It has been very distracting and busy since New Year’s day. This is the first entry this year and it is already half past February.

I am back at school at FIT and I am teaching at the Art Lab here on Staten Island. There have been orders in the studio that have enormous volume with next to no time in which to execute it. I think I see a break and it vanishes almost immediately when an order for 52 sheets of paper comes in that has to be painted in less than a week on top of orders that are almost finished. The whole process seems so sluggish. Materials and items arrive quickly but getting them out again is very difficult. Long term projects for the future need a little work and requires meetings with new people, it’s difficult to arrange that when there’s so much to do in the studio. I feel like I’m being held hostage by my hand work.

This is one of the events I have recently attended. A lot of photos, I will not add too many captions. Enjoy the photos, I enjoyed  a break taking the day at the show.

 

Some bright campanulas at the cash register.

 

Judges

Looking toward the sales area from the displays.

Judges

Judges

 

Judging as visitors begin to arrive.

Amy shopping at Ecuagenera.  Michael Riley on the right.

Colman with noted author and grower, Ray Rodgers.

The Staten Island Orchid Society display.

Our friend Tibor  arrived with Leah,  he took the photos of Colman and me.

Colman with Jimmy Chu.

More Judges

I think this aerangis is my favorite in the whole show.

The sales area.

I like these bright little cats.

And back to the orchid displays.

Back at home with the one blooming plant we bought. Colman got a few orchids and I added two new anthuriums with long leaves to my collection.

 

 

 

 

I’ll be paricipating in two, possibly three shows in the coming weeks. Have just finished a Lapis Lazuli Bracelet that was made from some new, cast sterling bezels.

Here are some shots of the collection and some ‘solo’ shots.

Silver bracelets made with a link I developed for the Yad last June.  The necklace is an attempt to use heavy gauge wire and make something long, quickly. It was still expensive but not as much as the large Shar Sheret necklaces and very heavy twisted links bracelet that I haven’t shown yet.

I made the bezel link with a pierced back and had it cast. I have a good number of stones  in various colors that I can use it for. I didn’t realize that the sterling bezel would have to be hammered into place with a chasing tool. It took some time to figure out how to hold it and be able to get the tool into the space at the angle I needed to set the stone.  My brother Scott had given me an engraver’s vise, a ball shaped affair and with the addition of some chopsticks I was able to work quite well. I took a photo with my iPhone but haven’t figured out how to get those photos into my computer other than to send it to myself in email. I’ll try that and  get the photo of the set up into this entry later.

This is a chrysoprase necklace, I’ve added better grade freshwater pearls and little faceted metal beads that may be silver for a subtle flash. It took me a few days to figure out how to attach the clasp.  I don’t like to see the crimp on the steel wire next to the finding.  I finally decided on a wrap  solution. I had some little  silver cones that allowed me to cover the crimp and wire through it to attach the clasp.  I should figure out something like that to make myself, something that I can sign and will be more like my work.

This necklace is made from Lemon Jade drops  and small faceted lemon jade beads. i surrounded and separated them with two kinds of Garnet, little deep red rondels and larger squares of  grossular garnet. I think the combination looks very nice, greens, translucency, red and brown accents with silver rings that will flash as they move.

This is a collection of  Shar Sheret chain bracelets.  The one on the far right is a new variation that I would like to play with a little more, it has an open lacy feel and people seem to be astonished by it when they lay it on their wrist. The pendant on the top is a bright sun stone pendant.

A final shot with the lot of new silver bracelets.

Wednesday, November 3, 2011

I went into the city earlier than I usually do for two meetings and to do a little shopping. First stop, Broadway and 23rd Street at Madison Square.  The new in-the-street-park has a lot of planters, in this planter I saw what I thought was a tree with unusual leaves.  It had what appeared to be a woody trunk and extraordinary purple palmate leaves, turns out it is a Castor Bean plant, trimmed so that it bushed out instead of taking on its usual taller shape.

Second stop was on 47th Street where I was shopping for silver and burnishing compound.  On the way there from the Broadway line, I saw these policemen with their horses. Don’t think I’ve ever seen this many together at once.

The third horse was standing with its hind foot like this. It didn’t move at all the whole time I was there, hoof tip to pavement.

I saw this bracelet in one of the windows on 47th Street and admired the layout of this filigree design.

Third stop, Canal Street, to Kam Man (Golden Gate) to buy tea. Fall vegetables are in all the sidewalk stands. This was an enormous squash.

Lychee and cactus fruit with chestnuts and  blue grapes.

Okra, asparagus and avocados, a totally green selection.

One of the seafood stores closer to Broadway as I make my way West on Canal.

