laurieopal

I finished my steam punk dragon today in wax. I think I may do two versions of it. One polished silver and one black. And I worked on a Victorian flower steam punk pendant .

I'd been thinking about silver steam punk work for a while and these two designs coalesced in my head.

And I went through my stones to pick out stones for rings I need to make. But not tonight. I'm definitely burned out on wax for the day.

There is an article in the New York times, The Circular Logic of the Universe about Kandinsky's painting and the circle conceptually as a form, everything from yeasts to buttocks. ( I can't get it to link on the Lj software but this link works.) http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/science/08angier.html?_r=1&sq=circles&st=cse&adxnnl=1&scp=1&adxnnlx=1260422130-5g

... learned of Kandinsky’s growing love affair with the circle. The circle, he wrote, is “the most modest form, but asserts itself unconditionally.” It is “simultaneously stable and unstable,” “loud and soft,” “a single tension that carries countless tensions within it.” Kandinsky loved the circle so much that it finally supplanted in his visual imagination the primacy long claimed by an emblem of his Russian boyhood, the horse.
I'm definitely thinking about circles.



I'm definitely thinking abut designs and circles.

I was going to take some photos today but got to caught up in carving waxes. Clearly, if I'm going to take pictures I need to do it before I start working.

Finished the exploding flowers complete with the "POW".

I've been working on a carving of Luo Ping influenced plum blossom branch with rubies and tiny clock parts. I've gone as far as I can tonight. I'll make more blossoms and buds tomorrow. The branches themselves are finished and I've figured out how to set the tiny gears and parts. I'm working with museum snap shots but this is as close as I can find on the web.

I put up the first images I've done with a digital camera (other than the jewelry) on Body Impolitic. They're dinosaur bones and light.

Mood:Time to make soup

I should have posted this sooner but not feeling well and wax obsession meant I didn't.

As we said on Body Impolitic.: We had a such wonderful response to last year’s holiday sale of Laurie’s books of photography (Women en Large: Images of Fat Nudes and Familiar Men: A Book of Nude) with Debbie’s text, that we thought we’d offer the same price again this year ,
(usually $25 plus mailing and the sale is $15 including US Mailing.) . It means a lot to us that Nudes for the Holidays pleased so many people. Check it out.

Thanks again for all the kind words about the nova.

The exploding flowers have turned into a real pop art piece and will include the word "POW" in the design. Yes there will be a photo.

Mood:Thoughtful

Cassiopeia, the supernova remnant that I was working on for so long, is finished. Since you can't really see the dimensionality of the images on the post, except in the originals, I'm not sure how this will correlate for people with the images in the previous post.

The astronomer I made it for said: "It is gorgeous. My colleagues have been most impressed." I worked very hard to make a pendant that is of necessity abstracted, but still kept a strong send of the integrity of the nova while of course making good art. I'm very pleased.

l

The picture of the nova pendant is OK but I expect to do better. (Bear with me on this, I am after all a photographer.)

I've been working on the exploding flowers for the Madagascar ocean jasper. I'm using a comic book vocabulary that seems to be really working. I wrote about the stone in Platypus Et Al.

The antibiotics seem to be finally working, so hopefully completely fine soon and yes, this is still the post-World Fantasy bug. It's been very tedious.

Mood: Hopeful, yet again

I'm reading A.S. Byatt's The Children's Book. It's set in the late 19 and early 20th century's art and literary (mostly childrens books) world. It's filled with passionate descriptions of art nouveau designs and also the darker and far more intense mythic and super natural designs of the period.

And its filling my head with way too many ideas for right now, but I expect the best ones will stay with me. I did a feral fairy sculpture last year and this is making me want to do some very dark work.

Aesthetics aside, it's a fine dense book and I'm totally caught up.

It's going to be a very quiet Thanksgiving. That bug I had came back with teeth so I'm taking antibiotics and being restful.

Mood: Working on Restful

I've been working on the platypus sculpture. It's really coming along as is it's jeweled seaweed. It's great to be carving waxes.



I'm at the point where I"m pretty happy with the stone photos and will be posting them. Jewelry images are getting better (truthfully I haven't been working on them that long) and I'll probably put some up soon even if I'm not thrilled.

After I posted this I found an absurd number of typos. Hopefully they're all fixed. I must be tired.

Mood: Pleased and Tired

I was just commenting to a friend that I seem to be getting dragonish about the steam punk parts.

They said that being dragonish about stones made sense but what kind of dragon liked steam punk parts?

Perhaps a clockwork dragon.

Mood:Silly

Finally back to jewelry. Between being sick and doing post show entry etc I hadn't been doing a whole lot of creative work this last week or so. Did so some stone setting including some delicate lovely opal fragments.

But now my bench is out and I plan to be doing lots of carving starting tomorrow.

I just got a brilliant concave cut amethyst and an amatrine. Amatrine is a mix of amethyst and citrine and this stone literally changes color in different lights. They are both small triangle cuts and will make lovely rings.

