Missing the smithy Chaos of the work bench a joyous place for jeweller Karen Schmidt Humiski The Creators
By: AV Kitching Posted: 2:00 AM CST Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024

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This article was published 23/11/2024 (288 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Karen Schmidt Humiski’s compulsion to create led her to leave a 30-year teaching career to concentrate on making jewelry.

As much as she enjoyed instructing her students in metal smithing and jewelry making, she could no longer ignore her yearning.

“I was so envious of my students working on their things,” she says. “I figured I had only 20 to 30 years left to create and so I retired three years ago at 60.”

For Schmidt Humiski making jewelry is a conscious act of joy.

She’s happiest when she’s in her “chaotic” studio in Patricia Beach surrounded by her tools and paraphernalia.

With every surface covered by trays holding works in progress, bits of twisted wire and discarded parts from rings and earrings stacked around her, she forges, casts and sculpts sterling silver into fine-art jewelry.

“I work in a dishevelled manner. I have stuff spread out on the floor and on the tables. I am like a magpie. I see a lot of possibilities working like this. It looks chaotic to others but I know where things are… pretty much most of the time,” she laughs.

Not for her a sterile environment, then?

“No. I couldn’t work like that. If everything was completely tidied up I wouldn’t be able to move. When I leave things out, when I lay them on the table then I don’t have to think too much. It gets me started. It gets me going,” she says.

She’s established two jewelry lines, each with its own esthetic. KSH Dark Arts Studio has a distinctly gothic flavour while her Karen Schmidt Humiski Studio works are inspired by the natural world.

Each line has its own Instagram account to which she uploads her latest works, and her collections are stocked in the Winnipeg Art Gallery shop as well as in a number of galleries in Ontario, Vancouver and on Vancouver Island.

The collections, when viewed together, are at first glance a discordant array.

Twigs from Manitoba trees cast in sterling silver sit next to miniature skeletal hands; textured pendants purposely left to oxidize are in various stages of developing a patina and share space with meticulously polished bangles and shiny cuffs, and earrings touched by gold leaf.

Closer inspection reveals a common thread running through both lines: Schmidt Humiski’s perception of the spirituality she has found in nature guides her hand as she crafts her pieces.

She often gets her eureka moments outside, picking up bits of twigs, rocks and leaves that catch her eye to take back to the studio.

She recently came back from Japan inspired by coral skeletons she came across on a beach.

“The sand was full of dead coral. I brought some back and I am gold-leafing them to make them into pendants,” she says.

She’s just as fascinated by the human body, and attended a sketch workshop where she gained a deeper understanding of the texture and appearance of organs, veins, muscles and bones.

The experience has led her to further explore the link between the heart and brain. Her curiosity about the connection between mind, body, heart and soul continues to inform her work.

Her pieces seek clarity about the nature of existence — of what came before and what comes after.

“That is my quest; to explore the beauty of the edge between life and death,” she explains.

“I have questions about how that all works. I am very fascinated by the whole idea of a soul and where it resides in us. When I approach my jewelry I am trying to bring these elements into it, to keep to the integrity of it.”

Nothing pleases Schmidt Humiski more than when one of her works resonates with others.

“When I see my jewelry out in the wild I feel fantastic. I want people to wear my stuff; I want it to be out there. There is no point me standing ankle-deep in all of it. When I see someone wearing something I’ve made, it feels like they appreciate what I do.

“All I want is to say thank you to them for sharing the same vision.”

av.kitching@freepress.mb.ca