Variflorus
I found great quantity of the same sheets in the junkyard in Erfurt.
Laminations that are the residue of a piece for the industry.
I was thrilled with the idea of turning each into a unique, three-dimensional piece. Cutting, folding and enamaling appear infinite variations.
Silvia Walz was born in Germany. She lives and works in Spain.
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.
Gudrun Wiesmann lives and works in Germany. Sie hat Architektur studiert und bis 2000 als Architektin gearbeitet. Seit 2004 ist sie freiberufliche professionelle Künstlerin mit den Arbeitsgebieten künstlerische Fotografie, Email, Schmuck und Collage. Aktuell beschäftigt sie sich mit Emailsiebdruck auf Stahl.
Gudrun Wiesmann lives and works in Germany. Sie hat Architektur studiert und bis 2000 als Architektin gearbeitet. Seit 2004 ist sie freiberufliche professionelle Künstlerin mit den Arbeitsgebieten künstlerische Fotografie, Email, Schmuck und Collage. Aktuell beschäftigt sie sich mit Emailsiebdruck auf Stahl.
This is the second stage of our workshop! Check it out!!!
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.
I am excited to kick off our new Heat Exchange 2 project and look forward to the sharing of ideas, the dialogue and the feedback from you all. It is fantastic to create this dialogue amongst artists, who are located all over the globe, sharing a passion for this wonderful medium of enamel.
Elizabeth and I thought of beginning the conversation by introducing ourselves and some of the artists, who we visited or worked with in the last couple of months.
I am looking forward very much to this new project. I have just completed a 3D Printing residency at Cardiff Metropolitan University, which was very exciting and might lead to new opportunities. I will talk about this in my next blog.
Beate Gegenwart is an enamelist and educator originally from Germany who lives and works in Wales, UK. Her studio is located on the beautiful Gower peninsular and she is a Honorary Research Fellow at Swansea School of Art (University of Wales Trinity Saint David). Her large enamel works exhibit an expressive interplay between polished stainless steel and fields of delicately applied and inscribed enamel. She is currently supported by a major production grant from the Arts Council of Wales.
