Mary Hackett

2012-02-07T12:53:00.001+11:00

The Directors of Dark Horse Experiment warmly invite you to the opening of
           
Dark Horse Choice

 Artists: Helen Taylor, Ben Howe, Mary Hackett
Exhibition dates: 07.02.2012 - 25.02.2012
Opening: Friday, 10.2.2012, 6pm till 9pm

The RMIT Master of Fine Art Program is one of the most prestigious postgraduate contemporary art programs in Australia. This year Dark Horse Experiment will be showcasing three handpicked graduates as part of the RMIT MFA Exhibition.

Helen Taylor, an exciting new comer to the art industry and recently, to Blender Studios, occupies a distinctive style as a sculptor and is exceptionally skilled in the medium of drawing. Taylor’s work investigates the structural and spatial dynamics of abstract forms and picture planes, through a series of drawings and sculptures.Ben Howe delivers a series of intricate paintings, examining the physical and psychological energy of crowds within an urban environment. Mary Hackett works with heavy-duty materials to create carefully considered sculptures. In this series, Hackett is mindful of the mechanics of the hand when constructing her work, using copper and steel to highlight the relationship between an object and its maker.
  
Helen Taylor, Ben Howe and Mary Hackett work across a range of mediums to produce a highly engaging show.
Don't miss out!

110 FRANKLIN STREET
MELBOURNE 3000
VICTORIA AUSTRALIA

INFO@DARKHORSEEXPERIMENT.COM
WWW.DARKHORSEEXPERIMENT.COM
T. +61 3 9328 5556

GALLERY HOURS:
TUESDAY - SATURDAY 12-6PM

Love Lace

2011-06-30T09:16:00.000+10:00

Yes, It's been a while between posts. I've been busy etc...study....home.....life....exhibitions.....

Image from the powerhouse website

Anyway, the opening of the Love Lace show at the Powerhouse Museum is getting closer and they have images, profile's etc up on their website. My work is there and Melissa Cameron's. There are others from Melbourne. Take a look.

The Seven Visible Signs of Ageing - the invitation

2011-04-16T10:28:00.000+10:00

I hope that we see you here. It should be outrageous fun.

The Seven Visible Signs of Ageing and One Sign of Losing the Mind

2011-04-12T09:55:00.000+10:00

Bless me for I have sinned, it has been sixteen days since my last post. The reason for this is the soul searching and melt down in regards to my work that I have been experiencing all this time.

It is not over! I have a tutorial, though, on Thursday and an exhibition at the end of the month. I have to gather myself together and look as if I know what I am doing.

Below are two pieces for the group show, The Seven Visible Signs of Ageing, that I am working on.

I am thinking of putting one of them into the tutorial and see what happens.

They are both are observations on the breakdown of material especially steel. Though they hint of the skin and ageing of the body.

furrow and corrode

Remnant

Zipora Fried

2011-03-27T18:36:00.000+11:00

http://dawire.com/2010/09/20/zipora-fried/

In the Studio: Hiroshi Suzuki

2011-03-27T18:26:00.000+11:00

blacksmith

2011-03-27T18:05:00.000+11:00

Otto Baier

forged steel bowl
Otto Baier

Gallery Elmar Weinmyer

Otto's forms have an effortless elegance which is highlighted by their surface simplicity. In his statement on the Gallery Elmar Weinmyer web site he states that form and surface interest him. They seem to, though I believe by looking at his work, that the labour involved interests him equally and that the effort and process taken to make these forms is highly important.

lend me your ears

2011-03-23T22:03:00.000+11:00

I finally went to see the second installation of lend me your ears. It's great fun to see how everyone has interpreted the brief.

