HAPPY HALLLOOOOOWWWWWEENNNN!!!

I'm a makeup artist in the theatre department and this is my Christmas.

My friend Cory, a bartender at Macado's asked if I could do his makeup and I happily obliged! He's Noah from "The Notebook" as a zombie. Such a happy cute zombie if you ask me!

Cutlery Critique Afterthoughts

All in all, I like what I did. I know I rushed the knife piece but learning the forging techniques was interesting. I can tell right now that forging isn't necessarily for me. I don't like not being able to fully control where the metal goes when I'm beating on it. I also didn't completely like having Hammer Elbow for like a month.
In regards to the project though, I liked where I was going with the project and I think that if I had another month to work on it, it would've turned out even better. I probably would've tried a few things differently and went about my steps at a different angle.

Cutlery Critique!

Lessons Learned.

When shit falls apart, fix it.

If something breaks, don't cry- just do something about it.

BE FLEXIBLE.

Change your concept if something doesn't work.

The head of my spoon broke off.
The tines of my fork weren't spreading.
The stem of my fork got longer and longer.
The knife I worked on wasn't the same style.

While in the process of forging I've learned a lot. And I'm pretty happy with how my concept has morphed into something very cool.

SpoonersSpoonSpoonsSpooning

After annealing the head of the spoon and attaching the bowl to the stem, I etched and cut into the bowl, taking inspiration from a few of the research images I had pulled.

 Then I planished the bowl and continued shaping the stem.

Beginning the Forging process...

URINETOWNNNNNN!

Well the musical life is taking over everything. But I'm quite excited! Just wanted to include a life update!

Oh, Cal-cuttlery!

While in the midst of researching cutlery, I realized that I wanted to think outside the box. I wanted to do something that I couldn't find. I found a lot of cutlery that was just "art" and a few that were rather similar to my mothers silver pattern she got at her very Catholic wedding and some like the set her peculiar mother-in-law decided would be a good silver dining set.

Now maybe it's the fact that I marathoned the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit movies recently and now I'm a little stuck on Elvish designs, but I'd really like to looking into sort of an armoured feel to the cutlery. Like Elvish armour, but also not for eating. I love pieces that are just impossible to use for anything except to be looked at because I can never achieve that. I usually make things that are utilitarian in some way. Almost everything I've made is that way, so I know now that I need to branch out.
And it doesn't help that I have the hardest time being inspired to do anything so I end up typically making things for other people. I need this one for me.

Research for cutlery!

Forginggggg Demoooo Daaaayyyy

Arthur demo-ing how to forge! Look at that concentration...

Career Reflection

The trip to Arthur's really solidified the fact that I'm not going to be a metals artist. You have to have so much invested just to LIVE on what you make. I would be too busy selling all of the tools I had just to eat from the lack of money I'd be making off of the pieces I'd have to make. I don't understand the inflation either, of the pieces and how artists get to a total for a piece of jewelry or artwork. My friend was just recently commissioned to make a ring for some woman out of a baby spoon. Gena was going to charge the woman $80 for the smallest ring I've ever seen.
But all of the tools I'd need just to be able to make something like that is incredible! I can't imagine having to seek out certain tools just in order to make a simple ring. It would take years! Let alone the carpentry knowledge in order to install things and make sure everything is kept up. I don't think I'd have enough patience for that.
I'll take my costume shop over that any day.