This lurid display is another of the short projects run by the BA class, this time to introduce them to various technologies, including turning, press-forming, spining, sand-casting, thread-cutting, riveting, laser-cutting, and finishing. Yes, each one of these tea-sets has all of these processes in it and some have more!
There was another small exhibition event for this.
Some of the results are fantastic:
Also this week, "The Path of Inspiration" and a film premiere held at the School for a new film by Alexander Kormarov about Russian jewellery, with a particular emphasis on the work of the husband and wife Bischoff team.
The film itself is a curate's egg. The parts about the history of jewellery in Russia are all excellent: the revolution, the emergence of mass-production jewellery in the USSR, the rise of the fine-jeweller in the new Russia. The sections about how the Bischoffs design and make their jewellery are good in as far as they go. The "dramatised" sections with lingering shots of 'the muse' - yes, that is how the actress is credited - are risible. Fortunately, these sections are short. In fact, for the first time in ages, I found myself wanting the film to be about twice as long and I think that in a film twice as long and which focused on the history and current production, the "dramatised" sections wouldn't even merit comment.
It was good for the students to get to see some contemporary, commercial, fine jewellery:
Digital project for me this week. Quite unusually, I have taken on a commercial, digital job for one of my colleagues, Sian Hindle. She makes these quite lovely word pieces from her own handwritten poetry and wanted to convert one to a bangle.
I spent some of last weekend making the conversion:
And this week we had it printed out in wax, ready for casting:
I'm not sure there are enough sprues, but our tech-hub guru, Keith, insists that this will be enough. I'll keep you all posted.
More soon!