Defense Tile Project Reflection

When I first started doing this project, I wanted to focus on marine life but as I did more research on biodiversity, I focused on the amazon and was very inspired by dart frogs and the idea of standing out and blending in came to me in the words of defense.

When I first started, I had sketches and pictures to refer to so I knew where I wanted to go.  I knew also knew that I didn't want to do too much etching because I felt it was a bit of cheating.  I believe that I would feel different if i had combine it with something else, because with it alone, it looked as if I wasn't trying and the ones that turned out to be very awesome would be the ones that were not etched.

Overall, I am happy with what I have to present.  I didn't get to have 20 tiles like a lot of other people, but I know that the ones I came up with took a lot of time and I believe that quality beats quantity any day. Someone could have 20 tiles but mostly etched... I would feel better with 11 that has a lot of other techniques such as marriage of metal, lamination inlay, solder inlay, chasing and repousse and foldforming.  The point of this is to learn and practice of all of these techniques and I've done that.

There were a few that weren't that successful to me. I thought that the lionfish which was not part of this would turn out better. (Thank got I did it in nickel silver and not silver.)  And The chameleon could be better too but it wasnt too bad.  I would say that my favorite ones were the clownfish in the sea anemone and the dart frog one with the lamination inlay.

I also love how I did the book instead of the frame because it wanted to have this "Animal File" feel. I didn't want to for only show but wanted to be more of a documentary.  And I chose wood and brown because it went with my theme and with the color that I chose to present the tiles on.

Glad that I did it and still want to continue with it but at the moment, I need to take a step back.  I know I can push myself and will continue to do better at it.

Brainstormed Themes for Narrative Pendant

I thought of different things that I know very much about but still need to do research about as well.

First I wanted to come up with 6 themes to brainstorm but I found more themes that I could do more, my interests and things I knew that I would do it with my heart.

Some are struggles, some are comical. some are just Facts.

Enjoy. Leave some comments. Thanks

Japan's Nuclear Radiation Crisis

The Nuclear Meltdown in Japan.

Japan is in a very harsh crisis right now after the 9.0 Earthquake then the Tsunami now the Nuclear Radiation.

The severity of the radiation went from level 4 of the 7 levels to level 5. The level of severity was actually changed about 2-3 days ago when the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission made an announcement regarding the issue and starting that the situation was worse than the Japanese had indicated.

It is getting so severe that the Japanese airline are actually planning to stop all flights. In coming and out going to secure the safety of the people.

If people did not know the radiation situation was going on... after tuesday, they definitely sure know due to the 2 explosion that happened which CLEARLY indicates that the plants were melted.

But their plan of action is going to be bring some boron from South Korea and France which will help absorb the neurons from the Uranium molecules that have been running around.

From S. Korea, I say YES.

From France.... DUDE... France is a country that's FAR AWAY. Come on here... is it gonna get there?

I hope they get it solve and situated soon.

The Final Product of the 20 Tiles Project

I actually ended up with 11 tiles but a lot of them have a lot of work in it. Check them out.

Technique: Fold-forming, Wire Rivet, Liver of Sulfur Patina and Red Dye Oxide Patina

Animal: Millipede

Defense: Curl up when threaten

Technique: Etching and Liver of Sulfur Patina then slightly sand

Animal: Porcupine

Defense: Spiny Outside

Technique: Roll press with wire to create channel, Solder Inlay, then Roll press with 60 grid sand paper to create texture

Animal: Turtle

Defense: Hard Shell

Technique: Etching and Liver of Sulfur Patina then sand slightly

Animal: Zebra

Defense: Stand in group to camouflage within themselves

Technique: Chasing and Repousse, and Heat patina (torch)

Animal: Rattlesnake (Tail)

Defense: Warning

Technique: Etching and Liver of Sulfur Patina

Animal: Stickbug

Defense: Camouflage

Technique: Etching, Patina with Cupric Nitrate and Liver of Sulfur Heat Patina in layers

Animal: Chameleon

Defense: 360 degree angle eyes

Technique: Lamination Inlay

Animal: Poisonous frog

Defense: Standing out

Technique: Etching, and Liver of Sulfur Patina then stand off the high relief

Animal: Skunk

Defense: Lift up tail to spray gas

Technique: Chasing and Repousse, Heat Patina (torch) then quench in cold water

Animal: Lizard

Defense: Let go of their tail to get away from enemy

Technique: Marriage of Metal, Chasing and Repousse, and Heat Patina (torch)

Animal: Clown Fish

Defense: Clown Fish hiding in Sea Anemone

Journey to 20 Tiles of Techniques

Objective of the Tiles Project: To make 20 tiles using the different techniques we've learned to make images on a surface that corresponds to our theme.

