The Last Monday of Classes in the School Year

Thank God.

Jewelry Fabrication: hollow construction piece

This project was a total bitch. I'm decently happy with the out come of it... but looking back, I wish I had attempted something a little bit smaller. Because this piece was so much larger than anything I've attempted before (relatively speaking), I had the worst time soldering everything together... every time I needed to solder a joint, I had to run to my teacher for help so that she would hold a second torch on my piece so I could keep it at soldering temperature. Honestly, I'm not opposed to asking for help, but after a while, I started to feel really needy. Luckily my teacher was great, or else she might have started getting annoyed with me.

The object of the project was to make a hollow container (not necessarily a box, just anything with hollow space in it) with a historical person in mind: he or she could be basically anyone in history as long as the person was generally recognizable. I made my box for Galileo, but others chose poets and authors, religious leaders and fictional characters. So, the sky was the limit as far as that choice was concerned.

As for materials... the top, "dome of heaven" is made of brass and is riveted together then soldered to the lid. And the rest of the box is made of copper... and you can't tell from the picture, but there are star cutouts on the inside of the box... I Liver of Sulfered the inside so it would be black, then I filled the stars with blue and yellow polymer clay so the piece would have some color.

And I did incorporate some words into this piece using letter stamps... I made this piece as a wish box... so the words on the outside band of the globe read: When you wish/ The heavens tremble... and then there's a band of brass on the inside of the piece that reads: So wish hard/ and often.

And that's pretty much a snapshot of this undertaking. Enjoy.

Black Out

Well... I was without power for about 5 hours yesterday (for no apparent reason).

I had not idea when my lights were going to come back on, so I went to the grocery store and bought myself some of those Glade scented candles (vanilla). Nice, and they were surprisingly bright... but after a while, the scent was just incredibly overwhelming. Luckily, the night wasn't too hot, so my room wasn't hot either.

BUT, my lights went out around 6:30 and didn't some back on until 11PM, you know, just as I was drifting off to sleep ('cause what else was I supposed to do in the dark except got to bed). The electricity came back on with a pop, and I was startled by the electronic clicking sounds of my printer and refrigerator.

All in all, an interesting experience... I'm always amazed at how much quieter it is when the electricity is out. And although I really enjoyed having my evening lit by candles, I do not understand how our ancestors could have lived by candle light. Maybe if I had had a five-armed candelabra or a chandelier of candles, I might understand better... but I mean really, there's no way I'll ever know for sure.

This Weather is Beautiful

Yes, it's true... spring returned yesterday, thanks to Pennsylvania's schizophrenic weather patterns (and Lake Erie).

I don't know how long the sun will last... but I hope for a while. It's gorgeous and a welcome change.

This Weather is Disgusting

So, we enjoyed one week of spring in March... but apparently, winter just took a short vacation because it is most certainly back in force.

Snow, snow, rain, and more snow, ever since before Easter weekend. Yuck. Where's my sun and shorts-weather? So sad. I wish the rain, rain would just go away and not come back another day, if you know what I'm saying. Oh well, if wishes were horses... (we'd all take a ride.)

A Certain Slant of Light

Today... the sun finally came out again. So, I went for a walk. It was beautiful... still cold, but very gorgeous and resplendent.

Sculpture: clay modeling project

Just a little something that I made with my own hands :)

Step Two of this project is making a plaster mold of the clay piece and then use said mold to cast the piece in plaster. SO, in the end, I will end up with a plaster piece identical to my clay sculpture.

Happy Easter

Well... I'm 24 and my brother is 20... but we still fight over the eggs, still fight over the dyes, and still fight over whose eggs are prettier once they've been dyed :) Good times, I wouldn't change a thing.

PLUS, there's Cadbury Cream Eggs involved. What's not to love about a holiday that has disgustingly sweet candies that taste like a heart-attack. Nothing, that's what I say... love those Cadbury Cream Eggs :)

Movie Mini-Review: Blades of Glory

Flippin' sweet! I was laughing so hard that I started crying :)

Fireflies

Okay, so THIS, is my award winning poem :) which I read this evening.

