Jewelry (or is it Jewellery?!?)

G'day fellow Bloggers...........

Important!; To whom it may concern:- This work on jewelry was done from around the 8th September 2011 to around the end of the term. The date of the post is not the actual date of Start/Completion.

You know, I've always wondered the correct spelling of the word Jewellery (or even jewelry). We all know what it is but there are always controversies over the spelling, i.e. the Americans spell it Jewellery but the British spell it Jewelry, both of which seem to be accepted by our modern society. This is starting to sound like a Language class, but surly by now you know where I'm going with this. Yes this post is on the art of Jewelry (I'll be using the British spelling of the word here) Making!

So...I'll give you a heads up here.....I have never done this before, so whatever you see here isn't going to be the $1,000,000.00 ring that you saw at Jared's. Nope, I'm not that good. But I will tell you that I did a pretty good job at making some fine jewelry.

Before I get into the practical and show you all of the pictures, I wanted to cover the basic theory aspects of it like the ground rules and guidelines and materials for this jewelry making.

General Materials:-

1. Roll of jewelry wire - you should chose your jewelry wire carefully as they come in many different gauges. The lower the magnitude of the gauge, the thicker and stiffer the jewelry wire. The jewelry wire that I used was a
2. Tools to cut and manipulate the wire - you will need some different types of pliers to achieve certain types of patterns when working with jewelry.
3. Hot Glue - a glue gun may come in handy is you want to attach other miscellaneous objects to your jewelry.
4. Lastly, you can use just about anything to add creativity to your jewelry such as:-

• Broken Glass (edges must be smooth)
• Pebbles
• Coral
• Coconut shells
• Bamboo (dried)
• Drift wood (very common and can produce very beautiful furniture)

• Plastic from broken items
• Aluminium and copper sheets
• Papier Mache
• Toilet Paper rolls
• Donkey eye (if you live in Trinidad and Tobago, then I don't know why you wouldn't know about donkey eye; It is:- 

• "A seed resembling a donkey's eye that is often found on Trinidad's east coast beaches (eg - Manzanilla). The seed gets so hot when rubbed vigorously that it can almost burn skin." -  http://www.amazing-trinidad-vacations.com

 As always there are some basic predefined steps in doing art:-

1. First you must crate a theme, like a slogan or phrase
2. Then select suitable materials that would complement your theme
3. Then select a client or clients that would suit your theme
4. Lastly examine your various jewelry and packaging and choose a design that you like

Here's a few more tips and guidelines:-

The finished product should not have loose ends of thread, wire or glue hanging. Elements can be attacked using metal epoxy, twine, soldering, jump rings, brackets, knots, etc

Now you might be wondering, "What exactly is a jump ring?"

A jump ring is simply a metal ring that is used to make chains, jewelry and chain mail. They are made by wounding wire round a cylindrical object to create coils which are broken off one by one to make individual rings, that are in turn, interwoven to create the jewelry.

TECHNIQUES THAT CAN BE APPLIED

1. Soldering
2. Boring Holes
3. Gluing
4. Wrapping

 After arming us with this basic knowledge of jewelry making, Mrs. Davis gave us our challenge:-

"Design 3 (three) item of jewelry as well as the packaging of the product (using paper sculpture techniques) and an advertisement promoting these three products"

So here are some pictures of the end product of my hard work:-

And here's some of the packaging that went along with them:-

 And last but not least...an advertisement that i put together for the Jewelry:-

And that's it. It took a while to get everything done, but it was all worthwhile in the end.

That is all for this post, but we are not through with the coverage of Term 1 yet. We still have one more thing to cover i.e. the End of Term Art Exam which will be in the next post of my blog.

Until next time fellow Bloggers.............

Back in Business!

G'day..........fellow Bloggers!

Important!; to whom it may concern:- This work on jewelry was done from around September 2011 to around the end of the term. The date of the post is not the actual date of Start/Completion.

Alright! So I'm back and I've got to make up for lost time. I'd like to start from the first Term for Form 3 since that was were i left off. The very first topic that was done was the replica painting of that of a famous local artist. Mrs. Davis told us to chose one of Jean Micheal's Cazabond's Paintings and do a close as possible replica of it. At first I didn't even know who Mr . Casabond was, but after some research i became quit acquainted with his amazing work:-
He did all sorts of paintings:

From Natural landscapes---

....to buildings...

