Monday 23rd Febuary, 2015

Today I began making my ring shanks with the square silver wire(3mm) I decided to go down a square ring shank and a 2 finger ring shank.

 

16th-20th Febuary

Unfortunately I was ill this week but I tried to do some research for my contextual file.

Friday 13th February, 2015

Today I carried on finishing the rings up and I also drawn and designed my final piece in my sketchbook and bought my silver once I knew the shape I wanted to make and the width of the wire, comparing prices on cooksongold.

Thursday 12th February, 2015

Today I played around with different shapes using square copper wire.

I really liked the chunky brass ring I made except from the fact it was tougher to solder completely without gaps.

Tuesday 13th January 2015

Today we received a new brief!

I was really excited to start a new project, we were told we had around 6 weeks for this project and would be making pieces for Erddig, a National Trust house in Wrexham.

Jenny explained to us we wouldn't be able to look around until the following Tuesday, but told us she wanted us to create something that reflected the building or something that relates to the history and heritage of the family that owned it before National Trust.

I went through the brief and highlighted key points to make it easier for me to understand and read it thoroughly.

Friday 12th December, 2014

Today I incised aluminium with the similar idea I tried using paper. It was hard to correspond the paper idea using metal as the materials work differently.

I think this idea looks very messy though because of hand cutting.

I'm planning on taking it in Monday and talking to Cerys about it because I'm really stuck!

Tuesday 9th December, 2014

Today was the day of my assessment, I came in for 9 to set my work up ready for my time slot.

I put out the samples I developed from since our last assessment and what I'd produced so far.

My feedback was mostly positive although no one was convinced by my final design idea so they while Cerys was looking through my sample catalog she shown Jenny one of my paper machetes which they both really liked and told me to concentrate on making something simple for the photos and Jenny told me that my project is something I could come back to time and time again to develop which I found very true as there were so many different avenues to go down.

I thought I got a lot of constructive help from this assessment although I'm very lost on how I can develop this idea, so if I feel the same way by next week after trying a few ideas I may have to speak to Cerys again.

Monday 8th December, 2014

Today I went into uni to drop some of my work off before going into the workshop and testing out some enamels I had bought online for future use.

I written my evaluation about my work and how it had developed from my last assessment and went to the library to print for my contextual file, technical notes and sample catalog.

Tuesday 2nd December, 2014

Today we had a seminar with Cerys on Craft Theory in preparation for presenting our dissertation proposal, speaking about craft theories and how to break down reading information. We spoke about selecting important information for an essay and using critical thinking. Julie mentioned something really interesting, she described this as 4 steps;

First we're unconsciously incompetent

next we're consciously incompetent

then consciously competent

and hopefully we will end up unconsciously competent.

In the afternoon I attempted making a hinge and prepared cutting pieces to play with, unfortunately I came across a lot of problems doing it the first way Cerys shown me last week so after a few failed attempts I soldered one side and decided to re-visit the technique tomorrow.

Thursday 27th November

Today I had my final lecture with Adam all about post-modernism which made me think about what era we are in right now and how it is to reflect at an era that has changed society. We all are free to speak our minds and these days we question everything put in front of us and people get involved whether that's expression through music, art or design. I believe this lecture left the module on a very good ending because it geared us towards the present and future and what mark we want to leave within society.

This afternoon I carried on with some enamelling, trying to reproduce a block colour using the water packing technique, I sanded the bumps down once fired and cooled and then popped samples back into the kiln, this created an even surface. I really enjoyed using yellow as it stood out and it worked great for the effect I was trying to achieve.

Monday 10th November, 2014

I carried on using the milling machine today, I struggled using it today but Julie showed me how to use the band saw so I could cut some some blocks up for my pieces as the vibrations from the machine moved my metal when I was trying to score a straight line.

 I also cut some pieces of copper up for the following tests to use enamel the following day.

Friday 31st October, 2014

Today I decided to make paper machetes, playing with arrangement again, this allowed me to see ideas 3D visually.

Wednesday 29th October, 2014

Today I dedicated my time to writing up any technical notes and carrying on with sketchbook development. I printed work off in the library and stuck photos in my sketchbook with annotations.