I actually wrote this poem for and dedicated it to Andrew. The dedication doesn't appear in the book... because the design team left it off for some reason, and they had enough stuff on their plate, so I didn't press the matter. BUT, don't worry, Andrew, I made sure that everyone at the poetry reading knew that this poem was inspired by you. Do you remember, you probably don't because this was like 2-3 years ago when I still lived on Blairmont Dr... and I don't remember where we were going, but I was driving us somewhere, and we had that conversation about WHY fireflies lit up? Well, this is the poem that I wrote to answer that question.

Fireflies

for Andrew

Stillness feels different in the dark
like a fissure
swirling with oily flowers

I move my hand before my eyes
but the blossoms stay

still

I am the one who is moving now

There is a taste to this feeling
like mint
and earth and

I remember

My footsteps burn behind me
the outlaws of my traffic

I could say that the burning blinds
like a thin layer of dust

slowly appearing

hiding the tiger maple beneath sameness

Yet it is more simple to lie

I need to be in darkness
I need to close my eyes

But these are the moments
I can only have once

I Can't Stop Smiling

My poem has won a prize :) Of the three poems that were published in Chimera, one of them won a literary prize :) The magazine gives four awards annually: one for 2D art, one for 3D art, one for prose, and one for poetry... AND my poem won! I'm so excited.

All the literature was judged by poet Ruth Ellen Kocher. AND, tomorrow night (along with Chimera's launch party (live music, food, complimentary copies of Chimera's fourth book)) Ms. Kocher will be giving a reading. AND, after the reading, I will read my poem and receive the award... along with a $100 prize!

I'm so excited, I can't believe it. Not only am I now a published author, but I am an award-winning author! So excited. I can't stop smiling.

This Picture Makes Me Happy

Today's Smal Miracle(s)

The sun is shining, it's 67 degrees outside, AND I'm having an awesome hair day :)

The Next Time You're on Jeopardy

So, in Graphic Design we've been learning about type faces and type settings, so, I've been learning a lot of new and interesting vocabulary words that I thought would come in handy the next time you're on jeopardy, or you know, at a party and want to be a sparkling conversationalist and sound really smart.

Point(s): a vertical unit of measurement, 72 points= 1 inch... a font is measured in points from the top of the Ascender, i.e. the top of the lower case "k," to the bottom of the Descender, i.e. the bottom of the lower case "p."

Pica(s): a horizontal unit of measurement, 12 points= 1 pica, 6 picas= 1 inch

Character: letter, space, or number- any unit that involves type, punctuation, etc.

X-Height: the height of a lower case letter without any ascenders or descenders, i.e. the lower case "o." Font size includes the ascenders and descenders, but the x-height carries the visual size of a font, meaning that two fonts can be the same size, but if one font has a smaller x-height, that font will look smaller even though both fonts are the same point size.

Leading: line spacing, also measured in points. Measures the space from one baseline to the next, including the next line of type. For instance, consider the previous line, being "Measures the..."; leading measures from the bottom of the upper-case "M" to the bottom of the upper-case "F" in the line starting, "For instance...." Leading does not include the measurement of any descenders because descenders reach below the baseline, although descenders are allotted for in the previous line's measurement. Complicated, I know... it would be easier for me to explain in person with visuals, etc.

Line Length: measured in picas... important, for instance, if you are writing for a magazine and have a specific column width that must be adhered to.

Alignment: arrangement of type on the page, i.e. left justification, right justification, centered, or ragged.

Kerning: the management of the space between two letters, this becomes more important with larger font sizes, 60 point or bigger, so that letters do not look too far apart or too close, etc.

Tracking: the management of the space between a series of things, whether those things be whole words or single letters. Again, becomes important with larger font sizes for the same reason.

Serif: a type of font classification. For instance, the font in this blog is a serif font... the letters have little "flags" or "triangles" on the ascenders and descenders and at a letter's termination on the baseline. Serifs are said to make a font easier to read, especially when there is body copy or large chucks of text to be read.

Sans Serif: another font classifiication, simply meaning that a font does NOT have any serifs.

And those are the basics... I'm glad that I'm not going to have to take any typography classes while I'm at Edinboro, because you have no idea how complicated this actually is... the computer does everything for us, and un-artfully I might add. Designers have a lot more to compete with than I thought. I will never look at a magazine or a poster the same way again.

