My first Metal Arts/Jewelry class. Pounding, torches, chemicals, sawing, and all the ancient metalsmith techniques are still used today! I find the learning curve to be hard and long, but the rewards are great and as I learn techniques, my mind gets full of ideas. Here is all the beginning stuff I've done in learning the basics.BASIC TECHNIQUE SAMPLES:
Here are my first time samples. The basic techniques shown are sawing, texture (rolling mill), jump rings (chain), drilling, and soldering for different uses are shown below. I start with flat sheets of metal and wire (all copper below, with silver solder).Here are my first time samples of creating hollow forms (cylinder shape, sphere, and cone). The flat sheets of metal are formed, soldered, and finished. I used a motorized tool to get the unique finish on the cylinder. The holes were drilled before that part was soldered on. The cone has a patina (colored metal) that happened from the heat and soldering process. Though it's hard to really see it in this photo. I liked it, so applied wax to keep it.
My first bezel and stone setting sample. I decided to make it into a fun design and sawed out a bird head shape to put them on as the eye. I also had put texture on the metal and the various colors on the brass are a "heat patina" as mentioned above from the soldering process. 
SELF-PORTRAIT:
Before we learned how to solder, our first main project was to create a self-portrait using various learned techniques up to that point and using cold connections (rivets). I created a profile of myself in a cubism style using hand-sawed & filed textured shapes and layers. I applied different types of texture to all the pieces and the dark color is from a liquid to patina the copper. Each piece was carefully filed, sanded, drilled, and then riveted together. The arm swings from its shoulder rivet and the hand/chain dangles. The mouth (spiral) can also shift up & down. The rest of the pieces don't move. I had a pretty complex design for the first time EVER doing this stuff. It was pretty stressful to put it all together and although the results came out fine, some things didn't come out as initially planned. I know it's because it was my first time and we had to work on this outside of class as homework, so didn't have assistance. There was a lot of trial, error, aggravation, and bruising!
The piece I used to cut out the hair ended up working as a removable stand by hooking with the front curl.
The back side:
FIRST JEWELRY PROJECT:
The current jewelry project I'm working on is in progress. The concept behind it is "Breaking free". This is what I have so far...a hollow form padlock and a start of a chain (antique finish and dark patina). The piece on the right is the back of the lock, which I may attach in an alternative way. The paper one on top is the maquette as a rough model. A lot more is to come!
Darkened with some sample chain shown:
WOULD LOVE ANY FEEDBACK!
:)
ALL THE BEST,
TANIA
Here is what I've done so far for the first half of the semester in Ceramics (sculpture). In class, we are given assignments to give us an overview of techniques (for building and for the finishes/coloring/glazing). The finish used is in parentheses after the project name.
Mask project (smoked):
A simple design of a mask in sections, with a very smooth surface, and using a very smooth type of clay (not grainy). We let them dry, put on slip (either brick red or off-white colors), polished them, fired them in a kiln, then "smoked" them for the appearance of a smoked finish.Below, I'm smoking the large part of my "monkey" mask. I smelled like BBQ after this. But love the way my mask smells smokey now!
Raku is an ancient Japanese pottery technique of which you have no control over the outcome of the glazed finishes. The dried and glazed pieces are put in an outside kiln for a short time to open the pores, then removed when extremely hot and placed in trash cans. The cans are full of newspaper and other types of shavings, which catch fire from the hot pieces. The cans are covered and left to work chemistry magic. The pieces are then pulled out and hosed off, exposing the interesting outcomes. The more contact with the carbon that is generated, the more effects the glazes will get - such as metallic or crackle finishes - depending on the types of glazes used. You can also use the same glaze and get completely different results (i.e. different colors or metallic). There's no control of the finishes, so it's all a surprise ending!
My puppet is a combination of my own contemporary designed African animal parts. A Zebra head, with a Giraffe body, lion arms/paws, Ostrich legs, and an Elephant tail. I wanted to create something unique, simple, with a tribal touch, and experiment with the different Raku glazes.
