Oh, November

This month has gone by frighteningly quick.

The reappearance of a sketchbook/diary has made quite the positive impact on me. I've kept one for the last decade with more consistency than ANY thing else in my life (it seems). Perhaps I'll share sketches one day, I think that would be a great idea :)

Photographs are from November 6th. The first is of my apartment, the second two are from the deck.

As always, click to enlarge and click again to magnify. The last two should be fun larger :) enjoy!

Sample cup

Concrete bottom, Copper ring and cup, steel hardware



Samples, before bottom left was assembled to the above picture.


This is the sample cup for my final, late as of now :/ Extended brain farts interfere with schoolwork.

More metal work

Leaf is Copper, Coccoon brass. As always, click to see larger image.

This is from beginning Jewelry Spring 2009. It's a cocoon. wire used for rivets

Raising

A few shots from the metals studio. These vessels were raised (in the case of the one on the right, still being raised). Metalsmithing equates to fire (annealing), shiny (stakes), and hammering (a lot!). Obviously it is quite a joyful process. More about that later.

Words are material!

Some lines, anyway.

A Small Dark Bird
feet like a pair of gloves wrinkled by
wear, wrapped taught around brittle
bird bones.

Plm & Grv
trees once saplings are now old,
spread their branches out across the sidewalk and the street,
roots burrow in southern sync
wrinkled brick sidewalk, gentle vermilion waves.

(disjointed bricks that will trip yo ass up if you aren't careful...)

Alley
Water streams behind buildings
gives life to cold granite paved ground,

Isolated pools mention the past like dimwit oracles
seeing only the sky above.

Yellow orbs of reflected light brought down from
street lamps sparkle stupidly in
the dimples of every pockmarked
cobblestone, hemming the magic
mirrors on the alley floor.


-------

Have a good day :)


(edited 2011/3/27)

The Other Half

 





I definitely learned a lot in this Ceramics course, technically and otherwise.

Thank you

Final Ceramics Project

Ceramics Cont'd

My final project consisted mainly of me having an excuse to make random body parts. Here is a mandible. With an 19th century, Oscar Wilde inspired throat covering attached. Please forgive the wonky angles of the photos, I'm behind in my posting and plan to make amends after catching up!

Creepy hand, since shattered, attached in an ill-conceived manner to the main project itself. Post will follow with those photos.

Poor photo due to the heat of the kiln-room, carrying back the wreckage.

My pieces were laying on the second shelf up, Raphael had pieces on the shelves above that. I had cleared most of my body off of the kiln-shelf before snapping this picture, he had not - those are his exploded pieces. My prof. was aghast.

Judging from the background of this photograph, it is clear I had no intentions of sharing it, but here is the same iron, same stage (bone hard, ready to go off to the kiln for the second and final firing), but with comparison to the iron it mimics. You can tell I made mistakes, beginning with the misproportioned handle-bottom, I had to take out the ol' artistic license to fix proportions. I am unhappy with the height, as you can see, my piece has a much shorter nose than it should.


I have to agree with Jeannette, this will make a great flower pot! I have images of the iron after the glazing to be posted later.

Ceramics Summer 2009

Ceramics Summer Inro Class 2009

Measurements and drawings for scaling up an iron for the second project.
The assignment was to enlarge an object.

I enjoyed the drawing, but making the iron was much more of a learning experience than the creation of a piece with which I'd feel comfortable putting my name on without a disclaimer!

Here the iron is, I left the flat front (separate piece, separate drying time, smaller size than desired - oops!) of the iron without any glaze. There were no slips applied to either piece, the white color on the body of the iron is what the clear glaze looks like before firing.

Our first project for the class was to design a "tile" from clay and make a mold of it, to then reproduce it in whatever manner fit for our initial design. I was allowing myself a simple enough design with ample negative and positive spaces to play with after the mold was made. And so, many variations were made, different underglazes were applied, or not applied, and clear second-fire glaze was applied very selectively. Please enjoy!

Here is the mold, above, made from plaster.
The tiles sit in the background.

A tiny button, also pressed from the mold!

I was told that they looked like they had been washed upon the beach and found. I was flattered by the comment, as it was my essential aesthetic goal!

Cervix and nipple patterns, no doubt. Merely concentric circles before the pink underglaze was applied! No clear, second-fire glaze. I had another that I made quite similarly, mostly regarding the pattern, but compressed it more after removing it from the mold so that it was simply more compact. I glazed it heavily, and I must say I prefer the one pictured above ten-fold!


