Change to Applied Arts this week, which means silversmithing and ceramics later in the week. My only experience with metal work before Monday had been quite disastrous as I used to become highly stressed by the pressure of precise measurements and toxic smoldering fumes.
Yet I was looking forward to seeing what silversmithing involved and what we'd be doing this week in such a short time frame, when both areas require quite a lot of time.
We started by thinking about how images can help to explain a statement to a viewer by playing a pictionary style game. We were given a sentence each and told to draw it for the group to guess. However, I didn't get too far on mine before someone guessed it, though I did have fun drawing it.
Next we looked through past student's sketchbooks and how they used drawings to develop their thought process. How repeated drawings helped to cement and improve the idea as well as communicate it to the viewer.
Our task was then to create a piece of jewellery based on random shapes that our partner had created and use drawings to communicate with our partner (who acted as a client) so that they could say which aspects were good or needed improving to fit their needs.
The last two hours were spent learning about the different equipment in the silversmithing workshop that we could use and then experimenting with the techniques.
Here is my attempt:
Like with Fine Art I enjoyed just experimenting with the equipment and of learning how to use it. I was initially worried about injuring myself, but the different effects that the equipment could have on the steel was incredibly interesting. I looked forward to our project later in the week of covering a wooden cube with metal treated in different ways and of using the spot welder, which I didn't get to use today. The ability to weld steel together instantly I found quite amazing.
On Thursday we finished learning about the different equipment and processes in the metal work studio, for instance using diluted acid and vanish to create a pattern on tin covered steel. I made it my aim for the day to try out every piece of equipment which you could use with steel despite initially shrinking away whenever acid was mentioned and not being able to use a standard lighter to start up the gas powered equipment. But I was able to try everything and I really enjoyed my time in metal work. Below is the finished wooden cube which we had to attach metal work to.
We looked at Junko Mori's work which often has the appearance of sea annenemies
Image from http://www.junkomori.com/
So our work if possible had to be Mori inspired and I included the tangle of wires on top in relation to this, using the spot welder and building sections up in layers. I really did like Mori's work and to make the influence fit better with the whole appearance of the cube I tried to make it fit the theme of organic/man made materials and form, so there's root like patterns and shapes as well as dented metal.
On Friday we focused on ceramics, learning about the different materials and processes like throwing pots, making coils and slabs. I'd only ever used crank clay before, which is very grainy and quite strong (great for standard sculptures), but we also learnt about terracotta, which is smooth but stains your hands, and porcelain, which is very smooth with a texture like blu-tac that just doesn't want to stretch too far, but can look transparent when fired. To try out the materials we made pinch pots out of them and mine took on very rustic shapes.
I enjoyed working with new materials, in ceramics and metal work and just focusing on trying out the processes has been immensely interesting. Before I didn't know anything about metal work, but now I appreciate the effort and skill that is used in applied arts. I learnt more about applied arts through the theory homework where we had to research an artist that made metal work and I looked at Hitachi Suzuki who makes vases from single sheets of silver, hitting and molding them into shapes with hammers. I did like his work as I could recognise the effort he must put into his work as after working with clay last year I knew how difficult and time consuming molding 3-D work can be. To understand his process and to make my research more exciting to look at I decided to make one of Suzuki's works out of a sheet of card folded up with the information on the inside so you can unfold it and read the research. This was a lot harder to do then I anticipated and so it's not as refined as I would like, but still I'm happy that it stands and folds up.
Overall, this week I've learnt so much and really enjoyed working in Applied Arts. I came away with a few scratches on my hands, but it was worth it.
The hardest part of this project was taking photos of my metal cube - I was initially unhappy with the photos that I had taken as they looked blurry, so I wanted to wait to publish this post until I'd taken some better photos, this just took longer than I thought to do.
Yet I was looking forward to seeing what silversmithing involved and what we'd be doing this week in such a short time frame, when both areas require quite a lot of time.
We started by thinking about how images can help to explain a statement to a viewer by playing a pictionary style game. We were given a sentence each and told to draw it for the group to guess. However, I didn't get too far on mine before someone guessed it, though I did have fun drawing it.
Next we looked through past student's sketchbooks and how they used drawings to develop their thought process. How repeated drawings helped to cement and improve the idea as well as communicate it to the viewer.
Our task was then to create a piece of jewellery based on random shapes that our partner had created and use drawings to communicate with our partner (who acted as a client) so that they could say which aspects were good or needed improving to fit their needs.
Here is my attempt:
Like with Fine Art I enjoyed just experimenting with the equipment and of learning how to use it. I was initially worried about injuring myself, but the different effects that the equipment could have on the steel was incredibly interesting. I looked forward to our project later in the week of covering a wooden cube with metal treated in different ways and of using the spot welder, which I didn't get to use today. The ability to weld steel together instantly I found quite amazing.
On Thursday we finished learning about the different equipment and processes in the metal work studio, for instance using diluted acid and vanish to create a pattern on tin covered steel. I made it my aim for the day to try out every piece of equipment which you could use with steel despite initially shrinking away whenever acid was mentioned and not being able to use a standard lighter to start up the gas powered equipment. But I was able to try everything and I really enjoyed my time in metal work. Below is the finished wooden cube which we had to attach metal work to.
We looked at Junko Mori's work which often has the appearance of sea annenemies
 |
| 60 Organism, 2002 |
Image from http://www.junkomori.com/
So our work if possible had to be Mori inspired and I included the tangle of wires on top in relation to this, using the spot welder and building sections up in layers. I really did like Mori's work and to make the influence fit better with the whole appearance of the cube I tried to make it fit the theme of organic/man made materials and form, so there's root like patterns and shapes as well as dented metal.
On Friday we focused on ceramics, learning about the different materials and processes like throwing pots, making coils and slabs. I'd only ever used crank clay before, which is very grainy and quite strong (great for standard sculptures), but we also learnt about terracotta, which is smooth but stains your hands, and porcelain, which is very smooth with a texture like blu-tac that just doesn't want to stretch too far, but can look transparent when fired. To try out the materials we made pinch pots out of them and mine took on very rustic shapes.
I enjoyed working with new materials, in ceramics and metal work and just focusing on trying out the processes has been immensely interesting. Before I didn't know anything about metal work, but now I appreciate the effort and skill that is used in applied arts. I learnt more about applied arts through the theory homework where we had to research an artist that made metal work and I looked at Hitachi Suzuki who makes vases from single sheets of silver, hitting and molding them into shapes with hammers. I did like his work as I could recognise the effort he must put into his work as after working with clay last year I knew how difficult and time consuming molding 3-D work can be. To understand his process and to make my research more exciting to look at I decided to make one of Suzuki's works out of a sheet of card folded up with the information on the inside so you can unfold it and read the research. This was a lot harder to do then I anticipated and so it's not as refined as I would like, but still I'm happy that it stands and folds up.
Overall, this week I've learnt so much and really enjoyed working in Applied Arts. I came away with a few scratches on my hands, but it was worth it.
The hardest part of this project was taking photos of my metal cube - I was initially unhappy with the photos that I had taken as they looked blurry, so I wanted to wait to publish this post until I'd taken some better photos, this just took longer than I thought to do.
No comments:
Post a Comment