These are my tools for silversmithing. Some are selfmade. It took some time to realize, which ones I really need for my work.
Young-I Kim
Young-I Kim was born in South Korea. She lives and works in Germany.
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My tools
Category Archives: Heat Exchange 2
Hello 2015!
Hello, it has been a while. When I received a notification-email, I read the articles through emails and have been quite satisfied. But surely there is more, sorry! I have to get used to “exchange”. I still need to learn little more about the site to orientate myself with comments-things…
Meanwhile, as a new year has begun, I will start to put some so called “inspiration”- materials. I am not yet sure if they will be something. I almost never transform some exact inspiration directly into my work. But the layers of inspirations are effecting the process of making.
I get inspirations from all over, so my layers of inspiration are not well organized. Some are factual, others are abstract. Please don’t ask me how they associate each other… I don’t know yet, either.
These are very concrete motives. Continuing, repeating, lining things often catch my eyes, though I haven’t be able to do so with my work, yet.
Colours are always inspiring.
Even more dense.
Enjoy your weekend!
Kaori
New enamel tests
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 Cameron
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.
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First Thoughts
Our time in Erfurt was great; a harmonious and creative sharing of workshop space and time to reflect. I love Melissa’s sensitive ‘sound scapes’ posts on this Blog; it is one of my prevailing memories: the gentle sound of abrading, ‘squishing’ the screen, tapping, the sound of Ramon and Silvia sawing in the jewellery workshop. All the sounds of busy artists creating work, focusing on the materials. I am also very excited to see Silvia and Ramon’s pieces finished and how they developed after Erfurt in the studio in Barcelona.
Beautiful work, dear Silvia and Ramon!
My own work in Erfurt attempted to explore the ‘drawing breaking out of the frame’, which made the laser cut metal pieces fragile and the firing process precarious. I had some technical problems with tension in the metal and enamel and consequently warping, so overall a challenging experience. Thankfully there were some pieces, which made it through the many making stages almost as I intended.
Now I am in the process of researching my new direction and I will write about this as it grows. In July 2014 I was awarded an Arts Council of Wales grant to develop a new body of work for a solo exhibition in 2016 and of course, Heat Exchange 2, in 2015. This grant will start in January 2015, which gives me a little ‘breather’ to think and identify my direction.
There is a focus of course, which has been running through my work since I began making ceramics in the 1980s: an interest in the space in-between (all my work is always endlessly cut and pierced), rhythm, movement, chaos and activating space. I would now like to see this conceptual interest reflected in the making process by exploring rhythmical processes such as laser engraving (horizontal movement, embedding an image into the enamel), exploring the jacquard loom (again the horizontal weaving process) and 3D printing.
3D printing is also one such ‘rhythmical’ process, minutely building up layers, reminiscent of the weaving process. In April 2014 I carried out a 3D printing residency at the Product Development and Research Centre at Cardiff Metropolitan University and I can see the potential of the pieces I created there. For me this is a step into the direction of ‘activating space’, taking the 2D piece off the wall, producing a smaller 3D companion. I am very curious to know what will happen and whether this ‘process’ will be right for me. At the moment I am trying to learn Rhino and finding it surprisingly hard.
So, this is where I am now; very exciting. I would love to hear from you all, where you are in your work, what you are thinking?
Beate Gegenwart
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.
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Dresden and Erfurt suites
Business continues below…
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 Cameron
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.
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Erfurt
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
Silvia Walz was born in Germany. She lives and works in Spain.
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Silent pause
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 Cameron
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.
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Guest artists and Erfurt sounds – Part II
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 Cameron
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.
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Guest artists and Erfurt sounds
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 Cameron
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.
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