Friday, March 30, 2012

Ceramics

This unit we are working on a ceramic place setting to honor or tribute of someone. It includes a plate, bowl, and cup that we will eat out of when the project is completed.

The idea came from Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party, which is a giant triangle table holding a place for each of the monumental women; that made a difference in women's suffrage.

For this project I chose to honor my great - grandmother; a fashionista of the 1930's that meant a lot to me before her passing 9 years ago. Here is what I have so far:

 This little hat took me 3 days to do!

Metal Work!

Hello !

After a couple weeks of endless sawing and sore arms, we finally finished our metal pieces in class. No one has any idea of the tremendous about of work it takes to even create a small metal piece until you do it, and I greatly respect those who do it for a living. My arms were constantly sore from attaching the small saws at the right tension and sawing away at the tiny pieces of metal.

After we finished sawing, sanding the edges and polishing the pieces with sandpaper, we were ready to sodder. When you sodder you add white paint like stuff to the metal to keep it from tarnishing under the torch. After, you add tiny pieces of metal that are able to melt under the blow torch's heat to the major areas of the piece.

When you are ready, you fire up the piece and melt the sodder pieces. When you are done, you dunk it and water and you are finished!




My Metal Piece!