Thursday, February 11, 2010

Yes Eight...

Apparently octopus have 8 legs...errr...tentacles.  This is a screen print I created, I have a love for them, for the way they look at least.  I can manipulate everything, create movement and fluidity.  There is a joke among my family and Metalsmithing class in college I never made my octopus with 8 tentacles, sometimes aesthetically it just doesn't fit!  So I made an edition of 8 prints with 8 tentacles and titled it "Yes Eight" to be spiteful and make my point.

A long time friend Chad Bowles, also an incredibly talented piano player purchased on of my prints off my Etsy site.  This was also the inspiration for his album cover I created for his beautiful music.  The concept was to create the fluidity of the music, how it dances through your mind and air as you listen.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Bracelet of Petals...




More silver, more etching.  The bracelet was originally a flat, plain piece of metal.  I cut out the form in 2 pieces (to save silver) and soldered the two together to have a semi-symmetrical piece.  I fabricated the shape using a sinusoidal stake, (picture to the right), creating a compound curve. 
My mentor, Joe Cornett who teaches at Northern Arizona, was adament about teaching us the art of metal fabrication.  He said it would set us apart from the others.  It is a satisfying feeling starting out with a flat piece of metal and hammering it to no end, annealing it, hammering it again until you've created this shape you didn't even know you were capable of doing. 

I soldered on 4 bezels and set Champagne colored CZ's. Etching this piece took quite a bit of time because of the large surface area.  Well worth all of the effort.  Unfortunately I do not have one of these stakes, or the set up at home at the moment so I can't create any more of these curves...sigh.

The bracelet may be viewed on my Etsy website.