Kind of Strange

I recently got a chance to sit down with Rasmus of AnotherPassion.com to do a quick interview and photoshoot about my Kind of Strange endeavors.  Here’s an excerpt:

Tara’s Jewelry is Kind of Strange

Photo care of Rasmus Rasmussen

Tara Brannigan makes jewelry and costumes out of silver, bones, stones and leather. Among other things. This is almost a counter to her tech-oriented day job, except that her love of technology occasionally steps into the artistic realm. Such as in the case of her bench-cam, a live webcam from Tara’s workshop where interested parties can watch her work in real time.

I met Tara at a coffee shop in Seattle, where she showed me a few samples of her work and took the time to talk to me a bit about her process. We also talked about some of the personal motivations and experiences that have helped fuel Tara’s creativity.

AP: What is your process like? How do you get started on a new piece and when do you know that it’s done?

I force myself to sit down at the bench on a fairly regular basis, but I don’t always have a plan before I do. Generally if I have a plan, it’s because some random idea popped into my head earlier in the day and I feel the need to flesh it out. Usually this happens in a completely inconvenient place or time, such as driving down the freeway or in the middle of some important conversation. I’ve been pretty horrible about actually sitting down to try and go through the brainstorming process, but I’m getting a bit better about it.

Other times I’ll acquire a new piece of material and dink around trying to figure out what it’s supposed to be in. Usually I’ll keep these in sight while working at the bench, so even if I don’t immediately know what it should be, I can be thinking about it in the back of my mind while working. I may not know immediately what it’s meant to be, but I latch onto it as something particularly fantastic that I need to find a purpose for.

The Horn Ring is one of those sorts of projects. I picked up the Duiker antelope horns from a clearance bin at the Bone Room in CA while I was down there visiting. I had no idea what I wanted to make from them at the time, just that they had a great deal of potential. I bought them, put them on the shelf next to my workbench and kept going back to them, but never really sorting out their purpose until I was making a project for a friend. I’d built out a box ring and was looking around for what to put on its top. I wanted the ring to have a proud, rebellious, but also protective nature. I just wasn’t finding the right stone in my collection of random ‘things to set’ though, and started looking through my personal Pile of Random Awesome Stuff. That’s what I spotted the Duiker horns and, after a quick check to make sure one of them would fit, realized I’d finally found the perfect home for it.

Read the full interview over at: http://www.anotherpassion.com/2010/interview/taras-jewelry-is-kind-of-strange/#more-755

Just a quick update to note that I am A) Not Dead and B) will be returning to regular updates within the next few weeks.

I’ve been in the process of locating a new place to live and work on projects. Now that I’ve found one, I have to do the moving & unpacking dance before I can really get back down to business. Once there I should be a heck of a lot more productive though.

So a while back I posted a YouTube video about local Seattle artist Kim Graham and her fantastic digitigrade leg extensions. 

http://www.kindofstrange.com/2009/digitigrade-legs/

So what do I find this morning when I open my email?

Kim, on her digitigrade leg extensions, in the Weta newsletter!  Weta is now producing Kim’s wonderful leg extensions under the name ‘Weta Legs’.  They’ll run you around $1,320 NZD, so just under $1k USD.

http://www.wetanz.com/wetalegs

Way to go Kim, fantastic work all around!

Kim’s work outside of Weta may be seen at the following locations:

• KimGrahamStudios.com
• SilkMermaid.com

And in person at Semantics Gallery in Edmonds, WA.  (http://www.semanticsartgallery.com/)

Near the end of each JTI class at the Revere Academy students are asked to complete a box ring project.  Every student starts by creating a basic ring consisting of four pieces, which when assembled form an open square on the top of the ring. 

You can see some examples from a previous class here:

http://metalcyberspace.com/blog/archives/244

From this basic idea, students are asked to design and build their own personal box ring.  The time limitation of the project is set at 8 hours for anything beyond the basic ring construction, but that appears to be more of a general guideline than anything enforced.  Students may use whatever materials and construction techniques they want, as long as it builds off of the base box ring idea.

