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in Metal
BY ANNIE ROSS |
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Above top:
Yumi Ueno’s brooch of |
Adorned in her one-of-a-kind earrings, brooch, and bracelet of sterling silver, lapis lazuli, Montana agate, and accented with gold, metalsmith Yumi Ueno appears serenely content. In part, this contentment is the result of a combination of perseverance, talent, and imagination that enables her to fabricate unique, finely crafted jewelry. “Even long before I started to make my own jewelry,” Ueno divulges, “I had a definite image in my mind of what kind of jewelry I would like to wear.” Beginning with that end in sight results in eminently wearable jewelry. Ueno finds that her work is rewarding, giving her a great deal of personal satisfaction. “I just love creating new designs and making jewelry.”
Richly hued in a wide spectrum of gemstones from fossilized dinosaur bone, brecciated jasper, and Australian boulder opal to topaz, peridot, amethyst, and tourmaline, Ueno’s design aesthetic and color combinations include very earthy tones as well as bright tones. Her jewelry displays an understanding of how metalwork interacts with the body; she has an eye for what people would want to wear and what works. “I always think about fashion and how the jewelry will be worn. And I always make what I want to wear. When people wear a simple dress or outfit, just one accent point is very effective. It is important that jewelry have some great passion.”
Ueno always felt that one day metalsmithing would be an integral part of her life, although in her homeland, Japan, studying the fundamentals of the craft wasn’t really feasible. According to Ueno, there were no classes available and few opportunities to secure an apprenticeship with a practicing metalsmith.
Learning to make jewelry before she learned the language her teacher was speaking, Yumi Ueno Creates universal jewelry that transcends linguistic barriers.
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Ueno uses very earthy color combinations in
pieces like the two |
Her 1986 marriage to Hiro Ueno brought Yumi to Los Angeles and now the couple resides in nearby Van Nuys. Although Hiro first came to California as a film and television student more than 30 years ago, it was Yumi’s first introduction to the United States. “Within a year, my life was very different — so changed. When I first arrived here, I didn’t have a car because I couldn’t drive. So I was riding a bicycle.” She explored her new neighborhood, studied English, and was introduced to American phenomena like flea markets and garage sales. “At that time Hiro was very busy, so I would go by myself on bicycle.” When I comment that many people would not be so adventuresome in a new place, particularly when they didn’t know the language, Ueno laughs, “Oh, I was very brave. No, really I just couldn’t wait. I was very much like a child in my thinking, just very curious. I just want to know.” And her world broadened as she bicycled. “I really realized that if I want to make nice designs, I should know many things. I should feel many things. I need to have a wide vision for everything.”
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EW CHALLENGES. Her new community also offered an introduction to silversmithing. In 1988, Yumi enrolled in classes at Barnsdall Art Center. “I learned the very basic skills — how to cut metal, how to solder, how to make a bezel. But not so serious instruction because most everybody was taking the silversmithing class as a hobby.” She found the challenges of metalwork exciting and was intent on learning as much as possible.
The metalwork wasn’t the only challenge. “At that time I couldn’t speak English very well, so I didn’t understand much.” Ueno might not have concentrated on her English skills, but she did pay close attention to the fundamentals of silversmithing. “I learned just from my eyes. I couldn’t understand what the instructor was saying, so I just watched and watched and I tried and then I learned.” Her desire to learn more than compensated for any trepidation she might have felt at being in a foreign place, hearing a language she didn’t comprehend. “I didn’t care. I had such a strong desire to overcome any difficulties. I don’t know how to explain it, it was such a strange feeling, but I never had any fear.” The few classes she took at the art center gave her the freedom to work independently.
“I still remember when she made her first piece — a ring,” Hiro reminisces, turning to his wife, “I think you still have that one, don’t you? It was kind of a strange piece. But it got me wondering, how can she make these things so easily and so quickly? When I saw the work she had done, I thought she must have some kind of talent for that type of work, to make jewelry. She was doing amazing things.”
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For these earrings, Ueno
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Ivy Dixon, one of the teachers at Barnsdall, was a guiding force. Ueno admires Dixon for her humility and for providing a resourceful environment and a solid base of metalsmithing techniques from which to pursue her craft. “She’s so great and has so much ability. She was such a nice instructor with lots of talent in many different fields. She is not only a jewelry maker, but a painter, and she does wood carvings.” Dixon encouraged her and, says Ueno, “gave me the best demonstrations and answered any questions I had.”
A bachelor’s degree in graphic design from Musashino Art University in Tokyo, followed by work experience in design and fashion, gave Ueno additional skills and insights useful for her work as a jewelry designer. “Through my fashion jobs and coordinating fashion ensembles, I learned many good things for making jewelry. In particular, I learned balance.” But she was also learning something else — that much as she liked it, the world of fashion wasn’t for her. “When I was in Japan, after I graduated from college I was always searching for the right job for me. I really loved fashion and I worked professionally, but still I wasn’t fulfilled,” she says. “I had done many similar things but they were not satisfying.” She adds, “I believe I was always looking for my true job for my life. When I started making jewelry, I really had a very strong feeling like, Ah, this was my job! I just knew this was for me. When I make jewelry I feel something — a very strong passion. I don’t know exactly what it is. When I go to my studio,” she explains, “I feel some sort of energy.” This energy propels her to work long hours in her backyard studio.
