Relieved

I am relieved to tell you my exhibition display is up!
Today has been a busy day but the exhibition is pretty much ready so it was totally worth it. Everyone’s work looked fantastic!

I am also pleased to say that a photo of my petri dishes, from a previous project, was chosen to be used in one of the posters for the exhibition.These are the other posters, with images of other students work.The exhibition is at the Grand Theatre in Swansea and will be open for anyone to see from tomorrow until Monday. The Private view is on Thursday at 6:30. Feel free to come and see the work.

Preserved

The rest of my crystal resin pieces finally set! Too late to be made into jewellery and photographed on the model but not too late for the exhibition!These are sections of my edited images of the rust and Port Talbot Steel Works printed on acetate and preserved in clear crystal resin:

Create in Acetate

As I was already worried about how my resin pieces were going to turn out and I was having to wait for them to set I decided to do some more work with acetate.
I’m very glad I did now!
These pieces are made from more acetate that I printed my coloured photos of the rusty metal onto. This time though I used aluminium tape on the back. The aluminium tape is nowhere near as nice or as strong, by itself, as the copper tape but it worked very well on the back of the acetate, especially against the blue. My idea for these pieces came from discovering Stephanie Hopkins‘ work. Beautiful!
I did try this idea with the rusty metal itself but it was simply too tough and didn’t work.I have now made these pieces and more acetate creations into jewellery which you will be able to see once the exhibition goes up. I’m not going to spoil the surprise!

Unpredictable

I have actually already photographed some of my final pieces for this project but I’m trying to get this blog up to date. I have been soooo busy! I’ve been making jewellery, researching, planning and house hunting whilst still trying to have a social life!

So, to bring you a bit more up to date with my project I have been doing a lot of work with clear crystal resin.

These first pieces are actually test pieces I made in wax glass with pieces of the rusty metal set inside.
It’s not as clear or as pretty as crystal resin and it’s not very strong but it still worked very well and was great to photograph.This was a great way to do test pieces because it is so much faster! Crystal resin “can take up to 7 days to cure”.

These are the first pieces I made with the crystal resin. I am really pleased with them and I have made them into brooches and pendants. This encouraged me to make more…

…And that’s where my problems began.

My first mistake was buying Sili-put, (Silicone putty) to make moulds so my resin pieces could be in more interesting shapes.
(If you ever want to make a mould out of silicone putty, trust me on this, buy Gedeo Siligum NOT Sili-put! It is just nowhere near as good!)

My second mistake was believing my lecturer when she told me that the crystal resin would take up to 7 days to cure.

I am still waiting for these to set properly and they were supposed to be ready for the photo shoot of my jewellery yesterday! Ah well, some things are just unpredictable!

Pylon Jewellery

Although I am now working with rusty metal I wanted to put up some ideas I have developed from my pylon work. I had this idea of using acetate to create one of my little sculptures. I printed one of my photos of the pylons onto the acetate and cut and folded it into shape. This is really nice because the acetate is see through so all the lines overlap just like the intersecting lines of the pylons themselves.This also mean that when you shine light through the acetate it creates some very beautiful shadows.I have now finally decided that I am definitely going to make jewellery for my final exhibited work so here is an illustration of how I could possibly make a neck piece based on pylons.I then made another 3D piece to experiment with how it could be worn.I also made a simple necklace. I like it but I do think it would be more interesting in 3D form or possibly with layers and layers of shapes.

Sculptural Developments

My lecturer was very kind to give me a sheet of pewter to play with. It was very flexible so I was easily able to recreate my paper sculptures out of it.I’m really pleased with how I’ve developed my work but the problem with these sculptures is that they don’t always want to stand the right way up by themselves!I’ve also been playing with copper tape recently (yes, the kind you use to keep slugs away from your plants) and I had this idea of sticking it in strips onto cartridge paper and then making more paper sculptures out of it. I actually love the lines this created on the sculpture.Copper tape is actually really fun to make things with. Check out these sweet crumpled copper earrings I made a little while ago.

Two down three to go

I had my second interview on the 20th. I was told it could be up to two weeks before I found out what they had decided but yesterday I had a fantastic surprise just before I went to bed. I have just received my second offer!

So anyway here are a couple of photos of a molecular hand harness I made for my Spaces project. I had moved onto a more scientific approach to what is in the space around us. This was inspired by Raven Hanna’s Made with Molecules.

My Precious…

My precious….

I know I sound crazy! But I am just sooo pleased with the ring I made in Silversmithing. It’s so nice to have a ring that actually fits me (I have tiny hands), one that I’m not constantly worried is going to slip off and get lost.

Anyway check it out;(Sorry I’m not the best hand model but I was the only person the ring actually fit!)

They are so shiny!

Finally taken photos of my jewellery. These are the first pieces of silver jewellery I have made in my Silversmithing class. I’m really pleased with them! They are so shiny!

If you follow my photography blog you will already know I am starting a new project in college.

The theme of my new project is Space. But what is Space? It is not empty. The space around us is filled with air; gases which are invisible to us. I am looking at things which contain air and also how I can visually demonstrate this and solidify this invisible substance – creating, in a way, negative space.

As space/air is invisible to our eyes it is a difficult subject to collect visual research on. So far I am researching the artist Rachel Whiteread who casts the interior, or negative space, of buildings, bookshelves and other spaces.

How else can I show this invisible space? Any ideas for me or artists I should look at?

Fragile Threads

Exhibition went up Thursday evening! Had it all ready just 10 minutes before the opening. Finally had a taste of how stressful these things can be!
Was so pleased of how it turned out in the end though! Sad it will be coming down so soon! See what you think.

This is my ‘blurb’ about my work:

‘Fragile Threads’

This work is based on my personal memories and the nature of how we remember moments of our lives and the people we share them with. I was inspired by Anna Lewis’s work, in particular her feather jewellery.

The feather is a very good symbol for memories, feathers are fragile and beautiful and in the transferring of images details are lost just like how the details of our memories fade over time.

The patterns transferred onto the feathers are made up of treasures and objects from moments of my life. They include pages of books, postcards, lace, jewellery and other treasured pieces of my memories. The threads they hang from are thin and fragile showing the weak hold we have on our memories.

I have also made a book of memories of my family holidays in Scotland. I made this as an attempt to contain these memories, to protect them from fading or being lost altogether.