Re-printing the Notre Dame

Went back into the print rooms, determined to get a good print this time!
Shame I completely forgot my camera but oh well.
Luckily they had not removed my screen of the Notre Dame I had made from before so I used that again.
Made two more screens this time- both A2 to fit under my drawing of the Notre Dame.
One was just a block outline of the building, with a hole left from the middle for the centre circle window.
Excuse my very crude drawings..but this is what one screen looked like:

 

And this was the second:

 

I printed the first screen in dark blue then tried to line the drawing up to print over the top in lighter blue.

I did not manage to line the two colours up so in my prints there are a few white lines around the building which I actually really like.

I then printed the Notre Dame screen in black over the top.

The process was quite long at first- making the two extra screens to print- but when I started printing I found that I was really enjoying the pace of work.

This is one of the final pieces I printed:

 

I am really pleased with the way this print has come out. I love the quality of the lines the printing gives and by using the different screens, feel like I have tried something new in the print rooms.

Evaluation So Far

I am really enjoying this project- I love learning new things and have really enjoyed learning jewellery processes. I found my timekeeping last year was not so good- and have made a real effort in this project to keep on top of things. I found that keeping up my blog really helped me see where I had to go next and in the end I liked blogging about the stuff I was working hard on. I found that some processes, like screen printing, took forever but I was really pleased with the results. I would have liked to try other techniques in the print rooms- like lino or etching- but felt that my time could be better used learning what I could in the jewellery rooms while Malcolm the technician was still around. I am still finding it hard to blog about other artists- I just keep forgetting to research more people instead of more resources I could use.
I did find the Illustrator lesson very helpful and over Reading week I want to research online tutorials into some more tools I can use on the programme. Over Reading week I want to research into the materials I have used in jewellery- copper vs brass etc and also reflect further on my processes within this project.

Making the Notre Dame Ring

While my second silicon mould was setting, I went into jewellery and Malcolm suggested that I continue with my other ring design- the copper plate with the clear acrylic shape clipped over the top. So did that this evening.
Started by polishing a piece of copper on the mechanical polisher with the rouge. Found that I had to wear gloves for parts of it as the metal got extremely hot very quickly.

I then drew around my acrylic circle and added extra pieces where the copper was going to clip onto the circle.
After I had done this I used an extremely thin saw to gently cut through the copper plate.

 

When I had finished sawing all the edges, I filed down the piece of metal which was a very long process. I then had to re-polish it until both sides were finished.

 

After I had done this I then set about creating my rings to go underneath. I selected the right measurement for my two fingers and then wrapped a length of wire around the right selection on the ring pole. I then cut the wire at the top of the circle, and measured out how much copper wire I would need for both rings.

 

Then I used the blow torches to heat up the copper wires, making it more malleable and then left them in the 'pickle' for about 5 minutes to get them really pliable.

 

I then used wire cutters to gently roll up the wire, and some parallel cutters to ensure the two ends met without too much of a gap.

 

And voila! My two rings ready for soldering in the morning!

Two Colour Screen Printing

Went to the Rossington St print rooms again; made up another screen this time only A4 and printed the main circular window onto it. Thought it would look quite good behind the print of the Notre Dame but when I printed the building over my initial print I hated it. Because the back print is too high up it looks like some kind of cult sunrise symbol. Anyway, will probably try printing it again with just block colours behind this time instead of anything too complex.

 

This one got a bit crumpled in the screen printing process- even though I had the vacuum on and everything...

 

Cant really tell from this photo but this print was done on a light grey paper.

VINCENZO RIZZO

Just having a browse through etsy.com and found this guy who is selling his work for about $10 on the site- totally incredible.

Silicon Mould

Went into ceramics again this morning to see how my mould had set. Was not totally happy with the results- around the edge the silicon had not flowed into the tiny patterns so had to do the whole thing again. This time, though, I used a thin paintbrush to paint the silicon into each individual hole. Hopefully it will be set in a few hours and I can still do my pewter pouring.

JULIE ALLEN: Fiber Food

Was tempted to do this kind of thing to my croissant...
That would be awesome.