Memories are what make our lives

Sorry it’s been so long since my last post. I’ve been focused so much on my graduate work and before I knew it four weeks went by. This quarter I’m taking a metals and jewelry class in the hope of integrating new technical processes into my work. I chose to research casting, piercing, roller printing, precious metal clay, and color techniques on metal (enameling, resin, patinas, etc). You may be thinking, “WOW! Thats a lot of different processes to learn in ten weeks!” Yes it is a lot of processes and that’s why you haven’t heard from me is so long. 🙂 So the past four weeks I’ve been exploring a bit of each process that I chose to research and decided which ones will be the best with my fibers work.

This is my casting sample. First I made a wax model and then during class I was shown how to cast my sample into bronze. I decided that this process doesn’t really fit in with my fibers work because the cast is to rigid and heavy. I want to still keep a sense of preciousness and delicacy while incorporating metal into my work.

These are a few of my piercing samples. I used a jewelers saw to cut out some of the silhouettes that I drew last quarter. This technique is very successful in fitting in with my work. I will use it to create pattern and motifs with metal and still be able to incorporate it with embroidery. Some of the next samples with show you what else I can do with the piercing. 🙂

This is one of my samples from roller printing. I put hat netting in between two pieces of annealed copper and put it through a rolling mill. It imprinted the texture of the netting onto the metal. I think this is my most successful roller printing sample. I really like the netting texture, but am not sure if I’ll continue using this technique. I can create texture in other ways that are more conducive to my work.

These are my precious metal clay samples. The top picture is before they were fired in a kiln and the bottom picture is after. Once the clay is fired it becomes 100% fine silver. This technique was really fun to experiment with because there are so many different things you can do with it. Most of the textures here are from some of my embroidery samples. PMC (precious metal clay) has definite potential as far as fitting in with my work because of the beautiful textures that I can create with it.

These are my enameling samples. This process is awesome and I will definitely keep using it! I can create textures with color and layering different enamels. I have so much more to explore because I’ve only started basic techniques, so stay tuned for more!