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Zinc melts at a fairly low temperature, like tin, but it takes longer to cool down. In its raw form you can see its hexagonal crystal like structure. As the metal cools it starts to form hexagonals in the middle making it look different to the more boxy horizontal structures that appear in some…
After reviewing our work we are pushing the Tx further. I have to be in a really safe place at the moment when making as my work is very unfinished, and experimental . Both Fran and I are feeling this way but the collaboration is so successful that we are enjoying this experience to push…
Writing with Tx is not something that I have worked with before. I feel a bit like my hands are tied behind my back and I can’t use all my eclectic bits and bobs. So to make it harder I thought that I would calm down on using colour. So hard to embellish ! I…
Mutation event No.1 THE INSTRUCTION (Amelia) Pick a piece, any piece and direct a mutation. THE EVENT (Ruudt) Take the aluminium shadow pieces and make them 3D THE RESULT
Lately I have been thinking about a sentence I came across while reading about the great Manfred Nisslmuller The sentence reads… The nature of jewellery and the process by which jewellery comes to be. This beautifully framed statement won’t leave my thoughts. Instead I keep thinking… … at what point does something come to be…
The making of new work requires endless decisions, big and small, conscious and sub-conscious. Follow this thought or that? This process or that? Trust that intuition? Act on this feedback? Wood, metal, paint, or concrete? Make it big or make it small? Robust or fragile? Cut here or there? This angle or that? Rivet, solder…
‘Things are in the saddle and ride mankind’ Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1844
Back in April……. Emails have been exchanged, slightly nervous phone calls made, shuffling feet and fidgeting digits are abound. This was supposed to be the first weekend where we had a book like creature in our hands to play with – something physical to contemplate, work on, draw, cut, fold and rearrange. As it is,…
Collaboration date #2 picked up from where we left off after a cup of coffee and a biscuit. We placed all the works that were pretty much done on one table and all the things that had yet to be resolved on the other. The large bag of bits pendant was restrung with fat red cord…
It’s pretty obvious that faceting originates from tool making, where stones were dropped into a hot fire to make them split and flake to create a sharp edge. Later it became a lapidary technique. I am starting to see my faceted kauri pieces as modular components that when multiplied create a whole. But why facet…
The Piano, by Jane Campion is one of my all-time favourite movies. I am not just drawn to the story line but the setting, a rough and rugged New Zealand coastline that is untamed in its beauty. Of course, the films first impression is of a love story, but to me it is a very…
I have still got rocks in my head.
Today I set up an impromptu melt bench in the back yard to melt some tin sticks due to potential contamination issues. This was a largely successful enterprise which produced many slugs for me to work with. One slug dribbled off the bit of wood I was pouring it into and landed on the corrugation…
The Artist Attempts To Observe The World From Jewellery Eye View
I had a great Skype chat with Ruudt last night. It has been a very busy time for him recently with a lot of travel, exhibition commitments and teaching. He has just returned from time in Brazil, and on 23 May heads to Japan for three months. Lucky, lucky! In terms of our collaboration, he has…
A couple of new-to-me, albeit well-established artists I stumbled across recently – along with a couple of their projects that explore ideas I am interested in. I was also really drawn to some of their presentation choices – both contextual and aesthetic. Camille Henrot (born 1978, lives and works in New York) Grosse Fatigue (2013)…
One of the stated purposes of the Handshake blog is to give readers an insight into our creative processes. How much to divulge without killing any potential intrigue? In this entry, I thought I’d present some of the influences and thought processes that led to this series of photographs. If you would rather not know,…
HANDSHAKE 3 