Full Circle: One Artist Defines Success on Her Own Terms
by Bernadette Finnerty
etalsmith Linda Kaye-Moses sits at the bench in her Pittsfield, Mass., studio soaking up the light from big windows she and her husband and business partner, Evan Soldinger, insisted on when they decided to add the studio onto their house. "I'm surrounded by my jewelry books, my tools and supplies, and I feel that I'm exactly where I should be," Kaye-Moses says, content. Success has taken on many permutations, says the long-time jeweler, and through the years she's defined success in different ways. Today, success is having the ability to sit at the bench and make one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces that have meaning to her, and to her customers.
informationFor more information about Precious Metal Clay, or about the PMC Conference, visit the Web site of the Precious Metal Clay Guild at www.PMCGuild.com Kaye-Moses tried many things before she finally started making jewelry, a pursuit she has thrived on for more than 20 years. Her varied experiences included speech therapy (for which she was educated and trained), she worked as a disc jockey at a local radio station, and she also worked at a corrections facility as a therapist — part of that job required serving as a corrections officer herself! It wasn't until she took a jewelry-making class taught by a friend that she found the path she would eventually stay on. "It was love at first sight," she exclaims, still as excited about jewelry-making as she was in the beginning. "I'd always loved jewelry, and art. But I'd never even entertained the idea that I could actually do it. It took me a long time to figure that out. But once I did, I never looked back."
"Drew Her to Their Mysteries," neckpiece, rings, nesting case and scroll, by Linda Kaye-Moses. After making enough pieces to start selling at shows, Kaye-Moses met Michael Scott (founding editor of The Crafts Report), who became a dear friend. Scott encouraged Kaye-Moses to do wholesale shows and introduced her to Wendy Rosen, producer of the Buyers Market of American Craft, who was just getting started at the time. "I think I did Wendy's second show ever," reflects Kaye-Moses, who continued to exhibit in the BMAC for 13 years and even served on the show's advisory board. Around the mid-1990s, she decided to back out of the wholesale arena to focus more on her individual pieces. At one point, she and Soldinger had done 26 shows in one year, and they knew they couldn't continue at that pace." Some people handle the wholesale thing so beautifully. They can manage their businesses and still produce inspired, beautiful work. For me, it wasn't fulfilling anymore. The money was good, but I was spending too much time doing things for the business, and what I really wanted was to work on my jewelry. That's why I got into this in the first place."
Around the same time, Kaye-Moses was introduced to a new material called Precious Metal Clay (PMC). PMC is a form of pure gold or silver in a microfine powder, suspended in an organic clay-like binder, which can be moved like clay. When PMC is fired, only the binder is vaporized, and what remains is precious metal. "Using PMC allowed me to add a new dimension of texture to my work," says Kaye-Moses, who works primarily in silver and still uses more traditional jewelrymaking techniques, combining sterling silver with PMC." PMC allowed me to play with new techniques and since the resulting material is lighter than the sheet metal used in traditional methods, jewelry pieces can be larger and deeper without adding significant weight. You can press-mold it, you can slip paint with it; there are endless possibilities."
Not long after she started working with PMC, Kaye-Moses was approached to teach a workshop in the medium, which was just starting to get noticed. Just like she fell in love with jewelry, Kaye-Moses found a second calling as an instructor. "I love teaching. I learn so much from my students. It's fascinating to see how other people solve problems, and there's a lot of problem-solving in making jewelry. I'm passionate about PMC, too, and It's been wonderful to see how It's grown in popularity. When I started working with PMC, there were just a handful of teachers. But there are many more now. In July, I attended the second PMC Conference in Albuquerque, N.M., which had about 600 attendees!"
"Once Was Lost," neckpiece and nesting case. Since PMC is inherently user-friendly, many people who work with it, and indeed many who attend the PMC Conference, are either beginners, or making pieces just for themselves. Many others, says Kaye-Moses, have gotten good enough and have produced enough work to start selling it. "That excites me," says Kaye-Moses. "I love to see when one of my students makes something for the first time, or brings their work to a new level. They're stunned. They've allowed themselves to be more creative and open, and They've learned how to channel that creativity. I don't hold anything back; I want to teach them everything I know. And It's rewarding."
Since PMC is user-friendly and doesn't require the same level of skill (or tools) as other techniques or media, Kaye-Moses meets quite a few show-goers who state the line that is the bane of every exhibiting artist's existence: "Oh, I can do that." To this, Kaye-Moses responds, "Great! Take one of my workshops!"
"I think human beings are hardwired to make things. Once you're open to the opportunity and you see what you're capable of, you don't want to stop. I have more ideas in my head than I'll ever be able to make." But for Kaye-Moses, that's just fine. She's content to have come full circle. "At one point, my personal definition of success was measured in numbers — how many and which galleries would carry my work, how many collectors collected it, how many articles I had written, how many lectures I had given. While I was making those definitions, I lost track of the joy I find in creating at the bench. Today, success for me is having the ability to continue to do what I love, and to share my knowledge with others."
Bernadette Finnerty is a contributing editor to The Crafts Report.
