I want to commit artwork.

[kiya]

(Thought provoked by one of elisem's entry-concluding questions.)

I don't really know how to work with metal, and I don't have the . . . parts.

I wonder if the museum I dimly remember from my childhood as being in Southie still exists, and still sells random scraps and cast-away . . . bits.

I wonder if there's somewhere in Boston like the place brooksmoses pointed out at one point, as being a place where one could get odds and ends and bits and scraps. I think that was something he said, but my memory is shot. . . so I'll ask.

I want to commit artwork with edges. I want to commit artwork with copper that will go green someday. I want to commit artwork in three dimensions, which I haven't done for so long it just now strikes me that it fucking hurts.

I don't know what artwork I want to commit, but I can see pieces of it, in silhouette, in hints, in lines in my mind, in the way something curves.

I would say I want to commit artwork in metal and glass, but that I know I can't pull off, I just don't have the skills. But that's the feel. Metal and glass. Edges. Lines. Curves. Negative space. Edges.

*broad, indicative gestures* Thing.


Addendum: I find my mood inexplicably brightened by the existence of a bouncing cat head for 'morose'.

Comments

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

copper scraps, a soddering gun. Glue. lead like they use in stained glass. broken bits of glass.

That sound good?

[kiya]

That's the right mode of thought.

I don't think we have a soldering iron, though. (And I haven't used one for years or for anything more, uh, substantial? than wiring, so I don't know how well the resulting joins would do.) Should ought talk to Kevin about that.

Argh. Shape! *more vehement indicative gestures*

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

Are strong joins important? I get the sense of brittleness from this for some reason. I guess you could also use glue.

Shape? Collapsing? collapsed? birthing? opening? closing? Like a rock that was eroded that way? Organic?

[kiya]

Brittleness, yes. But I don't want it to fall apart. Bad juju. Thing.

(Wordage broken, sorta.)

Unh. Not-organic, but suggestive of. Metal bad material for organic, neh? Probably if I do this right it'll have . . . layers of interpretive meaning up to here.

I . . . don't have . . . language for the bits of shape in my head.

Uh. Damn, I could quote a song for parts of it but I don't know if it would resonate.

Thing!

(More seriously, talking at the notion is helping me formulate more clearly, even if I can't actually, uh, express worth a damn.)

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

in my experience, the trick to soldering is to use more flux. no, really. however much you're using, use more.

some places to get interesting scrap

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

are junkyards and industrial liquidators. the latter simply rock IMO.

you can work with metal without serious toolage if the metal is thin enough -- mesh, wire, or thin plate. you can work with glass if you cut it instead of melting it, or if you use broken pieces for mosaic, or if you use manmade bits -- marbles, maybe? the sort of round, half-dome pieces one can get in craft stores to put into vases with or without flowers? they come in various colours, and iridescent. you can also get pieces that have washed up on the beach there if you don't have a beach handy. or you can work with the type of glass people work with who do lamp beads; it only requires a hand torch and some tools you probably already have, but i've never done it so don't know about the learning curve, only that it's less than for glass blowing. how about stained glass? supplies also easily gotten in craft stores.

Re: some places to get interesting scrap

[kiya]

Oooh. There's thoughts. *adds 'em to the list that Brooks sent me when I asked*

I might take a potter along the beach and see if I find anything when it cools down some; that feels like an appropriate mode of thought. (I'm a ten-minute walk from the Massachusetts Bay. I've got nearby beach about two-thirds of the time; the rest of the time I've got salt water slurping the feet of the seawall.)

Metal and glasswork have both fascinated me for ages. I worked a little with both in high school -- brass . . . I'd put it between 'foil' and 'plate'. Sharp little bastards, cut up my hands something fierce. And assembling mosaics.

. . . huh. The church I went to when I was a kid had a gigantic stained glass window, with pieces of glass maybe averaging the size of my fist /now/, all different sorts of glass, some broken with . . . damnit, lost the word, curved stress fractures, like obsidian does . . . some just broken. I wonder if that's where some of the fascination with glass and light comes from.

[oneironaut.livejournal.com]

I want you to commit such artwork too.

Learning to work in glass sounds to me like it would be worth it, but this is me talking. I love glass. Is it you-blown glass it needs, or premade sheets?

I've been reading elisem's jewelry entries with a great deal of interest, and they've left me itching to do something with my hands. I wonder if my success with ZBrush indicates that I have the talent for clay. I doubt it: I'm good with pastels, but that doesn't mean I'd know which end of a paintbrush to hold.

I love verdigris, perhaps because I was exposed to that statue of Aphrodite at a tender age. I watched the pin of my New Age Woo-Woo Flake Anti-Ladybug pendant turn brown with a great deal of interest; on those occasions that I've handled chemicals that have left tarnish on my silver rings, I've been fascinated by it until it wore away. I don't know what it is about me and oxidization.

