Visit our new store!
Stuart's of Bend
50 Scott Street, Bend, Oregon 97701
(Next to The Sparrow Bakery in Bend's historic Ironworks building.)
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news
April 30, 2011 // Last Saturday
March 31, 2011 // Intelligent Design: Stuart Breidenstein
Stuart was recently featured in the Source Weekly newspaper. He discusses his latest motivations and projects, as well as his new storefront, Stuart's of Bend.
January 29, 2011 // famous
November 27, 2010 // ERIN KAY
October 30, 2010 // LAST SATURDAY ART OPENING
September 25, 2010 // LAST SATURDAY ART OPENING
August 28, 2010 // STUART'S OF BEND - GRAND OPENING!
August 2, 2010 // NEW RETAIL SPACE OPEN IN BEND
Visit our new store at 50 Scott Street in Bend, Oregon. (Next to The Sparrow Bakery in Bend's historic Ironworks building.)
shop
Visit our new store!
Stuart's of Bend
50 Scott Street, Bend, Oregon 97701
(Next to The Sparrow Bakery in Bend's historic Ironworks building.)
and at the following retailers:
Tryst Clothing
714 NW Franklin Ave, Bend, OR 97701 (map)
Tryst Clothing on facebook
CSU Fullerton Grand Central Art Center
125 N. Broadway, Santa Ana, CA 92701
grandcentralartcenter.com
biography
Stuart Breidenstein grew up around art, science and music. His childhood observations of nature would later shape his development as an artist. In his teens and twenties, aside from playing several musical instruments, he experimented with photography, painting, furniture building, sculpture, and a handful of crafts.
He began making sculptural wood jewelry in the late 1980s. During the 1990s He was heavily involved in the electronic music scene in Southern California. After a couple full-length albums, a handful of singles and innumerable live performances, Breidenstein returned to the visual arts. He continued producing jewelry using different elements until 2006, when jewelry became his full-time occupation.
In 2006 Breidenstein was creative director of Coin Op Gallery, a multi-media showcase of coin-operated art. He also served on the board of Coop Galleries, a multi-discipline gallery forum for student and emerging artists. Both were in Orange County, California.
Recently Breidenstein’s jewelry has been featured in Niche Magazine and Cascade Arts and Entertainment. He was also featured on HGTV’s “That’s Clever” in 2008. He now works late nights at his jewelry/electronic music studio at his home in Bend, Oregon.
Process: "Although I use traditional metalsmithing techniques in my metal work, my process with resin and mixed materials heavily involves the invention of techniques. I'll use a new technique as a sort of algorithm, throwing materials into it to see what comes out. I like the unpredictable, and I try to come up with processes that allow me to be blind to their outcome. Naturally, I have bins filled with failures.
Over the last several years I have been experimenting with different types of plastics, polyester and epoxy resins, acrylics, styrene, etc. and combining those with other, sometimes unlikely elements. One luxury of plastic is the almost unlimited possibilities for shape and color. I tend to work in waves. I may not go into my studio for a week and then work from 9 am to 2 am for two weeks straight. That is also how I worked on music.
In my work, my mind is as much on fashion as on metalsmithing and the technical aspect of jewelry making. I watch the local designers and try to create some sort of harmony with what they are creating, while at the same time trying to push some creative boundaries.
I like to use humor and irony in my work. The metal pieces lean toward the sculptural, sometimes becoming deliberately awkward or outrageous. I have worked with sterling silver, fine silver, gold, bronze, copper, brass, aluminum, nickel, steel and stainless steel. I often use three or four of these metals in a single piece. The plastic and wood pieces are a little more production oriented and tend to be more fun and colorful.
Many of the tools I use are meant for other purposes. Just as I like to use unexpected combinations of materials in pieces I design, I like to use unconventional tools to create those pieces. I often make my own tools for specific purposes. In fact, I recently caught myself almost unconciously making a tool specifically to make another tool to finish a piece I was working on. I intend to keep developing processes and tools to push the limits of my creativity."
Videos
press
Intelligent Design: Stuart Breidenstein
Cascade Arts and Entertainment
The Source Weekly - March 31, 2011 (link to article)
Stuart Breidenstein likes to say he creates "jewelry for weirdos." But if that's the case, then Bend has more than a few weirdos drooling over his unique creations: masks made of metal and leather, round-eyed aviator goggles and pendants with polished trapezoids of ebony and moveable gears. Breidenstein's work gathers different media – from wood to copper to bright pink Nerds candy – and imaginatively walks the line between wearable fine art and edgy high fashion.
Stuart has been working as an artist full time for the last four years, and recently opened a showroom of his work in the Ironworks Building, a creative hub behind the Sparrow Bakery. The space houses his workroom as well as the lofty upstairs Bright Place Gallery and is open to the public for Last Saturday, an artsy block party similar to Downtown's First Friday. The showroom, appropriately named Stuart's, is filled with electronic music and organic yet edgy necklaces, earrings, belts and other accessories. Wide windows allow for a view of Breidenstein's heavy machinery, creating a transparency between the patron and the process. An old gumball machine filled with art stands next to a wide worktable, illustrating an accessible yet quirky aesthetic.
Constantly gathering detritus, or scavenging and experimenting with manmade materials found from surplus sites on the Internet – old TV projector lenses, Styrofoam balls used for packing – Stuart is constantly creating puzzles for himself, an important part of his artistic process. Breidenstein is part artist, part engineer, contemplating ideas for aesthetically pleasing yet functional projects such as a hybrid scooter that is also an art piece. He created a functional tabletop self-priming stove (think an ultra-light hiker influencing a Brancusi sculpture) for an upcoming show in Seattle called "Flux Capacitor," a steam punk-metal art exhibition.
"The first few of the self-priming stoves actually were on necklaces, which led to a customer requesting I build a still to make alcohol for fuel, then there's a stove to burn the alcohol I distill, and then there is the steam powered generator," says Breidenstein.
Pulling the design from a Hero's Engine from ancient Greek time, Breidenstein places his stove under a "rough prototype" that reminds me of Harry Potter's golden snitch, a lovely orb that spits out steam and spins when heated, and brushes off labels of artist/inventor. One unique design element that Stuart incorporates at the moment is moveable parts.
"I've been doing more and more kinetic stuff. People like something to fidget with," Breidenstein explains as he spins tiny working watch gears on an ebony pendant. Another pendant holds tiny silver BBs resting behind clear acrylic; reminiscent of old school Cracker Jack box delights in the best way.
A wide white belt uses bumpers from old pinball machines to house the aforementioned bright pink Nerds, the pebble-like shape of the candy adding an organic element to the glossy modern design.
"I liked the pink, and then I liked the [phrase] 'a Nerd Belt for nerds.' They're kinda an underused material," he says.
Niche Magazine - Autumn 2008 (download)
Cascade Arts and Entertainment - September 2008 (download)
© 2011 Breidenstein Design. 