Welcome JennEve, I trust your Casket is Comfortable?
Darkest greetings! It is a pleasure to be talking with you tonight.
Please Enlighten Us as to Who You are and What Makes you Tick?
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-I am multifaceted & complex so this may get lengthy. I am JennEve, owner of the coffin box on etsy.
-I am a gothic, single mother of two amazing darklings & a designer/creator of jewelry. I am a little bit of a recluse, being such keeps the drama of life at bay & keeps things simple.
-To the neighbors I am known as the helpful eccentric & to the kids I work with I am known as monster girl.
-I have a very active mind, I am always thinking, wondering, & I am never bored. I have a great many interests.
-Kids are a big part of my life. In addition to caring for my own I also volunteer at my youngest kids' elementary school. Kids are some of the best people around & the ones I work with make me feel like a celebrity. If I'm not with kids I am most likely alone.
-I love to work with my hands, tinkering, fixing things or just being crafty.
-I love music, love to listen, love to play & sometimes to even sing a bit. I know how to play the piano fairly well, much better than I can play the guitar but I am currently piano-less which is torture, at least I still have a guitar. Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven is my favorite thing to play on the piano.
-I have been known to write poetry.
-I am an avid reader. I LOVE books. My favorite authors are Terry Goodkind, Edgar Allen Poe & J.R.R. Tolkien. Epic adventures are my favorite followed closely by old horror & ghost stories but I am not opposed to books that will impart some form of knowledge about other things that interest me.
-I am eternally curious & in so being my thirst for knowledge is unquenchable.
-Brains fascinate me, as do bones & skulls.
-I love all manner of dark or spooky things.
-Vampires intrigue me.
-I detest the sunlight touching me but I have an intense fascination with the universe & all that resides in it & beyond it as yet undiscovered. It is truly awe inspiring.
-When I am not tinkering or reading I enjoy video games & good amounts of television & movies on dvd or vhs. My TV/movie interests go hand in hand with the kinds of books I like to read. I am also a cartoon fan, it is a moving art & I love that about cartoons as well as stop-motion film. I also enjoy documentaries & watch PBS shows more than any other.
-The renaissance & the dark ages are just a couple of my favorite periods in history.
-I do not get out very much & generally only go as far as I can ride my skateboard which is usually just the nearby stores for groceries n such. Places I like to go to are cemeteries, the beach at dusk, & on rare occasions, to bar sinister in Hollywood. I am not opposed to going places & seeing new things I just don't have many opportunities for such things as I am usually busy with my business or the kids
-I am very fond of animals. Cats & bats are my favorites but I currently have a dog, an Ibizan/pit bull mix who looks just like Anubis, the guardian of the dead.
-I am a little zany & quite strange but that just makes life more fun & interesting.
-There is much more to me than what I have written but I think it is time now to move on.
Tell me my Drear? What Influences Your Work?
Omigosh! Anything & everything influences me to some degree. I find inspiration all around me, sometimes in strange places. The world is a treasure trove of interesting textures & shapes just waiting to be noticed, I have a deep affection for all things Halloween, gothic, spooky, creepy & macabre. I love to be surrounded by such things & they serve as excellent fodder for inspiration.
How Long have You Been Creating Jewelry?
Aaaaaah..my story on jewelry is a longish one but I will try to keep it short. I can trace the interest all the way back to early childhood & I began making things from broken trinkets in my moms jewelry box. About 16 years ago I found a channel on TV that sold gemstones & was addicted to it. Eventually I was able to buy a couple of stones & quickly popped out fake stones from silver rings found at wallmart only to reset the genuine stones in them so I could have nicer rings. About 15 years ago a bead & gems store came to the neighborhood & I went a little nuts buying semi precious beads to make into bracelets or chokers. (I am either not that good at beading or just very very hard on my jewelry, either way, my pieces were not sturdy enough to stand up the way I wear my jewelry). About 5 years ago I found out that a wish I made in high school ceramics class came true & a clay like substance had been invented that, when fired, became silver. After 2 years of casual research, thousands of questions to those in the know, & countless you tube videos I finally got a batch of silver. I have been hooked ever since, especially since silver is my most favorite metal.
Please, Walk us through the Creation of one of Your Pieces...
I use art clay silver, also known as precious metal clay (pmc) for my silver creations. It is the most incredible stuff I have ever found to work with. Art clay silver is very similar to clay in the way it can be molded, worked, formed or textured. There are a couple of big differences between ceramic clay & silver clay; one is the drying time, art clay silver dries in 5 mins or less so the work time is extremely short compared to that of ceramic type clay. The other difference is that, when fired, art clay silver becomes .999 fine silver. It's just like alchemy!
My tools are not 'official' tools so to speak, those i can not yet afford, mine are mostly makeshift things that do double duty for what I need to work the clay, I have recently gotten a couple of actual tools created for art clay silver though.
After I have created a piece with the wet clay it must be dried to bone dry (fully moisture free). When it is bone dry I can refine it using files & sandpaper to smooth away rough edges or to create a more pleasing shape. Then the piece is ready for fire which can be done in a kiln or for those of us who do not have a kiln, it can be fired with a torch. I use a plumbers torch, it's the scariest thing to do but it is worth it in the end. I fire outside at night so I can see the glow of the metal which tells me if it is firing right or being melted by accident. After firing, the piece is now officially true metal & ready for polishing. Once polished I can add a patina to it to darken the recessed lines & polish again or just leave it as it is. Then all that is needed is to add a finding such as a jump ring or even just a simple silk cord.
Tell Me,If you could meet one Horror Icon, Live or Dead, who would it be?
That's easy! It would be Vincent Price. Christopher Lee runs a close second to him though.
Name one other artist/crafts person whose work you admire...
That is very difficult choice. I know so many talented people whom I admire very much. Since I have to choose just one though I pick the one person who inspired me to follow my dream & who showed me that a creative individual with just a touch of talent can really make their dreams come true. I have even been lucky enough to meet him a few times & he is really a fantastically wonderful person. His name? Artist, musician, creator of creepy toys, author, & so much more...the infamous Voltaire!! I even have the first dollar I ever made with my silver framed along with the first thing he ever signed for me.
https://www.facebook.com/VoltaireFanPage
http://www.voltaire.net
I Thank You For Your Time, JennEve Coffinbox. Please, my Darklings, Visit JennEve's store at:
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