Throughout the years I’ve encountered artists who are consciously documenting their work. That is, they make sure to photograph or keep current work for their archives. In this digital age it is easy to document our work and if you sell online you are creating a photo history already.
I remember visiting with Kate Drew-Wilkinson and taking a walk through her past via neat containers of beads that she has held back throughout her life. They document her long and interesting history in bead and jewelry making for over 20 years. They tell the story of her life. Last year at the Gathering Harold Cooney gave a presentation and talked about holding back some of his best work for himself while creating inventory for shows.
I’ve often thought of this and have been very consistent in photographing everything that leaves the studio. This passion has renewed lately as I’ve been documenting color studies that I’ve been working on.
I printed these pages out for reference and noticed that the colors weren’t exactly accurate and the beads looked nowhere as brilliant in print. I realized that if I wanted to document accurately I’d need to keep a set of each. So, that is my next challenge to work on. Documenting my work by keeping actual pieces.
The next step then is cataloging them. It’s great to have a record with a photo or the actual piece, but who is going to tell its story when you’re long gone? I need to come up with a system of describing, dating and explaining the time period and processes. This is one of those things that sounds like a lot of work but once it’s done it feels so good.
What about you? Do you document your work? What method do you use?
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I do off loom beadweaving, so my documentation is a bit different. I keep a pic of each piece I make, along with a detailed supply list of all the beads I used. This has come in really handy, as I am now making kits of some of my designs.
I keep a photo history in my computer. Maybe I should keep some of the actual beads.
Lori, I love what you are doing with your colours, and I think documenting it all is so worthwhile. It would actually make a very useful book for lampworkers.
I know I am no where near organised enough to do something like this.
I dabble in lots of different art mediums and I never took even pictures until I made my soap website. It was hard but it is also nice.
As far as the other kinds of art I love doing I didn’t even take pictures until about a
year ago and I am so sorry I didn’t because I never keep anything and someone will bring up something and I can’t remember what materials I used in it.
So, I am trying so hard to take pictures and write more details down, but I know I never will be good at it. After all my website isn’t even up to date.BOO
Pictures are great to help us remember and for inspiration. I owned a retail shop in the late 80’s and we specialized in wearable art and jewelry. I closed it when we had to move. A number of the things we did then are once again popular today – it was just about 20 years ago, which seems to be a good cycle time. I also used photos when making fused glass jewelry. Since the colors change so much once they are fused, I learned quickly to take pictures of my kiln work before and after firing, before anything is moved. This process has helped me find the exact color match quickly and easily when I need to make more beads or make another piece of jewelry. I have also learned to keep my camera at my side when I work – a picture often helps me see what needs to be done much easier than just looking at the jewelry I am making.