recycled ring

Since I am almost done with my silver wire, I had been collecting silver scraps and unused pieces to melt down to have for my next project. So it was coincidental, that I saw a friend wearing a ring that was silver-plated and it literally made me gasp - eek, "silver plated, you have got to be kidding." So,I offered to redo one of the pieces from my "melting scraps" him.

Recently Adam had shown us a way to make rings smaller using a hydraulic press and metal dapping block. As you press the bottom plate up against the top with the press and ring inside - it essentially squeezes the inside, shrinking it in size. The problem that we encountered was that with a ring so think, the shape can start to get distorted which was happening with my ring - making it lopsided. We were able to partially resolve the shape by taking the punch and hammer the sides. The punch which looks like a rectangular block with a circle on it was also what I was using to create a concave shape (comfort fit). Only problem was that the more I used the punch, the larger the ring got - getting me to my original problem - it being too big.

After all that effort expended, ended up having to cut a segment of the ring and re-solder it shut. Then I cleaned the join up so it no longer showed a seam. After that I spent a lot of time sanding the top and bottom of the ring on a sheet of sand paper. The simple repetitive motion kind of put me into a meditative state. It was quite relaxing and seemed to release the tensions of the day. I often feel like that when I am making something..so totally engrossed in the process - I am not thinking of anything but that particular task - truly feels like I am in the present.



After some time sanding and meditating :) I went back to creating the concave form. Supposedly this also creates what's called a comfort fit ring. After it was formed, I felt the design still needed something to draw the eye to the center..something to accentuate the form so I stamped the center with punch..it created a pretty cool design. After I added some liver of sulfer, which darkened the design and gave it a nice contract.


It turned out looking pretty cool - I was afraid it might come out being too big, but my friend Sam - really liked it. And was able to get rid of his crappy silver-plated one.

Goldsworthy Inspired Cuff

My cuff is coming along - this week, Adam introduced me to a nifty tool called a cup burr that I used to round the sharp edges of my bracelet. Here, I thought I was going to have to file each of the sharp edges down using a file or sand paper. Which would have taken hours on each point. With this tool, I was able to round the points in a matter of 1-2 minutes.

I'm liking the progress but realized when I went to shape the cuff around my wrist a couple of issues...
1) its not lengthy enough and
2) the edges around the inside of my wrist are quite sharp...so I guess I'll need to add a few more pieces of silver.

Slow going - but it looks pretty cool. Kind of like Japanese writing or calligraphy - also has kind of a retro 80's feel. I like it, just hope its functional. Another challenge, striking the balance between form, beauty and intrigue.

Couldn't have said it better myself

Thought these words were incredibly deep and inspiring - came from a friend reacting to my post about the element of surprise at final outcomes..

"....it is not about knowing what I am doing so much as just opening to the small and quiet intuitions and images and the big, loud, and crushing ones- that the best things come out of something too complex and mysterious to ever completely master or understand. art like love and living life well has to do with imagination and trust and not so much knowing or certainty, courage and grace and not so much power and will."

inspiration

I am constantly inspired, by so much - looking around nature, cool iron gates. I really love rocks - especially the tiny ones from Baker Beach, shells, flowers, succulents, pods - I'm lucky that I can find inspiration almost anywhere if i take the time to slow down and look around and observe.

I find Andy Goldsworthy's work amazing. Its beautiful, surprising, and fleeting. His works of nature within nature are incredible and awe inspiring to me. Lucky for me - a small art studio in my alley feels the same - they created a piece that is obviously Andy - and seeing it inspired me to want to make it in silver, in my current obsession with cuff bracelets.

The original inspiration comes from a piece that Andy does where he suspends twigs from each-other using only the thorns and tiny branches from the twig itself. He does a piece with his signature circular design and also does entire walls as an installation in a museum.

One of the things I love about art is the suspension of belief, the tricks the eye can play on you or even the mind as it struggles to comprehend the complexity and beauty of a piece of art. To me that is what makes a great artist, or at least what I am drawn to ...beauty and surprise together make my mind swirl and swoon. That's what I hope to convey in my pieces as well..Something of interest yet beautiful, something that makes you wonder - how did it come to be?

I'm starting with my wire again. This is the last of the wire that I originally pulled from the ingot I made from melting down all my old silver scraps in my first session back. I started by sawing roughly 15-20 1-1.5" pieces. Using the building picture as my guide,I slightly bent the pieces and started to play with their placement. I thought soldering 2 pieces to eachother at a time and then putting them together would be the right technique. I now have a quite a few clusters done and I think the challenge with this piece will be to be able to piece these disparate clusters together in a way that keeps the entire piece in balance and while this piece does not have the same symmetry as my last one - I think aesthetically keeping it balanced will be important. Another challenge I see with this piece is perhaps its functionality...I will need to work on smoothing the edges with a file and hope that they will be comfortable on a wrist...also Adam pointed out - it will be a sweater snagger..oh no!