Melissa is a jewellery artist from Australia living in Seattle in the US. Her works can be found in the National Gallery of Australia as well as the Cheongju City Collection in South Korea. Her enamel works typically display subtle enamel incursions amidst precise laser cut stainless steel layers.
Quite a while back I finished working on the objects that I enamelled in Erfurt (earlier posts here and here), the Jewel for a Wall piece. The name reflects that the parts assemble into a single object suitable for display on a wall, while many of the individual components are human-wearable as well as wall-adornable.
Not long after their completion I realised that these would not be what I will exhibit in Heat Exchange 2. These works were conceived quickly to illustrate the potential of using a base shape that when aggregated could become a tessellated pattern or alternately, used singly or in small groupings as a stand-alone piece. And to illustrate that idea they worked perfectly. However, the evolution of the themes that I’m working with in the rest of my practice has reached a point where the investigations happening in my hand-cut works are becoming bigger, involving objects that take days to cut by hand. I’m at a point where it makes sense to use the laser cutter to do that work for me. So I’m designing a piece that will be cut quickly and enamelled slowly, and be in alignment with the research I have been doing on weapons for those works.
Jewel for a Wall has been instructive, and, like the necklace pieces that I put up here in my last post (which were a trial for what went on to be 3/4’s of a piece with Sean Macmillan called Quatrefoil Quartet), it demonstrates the strategies and processes that the new works will build on.
I’ve vague ideas for what I’m making, and as yet no plan drawing to show you what it will look like, but Jewel for a Wall and the complete Quatrefoil Quartet are the best indicators I have to give you a feel of what my research is pointing towards, and what that might look like.
Melissa is a jewellery artist from Australia living in Seattle in the US. Her works can be found in the National Gallery of Australia as well as the Cheongju City Collection in South Korea. Her enamel works typically display subtle enamel incursions amidst precise laser cut stainless steel layers.
So I’m working on another exhibition at the moment, for which I’ve produced these sample squares of a new pattern. A friend of mine, the head of jewellery and objects at Slippery Rock University in Pensylvania, Sean Macmillan, got in contact with me to see if I would be interested in collaborating with him for the Co:operation GARNISH exhibition. This show, being curated by Rachel Timmins and Brigitte Martin, is meant to be a collaboration of unlike forces aimed at building links between a fairly disparate jewellery community here in the US. After some initial discussions about our suitability to pair up (we are technically both metalsmiths) we decided that a large-sculpture-making, techno-challenged academic in Slippery Rock and a delicate-jewellery-making, CAD-using, basement-studio-hermit from Australia now living in Seattle was about as different as we needed to be!
Ttrue to my usual method, I got straight into drawing a pattern in Cad, which we had both agreed over a long text-message conversation, needed to be ‘lacy’ (see images). And true to his, Sean soon texted me a mobile-phone image of his hand-built model, a roughly sketched and assembled pattern – in the way of a garment pattern – made out of used computer-paper and masking-tape.
Cut to a few months later, and here are some images of the sample squares of pattern that I’ve had cut, checked out and then sent off to Sean to play with. (Notice the miscommunication with the laser-cutters resulted in the lead-ins being on the wrong side of the line – we’re after the sheet more than the ‘drop-outs’ in this instance as that’s what Sean will work with.)
And here’s the first test works! These necklaces are in stainless steel and vitreous enamel with titanium hinge pins. As test pieces – a sort of proof of concept – I think they are pretty successful.
The actual part that will allow Sean to work his magic was signed off by us today, and will be cut by Pololu early next week. Once Sean has the pieces he will send me all of these inserts and I’ll have some more enamelling to do!
Melissa is a jewellery artist from Australia living in Seattle in the US. Her works can be found in the National Gallery of Australia as well as the Cheongju City Collection in South Korea. Her enamel works typically display subtle enamel incursions amidst precise laser cut stainless steel layers.
