About

Artist's Statement

me! deborah pym harowitz

Attempting to make the world more beautiful, one accessory at a time. When you wear hand-crafted and unique jewelry or a handwoven scarf, it makes you feel "connected" in a way that a manufactured item cannot. Choosing hand made and unique jewelry and accessories to please yourself and reflect who you are, makes you feel more grounded and confident.

The one thing that inspires me, grabs my attention, or just plain excites me is COLOR! It is my medium to create emotion in my work. Glass, yarn, metal, fabric, paint and paper, are the tools I use. I’m inspired by our planet and the oceans (and saving Mother Earth). I love leaves, waves, architecture and philosophical concepts. I crave textures and textural contrasts, hence glass is a favorite addition to my fiber work. I often use circles (I'm big on dots and spirals) to illustrate the cyclic nature of things. You will also see squares or grids as I feel comforted by a certain amount of boundaries. I aspire to create a mood rather than a statement. Usually, I just like to create a feeling that is connected, hopeful, uplifting or just plain fun. For me, the finished product is a bonus; it’s the journey, the work, the color and materials that are my bliss.

Just the Facts

I'm currently living a very creative life in SE Michigan.
I dabble in a variety of mediums. Scattered, you might say.
My jewelry, handwoven scarves and glass work - as well as the occasional bits of art and other dabbling* can be found in my A Scattered Creative Etsy shop. I specialize in fused glass buttons for the discerning wearable artist and they can be found in my Sea Air Arts Etsy shop or on my Sea Air Arts website.

I share my life and my studio(s) with my wonderful hubby, Jack and my rescue husky, Shadow. We have a fabulous grown daughter, Ashland, who is a writer living half the time in the Pacific Northwest and half the time in Ireland. My favorite color changes by the hour. I read constantly and lead a secret life as a wannabe geek (love those electronic toys). For escape I love sci-fi and fantasy; no dragons or space ships? Not interested ;-)
I fervently believe life is what you make it, and "Life is good"!

*Such as hand dyed yarns & fabrics, handwoven and knitted items, quilted goodies, glass items, small artworks, and whatever else my brain dreams up

Hi, I'm Deborah Pym Harowitz and I'm a Creative...

The Real Me
Now that you've read the (almost) polished version...

A Scattered Creative is a creative person who is unable to focus on one medium or discipline A Renaissance Soul or Multipotentialite. Just so you know.

I'm a creative. That means that I have far too many great ideas to implement them all. Too many projects in the works, and too many different interests. Sometimes my head feels like a dandelion gone to seed, hence the self portrait to the right. I love my life!

A crafter, maker and tinkerer since early childhood, my education and first career were in engineering. After the layoffs... already a sewer and knitter my left brained creative impulses lead me to spinning, weaving, contemporary quilting, and dyeing. As I learned the value of serendipity and "winging it" I became less the methodical mechanical designer and more the right brained, intuitive, free wheeling creative. Instead of precision and exactitude, I have learned to embrace the abstract.

And color, lots of color.

I now look at something and see the contrasts, mood, and "sense" of it.
I have come so far from that sad girl in her fist collage art class. The one who was told to go outside and find a leaf, bring it in and draw what I see. When my drawing instructor took away my triangles, scale and templates I nearly had a breakdown.
It was not pretty.

Constant Change

copper and glass bracelet (sold)

Part of what soured me on engineering was the feeling of being stagnant. Nothing ever changed (not really), it was tweaked, or duplicated, but nothing was created from scratch.
My husband's work gave us the opportunity to move around the country.
A lot.
Moving from state to state and from one side of the country to the other on a (average) yearly basis for 20 years, gave me the change I had craved. It allowed me to see life, people, food and art from an ever growing base of reference.

They say "change fuels creativity"

I'm here to tell you; yes, yes it does.

From spending the first half of my life in one city (Seattle, a very creative environment in it's own right) to the 2nd half in close to 20 different cities, the years have been full of art groups, fiber guilds, micro business ventures, workshops and classes (both taken and taught), galleries, shows and craft fairs. I have experienced a plethora of fun, challenges, adventures, and even some really odd food. It has all come together to influence my aesthetics, world view, philosophy, crafts and art.
I'm a little more settled now but I've picked up more interests than should be humanly possible. If I had a Blog you could see all the quirky things I'm up too (some day). Multi-potentiality at its best (or worst)!