Pendants and Jewelry Part 2: 8-28-2011

08/28/2011

Hopped up on Diet Coke again this evening, I decided to work on adding metal rings to the pendants and seashells I had successfully drilled holes in before. I chose to use my copper wire because I only have copper, brass, and this really cheap other wire that rusts super easily, and copper seemed the nicest color with the turquoise-y green and other stone colors. My tools and skills are rather limited. I have jewelry pliers and that's like it, so I don't have any sweet patinas to use or soldering or welding skills or experience whatsoever. This is the state these are at. Maybe I'll add feathers and beads. Or just leave them alone in their found form. (See This Entry for the beginning of the tale! http://catherinecole.blogspot.com/2011/08/august-month-of-little-tasks.html )

Jamestown Jewelry! Named because I found the things at Jamestown Beach.
(I found out later it may not be legal to take things from beaches)

Two seashells and the other pendants with rings!

Here's the oddest shaped piece. I love the direction of the painted hatching stripes on this one.

Here's one of the ones with two holes.
I should go into jewelry modeling.
jk!

Here's one of the pieces with the two rings.
I hope to get some chain some time so that I can attached
separate strand to each side which comes together.

This pic was unintentional, but kind of perfect.!
I hung my necklace on my bulletin board which is covered in a bunch of pictures,
 and its the teardrop shaped piece that lands here on this Roy Lichtenstein print-out..
Happy Accident! :-D

Also, I continued carving my woodcut. I'm just about done carving what I wanted to be white. Or off-white. Or cream. I haven't decided yet. Maybe I'll do them all! But it (paper, ink) gets expensive. I've been wanting to go with the limited edition strategy of making prints (like 10 and under in my edition) because, as also seen from prior post, I have limited storage and I'm not actively trying to sell my prints. (Yet. )

What What Another Woodcut!?!

08/27/2011

I recently finished a life drawing course, and now I wanted to turn some of them into woodcuts. I taped up my favorite drawings in my room and have been doing sketches attempting to combine some of them into something a little believable, mysterious, interesting to look at for me. I only have black and brown relief ink, and etching white ink, so I have to hand color the rest if I want anything more than that, unless I find that medium that I can combine with oil or acrylic paint to give it a consistency I can use for printing. Plate oil, maybe?

I also just signed up for two classes at George Mason University: Digital Printmaking and Artist Books as Visual Language. I figured I can learn skills and new printmaking media that I didn't know before such as pronto plates, solar plates, digital copper plate etching (I have no idea what this is), new transfer techniques (like screenprint to copper plates?), digital photography, scanning and book binding/artist books) and get a chance to see if I like it or not. If I continue in my printmaking route, (I love it so far!) it would make me more employable If I'm any good. Also I took an intro to computers in creative arts class and Typography there two summers ago, so I figured I'd have to send a transcript from GMU to wherever I apply to grad school. Having more than two classes may be more worthwhile, especially since some of the places I was looking at want people with a BFA or 60 credits of art classes (I have around 40 credits, plus my internship, plus a ton of art history, and this life drawing class, so with these hopefully I have enough of the studio experience required).

This class looks so exciting! I feel like I needed a kind of routine/structure to working on prints since I don't have much available table space at home, and most of my house is carpeted) and looking at this class alone (I haven't seen the syllabus for the art book course), I think I will be way more experimental that I have been before. Hopefully my word for the semester will be "Play", and hopefully I will work hard yet have fun and let loose with these projects. I want to use more color and textures and dive into these processes! I also am required to go to art openings and shows and I have to go on a trip to NYC! I'm not sure if I could ever handle these kinds of art classes while at W&M because it sounds like this requires a lot of time and homework assignments and travel time (since I'm commuting from home).

And I'm not too worried about Hurricane Irene. My sister and I may go out shopping. Where I am is inland enough that we're not too worried, it just seems like a prolonged rainstorm with more wind. But I am concerned for other friends and relatives living closer to the sea and rivers.

And the earthquake earlier this week was fun! I was in my backyard, finally spraying fixative on my charcoal figure drawings, when all the sudden the fence I taped my drawings on started wavering around. First I thought I had finally inhaled too much fixative and that my brain was making my senses warp my surroundings. But not only was the fence was moving, but trees, and then my legs on the ground felt as if I was feeling waves in the ocean, and then my mom opens the backdoor and yells out to me something to the effect of "There's an earthquake! Get away from under the tree where limbs and walnuts can fall on you". I was perfectly fine. I kind of wanted more, it was kind of fun being outside and feeling it.

Beginning of a reductive woodcut! I may make it have 2 grays and a black.
Maybe I'll mix those with the brown to give it a nice warm feeling.
Or do I want to keep the mystery? Make it colder and make them seem more distant from one another
The woman is already kind of looking away, distantly, thinking of something to herself.

Some of the drawings I'm basing my woodcut on. I'm really deviating from the original, huh?
(I'm kind of being sarcastic)

This is from a recent trip to DC. Its the Moongate Garden behind the Smithsonian Castle.
It reminds me of this postcard of a Japanese woodcut I recently got



Here's Sherlock again. I was never a big cat person, but I love the shape of the light and the way the Sherlock kind of interrupts the strong triangular shape with his lovely fuzzy curves. So that's why I've made several pieces with my cat in it. Also with this pic I love how the shapes in my yard just kind of zig-zag back and forth. I find that kind of exciting. 

August: Month of Little Tasks!

Illness kept me from doing a lot in July. And August has been more of a lazy month. Its been so hot I just haven't felt like going outside to paint or do anything too productive, really. But despite this, I have been gradually making improvements to my room and to my art. So here is a series of pictures with some of these projects I've been occupying myself with.

I've bound my prints together with hardboard I drilled holes into to keep them flat(ter).
Apparently its the same material that goes in the back of bookshelves
(And hopefully its not too acidic!)

Newly bound prints are under my bed with my other portfolios!

I've started to make pendants out of these fragments I found on Jamestown Beach
(Not sure if that was legal)

I had my sister examine them to see if they were worth anything.
She didn't tell me too much. But this should be an interesting piece

Totally used my Dremmel tool to drill the holes!
The clay was tough to get out of the grooves of the screwdriver

I also attempted to drill holes in seashell fragments.
This was tougher than it looked.
Also, the powder that came from the seashells was sooo soft!

I got a ton of frames for prints/art I've had lying in my room!
But this frame had unusual hangers!
 Not one in the center, but two near the corners?

Everything I framed! Yay!

I had to add this to this frame.
It came with the frame, but the tiny brads could barely go in the wood.
See what a great job I did nailing it in?

Meet Lucy

08/16/2011

Last week my family welcomed a new little soul into our home: Lucy, a calico kitten we adopted at the Manassas animal shelter. She's mostly my twin sister's, as she is taking care of her and it is in her room we've been keeping Lucy. We have to keep her there to acclimate to the house, and for our other cat, Sherlock, to get used to the idea that there's a new little feline in the house. So far, when my parents have introduced the two (with Lucy in a carrier), Sherlock just looks at her, usually walks over to her and hisses. Its kind of scary. It usually leaves Lucy quivering a few seconds and then she's moved on to something else in her mind. But my goodness, cuteness abounds with Lucy around!!!

This is Lucy! Meeting her at the animal shelter

Here is Lucy hiding in the tower at the animal shelter

This is Sherlock. This is a welcome/unwelcome sight at 2am.

Oh Sherlock.

Sherlock meets Lucy for the first time. I believe he is hissing.