E di Lavoro Oggi Più

Here, dear phantom readers, is my beloved studio space.  It is my corner in the smallest room for the metals majors and I love it.

I do not love the dinner picture on my desk though.  Shortly after shooting this (composite) image I wrote myself a nice big note about the dangers of frozen "food".

Finally a finished shot of my nesting rings.  I have some more formal shots of them on the hand, but I had such a hard time that I've given up on those images.  I'll shoot more later.

I may reshoot this image as well, but since the hand on the right is my own, you have to give me credit for shooting the image at all.

Patina!  I'm glad I went with my own ideas instead of what everyone else ever in studio told me and did this lovely pack patina anyway.  I think it's fantastic.  I have now only to adhere the circuitry inside and line the edges with leather and they're done!  However, I must finish these, my casting project, and my second set of eyewear this week as well.  I will be very happy when the 15th has passed.

Mi Sono Stati Accolti Nella scuola Penland di Artigianato

I GOT INTO PENLAND!!!

Yes, this is a post with no photos.  No, I didn't make anything.  BUT!!!  I've gotten a scholarship!  So, I shall spend two weeks this summer in deep immersion at Penland, happily and exhaustingly learning everything I can about the construction and functionality of eye glasses and eye wear.  WIN.

Rodere Rodere Rodere ...

Quick proof of concept video from Tron class. He is scared of the dark! Dark makes him chomp and his eyes turn red. Most fearsome.

Resoconto Idee per un Progetto in Ritardo

I've been massively neglecting my casting class and its related projects. After a night of crazed sketching I came up with this idea. The parameters are to use a mold to replicate a part at least five times, make a piece which is wearable and cognizant of weight, and which also deals with the theme of protection. This is Stacy's idea of an open project.

This is actually an idea I've had for a bit. It's a customised dust mask made of leather and brass mesh with a pocket bit on the insides to hold cut pieces of standard dust mask to change out as required. The problem with normal ones is that they are huge. My face is not and despite everything I do I stretch my jaw to keep them in place and after a bit this hurts rather a lot. So this is the solution: if I have to modify it at all, I might as well go all out.

My cast bits will be as seen on the right side- small decorative bits which will be attached to larger vine-like decorative bits (all to be cast as one) and riveted onto the mask proper. I also plan to cast a buckle for the back.

Now to do it all in 2 weeks...

Cena Tra Amice

Last weekend my wonderful friend Sarah came to visit me from Chicago. After two days of eating everything we possibly could all over Milwaukee, we decided to have a light dinner of fruits and vegetables.

This beautiful pile is our result. Not exactly light, especially since the bread was used to mop up wonderful melted butter. However, it was delicious and we had fun making it.

Commissione: Completa

Good thing I left what I intended to work on at home today. Finished my commission (finally!).

Inscription reads "only a life lived for others" and is from a larger quote apparently by Einstein. Anyway, the etching is hideous, and i just noticed the symbol is pointing the wrong direction. REALLY should have checked on that before I decided which way I was gonna solder it on....

Fortunately, I have the where-with-all to not say all this to my buyer (or post this blog where she could find it) so if she's happy that's all that matters. Hating one's own work is for school and self reflection.

Relazione Sui Progressi Compiuti Enormi

Idee Nate e Idee Progredito

First, a few new project ideas, followed by some exciting (and shiny) progress on the current project. I thought about making this two posts, but then the photos were already loaded...

This is my first idea for my colab. project in Electronics in Sculpture. I thought I'd sent it to my partner Sunday, but turns out I sent it to a stranger instead due to a failure of memory regarding email addresses. Anyway, this is a jellyfish chandelier.

Trying to modify my crazy/awesome designs from my current project into an everyday pair of glasses. Yes, this is everyday for me. The lens shape is from my old pair of glasses, so if I ever build them (here's hoping I get into that Penland class, eh?) I'll be able to wear them like a badass.

NEXT IDEA! This is my preliminary sketch for my second eyewear piece. It's moon/space themed, and will also be entered into NASA's art competition which is titled "Life on the Moon". As you hopefully can see, there are more LEDs involved. I'll also be using this sweet solar filter film I got from the ebays. IT blocks 99.9% of the sun's radiation. I think that's pretty sweet. As a final note: check out the sweet tension hold these babies will have instead of lame ear stems or straps. Rock.

And now to the progress! Last night I boiled the anodising in, coated the inside rims with resin to insulate them, and super glued down some rolled silver wire for traces. Today I used my fancy (and expensive) new conductive epoxy to adhere the wee LEDs to the traces. It took a while to get all the connexions good, and actually one needs to be reglued tomorrow, but overall I'm really excited!

See how the one on the left is a bit dimmer? That's why the connexion needs to be redone. As a side note, the IC on one of the boards blew in transit and had to be replaced. That sucker was probably the worst thing to solder/desolder on the entire board. It was ridiculous!

Yeaaahhhhh!!!!! I had to call others into the room for this. I don't know what it is about LEDs that makes them the coolest ever, but they are.

Now to do all the metalwork to house these bits...

Sette Giorni di Distanza, Due Giorni ha Restituito

The title says I was away seven days, but I think it actually was more like nine. Besides that, I've realised all my photos have uploaded in the opposite of intended order. Fantastic.

So In backwards chronological order, this is what I've been working on from tonight through last Thursday.

I stayed at studio looong past when I should have gone home on account of making this new hook. It's a 2mm, which means the wee end bit is only 2mm wide. Actually, it's so small that before I could sand it it broke off the lathe, so the end was finished by hand.

Before that, I wired up my lamp to see what lovely colours it would produce. This is not actually the colour produced. Seems my camera has a difficulty with ultra violet. So actually it's ridiculously purple. Imagine that...

Even before I could do that I had to solder things. Very tiny things. So I kludged this 20 gauge wire onto the tip of my soldering iron and it worked so well, that I dare say my solder spots looked nicer than the ones done by an EE with a proper tip. I will assume this is due to my wire tip being smaller than the real tip, not from any failings of said EE (thank you dad!)

Lookit! Circuit boards came in the mail. Here is what I assume the inside of my eyewear pieces will roughly look like. For an idea of scale, the board up top is about 2cm wide on the short side.

Before I could set up my mock up I had to turn those rings on the lathe. Amazing what a proper cutting bit will do (The job. That's what it'll do). I've got holes drilled in them for riveting and the escape for the wiring. Actually, these have since been anodised, but the blue is so deep and dark that it is a void of light and therefore also void of anything interesting to see.

Monday I recieved a birthday package from my friend Sarah, containing an art nouveau book and also two sketchbooks. This here is the wee one after I'd properly covered it in book papers. Of course the colours are off.

And firstly, here are the spoils of my birthday trip to American Science & Surplus. Best store EVAR. Not pictured is a glorious set of 12 files. I later made a case for these and my other files out of the leather pictured. The vials are now carefully labeled and filled with resistors, the bottles full of LEDs and switches. All else has been added to my estimable collections in studio.

Malattia e Compleanni Causare Fare per Fermare

These were finished a week ago but since then I have made nothing. Thaaaanks cold I caught in studio...