Jewelry workshop week 3

 Hi everyone! This is quite a short post today but I will be posting my evaluation for the architecture project at some point this weekend. Last week in jewelry we had to come up with a final piece tying all the jewelry processes together.

 

Jewelry design

 

The above picture is a sketch of the piece I wanted to make in the workshop and it is inspired by all the architecture work I have been doing for the last 6ish weeks. I tried to make my design unlike everyone elses by using a London theme. Meaning I only looked at architecture within London to influence my design. I then had to think of what metals and processes I needed to make my final piece.

 

Start of jewelry piece

 

 The next picture is of the pieces I have made a start on for my end product. I have mostly pierced out all the objects that will go together. I definately think that this design is better than the other ideas I had sketched and it looks like it will turn out lovely once it is finished.

Thanks for reading. Jess x

Architecture / jewelry

Hello everyone. Ok so this is a post about my class that I have on a Tuesday and this week we were asked to do a mood board on two jewelers. I did my mood board on one jeweler and did two pages in my sketch book on two jewelers instead.

My mood board

This is my mood board on the jeweler Marianne Anderson. She is a great jewelry maker/designer who is inspired by the history of ornament. My mood board is colourful and it looks good because my studies of the jewelry stand out against the background. 

  

Page on Marianne Anderson

This is my sketch book page on Marianne Anderson. It has lots of images of her work and some information about what she is inspired by.

Page on An Alleweireldt

This is my page on a jeweler called An Alleweireldt. She is inspired by architecture and every day objects when creating her designs. I like her designs because her collections look like puzzles. On the page there are pictures of her jewelry and a bit of information on her designs.

This is quite a short blog but I hope you enjoyed reading it. BYE :)

Jewelry workshop week 2

HI! This post is about my second week in the jewelry workshop and it is continuing to show the different processes of jewelry making. This week we looked at two more processes these were piercing out and soldering.

Piercing out 

The first process I did this week was piercing out. First for this process I had to get a copper or brass plate and scratch the design I wanted to pierce out onto the metal plate with a scribe. Next you have to put a dint into the middle of your design using a center punch and hammer so that when you try to drill a hole in it it won't brake the head. After putting the dint in the metal use the drill to create a hole now you can start to pierce out. Get a piercing saw and pass the blade through the hole making sure the blades teeth are facing downwards then secure the blade in the saws frame. After that put the metal on a bench peg and hold the plate down with your fingers, then you can start piercing the design out but make sure you keep the saw straight up and not on a tilt when sawing. Once the design is pierced out you have finished the process. I think this process is the most challenging because you have to saw bends and make sure the lines aren't wobbly but it is also quite enjoyable. I believe my own attempts look good especially for a first try.

Soldering

The second process I have done this week is soldering. Soldering is the process in which two metal items are joined together by melting solder into the joint. First you have to get two pieces of copper wire or two copper plates or a copper plate and a piece of cut copper tubing to solder together and file the sides you want to solder together so they are smooth. Then put some flux powder and water onto the surface and then wash it of, we do this to get rid of dirt,oil or grease. If we didn't do this it wouldn't solder properly. Then put the joints you want to solder together on a heat resistant surface and put the solder at the end of the joint or on top of it. After that get a blow torch and heat the surface and joints of the metal make sure it is heated evenly though otherwise it won't work. After heating pick the metal up and put it in water to cool it down, then put it in sulfuric acid to wash. Then if you use wire wool to rub it it will give it a shiny finish. This process was great even though I didn't like the blow torch. I also think my examples look ok.

This is the end of this blog my next one will be up at some point tomorrow so good bye for now :)

A to z - post 2

Hi everyone this is the first post of three that I am doing this weekend and it is a continuation of the A to Z post I put up last week. I have managed to finish the extra page for the surrealism sheet and I have done the last two pages of the six I had to do. Below is the extra page for surrealism:

A4 Extra page on surrealism

On the surrealism page I focused on the famous surrealist painter Salvador Dali who did the well known masterpiece called the melting clocks. I found it fascinating to look at his work because it looks so different and unreal.

A4 sheet on Willem Kalf

This sheet was for the letter K and  I did it on a Dutch painter called Willem Kalf. He liked to paint still life's and I have had a go at painting one of his well-known works which I think looks quite good. I like his work because even though some objects fade into the background a bit he always makes some objects stand out by using a bright or vibrant colour.

A4 sheet on Richard Wilson

This sheet was done for the letter W and I did this on a landscape artist called Richard Wilson.

He was originally a portrait painter until he decided that he wanted to start painting landscapes. I have tried doing a critical study of one of his landscapes and I think I have painted it to look quite similar to the original. I think his work is quite nice however I think the colours need to be a bit brighter because it looks faded and bland.

 I have had fun doing this project and I think it has gone really well. I have still got to write my evaluation but apart from that the project is completed. I will be writing more posts later on and I hope you liked reading this. Bye for now x

Jewelry workshop week 1

Hey guys! This is my second post this week and it is about my first lesson in the jewelry workshop. I was really looking forward to starting this workshop as I was interested to see how the jewelry we wear is made and it seemed like a exiting process. 

At the beginning of the workshop we were shown the machines that we would be using and told how to use them with the health and safety information. The health and safety required us to wear goggles on certain machines, wear gloves when using the acids and be aware of the people around us. We were also told about the tools we would be using during the workshop. You can see a picture of the tools we had to use below.