I researched more into Monarch butterflies and collected images.

Tuesday 28th October, 2014

Today we had a seminar with Cerys and each explained what 'Our Manifesto' would be.

I found this task confusing at first as we had to find images of designers work or something that would allow us to explain our thoughts and opinions. I found this a really helpful and interesting task as we all had quite similar ideas of what our class should be known for in years to come.

In the workshop today I carried on making triangle forms using the rolling mill and textured hammers to experiment on the metal and see what the turn out would be, I also used needle files to texture the edges of my objects.

Friday 24th October, 2014

Today I decided to make some paper machettes to play with composition and thinking of bases and attachments.

I had a go at making some basic shapes in porcelain looking at photos to reference how butterflies interact with their surroundings.

I found this image by Ren Hang that inspired me to capture that free moving form of the butterflies

Thursday 23rd October, 2014

Today we had a lecture with Dan about Innovation and reflected back on the evolution of Apple products and how innovation is a big part of being a designer coming up with products to make life easier thinking about the customer and their perceptions of an object. I found this lecture very interactive and interesting compared to my others so far as this appealed to me the most.

In the afternoon we were shown how to use the milling machine, I found it quite intimidating at first but then once I got into the idea of what I could use it for it opened up a lot of doors and I think it's one of those things I mean to play with and dedicate a few hours to play and spark my imagination.

I carried on creating samples, I have decided to keep the triangle folded form and play with size, colour and composition. I am finding it to be quite repetitive making the shapes but I find it relates to what I'm trying to achieve and believe the final results pay off and that's the part I'm enjoying about the making process so far.

Wednesday 22nd October, 2014

I am researching into a lot of designers that use reflective surfaces, movement and light taking into consideration my contextual research and what techniques I can try next such as more texturing metal in different ways.

Monday 22nd October, 2014

Sketchbook Day.                                                                                                                                                                        

Today I had some brain waves so I decided to draw them out in my sketchbook and write some notes and then have a play with painting. I feel like I need to speak to Julie about my ideas and see which one I should concentrate on!                                                                                                                                        

                                   

Thursday 16th October, 2014

This morning we had a lecture on the Bauhaus, I really enjoyed Adam speaking about the different tutors and what innovative ideas they brought to the table and how they created pieces before technology such as Photoshop.
I was intriged by their circle/timetable and it made me think about our schedules.
I thought it was interesting how they got the chance to find out who they were, working in different workshops and then picking their speciality.

Claw Setting.

Today we had a go at creating a claw setting which I found very frustrating but at the same time there wasn't as many steps to this setting, I just found soldering the claws onto the base difficult.

I will continue to make a ring for the base tomorrow and stone set my piece as I found it took a lot of concentration to get the setting it's self made in that one session.

Friday 11th October, 2014

Introduction to stone setting!

Today I was quite nervous about stone setting as I wasn't very knowledable about stones and gems.

Cerys explained a lot to us in a short amount of time and I felt it was so important to keep record of everything through photos and notes.

We created a bezel ring with a stone and shoulders, I felt this session was very fiddly but with more practice I believe I will progress in this technique and the finished pieces will become much more satisfying. I tried my best to keep it neat but piercing something so small was very difficult to me even though I took my time.

Stone setting has triggered my imagination for my project as I've been looking into butterflies and the interesting sections of their bodied before, after and during their transitions I believe stone setting would be a brilliant decoration technique.

I'm looking forward to experimenting with the other ways of stone setting next week!

I'm really interested in Art nouveau (1890s+) and the 'Will to flight' theory and taking a modern spin on this manifesto within my work development. 

I have being researching into designers such as Rene Lalique popular for his jewellery at the time.

"Art Nouveau jewellery by Rene Lalique"

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/98234835592042181/

This is also a wonderful piece by Lucien Gaillard, I love the symmetry and attention to detail, although these pieces seem outdated they're very interesting forms and concepts that I would like to apply to my own work.

"Moth Pendant, ca. 1900 Lucien Gaillard - Gold, enamel, citrine, and horn."

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/273804852318063483/