painting with enamel

i hope everyone in Canada had a great holiday long weekend! i spent mine the best way you can - with friends and family.

recently i decided to experiment with enamel painting. i tend to rely on using a sifter when applying the enamel powder - it's easier, but it's also limiting in how precise i can be with colour changes.

so instead of applying the enamel dry, i have it mixed with water in a painter's palette for the different colours i'm using. then i apply it to the piece as evenly as possible with a paintbrush. this may seem easy, but it takes FOREVER. the first one i did took a ridiculous amount of time, but the second one worked much more smoothly and quickly. 

every spare grain of enamel that moves away from where you want it to will show up once its fired, so there's a lot of touch ups that need to be done. i had a stiff neck the next day from looking down and concentrating for so long.

 

at the same time, i found the process kind of soothing. though i can only do this kind of thing if i have a long day devoted to them. i'm planning on bringing my kiln home soon so i can do this kind of thing more regularly and paint the enamel at my desk with movies playing in the background or something.

these forms are a blend of a couple of ideas and imagery i've been working on in my sketchbook. so of course they have undertones of containment and growth. i also plan to work on some 3D forms similar to these soon. 

the useless days

"the useless days will add up to something.

the shitty waitressing jobs.
the hours writing in your journal.

the long meandering walks.

the hours reading poetry 

and story collections 

and novels 

and dead people's diaries...

these things are your becoming."

 - tiny beautiful things

there is a lot of process work involved in being a maker. it is more than just the doing - it is also the observing, the analyzing, the reading and writing - the living of life. my latest sketchbook mostly consists of writing. i've been spending a lot of time distilling my thoughts, honing in on ideas, pin pointing what it is i really want to capture. it is a process that is crucial to my work.

it is both easy and hard - it's easy in that writing introspectively is something i've been doing ever since i bought my first diary when i was 8. it's hard in that i may have ample time to be in the studio, but my idea isn't finalized - leaving me frustrated and unable to start that particular project. 

to some people it may seem like if you're not physically making something then you're not actually creating, but it's not true. jotting down wisps of ideas, being moved by films, relishing in beautiful moments - these are all part of the process.

a new space

since my education at OCAD has been over since April i've been pretty worried about where i would continue doing my jewellery outside of school. i own a lot of equipment but i don't have a torch to do any soldering.

i knew if i didn't find a studio my work would definitely suffer. i shopped around a bit but i have a complicated work schedule that was ill suited to some of the studios. good fortune came to me when i was referred to work at Organic Metal Gallery with the lovely Robin Gray. 

now i have the opportunity to work with customers and make jewellery in a very well equipped space.

i am ecstatic. 

yesterday was my first day working at my very own bench. get ready to see some new work from me :)