JEWLERY AND METALS 219 | artportfolio

Jewelry and Metals 219

Fall 2016

AR219 is a 4 credit hour intermediate studio art course, which offers a progressive, hands-on introduction to the fundamental technical, conceptual, and aesthetic issues of contemporary art-metals (jewelry and metalsmithing).Through a series of exploratory assignments and technical exercises students will be introduced to a broad range of processes., progressing from the simpler to the more complex.

Contemporary jewelry and metal smithing owes its intensity of technique and intricacy of content to a broad and ancient family of disciplines including goldsmithing, silversmithing, coppersmithing, and blacksmithing. Students in AR219 will be given assignments that encourage discovery, creative problem solving and aesthetic exploration. By applying the design principles, concepts and aesthetic introduced in design classes such as Visual Concepts and Form and Space, students will broaden their aesthetic sensibilities and problem solving skills.

1) Fundamentals: piercing, filing, drilling, annealing and pickling

2) Fabrication: riveting, soldering, fusing/welding

3) Wrought Techniques: forging, forming, sheet and wire reduction, chasing and planishing

4) Finishing: surfacing (abrasive papers), buffing/polishing, texturing, patina application

5) Supplemental Processes: stone setting, repose, reticulation of metal

Assignment 1:

Prior to learning the basics of cutting, drilling, and riveting metal, the first assignment was to take 2 pieces of sheet metal and cut out two designs that would then be riveted together. With inspiration from ocean waves crashing on the shore, this perfectly symmetrical piece was turned into a pendant with a simple jump ring at one corner. The top sheet of metal is yellow brass which is flush riveted with nickel silver to a patina copper sheet.

(2 week piece)

Assignment 2:

This assignment was a very open ended one where our professor said, take what you know and make something over the weekend. We had four days to complete this piece. Our knowledge of cutting metal, drilling, and now a better technique for making jump rings allowed me to think outside the box and play with moving pieces. once again, I love how copper looks when it is oxidized and by dipping the piece into the liver of sulfur, the piece oxidized at a rapid pace causing the metal to change color. The dark copper color with what I was interested in achieving.

(4 day piece)

Assignment 3:

This piece involved "plane construction" where we needed to consider each element as a plane. I chose to apply planes to a figure and construct a little girl painting the sun. The girl is actually holding a painters palette and a paint brush and stands on her two feet along with the support of the longest sun ray. We learned how to solder metal together using solder chips and flux and the only requirement for this assignment was that a lot of solder seams needed to be seen. The little girl is made out of all yellow brass including four yellow brass rivets located at the hands and shoulders.

(3 week piece)

Assignment 4:

This piece is the piece that I am most proud of from the semester. It is made out of red brass and copper. The only guidelines for this assignment involved a long strip of red brass that we were required to score and bend and then solder down onto a sheet of metal. From there we could cut, bend, or build onto it however we liked. I chose to keep the cookie cutter shape and make a box/container out of it. From there I decided to cut a very detailed design out of copper to form the sides of the box and rather than having a lid that lifted off, I created two pieces that swivel open connected by a clasp the center. The swivels were made from interlocking tubing and the two lid pieces were forged to give them a three-dimensional shape. To finish the piece, I put a patina on the copper and polished the red brass to allow for a contrast in color and to give it a more antique look and placed red felt on the inside of the box to compliment the redness from the oxidized copper.

(3 week piece)

Assignment 5:

This piece was my final assignment of the semester and one that involved a lot of problem solving. The assignment was a commissioned architecture brooch for a retiring employee. So with those parameters we needed to create a brooch with a pin mechanism that worked as well as something that represented an element of architecture. We were not trying to copy one building or one element of architecture exactly, but more the essence of it. I chose to look at the ancient Mughal architecture domes, in particular, the tomb of Akbar the Great. The pin on the backside runs from tip to tip horizontally. Made from red brass, and copper, with a set turquoise cabochon torus stone. Setting the stone was where the trouble shooting came into play. In my sketch I had wanted to include more wires what wrapped around the stone to keep it in place, but instead I ended up using a thicker wire and riveting the ends down onto the pin. The copper is forged using a tar pitch to achieve more detail and the red brass has a polished surface. To finish, the liver of sulfur was painted onto the copper to oxidize it and then brushed with protecticlear to help keep its coloration.

(3 week piece)

Pin Prototype:

Prior to completing my fifth and final project, a pin prototype was assigned to get us thinking about what type of pic we wanted on the back of our brooches. This pin mechanism involves a pierced piece of sheet metal that is connected to the circle. I then filed and drew down the long extended part of the pin to make my pin stem. To finish it off, one evening I wound wire around the circle and strung beads on the wire to create a tree of life pin.

(1 day piece)

Once again I had the amazing opportunity to submit 3 works to the Juried Student Art exhibition held in the Schick gallery at Skidmore. I submitted three Jewelry and Metals pieces that I had made, very different from my first year. To my delight, 2 out of the 3 pieces I submitted were accepted. Please take a look at the images below of the gallery and exhibition spaces where my work was displayed.

Exhibit Pamphlet (back side)

This pamphlet includes information about the Juror and when the event was held.

Brooch in Gallery with Label

As discussed above in this page, my inspiration for the piece came from the Tomb of Akhbar the Great praising the beautiful architectural design elements. Hence the name, architectonic tomb.