photo by Gianna Keiko Rankart 3rd Ward's jewelry classes are among our best-loved and unique offerings, thanks to the work of one Max Goodman: Philly native, working artist, and former wandering horse trainer. This summer, Max is teaching a wealth of great classes that span the spectrum of jewelry-making, including Precious Metal Clay, Belt Buckle Workshop, Hollow Forms, and Intro to Silversmithing. Education Assistant, Brooke Smith, sat down with Max before one of her many classes to interview the mind behind those hyperactive jewelry-making hands.
Brooke: What classes do you teach here?
Max: I teach almost all things jewelry related... up to eleven classes. I also teach plastics, so that could be sculpture, industrial design or jewelry. Sometimes I do other crafts like flocking, and I’m teaching a silk marbling class over the summer.
B: How did you get involved with 3rd Ward?
M: I was writing for a magazine, but my boss was evil so I quit right after I had signed a lease for a year, so that was terrifying! I was doing overtime job searching, and I saw an ad on Craigslist for a class that was being offered at 3rd Ward about edible art and I thought that was really cool! I visited 3rd Ward’s site and I was like, "This is amazing! This is perfect! I can work there!"
B: And you've been the one who’s really put the jewelry program together then, right?
M: I came up with classes that I thought would be interesting from my experience in college and what I had studied in my own work, and we started to build the studio. We actually inherited a couple of kilns last summer which was really a help because that lets us do enameling and casting. Casting is a really big deal because none of the other jewelry studios in the area can cast in studio.
B: Oh. I didn’t know that.
M: Yeah, they all send your stuff out or they let you watch somebody else cast them. They don’t let you cast them. (editor's note: check out our hard-to-come-by kilns yourself in our upcoming class, Precious Metal Clay)
B: Are there student-created pieces that have really stood out?
M: I think I’ve been continually impressed by the quality of the projects, but I think metal-smithing is a really hard technical thing to do so I’m impressed by the people who take the four weeks and really get into the process and learn how to finish a piece and come up with something that’s actually, you know, a quality-finished object. It doesn’t look like a homemade thing at all.
B: What kind of art do you do for yourself?
M: I make my own one-of-a-kind pieces that take me forever and are kind of experimental. I also work on commission, usually for local boutiques whose style I like. I do paint on occasion, and I do Drink n Draw here a lot, which I like because it keeps me drawing the figure.
B: Are there other jewelry artists that you like or that you’re inspired by?
M: I wouldn’t say it’s a single artist or a single designer that stands out for me, but just pieces that really take the material to a new level. For example, using metal, this really hard-edged weighty thing, and transforming it into something lightweight and organic. I also like plantlife a lot...sea creatures...ancient fossily things. I find bone structure – in terms of linkages and in terms of how one bone connects to another – really interesting, and it works really well in jewelry.
B: Tell me about the horses.
M: The horses tend to be a little bit like my personal jewelrymaking. I rode professionally for two years after college overseas. Then I couldn’t get a full-time job so I came home and was like, "ok... art time". Horses are definitely like a drug for me.
B: What did you want to be when you were 12 years old?
M: I wanted to be an art teacher! And a horseback rider!
B: Yeah?! Wow. Look at that, all your dreams came true!
M: I’m a big proponent of making things happen. I don’t really give up easily.
Now's your turn! If you have any crafty questions for Max, post them here. Also, be sure to check out her work at Moxy Metals, and her children's art education non-profit at Uproar Art.
And, if you'd like to take a class with Max, check out our many Jewelry class offerings. New classes start all the time. Enroll today!
Jun 21, 2010
