Ornament is the leading magazine celebrating wearable art. Explore jewelry, fashion, beads; contemporary, ancient and ethnographic.
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and our world by the choices we make, by the things we do; so in that respect we're all creators. We've given up our power by saying that my position in life is this. And that's not the case. You can do and be and create anything you want, and it starts at the very beginning." SUGGESTED READING Dark Rye Video: The Ring Master http://vimeo.com/52947009 DiNoto, Andrea. "A Bent for Wood." Metalsmith Magazine, Vol. 32, No. 3: 14-15. Sennett, Richard. The Craftsman. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008. SQUARE KNOT CIRCLE of cherry, walnut woods, 40.64 x 12.7 x 6.35 centimeters, 2012. Model: Carolina Reyes. Photograph: Tom Petroff. 43 ORNAMENT 36.2.2012 creativity. At that point in the evolution of man, by thousands of years ago they've all taken in this noise, and another guy decides to put a hole in it, and it slowly evolves into this instrument. It's these slow little steps that, when I'm working with things, and feeling like I'm innovating, I'm living that life. I'm living no differently than the person who made this flute thirty-five thousand years ago." Another facet of his style is his use of asymmetry and contrasts. Reyes finds the pairing of opposites, such as soft and hard, heavy and light, clean and rough, create an offkilter aesthetic which feels very innate and authentic. "To me, this imbalance is a natural thing. It's about the world. There's symmetry in nature, but there's probably more imbalance and asymmetry, and I think that's what makes it natural for me; it gives it that vibration of life." Reyes tells how he often begins with uniform pieces, but will then cut them to create unevenness and variation, and then reconnect them to further accentuate the ordered chaos within. Reyes's view of humanity is a passionate one. "I tell my wife that we're human animals, that we, just like the birds and the bees are attracted to baser things like insects and flowers; we are more of the biological world than we are of our mind. Our mind is a creation and we negate and put down the physical part of our world. When we take ourselves out of the biological world, we deny a great part of us, and we're separating ourselves from our humanness," he pronounces. "The most human thing we can do is create. That is, as far as I'm concerned, what we're here for. Some people create drama," he says, laughing lightly. "Some people create different things in their life, and to have the feeling that you're at the cutting edge of creating, well, you're epitomizing humanity. You're being what you're here to be. You're here to evolve, and to grow, and to be the best person, the best human animal that you can be in this world; and for me, creativity is at that cusp." In the book The Craftsman, Richard Sennett, a noted sociologist, discusses how a nurse is a form of craftsperson. By paying attention to her occupation, by constantly improving her skills and how she interacts with her work environment, she is crafting her existence, like a woodcarver might shape a block of wood. "My feeling," Reyes concludes, "is that he stopped there, he didn't go far enough to say that we are literally crafting our existence