Annie Broadway:

Mine: Mirror image
Inari Kiuru: Greetings from the evening's edge

Jessica Morrison: Field trip with King Otumfuo Opuko-Ware II
Joanna Harris MACNeil: Music for the Middle Ear
Lindy McSwan: Earrings for a redhead

Coconut Lu: David
Kathryn Wardill: See the sea
Misako Sakao: Konbu Seaweed

Beka Hannah: Textile Earrings
Suse Scholem: Gotta crawl before you can walk
Puneet Jodhka:

Michelle Kelly: Cookiena
Lucinda Knight: let's get loud
Lynn Jacob:

Karyn Nankivell: Wish You Were Here!
Tassia Joannides:

Karen Tompson: Earring for Giavanna
Gillian Hillman: Lend Me Your Ears Cleopatra! The Rites of Passage- Hear Me!

I regret not adding a post for the first installation. Everyone's work was uniquely interesting and beautiful. I will fill the holes in my listings when I know. I might even do a post post for the first installation.
If you haven't seen the show. Go see it. It's at Mailbox 141, Flinders Lane

lend me your ears change over

2011-03-17T20:57:00.000+11:00

The second half of lend me your ears is now open at Mailbox 141.
The work may be viewed at the Part b blog.
This is the image for my work, though I have yet to add it to the collection of Part b images.

Everyone's work has been absolutely lovely! Hopefully I will find time to talk about it more another time. I was unable to attend tonight's opening due to an injury from doing this:

tossing the caber.
photographer Anna Mcleod
who doesn't know yet that I have used her photograph.
Sorry

Yes that's right, I was tossing the caber at a birthday party, twice, which ended with me tearing a stomach muscle. Much pain and no work done for the whole week!

I hope that everyone at the opening had a great time.

lend me your ears

2011-02-27T15:15:00.000+11:00

You are welcome to view a new two part exhibition at MAILBOX 141

  lend me your ears is curated by Dianne Beevers
  and features new work by 38 contemporary jewellers

  opening Thursday 3 March 5.30 pm
  open for viewing from Tuesday 1 March

artist crush

2011-02-26T18:18:00.001+11:00

I am in love with Job Koelewijn's work.
As well as this beautiful Bonnet there is a kaleidoscope.

Bonnet

longings and belongings

2011-02-21T21:30:00.000+11:00

I have the privilege of attending a master class lead by Manon Van Kouswijk.

After a nervous start I settled into work. Our brief was to make something that protects using the materiality of aluminium foil. My idea was to use aluminium's reflective quality combined with colour to protect against anxiety and sadness. Below are the test pieces. I have yet to make an object from my idea.

Apart from Manon and my friends from RMIT the wonderful thing about the class is that my New Zealand friends, Renee Bevan and Shelley Norton are attending the same class!

part b meeting

2011-02-15T10:07:00.000+11:00

The next part b meeting will be held at Gallery Funaki on Saturday, 17th February. We shall be looking at the Laura Deakin exhibition layered traces, folded spaces. After, we shall find a cafe for coffee and a chat. If you feel the need to meet other jewellers and metal smiths please join us, we would love to meet you.

what now?

2011-02-08T21:43:00.000+11:00

I have been trying to think of this year and what I will do with it. Apart from study I am also involved in a few exhibitions that I need to think about. My brain doesn't want to settle on anything, I seem to be floating and unsure on my next moves. I am reading. I have a few books on the go: Formless: a User's Guide, one that I acquired weeks back ; I am reading a chapter of The Logic of Senses by Gilles Deleuze which is giving me a headache as my understanding of ancient (or modern for that matter) philosophy is pretty poor; The Great Dialogues of Plato for obvious reasons: and Creations of the Mind is on the back burner. My mind is itching to make but I feel that my body needs a break.

There was a Blacksmith Doris meeting on Saturday. Doris is a group of women who are learning to blacksmith. I had a large piece of pipe waiting to work on and I asked for it to be worked on under the power hammer. To work the power hammer at the ABA Vic, where Doris is hosted, you need to be inducted into the magical arts of the beast. I haven't as yet. Someone else worked it for me. The tools for this machine made me think of myself as Hans Christian Anderson's Thumbalina but when I was allowed to help I felt like a warrior princess preparing for battle. Anyway, the end result was a steel tube that had been fullered in two spots. Below is a drawing of sorts.

