Young Jedi (Louis Kutyla) won his region (gold key) and then went on to nationals and won the gold medal with his piece called Freeze.
The awards ceremony was at Carnegie Hall. What a great accomplishment and a great honor I was so excited for Louis. What fun this would be being able to witness him receiving this award at such a prestigious place. What I didn’t know was that being the sponsoring “educator” I was given a medal as well. It has been an honor to be a part of this young man’s artistic development.
Endeavoring to offer a 3D printing and casting class next year. Some of our first tests is a design Bryan worked up in Sketch-Up. Our new Form Labs printer did a beautiful job even with the tiny prongs. The finished ring in now my new wedding ring.
Young Jedi (as we now call Louis) has accomplished a great deal during his Exnihilo Jr Artist Residency. This piece is one of those very special concept art pieces that proves that he is beyond his years as an artist.
The SilverWorks community came out and packed my tiny gallery to honor all of the fantastic student work in this year’s show.
A student in my Dive Into Studio 2 Class put down the gauntlet in the form of a spinner bangle. In this class we explore all the larger, interesting tools that this studio has to offer in the form of projects driven to use those tools. We start using the Rolling Mill with pattern plates to create textures for a spinner ring. Making the ring involves using steel dapping punches for creating the flanges on the ring. So my student asked... “Can one make a spinner bangle?”
I have never made one but I assumed the basic physics would be the same. Finding the equivalent of a dapping punch a little larger than the diameter of the bangle was the trick.
Enter the mushroom stake.
Yea, its that big stake used for bowl raising.
Didn’t work by hammering but totally worked in the hydraulic press.
So now I’m having some fun with it with some random spinners. Twisting some wire for the first one.
Once I had my spinners made I tumbled all the parts. Then I oxidized the main band and sanded it to bring out some texture (I had stamped it before soldering it). Then assembled the spinners.
I truly did not know if the final flange in the press was going to press evenly or just squash the first flange more.
But it worked.
I did a little extra embellishment with a Fretz hammer and stake to give some texture to the flanges, but otherwise...
a successful experiment.
Thanks to Peg for asking the question!
All day Saturday doing Metal Etching in Studio 2! This is the variety of designs that this class pulled off with great success. Both photo and illustration designs were tried as transfers as well as doodling directly on the metal with a resist.
Patinas were also used to finish bracelets, both oxidation as well as torch coloring.
It was a bit of a whirlwind leading up to it. This time I got on an almost impossible creative jag that kept me creating for 4 straight weeks with little in between but eating and sleeping. I’m really proud of this collection though. It is fun, colorful and extremely wearable (some of my work is more sculptural than wearable).
Great fun with the younger ones this week. Not only were they super talented with the torch but they graced me with an impromptu live performance of Hamilton while using the torch. Imagine... rapping with fire!
Totally happy for her next adventure but truly sad to see her leave.
Mawadda has graced my little studio for seven years. She was Robin to my Batman & Watson to my Sherlock. She made everyone around her smile and was always generous with her time, talent and wit. Mawadda you will be missed.
Dive into studio 2 yielded some wonderful spinner rings in its second week out of the six week course. As an instructor it is so fun for me to see the variety of results achieved by the students. What fun these are!
The purpose of “Dive Into Studio 2” is to create several finished projects while learning how to use the special tools that Studio 2 has to offer.
Tools used to make the spinner rings included the rolling mill for texturing the base ring, the pen plater for gold accents and dapping punches for shaping.
Next session: The Hydraulic Press!
SilverWorks was happy to introduce the new Jewelry Expressions: Stamping workshop instructed by Alan Darby. Everyone got to try their hand at this expressive technique creating one of a kind key fobs and pendants.
Alan shared his expertise in stamping traditional Native American design as well as a more contemporary approach of “painting” with the stamps, creating mini landscapes in the metal. Alan also shared his vast collection of handmade stamps with the workshoppers.
Thanks Alan for a wonderful day!
Opening night. Pretty much packed the place for most of the evening. It is alway great to get people’s reactions to a new body of work but this was extra fun thanks to the synesthesia theme. Watching people interact with the listening “ipods” was very rewarding because even though you think you may have a cool idea for an interactive element to a show like this, you really don’t know if it is going to work until it does.
It was pretty clear when youngsters intuitively knew what to do with the headphones.
Oh yea, and the work looked great too.
Congrats to all the great student work in the show and to Louis, our Jr artist that stole the show with his amazing fledgling collection.
If it takes a village to raise a child it also takes one to mount an exhibition.
Thanks so much to everyone who painted, patched, and otherwise participated in the set up of Synesthetica.
Joan, Alan, and Louis painted the walls in lapis tones to match the work, which I obsessed over until it was dry and looked blue not purple.
Previous Jr-Artist, Kaila and friend Crispin show up and saved the day by installing the text on the towers and main wall. They had a little fun sticking the “weeding” to Crispin’s shirt.
Roundabout.
Began as sketch of a chain of swirls and took off into this groovy pendant with primavera jasper, green tourmaline and labradorite. This hangs in two parts which gives it some fun movement.
Popcorn.
Meant to be a very simple piece turned frankenstein on me. The design ended up being the progression of notes on the staff. Pretty much what anybody would see when listening to that
#!@#*% song. Staging logistics were a real challenge with the hinged collar.
Glen Echo Park is said to be haunted, and now my studio can brag that the ghosts want to play in my space not just the ballroom or carousel!
So... I am in Studio 2 working on pieces for the Synesthetica show. Another SilverWorks member is in there as well. All is quiet except for the music. Suddenly there is a loud crash behind us. I turn to see what made the noise. The drawer that holds the scissors had flung out of the wall and crashed to the floor.
Maybe it was caused by some sort of vibration.
Or maybe the building was settling.
But what I have a hard time reconciling is what happened to these scissors.
They were firmly stuck sword-in-the-stone style into the floor.
Hard to explain?
Maybe.
Freak accident that defies physics?
Could be.
But what fun to consider the alternative.
In spite of the threatening nature of it being scissors I don’t actually find it creepy. Instead I find it kind of cool, special and interesting.
Maybe casper just wants to learn how to silversmith!
What do you think?
Name our ghost and win studio time.
A very old article which isn’t current about the park but talks about what might be the reason for our hauntings.
"...On July 4, 1921, a park employee stood up in a roller coaster as it rushed up a steep incline and fell out backward, dropping more than 100 feet. He was killed. The next summer, the coaster claimed another life”...read more
Catamaran finally lands. This one had to be taken apart and reassembled twice to get the composition right.
Tonight was the opening for Alan’s show of fantastice boxes, spoons and jewelry.
Alan will also be sharing his skills with us this fall.
Senorita starts to take shape. I taped the wires together to make the design then soldered them in sections.
Holst gets some color. The vote was about 50/50 leaving it white silver vrs the risky rainbow patina.
I like the patina.
Vivaldi’s “Summer”, inspired this piece in process. Lapis and Moonstones.
Here is “Rise”, by Herb Alpert and “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” performed by The Nylons.
Here is the line up so far.
Also, I did some more listening today and designs came at break neck speed. This has been an interesting experiment!
