Showing posts with label metal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label metal. Show all posts

All I could say was "WOW!"

by MaryAnn Carroll

Soooo.... I've been away for a while, but I'm baaaaack!  And with me, I'm bringing along Colin Duncan.  Let's all say hello to Colin.   Altogether now......"Helloooo, Colin!"

Okay, now that we've gotten the introduction out of the way, I had asked Colin to share a little bit about himself.  He so graciously did (on short notice I might add).  Not only that, there is even more to learn about Colin so, be sure to check out to other places that I've made easy to access throughout this post.  Personally, I enjoyed the YouTube videos....  And somehow, when I was visiting his youtube, I came across an absolutely hilarious BBC clip.  It has absolutely nothing to do with jewelry, but it will make you laugh.... and if it doesn't, well.... I'm raising an eyebrow ahead of time right now... scratching my head.....and saying, "hmmmmmmm???"

Seriously though and getting right to the point.....

How long have you been doing what you do?

Around the mid 80's I left college and was looking for a way to make stuff that didn't require a big investment. I started gluing small components together to make wearable things. (I'd kind of like to start doing it like that again) I saw that I needed to learn some jewelry techniques that could handle the different types of material. The first pieces using this particular mixed metal technique were buttons. I made a small metal dish and melted some brass around steel machine screws and filed the lumps back to reveal the cross sections of the screws. Thereafter I up-scaled the process.

What got you interested in this type of art?

Maybe it's a deeply inbred Calvinist thing, but I much prefer to reuse materials and objects, rather than get new materials and make from scratch. I hate to too see the mountains of waste which are churned out. It's not a strictly ecological impulse - it's more to do with finding beauty in the obsolete, or that which was never meant to be seen; machine parts, for example. I have never been able to close the circle between 'art babble' and my work

After my filling my head full of pseudo intellectual art babble at Art College, I felt the need to get some making skills, so I did a Welding for Art night class. Thereafter I was lucky enough to get a job teaching in the same place. I had a class of (slightly dangerous) kids one of whom put it it very well, "This is brilliant, you get to play with fire!" Be afraid.

Now for a little viewing of some of Colin's fabulous work.......

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Click HERE for his Fire Torch Technique



A Better Look at one of Colin's Brooches by clicking HERE




A bangle worn on the wrist by clicking HERE




Here are a few other places to find Colin Duncan:

JUST CLICK

HERE for Colin's Etsy Shop.

HERE for website with the many other works by Colin

HERE for Colin's facebook page

HERE for the book that he has appeared in written by Heather Skowood.

And.....if you are not ready for those daily activities just yet.....take 2 minutes out for a good laugh....
by clicking HERE

Those are all of my clicks and comments...... How about yours?

A Lampwork Bead Maker's Dalliance

OK, now that I've got your attention, what I meant was pertaining to my playtime with metal. Since I'm a glass bead maker who also makes jewelry, from time to time I have to drag myself away from the torch to make components to go in my finished pieces. I am by no means a 100% DIY gal, but I much prefer to make my own parts when I have the time and the skill. In the past this has been limited somewhat to PMC and wire work, including fusing fine silver (which I dearly love), but lately I've been drawn to other metals like brass and copper. I love the look of a nice, aged patina, and (shhh! don't tell) I've been coveting Missficklemedia's patina tutorial for a while now.

Part of it might be because of the company I keep - Cyndie Smith does wonderful, organic work with all kinds of great metals, and Mary Jane's creativity and affinity for many materials inspires me. The other cool thing is that metals like brass and copper are a lot less expensive than silver is these days (but if you're reading this blog you probably already knew that).

So, I've spent some time on a new playground, and thought I'd share my results. On the left is how the brass blanks look when you get them. Kind of boring and useless, huh? The rest are finished components - some embellished with fine silver bead caps and rings, and some just textured and dapped. I got the great color by heating the elements to red hot with my butane torch, then dropping them into liver of sulphur (I mix mine from dried chunks). Once I wiped off the patina on the raised parts with my polishing pads the texture was more pronounced and the finish was great. These have been tumbled as well. Some have been brushed with a brass wire brush as well.

Bead caps are a girl's best friend, and these made using brass discs, a metal punch, a texturing hammer, a dapping block, and liver of sulphur are just what I need. They'll look great when paired with a contrasting metal (e.g. silver) smaller cap and then cored for a finished look.

UFO component made by soldering two dapped and punched discs together.
A couple of large jump rings through the two discs and you're off on another jewelry adventure.

So there you have it. A quick summary of my day at the playground. Next time maybe I'll go down the slide too!

new additions...soon, so very soon!

marsha neal has an etsy shop set up in honor of her mother which serves the purpose of fundraising... is is called the my mom pattie shop - think of it as a boutique, for the work found there is made by a number of people who wish to participate in this most worthy cause... 


it has been too long since i have made special pieces for the shop... i love marsha's shards - she is a ceramic artist who creates wonderful shapes, textures and patterns covered in gorgeous glazes... 


i am always on the lookout for what i feel is a great design to set off these shards... and then i got 'wrap, stitch, fold & rivet' by mary hettmansperger... and i knew that within these pages were olympic sized spring boards for me... and so for a couple of days, i was cutting, filing, bending/shaping, texturing, enameling, patinating, sealing & finishing, etc etc etc... 


(marsha will often share pics of her mom from the 60s & 70s so i chose the 1960s setting for photoediting)


an order of sheet metal and wire is on its way - these are not quite finished... but they will be soon! i love the versatility of the designs in the book... 

possibly my favorite from the group - these earrings have marsha's shards set with torched copper and beautiful fibers from lisa jurist... 

marsha's flowers set against etched copper discs... 

patinated metal discs, marsha's ceramics, my enamel or resin... the one on the right will be wrapped in fiber... 

be watching marsha's shop - or check on my blog if any of these interest you... i hope to have them listed by monday - 

and thank you for supporting such a worthy cause... 

there will be more photos on flickr - the color here isn't optimal... 

Elves Cover Process

Hey everybody! Heres a quick little process Gif I made of my Elves cover.

Basically its just - Sketch - Lines - Tones - Color Render until polished :D. Hope it helps a little!

(click to enlarge)



And heres some other work!



Metal! - Inherent Sin - "Gates of Hell"





LiveStream!

Hey everybody! Just wanted to let you all know that I'll be doing a LiveStream tonight 9pm EDT! I still have a 50 person limit because they denied my verification... So if you want me to get verified I guess you could write them an angry email :D haha. Nah I don't know what to do really, just gonna do a couple more LiveStreams and resubmit my application.

anyways, just click here to check out the LiveStream Channel!

I did one last night and heres the finished piece! Did this one start to finish :).



 



and heres some more Grave Digger!





Thanks for all the suggestions!

Just wanted to update and let you dudes know I've gone through the list and have a pretty good idea what I want to cover next. I'm gonna try and make the next one fit the frame better haha and have some more focus on what layers and whatnot I'm using. Should be good!

So yea, look for that pretty soon! I'm almost not extremely busy so things should be moving smoothly :).

Other than that I did a pretty quick goblin dude for filler. Didn't wanna post without any art D:.



I know this isn't metal but I was listenin to it while I did the above image :)