Middle of Midterms

  So we officially had mid-terms last week and my studio classes mainly kept to that. I had a project due in my two core classes and started a new one in casting. My academic classes are both having their mid-terms next Monday. My week has been quite busy leaving me no time for blogging so a nice long post is needed.

Since my last post we have got gas back in the dorms and jewelry studio. There was a big problem because the gas also fueled the jewelry studio so none of the torches would work; most work ground to a halt for about three days.  It was super crowded in the studio after it came back on as everyone was playing catch-up. In the dorms it was really not too much of a problem, we were allowed to take showers in the other dorms if needed, I just changed my schedule a bit so I could take showers at the gym. The heating was always a bit warm for me and my roommate so the only concession to that was to shut the window that we normally keep open. The lecture hall, the academic buildings and the photo building have yet to get the heat back on. They have dug two big holes in the upper part of campus.

I did fairly well on my first 3D project receiving a “B”, which I am happy with. The project was a set of tools; they could be anything and did not need to work. I did tools for the obsessive; there was a folding ruler with handle, a blade made out of soap, a table top thing with four clocks, a rosary for repetitive motion and a notebook for Post-Its with a handle. It’s not my favorite project but it was way out of my comfort zone so, over all, I’m happy.

In 2D for my color project I made a wall hanging with quotes on five panels. I don’t really like it. I feel that it could have been done better if some of the restraints of the project were not there, but I am in school so that cannot be helped.

Our next project should be fun. We are making a print and redoing the same print six times. This will be my first experience with print making and I think it may also be my last. I have great respect and love for print art and the people in that feald. I will enjoy knowing more about the process but it’s just not really my thing. I’m going to go for an abstract design as per the teachers’ wish – it has a better chance of looking good- I think I will do something with circles.

In casting I have moved on to my next project and am ready to cast as soon as my silver arrives. The project was based on the idea of sets or belonging together, we were to make three versions of something or make three of the exact same thing and treat them in different ways. I flip flopped a lot on the ideas but settled on a simple but very pleasing design.

Here are all of them as a set (It’s a nice photo because I had checked out one of the really nice SLR’s from school. Sorry about the watermark, I had to convert them from RAWS and did not have the right software)…

and here they are all ready to be cast.

I have also been working hard to find an apartment for next year. I am sooo over dorm life, if I have to make all my meals I want a kitchen I don’t have to share with 40 odd people. Apartment hunting is stressful mainly because i have never done this before and there is really no other option then to get off campus housing. My parents have stated the wish that I do not live by myself, so I am also on the hunt for roommates. The other option is to rent a room in a private home which would have some pros and cons. It would be nice to have a yard, I have really missed having a garden, especially as the weather has been getting warmer. I also would not have to go on the hunt for roommates.

As Spring break gets closer I get more and more excited to have a nice week long break when I can come back home. I fly out on the 16th and fly back on 25th. Can’t wait to see you all when I get back – Katie

Update

Ok so first off I finished dad’s cufflinks over the weekend. Here they are they are not the best nor my favorite piece I have ever done but I like them and as a first project they are nice.

Ok now a note on my ethics class. I am having some serious problems with this class. Let me say first that whall I don’t really like philosophy I know that it can be quite interesting. My bias is not coming out of hating the subject or reading martial. The problems come from the reader they made and the way they set up plus the horrible teachers that make this class a real problem. The only saving grace to the whole class is the teacher I have she is younger than the other teachers and it’s her first time teaching the class, this is a very good thing.

Now the problems

Problem One) the structure of the class. -  On Monday we have a large grope lecture in our only lecture hall on campus, there is always an essay due at the start of this class. This really bugs a lot of my classmates they say “why do I have to write the essay before I hear the lecture” I however know there are advantages in the teacher’s eyes to this so I am not going to go into that. Then depending on your schedule you will have an independent meeting with about 20 students and one of the four teachers. I believe this format makes since in a larger schools, it’s a great way to give a bunch of students the needed information and then really let it set and be able to answer questions. We are a small school. If the teachers are already on campus twice a week (and they all come to the lectures) why do we not just meet in the small groups as opposed to a large group?

Problem two) the large lecture achieves nothing besides boring us out of our minds. It also means that depending on the teacher the lecture will be structured differently. If we are trying to grasp difficult concepts, having to get used to a new lecture just adds to the stress.

