PSU Studio Critique: Critique 4

For the final critique I will be presenting all of the pieces that I have had in progress through the semester, in finished form. A few of the pieces will be completed in the next few days.

Class Projects

Jewelry:

For my etched earrings, I only need to make and attach the hooks. The etching was a very slow process over a period of about two weeks. I watched the pieces very carefully as I did not want a repeat of the first attempt. The tiger's eye stones are set.

The sword shaped fibula is completely soldered, I just need to put a liver-of-sulfur patina on it.

Toy Design: 

I have all three of my Nature-To-Go boxes completed and ready for the toy sale on Thursday. The 3D printed Building Sticks turned out perfectly!

 

Personal Project

Topic of Bipolar:

The piece in it's entirety is complete and is titled "Mind in a Wheelchair: My Mother." This is a 6 word story connected to a functional object, being the medicine cabinet, and is an assignment for my 3D design class. I filled the pill bottles with many different objects, attached images to and wrote on the cabinet, and arranged all of the elements in a particular way.

Letterpress Restoration: Days 9 & 10

I am getting extremely close to being finished with the paint stripping. Today, I finished up the base as you can see in the second image! There's still a bit on the bed (top picture) and the cylinder. Only a few more weeks to work, looks like it will wrap up quite nicely. On the side, I am working on getting tympan paper, ink, oil, furniture, and a few other items. I am considering having wooden furniture made as it would be much more cost effective than to buy furniture.

 

 

 

Letterpress Restoration: Days 7 & 8

I was able to have a few classmates remove the top of the press so I could clean the space below it. I hope to have the remaining paint removed by the end of next week. The next steps will include removing any rust, reassembling the press, and gathering any materials needed to print with it! It has been a slow process getting this press cleaned as only a few hours are available each week to work on it, but it is definitely coming along.

 

 

PSU Studio Critique: Critique 3

I am posting materials to cover two critique classes.

Class Projects

Jewelry:
My third projects is still very much in the experimental stage. This first image shows that my brass pieces were in the etching acid WAY too long as virtually all of the metal is gone. The second image shows my second pieces right after the third 1 1/2 hour session. It is a slow process, if all works out, I still plan to set the stones on each part.

 

My fourth project is coming along fairly quickly. It is a dress fibula, commonly used on toga's in ancient Europe. It will be a part of a pirate costume that I will be making in the fall, explaining the sword shape. It is made from brass. The first image shows all of the pieces laid out before I soldered them, the other is after the soldering. I will need to clean it up, cut down the wire part and create a point, sand it and possibly do a patina.

 

Toy Design:
My toy has come a long way since the second critique! I have one of them assembled and aside from needing a few last touches (marketing, name, note to the child, and possibly a stain) and waiting for the 3D printed component, it is complete. The first picture shows the box closed, second the box open with all of the included contents (minus the 3D printed building sticks), the third is a mock up of what a child can do with it, and the fourth is an example of one of the garlands on a tree.

Each box will include 20-3D printed building sticks (10 small, 10 large), 2 cutout trees (1 small, 1 large), 4 seasonal garlands for each tree, 8 carpet squares (green: grass, tan: sand, brown: dirt, white: snow), 3 sets of felt to cover the inside of the box, 3 various sized water sources, and will include a note to the child encouraging them to use their own action figures or dinosaur toys, go outside and find rocks, shells, etc. to add, and also make new parts from household items such as cardboard or plastic bottles.

 

 

 

Personal Project

Topic of Bipolar:
The idea of a medicine cabinet seemed to be the best direction for this project and I ended up finding the perfect one. I also was able to find a large bag of prescription bottles that I will fill with bottle caps, shards of glass, and any other items I see fit. All will be inside of the medicine cabinet, some contained, others spilling out. It will represent all sides of bipolar from the highs to the lows. I will manipulate the cabinet itself to show that with sandpaper, paint, mirrors, etc. I first need to sand all of the bottle cap tops to get the words and images off.

Letterpress Restoration: Days 5 & 6

Paint removal has been the primary focus over the last few sessions. I have found that under the layer of blue there is a layer of black as well. It is taking about three processes of applying the stripper, letting it sit for 30 minutes, and stripping. There still is paint left on the front shelves but on the sides I just need to clear off a few spots. It is a slow process but I am definitely making progress!

PSU Studio Critique: Artist Lecture 2

Living in a Corporate World

Chad Erpelding

PSU Gallery

February 5-March 12, 2014

On March 10th, Chad Erpelding lectured as part of the PSU Spring 2014 Interdisciplinary Lecture Series.

Erpelding grew up in the small farming community of Algona, Iowa. After graduating from college he hitchhiked to West Virginia, spent two- three month periods to hike the Appalachian Trail, and biked from Oregon to Maine. From these experiences, he became very familiar with maps in order to get from place to place. He discovered that maps tell stories,  many differing stories. He became fascinated by the movement of people and businesses via maps. A few inspirations for Chad were Race Maps by Eric Fischer, a map of the internet, GPS drawing of mowing a lawn, Amsterdam GPS movement in real time, and high frequency trading algorithms.

Erpelding is currently an associate professor of art and graduate program director at Boise State University. He has continued with his map fascination, as they use many systems as a visual representation of something existing, like intergovernmental organizations such as NATO, OPEC, African Union, World Trade Organization. Many of his map collages for a specific company or subject include screen printed images with layers of glue to create opacity. Erpelding did a few residencies in France and Armenia, where he felt comforted by American brands in foreign places. In Armenia, he and his students took a day to map out the city of Yerevan with locations of Coke and Pepsi paraphernalia.

In the PSU gallery show he displayed a collaboration of all the seven regions of Citigroup, pinpoints of each U.S. military base and private military bases, pinpoints of Shell and Exon in Texas, recorded the gains and losses of Dow Jones Industrial through chromatic grey reds and grey paintings, to name a few.