..and even people...

But the painting that i decided to copy was this painting of a seascape:-

Unfortunately I don't have pictures of the step by step process by which i did it but since i have portrayed a few paintings in the past....it shouldn't be too difficult for you fellow bloggers to understand the process:-

Materials;

1. watercolor paper
2. acrylic paint
3. palette
4. varying sizes and types of brushes
5. water
6. rags and cloths to dry the brushes

Process;

1. First, i drew grids on both the blank watercolor paper and the printed picture of the Cazabond painting.
2. Then i matched up the individual squared from the picture with the ones on the watercolor paper.
3. I made a simple outline sketch of the painting.
4. Then it was time to paint

Mixing and matching colors can be very tedious but i got the hang of it over time. Its impervious that you use lots of water when dealing with acrylic paints, since the tend to dry out quickly on paper. Watercolor paper is the ideal media for painting with acrylic paints. It's insane the amount of water theses things can absorb without tearing!

So after a few days, i wounded up with this:-

I think it came out pretty great, considering that I'm not a pro. But this is still a major working progress and more fine detail will be added to it eventually.

So I guess that is all for this painting and i hope that you enjoyed reading this, just as much that i enjoyed painting it.

On the next post I'll be covering the jewellery making or in technical talk; "Sculpture and Ceramics".



Until then fellow Bloggers........

A lot of catching up to do....

G'day fellow Bloggers......

It's been a long while since I've blogged, about a year now. Since then many things have changed, I'm in form 3 now going up for the NCSE exams in about a month's time, I've done some brand new art work for my great art teachers Mrs Davis and guess what...I'll actually be doing Art for the CSEC exams.

I never thought that I would ever be saying that...because I am really a science nerd but my Art teacher saw my potential and it would really be a shame if it would all be lost. So for the next year and a half, I'll be doing Art at an Ordinary Level (O-level.).

Just in case your wondering, I chose Painting (and mix media) and Drawing as my primary Art categories to work on, hence forth, most of the work I'll be posting will be painting and drawing pieces.

All right so i know that I've got a lot of catching up to do, but I've decided not to do all of it on one HUGE post. I'll be doing separated posts examining each type of Art piece, one by one. In my next post, I'll be covering a replica painting that I did around September of 2011.

Until then, fellow bloggers..........

Let's blog about Blogging.................

G'day................fellow bloggers,
It's been about a year since I've been doing this blogging thing and I must say that it has been a really liberating experience. You see usually, we as people are confined to the limits of paper and pen, however an individual with such a mind set will be left behind in an advancing world. What I like about Miss is that she encourages us to use the technological advancements surrounding us, and to apply it into our work. It is relaxing to blog because it takes your mind off other things and it is a lot less stressful than writing a simple journal on paper.

The experience is more fun whenever you go digital. For instance, let's say that I have a picture that I want to show, just take a snapshot, write up a post, then publish it. It's as simple as that, and now the whole world can see my blog!!!

Art cannot be defined by limitations and those limitations have been set by an individuals attitude on his work. But the way in which the fun of blogging have been incorporated into work, those limitation have just been broken.

For me, my blog means sharing with the world, sharing ideas and creations of my own, and even assisting others with their work. Blogging is the most effective and simplest way to do this. 

All in all it was really a great experience to do different things. Hopefully Miss will continue to encourage the blogging experience in Form 3. My Art teacher is really great and she tells you it as it is, no matter how cold it may be and that is what I like about her, always innovative and opionative.

There are many ways in which a blog can impact on you, and I do hope that I have made my Impact too.


That's all for now, fellow bloggers......................

Tying up loose Ends

G'day........fellow bloggers,
Today's class was all about tying up the loose ends. I had a long overdue collage to submit for Miss from since the first weeks of the term. Finally after a long awaited completion, I can post up the pictures.

I believe that all effective collages, should start with an effective painting. Mine was one of just a random beach:

 And this was magically formed, into a collage:

 (I am open to constructive criticism as the collage did not come out too good!)

