First assignment...day 4

Using last century technology  I presented to students today details of what will be their first jewelry assignment.  They are to design a shape, using Natural, Geometric or Free Form, that they will cut out ofmat board.  The centerpiece should fill a 3"X3" square.  They will create duplicates of the same shape in descending sizes...2.5x2.5...2x2...1x1. Sandwich gluing 3 pieces of each size, filing, sanding, gesso, drawing, painting, and varnishing will follow.  They will drill holes in each shape and connect the pieces with jump rings. The diagram on the chalkboard roughly illustrates the necklace they will creating. A couple students had to miss this presentation, so I told them I would put it on the blog.

The SHAPES of things to come...day 3

Today we discuss the Element of Art...SHAPE...

Shape comes in what seems to be an infinite variety of Shapes.  I like to break the idea of shape down into 3 general categories.  They are NATURAL SHAPES, GEOMETRIC SHAPES, and FREE FORM SHAPES.

Natural shapes are found in world as nature made . They include, but obviously not limited to, all forms of plants, animals, mammals, fish, birds, and rocks.

Geometric shapes take in all the categories of mathematically contrived design and include the SQUARE, CIRCLE, and TRIANGLE, along with all the derivatives of these...rectangle, hexagon, etc.

Free form shapes are the result of  man's imagination to draw and/or cut shapes from material that have no mathematical base, but enclose space or define space.

Pictured below are examples of these different shape concepts created by Jewelry Artists and made into wearable are.

 FREE FORM SHAPES

 NATURAL SHAPES

 GEOMETRIC SHAPES

 NATURAL SHAPES

 GEOMETRIC SHAPES

 FREE FORM SHAPES BASED ON GEOMETRIC SHAPES

GEOMETRIC SHAPES

Our first skill building assignment will be based on student's original design of SHAPES, with the use of LINE design composing the surface.

Design Discussion begins..day 2

                  Today we begin reviewing the elements of Art and the principles of Design.

LINE is defined as a point moving on a surface through space._______________________would be considered a straight line.  Curved, Zigzag, Broken, Implied, and Spiral lines would be way to describe the other types of line we encounter.  Natural lines are found in nature, obviously, such as tree limbs, blades of grass, saplings, and veins on a leaf.  Man made lines are seen in power lines, telephone poles, electric cords, and painted street markers.  

Lines have emotional tones as well, and we study them when discussing drawing and painting, but in Jewelry they are much more subtle.

This a photo of a student work in my class several years ago in silver.  It is a closeup of a Tiara, or headdress, she created.  I use it to illustrate the use of Curved line accented by short straight lines and in this case, circles SHAPES as well.

This necklace makes us of random curved and straight lines that move around and through each other to create an interesting composition.

In this last image of a pair of earrings, you can observe that the artist has used a combination of STRAIGHT LINES within a LINEAR SHAPE to create the composition.

Day one of 2014 school year

The first element of art we will study this year is LINE.  This image is of a photo I took of a jeweler's work I saw at an art show last year.  Observe how the artist uses a repetition of zigzag lines, separated by clear beads so each unit of line is set off.

I want to use this blog this year to illustrate the various concepts, projects, skills, and design components we will b involved in.