metalwerx brooch and earrings.

The last few months have been kind of brutal. 

Basically when Liz and I came home from vacation there was a "for sale" sign in front of our apartment building.  We had less than a month to find a new apartment. We probably looked at 20 apartments before finding one that was not total garbage. So we packed up the studio, rented a new studio space, packed up the apartment and rented a new apartment all in the span of about nine days. Two weeks prior, our property in Virginia caught on fire and basically has to be completely remodeled.....again. The tenant was burning incense which caught a dry plant on fire which in turn caught a window frame on fire which spread to the ceiling which spread to the..... you get the idea. Thank goodness no one was hurt. (photos at the bottom if you are into that sort of thing)

We have insurance but it is not going to cover the entire cost of renovation. There are a lot of structural issues that were revealed when we ripped out all of the fire damage. There are a lot of super old, compromised joists that were under layers and layers of hundred year old plaster, plaster lath and drywall. The brick pockets holding up said joists are falling apart being that the 100 year old mortar has turned to sand. We have a pretty serious termite infestation....the list goes on and on. 

On top of all that school started, which has required a lot of prep being that two of my three classes have been almost completely reinvented. Oh yeah and we are down a car (our ten year old SUV totally died on us). We donated it to the SPCA. So getting around has been a little tough. All of this has basically brought me to a screeching halt on all of my "creative research projects"/art. 

I guess when the pendulum swings one way in your favor it tends to swing back eventually.  

On a up note, I am working on a very simple, parametric brooch project for a fundraising event.  It is the first time I have used grasshopper to make unique objects the are all based in the same design aesthetic but all unique. These will all be 3D printed in DMLS (Direct metal laser sintering) stainless. The last DMLS stainless print I made was super chunky and had a not so great coarse texture. This was probably six years ago. I have seen some very nice prints since so fingers crossed. My hope is that the pin stem hole will not close up in the print process. 

The GIF below explains how this works. Basically I can change the number of points in the voronoi randomly and control the number of cells with the proximity, shape and length of the curve that controls the culling.  Every movement or reduction in points will create a new unique shape. 

Very happy with these Zbrush textured rings

So many things happening. I thought I would just put it all in one post.  It has been almost impossible to sit down and write a post here.  I have been better about posting images to instagram. https://www.instagram.com/arhash/

I have been digging deep and working.  Focusing on classes.  In my spare time.....(crickets) I have been trying to practice stone setting with my new microscope set up (old setup and new setup below), brushing up on Zbrush (surface patterning with our ASIGA 3D printers), TIG welding copper, Grasshopper definitions and fooling around with other software.  

The RISD metals BFA show and the Graduate metals Triennial show went up.