Do you remember that portrait drawing of Beyonce that I did a few posts back.
Well the stippling aspect of it was due for today, I even submitted it even though that it was a bit incomplete.
Nevertheless, through Miss' kind generosity, it was ultimately marked, as though it was a completed piece:

 This was an intense process, it took some 4-5 days to do and I am still not Done yet!! But I promise that you will be the first to see the completed result, perhaps some time in the near future.

I honestly did not believe  that for the first time doing this, that it would come out so great, but there is always margin for error.

The only suggestion on Miss' behalf was that the neck line could have been a little lighter, to accommodate for a recognisable shadow.

I am always grateful for Miss' comments and reflections as they help me to improve my work, and gives me the motivation in the first place to do such work.

In conclusion, I would just like to add that I had a great time doing this piece, over others because it really shows what a little time and perseverance can  lead to. I was thoroughly amazed in my capability to do such of a portrait and I am really looking forward for the intense work that is to come in the next form.


That's it for now fellow blogger, I hope that you have enjoyed this series of blogs that I have put together over the academic year, and I really had a wonderful time doing it, hopefully just as wonderful as the time you spent reading it. 

I'm looking forward to more blogging in Form 3


Until Form 3 fellow bloggers!!!!!!!!!!!!!






























the only suggestion on miss' behalf

Stippling..........with INK!

G'day, fellow bloggers............
Remember that Beyonce picture that I did, well this blog is about the stippling part of it, with pen and ink!!
There wasn't much else to do for this class because it was solely about corrections and marking. So without further adieu, here's the method to stippling:

Brief overview on stippling

This technique is also known as pointillism, (but in order to save your breath, we more commonly refer to it as stippling). It is basically consists of creating tonal values (a transition from light to dark) using individual dots! Light, medium and dark values are achieved by varying the quantity of dots, the space between the dots and the pressure used to create the dots.

So it means that a whole lot of dots, come together to make an image, and that is what I have to do to my Beyonce portrait. Now as I have said, I would be using pen and ink. Ink is permanent, it does not erase, so this means that there is literally NO room for error, one wrongly placed dot and it's bye bye Beyonce.

This is scary, I am genuinely scared and to make matters worse, I have to do it under a stipulated time period!

I guess we'll see how things work out, in the next post.

Until then, fellow bloggers..............

The Art of.........Copying????!?

G'day, fellow bloggers.........
It's definitely been a while, sine I last blogged. I've been a busy little bee, you know with school and all, not to mention that I was stone cold sick for over a week. That was a bit of a setback, nevertheless, I'm back and its a whole new Art game now!. Here I'm talking about the Art of Copying!!!! that we did about in the 2nd to last week in May.


So, let's check it out! The guide to the Art of Copying:

Step #1
Draw a square grid onto your page and take a note of the number of blocks on the x and y axis of the grid.
(Just when you thought that maths was useless!)

Step #2
Draw a grid onto the picture going to be copied, however you must make sure that the number of blocks on the x and y axis of the picture match the number of squares on the sketch pad paper. This is critical to the proper formation of the image. Basically if it is not done properly, the copied image would need some serious plastic surgery!

Step #3
Assuming that you've done all of that correctly, mach each square or block on the picture with the corresponding block on the Sketch Pad paper, by counting it.

That's all, as easy as 123 (literally)!

Now Mrs. Davis asked us to apply these instruction to the real deal, we were asked to do a portrait!
Now I've done a portrait before and it didn't work out too well, a self portrait that it. But thankfully, this time we were given the privilege to go a portrait of anyone. I embraced the opportunity to do one of Beyonce Knowles. Because of the grid, I found it very effortless to do and here's what it came to be:

It looks pretty good right, but it turned out to scare the boys in my class!!!
But seriously it was pretty scary because of the eyes, so I adjusted them to form this:

 Even better!
I thought that was it but it was only the beginning! The next thing was stippling, but that will have to wait for the next post, at a later date.

It is actually fulfilling to see a piece of empty paper before you, be filled with lines, many many lines and that was how it made me feel to do this drawing, indeed it is one to remember and be proud of.

Follow to see the next couple chapters, on stippling!

One final thought;
Wouldn't it be great if teachers allowed us "practise" copying during exams? 
(Just a friendly suggestion)

Until then, fellow bloggers.............