And I just got a large (2.5" x 1.25") chatoyant druze malachite. So, it looks like you can see into it and has interesting almost leaf like patterns. The druze means small crystals are embedded in the stone. I'm not sure of the design yet but it will definitely have emeralds.

My blog Blackface/Colorface:A Face of Racism that I mentioned last post is up on Body Impolitic. The images from French Vogue and America's Next Top Model really made me angry.


Mood: Ready for Bed

I seems like I haven't posted in forever.

After World Fantasy I took a few down days and then got a post con bug that I'm just getting over. Not awful but going away slowly. I'm much better today.

I had a fine time there. Saw lots of friends and I love showing my new work.

So all that's been happening is lots of reading and sleeping and minimal keeping up work. I have been thinking about jewelry more then I expected. Will be doing some work with truly blacked silver and vivid stones this month. I'm liking the idea of designing for dark and unshiney metal.

Was talking with folks about the steam punk jewelry at World Fantasy and realized that I haven't been exploring the Victorian aspects except for the antique beads. . I'm going to experiment with using some Victorian silver flowers with my steam punk parts.

And I'm getting some small letter press type. I 've been thinking about using words in the lost wax carved jewelry. That's
probably why I've been obsessing about poetry this fall. Not sure what it will look like but getting the type is the first step.

I did catch up with the black face and color face hat's been showing up in fashion (French Vogue among others) in the last month. It pushes my anger button really hard. I'll be writing about it on Body Impolitic and will link to it when I do.

Mood: Improving

I'm looking at everything ready to go stacked up in the middle of my studio.

And I'm rejoicing that I get to go by car and not deal with airlines, security and all the attendant complications.  I get to actually look forward to leaving

I'm especially pleased by new work I'm bringing, including the pearl flower pendant, the shambles, the steam punk designs and the  gold,silver and diamond pendant.

My cat has noticed the signs of pending departure and is not pleased at all.  Fortunately she likes my cat sitter.

Probably won't be writing again til I"m back and have had a little recovery time.

Looking forward to seeing lots of you there.

Mood: Anticipatory

OK. Here is my first photo. It's the "Brillo" ram pendant from Eric Flint's 1632 series. It's both a real creature an and an iconic symbol. Best of all a silver Brillo pendant could exist it the 1632 universe, although it doesn't yet. Paula Goodlet who edits the series Grantville Gazette and who wrote the original Brillo story will be putting it up on their site sometime after I get back from World Fantasy, and we finish up the last bits about it for the site.



Actual size is 2.5" by 1.5".

Will be working on more photos in November. I had a little help with this one, so I still have a ways to go, especially when I'll be working in color (an unfamiliar medium). And I only think this one is OK not great.

Today I did the much needed garden work I've been putting off while getting the jewelry done. Took 5 large bags of leaves out of the garden. This sounds like I'm somewhere in the Northeast but actually my Californian plum trees drop all their leaves after turning a pretty but unremarkable yellow. And I pruned an anonymous tree that had grown a bit into my lemon tree into an arch. My garden has lots of shaped arches but in a very organic non topiary kind of way.

And I'm almost finished with the remnant nova pendant in wax. Once I realized it was mostly about negative space, the final work just flowed.
And I finally figured out my alien gear pin forwhumpdotcom. It's going to be a gold alien artifact lodged in dark silver that is either layered rock or possibly a piece of a meteor. The dark sapphires will go in the silver.

Altogether a good day.

Mood: Very good

I spent yesterday and the day before putting final touches on things and feeling overworked and stressed.  Finalizing some designs, putting chains or ear wires or other assembling pieces together.  Finished some of the last steam punk pieces, set an opal in a sleeping dragon, and set some garnets in earrings.  Still have to polish a diamond ring I've been working on, to set a very large complex pearl for a flower pendant (A rather 17th century Dutch flower painting flower.), and put a carved sunstone in it's 14kt branch setting.

But mostly the jewelry for World Fantasy Con is finished.  I'm still working on the wax for the remnent nova and some other waxes but that's a different part of my work.

Anyway, right now I am looking at a piece of black velvet that's crowded with finished work, pendants earrings, rings, a torque with pearls and it all looks beautiful.  I'm not feeling stressed.  I'm beaming at it and feeling great.


Mood: Great

I'm back after a great trip with my daughter. Lots of good museums and food and long walks.

Am now over my jet lag and getting ready for the World Fantasy Convention. I have a lovely Chinese carved sunstone I'm setting in gold vines and a gold and sterling abstract design set with small diamonds. They both in th e polishing stage. I think I have finally almost finished all the polishing. It's always "almost".

I got a marvelous commission for a peach blossom branch inspired by the work of the Chinese artist Luo Ping. It's going to be a rather abstract branch with blossoms that are a mix of carved flowers with orange sapphire or ruby centers (depending on if the flowers end up being cherry blossoms or peach blossoms). Some of the blossoms will be tiny watch gears. I'm really excited. It's for my friend Bayla.

The image below is typical of his work but not the one that is inspired me. I don't have that one as a photo but I've got a very strong image in my head.

