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Architect Arden Bardol thinks big but creates small. The architect realized in 2005 that while she loved designing large structures, she wanted to work with her hands as well. That’s led to a love affair with designing unique accessories and furniture details that’s evolved over the years.
Bardol will be biting her nails Saturday night while she waits to see if she doubles up on NICHE Awards, given to fine craftspeople whose work is technically excellent, unique and potentially sellable. Bardol took home her first one last year and hopes to repeat with her “Contemporary Conch Belt” on Saturday.
She took some time out to talk about her work, her passion and what’s to come.
Q Why did you start designing jewelry?
A What happened for me was I just love working with my hands. In architecture you get to design buildings but there’s not the follow through of the execution of what you’ve designed. So I needed something in a smaller scale. So I work with jewelry and accessories and am starting to work with some furniture makers to make hardware for drawer pulls, knobs and furniture. I’m an architect so I love things that go into the building environment. So I started with jewelry and moved into pins and belts and it sort of evolved into working with these furniture makers and now it’s even evolving more into working on designing elements that go into architecture, kind of like in the interior.
Q Why did you start working with polymer, which is a synthetic clay?
A From the time I was in middle school I always worked with clay. And then, after college I was working in architecture and living in Pittsburgh and having just this need, this passion, this yearning to work with my hands. And so I started to take classes and working with porcelain.
I originally was going to start with silversmithing, but as I started getting into it I realized that I had a passion for color.
The porcelain and clay body is very finicky, and so I had that skill set and knowledge base [to use with] polymer, a plastic clay, a synthetic clay.
In architecture you’re very much confined to the sort of colors that would blend with the environment, you’re not using a lot of big, bang kind of colors. So I started with polymer to kind of think through ideas, and realized that I just loved color and the polymer.
Architect Arden Bardol thinks big but creates small. The architect realized in 2005 that while she loved designing large structures, she wanted to work with her hands as well. That’s led to a love affair with designing unique accessories and furniture details that’s evolved over the years.
Bardol will be biting her nails Saturday night while she waits to see if she doubles up on NICHE Awards, given to fine craftspeople whose work is technically excellent, unique and potentially sellable. Bardol took home her first one last year and hopes to repeat with her “Contemporary Conch Belt” on Saturday.
She took some time out to talk about her work, her passion and what’s to come.
Q Why did you start designing jewelry?
A What happened for me was I just love working with my hands. In architecture you get to design buildings but there’s not the follow through of the execution of what you’ve designed. So I needed something in a smaller scale. So I work with jewelry and accessories and am starting to work with some furniture makers to make hardware for drawer pulls, knobs and furniture. I’m an architect so I love things that go into the building environment. So I started with jewelry and moved into pins and belts and it sort of evolved into working with these furniture makers and now it’s even evolving more into working on designing elements that go into architecture, kind of like in the interior.
Q Why did you start working with polymer, which is a synthetic clay?
A From the time I was in middle school I always worked with clay. And then, after college I was working in architecture and living in Pittsburgh and having just this need, this passion, this yearning to work with my hands. And so I started to take classes and working with porcelain.
I originally was going to start with silversmithing, but as I started getting into it I realized that I had a passion for color.
The porcelain and clay body is very finicky, and so I had that skill set and knowledge base [to use with] polymer, a plastic clay, a synthetic clay.
In architecture you’re very much confined to the sort of colors that would blend with the environment, you’re not using a lot of big, bang kind of colors. So I started with polymer to kind of think through ideas, and realized that I just loved color and the polymer.
Q Your work is reminiscent of clockwork and mechanics. Why does that inspire you?
A As a kid I was always loved nuts and bolts, and the movement of one element over the other, and the precision that has to happen in that movement.
I really loved structural steel, the nuts and the bolts that really happen in the building. And I love the shapes, so I started with the general shapes of nuts and bolts, and that’s how I kind of got my circles and squares, and I use that as a spring point.
As for the clockworks, it’s the moving parts. I’ve always been fascinated with the internal workings of pocket watches. It just goes back to this wonder, this level of detail, sophistication, engineering of making all those gears of different sizes work and interlock.
For me, it’s a metaphor for how can I capture the essence of that movement without movement actually being present.
Q Whas has the NICHE Award done for you?
A Last year the circumstances of me applying were kind of fly by the seat of your pants. I was in Chicago on a business related trip to architecture, and reviewed my email and noticed the NICHE Award application was due in two days. So between meetings I put my application together and made the submission. It wasn’t a planned process, it was just something I thought, “Why not try it?”
Talk about knock me over with a pin last year at the awards ceremony! I was overwhelmed, I couldn’t believe that I had won.
So it gave me visibility, not only in the U.S. and Canada, I get inquiries from galleries all over the world. And that was only possible because of the NICHE Award and capitalizing on the fact that I had won. In spite of the economy my business has grown.
The award, it’s a coveted award because it puts you in a classification and distinctive level that says to galleries, this person is going somewhere. Just the fact that you’re a finalist gets you a lot of recognition.
Q Where would you like to go next with your work?
A I don’t ever see that I will not be practicing architecture in some capacity. I believe an architect is an artist on a much grander scale. There is architecture with a little “a” and a big “A.” I like to think of myself as one with a big “A,” which means I’m artful with my architecture.
