The concept of this project revolves around the concept of “flux”. To me, flux means movement and constant change. Through a series of brainstorms and strange thought processes I ended up making a revolving Solar System Ring. The planets are constantly moving around the sun, continuously changing their positions. The entire ring is made out of sterling silver (except for the bezel setting). The black disks represent space - the silver balls represent the planets in our solar system. The bezel-set citrine at the top represents the sun. The three disks rotate at an angle on the inner wire, to conceptually show the orbit of the planets around the sun. Some challenges I encountered included cleanup and setting of the stone. Because some pieces are articulated, it was hard to clean and also to finish. And because everything is attached to a wire, the pressure being applied to the bezel quite honestly scared me. It took a long time to set just because I didn’t want to push too hard and mess up my piece, even though it was clamped and surrounded with protoplast. What I really like about my ring is the fact that it reads as a moving piece, which goes well with the concept of flux. The piece came out better than I thought it would, and the different colors from the sulfur enhance its “space age” look. In the future, with more experience, I think I would make the planets stones as well, with different colors and sizes to match the actual planets. I would also play with different levels of liver of sulfur and experiment with color.
The purpose of this project is to create a series of pieces using surface design, print techniques, or ways of color. These pieces must relate to “Home”.
Through this semester, I related my projects to “Home” using whatever the current situation was as a base. My first project showed the relationship between me and my family in our home. As the semester progressed the workload got heavier, I spent less and less time at home, I had more independence – and this fact inspired my second project – a portrait that showed less of my family and more of myself.
For this project, my concept will follow along these lines. I find that when I finally meet with my family on the weekends, I am constantly reminding them to do things and also reassure them of my presence. This got me thinking: what on Earth do the do when I’m not here?
Using the techniques of block printing, stencilling, and silk screening, I created three hangings that show little reminders of my existence – albeit outside the home. A length of fabric supported by two rods and a string for hanging, with a textual sign accompanied by designs that relate to the words. Fonts and colours played a role in these hangings.
The signs I made are:
·ZOOM! We have an high definition LCD television at home, and because not all the channels are high definition, sometimes there are two black bars framing the picture centrally in the screen. These black bars, when left on the screen for two long, “burn” into the LCD and creates a shadow of it even when the picture is in high definition. To avoid this burnout, there is an option on the remote to zoom in and then the whole picture fills the screen. My family ALWAYS forgets to zoom in and I ALWAYS have to remind them. So now since I’m not at home they are probably letting the TV burn, really bad. This hanging is placed behind and above the television, as a reminder to zoom in on the TV screen to avoid burnout.
·What’s for dinner? This is placed in the kitchen right beside the stove/oven; as a little reminder to my mother that I still live here and she will forever be pestered by this question. Since I am a horrible cook and can not make anything edible, I rely on my parents to cook for me (yes, I know, horrible). Since I come home around one or two in the morning, I am always hoping that there will be dinner left for me. But sometimes my parents forget and I am left to eat breakfast foods. So hopefully this sign will remind my parents to leave some food for me.
·Can you please ____________ This is placed on the fridge, held up my a magnet. There is a piece of acetate sewed onto the bottom, and a dry erase marker attached to the side. I often leave notes around if I need supplies, money, or can’t find something in the house that I need. The problem is that I leave notes everywhere so not all of them are seen. This hanging will be a centralized place for my notes, so they will get seen!
Challenges I faced were alignment when silk screening, it was hard to see through the screen to the fabric below. Also, because it was only a stencil that I was forcing paint through and not emulsion, some smudging occurred.
To further develop this I would do more hangings in different places with different messages. These will probably become better though experience.
I don’t see my family anymore since I’m spending all my time at school, and when I am at home and not asleep in my bed, I’m working. Focusing on this fact, I decided that the subject of this portrait would be me, more specifically, my hands. Since I work with hands for the majority of my day and that is what I’m seeing, this is what my concept revolves around.
Compositionally, my hands are posed dynamically, floating on the warp threads of the upper middle part of the tapestry. The mood I’m aiming for is readiness: readiness to start working on whatever it is that I need to do. I left the warp threads bare, to symbolize my progression of work on this tapestry. I pulled a little tightly on the weft threads around the tips of the fingers, so that it looks as if the hands are pulling on the warp threads, looking like they are actually in the act of weaving. In essence, during the process, my hands are on a tapestry loom working on my hands on tapestry loom.
