Toy Piece

I figured that this should just have its own post.  I haven't really had much time to focus on the toy yet because I've been focused on my production piece but I am planning on making a top.  Tops have always been one of my favorite toys.  I've been considering creating a top that has an open, well top section creating something like a vessel and filling it with dirt and grass seed. It'd still be a functioning toy, it'd also be very interesting to look at once the grass starts growing and it goes along perfectly with my theme the influence of time.  My biggest concern right now is how to get the top to a decent enough point where it will spin.

I still need to do the samples of the texture and patinas to go along with this project, but I'm leaning towards using either the ammonia or vinegar patina.  I love the colors you can achieve with them and depending what kind of texture I could achieve I was thinking of maybe portraying a root system around the outside of the top.

November 26th

Next week is the Student Sale................. That sucks.  It crept up really fast.  There was some sort of problem with Rio Grande shipping my tubing for my earrings and my bracelet the second time I had to buy it (since I can't find my first piece of tubing) so I had to reorder it.  A few minutes and a lot more money than I wanted to spend (mainly due to overnight shipping because of time) my tubing plus packaging to use for the student sale is on its way.  I don't have too much more to do on everything.  Well that's kind of a lie, but it I'll be able to get it all done hopefully with Wednesday plus one other day this weekend.

Still the production piece

So yet again I changed my production design but I think I’m actually happy with it now.  It’s turned into more of a bangle, but it will be hinged on the one side.  I’m still going with the four seasons idea by setting four stones on the bangle, but I will also be making 4 sets of earrings to go with each of the seasons.  I decided through working on the prototype piece that it would probably be best to solder on wire in order to retain the vein design of the leaf for the bangle, which will also compartmentalize where the stones for the seasons go.  I’m also fairly certain that I figured out a way to clasp the bangle together. I feel like this would be simple enough but still work fairly well for the piece.

Production Slump

I have been wracking my brain for how to scale down my production piece to something manageable as well as something that I like, and that latter is posing to be a problem right now.  I just can't seem to figure out how I want my piece to look.  Since my theme is the influence of time, I wanted a piece that would go through and show some sort of flora and how it is influenced by the four different seasons.  I started making my own chain and playing with different ways to make jump rings and really focusing on the transitions throughout the piece.  So far though, nothing too breathtaking has come from it.
The disappointing thing is that we are right in the middle of the trees and plants going through their own transition from summer to fall and I'm still not really sure how to incorporate it all.

Production Piece

Having started working on my ideas for my production piece, I was leaning towards things mainly influenced from nature that fit into my theme. The idea I had that I think I liked the best was creating a necklace or a bracelet that would have four different tree shaped charms that would be representing a tree in each of the four seasons showing the tree as it changes over time.  I would probably only use silver for one or two of the seasons and then I could use brass, copper and/or bronze for the others and possibly treat them with a patina in order to further portray the seasons.  The thing I need to work on now is integrated the chain of either the bracelet or the necklace into the design of piece.

Ivote Progress

I've started working on my Ivote piece today.  I cut out the main section of the piece to look like South America.  I also coated it with asphaltum so I can etch the decaying part of the leaf tomorrow or Friday.  I also decided, after experimenting a couple times, that to get the impression for the veins in the leaf I will put my piece in the hydraulic die press with some wire in order to get what I want.  I took some pictures today while I was working in order to post my progress on here, but my phone is having problems uploading them to my laptop/sending them to my email so the photos will have to wait. 

First Blog Post of the Semester!

Well... the new semester is well underway and now it's time to come up with a theme.  I've tried to come up with a bunch of different things, but the idea that I keep going back to time.  I keep thinking about how the passage of time changes things and I think that would be a fun theme to work with.  I have always loved hour glasses or sand timers and that's just one aspect of time; how it flows. I've also been thinking about different ways things decay or grow as time passes on.  Hopefully this theme isn't too vague but it is pretty broad.

I've been trying to come up with what to do with the pickup sticks for the next recycle/reuse project.  I think I came up with an idea I'm not too sure if I'm happy with it but we'll see how it turns out.