| Failure is the fertilizer for success |
[Jul. 25th, 2008|11:06 pm] |
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I read that recently in a book and I have been using it at work a lot lately. Nothing diffuses tension like a little giggle, and I'm sorely in need of one right now. I'm about to abandon a picture that's about three quarters done. It's sitting just to my right and I'm still looking at it, wondering if there is a way to save it. Maybe with some PhotoShopping...but maybe not. It would look too patched together. I'm staring at part of the gorgeously rendered background and that's what's really hurting right now - it's like I threw away the hours invested in it already. I have solved the main problem, as well as the problem of materials. Tomorrow I'll start again. I'll use different paper and my new PanPastels, and recycle everything from my artistic compost :-) |
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| Blue Jug |
[Jul. 21st, 2008|08:40 pm] |
July 21, 2008 ::: Acrylic ::: 16"20"
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| Bay Arabian ACEOs |
[Jul. 20th, 2008|05:04 pm] |
There's dark bay and blood bay. No other bays forthcoming though! Originally I had planned 12 colours for this series, but 12 seemed a bit ambitious!
July 20, 2008 ::: PanPastel and Pencil Crayon ::: 2.5"x3.5"
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| Black Arabian ACEO |
[Jul. 13th, 2008|04:05 pm] |
This isn't the PanPastel ACEO I mentioned in my last post, although the background was done with PanPastels. Oooh, the smoothness of blending :-) There will be more Arabian cards coming...watch and wait!
July 13, 2008 ::: PanPastel and Pencil Crayon ::: 2.5"x3.5"
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| I'm totally lovin' on PanPastels |
[Jul. 6th, 2008|09:43 pm] |
I'm such an easy sell sometimes. Seriously! All it took was 5 seconds of wiping a little sponge on some scrap paper and I walked out of the art store by my work bus stop a little poorer. Well, actually a lot more poorer. I need more pastels like I need a hole in the head, but trust me, these aren't ordinary pastels. Trust me!
For starters, they come compressed in little cakes, each protected in its own plastic pan. No worries about two colours rubbing up against each other and contaminating the colour, or sticks breaking. They are extremely low dust, which makes them very clean. Applying them is a dream because all you have to do is load up the sponge brush and work away. Colours go on thicker, smoother, richer. In all my years of using pastels, I have never had such consistent and rich results. They can be used with other mediums too, and as soon as I transfer a sketch to my background, I'll have a little ACEO to show off.
I bought the "landscape colours" pack, which came with 20 colours and a variety of sponges and seven storage jars. The art store didn't have individual colours, although they did have some smallers sets of like colours. They are such a specialty item that buying from online retailers seems a good choice. |
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| Rearing Unicorn ACEO |
[Jun. 28th, 2008|07:26 pm] |
June 28, 2008 ::: Paper ::: 2.5"x3.5"
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| Lazy Grazer |
[May. 19th, 2008|08:04 pm] |
May 19, 2008 ::: Colored pencil and chalk pastel ::: 6x8"
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| Kinda sad... |
[May. 19th, 2008|11:46 am] |
Hand made artist jewellery is being featured on Etsy right now and I bet Shona would have a heart attack if she saw this necklace listed for $88. Holy crap, if you can hand saw something this intricate, it should not be $88. |
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| Getting Things Done |
[May. 14th, 2008|09:34 pm] |
My workplace is quite fond of the idea of Getting Things Done, David Allen's one man quest to end procrastination and improve productivity everywhere. The idea is to adopt new habits to be more productive. Even adopting one habit can change a person's like, such as "If it takes less than 2 minutes, just do it!"