Touring the East Coast of Australia

2011-02-02T23:02:00.002+11:00

As promised, more on the objects that were given a salt water rinse on our trip up the coast. The doilies are two samples of the tablecloth that I decided to give to people on the way as thanks for having us stay. The candelabra is one of several that my husband, Nick, had forged for the same reasons, although this particular one was to come home with us.

By Long Jetty we had given them all away. I hope that they like them.

Lakes Entrance candelabra

Lakes Entrance doilies

Mallacoota doilies

Malacoota candelabra

Aslings Beach, Eden candelabra

Aslings Beach, Eden doilies

Bithry Inlet

Depot Beach candelabra

Depot Beach doilies

Long Jetty candelabra

Home again, home again, jiggety-jog

2011-01-31T22:05:00.000+11:00

We are home.

It was a lovely trip. Along the way we visited family and friends and enjoyed the Gippsland Coast of Victoria and the South and Central Coasts of New South Wales.

We had thought about throwing the tablecloth into the Tasman Sea so that the salt water could get to it, but decided that it would be a hassle to unwrap and wrap again. We did throw other pieces into the sea to rust but I will save that for another day. (We didn't litter, we did retrieve them).

At Long Jetty we opened the parcel and let the patina mature. I will have to post those images another day as they are on a different camera. We stayed at Long Jetty with Nick's sister, Jacq, and her partner, Glenda. Jacq watered the tablecloth every night.

All dressed up and ready to go

The tablecloth is now established in the bowels of the Powerhouse Museum until later this year. I do feel relieved. It was a worry with it being on the back of our truck. I was concerned that it might fall off, or that we would be hit and it would be damaged. It was sitting on the top to safe guard against squashing, and because of this, it was difficult to find our belonging which were hiding underneath.

When we arrived at the Powerhouse I was able to follow the piece into the store rooms. I helped unwrap the piece and checked that it was still sitting the way that I had planned. Lauren, one of the people involved, was lovely and I felt comfortable leaving the piece in her hands.

At the Powerhouse Museum

To Sydney

2011-01-16T23:27:00.001+11:00

We are off tomorrow with the tablecloth on the back of the ute! Wish us luck. It's wrapped in so much bubble wrap and squashed between two boards. It looks like a sandwich or an ice cream between two wafers.

Image by Angus Hackett

part b

2011-01-16T11:10:00.001+11:00

There is a meeting for part b scheduled for Saturday 22 nd of January. This is the first one for the year. The new venue at Pieces of Eight at 28 Russel Place, Melbourne will be the focus. After which, those who attend will find the nearest coffee shop and chat.
I won't be able to attend, though I hope that everyone will have a great time.
Enjoy!

radical jewellery makeover

2011-01-11T20:38:00.001+11:00

Sent to me today by the very talented Jill Hermans was an invitation to a radical jewellery makeover. The Radical Jewellery Makeover is a project which was first run by the ethical metalsmiths. The idea of the project is that people donate their pre-loved but unwanted jewellery to be remade by the makeover workshop.
From reading the facebook event page I have established that susie cholem, a very clever young woman who studied alongside Jill at Monash University will be running the makeover workshop hosted by the loophole community centre in Thornbury, Melbourne.
Unfortunately, I am unable to attend but I wish them well and happy making.

playing with textas

2011-01-10T22:04:00.000+11:00

More drawings of the tablecloth. Colouring in around cardboard stencils with textas.

tablecloth or Tea at Nan's

2011-01-07T15:56:00.000+11:00

Below are a couple of my drawings for the tablecloth, the beginning of my piece for the Love Lace exhibition.

Ink drawing working out the doily pattern

drawing showing placement of patterns

Haitian steel lace

2011-01-06T12:22:00.000+11:00

I thought that this might be of interest to others. It is to me. Absolutely beautiful!!

two things

2011-01-05T14:21:00.001+11:00

Number 1

I received a book in the post today, Formless a Users Guide. It is now out of print and seems tricky to get, but I now have my own copy and it looks in great order.