Problem Three) there is one teacher I really hate, He’s not even my prime teacher but it’s like every time he talks he’s looking down on everyone. I have heard that in this small study groups he targets people to pick on every class. He is the head of the whole class, apparently he is somewhat well known. I don’t like his lectures they are confusing, highhanded and he insets little things like “In my option she does not know the text as well as she clams but I won’t mention that now” Ummm… hello you just told the whole class (100+) over the speakers. He also made the reader

Problem Four) the reader. I don’t really like readers they are unwieldy as all the text is scanned in and therefore sideways- making the thing hard to read. I understand that it does keep cost down so I live with that. But this reader is the worst one I have seen. For one thing there is a color photos on the cover of a painting…not a painting that is in anyway reverent to the class but is instead of the afor mentioned teacher… really you put yourself on the cover. I don’t really care that he is so big headed he thought that was a good move but the fact that putting the COLOR print on the cover jacks up the price, by ten dollars. I don’t need the decal for a extra ten dollars, the point was to keep the price down, right? A second gripe is that there is no index. I get that it’s a book put together from a bunch of different places but someone went through and numbered all the pages they could have noted where the parts end It’s a huge book its more than 1 ½ inches thick! And the last thing, the most anointing thing. He copy and pasted the strait Wikipedia articles on all the philosophy and added them to the back of the book. -_- I mean do you think we cannot get to Wikipedia on our own. I don’t need Wikipedia articles in print I can just find them on line. In fact I don’t even need my computer. I have an app for that. I have asked around, no one uses these they just add weight, kill more trees and add more cost to the printing.

Well that was a great rant I feel lots better after putting that out there. On a completely different note, I have no internet again I am posting this over a school computer; both the wifi and Ethernet are out.

Bigger news – there is a gas leak in the ceramics building so they had to turn off all the gas to fix the leak so none of the buildings have hot water or heat – Including my dorm, not the other dorm as they are off campus. There is no news of when they will turn it back on but I’m not completing yet. It is motive to get to the gym in the Moring, they have hot water. We are having a hall meeting later so I will find out more then.

Midterms are next week. Spring break is in four weeks.

Update on the Update: we are going to be going without heat and hot water for the next three days so they can fix the leak. They offered us a space heater but if we were to plug that in we would have to unplug everything else. I would rather put on a extra sweater then unplug my computer.

observations on casting and outher stuff...

  The Cuff Links have been cast!!! Casting is fun but quite scary. There’s a huge torch that is used to heat the metal, it’s about three times the size of the normal ones, it has a huge tip and you have to light it in a vent so the flame does not go anywhere. The most alarming thing is when you light it, it makes this large pop. Luckily, I did not have to handle the torch, the teacher did and did most of it as this was our first time, we just handed her stuff.

 So these are the wax models. The wax wires are called spurs and they help the hot metal flow to every point.

You then wax them onto the hard rubber base. The metal cylinder then goes over the mold like this…

So at this point you pour in investment, it’s like way more toxic plaster. It sets up in ten minutes but to fully dry it takes a bit longer so up until this point I did all this last Thursday.  They set up over the weekend and then this morning they were put in the kiln (by Tony the studio manager) after a bit he removed the base. I’m not quite sure where the wax has gone but by now it’s gone. When we got into class they were in there cooling down (but still bloody hot). I was using my fine silver scraps, but for various reasons I wanted them to be sterling silver. Dad does not need fine silver cuff links and on the more practical side fine silver is very soft and not the best for something you wear on your wrists. This all meant that I had to mix in some copper.  For that you have to melt it all together and then pickle it to get rid of all the oxidation.Here it’s all ready to melt. When it melts if forms a lovely bit of metal.

this is after its out of the pickle. Then you place the cylinder in the casting drum. The metal is in the front part and the black thing is the cylinder.

Fire is applied! we have to wear dark tinted glasses so we can see the metal heating...

After the machine is finished you take out the flask and let it cool for anywhere between 10-20 minutes, then you submerge it in a bucket of water full of the used investment (you can’t dump the stuff in the sink). Here they are yes they are black, its just the oxidation.

this is after they are out of the pickle and I have sawed one off I now start the long process of clean up. I will keep you all updated... now on to other subjects...

Over all my academic classes are not so much bad as just boring. There is one thing I really like about them both though, I sit to one side in history and a few rows back in ethics and once I get bored of the topic or taking notes I watch people sketch. That sounds a bit creepy but I swear it’s not really. At CCA EVERYONE sketches, because you have to for a class (me) or because sketching is something you do whenever someone hands you any kind of writing utensil. There seems to be three methods for class sketching. One; the unabashed sketcher, these are the people who don’t even try to hide the fact that they are drawing and were planning to draw in the class, they often have large sketch books and several different pencils and pens with the nice erasers. If you questioned these people they will probably tell you that drawing helps them pay attention, I’m not going to refute that but it seems a bit iffy.  Two: the timid doodler. These people are the ones who bring notebooks with lined paper and will really start off taking notes however before long the margins will be filled and the drawing is infringing on the notes and soon there are no more notes. These people would most likely apologize if someone asked them about it, and look up often to see if they have been caught. Three: the most common, I’m going to kind of pretend to be taking notes but not really. (Although we all do this sooo…) they say they are going to take notes in their sketch book, its normally a lot smaller book then the unabashed sketchers have; notes on one page, drawing on the opposite, so they are flipping back and forth. They will look a bit guilty but not really deny anything. So what are the top subjects for theses drawing? Well, of cores it all varies, but manly its manga style people, after that tattoo designs and faces- in classical style.

