I LOVE Patterns!
From the inside cover of an old Led Zeppelin album.
I am attracted to line drawings . . . like the ones I used to see from Peter Max back in the 60's.
I think I really enjoyed POP ART. I'm always trying to bring it back in my work.
Coiled cables linking the cab of a big truck to it's long bed.
PaTTeRNs THaT RePEaT
Mandalas - they're flower-like and round.
The following is a picture I took of an old plate at a little antique store here in town.
I cut the center flower out of masonite board - this is called a rastered image, or an engraving.
Now I can use it to make an impression with metal clay or polymer clay.
I love going to the flea market and antique stores to look for image fodder. I would rather do that kind of shopping for art at the moment. Image shopping . . .
I can fill up an iPhone's camera roll in record time. My current phone has 14,339 images on it and I just got it this past December. I didn't restore the photos from my old phone. I started from zero.
I love the texture on things, even if I've only imagined them. I love all the messy colors blending together.
I've been in a period of intense learning about new things. I hardly have time do do many things I used to do because I've been going to the place with the lasers (TechShop) about twice a week since January 18th. It takes me about 6 hours in a day for the two hours spent there and the travel time to and from San Francisco. I don't even care that it takes so long and that they will only let me use it for a max of 2 hours a few times a week. It's so much fun to be there. The other people who are also using the lasers when I've been there are doing such intricate projects and my interest in the laser's capabilities is changing and morphing into wanting to cut out things I never imagined I would want to do.
And get this . . . starting TODAY it will be
I'm in heaven right? I'm not on the mundane plane we all used to inhabit together because I'm at TechShop making things!
I signed up for a Powder Coating class next week so I'm going in early and doing my two hours on the laser and then I'll take a break for dinner and then I'll go back and learn about how to do the powder coating!!!!!! They are also going to teach us how to use a sandblaster. I just want to play!
I've been seeing shapes, vector shapes as that's what the laser sees and reads to cut.
And I suddenly discovered an app for the iPhone called "Adobe Shape CC". I can take a photo of a shape and when I'm using the app, it transforms the image into a huge vector file that you can alter in interesting ways. It lets you remove extraneous lines if they aren't attached to a part of the image you want. If it IS attached you can remove the lines in another app. You can make your image simple or detailed and it turns them smooth and flowing.
It's a miracle I tell you!
Here's a drawing I drew on paper by hand.
Here it is as a vector image made in the Adobe Shapes CC app.
. . . and I can now use these images at ANY SiZE.
I think I will make earrings because that's the kind of person I am.
Here's a photo of my hand drawn sharpie over the lines of the image of a wire luna moth I own.
and here is the vector drawing that smoothes the roughness of the lines into a flowing thing of beauty . . .
I had to make it low resolution because the image is about 33 inches wide!
Here it is again flipped to the inverse with the lines made bolder in the app.
Now I could cut that out with the laser as an engraved image that looks like a low relief or I could cut it out completely from wood or plexiglass, or leather, cardboard and various other things, but not metal. However, I did just learn that TechShop has water jet cutting of metals and they offer a class on it.
I feel I've only uncovered the top curl on Dolly Parton's head, so don't wait for me, I'll be cutting things up on the lasers.
Who inspires me at the moment? These people:
My group of artistic, new project, jewelry making, interested in the same things I am, girlfriends. We are on the same wavelength and our projects are getting more complicated and interesting.
Today we did some enameling:
a black base layer . . .
My enameled links fresh out of kiln:
Isn't the mixing of these colors showing up so beautifully? It was done with a combination of liquid and powdered enamels on copper.
The finished links. Most of them will make a bracelet with a loop and toggle.
This Sunday, eight of my girlfriends are coming over and I'm going to be showing them how to use my Potter USA hydraulic press to make puffed out shapes and to do a little embossing, maybe make a cuff or two, and see what else we can come up with.
Blanking dies in two different sizes of a nice cuff shape I like offered by Potter USA.
And here are some drawings I did and photographed of shapes I'm cutting out tomorrow that we can use on Sunday.
Yep, I made them all into vectors.
This kind of thing keeps me up all night. I need to go and get some sleep now so I can carry out my plans tomorrow - wait, later today.
See you on the flip side. (Having fun makes me talk like that.)
Today we have a long list of bloggers - it must be Spring coming on - with fascinating things to tell you about what inspires them.
The “Blog-o-Sphere Think Tank" was started by Andes Cruz, a metalsmith I met online and whose work I love. We are a group of online friends from all over the world, who write a blog post once a month about the same topic, and we all post at the same time, on the 20th of the month. I've been writing with them since October 2013 and it's been a very good thing because it keeps me blogging. I hope you’ll visit all the blogs on the list and see what they have to say and if YOU have anything to say, I would enjoy hearing your comments.
Andes Cruz: https://andescruz.wordpress.com
marie bell :: www.pencilfox.com
Kathleen Krucoff: https://kathleenkrucoff.wordpress.com/
Tosca Teran: : http://nanopod.me/2015/03/20/inspiration
Beth Cyr - http://bethcyr.com/blog/
Allegra Sleep: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/allegra-sleep.html?tab=blog
K. Skiles Studio: http://kaskiles.com
Shelagh Blatz: www.designsbyshelagh.com/blog
