Movie mania !

       I often have people ask me what I do for a living and the minute I explain that I am a metal artist who also loves to paint I get a response "Oh Wow So Exciting !! you're an artist!!" Well I hate to burst their bubble and tell them that while I am lucky enough to be doing what I love for a living it still is a lot of hard work! From coming up with new designs (I actually love that the most) to working out techniques to taking great images of my work and coming up with content for blogs, newsletters Facebook fan pages, Networking, organizing the umpteen details of an exhibition to .... well you get the picture :) So while it is fun in some parts in others its just plain old work.

Recent exhibition featuring my work 

            Today I got to see the other side and by that I mean the hard work side of another glamorous and exciting profession - Movies, motion pictures, films call it what you will its what really excites most of us. Me I get completely gobsmacked when I see animation films and special effects. The sheer brilliance always has me staring open mouthed at the screen. Well today I had the most amazing experience of getting a behind the scenes glimpse of things. A friend of mine is a film maker and is working on her very first independent film Its a children's film and while I am not allowed to give out any more details I can say this : A brilliant piece of work and I will be sharing details once it releases :) ( sneaky huh? ) Well anyways its been shot in a remote village and it has some scenes involving village women talking, laughing and such and my friend wanted me and a few of her friends to pitch in with these'extra' voices. Some of us jumped at the idea and yours truly was a bit skeptical about being able to help. So what was required you ask? well we were to dub the voices of the women in the background, village women to be specific . In certain scenes it was women talking or laughing or giggling ( oh  yes it gets very specific) women fighting at the water tap!
           Thing is it just looks so easy but when you get down to it I realized there is so much attention to detail in voice pitch, volume, language, tone ....  I mean have you ever fought at a water tap? I certainly hadn't and getting the correct tone of indignation at another woman shoving her water pot under the tap was impossible for me to get! What completely amazed me was the sheer amount f patience these people have,there was a guy who was actually directing all the dubbing and he analyzed every hmm , haw , laugh, giggle word or tone that went out and each time it was recorded with every little change and then this guy, the recording artist and my friend get together at a later date and design the sounds ! Whew now I know why a film costs as much as it does and takes as much time .
All in all though it was an amazing experience and sure am glad I went :) So what new and fun experience have you had recently?

New Beginnings

Come New Year and everywhere I turn there are talks of New Year's resolutions what with every person you bump into asking " So what's your resolution this  year?"  well I hate that question it sort of reminds me of my dad putting me in a corner by asking 'so how much time do you think it will take for you to finish your homework :(  So instead I figured I will come up with a new habit for myself ( habits are hard to kill ever tried to kill a bad one?) plus I figured if I can stick with one long enough I can add more to it sort of a snowball effect :)

So what is my new habit you ask? Getting my butt off my jeweler's bench and nope not into my computer chair but out for a walk ! Well I did it today and was rewarded by some seriously yummy crisp air two Labradors out for a walk one brown and one black and one simply gorgeous Golden retriever with luxurious fur ! Not to mention two cute little babies one in a stroller all bundled up and one with squeaky shoes :)

While I can't actually click images ( don't carry my phone or camera while on my walks I find them too distracting ) here is an image of another sweet habit that I have gotten into what you ask? more jewelry of course :D 

Air chased copper cuff in the works in my bench vise

Air chased copper cuff
©2013 Nayna Studios™

Here is what I have been up to recently. I followed instructions by Wendy Edsall-Kerwin in the Art Jewelry Magazine November'12 issue  . Its an amazing publication if you like love to learn new techniques . Anyhoo more on that in another post :) Happy New year too all my readers and do drop a line as to what your new habits are :)