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A Temporary Reprieve
Jan. 5th, 2004 04:56 pmToday was my first day of school, and I got to go home at lunch time. This is good, because I had very little sleep last night. f00 kept waking me up with noctambulistic twitching. There's nothing like just dozing off then having your arm is seized and squeezed. Argh.
Anyhow, my afternoon nap has helped alleviate my sleep deficit.
In class, we started covering ancient Greek jewellery. Oddly enough, throughout the entirety of my Classics studies in university, I don't recall any mention of jewellery. Well, except that the Hellenes wore fibulae, but that's it. Jewellery is definitely an overlooked aspect of ancient history. It's probably because it's so difficult to date any pieces. What information there is out there seems little more than conjecture. So every Monday morning I look at slides of ancient jewellery and copy them down in as detailed a fashion as possible. This morning, the last slide showed three hideous pendants. They are a mélange of Greek, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Minoan motifs. They are overdone and UGLY! They were also a serious pain in the arse to draw because they were so very detailed. But, they were gold, and even the ugliest thing made of gold will be treasured by someone. People love gold.
I wish I had some gold to work with. I'd like to try casting with it. I'd also like to see how much easier it is to solder and clean up. Everything I've heard about gold indicates that once you've worked with it, you'll never want to touch silver again. And I can believe this. Silver is an absolute bitch to work with. Perhaps it's not as bad as white gold or platinum, but it does have its own nasty idiosyncracies. For instance, it loves to turn brownish purple at the most unfortunate of times (like assessments, which is the equivalent of final exams for me). This ugly staining is known as firescale, and I've known pieces to look perfectly mirrorlike and shiny then turn murky just as I'm handing them in for my marks.
My instructors say silver isn't malevolent, but I suspect they might be evil, too.
My homework for next week is to come up with five rough jewellery designs arrived at in a synectic manner. The designs must come from three assigned random words. My words are:
* Bird
* Map
* Envelopes
I have two of my five designs completed: a pectoral and an anklet. I think they're both pretty nice. The first incorporates two metals: silver and Nugold. I'd cuttle cast a feather, solder on a silver wire quill, and place this on a flat backplate in the shape of two intersecting triangles. On the reverse side, saw work in the shape of a wavy postage cancellation design will reveal the back of the feather. The cuttle casting is reminiscent of a contour map.
The second piece is made of four lengths of machine-made fine chain joined by envelope-shaped plaques. Suspended freely from the each chain is an oval bezel-set lapis lazuli cabochon. The stones will be chosen based on their robin egg-like appearance, and the free movement along the chain represents migration.
I love synectics. It's such a bullshit generator!
Oh, and while I'm talking of birds even peripherally, I must tell you what I saw that wacky Scroffy do this afternoon. While I sat at a table in the livingroom, Scroffy wandered over to the patio door to stare in at me. He paced back and forth, staring at me in a very fixed fashion. Suddenly, he tried to hop through the window! He looked flummoxed at his inability to pass through the glass, but at least he didn't try it again. When I went outside to give him a snack, he pretended to be afraid of me.
Anyhow, my afternoon nap has helped alleviate my sleep deficit.
In class, we started covering ancient Greek jewellery. Oddly enough, throughout the entirety of my Classics studies in university, I don't recall any mention of jewellery. Well, except that the Hellenes wore fibulae, but that's it. Jewellery is definitely an overlooked aspect of ancient history. It's probably because it's so difficult to date any pieces. What information there is out there seems little more than conjecture. So every Monday morning I look at slides of ancient jewellery and copy them down in as detailed a fashion as possible. This morning, the last slide showed three hideous pendants. They are a mélange of Greek, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Minoan motifs. They are overdone and UGLY! They were also a serious pain in the arse to draw because they were so very detailed. But, they were gold, and even the ugliest thing made of gold will be treasured by someone. People love gold.
I wish I had some gold to work with. I'd like to try casting with it. I'd also like to see how much easier it is to solder and clean up. Everything I've heard about gold indicates that once you've worked with it, you'll never want to touch silver again. And I can believe this. Silver is an absolute bitch to work with. Perhaps it's not as bad as white gold or platinum, but it does have its own nasty idiosyncracies. For instance, it loves to turn brownish purple at the most unfortunate of times (like assessments, which is the equivalent of final exams for me). This ugly staining is known as firescale, and I've known pieces to look perfectly mirrorlike and shiny then turn murky just as I'm handing them in for my marks.
My instructors say silver isn't malevolent, but I suspect they might be evil, too.
My homework for next week is to come up with five rough jewellery designs arrived at in a synectic manner. The designs must come from three assigned random words. My words are:
* Bird
* Map
* Envelopes
I have two of my five designs completed: a pectoral and an anklet. I think they're both pretty nice. The first incorporates two metals: silver and Nugold. I'd cuttle cast a feather, solder on a silver wire quill, and place this on a flat backplate in the shape of two intersecting triangles. On the reverse side, saw work in the shape of a wavy postage cancellation design will reveal the back of the feather. The cuttle casting is reminiscent of a contour map.
The second piece is made of four lengths of machine-made fine chain joined by envelope-shaped plaques. Suspended freely from the each chain is an oval bezel-set lapis lazuli cabochon. The stones will be chosen based on their robin egg-like appearance, and the free movement along the chain represents migration.
I love synectics. It's such a bullshit generator!
Oh, and while I'm talking of birds even peripherally, I must tell you what I saw that wacky Scroffy do this afternoon. While I sat at a table in the livingroom, Scroffy wandered over to the patio door to stare in at me. He paced back and forth, staring at me in a very fixed fashion. Suddenly, he tried to hop through the window! He looked flummoxed at his inability to pass through the glass, but at least he didn't try it again. When I went outside to give him a snack, he pretended to be afraid of me.
