Practicing Sawing and Piercing

As soon as I got my first bench pin and saw I started practicing sawing intricate designs.

 I broke a number of saw blades in the process...

 Two of these have since become finished pieces.

Setting up my Bench

The second class I completed at Lillstreet was a full ten week beginning metalwork class.  During that class I developed skills that had been sampled in the previous short course.

I also started building my own little studio. It is pretty basic, but I can still work on and practice a lot of techniques.

Here are my studio assistants, Sebastian and Freya.  I also paint; though not as much since I started focusing on metalwork.

Some day I would like to get a proper jeweler's bench like this one at Lillstreet:

Adventures in Glass

Here are some of the pieces I made in the Print on Glass class.  The class mixed screen-printing, decal, and fusing techniques.

 

Some of the cabochons I made.  I've made two of these into simple pendants already.  I love the glass cabochons.

Here are the surviving glass ornaments I made in a short glass blowing workshop.  We had five glass tubes to fill with glass frit and then heat over a torch, while constantly turning, then blow air into the tubes to expand the bulbs to make the balls.   It takes a lot of air to blow the glass out--esp if it isn't fully heated throughout.  The bulges in the glass show how uneven my heating job was.  The other two shattered while cooling and so never made it home.  I plan to try glass blowing again--maybe at a glass studio where you can work with the glory hole.

Back to class...

When I decided to try making jewelry again I took a short 4-week class at Lillstreet Art Center here in Chicago.  Lillstreet is a great place!  I really enjoy the creative environment and they have a wonderful cafe on the main floor with yummy molasses cookies.  In fact, I took a picture of one of their cookies for the communal art project entitled "The Meal," organized by Art House/The Sketchbook Project in Brooklyn (2012 edition).

Previously, I took a 10-week print on glass class in the spring of 2012 and then an afternoon glass-blowing workshop to make Christmas ornaments.  I didn't really care for the print part of the print on glass, but I really loved the fusing part of making glass cabochons.  Someday I will take a full glass fusing class and make a lot more cabochons and some fire-work beads.

Though I had tried sawing metal years ago, I discovered the zen of it during this short class.  Sawing and texturing metal by hammering it are truly meditative and joyful experiences.  I remember leaving the first class feeling total bliss at being in the space and working on the metal.  Before the session was over, I signed up for a full 10-week intro class to really cover the foundations.  In this short overview class we tried a variety of techniques.  Needless to say, I was hooked!

The main piece I completed was a copper free-form pendant that I hammered, darkened with liver of sulfur, and then riveted a small oval to.  This pendant is about 2.5 inches long. 

Here's the original free-form design glued to the copper before I started sawing out the shape:

I also made several copper and one brass ring.

Backtracking for a few posts...

I've posted a bunch of pictures on facebook tracking my progress on various projects as I learned new skills.  For the first few posts I'll time-travel back to show what I've been up to.