Member of the Month: Mara Kauffman-Puchall

1. Tell us a little about yourself.
Aside from metalsmithing I love ceramics which I’ve been doing since I was little. I dabble with beading, sewing, knitting, have done novice woodworking and am one to do home repair jobs. Anything that involves working with my hands and an element of creativity is what I want to do most with myself. I like gardening and working with orchids, which I do for work, and grow my own collection of orchids, irises and carnivorous plants. I also have a little collection of glass bottles, hot wheels, and other items I find interesting or beautiful. Usually antiques.
If I’m not making something, my other favorite thing to do is go out and about in nature to a place I’ve never explored before. Growing up in the Bay Area surrounded by a variety of ecosystems has contributed to my adoration of nature in its beauty and strangeness. I particularly love hiking in the winter when the moss is most vibrant and the streams are running.

2. What is your favorite tool and why?
I really enjoy using the wax pen: a fine-wire tipped utensil electrically heated for the purpose of melting and shaping wax, usually for casting or electroforming. It’s somatically enjoyable to press the tip into wax and have it melt around it and deposit drops of melted wax from the pen. I like the sculptural opportunities the wax pen allows, as well as the ability to tweak the fine details of pieces. I especially like using it with found objects like botanicals and bugs to make them more structurally sound and usable. The more tedious, detailed and fragile the task the better. Sorta.

3. Which materials do you create with most and what is your attraction to using them?
I like making custom settings for irregularly shaped stones and other objects. This idea significantly opens up the possibilities of materials and objects one can incorporate into jewelry. They are usually best done using an alternative to bezel setting and invite creativity. Pieces I’ve seen where the setting is more than just a way to hold the centerpiece, but part of the artistic composition itself are exciting and have endless creative potential.
I’ve mostly fabricated prong settings from wire for irregular stones but am excited to explore the possibilities.
This work is most rewarding because I find it challenging, necessitating things being just the right size at just the right angle in just the right spot to hold an oddly shaped thing just right. The delicate work that makes me want to crush and incinerate the project is my favorite :’)

4. Where do you draw your inspiration from?
Most of my inspiration comes consciously, or subconsciously, from the natural world. The abstract organic shapes I find pleasing to the eye and am drawn to recreate come from organisms and other aspects of nature.
The filigree or splotchy nature of lichens; moss tendrils; funky fungi; everyone loves flowers; oh, the vast range of leaf shapes; bubbly pond scum; tree bark; etc. call to me as does moving water reflecting and refracting light, rock strata, clouds. All hold alluring patterns and shapes.
Using recognizable aspects of nature to adorn the body is beautiful too, like cast leaves or fabricated flowers. Bugs and insects are simply neat too. I think bringing nature closer in one form or another is always a good idea, especially when living in an urban environment.
Ocean life influences my subconscious too. I grew up tide pooling on the coast, loved and still love visiting aquariums and have watched the collections of David Attenborough-narrated ocean documentaries many times. The strangeness and beauty of sea life is intriguing, and I find many of my pieces and ideas mimicking the shapes of corals and oddities like nudibranchs whose forms, colors, patterns and textures are rather ambiguous and abstract to begin with.

5. How long have you been working in metals and what brought you into this field?
I grew up in a rural town with an exceptional elementary-middle school arts program where there was a metals shop and a teacher who believed in the (supervised) abilities of young children. I soldered for the first time in 3rd grade art class. At the time my best friend and I were really into making beaded earrings, so when I realized I could take it a step further and make fabricated metal jewelry like what adults wear, my metalsmithing interest came into existence.

6. What piece of advice would you give to someone just starting out in metals?

Cultivating habits through micro-adjustments over time can result in drastic change. One of the most helpful ways I’ve found to apply this practice in jewelry is keeping in mind that every little bit of time counts and adds up. Telling myself that I’m only going to work 10 minutes on a project and breaking the seal of starting with an extremely doable task often leads my 10 minute goal into a few hours of work time. Being overwhelmed about how I’m going to get from where I am to a finished project keeps me completely away from it, but breaking it down into manageable steps really, really helps. I believe in the immense power of writing a checklist. With each agonizing small act of discipline, your angle of trajectory changes in the direction you want it to.
That said, it’s also important to know when to take breaks or be done for the day. Even though it can feel inconvenient, resting is not an option. While just pushing through might work with other tasks, for creative and detailed things it’s usually not a great idea. It’s taken me a handful of times making very avoidable mistakes and overworking and damaging pieces, giving myself more work to repair it, to find the threshold where I simply need to put my tools down and take a break.
I don’t want to sound like I have it all figured out in a flawless practice because I do not, but these ideas have helped me a lot with jewelry making as well as most other aspects of life.

7. What has been the biggest challenge for you as a metal artist and have you overcome it, or how are you working to overcome it?
Health problems have been my biggest challenge along my metalsmithing timeline. For a long time I’ve known making jewelry is what I want to do with myself but brain fog, fatigue, pain and a list of other symptoms have impaired the consistency and effectiveness of my pursuit.
My health is still a work in progress but since I’ve found a doctor who knows what’s going on I have finally been getting better. It’ll take more years of nonlinear healing but, as corny as it sounds, being able to more effectively devote myself to metalsmithing is genuinely my biggest motivation to keep up with health tasks and continue getting better.

8. What is your favorite jewelry style, era or movement?
Along the European and Western jewelry timeline, Art Nouveau connects the extravagant almost purely decorative nature of the Victorian era with the industrial yet witty and elegant simplicity of Art Deco. I find Art Nouveau works literally breathtaking, their craftsmanship and intricate creation processes adding to my amazement.
Aspects that are usually independent of each other in art are combined harmoniously in Art Nouveau. Organic and geometric, bold yet delicate. I’m of course drawn to the elegantly stylized flora and fauna motifs, organic shapes and intricacy. Add the element of organic geometry and it really does something for my brain. Every blank surface, negative space, color, shape and texture is intentional, and everything works

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