
Wednesday, 31 October 2007
Ring changes

Sunday, 28 October 2007
Crafting Beauty in Modern Japan

My interpretation of the pattern, generated using Paint Shop Pro, is shown here. Click on it for a larger image.
Details of the kimono: Melody (Senritsu) 1968, Matsubara Yoshichi (born 1937), Indigo stencil dyeing on silk. There are pictures of it here and here (At the second link, use the Next button 5 times to reach the correct picture).
The shapes reminded me a little of fold formed items I've seen when looking into 3D forming. I now wonder if one could achieve an effect similar to the shading by hammering and oxidation.
Thursday, 25 October 2007
Moo card holder

There are two templates provided in the instructions, one for standard business cards and a custom template. I used the custom template, and scaled it to 75% to make the holder suitable for moo cards.
Tuesday, 23 October 2007
Resin and silver jewellery: three websites

Lulu Smith (www.lulusmith.com). Beautiful, simple shapes and strong colour. Gorgeous!
Anne Schilk's Swirl range features dramatic concentric circles, and fine colour combinations. (www.anneschilk.com/page13.html)
Miriam Arentz Stunning, striking pieces with coloured resin behind graphic flower-shaped windows in silver.
(http://www.miriamarentz.de/eng/schmuck.html).
Saturday, 20 October 2007
Re: Planishing

This is my copper learning piece, it is going to be a little bowl. We started with a wooden bossing mallet, and hammered against wood to get the concave shape. The shape was refined on a sand bag. The surface is a bit bumpy at this point.

Wednesday, 17 October 2007
Percy the Repoussé Polar Bear


Sunday, 14 October 2007
It's a sine
Saturday, 13 October 2007
First Work in Progress post

Thursday, 11 October 2007
It's a rollover week

For those not familiar with chasing and repoussé: the metal is shaped from front and back using steel punches, while it is supported by a slightly elastic supporting surface made from a mixture of pitch, plaster of Paris and tallow. Very traditional. I'll take along my camera next time and get some pictures for a future post.
And the reason for the photo? According to Wikipedia, the Statue of Liberty was formed using repoussé. They must have had a big bowl for the pitch ...
Monday, 8 October 2007
Instant collage

Sunday, 7 October 2007
Celtic knots and origami paper

Friday, 5 October 2007
Brief number 1: Origami with metal

Here's the first bit: By exploring the various techniques of metal forming you will create a piece of jewellery with a 3D form. You might want to use planishing, chasing, repousse, fold forming, hammering and the rolling mill in order to form your metal...
So, I'll be doing a bit of web searching to find designers using these forming techniques - three of the websites will appear in a future Inspiration post. I'll also look for examples of pieces with a Mobius strip, as I'd like to have a go at including one in my own work.
Wednesday, 3 October 2007
Model icebreaker
The evening classes have started again! To get us into the swing of things again, we had an icebreaker session. Each of us had to make a model (from card, foam, wire etc.) of a piece of jewellery for another member of the class. Someone that we didn't already know. The idea was to find out a little about the other person and then make something personalised to their interests. It worked very well, with a remarkable collection of colourful models produced by the end of the evening. Everyone managed to explain why their item was so suitable too. Apart from getting us talking to each other, the aim of the exercise was to encourage us to make models and try things out before launching into production.
We got our project briefs too. Previously we've had just one brief at a time, but this time there are two. One to make something and one to design something. More about these in a later post.
We got our project briefs too. Previously we've had just one brief at a time, but this time there are two. One to make something and one to design something. More about these in a later post.
Monday, 1 October 2007
Tumbled blue glass and silver box chain earrings

As I didn't have any genuine sea/beach glass, I made my own tumbled glass in a rock tumbler, using pieces from a blue glass bottle. This generated lots of attractive bits of glass, which should keep me going for a while! The earrings are made from two similarly shaped pieces of glass. These were chosen after the random bottle smashing and tumbling; they were not cut to shape in advance. The holes were made using a Dremel with a 1.5 mm diamond drill bit, in water, very slowly, with eye protection and with a great deal of care. Advice on how to use a diamond drill bit can be found here.
The glass pieces are hung from short lengths of box chain, made from 0.8 mm diameter silver wire. I had made these during the preceding Level 2 project, Chainmaking, Links and Units.
I had a look for genuine sea glass when walking on beaches during the summer, but was disappointed with what I found. There was very little, and what I did see looked as if it had been left on the beach the previous week, with very little smoothing apparent.
[Edit: A tutorial about how I went about tumbling the bottle glass is now available].
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)