This is the sketch the girl next to me did in my small ethics lecture (so an hour and a half) this was one of two she seemed pleased to let me take a photo and it gave me an idea for some cool metal hair piece.

I will post again if anything exciting happens but if not I will post when the cuff links are in there final stages of clean up and done (about a week).

Review of the last two weeks

Hi all So we have been in school three weeks (almost) and I now know a bit more about my classes. I have mixed feelings about my 3D class it all is based (or mostly) on found objects which I don't really like working with. however I have found the teacher who I first thought was a little  bit stuck up and a bit slapdash in his work. however he has turned out to be very nice and approachable. He is quite good at woodworking and just not very good with metal some of the things he demonstrated about annealing metal and riveting made me a bit nervous, but this could be down to the fact that I am used to working a bit different and that in itself was enough to rattle me.  we are working on a project about making tools out of found objects they don't have to work but they must have an intended porpoises and theme. I'm going with tools for the obsessive. Rulers, watches, and things like that are featuring heavily in my set of five tools.

My 2D class is going downhill. I'm not sure why if it's the lack of an overall plan for the class, if it's the fact that he has never taught the class before or the fact that he is just not good at communicating. everyone including the teacher seems to be a bit confused, right now we are working on a five planned painting using various sets of colors. I fail at painting and drawing in compared to most of the people in the class so I am spinning off a drawing I did in my drawing class, involving a quote.

My ethics class  is really mixed - the lectures are long and boring, they also moves really fast for something that takes some real effort to understand. The distinction groups are better thought i often find them more informative than the lectures or the readings. This class also gave me an excuse to revisit some very funny videos that were shown to me as a tenth grader in AP Euro. Be warned then are not for young kids as they can be a bit crude and dirty, they are not very politically correct. however they are funny and surprising informative.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm0Uq08xXhY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwOCmJevigw

I'm hoping everyone we learn about has one of these...

My casting class is going well and I'm very happy I'm taking the class. I am investing (where you put it in the mold) my first project on Thursday and should cast over the weekend or on Tuesday. I am making cuff links for my dad. you start by making them out of wax, wax is kind of weird medium to work in.  it's very messy and it kind of reminds me of carving soup. some of the people in the class have trouble with the wax. because it's very soft (compared to metal ) it can also be carved away and added to, normal you are caring away from a block of wax as opposed to metal were you are adding or forming (not taking away or adding just changing)  I don't have a lot of trouble in this regard and find it kind of fun however i don't have a perticturl talent either. here are a few photos so far

that small block of blue wax is what will form one of the cuff links - since i am only making two i am making one individually. please note the blade on the saw, its much thicker then the ones we normally use, its spriled and looks a lot like barbed wire for ease of cutting in the wax. this is after the first shaping see how the sides are sloped there not done yet but starting to take shape.

here they are finished - ugly I know they will look a lot better in silver I promise. the red is where i made mistakes in the wax and had to fill it in using a softer melting wax.

One more thing before I go - after this week I decided that my work load was too much for six classes this semester. It made me very sad to drop interaction design after only two classes however it was the right thing to do, and with the encouragement of the teacher I will try to take it next semester, after the summer !

So sorry i have been out of toutch for about a week, the internet was down on my desktop for the past few days and depending on the time of day the wifi can be really really slow so i just let it go untill i was fully back on line. I have gone through all of my classes (except one) and I have decided that even though it will be tough I am going to taking six classes. It’s going to be really busy but I think I can do it and I would rather be busy then bored – Like the old saying goes if you want something done give it to someone who is busy!

