New Direction for Blood Diamond Project

I've recently tossed aside my other designs for this project because they just felt uninspired and I thought I could dig deeper and feel for a winner.  This is the idea I came across and fell in love with.  It speaks to the location between the first and second toes because I found documentations of African diamond miners who would try to hide found diamonds from their oppressors by lodging them between these toes.  I wanted it to relate this location with the feelings and struggles of those who would be performing this frightening smuggling act.  It should relate the "weight" of these smuggled diamonds and their consuming nature.  The concept is still working itself out.  Here are some of my visual referances.

 Fiddling with an amethyst between my toes while I brainstormed.  It snuggles nicely right into that crevice.

form sketches

This was playing with the idea of keeping the piece hidden from the top.  This will likely be one in the series of three.

Rough diamonds have a distinct shape, they don't just look like rocks.  I think I can utilize that.

Possible number in the series

Using the rough diamond shape.

Goodies

Check out my sweet new casting goggles.

 Badass.

Alcohol Lamp Mishap

I worked on my skin-to-skeleton project over the weekend and had hours of fun with the alcohol lamp and wax tools.  I completed two stages of the symmetrical series and started the third.  UNFORTUNATELY, I leaned back to stretch out my spine and bumped the table with my chest, consequently knocking the lamp over, spilling alcohol across my work space, and lighting the entire thing on fire.  Luckily I had a bunch of paper down and quickly scooped it all up and ran it to the sink before any got on the table.

Here is an image of the reconstructed burn site and my sketching paper with its scars.

Blood Diamonds Sources

Working list of my sources for the blood diamonds project

"Great Way to Avoid Buying Conflict Diamonds." Web log post. The Good Human. 30 June 2010. Web. 15 Feb. 2011. <http://www.thegoodhuman.com/2010/06/30/great-way-to-avoid-buying-conflict-diamonds/>.

"Jewelry Insurance Issues - May 2008 - Diamonds in the Rough." JCRS - Jewelry Insurance Products, Services, and Support for Insurance Professionals and Jewelers — and Their Customers. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. <http://jcrs.com/newsletters/2008/2008_05.htm>.

:: Omicron NanoTechnology GmbH ::. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. <http://www.omicron.de/index2.html?/results/diamond_growth_on_diamond_substrate/index.html~Omicron>.

"Robert Mugabe’s Dirty Diamonds - Times Online." The Times | UK News, World News and Opinion. Web. 17 Feb. 2011. <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article7084367.ece>.

Simons, Marlise, and Alan Cowell. "Model Testifies at War Crimes Trial." NewYork Times. 6 Aug. 2010. Web. 17 Feb. 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/07/world/europe/07hague.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=diamonds>.

Inspiring Glass Videos

I am currently taking an intro glassblowing class and we are working fairly largely.  I was interested in how people make glass jewelry considering how large the pipes are that we are working with.  Well I turned to the magic of Youtube and found some wonderful videos that cleared this all up.

Here is a video of someone making a lampwork bead.  I'm not a huge fan of the aesthetics of this process but I'm sure you can use the techniques to make some other crazy stuff.

Here is a video of someone making a gorgeous marble.  I'm a huge fan of this process.  I've tried to make a marble before, sans the colors, and know how hard it is to get the sphere.  I can't imagine trying to also marble(ha!) the colors perfectly.   Now I used the jacks and didn't have that loop of steel that he uses but I'm sure it's still difficult.

Blood Diamond Photos

Here are some various photos from the web that I used in finding my direction for the Blood Diamond project:

This last one I really liked.  A good alternative to the standard engagement ring but still following customs.

Other blog posts

Here's a link to some other blog posts I made on my general blog.

glassblowing fun here

rhino fun here

Maquettes

Here's a photo of my form maquettes for the skeleton to skin project.  Very rough ideas still.

Line Inspiration

Here's a link to my batch of photographs of inspirational examples of line.

Cuttlefish Bone Casting Experience

Today we cast our cuttlefish molds in bronze and mine was a success!  I know a lot of other people had issues but I think mine was successful because the opening in to the design was relatively large and the funnel was smooth.  My design was also fairly symmetrical and wide, thus the pour didn't have any small areas to fill.  Here are some images from the process.

 This image is thanks to Lindsay Fortier.

 My results, needs a bit of cleaning and to remove the sprue. 

My first casting experience is complete!

A Retro Look in High-Tech Electronics

Based on the Dec 25th NY Times Article located at this link.

     This article explain how new technologies are being retrofitted to resemble or even be compatible with classic, lesser functioning techologies (i.e. a typewriter fashioned to work as a keyboard for a computer, pictured above).  Though this doesn't make a whole lot of sense function-wise, I can truly see the appeal.  One on aspect, these retro looking electronics are just plain cool.  There is an appeal of classic items; people collect them all the time just to be looked at.  These new technologies now allow people to actually put use to items they collect for their classic charm.  There is also a certain irony and humor to these objects.  They hearken back to a simple age of technology and combine this with very current and high-tech electronics.  These classic items also provide a sense of durability and permanence.  Items were created to take more of a beating in the past and were generally bulky, giving the user a better sense of security than current, fragile pieces of electronics. 
     I just think these retro electronics are incredibly charming.  They're a wonderful consumer product idea and I think they will stand the test of time, as people will always be wanting to recognize and appreciate the past.

Texture Search

I went around the world and photographed 30 examples of texture as a study for our current wax project.  They are all uploaded to flickr here.  The wintry environment outside provided many neat textures to photograph!

Cuttlefish Bone Casting Intro

First day of casting class!!  We were told to pick up some cuttlefish bones from PetSmart and I had no idea why so I googled the words "cuttlefish bone" and "casting."  It's a really neat process and a cool texture given to your casted pieces.  I copied a ton of photos and taped them into my sketchbook.  I also found this video on youtube that gave me a great quick intro to the process.  Here's a link.

Image is from this website.