These guys were alive and rustling in the basket.

Some Canadian tourists deciding on lunch.

Closer to Broadway, I looked south on Center Street toward City Hall.

A telephoto of the City Hall tower and a newer tower with undulating sides.

I remember when this red building was being built, it has had a number of tenants over the years and was starting to look worn, now seems to be under renovation.

Behind the red building, old graffiti and a cluster of water tanks.

Walking West on Walker Street I saw this collection of plants being discarded.  Someone’s roof garden had roses and cotton plants in it for the summer.

Lower Sixth avenue looking northwest.

Some Tribeca cafes.

Looking east to the AT&T Building. Its crown of antennas was built after 9-11 when we lost the aerials on the WTC.

An old building that is marked where it was built. Near my last stop before heading home.

Thursday night, November 4, 2011

After class at FIT, I met Colman, we had dinner and went to an opening in Chelsea. No photos there, it was a art book fair, too many people and exhibits.  We met a friend and a neighbor in the ferry terminal on the way home and had a pleasant ride back to Staten Island.  Here are some  shots in the dark, first as we walked back out of Chelsea to the 1 train on 23rd Street.  A very clear and cool night. The Met Life tower was lit like a beacon to Fifth Avenue.

The Empire State Building, unusually all in white lights.

From the boat as we rode into the harbor.

This is the silver cup I’ve been working on for some time now, other projects and dissatisfaction with the progress have delayed my working on it through the summer. I decided to work on this without pitch for the time being until I need to do final sculptural details. It works much better and I am happier with the progress.

If you go to my channel on YouTube,  you’ll find 7 videos that lead up to this one. I’ll make more as the cup comes to its finish.

This video also introduces snarling irons, these are ones that I made, the traditional irons are much longer. I didn’t need them to be so long to work on my cups. The traditional irons are for working on larger vessels and proved awkward for these comparatively shallow cups.

June

We were going into the city to have dinner with Anja and Austin in Queens.  Adi and Sabine were in New York then too.

The harbor is always hazy in summer.  I keep wanting it to be clear like it is in the Fall when the water and temperatures are closer to each other.  It is a little disappointing to have warm weather, nice to be outside after winter or a cold spring, and be in a perpetual fog.

 

This is the Norwegian Gem  leaving on a cruise.

Coming back from our dinner near midnight. The World Trade Center is growing in height.

July

There’s a summer sculpture in Madison Square. I don’t like it very much.

These are some large architectural elements on the upper East Side.

A view across the harbor from the platform  outside the Staten Island Ferry Terminal.

My new camera has an over the top zoom. It compresses space as it telescopes in on things. Here’s the golman Sachs building in New Jersey, a lighthouse and the Statue of Liberty all looking like they’re a stone’s throw away from each other.

One of the dredges  working constantly in the shipping channels.

Another dredge with a gantry and one of the Ferry gunboat escorts.

September

Heading back to  Staten Island on a sunny day after the 11th. The 9-11 Memorial has opened and the WTC #1 has a huge Flag draped on it above the memorial.

The towers rise at the rate of one floor a week.

 

The tower has begun to fill the space left empty by the Twin Towers on our skyline.

 

On September 17th the Staten Island Museum held its annual Art on the Fence Show, a tradition that has been  going on for more than 60 years. This year was unusual as it was held on the grounds of Snug Harbor instead of along the fence that runs around the west side of the park. Temporary fences were erected along the historic front buildings and  the roads near the Neptune Fountain. There were 113 artists and craftsmen showing and selling their work. The day started out sunny and was well attended.

I was situated near the western end of the harbor and next to me was a lady who does cane work on furniture. Here are a couple photos of me and my display. We put a few of Colman’s prints of his drawings up along the back of our tent.

This is a pan looking east toward the Neptune Fountain from a spot about a 50 yards from my spot.

A view from my table looking East.

Looking west again from my space, the cane work lady is immediately to the right.

Stephen talking to Denise.

Diane in the Staten Island Museum Tent.

Our friend Irma at her table.

A Our friend Bill  Higgins with Steve Szoke who made the prints behind them.

Robert and Jenny visited.

A panorama of the eastern end of the show.

 

 

We went to several openings today, it’s Second Saturday on Staten Island and that is the time of the month when galleries open shows and performances take place. There are sometimes tours of artist’s studios too. You can find the listings by googling Second Saturday, Staten Island.
Tonight was also a surprise birthday party for Craig Mannister at the Art Lab in Snug Harbor. Didn’t take photos there because I knew a LOT of people attending and I hadn’t seen them for a while. There was a lot to talk about.
After the party we wanted to walk home but the gate closest to Tysen Street had been locked and Colman and I had to walk through the harbor to the West gate and make our way home along Richmond Terrace on foot. It looked like there was a full moon out. It was really beautiful through the scattered clouds.  As we walked through the trees I noticed  a bright spot  in the clouds and was confused because it wasn’t where I expected the moon to be.  Then I realized that it was the  lights from the World Trade Center  across the harbor. This is looking eastward as we headed toward the West Gate.