We're working on type exercises in class... and when you find yourself analyzing a font based on its serifs or lack there of, it's kinda creepy. Cool that you're learning to use your eyes in a new way, but creepy.

Spring Comes to Edinboro

With no ceremony or fuss, spring arrived all in one day... loudly and with rain, turning everything sodden and soft. I love it.

Oh GOD, My Back Itches!

No, no... my horse isn't dead; she's just rolling in the mud. Oh well.

A New Word for Your Vocabulary

Gestalt: (noun) guh-stawlt

-1. A physical, biological, psychological, or symbolic configuration or pattern of elements so unified as a whole that its properties cannot be derived from a simple summation of its parts. Also called gestalt phenomenon.

-2. 1922, from Ger. Gestaltqualit‰t (1890, introduced by Ger. philosopher Christian von Ehrenfels, 1859-1932), from M.H.G. gestalt "form, configuration, appearance," abstracted from ungestalt "deformity," noun use of adj. ungestalt "misshapen," from gestalt, obsolete pp. of stellen "to place, arrange." As a school of psychology, it was founded c.1912.

Where I found this word: In my art classes; I've heard it many times in my Graphic Design class, and my sculpture professor mentioned it today. Since it's been cropping up often in my life lately, I thought that I would mention it.

It is a psychological term that applies to how we receive/interpret new information and make sense of our surroundings. As applied to a piece of art, it means a focal point that is a key to the piece and contributes to the understanding of that piece. However, it can also mean an overarching idea or purpose with respect to a person, an organization, or any sort of project.

Usage: The gestalt of this painting is the circle in the upper-left corner; it draws your eye there first and then helps your gaze radiate out to the rest of the piece.

Jewelry Fabrication: sweat soldered piece

So, here's my second official piece as a metalsmith in training.

Sweat soldering is similiar but different from the technique that I learned at the Kenyon College Craft Center: instead of putting the sheet metal face to face and then placing the solder around the seam, you metal soldering onto the back of the smaller face, then place the two pieces together, then heat them to soldering temperature until the solder flashes to the edge and you can see it at the seem.

For example, my ring. The smaller of the two faces in my ring is the top, silver face. So, to connect the sheets, I placed flux and solder on the back of the top face and melted that solder until it flowed, dredged it and put it in the pickle. THEN, I filed the solder down flat, to make sure that there wasn't too much solder on the back. THEN, I placed the smaller face, solder-side down onto the band, then heated both pieces until the solder flowed again and held the two pieces together. THEN, I bent the ring around a mandrel, soldered the joint, and dipped it in Liver of Sulfer to get that nice black color.

And that's that. I'm happy with how it turned out. Doesn't it look nice on my finger :)

Sculpture: carving project, second edition

I told ya it would happen :)

Graphic Design: grid system project, parts I and II

Okay, so this is what I've been doing in Graphic Design for the first part of the semester... part II, the last picture in the series, is due this evening. The grid and the first part of the project were due a couple weeks ago.

I wish I could explain to you what these projects were about... but the truth is I'm not sure that I understand them myself. Learning about graphic design is like learning a foreign language... it goes back to the visual decision making that I learned about in 3D, but my teacher also talks a lot about intuition and feeling the decision. She talks a lot about how designers are somewhat schizophrenic, having to be crazy and free and creative while designing and then being anal and neat during execution.

All designs (magazine pages and covers, book covers, posters, billboards, t-shirts, business cards and flyers, etc), she says, all of them have an internal structure that helps the viewer make sense of what he or she is seeing... helps move the eye and create closure in the design.

NOW, the first picture in the series is a picture of my actual grid (a gird is any system of lines, straight, curved, or other wise, that helps the designer place items like text and image into the design so that those items relate to each other). The second picture is an abstract design based on my grid system. And the last picture is a translation of my design that includes text and image.

Part I and II of this project were graded on many different criteria: form, balance, unity, movement, negative space (was there charged negative space or no), contrast of scale, contrast of value, and anomaly (does the design break away from the grid in sufficient ways to create interest).

So, anyway, I don't know if that helps you understand what you're seeing, but just so you know, I had fun with these projects. Hard for me to wrap my head around but lots of fun in the making.