Yumi usually sketches her designs before she starts the fabrication process. As she sketches, she understands what it is going to take to make the piece. “I don’t mean to say that soldering and everything is so difficult, but when I sketch a design, at the moment I know how to make it.” Her collection of approximately 30 sketchbooks stores a multitude of designs. “I sketch very fast.” In these quick drawings, all but the smallest details are fleshed out, ready for execution. “Very small details, like this part needs gold, or this part silver. I make small decisions when I start making the piece, I know little by little, changing a bit as I go along.”
“I really realized that if I want to make nice designs, I should know many things. I should feel many things. I need to have a wide vision for everything.”
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ETAL TRANSLATIONS. A love for fairy tales, a fascination with the universe and admiration for the natural world influence her jewelry projects. “My designs have two seemingly opposite directions: abstract and concrete. On the one hand, through my jewelry, I would like to express things of the Universe that are eternal and mysterious, like light, wind, space, and time. It is a big challenge to do this. But it also can be exciting and fun,” explains Ueno. “On the other hand, I want some of my designs to be understood and enjoyed by anybody, even by young children. I loved to read from the time I was very little, particularly fairy tales.” Her love of fairy tales led to the playful, otherworldly pieces. “These are designs of concrete things, that are nevertheless comical and whimsical, like a flying saucer flying over a medieval castle. These designs remind me of my childhood and make me very happy.”
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Above:
Brooch/pendant of |
Illustrative brooches of whimsy, imbued with movement, attract an audience and make them laugh and grin. Offbeat pieces that evoke a broad smile include the Legend of UFO and the House in the Fairy Tale brooches. Legend of the UFO, nearly five inches in height, is anchored by large, strikingly beautiful drusy onyx cut by Dieter Lorenz, a treasure from the Tucson gem and mineral shows. The piece, suggestive of what you might find in a futuristic fairy tale, has special significance for Ueno. “I don’t know what people see in my work, but when I was still in Japan, I believe I saw a flying saucer — a UFO. That is why I wanted to create an element like a UFO in my jewelry. Especially children love it,” she says. “They stop by the booth to visit the piece.”
The pieces with swaying houses come from the tale of Snow White. “I love those fairy tales, so this is her house. When I saw this stone, I wanted to make something like a house,” states Yumi of the sashaying house resting on an exquisite rainforest “jasper”. “I like to put direction, or movement, in my work.” Contorting houses, which appear to be sucked into a tornado’s spiral, rest on Australian boulder opal or rainbow forest jasper. “When I really like a design, I will make a similar one.”
The Rainbow Castle brooch, exhibiting a medieval castle supported by a large piece of lapis lazuli accented with peridot, citrine, and amethyst, incorporates not only golden bezels but also traces of bronze and copper, which add even more interplay of color. The addition of her signature ‘cosmic’ circles on one side balances the wind-blown, swaying castle walls.
Ueno’s fanciful imagery depicted in elegant materials contrasts with many humorous pieces rendered in less precious materials. “That’s what makes the uniqueness about her jewelry,” comments Hiro. “Some people when they see her jewelry say, ‘How nicely you can put things together, humor and elegance.”
The abstract pieces translate the artist’s love of nature to metal and stone. Ueno was raised in the country, surrounded by mountains and ocean. “I was always passionate about many natural shapes, like stones on the beach or on the road, or shapes of trees — things from nature. Since I was a child I was passionate about anything from nature.” Absorbed in her thoughts, Yumi gazed at the world from her schoolhouse window. “I was very much in my own world, daydreaming. In the classroom, I was always looking out the window. The teacher would sometimes warn me. I’d say, ‘Oh I’m so sorry,’ but then I’d go looking outside again, looking at the sky almost like half-sleeping. So now I woke up, after I found my way.”
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Above:
A brooch of labradorite, |
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ARTISTIC INFLUENCES. Ueno is attracted to nature for inspiration, but there is another important influence in her life. “There is one great artist who I greatly respect,” she says, “Paul Klee.” The Swiss painter made an early impact on her life. “I saw his exhibition in Japan when I was in high school — 17 or 16 years old. I was living in Tokyo and the exhibition was in Kamakura. The exhibition was very far from our house, but I went.” Kamakura, located in Kanagawa Prefecture, prospered as a cultural and political center of Japan for more than 100 years beginning in 1192. The ancient city is filled with historical sites and cultural treasures and is famous for its numerous shrines and in particular, the statue of the Great Buddha (Daibutsu). Yumi took the nearly two-hour train ride by herself.
“I think I had seen some of [Klee’s] work in textbooks when I was in high school. I really liked it, so that’s why I really wanted to see the exhibition. I felt a strong pull to go see this show.” The exhibition proved to be more exciting that she could have anticipated. “I was so shocked. My whole body had goose bumps! Perhaps the whole day I stayed in the exhibition place — just standing and standing, watching and watching. I still remember those drawings and paintings.” To this day, Ueno speaks dreamily of the exhibition’s impact. “I can’t forget about that day. I still remember it very clearly.”