(There. That was all nice and nonsequitur. Look, it's three in the morning. Anyone foolish enough to hang out with me at three in the morning gets what they deserve.)

[kiya]

Blown glass is a different obsession that I want to pursue someday. ;) This is . . . light, colour, shiny shit. Stained glass-related.

What I really need, in a lot of ways, is a bucket of mixed broken glass of various colours. To Do Stuff With.

[oneironaut.livejournal.com]

Hmm.

Buying (at flea markets?) a lot of cheap glass things of various colors and then methodically breaking them could be mighty cathartic. (I'd suggest that you buy them and then save them to break the next time you feel like punching a wall, but it occurs to me that you + big pile of broken glass might not, when you're in that sort of state of mind, = a good thing.)

[kiya]

Particularly not when Bonfire's around, which he has been lately. (I become increasingly convinced that that aspect/personality is male or a really butch neuter, and thus alternate between calling it "he" and "it" more or less at random.)

I think I'd feel awfully guiltridden about breaking shiny things. Especially since I'd be most likely to find bottles, and I like bottles.

[oneironaut.livejournal.com]

(I become increasingly convinced that that aspect/personality is male or a really butch neuter, and thus alternate between calling it "he" and "it" more or less at random.)

I had roughly that sort of experience too, when I was becoming whatever. Not to imply that the same thing is happening to you (nor to rule out the possibility, of course; I'm sure roimata will be gay any second now), just commiserating.

I think I'd feel awfully guiltridden about breaking shiny things. Especially since I'd be most likely to find bottles, and I like bottles.

I'm pretty certain I wouldn't be able to do it, myself. I collect bottles, have I mentioned that to you? It would be like breaking a baby. But there are amoral, baby-breaking people in this world, and I figured it was worth checking to see if you were one of them.

[kiya]

Kevin and I were having a conversation about appropriate role usage and my generalized tendency to prefer to avoid situations in which my natural personae don't fit in. He's much more comfortable doing shit like that; my comment on the matter was, "I have enough personalities in my head already." He allowed as how I had a fair point.

I'd probably collect bottles if I allowed myself more span for compulsive hoarding activities. They are, after all, shiny. And nifty. And . . . stuff. You know. Bottles. But I'm busy collecting eggs.

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

Kevin and I were having a conversation about appropriate role usage and my generalized tendency to prefer to avoid situations in which my natural personae don't fit in. He's much more comfortable doing shit like that; my comment on the matter was, "I have enough personalities in my head already." He allowed as how I had a fair point.

I think this is part of why I'm not comfortable doing roleplay. (I know it doesn't work that way for you, though.)

[roimata.livejournal.com]

(I'm sure Roimata will be gay any second now)

Already happened. Well, kind of.
You know. Halfway.

Yeah, it's kinda official. Just don't tell my flatmates - I want to surprise 'em.

[oneironaut.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's kinda official.

I rule.

Oh, and welcome. Come back here tonight and I'll give you your mask and robe and a copy of our plans to corrupt the youth of America.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

you called?

i do some stained glass work. how about i sort through my scrap bucket and see if i can find anything pleasing (and not sharp!) and then see if i can figure out a way to get it to apc?

[kiya]

Oooh, wow. :) That would be terrific.

[brooksmoses]

Idea: Soldering iron, thin copper sheet, and tin snips. Also a pair of pliers or two, for making bends. And possibly a bit of scrap 1" steel angle, about an inch long, for forming bends in larger pieces.

Copper's definitely the way to go if you want to solder things. For thin stuff, you might try contacting people who do copper roofing -- they've got to have lots of scraps, and might sell them to you for around the price the recyclers pay them (which will be a lot less than what you'd pay the recyclers!). Make sure it's thin enough to cut with the snips, or in interesting shapes to begin with, though....

The best way to learn to get good soldered joints is going to be practicing. So just plan on practicing on a few, before you start doing the real stuff, and you'll be fine.

Actually, for bits of sheet, you'll probably want some sort of small torch, rather than an iron; most irons are too small to put out enough heat, and copper sheet is really really good at wicking the heat away. Which reminds me you'll want some sturdy gloves to hold the hit bits after. And probably also a couple of clamps or whatnot to hold them during, as well.

- Brooks

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Copper foil, copper sheet, bits of stained glass on the cheap. Maybe? Stained-glass stores sell small pieces at a discount (by the pound, where I've bought it), and you can get a lot of different interesting scraps for only a bit of money.

I have a thing for sterling silver, so I think that's what I'd use if I wanted to make a sculpture like the idea I have of what you want to do. (bleah, what a sentence.) Sterling silver sheet is damned expensive, though.