the Golden ratio

I LOVE this term. I stumbled upon it, literally, when I was traveling in New Zealand along the west coast of the south island. I took a day to stop and go for a hike in what I was told was 'the Rainforest'. So, I expected tropical plants and birds (New Zealand has the highest population of 'flightless birds' in the world, by the way) and rain. Since New Zealand is on the opposite side of the world from Minneapolis, it was summer! So, I spent the better part of a day wandering around with my first digital camera photographing everything! It wasn't so much the incredibly beautiful plants and animals that I was taken aback by so much as it was the colors and shapes that were unfolding in front of me.....literally! Have you ever stood in front of a 10' tall fern?? I realized, "wait a second, I've seen this all somewhere before!"

Enter, the Golden Ratio. I use the term a lot because I like the way it sounds in the workshop, you know, golden.....sort of has a 'ring' to it. Often times your eye just sees something and you are simply drawn to that thing for whatever reason. In the art world, what I would call 'good art', draws you in further and further. It's not trickery as much as it is mastery. A good photograph for instance. EVERYONE is posting on Instagram, myself included, but every so often, you stop and open one. WHY?

"What IS the Golden Ratio?"......for me, personally, it's everywhere and I use it in my engraving. When I lived on the west coast, I studied under a master jeweler from Russia who was an incredible hand engraver and filigree artist. I was pretty good at charcoal drawing in college, I mean, but something about doing all of this under a microscope was different and it was hard! Here: now do that on THIS, and it's 4mm wide....oh, and you have to be able to see it with the naked eye afterwards.....oh, and it has to be pretty. But taking a really sharp tool and cutting metal was cool and doing it under a microscope in a ball that spins 360 degrees forces you to keep centered, as they say in yoga and actually makes, making the golden ratio look pretty easy.

Fast forward, 15 yesrs later, and I've gotten pretty good. There are actual masters that blow my work away for sure.....but, then, there are their masters also and so it goes. I say good enough. In my work, the scroll pattern is something that just works. I'd say 90% of the time. Why? Because it's pretty, or it looks like diamonds from far away to some people, but like any 'art' it draws you in and surprises you.....all of sudden satellite images from this mornings forecast are there, the flowers you have on your desk are there, it's even in architecture and seemingly very square structures. Just do the math.

This all goes into the process of creating a ring or fine piece of jewelry for me. It doesn't matter if you see it or not. Just like I don't necessarily see a 'forced perspective' an architect created in some building I'm walking past, but hopefully, for one reason or another, it moves me, or makes me pause, hmmm, why is that.....?