A Ring A Day
A ring is a circle, a shape that by definition is “simpleâ€. It is a closed curve and a line that lacks beginning or end. It is both a constant and a boundary, yet a common occurrence, one that surrounds our daily lives. Even so, we often forget that this shape can be our means of finding the shortest distance between two points.
Long ago, I decided that I wanted to feature Ian’s work on The Monarch Review because, quite simply, it inspires me. His process is about time, skill, craftsmanship and ritual. Ian’s Ring A Day project was formed with the intent of creating one ring a day, at least, for one year. However, I find it hard to believe that he will find an endpoint when it is, in its essence, so unlikely.
– Visual Arts Editor, Liz McDonald
Making A Wooden Ring from Ian Gill on Vimeo.
100 Rings from Ian Gill on Vimeo.
January 1st Ring
February 1st Ring
March 21st Ring
April 1st Ring
April 16th Ring
May 4th Ring
View more of Ian’s work on these links!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/IanGill
https://www.facebook.com/IanGillDesignsÂ
Bio:
Artist Statement
Ian Gill
I have been a full-time artist for over 4 years now. When I started making artwork I was strictly a metal smith working with copper and silver. The last few years I have had limited studio space for metalworking. I found myself forced to work smaller and with just the materials I could find cheap or for free. I struggled for a long time finding the focus and drive to create even though I was not able to work with the materials I wanted to. It got to the point that I had almost a year of not making anything. I felt myself slowly and slowly becoming less creative and thus having less drive to create. Eventually I found myself having spurts of energy to create, it seemed to come every few months. I knew that I needed to find a way to force myself to create. I decided that for 2012 I would at least once a day create something. I had started making wooden rings a little while back out of small free scraps of guitar body wood. I slowly kept exploring and finding new woods to make rings out of. At the beginning of 2012 I had made roughly around 50 wood rings. A wood ring is something simple enough that I could find the time to make at least one in a day. It started out a little hard trying to force myself to make something every day but eventually it just became a part of my schedule. It would sometimes be the first thing I did when I woke up or the last thing I would do late into the night. Eventually I started to build up a large inventory of wooden rings. I was selling my rings online in my Etsy shop and after I started posting these rings every day about a month in my sales started to really take off. Along with my ring for each day I would also find myself making 2-3 custom rings each day as well. I started getting custom order requests every few days. So far for 2012 I have made well over 300 rings. The only time I've missed a day making rings was when I went on vacation, besides that I have been steady in making at least one ring every day. I feel extremely happy with my progress so far and even half way through this year I've felt my ring a day project has been a success. Forcing myself to create at least once every day has brought back my creative spirit. Creating has again become second nature to me.
Ian
Have you done some rings or other work where you meld the metal to the wood? Did you have to make a lot of poor quality rings before you could make good quality ones? I am a carpenter and I love wood. My creations are bigger.