  

Picture of tools

We were also shown examples of the processes we would be learning. These processes included etching, embossing, cold enameling, inlaying and piercing out. This week however we only did etching, embossing and piercing out because we had to produce 2 to 3 examples of each one. The piercing out I have not managed to do yet so that will be on next weeks blog.

Examples of processes

The first process I did was etching. To start the process of etching you first need to get your metal plate made of copper, brass or silver. Then you need to clean the metal with an abrasive cleaner and put tape on the back of the metal so it doesn't wear away. After that you paint your design on with stop out varnish or put tape on and cut out the design. Then put the plate into ferric chloride and wait for it to bite, after that take it out and polish it and there is your finished plate. Below is my own attempt at etching and I think it went quite well.

Etching

The second process I have learnt this week is embossing. Embossing is where you make raised or sunken designs on metal plates. To do this you get a copper or brass plate and heat it until it turns red, after that you put it in water to cool it down and it becomes squishy and flexible. Then get a material or design to press into the metal and place it on top of the plate. After that you put the plate through rollers and it press the design into the plate. Finally you put it in sulfuric acid to clean it and there you have it your design is complete. I particularly like this process because there are lots of different patterns and designs you can press into the plate. The picture below shows 3 of my own attempts at embossing and I think they look great if I do say so myself. 

Embossing 

Altogether I had a amazing time in the workshop this week and I think the plates I produced in the lesson are awesome.  This is the end of my post and I hoped you liked reading about my jewelry workshop. Next weeks post will be about the other processes that I am going to learn. Bye :)

A to Z - post 1

Hi everyone! OK so my first post this week is about a short project I have been doing for one of my art and design lessons. In this project we got put into groups of four and we were told that we had to create a A4 sketch book together that contained a A to Z of art and design. We were allowed to chose any artist or art style we wanted to do on our A4 sheets as long as the second name or style was a letter of the alphabet. As a group we decided to split the alphabet in 4 so everyone had an almost equal amount of letters to do. Two people ended up with 6 letters and two ended up with seven because there were 2 left over and they volunteered to do extra. These are the first 4 of my A4 sheets that I have completed:

A4 sheet on Gustave Caillebotte

My first sheet was for the letter C and it is about a famous French painter called Gustave Caillebotte who was part of the impressionists group. The sheet is done in the style of impressionism and I have extended out some of Caillebotte's paintings to show my own critical studies of his work. I like his work because he always tries to paint realistically even though the impressionists usually left some work unfinished and with obvious brush strokes.

A4 sheet on Graffiti

My second sheet was for the letter G and I did that on the art style graffiti. Graffiti has been around for millions of years and it was great to see how its changed through the years and means something to the people that create masterpieces with this style. I focused more on modern graffiti to do my critical studies and got to look at two graffiti artists the first one was Miss Van and the second Banksy. I tried my best to do the studies in marker pens and I was really pleased with the effect it has. I do love graffiti a lot because it is a very free and emotive art style and you can never really make mistakes when doing it.

A4 sheet on Surrealism

My next sheet was for the letter S and that was on the art style surrealism. Surrealism is a really fun art style in my opinion because you never know what the artist will dream up next as it is mostly inspired by the subconscious. I only did a small critical study this time but I am working on a additional page to put with this one on the surrealist painter Salvador Dali who is well-known for his surrealist paintings.

A4 sheet on Orphism/Orphic Cubism

Finally my forth sheet that is for the letter O and it is done on the art style orphism or orphic cubism. Orphism was a offshoot of cubism and it mostly focused on abstraction and bright colours. I like the way the style is bold and bright because it makes it more appealing and it also makes it slightly different to cubism as that style uses more muted colours.

I enjoyed making all four of these pages and I put a lot of time and effort into creating them. I think they all turned out really well and it was good to learn about other artists and art styles. I have yet to write to my evaluation and finish my extended page on surrealism but they should be done soon. We have been told to only do 4 pages now instead of the original 6 or 7 however I am going to do my best to finish the other 2 I was set to do as I have already done the research and I will put these on another post.

This is the end of my post today and I will be doing one tomorrow on the first week of my jewellery workshop. I hope you all enjoyed reading this and please comment if there is anything that needs improving on these posts. Bye x

3D Workshop week 4

Hey everyone :) This week is my last post on the 3D workshop because I will be moving to the jewelry workshop when I go back to college next week so I hope you enjoy reading it. 

In my final 3D workshop we had to improve last weeks wooden models to make the design look refined and and finished. I made my design refined and finished by sanding all the sides of wood to make it look and feel smooth and I had to make sure the wood was stuck down properly so you can't see any glue. I found it easier this week because I already had a basic design but it was difficult to think how to improve it to make it stand out more.

  

  

Improved woodwork model front 

The above image is of my improved model. In my improved version of my model I have kept many features the same however the things I have changed made a massive impact because it changed the height and size of the original model thus making it look unique to other building designs.

Improved woodwork model side view 1 

The one big thing I changed about the design is the curved/arched build that extends off of one side of the building. This is by far the best part of my model because it draws quite a lot of attention to it making the sculpture extend and less square. Also in my second design I have used bigger and more blocks to give the building more height thus give it space so that it doesn't look squashed together or messy.

Improved woodwork model back

I think my design look amazing compared to last weeks attempt and i'm glad I got a chance to improve it because it looks a lot better. I definitely had fun in my last 3D workshop and am pleased with the work I have produced and I will use these design techniques in future work.

I look forward to next weeks workshop and thanks for reading my blog :)