Look what I made!

I feel quite lucky with the class I have at Emerge Pitt County Council for the Arts; my students are so much fun and great people and the best part they are making some amazing pieces!

Last night I snapped some shots of my students working on their pieces, each of them have come up with great design and are incorporating several methods such as enameling, soldering and stone setting.

Next week I'm going to teach the class how to do cuttlefish casting! 

Carrie sanding her tab set pieces

Judy forming her ring

Carrie's enamel pieces set in copper

Caroline (aka my tattoo artist)

Kelley getting ready to solder her ring shank

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World Champ(leve) Beltbuckle title

My very good friend DJ made the belt buckle for the World Championship belt buckle competition.  She won third place but I feel she should've won first, I mean this buckle means to kick ass and dominate!

Her short film is pretty kick ass too.  Hope you enjoy it!
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Pioneers

First women of the Bauhaus school in Weimar.

Ilse Fehling

1896-1982

Ilse Fehling

Abstract sculpture

1922

Marguerite Friedlaender-Wildenhain

Model of an airplane cup

1932

Marguerite Friedlaender-Wildenhain

At the wheel at Pond Farm.

1950

Lilly Reich

1885-1947

Lilly Reich

Thonet chair

1936

Before I even signed up for my courses this fall I'd bought the book, Bauhaus Women by Ulrike Muller, intrigued by how women studied at the school, in such male dominated fields: wood, metal, photography, ceramics and even textiles (as a whole regarded as a 'woman's field). It's not surprise I decided to write my paper (due next week -ack!) on the same subject.

I'm very intrigued at how the world was back in the early 19th century for these pioneer women. Despite the extreme sexism, even with the shroud of 'equality between the sexes' stated by Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius, these women became successful and unconsciously made a crack in the glass ceiling for female artists.

So here is another post on Bauhaus and putting faces and incredible work with the pioneers of that time and place.

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song of the day: Jezebel cover by Anna Calvi

Anna is such a hot minx in this video!

I love her strong and deep voice and this cover of Edith Piaf's song is very cool.



Unfortunately, I will not be DJing tonight at WZMB as we're converting over to a new system to hold all the music, etc.

However, it's a blessing in disguise as I'll have a chance to check out fellow metalsmith, Laura Wood's MFA thesis show! Laura has been a wonderful presence at the metals department at ECU. Laura was the creator and brain behind the first ECU Metals Symposium.

If you're in town, check it out!

Thank you for listening and reading, have a great weekend!
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Sim Luttin

In Lark Crafts Jewelry Post, Australian Jewelry/metalsmith student, Sim Luttin, discusses the difference between art jewelry and metalsmithing and Twyala Tharp's book The Creative Habit (had a June post about it) and setting aside time for your practice.



I love finding random gems of videos like this. Pin It

print resources

I recently received my issue of Lapidary Journal's Jewelry Artist and it's a really good issue.

It has an article on pricing jewelry; which I'm currently reading and one on how to sandcast a belt buckle in addition to an article on new stones. I always get excited when I get Jewelry Artist.

Which leads me to a discussion we had at the metal topics symposium at ECU. I've noticed that on most jewelry blogs artists primarily reference other artists and blogs (or any other topic) and don't often cite or discuss print materials. When I first came into jewelry I didn't have a formal teacher and when I made pieces I took advice from the projects in my print materials. They are invaluable resource to me. And they're getting better!

I'd like to reference this one memory I have of Metalsmith magazine, that I think is ironic. I was at my local Golds Gym searching for magazines to read on the elliptical and I came across Metalsmith and I thought, "uh, I should be reading this and why am I finding it at the gym?". Complete moment of destiny.

I found new artists and concepts, techniques I hadn't thought of as well as schools to look into and apply.

Ever since I've been a subscriber to Metalsmith and Jewelry Artist. I've also come to the conclusion that it's incredibly important, as metalsmiths and jewelers to support this organizations and materials. They keep the tradition alive. Pin It

ECU Materials Topic: New techniques in jewelry and metalsmithing

I do I describe this past weekend?

Provoking and enlightening.

I love to recall the time of when I listened to Laura Wood's idea for the symposium. Laura Wood is a graduate student in ECU's metals/jewelry program. We were at a potluck with new graduate students and I was fortunate enough to be invited. She talked about hosting a symposium where students and faculty from several universities would come together and share new methods, materials in the field in addition to attending workshops and panel discussions. A mini-SNAG Laura said.

I was all about this brilliant idea Laura had! I come from a background in organizing feminist conferences and community events - this is what I love about working with other like-minded individuals. However it is incredible undertaking.

Well, come 4 1/2 months later and the symposium was a very positive and wonderful success! It was incredibly enjoyable and eye-opening for everyone, I met some incredible people.

The symposium hosted faculty and students from: University of Georgia, Indiana University, Appalachian State University, Winthrop University and Virginia Commonwealth University.
In addition to some students from Savannah College of Art and Design along with others I can't remember!

Here are some pictures from this weekend:
The symposium poster...I was a complete dork and got mine signed by several of my favorite artists!
The symposium registration table.
Several ECU grad and undergrad students with metals professor Mis-Sook Hur.
Bob Ebendorf, ECU metals fellow faculty, discussing the variety and creativity of the brushes after his 'Brush of Creativity' demo. It was SO much fun. Bob stresses the importance of play time, to use anything as a sounding board for new methods and materials.
Liz Steiner checking out the brushes.

I could go on and on about the historic moments, new information, discussions and people but I crave sleep after the 3-day weekend. Pin It