Focus on Stem Cells - Collaboration piece

Stem cells. What do you know about them? With the rise of the concept of stem cells, you’ve probably heard them both exalted and vilified in the media. There’s a lot of hype. What you may not know is that the original identified stem cell was actually the blood cell stem cell or hematopoietic stem cell (see what I did there? It all comes back to immunology!). In fact, HSCs have been in use for therapy for a long time, particularly for cancer treatment. You can read in more detail about this on the Canadian Cancer Society website, which has a nice, accessible description about it.

While most stem cell therapies remain more science fiction than science fact, there is a lot of research happening around stem cells, and understanding their development, as well as how they can be used to intervene in health and other areas of biology. One researcher focusing on this area is my colleague and friend, Prof. Jennifer Mitchell, based at the Cell and Systems Design Department of University of Toronto. So, when she approached me about designing some special pieces for her, I was excited about the opportunity to work with her again. I had made a one-off piece for her previously: a representational ball of stem cells, in my early days of designing. This time, the brief was to revisit that piece, evoking her focus of using embryonic stem cells models to understand how the develop into other cell types.

A hint of the first piece I made in 2019, alongside the microscopic image of a stained ball of ES cells. The blue staining is a nuclear (DNA) stain that fluoresces blue under the right wavelength of light!

I fabricated this one, and it had alot of features that I liked, but it had some aspects that I wanted to fine tune more, so it was great to have a chance to reconsider this design for something that I could produce again in the future. This time, I went the casting route, and carved something in wax.

Wax model of stem cell ball

This allowed me to make something flatter, but still with a lot of dimension. I then added a back plate to close it, a simple, hidden bail, and added the felt, and voila! A new sophisticated cousin was born.

Finished pendant, sterling silver with needled blue felt

I’m loving the way it turned out (and Jen was pretty pleased too!). You can see one of these on display in Cell Systems and Biology, if you’re passing that way, along with more explanation about Prof. Mitchell’s research. Want one of your very own, or know someone who would? You can visit my Shop Page to get one!

Art, Science and a day out this Saturday at Science Rendezvous

The weather seems to be perking up, and so is the exhibition/event season. I’m excited to be able to participatein the SciArt Gallery as part of Science Rendezvous this coming Saturday, May 13th, 2023, 11am - 5pm . Come out to see my jewellery in person, hear more about why and how I do my art, and see some new work that I will be unveiling in person.

Science Rendezvous:

·        Is FREE

·        Is an annual, all-day festival

·        Brings science out of the lab, onto the street

·        Encourages public involvement in STEAM (science, technology, engineering art and mathematics)

·        Involves U of T departments, local organisations and community

·        Engages interest, and encourages hands-on experiments

Hope you make it out on Saturday! Stop by to see me, in the Sydney Smith building at the University of Toronto St. George campus, and say hello!

Breaking News.....

It’s almost the end of the week (although not so much for me!), and I thought I’d share a bit of news with you. If you were wondering more about me, and some of my jewellery processes, you can head over to a website called The Node. They have a regular feature on a SciArtist, and this month, they’re featuring me!

You can see the feature here. Happy reading!

Have a great weekend!

Slow sewing- Creating a quilted vest

I think it’s no secret that I love to sew! Although these days I often don’t get as much time to do any “fun” sewing (All sewing is fun, of course, some is just more fun than others!) as I might like. I FINALLY finished something recently, that I STARTED in the summer of 2021. Frankly, it’s not the longest standing project I’ve worked on, but it definitely took longer than I wanted!

I had the pleasure of taking a workshop (virtually of course!) with the lovely Sandra Johnson, who lead a day of making a quilted jacket. Well, I made it a vest, I didn’t like it. And I didn’t manage to do my homework, so I didn’t spend the day sewing a garment so much as trying to make my fabric!

I improv pieced the base for the back and two side fronts, and then appliqued a bunch of my signature cell shapes on the back!

Eventually I managed to get the base all put together, and then it was time to quilt! I can never manage to keep it simple, so I did a combination of machine matchstick quilting and then the back got some free motion quilting and big stitch hand quilting.

So, sometime last summer, I managed to cut pattern pieces, fit them to myself and get them sewn together. I embroidered a two inch shawl collar, added some cap sleeves, and voila! A finished vest.

I loved making my own fabric, although it was time consuming, and it was great to make a really one-of-a-kind garment (I hate it when I see my clothes on other poeple!). It really re-invigorated me, and I was so inspired to see what others on the workshop made, as well.

What do you do when you want to be inspired? Drop me a line and share one with me!

