I was recently reading a webpage by a young pianist who, being uncomfortable with traditional musical concepts literally interprets music as colors (or color as music?), and have heard of people seeing colored auras around others like a thermal imaging scan. My own relationship with color is not that hypersensory, but color is important to me.
   I have, over many years now spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on uniquely colored gems and minerals in the pursuit of a creative muse...something that would inspire a "Lapidary Journal-worthy" piece of jewelry. Something that would push me to refine my metalworking skills beyond just throwing stuff together because I had a show coming up. Through those long years of struggling, nothing was falling into place.
                      Until recently.........
   Due to the unfortunately high upswing in the price of silver a couple of years back, I began toying with the idea of working in copper. It took quite awhile for the cogs to get moving enough to do more than just fiddle around, but when my first few cuff bracelets sold right away at the first craft show where I dared display them I knew I had to try more.
   Charles Lewton-Brain's concept of fold-forming got me hooked on the sculptural possibilities with this butter-soft metal, and in the process of repeated heating, the lovely, warm colors produced by the torch began to light a fire in my mind.
   The more I experimented with varying length of time and temperature for heating pieces of copper, the more colors I was able to produce. Suddenly, the idea of having a gemstone in the middle of a pendant no longer seemed important. The metal itself glows with passionate purples and oranges, unlike the cold, glittering surface of silver.
   The realization that I would not need to spend time at the polishing wheels, or dealing with chemical pickles pushed me toward the idea of scaling back my silver production work in order to focus almost exclusively on copper. For the time being, at least...
   With this newfound muse also comes the need to seriously work on my cold-connections skills. The patinas I am achieving so far are quite a bit unpredictable, so when I end up with one I want to keep, I can't re-heat the piece in order to attach findings or solder multiple components without risking changing the color. Wow....This means that I have to plan ahead while I work. Can I DO that? I guess I will find out. Could be a new chapter in my efforts to reverse entropy.
   I feel new energy and contentment with my work now, whereas before I felt stuck. Innovation often arises from desperation....Here's to keeping your eyes on the horizon!