April!

It's April and there are basically two weeks left of school. This is both exciting and terrifying. I am excited to head home for the summer and hop back into business mode and shows. I am worried, as always, that I am never going to get my work finished.

First, there is holloware. My raised cup in now in half!

Nothing is ever simple in holloware. Binding before soldering is a necessary evil and saves tons of time and headaches in the long run. It doesn't mean I have to like it though.

More binding for the base.

And even more soldering fun!

The more urgent project is my production assignment for jewellery, due on Thursday... I have made a ton of progress the last few days but there is still much to be done.

My soldering nightmare. Eventually I got all the forged elements on there, but it was not without a lot of frustration. I don't think I will ever be designing something like this again that has this type of connection.

This is the latest progress, or at least the latest documented progress. They all have the prongs for setting the glass now, they just need a bit of cleaning up, the loops soldered on the back, a bit more cleanup then some polishing. Some are going to be silver plated, one will be powder coated, one will have a patina on it, and another will be gold plated.

Still lots to be done..... But it's getting there.

Slowly but surely

Time really ought to slow down a little bit. There are not enough hours in the day right now. I am making significant progress on my final holloware project. Raising is getting a little easier. I notice a huge improvement in my hammering skills, especially when planishing. Instead of tons of accidental knicks and gouges with the hammer like in the beginning, I can use the hammer to make things smooth and shiny!

This is the top and bottom of my final project. The top is going to be cut in half (it's about halfway there now, would have been done by this point if not for my hatred of cutting disks). More photos to come as this project progresses.

Lots to do still on my production pieces for jewellery. It was so beautiful last week too it was hard to focus on the task at hand. Instead in the calm before the storm I replaced all my emery sticks. Kind of a fresh start right at the end. I went to the glass studio on Saturday and made the rest of my centres for this project. I made twice the amount I needed to so I have lots to choose from! Photos to follow.

Speaking of the beautiful weather, it was so gorgeous on Wednesday and Thursday last week. This city was a completely different place when it was warm, it was a refreshing change to the dreary rain and snow. I went for a walk with my friend Katrina on Citadel Hill. Behold the glory of a sunny Halifax!

Less than a month left?

There are 28 days left in the semester. I honestly don't know where the time went, this semester flew by. I am beginning to feel like there is not enough time to get everything done. I have been consumed lately by applications for shows in the summer, balancing school and business has continued to be an interesting challenge...

I have been working away on my final project for jewellery. I still need to make some more of the glass elements, but it is slowly coming together.

We learned raising in holloware and it almost killed me. Okay, maybe I am exaggerating... but really I did something really horrible to my hand with this sample. It was an interesting process, but probably not one I will use that much for fear of injuring myself further.

Halifax finally got the memo that it's Spring. It's been gorgeous out - not quite the summer temperatures back in Ontario. But I will take what I can get from the weather here, it's generally not very cooperative. Case in point - the forecast for Sunday is "wet flurries". Perfect.

Fabrication

This box project almost killed me, largely because of the time constraints I was under because I went home for break week.

This is when I thought the hammering texture was a great idea and would save me a bit of time. Boy was I wrong - though in the end I was happy with the texture. This was in the beginning when I was still terrified of soldering giant pieces like this.

Bottom soldered! No disasters yet!

So then after a long discussion with Kye about how to do the lid, it evolved into this.... I was skeptical that her suggestion for the lid would be easier/faster but it actually was in the end. A lot of steps, a lot of soldering but fairly simple to do.

All the edges are done, ready for patina!

All jaxed!

Done!

Jewellery and Fabrication Fun

I don't really have a lot to say because this week has been exhausting. You know when you have those weeks where you tell yourself "if I can only make it until ___day" Well, I made it! My second midterm is out of the way and though I was convinced that I was doomed to fail I survived and actually think I did pretty well.

So this is what I have been doing. I made a brooch! We learned how to powder coat which was pretty exciting.

Here it is all done with the images behind it.

And! My prototype is done!! I am pretty happy with it, definitely some things to work out on my final 9 pieces, but a good starting point. Pam told us today that another aspect of this project was to consider how we would want it displayed, or packaged which is wonderful preparation for the world outside of school. This class just keeps getting better and better.

I also got to flamework again the other night. I miss the torch.

I made more centers! I really love the purple one.

And here is my lovely cube/box thing. It is not even remotely symmetrical. I sort of hate fabrication, but I said that about forging at first and then I made my spoon and it grew on me. Maybe that will happen again?

I still have a busy weekend ahead of me but then I get to go home for break week for some well deserved rest and Blossom City....

I heart jewellery

So it's February. How did that happen? Only 75 more days until the end of the semester! This semester has been very busy so far, but I have to say that it's been really nice only having one studio to worry about. Though I could do without some of the art history, or at least the exams that come along with it. I have my first midterm in less than a week, and another one two weeks from today. These will be the first exams I have taken in probably five years - should be interesting.

Anyway, despite a rocky start Holloware and forging have really grown on me. Here is my finished and polished spoon! I had heat treated the copper (basically just put it in the oven) at one point and got this really amazing magenta colour - but I liked it better this way.

Then we did a sinking exploration. A lot of the detail would have been more easily attained with chasing and repoussé, which apparently I need to learn for almost everything I want to do right now. Kye wanted us to look at organic forms, so I looked at some images I had of coral.

