back to work

Liz and I just got back from a quick jaunt to Richmond. It was sort of a chaotic trip. Our car broke down and we were car-less for a while, stranded at my parents house. We did get a chance to visit the quirk hotel and see their new rooftop bar. If you have not been I would highly recommend it. You can see almost all of Richmond! 

We spent almost the entire trip cleaning out my parents garage.  We found so many little memories. It was a little overwhelming.  After a while you realize that if you went through every little thing you would never get rid of anything.  We basically threw out anything that was trash and took a ton of stuff to goodwill.  Unfortunately, we barely made a dent.

I am getting back into work mode and looking for diagrams for my small metals classes here at RISD.  I bought a swiss goldmsithing training manual a while back.  It has proved to be a great resource for small sketches and step by step tutorials.  Of course none of it is in english.

While were in Richmond we hit up the Fine Arts Museum.  They were showing a Kehinde Wiley exhibition. It was incredible to see it.

I have been working on creating a workflow to reduce the poly-count of detailed models in order to send the to our printers. Its kind of a great problem to have considering the level of detail these things print in. 

I am looking forward to having the new TIG welder set up in Metals.  We are going to set it up to weld copper and steel.  We are just waiting on the electrician to put a plug on it.  

The last set of photos are of a carving knife I found in my parents garage.  It is engraved sterling silver.  I cannot find a makers mark or stamp anywhere on it.  I am going to throw it under the scope and check it out.  

summer and other things

It is summer and I am already thinking about next semester. I still want to do a spoon forging demo but possibly a little smaller in scale. Liz and I have been going through our family silver, finding some really great pieces. I especially like the tiffany handles and the Gorham (there is a good chance that some of this was made here in Providence).  

Realizing that none of these were forged or engraved by hand they still have amazing detail! I am entranced by the little landing pads for monograms and the shoulders and drops where the stems meet the bowls. There is a little face on the back of one of the spoons which totally trips me out.  

I also got my makers mark back from buckeye engraving. I am super happy with it. Now I just need to make some work to stamp! 

All done....ish

The white resin components are going to be cast in sterling silver. I bought a personal stash of printable wax material for the ASIGA printers. I have to go on vacation first!!!