Loose lips

This cracks me up.

As far as I can tell, the misspelling was unintentional.

But it demonstrates its own point so well!

My face had said too much before our hands could even touch.

There is something oddly self-absorbed about being in school. Or maybe it's just something that comes with being an artist. We're supposed to know not only what we're making, but why. In my studio class, we're supposed to identify our obsessions. That's actually an assignment. Explore your obsessions.

Basically, as an art student, I'm studying:

1) technique

2) art history

3) why I'm nuts

...and not even in that order.

In many ways, being an artist is like constantly being in psychotherapy. Except we're both the psychiatrist and the patient. And there's no one to tell us what the prognosis is.

So one of the things we're doing in class is to collect images of things that inspire us and fuel our obsessions. It's actually a great activity for developing a clearer insight into What-We-Make, so I thought I'd share an image every once in a while.

I don't want you, but I need you.

I'm starting a body of work that uses
many small pieces to make large wall adornments.

I like the repetitive process of making multiple objects with slight variations.

It also started me thinking about how much humans like collecting things.

Why do we find many of one thing to be so much more engaging than any one piece by itself? I think we're a little greedy, but I also wonder if it's because we see an inherent resemblance to ourselves as a human species. We are essentially a collection in which each individual is varied and comes together to create something rich and diverse.

If this is true,

can a group of objects be used

to evoke a feeling of belonging?

Loneliness? Nostalgia?

Once in a blue moon, there's a blue sky.

My work from last semester, displayed for the critique.

(You can see closeups of the pieces on my website.)

Boom, boom, boom, boom.

"All women become like their mothers.

That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his."

-Oscar Wilde

I've begun an immense undertaking,
one that may later be known as

The Great Reorganization of '11.

Several things occurred at once which brought on this reorganization.

1. I have a new roommate moving in.


2. I can't figure out where half my stuff is. I mean, I know it's here. It's just under the other half of my stuff. But when I'd actually like to have whatever it is in my hand and use it? Then I have no idea where to look. Most recently lost? My scissors.


3. I have time. (That wonderful thing that goes to waste if you don't use it RIGHT NOW. Haha, yeah. That's always been my motto.)


4. I had an epiphany. To be fair, this is something my mother's been trying to teach me since I was born. I don't know if it's never really mattered to me, or if it just now sunk in, but here it is: If everything has a place where it belongs, then it's really easy to clean up and you never have to wonder where your hackletujiklethingy is when you need it. Actually, in the words of my mother it goes like this; "You can just go boom, boom, boom, boom, and everything is put away." Very Mary Poppins-esque, and apparently actually a really good idea.


4(a). There is the possibility (reality??) that I'm getting older. It's manifesting itself in unusual ways. For instance, you know you're getting older when you're so excited about your new vacuum cleaner that you really really want to update your facebook status with gushes about how IT ACTUALLY SUCKS, but you know no one else cares AT ALL.


So, what does this mean?


It means I'm getting rid of a lot of clothes that I never wear. Rule of thumb: if it's been three years and I still haven't altered that skirt that isn't really my style anyway, it can probably go. Additionally, if it's from eighth grade and I've worn it three times since then, it goes.


It means some new shelves.

It means my art supplies are getting labelled and put ALL in one place.

It means I'm becoming my mother. Those who know her intimately know what I mean. I've classified my shoes. I'm trying to decide if I should institute my own version of binomial nomenclature in my closet, but then they might start reproducing and there'd be no more room.

The beginning of my shoe phylum. And the cat getting pretty excited about the change.

Ah, yes, all is going well. Just as long as The Great Reorganization of '11

doesn't lead to The Great Shoe Boom of '12....

I updated my website.

It has my new work and now hopefully looks nice in all (or most) browsers.

Of course, let me know if it doesn't.

www.shirabrooks.com

ceramic & metal

Trying not to break the sawblades

Piercing out the settings in copper....

I'll never be your pizza burning.

I've been making brooches with ceramic textures.

Here are some templates for the backs of the brooches.

Next I have to saw those shapes out of copper for the backings.

I love how they look before they're put together. All those lines poking out will be prongs to hold the ceramic pieces in place. They'll be bent up and over the clay. But I can't help loving how they are right now. They're awkward and pokey and look like a bunch of weird amoeba with cilia.

I've also been making a lot more bracelets,

with more variety in sizes and glazes.

Here they are before firing.

