enamel in jewellery, enamel in teeth

I'm halfway through my fourth semester of Dental Technology at GBC and it's a busy one. It's our first semester working with porcelain for our restorations and it's challenging like all things in this program are. 

Luckily for me my enameling work is very similar in some ways. 

Like in enamel jewellery, creating a porcelain tooth is very technique and time sensitive. You need a steady hand, you have to balance things in precarious manners, and you can either be pleasantly surprised or horribly devastated upon opening the kiln.

Like in jewellery, you can open the kiln and find that your piece fell off it's stand and is now in a pool of enamel material.

Like in jewellery, you can pop in a piece covered with powder that is delicate and hard to handle, but in the end becomes a glossy, weighty piece that is better than you imagined. 

crown and bridge

i've finally finished my first year as a dental technology student. it was with a huge sigh of relief when i finished my last exam and handed in my last assignment. i learned how to make a lot of things this year - mouthguards, retainers, dentures, partial dentures, space maintainers, crowns and copings. and while my crown and bridge class was definitely the most stressful, i think that i like making crowns the most.

out of all the things i learned to do this past year, making crowns is definitely the most artistic and similar to jewellery. which is probably why i like it the most. when you're done waxing up a crown there is a sense of accomplishment and pride that doesn't come as much as setting up the teeth in dentures, or just carving down pre-made teeth. in crown and bridge you are making the forms and you're so proud when you're done. 

when making crowns, every line angle, every elevation, every area that hits another tooth is important. while we consider symmetry, we also have to consider how the jaws move, how much pressure is exerted and the teeth that remain in the mouth.

boo...blurry photo. oh well. like in jewellery, we make the forms in wax first and then cast them in metal. porosity is a huge deal in crown and bridge, too much of it and the form is unuseable. if the margins on the bottom of the tooth form don't cast properly it won't fit in the space it's supposed to on the mouth.

i've never had to be so precise in my life, but i'm liking it. 

learning curves

i was working on some new lichen rings in the studio a little while back. i really like seeing my drawings turn into something 3D and wearable. these are all one of a kind mostly because right after i draw them i decide to make them. and then i don't have a copy of the original drawing.

i've been in the dental lab at school a lot lately. fourteen hour days have become the norm for me. there is so much to do. like with most things of a technical nature, there is a steep learning curve. we are learning from our mistakes, and these mistakes are very time costly.

i was trying to wrap this piece up in tissue paper for a safe trip home, and then it fell. i lost about two hours here. *sigh* at least i'm getting better and faster all the time :)

presents

hi readers! i hope everyone is having a great holiday season. i've been off school for a little over a week now, but i feel like i've only just recuperated from such a crazy month full of assignments and exams.  

being in a hands on program is always tricky. you never really know when to stop working on projects and to start studying. in my head i always feel as if i can work on a project just a little bit more - make it a little more polished, a little more smooth. you start to learn when it's time to stop.

the worst thing is messing up something right at the end because you were impatient, rushed, or tired.

patience is a skill.

when setting stones into jewellery, you have to be careful. one slip of your tool and the stone can be damaged beyond repair. it can be a stressful, slow process. one that i want to love more someday.

i have so many stones that don't have a home in a jewellery piece. i better remedy that before i even think about buying new stones. the coral and turquoise ones became scarf pins that i gave to my mother in law, and the black obsidian earrings  to my cousin who only wears studs because she's a dancer (ignore the polishing compound on the studs, this was before i steamed them clean).

it's the end of the year, and time goes by so quickly. i hope that we can all find the time to relax and enjoy the simple things  in life.

big bows and mouth guards

i still spend my thursdays at Organic Metal Gallery, and when i'm not working on my assignments, i sometimes teach the students who come in how to saw, polish, enamel, and solder. last week Cheryl was in the studio and really wanted to make this big bow necklace. when the enameling process works without problems, a lot can be accomplished in a short amount of time. unfortunately this was not one of those times. but she persevered, and in the end she had a nice 2 sided pendant - storm blue on one side, and lichen green on the other.

in my dental materials class we were learning how to make customized sport mouth guards. the 2nd year denturist students took impressions of our teeth and then we poured up molds to work from.

i'm always excited to learn how to make something new. and since i wear a night guard myself, this kind of thing is particularly relevant to me. my husband is already begging me to make him a sport mouth guard for when he's boxing - he's sick of the bulky ones you buy in the stores.

wires, drawings, and doodles

i hate how i can't update this blog as much as i'd like to anymore, so please bear with me readers. but i'm learning so much. 

it's a great feeling of accomplishment to make something with your hands. i love that moment of completion, of seeing everything come together and be worth it in the end. i was so happy to finish my first retainer. the wires are 18/8 steel - and very stiff. to fit the requirements of a retainer with that kind of wire made me want to rip my hair out - it was hours and hours of work, something i'm sure you wouldn't have guessed. the wire has to touch - but not push on certain teeth, it has to be a millimetre raised above certain spaces, it has to sit just so, dip here, twist here, be angled here. very aggravating in the moment. but my classmates and i are getting better and faster all the time.

i kind of liked this drawing assignment -  drawing can be very soothing. we had to anatomically draw the teeth to scale as well as label all their anatomical features.  compared to my classmates i was lucky - we used to have 6 hour drawing classes at OCAD. but i always feel like i can improve on my drawing skills, so it was good practice.

though, i do draw before i make my jewellery, but not to that detail. this little pendant is from one of the doodles in my sketchbook.

to do

sometimes my to do list saddens me a little. besides trying to keep myself sane by having a few leisurely moments each day my plate always seems very very full. it's gotten worse now because i'm in school. 

as of now until next week i have to:

study for 3 exams

finish the set up for some upper dentures

make a retainer

polish 3 acrylic plates for retainers

go to work on monday

go to classes from monday to friday

go to the studio on thursday

spot weld 2 space maintainers

finish 28 full page anatomically correct teeth drawings

prepare for a 10 minute presentation

drop off new jewellery for the devil's workshop

drop off commission work

pick up some findings for some pearl bracelets

do laundry

these are just the things i HAVE to do...not even the things i want to do...like go to yoga, or watch Dexter, or visit my grandma. 

*sigh*