Graduate Tamia Dellinger writes about her residency in Idar-Oberstein

Tamia reports on her stay:

"I came to Idar-Oberstein for the residency a bit last minute, everything was planned and decided very fast, I didn’t really have time to prepare for my stay. Which maybe was for the best, I was “forced” to work mostly on instict, without a clear path, reacting to what happens and finding a balance between what I want the stones to do and what they want to do.

I missed stone dearly, so my focus was working in the school, using the big machines, drilling and carving, sadly this meant that I ended up not spending time at Bengel (I’ll have to come back) but I made good use of the stone workshop.

I decided very early on that I would center my time on obsidian, a stone with a rich history that is both fragile and dangerous. Obsidian has attracted me for a long time, it has a mythical aura that I wanted to explore and when you put it against the light, a whole inner world in the stone appears.

Another stone also captured my attention was tiger-eye, a surprising stone for me, I always thought it to be very tacky, but it was calling me, so I obliged.

During the months of my residency, I allowed myself to have fun, I was making without a goal, I didn’t have an exhibition to work towards or any other commitment that required new pieces. So I just made things, a lot of them, I don’t know yet what they’ll become, maybe earings? A necklace?

Anyway, this residency was a reset for me. I had so much fun, I found new things about me and my work and I ended up with a lot of things to work on during the coming months. Thank you very much to the whole school and to everyone who helped me along the way, we’ll see each other soon!"