Hi everyone,sorry its been so long since my last post but things have been CRAZY here. I love all my classes, which is great but means that I have no easy classes. so all my classes have a ton of work! and on top of that I’m moving forward with my new gluten free, dairy free diet. Its been a challenge i'm teaching myself how to eat and cool again. I can't really tell you i feel a ton better the amount of headaches has gone down but that's about it, however now whenever i do have some gluten, i can feel it. so i thought i would give you all a brief overview of everything i have been up to in the past few weeks. class by class, as my life revolves around school.
Media history - this class remains fascinating, I mean how could this not be great! we jump around in history but its always interesting. I just finished up the first big paper for the class, we were supposed to pick one piece of historical metal work. I chose my favorite of the imperial Faberge eggs. I could take about this all day but instead i will just show you a photo and tell you that that they are all really cool but i like this one because of the really cute story that goes with it.
here is a few paragraphs from the essay i wrote about the egg explaining the basic facts about the egg and the story behind it.
The Rosebud egg was made in 1895 under the supervision of Peter Carl Faberge and made by Michael Perchin. It was the first egg commissioned by Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, and the eleventh imperial egg made by Faberge. It was presented to his new wife Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna on their first Easter together. Standing at just over seven inches high, the egg is covered with translucent red enamel over a guilloche pattern. The egg is then divvied into four panels running up the length of the egg. Each of the dividing lines is set with diamonds, in each of the panels there is green gold Laura garlands twined around a stylized arrow. The arrow is also adorned in diamonds to match the diamond borders and topped off with red gold ribbons and finally pinned with a diamond. This pervading a decorative element and a strong symbolic element as well, showing the love of the young couple. On both the top and bottom of the egg is a small clear table diamond. Under the diamond on top is a miniature portrait of Nicholas II and on the bottom the year of the egg, 1895 When the top of the egg is opened a closed yellow rose bud is revealed. Made out of yellow enameled petals and green leaves the petals are hinged to open, allowing the second surprise of the egg to be placed in the center. It is thought that the second surprise was a gold crown set with diamonds and rubies and a cabochon ruby pendant. However they have unforly been lost and the only evidence of them are an inventory taken in 1909 and an old archival photo taking around 1935. At the presation of the egg to Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna the young royal couple had only been married for three months however having known each other for a long time they were very close and very much in love. The new Tsarina was unconformable in Russia surrounded by unfamiliar customs and people. She was also very homesick and reported missing the famous German rose garden called “Rosenhöhe” the rosebud egg was there for meant as a comfort to the new bride.
English - going fine, we have been reading the “best of” essay’s that come out every year. its a standard English class not much to say really.
Craft workshop- This is that kind of odd class, we have finally started working and last class i made a led that turns on when it gets dark, way cool. its in a prototype board right now but I just attached it to a cool lamp, that I made out of copper mess and paper. its due tonight so here are the photos of the light it turns on when it gets dark, and I kind of meant it to be a night light, I think it came off rather well.
Intro to futuner - we have started working! my band-saw box is almost done i just have to inlay the copper into the top and stain the whole thing. I will post a photo next time when its done. but what's more exciting is we have bought the wood for the tables, I picked out three really nice pieces of walnut. we are buying wood that has not been milled yet so its still really rough and not even and everything and we have to do all that ourselves. I made sure to get some extra so that i will have plenty to make a box for my jewelry project. i'm making a folding tray table for my project here's a photo of the full scale drawings. I am going to do the hinges in metal.
Jewelry 2A - we finished the last project (the thimble) and i was going to spend a full post on it but i never finished it so i'm just going to give you a little info on how this was made and of course photos!
Thimble have a long history in the jewelry world as they were used for practical purposes and as decorative items, there are thousands of personalized thimbles. the assignment was to make a thimble to commemorate a person or event. my first thought was to do Lillian Gilbreth but after a week with no clear ideas I switched to Ada lovelace. I'm so happy i did i think it turned out well and while im not crazy about it, its not bad for only one week to work on it.
Like I said it could be done better but its not too bad. I'm glad that projects done so that i can now move onto the main project of this class. the really hard and famous (at least in the major) Bank project.
we have now moved on to the bank project and I finally have a plan for what i want to do. I don't think I have talked about this project yet. it’s HUGE. it is said to be the hardest project in jewelry, like the whole four year is this project. the time strand is huge, the expectations are bigger and the whole thing is gigantic!!!. the requirements are so simple its a bit dispective. you are making a bank for something. funnily enough no one has ever done a money bank. it has to have a concept and two ways into it, a deposit and withdrawal. a box with a lid is not going to cut it. there has to be something physical as the currency, the idea can be very conceptual but there still has to be a real representation. now these things are somewhat flexible such as the two entrances into the piece, if your idea is good enough or if you're doing a set of pieces like i am then you don't have to have that. they can be made out of metal and a combination of anything else. they can be worn, set on the table, hung from the ceiling, or whatever you want.
so i'm doing a set of pieces in silver, I wanted to do something around the seed, Like you all know I love plants. we were asked to think of things we collect, i don't really collect a ton of things what came into mind was my doorknob collection (its still small) my puzzle box collection (even smaller) my nail polish collection (its huge) and how I impulse buy plants. i can't collect plants her but i still like them one thing i can keep are the seeds, easy to transport and have the promises of a real plant later. so i'm drawing inspiration from that and also from these diagrams used in bonitey to identify the structure of a plant these are the basic ones, but there are tons of variations.
they will be three broochs each with two parts. one with be a representation of one of the diagrams from above and then a larger version of the seed on the other side connected with a chain. there will be a way to open each “seed” to put in the seeds. I know it may sound a bit confusing but it will become clearer as I keep working on them. I have ordered my supplies and its on its way I should start construction soon!
now that I’m done with school (haha I’m never done) I will move onto the next biggest part of my life, going gluten free. now that its been over a month i have managed to get over myself with the whole, OH GOD I WILL NEVER EAT BREAD AGAIN REAL BREAD!!! thing (well kind of...) its hard but i'm moving forward i have attempted two baked items without gluten and they both came out fine and were no harder than the gluten filled treats I used to make. I have found some great blogs and some cookbooks that I hope to order soon. so i'm working on it. I'm really glad that i wasn't diagnosed even 5 years ago because there are so many new products and a great online support system out there on the web now. I'm going to include some links to some of my favorite blogs about being gluten free and stuff.
One) and love it to. this blog is not huge but some great recipes and some good lunch ideas, I’m planning to buy one of her books soon. the Gluten free Asian Kitchen
Two) Gluten free reviews. this place is awesome. there are a ton gluten free products out now and some are great and some not so great its nice to be able to find new products with a review attached this site turned me onto my replacement Luna bars - Pure organic bars and Kind bars. Life savers when i'm going to be in the studio all day.
three) Gluten free girl is based in Seattle which is cool, there are a ton of good recipes and seasonal recipes on this site, plus just a ton of information. looking through the site you don't really miss the wheat flour all the much.
Four) elanas pantry is great too, she does everything with almond flour, I have not made anything from this site yet because i need to order the flour she uses. I hope to buy her cupcake book soon
when i was going through all this i also ran into one other really cool blog its not gluten free but the women is a chef in Seattle who also has food intolerance's (to garlic) so kind of on the list and kind of not is chef reinvented
Anyway hope to talk to you all soon. - Katie