Here’s what I came up with:

Materials used: Sterling silver, 14k gold, peridot, deer leg bone, wolf fur

Additional photos and Meaning(TM) after the jump…

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I arrived in San Francisco Saturday evening.  My aunt, who is currently attending the Art Academy, met me at the baggage claim in the airport.  From there she introduced me to the wonder that is the BART.  I come from the land of Seattle where public transit is close to non-existent, so getting from the airport to downtown in less than half an hour was pretty bloody impressive.  We arrived at her place where we played catch-up and eventually fell asleep. 

Sunday consisted of locating the school and getting settled in at the house I’m staying at.  (thanks Richard!)  The BART runs from a few blocks nearby to within just a few blocks of the school, so the commute is a breeze.  Well, mostly a breeze.  I’m currently staying on top of a rather large hill, so the returning home at the end of the day bit can be a bit rough.  But on the bright side, I’m getting one heck of a work-out.  My physical therapist would be proud.

Day one of the class was largely introductions to the teachers, classmates and general working practices around the studio.  The overall class size was more than 20 people, so classes were broken up into two smaller groups.  I choose the evening class, as I enjoy sleeping in a bit and generally hit my productivity upswing a bit later in the day.    

Day two:  Got to arrive a bit later, which was nice with regards to getting a bit more sleep.  The BART route is easy to navigate and found the school again with no problem whatsoever.  The weather took one heck of a turn, whipping wind and incredible amounts of rain around throughout the day. We worked on polishing a little brass alloy hummingbird charm and just started in on a boxy silver ring before we broke for lunch and switched over to the studio workspace.  Polishing is interesting, but I can’t claim it’s my strong suit at the moment.  The evening studio time headed by Alan focused on ring construction and soldering.  From a piece of square, silver wire we made a simple ring. A large piece of copper wire was drawn through the rolling mill to demonstrate how it worked and pieces were cut for use in making a ring the following day. 

Day three:  More work on polishing this morning on the pre-cast silver ring.  I wasn’t entirely pleased with my output, but it was a good learning exercise as I’d never attempted polishing a ring with such a sharp, stepped design.  Breaking in the new brushes was entertaining and I somehow ended up with copious amounts of rouge dust on my face.  I wandered around the city a bit at lunch, trying to get a slightly better understanding of the surrounding area.  After lunch we jumped into more lessons on soldering, another demonstration of ring construction and got to work on the thick copper ring. 

Overall, my initial impressions of the class have been very positive.  The teachers are very knowledgeable as well as personable.  Alan himself seems to have an endless reserve of patience paired with a steady manner and direction.  The class itself is, as it states, rather intense.  I’m finding it hard to remember what happened on what day as it seems impossible that it’s only been 3 days thus far. 

Photos to follow in the updates to come.  I have the short term memory of a gnat, so I’ve managed to forget the camera the past several days.  Go me!

Copious amounts of tools purchased for class via Otto Frei! I somehow managed to not buy all of the not-on-the-list tools that I wanted rather than needed. I claim this as a victory!

Unfortunately the tools I did purchase are being shipped directly to the Revere Academy, so I won’t be able to play with them until I get down there. Explaining the amount of hammers in my luggage was a less than desirable scenario though, so straight to the school they go! I do appreciate that Otto Frei offers that option with no additional fee, at any rate.

As of five minutes ago, I’ve made the final payment for the JTI course at the Revere Academy.

Place to stay: Secured!
Plane tickets: Purchased!
Time off: Pending final approval

Now to suck it up and buy the required tools & books!

Come this fall I’ll be down in San Francisco for the Jewelry Technician Intensive at the Revere Academy.  I’ll be keeping a journal here of my experiences and projects as the class progresses.

I am both excited and a little freaked out.  The required tool list alone is intimidating!

Short, old poem, but one that I still relate to.

Seen the Sea

I have seen the Sea

Shining bright through thick and thin

Golden rays of sunlight

Burnished slick on silvered skin

 Proud, strong, confident

Surging ever without shame

So happily accepting

Its neverending game

I would like to follow

The example of the Sea

And work at what I love

For me, and only me