My favourite part of this week involved fire and hot glass! For my prototype I made a few little elements out of glass. It was the first time I had worked with glass since the summer, it was nice and felt really natural to be back in the studio. I am still figuring out exactly what I am doing for the prototype but I will post more photos as I make more progress.

The hydraulic press is making my life a lot easier (despite sort of destroying my acrylic mold) I can pop out a bunch of these shapes! I also did a test with some more heat treating of the copper. I think I left it in the oven a bit too long - I wanted it to be a little bit more magenta, but I can just pickle it and try again!

Halfway and 500 rings!

I have passed the halfway point of the semester. In fact, tomorrow it will be 50 days until Christmas break - which seems unreal. This has been a very busy week for me. Catching up on ceramics consumed the beginning of the week. Some unfortunate circumstances made catching up even more difficult. Thankfully I have a new wonderful shelf where I can leave my work without worrying about it being destroyed. Always a positive.

I got some fantastic news this week too! My Separation rings were accepted into the book 500 rings! I love all of the 1000 and 500 series books that Lark Books puts out, and I am blown away that I am going to be in one of them!

We had our first major assignment due in jewellery this week. Below is my ring after the soldering nightmare. All I want to know is when soldering gets less stressful.....

Finished ring!

One of my new bowls in ceramics. We made stamps and bisqued them last week, so I was playing around with one of my stamps. I'm really happy with it. It's funny because if it was glass I would probably hate it. Not a huge fan of the ruffled lips on glass bowls.

We finally glazed things! It's very exciting!

Really love the glaze on this one. I am also glad that I left the raw clay on the outside. The stoneware we are using is really beautiful.

Shino glaze is my new favourite. Most of the cone 06 glazes we are using are very earthy colours, which is not usually my thing, but I think the Shino is gorgeous. I will definitely be using this glaze again.

I was just thinking back to how unbelievably stressed out I was this time last weekend, but I survived the week! It was a good week too, despite all the stress. Lots of good things are happening! Hopefully this week is just as good.

Nocturne 2011

Nocturne is an amazing art event all over Halifax, similar to Toronto's Nuit Blanche. Here is a quick look at some of the great things I saw on Saturday night.

Public Gardens!

Hilarity in chalk.

3D video projection. Overheard at this piece "Are they going to start talking in 3D?"

This piece was kind of eerie. There were LED lights and speakers that interacted with the heartbeat of whoever is sitting in the chair. Everyone was very quiet and the beating sound echoed in the space.

Nova Scotian Crystal! So nice to hang out in the glass studio. They are making a swan. I am about to be a little glass nerdy, but I was amazed that they didn't flash (reheat) this the entire time. Everything was so precise and amazing too. These guys must not like their eyes though, because no one was wearing glasses.

One of the engravers. I did not understand a single thing he said, but he was incredibly talented and I have so much respect for the skill engraving takes. I required a lot of chocolate when I took it at Sheridan to offset the frustration.

Finished piece ready for the polishing acid bath.

At the Canadian Museum of Immigration, I was blown away by a series of photographs by Rafael Goldchain. From a series called "I Am My Family", Goldchain dressed in period costumes and photographed himself as various members of his family. This one was my favourite. He also teaches at Sheridan!

Some ceramics at Port Campus.

This was my favourite part of the entire night. The Happy Wash!! They setup the gallery like a car wash, and played the Rolls Royce song on a continuous loop. I found a YouTube video of it so everyone can share in my joy.

Spinning Workshop

We had a wonderful visiting artist come to our weaving class yesterday. Leslie Hauck, the owner of The Spinner's Loft about an hour outside of Halifax, came and did a spinning workshop with us! Although she did a quick demo for us on the spinning wheel, we learned the old fashioned way on drop spindles. Leslie made it look so easy. I have such a greater appreciation for the wool I have used to knit and crochet with in the past.

This is what we started with. There were 3 different types of fleece. One was really dry, and the other two still had some lanolin and were pretty oily. Carding the fleece took way more arm strength than I was anticipating. There was a lot of grumbling from the girls in my class when spinning started.

Here is my finished wool.... We have to do another ball for class next week. Perhaps I will chronicle that for a new post and show off my mad spinning skills.... Hopefully I end up with something a bit nicer .

Leslie explained that when she teaches people to spin, she always starts with the basics: hand carding and hand spinning on a drop spindle. This way we are more able to appreciate the history of the process, which I thought was really fantastic.

Ceramics....

Well I have had quite the experience in ceramics lately. I got up the other day realizing why I had switched to glass 6 years ago at Sheridan. I was feeling like I needed a balance between the truth to process in ceramics and the anal retentiveness of jewellery. If I could only find a material that was somewhere in the middle. Oh, sort of like glass.... This, of course, led to all kinds of questions about why I am here.

We have been doing lots of technical exercises and samples in all of the studios. Lots of soldering samples in jewellery, lots of practice setting up looms and experimenting with weaving, and lots of cylinders in ceramics. Oh so many cylinders.....

Finally we are starting to move onto bigger projects. A big ring project, a tapestry, and mugs!! Mugs definitely made up for my cylinder frustration. Unlike glass I really enjoy making functional work out of clay. Even more exciting... our next project is bowls!

mugs and cups!!