I recently completed a big chart of my art backlog, which goes back years. The trouble is not that we don't want to do something sometimes, but that we don't know what the next step is. An example of mapping the flow of steps would be:
Photograph reference picture
Print reference picture
Decide size of finished artwork
Cut paper
Sketch picture
Transfer picture to paper
and so on. Breaking something down into steps, even if they seem obvious, often makes a task more manageable and easier than it seems. This is how traditonal to-do lists fail, because we might not be sure of the next action and they don't capture that. Essentially my chart is a big "mind sweep" of all the things I'd like to get done. Crossing things off this chart makes me happy, because, well, I'm getting things done! It can work, honestly, even for you champion procrastinators out there :-) |
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| The end...is...near! |
[Apr. 27th, 2008|04:26 pm] |
Marks had to be in this week, but we get a bonus work night from the day that Shona fell down the stairs. I'm getting a B+, and I'm so thrilled with that, given my skill level. My final project is maybe 80% done - after I had assembled it, I realized some more design flaws. I'm just not good at thinking in 3D spaces, nor the construction of them. So I'm making a little wooden base for the copper base.
I'm so glad my class is over. It's just a relief and it was so many nights, a lot of stress, a lot of fatigue, a lot of things I couldn't plan for at all! I would probably take another credit-free class though, and I could see myself returning next year, since taking the class again is also a cheap way of getting studio time. We'll see. I'm going to get a microtorch some time this summer. I'll keep playing with my Dremel and see if I can go anywhere with this one my own! |
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| Almost there... |
[Apr. 17th, 2008|07:24 pm] |
The face of exhaustion is not a pretty one. There's a huge mirror to the right of the torching station and I pondered my sorry image for a moment. Behind me a more experienced student was punctuating her filing work with sighs.
In the room next door, someone was pounding away. In old movies someone always puts their hands to their heads and exclaims "The drums! The drums!". This had a similar effect on both of us. We exchanged glances and I'm sure she had the same thought as me - grab a hammer and pound away on the hammerer.
"My project isn't going so well," she said as she held the lid of the pickle pot for me. "I wanted to do a bird cage, but my teacher was like, no, don't do it."
A bird cage, really. Mine was not going so well at all. I fried one of the set of bars with the torch and melted a couple of rings. I put these aside and worked on the toggle clasp that is one of the required samples. My carelessness last night really surprised me, I had a harder time than usual polishing, couldn't concentrate on the zippee sander and was rebuked by a 3rd year student for using the steam dragon improperly. Around 7 I packed up and spent the rest of the night browsing Rio Grande catalogs. |
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| I Dream of Dremel |
[Apr. 14th, 2008|05:17 pm] |
It should have occured to me to invest in a Dremel and its many accessories earlier. I realized that polishing my final project is going to be a problem, so I bought a flexshaft for it. Then I realized I needed something to hold the tool as it would roll over and shut off! So back to Home Depot I went and bought the Dremel workstation which turned out to be a better value than just the flexshaft stand. I can use it to rotate the Dremel so I can use it as a mini polisher or as a drill press. I can't wait to try some of the carving bits, but I need a face shield and proper respirator before I try anything.
My final project is still unassembled. I can't believe I've been working on it for months and still hasn't come together! Ugh! |
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| Two more classes! |
[Apr. 9th, 2008|10:16 pm] |
But at least another two weekends in the classroom or thereabouts. I ran into a design flaw with the base of my free project. I could have soldered the hangers for the bird cage to the base, but then I would reach a point where I couldn't polish it as much as possible. It was easier to cut off the corners and round them out. Actually it wasn't easy as someone made off with the circle stencils, so I have to do the rounding at home.
We learned how to make pinbacks last week and I made my sample tonight. It's surprisingly easy! Either you can buy a professionally made stem set and solder it to the back, or you can take a piece of wire and make your own. Making your own requires drilling two holes halfway into the metal with a bit the same size as your wire. Then you solder one end of the wire into a hole. Bend the wire so that it can reach the other hole and solder it there. That took me two tries as the end kept popping out of hole. Once it has been pickled and the join is secure, snip the loop apart, leaving one end long and one end short. Curl the shorter piece into a loop - this will hold the pin. Make at least two twists in the longer piece, like a safety pin spring. Trim excess wire and file the end into a point. This kind of pinback is only good for things like sweaters - it will leave a hole in just about any other piece of clothing. |
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| Fumbling along... |
[Mar. 31st, 2008|07:01 am] |
The hardest part of my final project is done - the band that goes around the
bird cage. It was a proud moment when all the parts were soldered together
and the band gently tapped into a circle. As I slid the loops for the bars inside,
I realized that I had made a grievous error in using 1mm wire for the band. The 1.5
mm bars had too much spring and pushed too hard on the band. I popped them
back out and made new ones with 1mm wire. Sometimes metalworking requires
more math and physics than I can do or think of.
