The Street

I started by taking photos of a walk home from the city - lots of interest to be found.  I love the light that hits Glasgow in the spring.

This led to a lot of drawing... I developed a few shapes that started to recur.  I liked the gridlike patterns of railings and netting particularly.

 I was thinking of etching some of these patterns into enamelled copper, but it soon became clear that they didn't show up well on the samples I had.  I tried the bolder images, but they still didn't show clearly enough - the pattern was only just visible under light, but it had only etched the shiny surface of the enamel away.

wabi sabi brooch

Here's the process of putting together my wabi-sabi brooch... 

These files are amazing!

Metal master on brass sprue.

The clasp I decided to use as a metal master, so I made a little mould and vulcanised it.  A surprisingly quick process.

here's the wax version ready for putting on the sprue tree!

My favourite part of it is probably the slice of green-coloured resin.  It's green because I was experimenting with natural colouring and tried a tiny bit of spirulina in it... appropriate, I thought!  A happy accident.

Background image is not mine, but an amazing jeweller I saw at Sieraad.

all the bits coming together... at the top is the bit of square wire with a groove filed into it for the tube to sit on.  The tube is to house the brooch pin.

Brooch bits getting acquainted.

 

Decasia

Here in Glasgow it's been dark and raining for most of the past weeks.  Time to stay in and watch films!

I came across Bill Morrison's Decasia tonight... a film made from found footage, all of which has been damaged or is decaying.  I can't link to the film - although I think you can see it on BFI player -  but here's a flavour of Bill Morrison - "Light is Calling".  A melancholy beautiful thing. The music for his films is amazing - Michael Gordon using orchestra and various odd things like washing machine drums.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf9ah8IUVg

a bit of Decasia here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeEzb-0vf7A