Here I am covered in gear about to unload the HOT pieces from the kiln to place them in trash cans full of newspaper shavings:
Grabbing a piece with the tongs:
My finished wall puppet:
The Giraffe body was all the same glaze, but most of it received "high reduction" and the removal of oxygen from the flames and newspapers, so left the copper and textured look. The head is called "white crackle" and was like putting on a clear crackle coating over the clay. So, the white is the clay showing through, while the black lines are the carbon from the fire and papers filling in the cracks. Another glaze was used for the arms, but one arm received more reduction than the other, turning it green with black paw pads, while the other is reddish/orange/brown with grey paw pads. The legs were painted the same glaze as the body called "Lizard Skin," but didn't get as much reduction to become as metallic, but they do have an iridescent shimmer to them in person. The tail came out as a solid blueish gray using another glaze. I connected all the pieces afterwards with wire. They already had the hooks inserted when they were built.
From the Raku process, a clump that looks like rough white-ish "poop" showed up on one of the legs, behind the heel (you can see it on the right leg in photo)...so I'll keep it there. How perfect! A happy accident.
Coil project (Sgraffito):
We had to build an upwards sculpture using the coiling technique, which automatically makes the piece hollow (and we don't have the removal of excess clay from the interior later). After coiling the shape, we had to smooth out the exterior since we were doing a carved finish called Sgraffito. We chose from black or brick-red colored slips to paint on the leather hard clay piece and then carved away drawings or patterns on the piece. By carving, the colored slip is removed, leaving the clay exposed for the drawing, also with 3-D texture - depending on how deep and wide the carving was done. Once fired, the slip will become a richer color and the clay will be a cream color.
I decided to do a simple interpretation of a dolphin (this is the front end) and I ended up tattooing its whole body by carving ocean scenes all over it. In my own mix of abstract and realism, there are animals, various ocean life, plant life, shells, and water movement. Once it's completely fired, I'll post more images in a later post and the carvings will show up better to get a closer look - since there's a lot going on and many animals and shells need to be looked for.
The photos below are after the carving, before the firing - since it's in the process of firing now. The black slip appears grey and the carvings are hard to see well in the images - since there isn't much contrast at this stage. But don't forget that you can click on any image to enlarge them and go back using your browser's back button. I'm posting them the largest I can.
Figure drawing is not my best subject, but gave it a shot in this required class. I also gave more time and energy to my other classes during that same semester. You'll see why I'm not an Illustration major! But, to record some of my exercises and sketches from the class, I'll still post some I picked out. The teacher was a very nice man, but tough grader...so I was very excited that I received one "A" grade from him - for the hands drawing. It was the drawing I put in the art show in an earlier posting. After the art show though, I made some more adjustments to it and he loved it and gave me the "A" - which is a big deal coming from him, as he's extremely picky and expecting professional quality work (and this is a beginner class). I'm posting the hands drawing in this posting again as the final piece.p.s. yes...these were drawn of live nude models in person (except the face portrait and hands -which were assignments using photographs to draw from). These were all done with charcoal and since the models posed for short times, I never finished the sketches.My very first drawing without instruction is the first one below. A bit embarrassing...but good to see the progress(!). Warm-up exercises (quick gesture poses) come after that.
Portrait assignment - done in record time! (still needs work):
The hand drawing I mentioned...In the first photo below, under the drawing, you can see the original photo of the image. You can click on the images to view them larger, then your back button on your browser to return.
My first bezel and stone setting sample. I decided to make it into a fun design and sawed out a bird head shape to put them on as the eye. I also had put texture on the metal and the various colors on the brass are a "heat patina" as mentioned above from the soldering process. 
The piece I used to cut out the hair ended up working as a removable stand by hooking with the front curl.
WOULD LOVE ANY FEEDBACK!
