Electroforming_Project 1 Progress to date

Design Research and Initial Sketches/ideas:

For this project, I was originally inspired by bird's nests. Particularly, I liked the ones where the birds had incorporated man-made materials and objects in the construction of their homes. I looked at many images and the ones that interested me had plastic fiber shreds, ribbon, twine, and even trash in them.

Initially, I wanted to create a piece that took the natural ginkgo leaves and incorporated them with ribbon in a nest shape.

Process- Testing pieces in the bath:

I started by collecting leaves, plastic items, ribbon and other natural objects. I lacquered them and connected them to copper wire trees then painted them with copper conductive paint.

Test Results:

these leaves are too thin and fragile

these leaves came out perfectly formed

Final Sketches/Ideas:

J2_Hollowform Design, Process, Final

For this project, I was inspired by Pop Art, specifically Andy Warhol's Flowers paintings. The paintings display four flowers of different colors.

I created four hollow formed flowers of different sizes, using four different metals; copper, brass, sterling silver and nickel silver.

The front pieces of the flowers were etched to give the center details, and the copper and nickel silver flowers were filled with solder inlay. The brass and sterling silver flowers were dipped in liver of sulfur, then sanded away to reveal the blackened center detail. The backplates of the flowers have a hammer texture on them.

The three larger flowers are attached to one another with small copper, leaf-shaped connectors. The silver flower floats above the others with larger connectors. the flowers are attached to a sterling silver chain.

I really enjoyed the process of making the hollow formed pieces. The hard part was soldering the petals together to form the walls. I melted a small hole in the nickel silver piece trying to do this. The front and back pieces wend down with no problem. There are a few places where holes are starting to form as a result of too much filing, so I should have been more careful with clean up. Overall I am very happy with this necklace. My goal was to create something that I would want to wear and I definitely achieved that.

original illustrator file

notes and plans

faceplates

backplates

final piece: front

final piece: back

Casting_Materials Project: Artist Statement

When I read Italo Calvino’s stories, Thin Cities 4 stuck out at me. The idea that half of the city was permanent and the other half got packed up and sent away every year inspired me. The carousel, roller coaster, ferris wheel, death ride and big top were the permanent elements, while the hospital, bank, factories, palaces, school and slaughterhouse were the temporary. This was strange because reality is the opposite.

            For my piece, I wanted to incorporate the permanent with the temporary. I wanted to use a “permanent” material, such as metal, along with a more temporary material, or something that would be removed or break away, such as weak cement.

            The form that I decided to create is a brooch, and I integrated both the permanent and the temporary aspects of the city. The metal frame is in a form that resembles a roller coaster. The frame is connected to a cement stone wall that represents the temporary city and the stone pediments. The cement was mixed without aggregates or strengtheners, so that it would be weak and, over time, break apart, alluding to the impermanence of half of the city.

Casting_Materials Project: Process to Final

Casting Progress

J2_Narrative Pendant Review

I finished my narrative pendant and am thrilled with how it came out. I love the chased and repoussed rocks and the pelican. I also love the sailboat shaped clasp but as I was soldering the ball/post to make it close, the post melted. I did my best to file a groove for the clasp to fit, and it makes a tight fit, but it does not have that clicking sound when you close it.

The die-forms were easy to whip out in a couple of hours, so the hard part was in making the chasing look convincing. I think I achieved this pretty well.

The hinge did not give me as many problems as I was expecting, which I was thankful for, however the hinge pin did solder to at least one knuckle. This was not a big deal, it just meant that I had to keep the two sides together instead of taking them apart to finish them.

Soldering the tiny chain to the huge form melted quite a bit of the chain so I kept having to replace it. If I were to do it again I would either solder the chain to the internal frame before the frame went on the piece, or I would attach the chain to jump rings hidden behind the frame and not solder them shut.

Once I had all of the components, assembly went relatively smoothly.

The first patina that I did looked too dull, so I removed it and went back with more precision, this time knowing exactly what I wanted to hit with the heat gun and what was getting dye-oxides. The rock forms and chased pelican have a heat patina from the heat gun. The softer heat gave the rocks a bright reddish purple color. The water has a heated cupric nitrate patina, while the fish and the pelicans have the dye-oxides. I am much happier with the colors than I was at the crit, but still don't love them. I would like to get the water brighter.

Overall, I am very happy with everything about this piece. I did not run into many problems and feel the finished product came out beautifully.

J2_Narrative Pendant Final Piece