I am taking four studio classes – 2D color translations, 3D Form vs. Function, Casting, and Intro to interaction Design

Then I have two academic classes – Intro to modern Art, and critical studies: Ethics & Justice (its intro to philosophy)

My week starts out in my 8AM morning class for 3D form vs. Function- i have only been to the class twice and im not sure how much i will like it however i don't think there will be much work outside of class so that's nice...the teacher is a older guy who went to CCA and then went and worked independent before coming back to teach. he's teaching philosophy is to give them and outline and then leave them allow to see what they come up with this class deals with a lot of Found objects witch i never like its a bit weird but i never have very good luck with turning things i largely consider junk into art its not really my thing but I will just suffer thought as its a core class and i have to pass it.

then i have a bit of a break before heading to my second class of the day witch is Intro to the Modern arts, I should say this right from the start I am not a huge fan of post-modern art, I find lots of it laughable I'm not doubting the artist talent when I scoff at the in dept analice of a canvice pained one color is not art its a background for the real painting, I mean please.  however just about everything before that period I do genuinely like or at least respect one of my favrout painters is going to be covered in this which is Monet, I'm quite looking forward to that. the class this time is not going to be as easy as my last history class its being taught by  a visiting perfuser who is actually speclices in cultural study's so lots of the class will be coming from that perspective. he has given us two textbooks to buy (already one more then last semester) and quizzes every two weeks.

after that class lets out if its a Monday I get a small break before heading off to Ethics. this class is structure a bit weird for CCA although from what i hear its a normal arrangement in larger university (such as the Udub) on Monday's there is a large lecture section (for CCA that means we meet in the only lecuter hall on campus and there are about 100 students) there are four teachers who all lecture trading off then depending who you have been assignment to you meet on a different day in a different place to have a discussion class. I have not been to one of thought yet. Its going to be a really mixed class and more then ethics it is basic pholospy starting with Aristotle. I have a feeling that how good the class is depends on who is lecturing I already know that one of the women who is going to be teaching is supper dull she managed to make Greek tragity so dull I wanted to cry she speaks in a complete monotone the whole time...uggg however this class is kind of cool because 1/4 of the freshman population is in it so we all kind of know each outer. Last Wednesday leaving the lecture hall (they desired to hold a lecture as it was the first day) a few of us spotted a new water art piece on a wall (I have talked about these before it's where to dump water on the ground to form a image) so we decide to grab a photo with it. sorry its a bit blurry

after That im done for the day! then for Tuesday and Thursday my day does not start until noon witch is sooo nice I have 2D witch is going to be easy and boring then a hour break before Casting! Yes i stitched out of Glass I think it was a good choice, It looked really interesting but they wanted a huge time commitment to something that was not advancing my major i would like to take it sometime but not this year so i moved to Casting witch is at the same time I will go talk more about the class later on but I think it will be very fun and good to know later on down the line, its a really complex process to explain so i thought i would post a very nice video i found its not quite how we do it but its very close this is how almost all commercial jewelry is made although on a bigger scale. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwbyOJrWCHs&feature=related]

then we come to my last class witch is interaction Design all day Friday but i think i will cover that in a different post as i have only been to the first class.

Welcome to Second Semster

Hi everyone - sorry I have been ignoring the blog for the past month. however I was on break and having to much fun being home. Some highlights of break include, Christmas (of course) hanging out all day with my cousin at SAM (Seattle art Museum) having a nice chat over some wonderful chi with pastor Abby, Will, and Libby. Then there was  Megen amazing new years eve party, spending days at the udub and shoreline community college pretending to be a normal college student. Spending my last evening in Seattle with my best friends, was a amazing way to end my break. there was of course a lot more to break and I enjoyed it all. but now I'm back to school and getting in the grove of classes.

There were no classes on Monday as it was MLK day. so we are starting on Tuesday, I only have two classes on Tuesday and Thursday. I have already posted my schuagle but i will post it a second time as I have forgotten most of it. Make note this will probly not be my final schuagle, more on that later. 

My first class of second semester is my Color Class, I have herd lots about this class as the two teachers who teach it have very different methods of teaching it, one teacher in a more classes style with color wheels and such the outer is a bit more new wave and goes more with instincts of students and such. I don't really know witch one i have, but both share the philosophy of lots of work. the teacher has already e-mailed us with vocab words and some basic supplys we need to have the first day of class.

My second class of the Day is Glass, a fun class for sure. Unfortunately I think I will have to drop it as I want to take into to Interactive design (an all day Friday class) as I am looking into this as a second possible major. Never fear as i will take glass some outer time as it looks SO cool.

You may notice that i am not taking a jewelry class this semester. Since I have taken jewelry one and am a jewelry student I can use the studio. On the agenda for jewelry to make this semester include a few late Christmas presents for friends and a pair of cuff links and matching studs for my dad.

hopefully I will write a second post soon perhaps tomarrow night as a review of all my classes.

