Week 2 - Jewelry 3/Design and Production - Die Forming Progress/Progress on the Line

As week 2/3 of school comes to a close, I am forced to go back and review what I have done in just a few days. It has been a whirlwind start to the semester and I honestly think something special is going on for me.

We are working in hydraulic die-forming in Jewelry 3, and I have to say I LOVE IT! I know it sounds silly, but there is something so cool about taking a sheet of metal and plexi and turning into a "little machine" to pump out all these pieces you can puzzle together into designs and shapes. This semester has really inspired me so far to look deeper into my work and try to get something about me out. I want to do deeper then the surface work that you produce as a "student" and really delve into real issues. That being said, my forms have been prepped for sawing out and soldiering this weekend/early next week. I hope to get some real work done this weekend from the little bench I have set up at my house.

I have been focusing on the shape I picked this week and taking it away from that "pillow-form" feel that is stereotypical of die-forming. I have so far tried chasing back into the surface which I think has a pretty nice result that I am looking for. This is really exciting stuff. It takes 1/3 of the time of chasing the entire thing by hand and it allows more time to focus on the design of the piece instead of the task of bumping that all out.  So far so good on this, I have found 1 small spot in the point where there is a corner (you can probably see this in the image), but I am going to work around that and turn it into my vent hole. I have this idea of making these copper wire tendrils that come out of the hole almost like a star burst after its all soldered together to create a way to mask that vent hole after the soldering process is complete. I was thinking to keep it in the style of the rest of the piece I would take the torch and ball up the ends of the wire and maybe play with some inlay  on the surfacing and add silver wire to the tendrils. I will have to sketch this out and see how it looks as a maquette.  I think it has the aesthetic I am looking for on the outside of my pendant. This little form was a nice test and the imperfection really actually helped in creating the part I think the design needs. I don't know though it sounds sketchy when you write it out and I will have to see it actually done to see if it accomplishes what I am setting out for. As far as the actual piece goes, I think I am starting to get some sketches that work. I will post them up this weekend along with the other sketches of my design and production work.


Design and Production has gotten off to a semi-slow start. I feel that I am a bit limited in the fact that I want to be able to cast forms yet, have not taken casting yet. That's a bit disappointing; however, I want to try to make some wax models that might be able to be sent out for the final product. I was thinking about this project a lot this week and I have come up with some definitive ideas about what I am trying to accomplish, not so much visual representations of these ideas, but it all starts with a concept right? I want to create a piece that is about the internal person. Dawn Benedetto (http://www.torpedofactory.org/artists/benedetto_d.htm) talked tonight, at our welcome back party, about some work she did awhile ago that really helped me with some ideas. They were these rings that were plain on the outside but had this balls on the inside. They were all about the internal portion of the ring. When you put the ring on your finger you did not see the interior texture but you could feel it. This is what I want to do in an emotional sense with the lockets I want to create. I want these to be this simplistic forms, I am thinking of even echoing the shapes I have above in the pendant about my grandmother, and when you open them up they are totally transformed into something completely different. They are this internal space that is all your own. I personally think of it as a place to write wishes on a small piece of paper and contain in side. When you wear it, its like putting all your emotions out on display in this enclosed private way. I was thinking about hidden clasps or tension fit compartments, but I could even make it more simple. I could either cast or die form shapes and have them so the two halves tension fit together in some way. Really this needs more thought before I can really have an idea of what I want, but I think its getting there very quickly now.

In other news.....

I totally felt the need to order some of that paverpol "textile hardener" I have been hearing about. I want to play around with it a little bit and see if it works for what I am looking for in my jewelry 3 container. I also got some two part resin to try as well and I will whip out some maquettes this weekend and early next week to see if they get the desire effect with the dried flowers on the inside, if that is even the effect I want. I am really excited about this stuff, I have heard it can do some pretty amazing things so, it is probably worth the investment on this small little jar of it just to see what it can do!

Also, I am super jazzed that I should be receiving some metal and tools in the mail in the next few days. This is always so exciting for no reason, but new drill bits and scribes and yesss... A NEW SAWFRAME! I don't know little things like this excite me. Note to self, for the next order steel block and divider if I didn't order one already.