A tangent, or a new series...

This month I was fortunate to attended for the third time the ECU (East Carolina University) Metals Symposium. The school has a fantastic Metal Design program, which I became acquainted with while working as program director for Pocosin Arts Folk School. Some of the instructors come to teach weekend workshops at Pocosin, which is how I became interested in working in metals and jewelry. The graduate students at ECU developed and coordinate the symposium which includes short workshops and lectures by some really inspiring artists who have found success in the field. It has been a great opportunity for me to sit in on this event. I leave with my head full of ideas, encouragement, and enthusiasm. I created a photo album of some of the things I saw in the workshops and and work featured in the ECU Gray Gallery exhibit Off the Wall = Structural Adornment.

A speaker this year was Alison Baxtor, jeweller and Head of Short Courses at West Dean College in Southeast England. As a guest speaker she introduced the symposium attendees to the really interesting history of the college and fantastic arts opportunities available there, then she dropped by Pocosin to offer a short impromptu creativity workshop. Alison incorporates fiber in her jewellery (that's how they spell it in the UK ;) and she led us in an exercise exploring expression with line using thread. Then I went home and made this:

Cotton puffs, cotton fabric strips and poly thread wrapped around copper wire.

I posted an image of it on Facebook and a friend suggested I do another series of chains made with found fibers. I think I will do another series, incorporating locally found objects. I keep finding bits of colorful plastic and all sorts of things which would be fun to put in jewelry. So I think this is Chain #1 of Series Two.

Chain Number 5

In September I attended a powder coating workshop taught by Kathryn Osgood. She is a friend of mine and her work is incredible! She accomplishes great things with enamel and is beginning to incorporate some powder coating in her work. Her workshops are always really informative and I was excited to learn about applying powder coat to aluminum. Initially I wanted to incorporate the technique in some components for chain #4. Instead, I was inspired and went home on Saturday evening of the workshop and cut out what I hoped would be enough pieces for chain #5. Here are some of the links curing in the toaster oven.

 

Not long after the workshop, I purchased some colors to try at home. I don't have a powder coating gun yet, so I experimented with sifting onto flat pieces (one side at a time) and then curing them on trivets in a toaster oven. (If I had a powder coating gun, I could coat the entire piece at once since it adheres with the help of an electric charge, and hang the pieces as above). At right is an image of the aluminum trivets I made sitting on top of and in the toaster oven. The pink flower components in chain number 5 (see below) were made at home, using the sifting technique. I decided to only coat one side of the flowers to let the bare aluminum show on the underside of the flower. I just finished a temporary clasp in green and pink. I would rather have the clasp be a matte black like the main components, but I think I need to wait until I have access to a powder coating gun in order to get the uniform finish. This was a fun chain to make.

 

My five aluminum chains. Halfway done!

 Thanks for reading!