Lovely experimentation. I played with a few underglazes, slips really, mostly achieving different colors from mixing them on my tiny palette. You can see the shiny parts are where the true "glaze" was applied. Glaze has silica in it that melts onto your ceramic piece and essentially becomes a thin layer of glass. To put it simply, this is the same thing that happens with colored enamel on metal.

When asked if I am going to take a course with glass, blowing molding, whatever, I always say no! It would be too easy to fall in love, I already have too many interests! Glaze and enamel will have to be enough glass for me, for now anyway. :)

New Place

Lorraine and I moved to a new apartment last month. It has a view. It has a clothes line (picture seen after a sudden rainstorm). It has pretty plants, like these flowers, but also we have been busy planting tomatoes and squash, herbs are on their way!

April 16th

The realization that birdwatching was possible from my porch in the Fan made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. I ran to get the 20-D Mom loaned me but the lens it was 'wearing' was quite dirty. I was also messing with it on manual and for the second or third time 'ever,' so forgive that I uploaded such small versions of the pictures. Enjoy the birds!







The sky has been toned down a notch in intensity, the weather was amazing and the sky was a deep (distracting!) blue. Adjustments include the iPhoto preset for "Antique" and just playing with tint and saturation to get the best palette.

Recycling bags

Two pictures, one piece - so far! Technique is limited to crocheting plastic bags into a strip, arranging the line into a coil and crocheting jute between. It is very nest-like, a recurring theme in my work.

Spring Break/Friday Night Crafting :D

Today I have three pieces to share. All done this evening, and for that I am appropriately proud.

Perhaps to underscore my love for the crochet hook, this piece is entirely crocheted.
The beads are simply strung on before hand, and worked in. For all intensive purposes, this is constructed of one continuous strand of "present tense" crochet.

I love the beach-y feel, the mesh-y exuberance and bright glass colors.

Materials: The beige thread is this wonderful ancient (second-hand) mercerized cotton [Labeled for crochet - no doubt for lacework. It, and a pink companion spool, were used in places on the embroidery (pictures still to come).], glass beads of varied sizes and origins, purchased findings

Techniques: Crochet and a tad bit of wrapping and tucking.

This piece is quite different than its predecessor in many ways; primarily the color scheme, followed by the use of hemp in conjunction with the tribal bone pendant. I'm very happy with how varied the techniques and form became. Mainly, I'm ecstatic with the resulting connotations, traditional draping and pearlescent glass beads in such direct contrast to the tribal and moderately 'stoner' element of hemp work and patterning.

Some more wrapping in the back, visible "roller-coaster" knot-work, traditional hemp "eye" pattern, a tapering of negative space sizing.

Meow.

Can you spot the crochet? Also, around the pendant there is some more (also very structural) crochet. Much less symmetrical than desired, but none-the-less delicious.

Materials: hemp cord, glass beads, bone pendant, two dabs of clear acrylic, purchased finding

Techniques: knotting, beading, crochet



A friend gave this scarf to me a while back, I felt it too light for my taste, so I added a little weight, very simple embellishment, very delicious to wear! Thanks, Jeannette.

Textiles Embroidery Project

Yea, exploration of femininity after the loss of my paternal matriarch.  Pretty fully loaded imagery, particularly given the materials.  Kind of painful in retrospect, but I definitely needed to make it.  I was dressing like a Mennonite at the time as well, pretty classic phases.  Eh.





The sisal I used was so curly from being on its spool that I chose to steam-iron it into submission, it still smells like hay in the apartment.



Techniques and methods: I will mention here my gratitude for the universal applicability of crochet hooks, especially when a nice long and sharp awl is at the ready to accompany any such endeavor as threading a pillow onto a chair :)
Embroidery, hand and machine sewing, wrapping and mache-ing, and deconstruction!

बाच Thoughts

कोउसिं केटी होल्ड्स अ सम्प्लिंग ऑफ़ वाशेद-उप सी ग्रास्सेस, इ वास इन्त्रिगुएद विथ थे तेक्स्तुरल possibilities, बुत कपट आईटी अस-वास ओं-बाच, तकिंग अ अ रिफ्लेक्शन ऑफ़ थ्री पॉइंट्स इन टाइम इन स्टाड.

Elemental Crocheted Necklace

leaf beads embroidered on at varying lengths.

Materials used: purchased beads, pentagram pendant and fastener; embroidery floss, crocheted cotton line from the hardware store. (The same, in fact, as the previous post)