Formless (affectionate shortened name) has been recommended to me on a few occasions while I have been doing my MFA. Using the library copy, though, sends me into panic mode as I try to read everything and end up understanding nothing.

It is actually a catalogue from a 1996 exhibition of 20th Century art.

Number 2

I was meant to let people know about this market opportunity in Geelong. Redox Jewellery Studio is asking for applications from makers who would like to sell work in Geelong. Two of the jewellers behind the project are 2010 graduates from NMIT Advanced Diploma in Engineering (Jewellery) and their names are Joanna Harris Macneil, Annie Broadway, and Victoria Edgar is an RMIT graduate. All of them are lovely. There is also an exhibition opportunity. Below is an abridged version of their terms etc. Sorry, the application for the first market closes on the 7th January so move like the wind. The 'tablecloth' and Christmas stole my brain. My apologies to Joanna, Annie and Victoria as I said that I would advertise this on the blog earlier.

I have tried twice now to attach some details but to no avail. Email them for documents.

making, breaking

2011-01-04T22:16:00.000+11:00

So far so good, though I am now feeling a little touchy. The plasma cutting on the tablecloth has finished and I have chosen to soft forge the individual elements. This is serving two purposes. The first is to stretch the piece to look more like a crotched tablecloth. The other is to flatten the back as it was going to take way too long to chase the lumps of burnt steel formed by the plasma cutter. I oscillated between t removing the lumps or leaving them. It looked quite good with them. The piece is increasingly fragile because of the forging, even after heating to relax the metal. This is a good thing as the work is breaking in parts, causing more degeneration.

I have become interested in Robert Smithson and his ideas on entropy and the simulacrum - the imperfect copy. In the 'tablecloth' I have been exploring both of these ideas. Yet, even though I want the tablecloth to fall apart to a certain degree, I don't want it to go all the way. Here is my fear, and the only way to work.

Cal Lane

2011-01-03T11:19:00.001+11:00

I have recently discovered Cal Lane who uses a plasma cutter to make lacy pieces. They are exquisite! I suspect that her plasma cutter is a machine that was used before laser cutters, not like my clunky hand held model. If not I have a long way to go in my technique. Cal's web site shows dirt lace sculptures, beautifully lacy I bars and car parts. She seems to enjoy the tension between masculine and feminine within her work, as well as using her techniques for political comment.

The shovel image is from a book, a catalogue of works for a traveling international show, called Subversive Knitting Radical Lace. From what I have seen I am going to have to get it at some stage.

Christmas, New Year and work

2011-01-01T19:14:00.000+11:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!

Apart from attending social events and snuggling children I have been beavering away at the Love Lace 'tablecloth'.

The image below is the work done so far, which has involved cutting out the pattern with the plasma cutter. Now I am shaving off more with the plasma, daring the work to fall apart. So far it is fairly intact and looks like it will take a lot to destroy it. I don't have much time left before I have to deliver the piece so I will need to make a choice about ending the cutting process.

The History Tablecloth

2010-12-10T17:12:00.002+11:00

I want one!

tablecloth

2010-12-02T17:24:00.001+11:00

The pattern on a tablecloth is predictable. If you trace the pattern around with finger or eye it follows a logical order. The fibre of a lace cloth ages. Threads unravel from a break in the fabric. Steel on the other hand does not have threads.

my grandmother's doily stained with tea

cardboard pattern

steel template

The pattern I am using was found on a doily of my grandmothers. It unravelled in parts but the basic pattern still remains. I copied the lace pattern onto paper.
With the paper pattern that I created I made a template in steel using the plasma cutter. I will lay the template on the steel sheet for the tablecloth and cut with the plasma. The plasma cutter is imprecise in its cutting, unlike laser cutting which is exact. This act places a couple of processes between the fabric lace pattern and the final steel piece. I am creating an entropic state within the piece. How far can I take this degeneration of the pattern before it ceases to be a pattern?