Sorry for the radio silence from this end – I’ve not been in the office much of late – I’ve been in the basement, making things out of all of the enamelled pieces I brought back from Erfurt with me (and sandblasting back one errant piece that never quite found what colour it wanted to be.)
This pic is taken of a bunch of brooch backs that were prepped ready to be sandblasted back with glass beads. The pins were polished up before welding, so I enlisted the fingers of a latex glove to save the shiny pins from any misdirected sprays of the blast nozzle.
The obverse was then covered in masking tape to protect the enamelled side from the same. The ‘front’ sides were not intended to be lifted from the mesh floor on the interior of the blast cabinet, but you can never be to careful with the sandblaster – the air pressure alone had a tendency to knock things around.
Melissa is a jewellery artist from Australia living in Seattle in the US. Her works can be found in the National Gallery of Australia as well as the Cheongju City Collection in South Korea. Her enamel works typically display subtle enamel incursions amidst precise laser cut stainless steel layers.
I’m taking a break from posting sounds this week, to share a couple more photos from Erfurt. In these Gudrun is working, and Kaori is thinking while Elizabeth is cutting, then explaining.
I practiced Gudrun’s name in my head and out loud to myself, many, many times while I was in Germany. I can’t speak any German, apart from ‘Hallo’, ‘genau’ and ‘Tschüss,’ which I picked up around the studio. Oh, and the translations of “Can I have two beers, please?” and “I am allergic to nuts.” for their obvious importance (though I generally replace the word ‘beer’ with ‘whiskey’, which fortunately doesn’t need translation…)
Anyway, I was talking about Gudrun.
Her name is a good word to try and perfect the ‘R’ sound that is needed to speak German correctly (or, as was my aim, with fewer unforced errors). I tend to make a rolled ‘errrr’ like I was taught for Italian, but that’s not right, and a bit of a hindrance actually. So in trying to get the right ‘R’, I found having it in the middle of a word was helping with the momentum needed to get the ‘R’ cor-rect. So what better word than the name of the person on the table next to you?
Fortunately no one was following me around with a sound recording device, listening in as I muttered “Gud-run.” to myself. Over and over and over again.
Melissa is a jewellery artist from Australia living in Seattle in the US. Her works can be found in the National Gallery of Australia as well as the Cheongju City Collection in South Korea. Her enamel works typically display subtle enamel incursions amidst precise laser cut stainless steel layers.
As mentioned in my last post, I was collecting sounds as well as enamelling steel while I was in Erfurt.
Let me introduce our second Friend of Heat Exchange, Martin Schulze, properly. Here is a video of him screen printing, in this instance it’s directly onto a found steel object that he had pre-enamelled.
Once again, aeroplane noise just about scuttled the recording…
Martin fearlessly led two expeditions to the scrap metal yard, and picked himself up some great pieces to work on, so a lot of what you see in the image below uses this carefully mined booty. He brought all these wonderfully shaped bits into the studio, cleaned and pre-enamelled them before he screen-printed directly onto the surface, multiple times in many cases. (Be sure to click on the image to see the intricate line-work of his drawings, as translated onto screen and then into the enamel.)
Seeing my love of pattern (which, he pointed out, was as equally discernible in my work as my wardrobe) he was kind enough to give me one of his postcards that feature complimentary layers of differing patterns.
You can see a single sample of his work via his 850grad website.
Melissa is a jewellery artist from Australia living in Seattle in the US. Her works can be found in the National Gallery of Australia as well as the Cheongju City Collection in South Korea. Her enamel works typically display subtle enamel incursions amidst precise laser cut stainless steel layers.
So I’ve been back from Erfurt for over a week, and while I’ve finished unpacking (the bulk of which turned out to be enamels and steel – who knew!) I’m still processing – both the work I produced, and the experiences I had while there.
