Hey Guys, I'm Marble. Remember Me?

So the last time we talked about marble (the Imitate project) I was just about to put the smashed up test pieces back into the kiln. Since then there's been a lot of excitement and drama, fasten your seat belts!

The smashed up bits did go back in the kiln eventually after many false starts (the kiln program crashed a couple of times) and when I opened it up I was really pleased with them! They hadn't yellowed at all and if anything all of the weird yellow that had came about the first time had disappeared! Magic!

At this point I was so incredibly overcome with excitement (and stupidity) that I sliced my thumb open on one of them. In all the minor drama they got mixed up and I can't really tell which is which anymore. I'm a bit annoyed about that because I had been so careful with them up until that point.

They have a really bone-like appearance to them and look more marbley then I ever expected! I'm not entirely certain how I done this, but still. Their texture is also really interesting. I've been trying to take photographs up close of it but it doesn't really come out. I'm going to try and print with them too see if it comes out at all.

Engraving A-Go Go!

So now that we're back on track, let's go back to where I left everything. 

My chosen brand from the Dartington range to design for was Royal Brierley. .More specifically I focused upon how the use of traditional engraving techniques mixed with a contemporary design could catch the attention of a younger audience. As you all know my chosen trend that I was going to design for was Jungle Fever (!!) and as specific emblems to represent this I chose palm trees and toucans, as even with not much detail their silhouettes are obvious- and they are super fun and bring the exciting party feel to my collection.

I started out using the larger wheels in the cold shop and working on trying to make basic marks which would be some kind of palm tree, and then trying to group my palm trees in a way which created a full covering over the glass.

Single sided engraving. Palm a-rama!

First palm. Engraved on both sides.

My next problem to work out was how to engraved a toucan that had enough detail to noticeably be a toucan, however this ended up being pretty big (about 15cm x 15cm) and would obviously not fit onto my glasses. It also probably had a bit too much detail and could have been represented more simply- which was my next step!

Monster Toucan. Here me squawk.

I tried to matte larger areas of the bird to create a more two tone feeling which I could then quickly go over with a Dremel to add the appropriate details. I also tried matting out the whole silhouette of the bird and then adding the details- but for me this just looked a bit flat. Really I think whilst during the course of the project my engraving improved a huge amount, this specific design needs a bit more practicing in order to get the best from it.

Two-tone and 'flat' toucans.

The copper wheels where also properly introduced to me in this project which was great as I can now set myself up on the lathe and center everything properly on my own. I really enjoyed working on them and in the future I am defiantly going to work a lot more on this. Unfortunately I only managed to do a half a toucan and half a palm tree using this process, but they're works in progress and so far I am very happy with them! I can't find a photograph of the palm to show you (I know I have one somewhere!) but here's the toucan.

Toucan (unfinished). Visible wing and beak details.

These pieces were so much fun to make, hopefully they have a fun feeling for you too.

Bio Moulded

In a few blog posts I have mentioned that I was working super hard on my current project but I never mentioned more then that it was inspired by the idea of biomimicry- and showed you a few test pieces of course. Last Thursday I got it all finished and set up and we had our crit on the Friday morning, so now I can reveal all. Hopefully to your delight!

At the beginning I looked at molecular drawings and was inspired by there use of the hexagon- a shape which is commonly found in nature. From here I worked though many tessellating options and eventually came to the idea of stacking, interchangeable dishes. I photographed them in the Meadows and thankfully managed to get them all back up to the studio in one piece! Here are a selection of my favourite photographs, let me know what you think!