Writes Robert Hughes in The Shock of the New, “Klee valued the ‘primitive’ and especially the art of children. He respected their innocence and directness.” Like Klee’s paintings, Yumi honors a child’s enchanted world in her whimsical brooches. The emphasis on line and color evidenced in Klee’s paintings is similar to the crisp lines and vibrant colors in Yumi’s abstract jewelry.
Klee remains near by her today. A print of one of his paintings hangs near a print by Yoshitaro Isaka, watching over Ueno in her studio as she solders, saws, and polishes her one-of-a-kind creations. Two small framed abstract sculptural pieces, created by Yumi, complete the studio’s decor.
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Yumi Ueno |
For the past couple of years, Yumi has purchased stunning stones and minerals at the annual Tucson gem and mineral shows. She peruses the miles of vendors selling pre-cut and polished stones at the largest gathering of gemstone and mineral dealers in the world. Touring all the booths stuffed with attention-getting materials is a major temptation. “Usually when I go to the gem shows and I see some stones, and at that moment, I feel something, I can feel some inspiration for design. Sometimes I have a very strong feeling from the stone, so I buy that one.
“I use many different kinds of gemstones in my work, because each gemstone has its own character: color, shape, and pattern. My decision as to whether to make an abstract or concrete design is based on the character of the gemstone.” Sometimes a stone will first inspire her and “sometimes it is my imagination first, then I choose the stones.” Most of her work has at least a touch of gold. “At the beginning of this year I began to use more gold. Before I was using almost all silver — just once in a while some gold. Now I use more gold, because I have more color mixture, more variations.” She has even completed a pair of earrings executed completely in 22-, 18-, and 14-karat gold, surrounded by vesuvianite, chrysoprase, and tourmaline.
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Above: Brooch of
moss |
Craft shows and selected exhibitions, mostly in the west, been successful venues for Ueno’s designs. She sticks to retail venues where she can sell directly to customers. Hiro has had more time lately to accompany his wife to the craft shows. Recent travels include shows in New York, a new market for Ueno. “Starting this year, I decided to go east and with Hiro available, it was more comfortable for me,” she relates, “particularly since he knows the city.”
Varied not only in color, but also in texture, some metalwork is photo-etched and some, such as her brooch featuring a fossilized dinosaur bone, has been passed through a rolling mill to achieve its distinctive patterning. She used various materials and surfaces in conjunction with sterling silver, and in the past year she has been incorporating some 24-karat gold leaf and 22-, 18- and 14-karat gold. The array of metals, techniques, gemstones, and minerals complement each other in color and texture and help to provide detail and shape to her jewelry.
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EW EXPLORATIONS. With curiosity and imagination, Yumi pursues her independent artistic exploration and continues to refine and expand her metalsmithing skills. Recently she attended a seminar sponsored by MASSC, the Metal Arts Society of Southern California, taking a workshop on granulation with Harold O’Connor, and anticipates using the technique in her work soon. “See these, for example,” pointing to a brooch, “these are soldered, not granulated. When I do solder like this, it is messy, but if I did granulation instead of soldering, it would be much more clean.” Newly acquired skill in different methods will hopefully lead to more efficient or improved construction.
Ueno also expands her artistic repertoire by taking other types of art classes. She and Hiro have been taking ceramics classes at Barnsdall. “I love it,” she says with a smile. “It’s totally different — clay and metal.” Unlike the grand scale of her metalwork (some of her brooches measure nearly five inches in height), Ueno’s ceramic creations are all quite small and delicate. “She only makes small things like sake cups,” comments her husband. It’s Hiro who makes the big pieces.
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Above: Brooch of |
And next on her list of artistic endeavors? Ueno ponders for just a moment, “Hmm, I think sculpture. I really want to make sculpture. Big ones in metal with clay. Visually I’m thinking ceramic with metal, maybe not much with silver or gold but maybe some other metal like copper or bronze. Whatever she chooses to do next, the breadth of her design and 18K gold, aesthetic means that it will be artistically interesting.
Although she uncovered her metalsmithing talents only recently, Yumi Ueno has the energy and enthusiasm to continue in this avenue for many years to come. From the liberating movement in the charming whimsical pieces to the lovely, meticulously fabricated balance of the figurative pieces, It’s hard to imagine that this unique artist will ever exhaust her potential to create splendid jewelry. “Maybe, my ambition for my life is to see how many new pieces I can make,” speculates Ueno. “Yes, perhaps until the end of my life, that’s my challenge.” •
Yumi Ueno can be reached by sending e-mail through her Web site at www.yumidesign.com, or by calling (818) 908-9434. Annie Ross is a freelance writer based in San Diego, California, and a senior editor at San Diego State University.
Besides the article reprinted here, there is an additional article by Yumi Ueno, where she shows readers how to make a "Fabricated 3-D Brooch". See the Jewelry Journal section in the April 2000 Lapidary Journal, page 47.
This article appears courtesy of LAPIDARY JOURNAL. For subscription information, please call 800-676-4336 or subscribe online at: http://www.lapidaryjournal.com/subs/
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