Don’t know if any of you heard, but we had a small earthquake very early Monday morning.
I mean like 5:30 early… there was no damage but they did shut down BART for a bit just to check. It is really weird to be woken up by an earthquake. This one was long enough for me to wake fully up, realize it was a earthquake and reach over and grab my phone (not sure why having my phone was so important but, at this point, since I take it everywhere, its kind of like a grown up security blanket with the ability to get e-mail). I was not scared exactly, but just felt really weird, like that the sick feeling of falling down an imaginary set of stairs. My roommate did not even wake up, she just rolled over; lucky heavy sleepers.
Over the weekend I had worked really hard to get the three rings for my casting project in photo ready shape, as I wanted to get them photographed for my portfolio. Photo ready does not mean wear ready but to the point were they will look the same even after all cleaning and shaping has been done, so here they are.
There are three rings all with the same basic shape, they move through size six to size seven. One is polished (although not well, I’m working on it) one is sand and one is brass brushed.
Like I said, these rings are not wear ready. The edges are really sharp and would cause a not great feeling if you clenched your hand. To get rid of this, I am polishing down the edges using a “rough” compound which is applied to a hard felt buffing disk and then used with a high powered polishering lathe to just take off the edge. Next step is getting a better shine on that last ring.
If you want more information on this check out this video.
http://www.riogrande.com/VideoPlayer.aspx?fn=finishing-techniques-VID-psd (sorry the linking is not working)
I took two midterms on Monday. Both went well. I was really nervous about my Modern Art midterm but it really was not too bad. I should have studied more for ethics but it went OK anyway.
In three D we have started our second out of the three projects. This one is the book project. It’s really open ended and we just have to make a book in some way and it has to have at least 8 pages. I found a really nice copy of five of Shakespeare plays so I am going to highlight the phrases that are super common now, which Shakespeare made up or at least was the first to write down, by making the pages in metal. They might not be metal but more like leafing, but whatever. It will be fun and I like it better then the last project.
Today was a great day for me.
For one I got to hear a great lecture by an amazing jeweler, (he will get his own post in a day or two when I see the other visiting jeweler who came with him).
Two, I found a great pair of heels for way cheap (don’t worry Mom, I have store credit).
Three, there was no ethics class this evening due to not having a lecture Monday cuz’ of the midterm.
And four I got to see the freshman gallery and a great senior show for one of the jewelry senior (plus all the great treats that they offer at the receptions).
I just got back from the gallery- it’s a store front right across the street from the school. Inside it’s divided into four rooms. Tonight three were for the freshman exhibition and one was for the jewelry senior (not really sure why that was). It was quite cool to see the work of my classmates especially because I often don’t really have an idea what they make or get to see a finished product. The gallery was packed, partly because of all the people in the show and partly because of all the free candy. (If you want a college kid to come to anything, give them free food). I have to say the senor who was showing is amazing. I don’t think I have ever met her because she does most of her work at night but she chases and raises metal. Her specialty is turning flat pieces of metal into parts of the body. They look real, the amount of detail she can get with a hammer is just amazing. I hope to go back and get a photo when it’s not as busy so you can see the feel the pieces have.
So all in all, everything is good, I am super ready to be home for a week and I’m counting the days until I get on that plane (its 8 by the way).