Visit our new store!
Next to The Sparrow Bakery in Bend's historic Ironworks building.
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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.)
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Visit our new store in Bend!
50 Scott Street, Bend, Oregon 97701
(Next to The Sparrow Bakery in Bend's historic Ironworks building.)
and at the following retailers:
The Long Beach Museum of Art, Museum Store
2300 0cean Bl, Long Beach CA 90803
lbma.org
The Orange county Museum of Art, Museum Store
850 San Clemente Drive Newport Beach, California 92660
ocma.net
A+R store
1121-1 Abbot Kinney Blvd, Venice, CA 90291
aplusrprojects.com
CSU Fullerton Grand Central Art Center
125 N. Broadway, Santa Ana CA 92701
grandcentralartcenter.com
Donterra Artworks Gallery
222 W. Hood Ave. Sisters, OR 97759
donterra.com
Mary Jane's
830 Wall St. Bend OR 97701
(541) 617-1200
Kaleidoscope
550 industrial Way Bend OR 97702
(541) 317-9113
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
Cascade Arts and Entertainment
Niche Magazine - Autumn 2008 (download)
Cascade Arts and Entertainment - September 2008 (download)