Toronto Outdoor Art Fair 60 years

It’s certainly been an interesting time of late. I was just sort of getting my jewellery practice off the ground, and the pandemic hit. I had some big plans for shows and development in 2020 that, well, mostly didn’t happen. Certainly, even in 2021, alot of the shows are not really occurring, although alot of virtual events have popped up. I haven’t been participating in them, but I did apply to the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair, which is a juried show.

You may or may not know about these things, but as a relatively junior goldsmith (in terms of length of career so far!), it’s a pretty big deal for me to get into a juried show.  Honestly, I think even when I’m old and grey(er), I’ll still get a big charge out of it, that’s just kind of the way I am!

Me, looking excited, you just can’t tell, because I’m wearing a mask :). Actually, it’s from a while ago, as I found out in April, but I was very excited the day I found out!

What’s a juried show? you say.  Well, a juried show means that the show/sale/exhibition is curated, and there is a competitive process involved in being accepted to participate.  You have to tell them who you are and what you’re about, you need to submit professional looking images of your work and say what you will be exhibiting/selling.  Then a panel of people looks at all the applicants and judges you (eek!). I find it a bit nerve wracking, even though it’s not (usually) an in-person process.  You just have to wait for the answer about whether you’ve been accepted or not to eventually pop up in your email. (To be honest, this is shorter than in science—I’ve written research grants that take up to a year to get an answer about, art/craft shows are usually a couple or a few months—thankfully for my finger nails!!)

The show takes place July 2nd-11th, with lots of great programming. And…..all the artists profiles are up now, so you can browse already, you just can’t buy until the show goes live! I’m pretty happy with my profile- you can see it here. I am featuring a couple of things that you can see on my shop page, but it does mostly have new work, or work that you might not have see before, so I think it’s worth checking out!

I hope you’ll join us for this legacy event! Engage with artists, browse curated collections, enjoy art talks, studio tours, and buy art from 400+ juried artists at TOAF.ca

I will be doing some special videos and social media during the show, so I hope that you will check out my instagram and facebook pages! Drop me a line if there is anything you’d specifically like to know about!

Hope to hear and/or see you soon! Stay safe!

-Robin

Construction of a New Piece

As an independent goldsmith, I make a fair number of pieces that are small batch productions, so, while they are all unique in their own way, they’re still of a similar design, and generally use similar methods.  Part of my practice, to keep exercising my creative muscles is to challenge myself to make larger pieces on a semi-regular basis.  Last year, I made this piece:

Oxidised sterling silver, 10k yellow gold, blue topaz and sapphire necklace with roller printed elements and two-tone blue needled felt. This necklace is very kinetic, and hangs about 19" long.

If you’re familiar with some of my work, you’ll see that it incorporates a lot of different elements from other pieces that I’ve made, but puts them together in a new and more elaborate way, incorporating some gold and more precious gems than I might normally use.  (If you're interested in more information about why I use these elements, you can read a bit more here.)

This year, I set myself a similar goal: to make a larger, statement piece, that incorporates a lot of elements that I normally use, in a larger format, and incorporating or extending my skills at the same time.  This piece presented some challenges for me, in terms of the physical construction, because I couldn’t use a lot of my normal techniques to create the individual pieces.  This made it a lot of fun (I like practical problem solving/troubleshooting), but also rather frustrating at times. 

Some pictures of the necklace in process

starting to put the elements together

One down, one that needs alot of laser welding to get it together!

Just the finishing to go!

This necklace is part of my sci/art collections, and is entitled Invaders/Defenders. Since it is more specifically an art jewellery piece, the design is associated with different symbolism for me.  The piece has two different finishes.  The oxidised/dark element represents the infectious invaders, with the mostly oval cabochon sapphires being reminiscent of a bacterial shape, and the random placement showing some of the disorder that happens in the infection process.  In contrast, the matte silver/light element represents the immune cells that defend against infection and disease, with the incorporation of texture and irregular cutouts. The more organic nature of the circular shape of the two larger elements reflect the cellular/tissue environment where these biological entities interact, and the two elements are united in a continuous loop with a steel cable, as the different sides of this process are irrevocably linked in biology.

The final piece and an impression of the scale. The two main elements are made of sterling silver, with sapphire cabochons, roller printed elements, seed freshwater pearl beads, and deep blue needled felt.

I’m really pleased with the overall effect of the piece, what do you think?  Would you be interested in some smaller pieces in a similar style of one of the elements, perhaps as a brooch or a pendant?

You can contact me here to start a dialogue about this piece, and commission a new work.  I look forward to your comments.

Have a great Sunday!

-Robin