Gaudy, Gaudy, Gaudy

Do I watch Antiques Roadshow? Yes. Am I man enough to admit to it on the internet? No. Anyways here is a big old Tiffany sterling silver and enamel vase made for the 1893 Colombian Exposition worth about $50,000-$100,000. On the show they kept referencing how ugly it was, though the more I looke at it the more I admire parts of its garish decoration, like the three handle loops and especially the enameled curves in the middle. Part of that is probably due to me not actually owning the vase, or having seen it in person.

Here's a George Nakashima shelf, who was a woodworker and had a different piece some one brought in on the same Antiques Roadshow episode. He has an interesting aesthetic, retaining as much of the natural shape of the wood he uses as possible, as well as sometimes using obvious butterfly joins in his pieces. There an old article in LIFE magazine here where he talks about his work, and a website here. Yes I am more interested in the obvious connection points than in the natural edges, since a natural piece of metal would look largely like a dirty rock.

Despite the heat I managed to get a couple of pieces "done" before giving up on it. Here are the matching earrings to go with this wax pendant from last week. The earring on the right has already been sprued for the eventual rubber mold, I still need to do the same to the pendant, but it's also too hot for wax work.

These are the offical earrings for the rubber mold making class, complete with ugly old sprues coming out the bottom. The ring still needs more work, but I'm thiiiiis close to finishing all of my postives for the molds. the next trick will be to scrounge up enough silver for all of these, though they are fairly light weight, excepting the pendant. Hopefully soon I can get into what must be a blistering studio and actually make this stuff, ideally after it has rained some and cooled down.

So until then its back to the drawing board for production and waiting out the heat.