Bead Fest Instructor Helen Driggs: Playing with Fire

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Helen Driggs is formally educated as an illustrator, but she began metalsmithing as a way of exploring three-dimensional construction. Helen has also learned how to do lapidary work for most of the stones she uses in her metalwork. Her popular column “Cool Tools & Hip Tips” and video library—Metalsmith Essentials: Basic Fabrication, Rivets & Cold Connections, Machine Finishing Jewelry, Textures & Patinas, and One Hour Rings—make her a popular and sought-after instructor. She will offer several classes at Bead Fest, PA 2022. 

1. What’s your favorite technique? What do you love about it?  

My favorite family of metalwork techniques are complex cold connections – Rivets, Tabs, Slots and Folds, Hardware, etc.  I love the mental challenge of figuring out how to connect various delicate or flammable mixed-material parts without the use of a torch. I do love to solder, though, and like all metalsmiths, I am an absolute pyromaniac on a mission. 

 2. Tell us about your favorite type of material, ie. stone, bead, metal, or other.  

My current passion is the thoughtful use of recycled and repurposed objects in jewelry. I like taking or finding old or discarded things and giving them a new life as the main characters in wearable jewelry art. I have a vast accumulation of old stuff that I combine in new works. I am not a materials snob, so to me, a beautiful old plastic button can be just as visually correct as a faceted gemstone when positioned in the “right” place in my work.

 3. What’s your best advice for beginners?  

Never ever, ever give up. You will make work you are not happy with – everybody does. But you must not let that derail you. The only way to match what you envision in your mind with what you create with your hands is to make a lot of work. Try to create one thing per week and finish it even if you hate it, because that will teach you determination and get your hands, heart, and mind to learn to work in unison.

4. What’s your go-to source of inspiration?  

I have an immense library. I love my garden, the beach and thrift shops. The strangest things will inspire me, so I try to keep an open mind and just quietly observe the world – because I never know when an idea will hit. But, very often the act of making work gives me more ideas, so I try to do something every day at my bench to allow for that to happen.  

5. Who are your jewelry making or beading heroes?  

Ramon Puig Cuyas, Michael Boyd, John Paul Miller. Mary Lee Hu. I adore the contemporary jewelry being made in Europe right now, especially the work from Barcelona and in Germany.  

6. Do you have a jewelry making or creativity motto? 

LOL. My favorite thing to say in my fabrication classes is, “Let the saw do the work.” And in my wire classes, it’s “The 90-degree bend is your friend.” 

7. What are you working on now?  

My bench is a hot mess right now. I am lesson planning for Bead Fest, and also for a 4-Day Cold-Connection Workshop I am teaching at Snow Farm in October. I’m preparing to teach Silversmithing at summer camp for tweens and teens, and I also blog and write social media about jewelry tools and supplies for the Gesswein Tool Company, jewelry and gem trade show press releases for the JOGSShow, and a regular how-to column for the MJSA Journal. In my copious “free time,” I am also a certified K-12 Substitute Teacher for my local school district.

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Follow Helen Driggs on Twitter @fabricationista and Instagram @hdriggs_fabricationista. You can also read her blog: materialsmithing.wordpress.com. 

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Thanks to our Bead Fest PA 2022 sponsor, Cool Tools.

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Projects from Helen