Bio | Cquines

Bob Blum Bio:

Short version

-Schooling: no music, all art classes

-Cataract surgery & suddenly I saw colors

-Sequins came into my life - make jewelry ! ? !

-But how? Just solve the problems

-Appreciate every sale

-Apply old skills and learn new

Bob Blum Bio:

Long version

Art started for me when I was in elementary school. The typical public school curriculum was ½ art and ½ music. My second day in music class I was called to the Principal’s office and advised I would no longer have a music class but would be doubled up in art. No explanation and no knowledge to this date why! But from that day on, I never had another music class!

Married right out of college to my high school sweetheart (married 40+ years now), we have two wonderful children and I retired from a Fortune 500 company as a Facility Manager after 28 years. Facility Managers solve problems and I was able to use my artistic ability to create physical productive environments for the many people I serviced. But it was the only source of creative expression I enjoyed until I retired. I had cataract surgery at age 50, in both eyes and my world of color changed. For the first time in my life, I could see real color! White was now white, not yellow and all the other colors were bright and vivid. I was a changed person, I rejoiced at all the “new” colors of objects around me.

My wife and I share an interest in quilts. She looked at the design while I looked at how the artist did the design (my facility background on solving problems). Quilting was trending away from the traditional and more into modern “art quilts”. I was fascinated with how and why these fabric works of art could look so much like a painting or photograph. I studied the techniques intently but was most fascinated with the occasional paint accents. I began to experiment with acrylic paint on fabric and eventually took a class from Rebecca Gill, a Scottish artist and developer of an intense acrylic color line developed for theater paints. In 2007 I sold my first piece at The Woman’s Art Club of Cincinnati to a well-respected artist and teacher. I have never forgotten how it felt to make that first sale, feeling that someone actually was willing to pay money for art I had made. I was ready to be a painter of color! But the universe did not agree!

During a down time helping my son move, I wondered into a warehouse in San Francisco looking for ????. In the back corner, under many boxes I found colors and colors of sequins. Mostly still on strings but many broken from age. Sure I knew what sequins were, but I had never seen any with the depth of color that these had. I was fascinated, I was intrigued, I had no idea what I was going to do with them, but I had to have them ….because of the color. The owner explained that these had been abandoned during WWII and no one had shown any interest in them until now. I had them shipped back home and made a call to wife that evening to tell her I had purchased a “ton of sequins”.

Her response was that I better figure out what I was going to do with them! What could one possibly do with all these fabulously colorful sequins that nobody had any interest in? I had collected quality small glass and detail items for years and those items were also abandoned and not serving their original purpose. So, why not mix those with the sequins and make jewelry. Yet I had never made jewelry before, but how hard could that be?!? This would be the perfect combination! Surely these little sequins could be strung…I quickly found out that it was not that easy.

“Encouraged “ by my wife to use up the boxes of sequins and with months of attempts and some creative approaches, stringing sequins became easier and more productive. I had gone from 12 hours per necklace to 8! The floor was littered with sequins! L I found that every sequin had its own personality and holding it at just the right angle allowed me to string them quicker. I originally thought that “jewelry does not take up anywhere near the space in a car that paintings do”…….wrong! How was I to get all the tables, display cabinets, risers, display pieces, tent and oh yes…1 bag of jewelry into a Prius!!! So all cabinets and containers were hand made to fit inside each other to organize and save space, every inch counted if I was going to get to shows with every possible item I needed to sell a piece of jewelry. I learned that the time to make a necklace was not as important to me, as was the opportunity to be creative, to make a quality item different than anyone else and that people would want to purchase this item because it was well designed, showed quality workmanship, had a story and was not like anything else they had seen…..and that is what I do!

I sold my first sequin necklace May 2009, at a local outdoor art show, within the first hour of setting up. Almost immediately after that sale, the Fire Marshall came around and shut down all the booths, telling us to get out quickly as a major storm would be arriving in 45 minutes! No way!?! It took me 2 hours to set up and this would be only the second time I had ever taken the tent down! Wet, cold and scared I was still excited; someone had felt my work was worth purchasing, I had made my first sale ….I was a professional jewelry artist now! That feeling has never gone away. If someone was willing to buy my jewelry through a “tornado”, then I must be on the right track! I love working with sequins because others don’t! I find it relaxing and enjoying to work out the continual challenges and applying my admiration for color and creative design. Every time I design with sequins, I make the piece to meet my high standards of quality craftsmanship. I am in awe with every piece I sell that someone liked my work enough to pay for it. That energy continues to keep me challenged to find different and exciting designs with these little forgotten gems.

Recently I have begun to use my painting skills on the necklaces. It is like welcoming an “old friend” back into my life. I am looking forward to meeting “old friends” and making “new ones”.