arts & culture in the bay cities
on the fritz
by Jaime Leick
Local artist Joyce Fritz’s popular line of jewelry flies off the shelves here and around the world.
“You have a bug on you!” Joyce Fritz customers probably hear that a lot when wearing this Green Bay artist’s handiwork. Fritz, who has been designing jewelry since the mid 1980s, is known for her eye-catching line of creepy-crawlers that includes beetles, bees, dragonflies, lizards, turtles, and frogs. The Yipes! line by Joyce Fritz Studio offers primarily pins and earrings. The pieces are bright, colorful, and full of whimsy with glittering bodies and beaded antennae. “It’s really an accident,” Fritz says about how she conceived of her unusual designs. In the early 1990s, the Neville Museum was presenting a garden-themed exhibit and organizers asked Fritz to make something appropriate for the gift shop. Fritz made a few bugs for the show, and received an enthusiastic response. Then, a distributor took samples of the bugs to the New York International Gift Fair, an twiceannual market show for gift retailers.
“She had $10,000 in orders, and I had three months to fill them,” Fritz recalls. At that time, she was still working part-time and had to hire help to fill the orders. Within a year, she quit her job and focused on the bug line full-time. A single-mom for most of her children’s youth, Fritz has successfully supported herself and her children with her art. Daughter Maggie is 24 now, and son Patrick is 17. Orders have been so steady, in fact, that Fritz has always had at least one assistant. During the economic boom of the late 1990s, she had as many as five people handling production. Nowadays, she has two assistants, one of whom does piecework out of her home. Fritz prefers the somewhat slower pace. “I’m at a comfortable level now, and I like it this way better,” she says. “It was a fun time, but it was a lot of organizing all the time to keep it all going.” Still, Fritz admits some surprise at her success. “I didn’t plan on making this a career. I never thought I would last this long.” she says. “I think it continues because I change designs every year.” Indeed, each of her designs is a limited edition product. The intricate wing and body
p a t t e r n s featured on her creatures are created using sheets and coils of polymer clay, s t a c k e d together. Originally used in glass designs, the ancient technique is known as “millefiori,” or one thousand flowers. Fritz stacks and wraps the clay to create a large-scale version of the desired pattern. Then, by applying even pressure, she compresses the clay to a much smaller, intricate design. Sheets of green clay w r a p p e d around a black core, for instance, will eventually
become tiny specks on a beetle’s wing. After the clay stack has been compressed into a small loaf, Fritz simply shaves off slices to make multiple copies of the same creature. The slices become wings, bodies, eyes, or other parts. Once the loaf is gone, the pattern can never be exactly duplicated. Fritz keeps a record of all the designs she makes – slices of clay lay piled together on a cookie sheet that Fritz calls her “sketchbook.” She doesn’t record color formulas or techniques, instead choosing to simply reference prior designs and work by intuition. Legs and antennas, for the bugs, are made from beads and recycled telephone wire that is surprisingly colorful. “When I was a kid, I used to go to the phone company and they’d have this wire in the garbage,” Fritz recalls. “I’d take it home and make stuff out of it.” Today she’ll strip wire out of old buildings set for demolition or use recycled wire that acquaintances drop off, knowing she has a use for it. Fritz says her neighbors also help out with the recycling effort by generously passing along boxes, foam peanuts, and other used shipping materials. Fritz’s studio is housed in a garage behind her former home. (Recently married, she plans to take a sabbatical next year and build a new studio at her new digs.) “When I designed this, I could either have plumbing or windows,” she says. “I only had $10,000 dollars to spend. I decided windows were more important than water.” A contractor made the space habitable with insulation, wood flooring, and heat. With the exception of a bathroom, the space is completely functional yearround. “It’s been a really good place to work. I’ve been really lucky,” she says. “My kids think I work all the time, but I was here when they got home. I was around. I could take off and take them to the doctor. It’s been a great way to raise kids.” Because Fritz sells her designs wholesale, she’s had to devise techniques that facilitate fabrication of multiple pieces at one time. “Everything thing that I’ve designed, I’ve had to design it for production,” she says. “Because if I made it one at a time, I’d never make a living.” Toward that end, Fritz has devised several homemade tools to make production more
Fritz’s work is distributed around the world. Locally, you can see her Yipes! line at The Gift Itself in Green Bay’s On Broadway district. You can also tour Fritz’s studio and see the production process first hand during the Northeastern Wisconsin Art Studio Tour scheduled for October 7, 8, and 9. For more information about the studio tour, visit www.artseventsinc.com
efficient. For instance, an old sewing machine motor is mounted on one of her studio tables. To the side of the unit, she fashioned a hook that spins when the foot pedal is depressed. By linking two strands of wire into the hook and grasping the opposite ends with a pliers, she quickly plies the two wires together and voila: antennas enough for several bugs.
Similarly, Fritz uses a hand drill to create tiny, coiled springs used for antenna and legs. Still other tools have been adapted from the kitchen. She uses a food processor to chop the clay and create her own color combinations. And a hand-crank pasta maker rolls the clay into sheets. The studio itself is a study in organization and efficient work flow. One storage section and countertop is designated for clay work. Across from that is the wire and bead counter. Conveniently near the door is the shipping area and next to that, numbered trays of finished product. Back rooms include Fritz’s office and a vented kiln area also used for gluing or any other smelly processes. (Surprisingly, the kiln gets very little use; Fritz uses a toaster oven to harden the clay pieces.) “I consider that part of my artistic process,” Fritz says, explaining the studio layout. “I like doing that – figuring out the system.”
September 2005
BAY CITIES Magazine
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While Fritz maintains the bug theme developed by accident, she does admit it fits her personality. “I guess I like to do something a little more edgy. I could never do cats and dogs,” she says. “I like to take something that scares people a little bit and make it more approachable.” Fritz uses field guides and photographs for inspiration. One of her assistants, Joan Berkopec, is a trained naturalist from whom Fritz says she’s learned a lot. “Real insects are amazing,” Fritz says. “They have a variety of patterns and some sparkle and shine. My designs aren’t that outlandish.”