in the jewelry industry to protect client privacy. 

I have remain closely connected with that foundry, having decades ago encouraged James, its owner, to begin his own business after leaving KKM (my original Seattle foundry/distributor). We've worked together on the bells most of of that time. Mr. Magetteri has phenomenal skill & savvy.

We've become family... familiar with our communication with a variety of capabilities. This is the good family of the Bells... a well-bred pedigree! 

A fine example of the teach/learning I celebrate. 

 

Strawberry Island...

 

I lived for 26 years on Vashon Island, Washington in the Puget Sound coming from Northern California.  I'd made a change in the bell business & was moving to be closer to the business and foundry in downtown Seattle, while enjoying a major change of viewpoint. 

A California friend had wanted me to meet Stephen Silha, a long-time resident of Vashon Island. I invited him to my 50th birthday-costume-fete & we clicked ... beginning a long-distance courtship until my move to Third Avenue between Pike and Pine, which continued easily, with just a ferry ride between us. We enjoyed having my pied-à-terre & his island home. After a few years & a remodeling project, I became a full-time Islander.

We remodeled a house built on a cliff facing Tahoma, the native name of the mountain white folks called Rainier. Over more than two decades it became a sweet home with a writing cottage we built for Stephen. I had a generous garden-level jewelry & bell design studio... all surrounded by a well-gardened series of terraced beds of vegetables & blossoms protected by a good fence. It was long known for its gentle hospitality. 

Stephen named it Soundcliff -- as both a description & a prayer for stabilizing its precarious situation. He is a writer/filmmaker, I am a visual artist. We both worked creating the garden. We've forged our several vocations into our own history. 

"Our" Island was a great bailiwick for this unique pair of creatives... bridging worlds of inner & outer travel with well grounded stability. Islands have unique ways to collect such adventurers! We each developed our separate as well as shared identities within a large community of acquaintances & deep friendships near & far.

A large collection of small wearable jewelry bells became the public aspect of my life. I quickly joined a very active group of artists residing on the Island who organized to host two annual Open Studio tours--one in May, when spring is blooming & the other on the first two weekends in December, during the holiday celebrations. Those have become very important rare opportunities for the artists in their studios to meet patrons in important, more intimate connection. 

Vashon Open Studios were very useful for the bells' visual intricacy to become evident at close inspection, and also their unique sounds. Busy or quiet, I had time to talk about my processes & to meet so many interesting, often stimulating minds. That tradition is part of the richness Vashon engenders. 

Soundcliff's garden gave rise to many conversations about plants & landscaping & ecology, as well. (Some people may have come just for the garden and the abundant pu-pus [snacks] for which we became known.) The studio also functioned as a "garden shed" between these open studios, so the GRB studio profited immensely for being well cleaned twice a year!

Another Island event useful for GRB Bells was the mid-July Strawberry Festival, with the livelier atmosphere of a fair including numerous vendors & information booths. It also for long provided a somewhat quieter area of spaces for artists to set up shop under their canopies. Easier for the bells to find space for their voices, while adding to the celebration... also one of their historic roles of joyful sound. 

Now the bells are evolving again as I am retiring & transferring the GRB Bell business to Monica [Momo] Street, who has been working with them for a decade at the foundry, as well as developing the amazing GRB Bells.com social media posts. They are still ringing out into the future... while Gordon & Stephen have moved from the island to Tacoma & the wide world the bells have moved back to Seattle to live in Momo's studio.

The news now is that the bells are returning to Vashon for Strawberry Festival this year! All three of us will voyage to staff our canopy in the Village Green... we invite you to return to the soundscape!

 Of course the Bells are always available from the website GRBBELLS.COM & plan to pop-up in an increasing number of art shows, including Proctor Arts Festival August 1 and Maryland Renaissance Festival September 19 & 20 (only).

We look forward to seeing you there, online, or in the ether...