Yesterday was Lotte Lenya's birthday and i listend to her singing Kurt Weill's Alabama song. It took me back to seeing her in Three Penny Opera at the Theatre de Lys in the Village a very long time ago. This is a great photo of her from 1962.






This is how she looked when I saw her.

Mood:  Soft and happy

I'm going away for a bit with my daughter.  Too fried to say much else tonight.  I'll be posting again in a week or so.

Mood: Fried bur Happy

One of the less fun things about what I do is making packages.  But if I've been making you a shamble, it will be in the mail tomorrow.  I don't like making packages but I do really like sending work to people.

 Debbie and I, with Rebecca Jennison and Mika Kobayshi  have been working for, what feels like forever, on an article Body Image in Japan and the United States.  We wrote it for the Asia Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, a well thought of on line academic journal.  It's finally both finished and up.    Writing for an academic journal was a very different experience.  The editor, Mark Selden was terrific to work with.  Even if you've heard us talk about our work a lot, I think you'll find some fresh thoughts and information in the article.

Tomorrow I get to play dragon and put together a group of stones to show some folks.  That's something I love doing.



Mood:  Tired and Elated

Went to the hardware store today to get a few very small bits and pieces for the shambles (from Pratchett's Tiffany Aching series).  Am about to polish them and I'm thinking about how I'll weave the various elements into them.

Mood:Witchy

I worked late last night getting all the waxes I'd carved sprued for casting. 

Sprues create the channels that the hot metal flows through to get to your piece. When you're finished spruing it looks like your piece is on the top of a wax tree.  How complex the tree depends on how complex or large the piece.  A simple ring will look like it's sitting on top of a wax stem.  Then the sprue at the bottom of your tree is sealed to the center of a metal plate that has a hole in the center that's filled with wax.  You attach it to that, and then put a open ended metal tube on the plate around the sprued piece.  Then it's filled with a plaster like material. 

After it hardens, the plate is removed and the tube is put in a kiln where the wax vaporizes at very high heat.  That's why it's called"lost wax".  Then it's place on the arm of an centrifical caster that has been wound up.  A crucible is placed against the hole in the tube that leads to the sprued piece.  Metal is put in it and melted with an oxy-acetelene torch.  The arm is released, and it spins around very fast.  Centrifical force pushes the metal into the hollow mold filling the sprues that it travels through and filling the piece..

Then after it cools, you break up the plaster and you piece complete with sprues is there in metal. (Assuming that nothing in the process screwed up).Then you cut off the sprues and polish it.

It's a hard process to describe.  I'm hoping that this is fairly clear.

Mood: Lucid

I'm just sitting down to start carving waxes today. I'm still working on the Cassiopeia: A supernova remnant.  The dimensionality is being very interesting.

Also have started some gold, very dark silver and tiny diamond pieces.

And I'm thinking abut a floral carved Chinese sunstone to set in gold.

Mood:  Focussed

I was lying in the hammock in my garden looking a the sky late this afternoon. The weather has been beautiful lately, and I'm trying to make sure I get some hammock time. When I look up I can see 5 kinds of tree over me, plum trees, an acacia tree, a 40 fool tall avocado (fruitless unlike the plums) and couple of smaller anonymous trees.

Some people grow vegetable and some grow flowers, mostly I grow trees and then shape them in modest ways to create a total visual. The shaping is invisible and very subtle. The garden looks natural and even a little wild in places. I do grow flowers,encourage wild flowers an occasionally vegetables but mostly it's trees.

I'm looking at 5 pieces of Mammoth ivory, 3 of which just arrived from my lapidary. I've been wanting to work with them for a while but I needed the 3 more pieces. Their shape is almost ribbon like. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with them and they are beautiful to just look at right now.

Mood: Very Soft

I'm back and more or less recovered from Discworld. Had a fine time and met some interesting people.

I've been mostly off line until tonight.

I'd made a shamble for the convention from Pratchett's Tiffany Aching books. Slightly improvisational, since while there is a wax carved silver branch and woven sticks that is the same in all of them, there are also woven in pieces that vary for each piece. If you haven't read the books, a shamble is a witch's device improvised on the spot for magical purposes. It frequently includes an egg. I managed to find some remarkably egg-like pearls and woven them in with very fine silver wire and added a semiprecious or an antique bead plus odd bits of hardware that might have been in the witch's pocket. I made 6 and to my surprise sold 10, so I'll be making shambles this month in addition to my other work.

I expect I'll have a shamble or so at World Fantasy,although I don't plan to make lots of them.

Also made Atuin, the turtle that carries Discworld on it's back. It has the continents traced on it as if seen from space and also the ocean water pouring over the edge. If you haven't read the books, Disc World is flat and is carried on the backs of the elephants who stand on the turtle. I did a distant view so the elephants are hidden, otherwise it would have been way too 3D for a pendant.

I know I didn't write about these when I was making them. I wanted them to be a surprise.

I'm still feeling a little spaced. My post show nap was interspersed with both some intense art and very welcome Japanese visitors.

Mood: spaced