I made a separate loom for my piece, so that the tapestry can remain “on-loom”, while still being completely finished. I used an empty canvas frame, and ended up with a really natural look, which I think works really well.
My concern at the beginning of the project was - how would I go about weaving something in the middle of a loom without having weft threads underneath to support the shape on top? When creating the circle shape in the sample tapestry, we learned that the bottom half of the circle-outline/background should be completed before weaving the interior circle, so that there would be some support for it when it was beaten.That technique was totally scrapped here. What I ended up doing was creating the bottom outline of my hands using knots. One long string of yarn was used, and I knotted that string on each consecutive warp thread, on any part that needed support. This process was repeated two or three times back and forth (two or three rows of knotted lines) so that there could be added stability.
Another concern of mine was figural. Would my hands end up looking like hands? I was using a weird knotting technique that I had to figure out for myself, and this was a new thing for me – creating a non-geometric shape. Would it come across as a pair of hands or just a patch of neutral browns?
If I were to develop this piece, I would probably make it life size. I thought of placing the hands sideways so I could make it bigger, but the warp threads would run left to right when the portrait was oriented correctly, which would not be cohesive with my concept at all.
Overall, I think I conveyed my concept successfully. The hands look like hands, and the float ambiguously in the middle of the tapestry without slipping all over the place. At home, this is what I see until I fall asleep. I don’t see my family anymore on the weekdays since I’m spending all my time at school. So this is why I used my own hands as the subject of the tapestry, revolving around the concept of “Home”.
My concept for this piece revolves around the mechanism of fashion and the ideal sense of beauty throughout the ages. Fashion can dictate the shape and proportion of the body’s silhouette by artificially changing the structure. This is a broad topic so I chose to focus on one area of the body – the neck and shoulders.
The preference for a long neck is perhaps the only corporeal aesthetic that is universally shared. In all cultures, the head is held high – associate with dignity, authority and well-being(Extremes of Beauty by Harold Koda, pg. 16)
The open lace ruff that was popular in the 17th century Europe framed the face and created the illusion of a larger plane of space between the head and torso. The head appears to float ambiguously form the body, farther than physical reality.
In Kenyan culture, a young Samburu woman’s eligibility for marriage was measured by the amount of beaded necklaces she wore on her neck. The coiled pile of beads exaggerates the length of her neck – the Samburu girl’s beauty accumulates as the evidence of her desirability increases.
My goal for this project is to show that the societal standard of having a long neck transcends time and geographical distance. To achieve this, I switched the materials around – for my two-dimensional drawing I did a detailed pencil drawing of the neck and shoulder area, unclothed. Then I did a colored drawing of a lace necklace and beaded ruff, and photocopied it onto an acetate overlay to go over the drawing. I chose to do a pencil drawing because I believe I can achieve more tonal compared to pen and ink. I left it grey/white so it would contrast with the colored overlay. The problems I encountered in this process were mostly conceptual. I wanted the overlay to be matched up with the pencil drawing, and I wanted to use the colors I wanted to use and not settle for physical availability. Printing was my best option, which made matching up the overlay with the drawing even more difficult. This was achieved through trial and error.
In all honesty, if money and time were not a huge factor I think I could make this project way better (even though I do love it as is).I would use thinner tubing more lace with extra gathers for additional volume. I would make more beaded sections and create a fuller-looking ruff.
As mentioned earlier, fashion can alter the appearance of the body by exaggerating and calling attention to certain areas, to conform to standards of beauty. I only focused on one area of the body, so if I were to develop this idea I would branch out to other regions: the chest, the waist, the hips, and feet.
I really like the way this project turned out.I like how the colors of the beads contrast with the neutral shade of the lace, and the juxtaposition of organic coils and geometric zigzags. I believe I translated my concept well.
everything i learned about jewellery making in high school went OUT THE FREAKING WINDOW this semester.
well, maybe not everything.
I thought I would be one of the people with the least experience...I thought everyone would be so advanced!
BUT NO. Turns out I had more exposure to jewellery than anyone else (didn't even help me, really).
Some of the things I learned
1) You still have to do stuff to your piece after you tumble it
2) There are different kinds of flux
3) Solder isn't pre cut
I can't even look at the things I made in high school...like my Byzantine chain? Piece of crap. Bezel set fool's gold chunk on a band ring? Even bigger piece of crap.
I am a writer and designer of curly brown hair, big brown eyes, and amazingly strange thoughts. Was born in 1991, a week ahead of schedule, and has been in a hurry ever since.
