Getting comfortable

Well I am now in Vondelpark Amsterdam in the Netherlands for about two more weeks. Seeing as its a nice apartment I have space to really spread out and do some work between consultations and sight seeing.
 
Before coming here to Amsterdam I spent about a week and a half in Berlin and a weekend in Pforzheim Germany. Both were great experiences, spending time with other artists and beautiful cities. Lucky for me a friend from Cranbrook, Carson Grubaugh, finds himself living in Berlin for two months and allowed me to sleep on his couch during my visit. It was pretty great to have someone to explore the city with for a few days. We did a lot of restaurant and museum hopping while I was there as well as hopping into a night club to see if Berlin held up to its reputation!

After leaving Berlin I got to sleep in another living room at a group of students' home in Pforzheim Germany. While visiting I went to Hochschule University's exhibition that was up for the weekend. I must say that the metals design department really did impress me. Not only was the work interesting and well crafted but the groups of students who arranged the presentation also did a lovely job of showing off the pieces. One of the draws to Pforzheim for me was the chance to meet with Andreas Gut who is one of the department heads at Hochshule University. Once again I was impressed by his students and his work that I saw during my stay. A location that I saw his work at was the Shmuck Museum that is down the road from the university. I was also fortunate enough to see not only a great historical collection of Jewelry but also multiple contemporary pieces. Among them were three students from Hochshule, Andreas Gut, Monika Brugger and my very own artist in residence at Cranbrook - Iris Eichenberg. 

All around Germany was a good trip.