This is approaching the West Gate where we can leave the park.

Colman ahead of me on Richmond Terrace as we headed back to Tysen Street.  That’s the moon in the clouds above the street lights.

Near the center of the Snug Harbor buildings on the terrace there is a little dock in the Kill van Kull, the trees part and  there is a view of Bayonne  where a dock has been built as an entry for a ferry bringing visitors to the Harbor. (That ferry doesn’t run yet)  I had a clear view of the column of light from the cloud ceiling to near the ground where the columns are separate.

A shot through the fence of one of the Snug Harbor buildings.  Next weekend this part of the front lawn will host the annual Art On The Fence Show put on by the  Staten Island Museum which will be moving here over the next few years.

One last view of the moon before we got home.

I had to go into the city twice in the past two days. Yesterday was the third day of rain from Lee, I made a wet trip to into the city to buy silver and go to class at FIT. We had had a couple days of sunshine after the overcast of Irene left the area. There’s flooding all around us and the water in the harbor had changed color. Muddy brown. Makes me wonder if the sea life is having a hard time breathing like people who live in heavy smog.
Here are some shots taken Thursday September 8th and today the 9th, 2011.

A freighter with a distinctive paint  job moored with the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in the background.

Today it’s still hazy but much brighter, the little orange boat does have guns mounted on it. It is an escort for the ferry, we’ve had these Coast Guard escorts periodically since 9-11-01. The harbor water is usually a shade of green.

A telephoto shot of lower Manhattan where Number One World Trade Center is going up at the rate of a floor a week. It’s going to be very tall on the skyline. I think it’s at the 70th floor now.  When the twin towers were there, we only caught glimpses of the Empire State Building as we passed on the ferry. Now we have a full view to the 34th street building.  from another angle we can see  the Chrysler Building  on 42nd street too.

The Yad was finished about 2 weeks ago. It had taken almost 2 weeks to design and execute the chain. I wanted something different and made a variation on a standard loop in loop chain. I made large jump rings, stretched and twisted them into a shape that added texture and interest to the chain itself. Where the chain divided to make a loop was a problem that I solved by adding a medallion. I had a difficult time making the Mogen David and on the third attempt I was successful. The short chain between the Yad and the medallion is seven links, one for each day of creation. The links forming the loop number 28 which is the lunar month. An inscription plate separates the month into two fortnights.  The Yad is in the  Jewish Museum Design Shop on 92nd Street now.

Making the medallion gave me 3 models, 2 of which have been prepared for casting. The first casting is in the chain on the Yad.  I intend to use the other cast medallions as pendants. In making the center  medallion I discovered I could fuse hammered wires together without solder. The one on the right is a cut, pierced and chased star set into a forged ring.

The original dreidels (in my last entry) have been sold and the museum ordered more. I made  these copper ones and have started to pierce the  letters  in some of them.

I am in the process of making more in silver. It took a while to select the stones and for the past few days I have been piercing and trimming the spinner plates. These are still in a rough state. There will be some chasing work before I add the spindles.

I have also made two bracelets based on the Yad chain.  One in 18 gauge  and one that I wanted to be a tighter link in 16 gauge.

Both of these are in my ETSY shop. They are 8 inches, 209 mm, long and can be ordered in shorter or longer lengths.

I have ventured into making some Judaica. It’s an attempt to fill out a line of metal objects around my wine cups. I like all of the ritual objects, especially the spice towers and etrog containers. I’m a little away off from attempting to make those objects, so I have started with Dreidels and a Torah pointer.
There’s a slide show of the finished dreidels on my Tumblr page, Stones and Silver.

I wasn’t planning on making a blog entry about the dreidels so I didn’t take more than a few photos while I was making them. I had to make another couple chasing tools to make the letters on the dreidels. The strokes had to be wider than the lines made with the chasing tool and had to happen the first time around. No second turn to widen the strokes. It’s better seen on the copper pieces later in this entry. The bezels were soldered onto square pieces. This shot was taken after I sawed out the edges to expose a circle within the square.  After this, I filed the edges, drilled the centers, made spinning pins and soldered them in place.

The silver dreidels are finished  and I began to work on another design in copper. I laid the design out on larger squares of copper and chased decorative work into the squares with the intention of folding the corners into the center post.

