Applied Arts (Metal Work) Week

Second Week - Applied Arts (Metal Work)

We started off the week by generating inspiration from either natural forms (such as lots of different, interestingly shaped dried seed pods) or mechanical, metal objects. I chose a seed pod because I'm more drawn to natural forms. We made a view finder and placed it on a part of the object we found interesting. A quick five minute sketch later and we chose another part we found interesting and drew that over the top of the first image. The idea then was to find an shape we liked in the picture we'd made and design some jewellery around that shape. I enjoyed it a lot. It was an different way to gain inspiration that I will perhaps use again in the future especially if the work is heavily dependant on shape. 

We had a tour of the workshop and shown how to use some of the equipment - such as the spot welder, the fly press, a micro welder and the rolling machine.

We then got given our brief for the week which was to cover a wooden cube in metal sheets in the style of the artist Junko Mori. I researched her and found this website really useful -  http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/artists_stories/single/81484 - it gave me a good, basic understanding about Junko Mori and her work. It was clear that Mori is influenced by organic, microscopic forms such as bacteria, viruses and pollen so I looked as those types of images to to gain inspiration for my piece:



bacteria

pollen



plankton

I used the images I found to create simplified organic shapes using wire and the spot welder to imprint onto the copper, yellow, gold metal and tin-plated steel using different techniques - the fly press and rolling machine. I loved using the copper because I had to clean it using a special machine; it was so shiny when it was finished - it looked lovely.

I was really quite pleased with my base although I think I could definitely improve my hammering skills! I love the weird, organic shape on the different coloured metal. However, I wanted to get a bit more Junko Mori's influence into my work so I started making organic shapes by hammering different parts of wires to make interesting shapes and welding into uncontrollable forms. I started to attach them to the base as you can see in the photos. Unfortunately, I ran out of time to get all of them on so my work is incomplete but I am pleased with what I have achieved so far.

Here are the rest of the forms I wanted to attach to my base. I do like my piece because I think it reflects Junko Mori's work but I've also made it my own by using 2D images as well as 3D and creating my own organic shapes. I've really enjoyed metal work - it was so much trying trying out all the different machines and seeing what different things did to metal. I definitely want to have another go at some point!