Graffiti in New York

Here are pictures of the bits and pieces of street art around SoHo I took this past Saturday.

The Sartorialist

Read this this blog: The Sartorialist

Ready Made magazine profiled this guy and H&M magazine profiled this guy. His name is Scott Schuman, and he photographs people on a daily basis and what they are wearing in New York, Paris and Milan.

I think his blog is so clean and so direct. He takes pictures of random, stylish people he selects on the street and puts the pictures on his blog. Because his blog involves the fashion of real people, engaged in real life, his blog is a huge design influence for other designers and everyday people. Go check it out!

Inventory of Skills - fall 2008

Skills I can currently do:

*saw, drill, anneal, rivet, dap and solder non-ferrous metals
*weld small steel sculptures using acetylene
*create literal and figurative sculptures with clay
*throw functional pieces (mugs, plates, bowls) on the wheel

*make and use molds to create clay sculptures
*fabricate a sterling silver ring
*simple bezel stone setting
* beginner level: using 3-D CAD software Rhino 4.0, also Illustrator CS2
*carving and shaping hard wax and sheet wax
*lost wax casting process: investing, burnout, and casting

*basic sewing, crocheting, bookbinding
* intermediate origami sculptures

Skills I am learning this semester:

*raising, forging, sinking non ferrous metals
*patinas for copper
*using hydraulic press for dieforming
*making hinges and catches

*learning how to read a balance sheet, income statement and statement of cash flows

Me in Second Life

This is me in Second Life. I am sitting in an Egg chair at Vassar College Island, relaxing.

My geese, Martha and Stewart

Let me introduce you:

Stewart is on the left, and Martha is on the right. They are White Chinese geese. And they are very, very loud.
Okay, so they are not really my geese. They belong to my sister and brother in law. But I picked them up from the post office when they were delivered at only 2 days old, I named them, I feed them whenever I am visiting, and I have loud conversations with them, and they do not bite me anymore, so I feel like they are my geese.
The other brown geese might be African geese. We can't tell yet, because they are still young. They came at a discount in a barnyard (read: random) assortment of birds, so the poultry company that sent them didn't give us that information.
They have been known to scare a fox or two.
I think we should get more of them.

Iconic Forms

Here is a small collection of iconic forms that are, for the most part, hollow and are man-made pieces. Each one is easily identifiable in part or as a whole. Some are identifiable due to branding and marketing, some have withstood the test of time for centuries, and some are both.




Violin






The Colosseum in Rome





Jean Paul Gaultier corset and suit








Martini glass













Sports balls


Converse shoe




The new VW bug




The old VW bug



The dome of the Capitol Building in DC























The Coca-cola bottle








Grand piano

Process Shots, Green Design, Part II

Here are some pictures from the Green Design Project we just finished. Working at my table at home, I wrote notes, and tried to rework the twist ties in a variety of ways.
Here are some creative endeavors with the material. I wove some, melted some with a hot iron, twisted some... you get the idea.

I used magnets and washers for the findings on the back of my brooches.





Here are the finished pieces!

Tool Cabinets: De Patta, Craver and Solberg

So I decided to do a little digging to see who exactly all of these people were whose names are on the tool cabinets around the jewelry studio. I succeeded in finding them, with the help of Google. They are all women, and they were all influential pioneers in the fields of jewelry and metalsmithing during the 20th century.

Ramona Solberg's necklace. Her mini biography can be found at Art in America's webpage. She rarely used precious metals and usually incorporated found objects in her jewelry.





Margaret Craver's piece (not sure if it is a bowl or a brooch), found on Tyler School of Art's web page. This woman was a pioneer in the field of educating silversmiths.








Margaret De Patta's Brooch, front and back, found at an antique store. She studied with Laszlow Moholy-Nagy in Chicago at the School of Design. Mobilia Gallery has a great collection of pictures of her work online.

A Summer Indulgence: Phaidon's Fashion Book

I bought a used (new to me!) book this summer, and I have not been disappointed. The Fashion Book, published by Phaidon, is a great resource of fashion designers and icons of the last century and a half. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Toplino: Makeup artist who seems to push boundaries with repeating forms and shapes - makeup isn't just lipstick and blush!
Vidal Sassoon: British hairdresser who utilized Bauhaus ideals of form and structure to create a precise, almost severe, haircut that didn't need any kind of product to hold it in place. (yay! No Hairspray!!)

Everyone listen to Michael Kors!

Here it is, directly from Michael Kors: "You are never going to have a serious career unless you can have other people collaborate with you and help you."

Oooo...I can't wait for tonight!!

Green Design Process shots, part I

For my green design project I have chosen to use twist ties that come from the barbie boxes as my material. They are especially precarious with which to work. However, they have the added bonus factor of a plastic coating. Stay tuned...

Favorite Green Designs from ICFF!

Molo







iannone eco friendly modern design

Ango, design from Thailand
ex49, design from Germany


Knoend

Jonah Lehrer's Lecture at the Walters Museum

A good friend of mine alerted me about Jonah Lehrer lecturing at the Walters Art Museum November 16th from 2 to 4. He is the author of Proust was a Neuroscientist and is the editor-at-large for Seed magazine. He also has a blog, which is a fascinating read as well. I confess I haven't read his book, but I am convinced from reading his blog this will be a lecture worth attending.

The tickets to the lecture are $10 a piece (free if you are member of the Walters) and you can spend the day at the museum looking at the Bedazzled: 5,000 Years of Jewelry exhibit too. You can meet me there!

MIT Open Course Ware

Let me briefly explain what MIT's Open Course Ware is, and why I have a link to it on my blog.

MIT has collected syllabi, assignments, course notes, (and in some cases exams), from several of its professors that teach there and placed them in one little place for anyone online to search and study. We can get an clear idea about what is being taught at MIT without actually having to attend MIT.

I think this is brilliant. Viewing what a top U.S. College is teaching to its students can be very beneficial to many students and professionals across many different disciplines.

Here is a list of a few that apply to our work in the Metals and Jewelry program at Towson:

MAS. 863 How to make almost anything - CAD/CAM and rapid prototyping

4.104 Architecture studio: Intentions - Designing spaces---the syllabus talks about students recognizing design as a process, not a product

4.183 Sustainable Design and Technology Research Department - Sustainable design in Architecture - the Course Materials has a wide array of online resources directly related to sustainable design in architecture

Search around the MIT OCW! Enjoy!

Green Washing

In an effort to fully understand "green design" our class was encouraged to find the definitions to couple of words...so now we get to the meaning of green washing.

The most basic definiton of greenwashing is where a company claims to be "earth-friendly" or "eco-conscious" in labels and ads to consumers to green their image, when in reality the company is not what they claim to be.

In this phamplet, published by Futerra Sustainablity Communications, the meaning and implications of green washing are more fully explored. Although it is published with the UK in mind, it is clear that many companies around the world engage in the practice of greenwashing.

How I did it; a picture essay on how I made a cool ceramic bowl

Pictures from our metalsmithing class from last semester