They're going in the kiln tomorrow.

And, of course, no project is complete without "help" from the cat.

This is what happens when she decides to get a little too hands on. Or tail on.

Jess should rename her "Cruella Deville" or "Stacey London".

All I've got is mud on my knees.

I'm making jewelry out of dirt.

Ceramic bracelets, with glazes that make me happy it's spring...

Why I'm in love with Richmond...

The James River

It's possibly the dirtiest "clean" river I've ever seen.

And it's so beautiful.

I'm really enjoying these panoramic photos.

It's such a good way to capture how gorgeous it is.

You can click on them to see the larger versions.

_______________________________

If you think the panoramics are cool,

you should check out these stereographic projections.

This one's my favorite:

I hit the rowdy road, and many kinds I met there.

SPRING MEANS:

panoramic photographs at Belle Isle

My roots go down, down to the earth.

Two Sundays ago, I planted some seeds. 

Here are my green bean plants now. In two weeks.

Some of the biggest ones are already a foot or more tall.

Does that seems incredibly fast to anyone else?

They're magic beans.

Maybe I'll end up with stalks that grow through the ceiling.

Now I need to build a trellis for them to climb onto.

Falling over your rocky spine.

Beginning a series of ceramic jewelry...

Two cats in the yard.

I've been thinking a lot about the ways in which the structures we live in influence our lives. This past semester was all about creating a body of work - sort of a senior project - and so I made pieces inspired by my memories of houses I lived in as a child.

I started off fabricating small boxes out of metal. Each one is based on a house from my childhood. They're also inspired by the spice boxes used for havdalah, which are traditionally shaped like houses, castles, or windmills. Instead of putting in the usual spices (cloves and cinnamon), I mixed various smells together so each house box smells like my memory of the house it's based on.

Each of these is about 2 1/2 inches tall.

I spent a lot of time playing around with surface treatment

(etching, solder inlay, enamel paint, chasing, oxidation)

and mechanisms (hinges, tension fittings, clasps, and some

sort of sliding technique that has no name that I know of).

Here are the four of them displayed for my final critique.

The feeling of being in motion again.

It's weird that I went this whole semester without saying a peep on here.

Here's a glimpse of what I've been doing:

I do miss making things to wear,

so here are some random images of jewelry that I love, just for fun...

Stick up for yourself, son.

I am back in school, and already things are pretty crazy.

Since this is my last year, I get my own work space.

It is essentially a closet that I share with two other (awesome) people.

I am excited to have my own space and my own bench and my own cluttered corner.

Don't let this photo fool you. It really is a closet.

I finally finished the project I've been working on since the beginning of the summer.

Here are the wax pieces I made in June, before casting or anything else fancy:

Here's a photo of the components a week or so ago:

And here's the finished brooch:

I'm pleased with the way it came out.

As an unforeseen bonus, it makes wonderful noises

when you wear it and the pieces clink together.

I also finished up some of the rings I cast over the summer.

Here are the waxes from June:

And here are some photos of the finished ring:

I've been working on several other projects,

including a series for my senior portfolio.

I'll have photos of those soon.

If you like it, let it be, and if you don't please do the same.

Enamel + Very-Thin Copper = ??

I don't know.... These pieces are from my enamel class

and I honestly don't know how I feel about them.

Making them was an experimental process and I can't tell if they are successful pieces.

I've gotten mixed feedback about them and it's hard to look at them too closely anymore.

Oh well. At least the photos are nice.

Castaways and cutouts fill it up.

I thought I'd show some before-and-after photos of casting.

The images on the right are in wax and the ones on the left are after casting, in metal.

These are some cicada casings I found and filled with wax.

They are cast in bronze. Most of the legs actually came out,

which is really cool (and means I sprued them well!).

These are stacking rings that I cast in silver.

The metal is dark because it oxidized during the casting process.

Once I cut them off the sprues and clean them up,

they will be recognizable as silver.

Here are some gears, cast in silver.

Here they are interlocking with each other.

I still need to cut off the sprues and smooth them out.

I made a few more lathe-turned pieces. These are even smaller than the ones before.

That's a good thing, because I cast them in gold.

Here's the torch I use to melt the metal for casting.

In the background, you can see the crucibles for melting the metal in.

This is a centrifuge for casting.

You can see the crucible for holding the metal

and the weights that help the whole thing spin.

The spinning is what draws the molten metal into the flask.