I’ll talk more about both those things soon, but I’m really keen to share a bit of a side project that I got up to while in the studios at the Künstlerwerkstätten. There was so much concentrated, or perhaps contemplative (you’d have to ask each participant which they were veering towards in any given moment – which I admit might be tricky) silence, that was only broken by the sounds of hands busy making things. In essence, we were treated to some of the noises that normally only the solo artist would hear in her/his studio. And I found it fascinating!
So, aside from coating a lot of pieces of metal in enamel, I went around taking some (admittedly shaky) footage of artists at work, just so that I could record the noises they were producing as a part of their process.
And this is where I also introduce a couple of friends of the Heat Exchange 2 project, Annemarie Timmer and Martin Schulze (and a great video including Martin, and Elizabeth Turrell plus others from an earlier enamel Symposium in Erfurt this year.) Annemarie and Martin came along to help fill out numbers, and added their warmth to the atmosphere of exchange.
But back to sound. One of the most distinctive noises was the ‘chink, chink’ of Annemarie Timmer’s slip-trailer against enamelled steel, magnified by the curvature of the bowls that she was working on. Unfortunately in this video the background noise proved an almost overpowering an aural overlay for the tiny microphone on my camera, but you’ll get a small idea of what it was like sitting in the studio, being able to tune into every mark Annemarie made.
It was like very rhythmic crickets!
Then there was the firing. Once again, the sheer size, as well as the in-built amplification of Annemarie’s piece, made for an interesting and unique aural experience.
Stay tuned, more sounds to come…
Melissa is a jewellery artist from Australia living in Seattle in the US. Her works can be found in the National Gallery of Australia as well as the Cheongju City Collection in South Korea. Her enamel works typically display subtle enamel incursions amidst precise laser cut stainless steel layers.
So much happening, so little time with an internet connection! Here’s a few things we’ve been getting up to, in a photo diary.
Melissa is a jewellery artist from Australia living in Seattle in the US. Her works can be found in the National Gallery of Australia as well as the Cheongju City Collection in South Korea. Her enamel works typically display subtle enamel incursions amidst precise laser cut stainless steel layers.
Several of the artists involved in the project have travelled to the Künstlerwerkstätten in Erfurt, Germany, to work together for two weeks over the northern summer. The first artists to arrive are staying for the whole two week long residency and have been getting busy – in the studio and out. Last night we celebrated our first Saturday night together and took our first group selfie to commemorate!
Now lest you think me too frivolous let me just say that I’ve got plenty of proper photos of work coming soon.
Melissa is a jewellery artist from Australia living in Seattle in the US. Her works can be found in the National Gallery of Australia as well as the Cheongju City Collection in South Korea. Her enamel works typically display subtle enamel incursions amidst precise laser cut stainless steel layers.
Here we are, making work for Heat Exchange 2! In the two years that has passed since the last edition not much has changed.. Oh who am I kidding? This iteration of the exhibition finds me living in the USA, surrounded by the welcoming and very vibrant metals community in Seattle, Washington.
Owing to my personal cross-continental exchange, I have had the pleasure of catching a couple of other Heat Exchange participants already this year. I visited Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond in February where I caught up with the dynamic Susie Ganch. We were concentrating on her Radical Jewelry Makeover project at the time but we managed to share a few thoughts on enamel while she gave me a walking tour of her city.
Next up, I was at SNAG where Robert Ebendorf was honoured as this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award Winner. I’d like to say I managed to snap a selfie while the two of us shared a few words, but with SNAG conferences being what they are, after his award ceremony I did not spot him for the rest of the weekend! So, please excuse the grainy photos of Robert, but as you can appreciate the auditorium was full for his award ceremony.
So that just leaves me. Here’s me in my basement studio in Seattle, about to face a moment of truth…
Melissa is a jewellery artist from Australia living in Seattle in the US. Her works can be found in the National Gallery of Australia as well as the Cheongju City Collection in South Korea. Her enamel works typically display subtle enamel incursions amidst precise laser cut stainless steel layers.