The next step was to drill the centers and fold the corners partially into position. I used my box brake in the basement to turn the corners up into a position about 90 degrees from the base. Then I used the table top to bend them further. While they were like this I made the center posts by cutting a thick brass rod into the proper lengths.

With the help of a mini lathe, I filed one end of each post into a blunt point on which the dreidel would spin. The posts got brass balls soldered on top and then the finished posts were soldered into the folded squares. I used a small mallet to fold the edges down more which made the corners bend close to the posts.

Here’s a portrait of the finished and polished quartet.

That was the main work for one week, then I began on the Yad. I made two test pieces for the body of the piece out of copper. I have carefully watched Gennady and students all last term working with spiculum shapes. I have had my own tests with the spout for the teapot and knew that I would have to test my skills  before investing in silver. I was amazed at how easily I made the copper bend into a tube. Soldering the things was another story, graphically messy in two colors on the copper, but with a little filing the surface was smoothed even though it remained in two colors.

While I was finishing the dreidels, I carved a hand in wax for the pointing end of the Yad. Roni cast 2 pieces for me and I picked them up on the Monday when I went into the city to buy the silver sheet. By then I had taken time to redraw the tube and knew that I wanted to make two 6 inch tubes. (The 4″x 6″ sheet of 20 gauge silver was  $213. The two hands were $87.)

The final design was not clear. But I needed to keep moving on the project because a deadline was approaching. I cut the silver sheet at the ArtLab in Snug Harbor. They have a sheet metal cutter in their printing room.

The silver was annealed and I began to bend the pieces into the tube shape in a groove on an oak block in the basement. I probably should have used a pointed delrin mallet but all I had was my chasing hammer and the hook hammer.

When the silver hardened It was time to anneal.

Then I was able to close the tube the rest of the way. The tube in the groove has been partially closed, the other one near the hammer is as it came out of the pickle, showing how far I got on the first bending, hammering on the inside.

I continued to hammer on the outside using the broad face of the chasing hammer and closed one end of the tube.

The hammering continued and the tube closed. I closed it even tighter after this photo was taken. It had to be touching for the solder to be effective and this was not quite closed enough.

Soldering the tube was a bit messy. The tubes also had a bit of an arc to them. I was able to straighten the tubes by hammering into the grooved block and on a tinsmith’s stake that has a long end that fit inside most of the tube’s length.

Here are the straightened tubes before filing the excess solder off of them. The copper test pieces are beside them with two cast silver hands.

After doming some copper pieces into half spheres and placing them on the tube, I decided that less of a dome would be more effective.

It also became apparent that the dome should be soldered to a sheet so that it could be seated correctly onto the tube. At this point I had already soldered two rings near the ends of the tube as collars for the design. The intention was to scroll vines and granulated balls onto the tube for a sculptural decoration. Trying that on a copper tube first let me know right away that the vine decoration was way beyond my skills OR that I was going about it in the wrong way. So, as Mad Eye said to Harry during the tri-wizard tournament, ‘Play to your strengths…’,  chasing became my ‘weapon’ of choice. Time was of the essence, I had to complete this in about 4 more days.

Before soldering the dome to its plate, I wanted to chase a Mogen David on it. I found an old broom handle and I set the dome in place on the rounded end with a little pitch. Here it is sketched in before I scratch the guide lines.

I used a strip of plastic post card to guide my scratch lines. Drawing what should appear as a straight line on a dome is very difficult, the card simplified the process enormously.

All the lines chased.

One edge of the chased lines pushed down.

The background textured with a small round head chasing tool. I can’t believe it took an entire day to do this little dome.

The tube was filled with pitch and marked and scratched with a spiral design. This is the first line, there will be four to complete the layout.

The lines were chased by clamping the tube in a vise, working and turning each line in sequence from tip to back end. After the first spiral was chased, I divided the space in half, chased the second line and then divided each of the halves in half for the final lines.

Chasing the texture stripes in meant that I needed a different kind of support. I got out my plasticine and a card board so I could support the tube and move it around on the work bench. Chasing pushes the tube into the clay which is easily reformed into a perfect support to continue working. This is the nail punch I used to make the circles.

Beginning with the finer texture.

Chasing the tube took most of a long day to finish.

All done and nearly ready to solder. The base of the hand was filed to fit inside the tube and the dome has a flat sheet soldered to its base. I also had to solder a chain loop onto the dome before final assembly.

This is how I set it up to get the pitch out. The residue pitch was soaked out in turpentine.

All together now. I chased a simple, lined texture on the end of the tube around the wrist of the hand. Next step is a final polishing in the tumbler.