The Primus Motor behind this blog is the momentum of its makers imagination. The imagination and the movement it causes are owned by me. I am Samu Salmenkangas, a Finnish journeyman goldsmith and a jeweler, freelance actor, prolific writer for my desk drawer and a poet of the smallest possible margin. I’m a samurai in the service of art and I’m dedicated to the Path.
The Path I tread is not the path of bushido, the Path of War, but the Path of Art. Like the sword is only one step on the path of the warrior, so are all arts just steps on the path of an artist. For more than ten years I tried to scrape a living working as a freelance theater actor, barely managing. On the year 2007 I dropped my sword in the corner of my hermit hut and took up the chisel, figuratively speaking. I was 30 at the time. After that I’ve studied blacksmithing, silversmithing, goldsmithing and stone setting. Working metal with my hands is the direction on this path of mine, for it feeds the body as well as the soul. I’ve spent time studying in several schools in Finland, but the degrees matter as little as the gravel on the road to success. The path to mastery is not a road, it’s a thicket of brambles with no end in sight. At the moment I’m working at a goldsmith atelier in the city of Tampere in Finland, for repetitio mater studiorum est, repetition, repetition is the key to learning an art. A master has failed more times than an apprentice has even tried.
While the analogy to the Path of War might not be accurate on all accounts, it’s an apt parallel to learning the craft. The tenets of the japanese sword saint Miyamoto Musashi about learning the sword are equally fitting guidelines to learning art and craftsmanship. Especially one, “Become acquainted with every art” is a reminder for me that the years in theater were not in vain. The sense of rhythm, composition and meaning translate amazingly well to design.
I was asked, am I not too old to start on a new path, I replied with telling that Miyamoto Musashi was almost 50 when he started arts and still became a renowned artist. The sword strike is not that different from a brush stroke. My grandfather, who built log cabins for the majority of his life took up the studies to become a violin maker when he was over 70 years old and built a score of violins, cellos and number of a finnish traditional instrument called ‘kantele’ before passing to the wuthering evergreen forests of Heaven. In my mind it’s not about when you start, it’s about when you stop.
With that in mi
nd I think I’ll never return to the blissful starvation of the theater, at least not professionally, but I might take up the sword to feed the need of the conviction now and then, step on the stage and cry with the words of Samuel Beckett: “…and concurrently simultaneously what is more for reasons unknown in spite of the strides of physical culture the practice of sports such as tennis football running cycling swimming flying floating riding gliding conating camogie skating tennis of all kinds dying flying sports of all sorts autumn summer winter winter tennis of all kinds hockey of all sorts penicilline and succedanea in a word I resume and concurrently simultaneously for reasons unknown to shrink and dwindle in spite of the tennis I resume flying gliding golf over nine and eighteen holes tennis of all sorts in a word for reasons unknown in Feckham Peckham Fulham Clapham namely concurrently simultaneously what is more for reasons unknown but time will tell to shrink and dwindle…” As waiting for Godot is more important than the arrival. The step is more important than the destination.
What really plays the strings of my soul is when I get a picture of a jewelry piece in my minds eye and when the vision realizes to the material world. The whole process that starts with drawing inspiration from the world and ends with the final polish of the piece keeps me sailing in the absence of applause. Designing jewelry is a refreshingly private alternative for an art for someone who has bared his soul to the public on the stage for half of my adult life.
While designing and manufacturing jewelry, the focus shifts. Instead of me being the center of the attention and the tool for the art, the focal point is the piece I create. Almost fifteen years on stage leaves some wear and tear on the person. I’m happy to fade to just the invisible maker of the piece.
Tales from the bench pin. 