When I first started I thought I wanted to do marine life.  But Janet Huddie, my professor, said to push even further and I did a spider web chart about marine life.  Then my focus then shifted to the Amazon because that's where the most bio-diversities are at.  

After that, I did more research which then led me to a type of frog called Dart Frog. It's colored shows it is poisonous and "don't get near me" signal is definitely flashing.

In 7th grade, I was taught that you stand out or blend in when it comes to being in nature.  Eat or be eaten.  After that, I thought of defense mechanisms because the bright colors and camouflage were types of defense mechanisms.  That led me to do my tiles on defensive mechanisms by different types of animals. 

I thought of doing maybe 10 offensive ones but there's only so much you can do with offensive because they are quite boring, claws, teeth.... nothing special but defenses are much cooler. Though one that I thought would have been cool would be the Venus Fly Trap. 

But anyways, I decided to go with the defensive and there were so many that I could choose from which were fabulous.

And here are the progress:

Wax models

I made some wax models for casting class and they turn out very cool. I have many different pictures to show.

so that was my model for wax but keep up to date cos soon i will post what it looks like after the casting.

New York City Design Field Trip

After I was finished the American Craft Counsel Show and left at 10PM-ish, I had to get up at 4:30 AM the next morning to go to New York City for a Field Trip.  When I got onto the bus, it was very cool because it just people who were the majors and also in the J-Baum classes. It definitely brought all of us together.  I actually got to know Ashley Santana more and we became very close. It was awesome.

Ashley and me

During the ride to New York, they put on a movie how Pixar put movie together, how they now have overlapping projects and how some of the things were very hard.  One of my favorite movie is The Incredibles and they said it was very hard to make due to certain elements such as:

1: Humans

2: Water
3: Humans underwater

I never thought it was going to be very hard because they're just carton character, but I thought of how I'm a portrait artist and it is quite hard because how they look must also convey who they are because certain looks and characters are associate certain ways.

Before

After

It took a little less than 3 hours to get there which was shorter than we expected because it was a saturday-no traffic.  When we got there, it was told that we were a bit early for the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art), so Ashley and I decided to hit some Starbucks and came back.  Our tour was at 11 AM which actually never got booked but before that, we actually went to the MOMA Design Store, which had a lot of very cool products, and things that I have seen before (from Ponoko), or products such as an animal made from cardboard, or bags designed by Issey Miyake.  But there is this thing that I thought was very cool, because it has a lot to do with mechanisms and you can extend it out, very contemporary and very modular which are very big right now.

Wall Mounted Terrarium by Paul Hayes

We went back to the museum, we saw this awesome terrarium which was mounted on the wall, designed by Paul Hayes.  And another terrarium that coming from the floor and the wall to make a ball in the space, which was cool.

Terrarium from the ceiling and floor by Paul Hayes

I have seen something in that style but I didn't quite expected it that this situation but it just happened as soon as we walked in.

After we went in, and after I had to check my bag...., I started to work from the top floor down to the bottom which was cool because we got to see the Andy Warhol Exhibit which I wasn't allow to take pictures of.  But there were all these videos of people's faces, portraits. It was very interesting.  There was one that was called Blowjob but all you can see is this guy's face while he is receiving oral sex.  I thought of how it looked very sexy because you didn't see the action that was taking place but you can see his emotion and how he was feeling coming out, which I thought was just perfect and quite beautiful.  

Myself with Paul Cezanne's work

We keep on moving and looking then came the room that was full of the well-known artists and painter from the 19th century which totally gave me butterflies in the stomach.

I walked in and saw all these big names that I learned in high school.  I felt I was in a room that was filled with one of the biggest names in history especially a group of people that was recent and wasn't only a legend but wasn't so different.  They were relatable.

Some of the painters were: Paul Cezanne, Van Gogh, Matisse, Monet, Manet, Henry Rousseau and many more.

Ashley and Myself with The Starry Night

After I centered the room and was mesmerized by Cezanne's work.  Someone said to go and look at the Starry Night.  I thought, "What? Are you kidding me?" I didn't actually know the Starry Night was here.  I went and looked at the painting and I almost cried.  My eyes were watery but I was in the public so I didn't want to cry.  Then I make someone take a picture of me and Ashley with the Starry Night.

It was AWESOME!!

After the museum, we got on the bus and went to SOHO with and got some food to eat... sandwich and wine, fabulous.

Of course after we were finished, we saw our favorite teacher, Janet Huddie who was sipping wine with Katja and Rachel, 2 graduate students at Towson University Metals Program.

The rest of the day was a blur of boring things.  it wasn't that well planned so we just walked and tried our hardest to get lost.  We went to different design studios and it was very boring cause I dont know New York so I dont wanna explore and am a little scared.

We then got back on the bus at 6 PM and came home, the whole time with Lindsay shouting things... nasty things.

Here are the pictures of the things that I love.

And a view of NYC: