Sunday, September 15, 1974 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page F ive Sunday, September 15, 1974 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Five PROFILE COUNTRY JEWELRY George Lake: Making art out of pine cones and mushrooms, By HOWARD BRICK his own work, which usually move out. GEORGE LAKE is a country takes the form of custom-made He lives on a 26-acre piece I by, and you can't miss it. rings and pendants and other of land in Grass Lake that he He has a mid-western country pieces, based on abstract de- bought 26 years ago when it twang and speaks with a kind signs drawn from nature. "I try was mostly swamp. He has fill- of country honesty. He likes to to keep my shop within the ed in a lot of it, built himself walk barefoot in the marsh means of the students," he says, a small, comfortable home and, grass around his pond; he play- and he condemns his fellow jew- a workshop set back in the fully chases the small flock of elers who overprice their wares. woods, planted a small stand of mallards he keeps. Hospitable, "Why be a hog? The thrill you pines and a moderately-sized downright gracious, he pies get from the people is reward- vegetable garden. fried home-grown potatoes and ing. The money isn't the only As he walked back to his ers of sweet corn on your plate. thing." workshop on Friday afternaan, "I like to see people eat,' he he pointed out the muskrat says with a gravelly voice. A MAN OF slight build, he has holes around the pond and coin- Lake has almost always liv- retained a lean shape de- plained that the rodents have ed in the rural surroundings of spite his 53 years. He has a attacked his ducks' eggs. He Michigan's Jackson County, but grisly look about him, wih his told about the skunk whom he he is no stranger to town ife tousled black hair, a graying had a conversation with while either. He has run a 'jewelry stubble growing on his cheeks, he was working late the other, shop on South State St. in Ann and a Camel cigarette hanging night. "You know, animals Arbor for the last 18 years and from his mouth. come to you when you're has gotten to know and -tpprec- He likes to talk. "Boy, I re- alone," he says. iate the people and culture. Yet member years ago, I used to he insists on retreating to the sit down in the shop with a "I like to go out and gather country to exercise his craft - few people and just rap. But some bone, moss, and ivory making jewelry out of metal, there are so many peonle now- and sit and look at it, and you stone, wood, and bone. adays, you can't sit down and should see some of the designs; Lake imports most of the be personable." Ann Arbor is you can get." That's his meth- jewelry in his shop, but h e growing, he feels, and the pace od: simple and meditative. "You money he makes from that only is increasing. In ten years' go out and look down in the pays the overhead. He lives off' time, he says, he will have to water and see the patterns it makes, and you can get your, own high off that." As he ap- ; proached the workshop, he pick- ed up a small, orange mush- room head and turned it over, to show the delicate ribbing un- derneath. "You dry these things out and you should see how: beautifully they cast." It's so simple. That's the point. George Lake is not an' most killed him, he says. All they talked about in the factory was sex and the paycheck. ' He set up his first shop in Jackson in 1954, but only dealt in imports. Within two years, he moved to Ann Arbor, rented a small space at 209 South' State, and was hammering met- al on the basement floor. The rest he learned himself. "If, eloquent man, but he seems to you can't lay it down as an know what he wants and way he dividual, what's the sense wants it, living?" in- of while he was talking to a cus- tomer. "Ann Arbor is being tak- en over by people from De- troit," he insists. "All the rip- offs - it's the out-of-towners." BUT, FOR Lake, the issue of crime comes d o w n to an issue of personal hurt more than anything else. He seems sincerely pained as he says, "When you trust somebody and he takes advantage of you - well, it takes something out of an artist, a craftsman." If he can't pinpoint that something, he still feels it. When his home was burglarized and he w a s forced to install an alarm sys- tem on both the home and the workshop, he says, "it kind of took away a lot of my free- dom." j TNLIKE MANY of Ann Ar- bor's craftsmen, Lake is not a disenchanted academic. His parents were sharecroppers in the 1930's before moving to the city and going on relief. It was a time of abject pover..y.r After serving in the Army inI World War II, he worked a He believes strongly in t h e American work ethic, and, not- withsianding his individualistic tendencies, there's a streak of conservatism in him. Despite his jokes, he really doesn't like the people who beg on the streets of Ann Arbor. "Everything I've got I had to earn the hard way with my own .s.i..s. .........e.t:..i:4:'-:::.}":: :.. I ts So George simple. That's the p The workshIop is tilled with a r"- --"--"- collection of half-finished sculp- ture projects, a variety of draw- Ointf. ings for future work, and all sorts of natural knickna--xs he vent has collected from the land. Lake is not an eloq man, but he seems to know what he wants and why he wants it. factory job for 15 years before deciding to strike out on his own. "I just did it; I just had to," he says as he struggles to explain himself better. "Ever worked in a factory? Don't do it. Beg on the srest first!" The monotony of it al- two hands," he says. "I'rn very conservative on that." Crime bothers him too, and he claims that "years ago you could set things out on the side- walk and no one would touch it." Recently, jewelry has been stolen right out of his shoe He sits down at a workbench and cuts a piece of tarnished silver wire to give a demoistra- tion of his craft. He rubs ;t with some steel wool, hammers the end, wraps it into a simple ab- stract shape, and in three min- utes has a shining silver wire ring. Next, he takes a piece of bone and carves it with a dentist's drill, a tool that he has adopted as his own. "I love the smell of bone and wool," he says. Photo by Howard Brick tl 3 + i 1 1 Leaning back on his s'ool, Lake, who has been separted from his wife for a year' and a half, talks about the virtues of solitude. "I think people snould be alone more to create -- to get the real feeling of God, the' spirit, in them." And when Lake talks about religion in his very basic and uncomplicated way, the country boy in him is .speak- ing again. Ladies' and Children's Hairstyling a Specialty-- Appointments Available Dascola Barber Shops Arborland-971-9975 Maple Village-761-2733 E. Liberty--668-9329 E. Ujniversity-662-0354 I I LOOKING THE WEEK IN REVIEW The Windsor blues As August became September and thousands of students pour- ed back into town, the sponsors of the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival wore smiles as wide as the 20-foot festival promotion anner .across State St. Unruf- ed by the GOP-dominated City ouncil's command to ship out, promoters John Sinclair and Pete Andrews caravanned their operation to Canada for three days of music "in exile" at St. Clair College's Griffin Hollow amphitheatre in Windsor. By sundown last Sunday, Sin- clair and Andrews were singing the greenback blues: As festival staffer Kelvin Wall coldly predicted a $60,000 de- ficit for the affair, Sinclair hung his head and admitted even that figure might be too low. "We'll try to regroup some- how," said the rotund v i c e president of Rainbow Multi- Media (RMM). "We had pro- jected our budget expecting 8500 ticket buyers a day. As far as we can tell right now, we sold between 2,500 and 3,000 a day for the first two days." And Sunday's crowd looked smaller than Saturday's. If that wasn't bad enough, Sintlair himself was refused en- trance at the Canadian border. because of a prior drug offense. About 100 other concert fans' were arrested at the festival or at the border in what one, RMM staffer called a "deliber- ate effort" to keep young Amer- icans out of the country. While Andrews kept silent and Sinclair spoke of re-grouping, a friend and former associate of the pair said there is "no way" RMM will recover its losses in: time for another festival next year. * * * End of the world deadly ultraviolet rays. T h e moderate leaders across t t e rays, it has been shown, have country. But the rally was littlef a direct effect on the incidence more than a ventilation of bitter of skin cancer, and may also, feelings and a chance for some destroy undersea algae and local Democratic candidates to plankton forms - breaking a, fish for votes with high-sound-' vital link in the marine ecolo- ing phrases. Ciceron and his associates The pardon was a cruel, stup-t are convinced that enough treon id conclusion to the upheaval of; has already been produced to nsbytaught us only one lesson, itf 1985orde1ur990ndtn was that the nation moves for-' 1985 or 199O. ward only as soon as the law The researcher, who works at rises above the men and women the University's Space Researchr. Laboratory, has begged his fel- in power. Ford instead took the' low scientists to offer some evi. dence that might contradict his Speaking in support of Gover- awesome findings. But he says nor William Milliken's reelec- no opposing research has been tion drive