My holloware sample turned out ok, I really enjoyed punching out the copper
discs and hammering them into shape with the dapping block. There's a lot of
potential here for medallions and such. With the sample I could have filed the
edges for a better seam. But again, a lot of potential for interesting objects . |
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| Holloware Construction |
[Mar. 20th, 2008|06:50 am] |
At the beginning of September, I bought 3 dozen saw blades. I snapped the last two last week and all I could do was sigh - if only they could have held out a little longer!
We learned the basics of holloware construction yesterday. Basically it is any object where air is trapped inside, or, uh, hollow. The trick seems to be constructing it in such a way that it doesn't become a little bomb - trapped air can only be heated once. If it is re-heated and there's no little hole or notch for it to escape, it will blow apart.
We can make a box or a sphere (if we feel really ambitious), but I think my sample is going to be like the one done we went through yesterday - making a lentil bead. Basically you punch out two same sized discs using the circle cutter and hydraulic press. Then you get a tool called a dapping block with dapping punches. Pick a hole that is about the size of your disc, along with a punch that is smaller than the hole. Centre it, and hammer away! In theory one should be able to make little miniature bowls this way. Emery the ends flat for a good seem and solder all around.
I don't have any pictures of my final project yet. Right now it's an ambiguous pile of pieces. I also forgot the jump rings I was going to solder on the coffee table, so that didn't get done last night. Shona suggested a great fix for a problem with the letters that I was having. I couldn't cut the letters as perfectly as I would like, and the effect would be ruined if they were not perfect, so she found me a box of letter punches. This worked so much better, even though the letters are 5mm high. I punched a variety of them in a circle on the base and the effect was very pleasing. |
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| The Minotaur |
[Mar. 14th, 2008|03:49 pm] |
Something that is not horse shaped this time :-)
March 14, 2008 ::: Acrylic ::: 5x6"
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| Re-work, re-work, re-work |
[Mar. 9th, 2008|11:32 am] |
I'm on the third version of my task list for our free project, taking out the things that will take too much time, such as sawing letters out of copper. I really do not have the sawing skill to cut them out as perfectly as I would like, so that gets crossed off the list. A little math made me realize that soldering 4.71" of links together would also be a big endeavour. I'm also less likely to be spending time in the classroom with the arrival of spring (yay!) and an upcoming dental crown, wedding and Breyer Fun Day at a toy store :-) |
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| Horses of courses :-) |
[Mar. 8th, 2008|11:11 am] |
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| Sterling Silver Necklace |
[Mar. 2nd, 2008|03:14 pm] |
Two hours in the polisher did wonders for it!
February 27, 2008 ::: Sterling Silver ::: ~18"
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[Feb. 28th, 2008|06:40 am] |
Last night was a really, really good class. It was mostly a work night. The senior student, who has taken this class before, helped me with the polishing tumber. It seems like an easy process, but there are many steps to remember, such as not losing any of the polishing shot and making sure the cover and inside of the lid are dry so that it will seal properly. It was mostly a work night, and I discussed my idea with Shona. This project may be a little more ambitious than the time left allows, so I think I'm going to focus on the silver bird cage part the most, which means I have to order more silver. 50 grams of silver just barely covered my necklace :S
Our necklaces were due last night and everyone else's seemed more creative than mine, but I got some very nice compliments on it. The senior student had three pieces, two of them made with itty bitty jump rings about 4-5 mm wide. Oh, it was beautiful, two rings were connected to one ring and connected together they made a lovely flowing pattern. Another classmate makes her own beads, and incorporated some purple lentils into a simple chain design. Every piece was so unique, and even the simplest pieces had wonderful qualities, such as another woman who was a little insecure about her design, but the piece had such a nice weight to that was also attractive. |
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