Ring Review

I'm done with the ring!!! here it is

sorry its sideways, I am very happy with the end product and I'm looking forward crit on Thursday now. I have got tons of complements on it just in the studio, witch makes me feel like all the work I put in was worth it. :)

before it was done thought It went though some funny phase including the moon phase...

pin cushion phase...

and small spike phase...I am so happy its done! I feel like my finals might go Okay now! before I can relax and go home I have to make it through a presentation in Drawing, turning in my essay in English, and my Final in Art History, then the final crit on Thursday and then my final class for 4D all day Friday, where I have to present what I have learned about Progressing.

Then I get to spend my Saturday in SF and then jump on a plane back to Seattle!

I am looking forward to a nice break and a wonderful Christmas!

FINALS, FINALS, FINALS

down with week one and now on to week two. Finals here are two weeks long, a exhausted two week slog. this weekend i am trying to get as much done as possible, so this will be really short. photos will fallow soon when everything is done

so excited to come home

I'm going back to my homework i have a essay to Finnish today plus a drawing to color render and work on my 4D code program that I really have to work on.

-Katie

Key Vs. Keycards

I have both. I like my key better. In my dorm we have a key card to get into the dorm and then a key to get into my room. the problem with key cards is they are faulty. I'm on my second key card, the one they gave me the micro chip was able to almost completely pop out of the frame. now it appears that about half of everyone is having getting the door open to the dorm it just flashes a yellow light at me, then I am reduced to banging on the door until someone lets me.

my key has never failed to work, I lost it once, but it never did not open my door. I want to stick to my keys.

restering for new classes, thanksgiving, and FINALS!

Hi everyone, Sooo I have locked myself out of my dorm so I'm waiting in the liberty untill my roommate comes back typing this on a really nice Mac computer.

Lots to talk about in this blog I will cover my quiet thanksgiving, all my final projects in all my classes and of corse my schedule for next semester

Signing up for classes here and every body else in the college world we sign up online and they stager the times and priority levle of everyone. upperclassman down, so I one of the last people to sign up cuz' i'm a freshman and I transfered in no credits. classes fill up fast so i had made two schedules in case some of my classes had filled up. no matter what i have to take the last two core art classes and Into to modern art, plus ethics that leaves one class free as an elective.  My first choice for that was intro to Interaction - however when I went to sign up it was full so I signed up for my second choice Glass blowing. so as it stands this is my schedule however things are likely to change.

So I have five classes. Into to Modern art, Into to ethics, color correlations, hand productions, and into to glass and glass blowing (for now)

I had a quiet thanksgiving I stayed here and ate a bunch of pumpkin pie! classes started dwindling as people went home starting on that monday up untill Wednesday when all but my morning class was canceled. I got to Skype with my family which was nice and got frustrated at my computer untill I gave up and read my book. I was planing to get so much done but I blew it all off and read all day for the next two days. I re-read and finished four books plus the last book of the Eragon Inheritance novel which I had started on audio book about a week before the book that stands out is Shatter me by Tahereh Mafi it reminded me of the hunger games but the main character was a bit darker and the book had a faster plot. also I hate the cover, completely the wrong feel for the book. Ugg :(

that brings us to Finals. In this three weeks between thanksgiving are finals week. Our finals are not like lots of outer finals cuz' almost all of them are projects one is a paper and i have one test in Art History. everything else is projects we have started them now i am doing a drawing of an interior shot of a room fully color rendered. I'm starting to learn code I will use Processing hopefully I will make some kind of interactive jewelry for 4D (need to spend a bit more time on this) and a ring which is the major half of the final in jewelry (there's also a small secondary project  too but we have not gotten there yet)

this ring is going to be cool. one) its going to be huge, like one of thoughts huge cocktail rings Two) I'm going off the last project I did with the dots - my inspiration for that was a photo of different sized pearls on a wood block so this time I am using real pearls and I am setting a stone (small turquoise) Three) learning way cool stuff to make this possible.

I have not got super far as all the beginning steps are a bit tedious but once i get past them things will sped up. The base ring composes two silver disks that I cut out I'm doming them using a Dappling block to form two half circles In these photos you can it the dome about half way through the shaping process. After they were fully domed I had to figure out where all the pearls and stone was going to go after that was all laid out. We filled the top dome with Pitch. This nasty looking stuff that we melt with a head gun its made up of Plaster and tree resin so whall it looks really gross it does not smell bad. We set the now full dome in a big block of that stuff, then cooled. this allows me to put little divots in the dome allowing the pearls to sit better. having it in the pitch when I do this will help keep the round dome shape I've already made.  This is the dome just set in the pitch you can see all my sharpy marks, this is before any dimpling.

I don't have a shot of just the dimpling but this is a rough idea of what it will look like!