Thursday, former At-! forthcoming. torney General Elliott Richard-f * * son told an Ann Arbor audience:t "The public should know what former President Nixon was pardoned for." That much, at least. Meanwhile, the youthful en- thusiasts of Student Government Council were busily imitating their elders. SGC sued its former president and treasurer, Bill Jacobs and David Schaper, for a total of nearly $42,000 in unaccounted funds; Council also voted to press criminal charges against former President L e e Gill for failure to answer a similar suit for about $15,000. Schaper and Jacobs, who were repeatedly accused of shuffling funds and defrauding SGC elec- tions in 1972-73, both denied the BACK, charges. "I rigged elections; I screwed people left and right, , bantered Schaper, whoam many, considered SGC's version of H. R. Haldeman. "But I never, never took any money." It was the quote of the week. If the SGC suit does nothing else, it will at least delay these gentlemen from what will ob- viously be a career in the fed- eral government. IN STOCK NOW H EWLETT-PACKARD CALCULATORS HP-35-Tech Data HP-45-Adv. Scientific HP-65-Fully Programmable HP-80-Business Computer BUY AT FOLLETT'S STATE STREET END OF THE DIAG --DAN BIDDLE r 7 Again, scandals On the campus and in the na- tion, it was a lousy week for., trust in government. Richard Nixon, after admitting he bid' from behind a labyrinth af test the Watergate scandal frim law tubes to tell us that due to: officials for more than two full comets or cataclysms, the End years, walked scot-free on the is near. We naturally dismiss beaches of San Clemente as' the gloom generators as loon- President Ford granted him an ies - it would be tough, after unequivocal pardon. all, to go through college and About 400 students gavhe-ed e reacar e neson the Diag Friday to protest convinced that we'll all be" the pardon, following the exam- cinders by 1980. of scores of liberal and But Dr. Ralph Cicerone is no ------o -----a flake. His research has con- vinced him and other experts that freon, the inert gas used LOUIS MALLE'S to power refrigerators and aero- sol cans, will wreak deadly dam- age to the earth's protective ZA Z IE I ozone blanket within the next 15 years. With touches of W.C. "The effect will be serious MURMUR OF THE HE and will last for several de-' about a 10 year old cot cades," says Dr. Cicerone. With' her Uncle Gabriel, a fe the fate of the world in the / 36 hour affair. "One of deep furrows of his brow, he films ever made." Cathe explains that enough industrial- ly-produced freon has risen into the upper atmosphere that the NEXT W resulting damage to the ozone belt may quadruple the risk of skin cancer and play havoc with, Tonight at 7:00, the world's weather conditions. / E A u The problem, he says, is that: the ozone will no longer pro- perly absorb most of the sun's- MIXED BOWLING LEAGUES Sign up now at Union Lanes Open 1 1 a.m.-12 mid. Mon.-Thurs. 1 1 a.m.-1 a.m. Fri. and Sat. 1 p.m.-12 mid. Sundays 1960 DANS LE METRO Fields and the Marx Brothers, the director of EART has put together a wildly frenetic comedy untry girl called Zazie who is brought to Paris by male impersonator so that her mother can have a the most original, subversive and insolently unusual erine Demorgeot. EEK: Bizzare, Bizzare, 0 Lucky Man and 9:00 AUD. A tickets on sale ANGELL HALL at 6:00 p.m. adm. $ Want To Be a Public Nuisance? The LS&A Student Government will be making appoint- ments to college committees. N E E D E D are people interested in educational innovation and protection of student interests. COMMITTEES INCLUDE: . Academic Judiciary o Administrative Board o Curriculum Committee o Admissions Committee o Executive Council INTERESTED? Sign up for an interview at our office, 4001 Michigan Union. Your help will be needed. I CARFFR SENIORS and I Every few years coated researcher some white- steps out Plannig yRAD STUDENTS Placement Employment After Graduation? DELI Sun., Sept. 15 6 p.m. at HILLEL Come & Join Us 1429 Hill St. 663-1429 UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PROFESSIONAL THEATRE PROGRAMS presents Grad School? or . What? V A PERFECT MATCH. WeWree Sisters by Anton Chekhov directed by Boris Tumarin OCTOBER 17 THROUGH 20 Love's Labour's Lost I by William Shakespeare directed by Gerald Freedman. OCTOBER 24 THROUGH 27 EDWARDI H1 by Christopher Marlowe directed by Ellis Rabb C"CTlR 31 'THROUGH NOVEMBER 3 Come find out how the services of CAREER PLANNING & PLACEMENT can help you get where you want to go. COME TO A REGISTRATION MEETING Tues., Sept. 17-Wed., Sept. 18 Meeings will" be held every hour on the hour begining noon. Last meeting starts 4:00 p.m. MICHIGAN LEAGUE Conference Rooms 4 & 5