Totally Tumblr!

I have a Tumblr account mostly because a friend of mine discovered the site about a year ago. I'll spare the world and not link to mine, since its is mostly regurgitation of stuff already on there and very little original content (one of my few posts was linking to this small play through of an indie roguelike shooting game thing that I still haven't had a chance to play though you can download it free here.) But, if you find the right blogs to follow on Tumblr you can find some cool art and inspiration for your own work like:

These awesome rings by Sarah Hood who's website is here. She appears to do a lot of work with organic forms and I like the simple and clean layout of her site. Plus, I'm also a sucker for the cool use of the railroad modelling landscape bits. I always see the little model trees at A.C. Moore's or Hobby Lobby and want them so so so bad, especially the orange trees, but have no idea what I would actually make with them. On the subject of railroad modeling here's a video that I found and am shamelessly stealing from a Cracked article:

Beyond impressive for a medium, for lack of a better term, that has always been considered a kid's plaything. Apparently I am highly amused by miniature things, which I suppose is a benefit in jewelry making! As for more inspirational materials pertaining to my theme of Fun and Games (possibly just Games now) I haven't wandered across anything else yet, so it seems appropriate to cap this off with a quote from the Art Student Owl describing my current frustrations: 

Things are a Groovin'

Its been two weeks into the semester, and a lot has been happening, even though I haven't been able to get into the studio as much as I want to (curse you swipe card)! and the quickest way to show off is through pictures so here we go!

Metalsmithing: worked up a couple pipe cleaner models for the nested vessel project. I am leaning toward the one on the left, and hope I can use 16 gauge blue aluminium wire to weave between  the copper spokes of the base. It's going to take a hell of a lot of wire though and I'm not sure I have the patience or the funds. (Also I cannot get this paragraph to justify to the left for some reason, perhaps it needs to express its individuality?)

Jewelry: Making endless jump rings at home since the lock on the studio isn't active. I was able to get in one day though and start cutting out Pac-man links as well as learn how to fuse some jump rings! I'm only halfway regretting using absurdly thick metal for Pac-man, but at least the links will have more dimension to them?

Ceramics: Yep its a pinch pot with a snake looping around it. For this project I had to create a zoomorphic tripod vessel and this was the only good idea I could come up with. On the right is the slapped together maquette for the final. The final itself actually does stand on its own, though I do wish I could go back and re-seat the pinch pot at a more rakish angle but the piece is now dry and ready for crit on Tuesday. 

CAD Class: In a move that I feel is somehow ironic, I'm the farthest ahead on things in my Rhino CAD class. Thus far we've been learning the interface and what tools do what by going through the basic tutorials. Hence the castle for moving and stacking solids, the flashlight for Boolean unions and differences (and an extra bit on lighting) and I got ahead on the duck, which is about manipulating the standard solid shapes into something more organic and a few other details. Now we are going to start an actual "real" project by building a toy. So far my only plan is to build a wind up toy, but it should be fun!

Something like this one though more complex than a sphere. Speaking of toys I've found some fun little quasi-inspirational things on the internet, which will be shared next time when I pretend this blog is on Tumblr.