Wordpress....

OK, so I have been seduced by wordpress. come join me there, all the posts you see here, plus new ones coming along all the time. sorry blogger :(

www.helenjewellery.wordpress.com

see you there! :)

Helen*

Sketchbookity- not for the easily offended.

The graphic imagery is what I wanted. I have decided to call this project 'blood on their hands', and this refers to the shocking behaviour of some sectors of the church during the 17th and 18th Centuries. Hanging was a near daily experience in the city of Edinburgh with bodies left on display as a reminder to the citizens of what happened to those who did not conform to society's rules. I don't think my final piece weill be as dark as this, but we'll see when I get up into the workshop tomorrow.  

Sunday Morning

Yes, I know its Wednesday, but I have been so busy I didn't get round to loading my photos up. Here is my Greyfriars trip documented in my favourite photos from the day. Expect sketchbook pages inspired by these soon, in the meantime, I'm off to another dissertation lecture...

'Edinburgh's Dark Side'

The narrative project continues, and now I have a glass bead which will work, I have pretty much run out of excuses to be on the torch, so will have to leave it until this project is finished by the looks of things :( . Still, getting more into Edinburgh's gruesome history, and this will be forwarded even further tomorrow morning with a crack of dawn graveyard visit! My camera is up and running again so time to harness the best light of the day, and hopefully get some sketches done too. In the meantime, I have been reading more of Edinburgh's history on this brilliant blog I found: http://edinburghsdarkside.blogspot.com/ have a look, its really good and perfect for inspiration for this project. Little bit difficult to record it in a sketchbook though...
Also tomorrow I'm off to see 'Meet Your Maker', an exhibition on contemporary Scottish craft practice at the National Museum in the afternoon. Once I have warmed up from my sketching :)
Looking forward to it.
Helen*

Glass Result!

So here they are...my first beads! Managed to get some silver glass to wark, used frit. and encased and used stringer (hand pulled dont you know?!). Shocking at dots though, they need to be practiced. Overall though, I am happy with them, and more are annealing as we speak...

The whole reason I was making these was to find a couple of beads I can use in my current 'Crime and Punishment' project. Well, I think I have them :) you will have to wait a bit to see what I mean though.

Going out to Greyfriars again to sketchbook more on Sunday morning, must fill the pages! Have a good weekend! 

Helen*

Melting Glass

I'm beginning to think there is a little pyromanic within me. I LOVE lampwork (or flamework as I am informed the Americans call it). Basically taking a rod of glass and melting it into a bead using your own hands. And a big torch, of course. So for the last couple of days I have been sitting at my torch melting and shaping beads, and it was only my 6th time doing it, so I am very proud to say I made something I am actually happy enough with to show the world! However, I cant show you yet because first I need to anneal them in Colin the Kiln on Monday, and then I need to photograph them. And photographing glass is hard. Wish me luck! Have a lovely weekend :)
Helen*

Dissertaton (emphasis on the "er")

Today started with a lecture. Basically, Hamid our lecturer held two fingers up at us and said 'This is how many semesters you have left until your dissertation hand in". Ouch. So, that having been said I'm mulling over my proposal in my mind and trying to think of sources. The idea I'm going with is the place jewellery has within the genre of public art. Does it have a place at all? How can jewellery be interactive? As far as I have manged to define it, public art is something which people stumble across, they don't seek it out like an exhibition. In a way it is forced upon them to view and judge. Can this be the case with jewellery (I want to define jewellery in this case as 'wearable art')? If it is, how is it received and what effect does it have (positive or negative) on the public? If this is not the case, then how can one make it so? What would be the advantage of giving jewellery a place in the public art realm? Or is jewellery something meant to be personal and private, close to the heart and not to be shared with just anyone?

So many questions. I'm confused by the whole thing to be honest. If anyone reading this has any opinions please feel free to leave me a comment, it would be very much appreciated :)

Meanwhile, this is a nice starting point. The photos are the work of Jane Gowans, a jeweller who graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone last year. These two are called 'Grope' and 'Slap'. This takes forcing the public to see and judge a piece to quite a literal level! So I'll be trying to talk to her about her opinons too :)

Helen*