MFA graduates

2010-12-01T12:09:00.000+11:00

Tonight is the opening of the graduating MFA students:

Measuring the Space Between

2010-12-01T11:57:00.001+11:00

My friend Melissa is having a show:

what was taken?

2010-11-18T14:38:00.001+11:00

My beautiful daughter had these pieces stolen on the night. She was very happy.

tonight

2010-11-16T09:06:00.000+11:00

Here is a taster of tonights work. These pieces are mild steel wire painted white and then painted with glow-in-the-dark paint over the top. But you won't get to see if you're not there.

steel this!

2010-11-15T10:21:00.000+11:00

Come along, steal some bling and take it home.

rolling pin

2010-10-19T17:13:00.000+11:00

This is a video that I took of one of my kids using my rolling pin before the spikes were taken off.

I love the pattern that it leaves behind in the clay that it is rolling. Unfortunately the clay dried poorly and broke.

rolling pin from Mary Hackett on Vimeo.

Master of Fine Art Auction

2010-10-14T08:44:00.000+11:00

I have been remiss in my duties as an MFA student. The auction is tonight. The students who are graduating are a great group and their work is fantastic. From the point of view of a first year I have found them friendly and open, willing to give honest opinion and help. I will miss them.

The RMIT Master of Fine Art graduating students will be holding an Art Auction as a fundraiser for their graduation catalogue and exhibition. Artworks up for auction are created by graduating MFA students, RMIT staff, and alumni.

This is an excellent opportunity to obtain works by established artists such as David Thomas, Sally Mannall, Michael Graeve, and Laresa Kosloff, among others, as well as works by many emerging Australian and international artists.

Please join us at:

Bella Union Bar @ Trades Hall, corner Victoria St and Lygon St Carlton.

Thursday, October 14th

Doors open at 6pm for viewing of artworks and registration.

The Auction will run from 7-10pm.

Some food will be provided as well as a special guest performance by Claire Hollingsworth!

We look forward to seeing you there!

RMIT Master of Fine Art Students

Everyday Objects

2010-10-06T09:44:00.000+11:00

Invitation to a special exhibition. The opening is at 6pm on the night of October 21st

Rain, Steam and Speed

2010-09-15T22:19:00.000+10:00

Last night was the opening of the show Re-visions: new art from old at RMIT First Site Gallery. This is the first time that I have written about an exhibition and I wish that I had started earlier in the year.

Anyway, this exhibition featured three artists - Sarah Edwards, Helen Dilkes and Charlene King. Sarah and Helen are RMIT students who will complete their Master of Fine Arts this year, while Charlene is an MFA graduate. Their collective focus was on a Turner painting: Rain, Steam and Speed.

Although all of the work on show was worthy and impressive, as a gold and silversmith student my main concern was Helen's work. These were three silver objects suspended above a plinth. Each object was a series of ellipses conjoined to build cones. Together they suggested the train in Turner's painting.

One of the interesting things about these cone shaped forms was that they were made using the rapid prototyping process. I have always felt that it would be difficult to create something that is expressive and unique using this process. I was wrong. The quality of Helen's work was impressive in it's execution. I am privileged to have seen similar equally beautiful pieces of Helen's that were fabricated. I believe, though, that the rapid prototyping added a clean, precision like aspect to her work, reminiscent of Turner's train and the industrial age that it came from. As stated in the catalogue: 'The work provokes a reminder of a pivotal slice of time in human history and a new technology.'

Intriguingly, while the texture of the casting was left on the pieces to re-enforce the technology of the period, the pieces stay squarely within the twenty-first century in character and attitude. This is not a bad thing as aping the past, as the Steam Punk movement does, can only carry work so far. Helen's pieces evoke the past using the technology of the future.

Go and see Helen's work at First Site Gallery which is on until the 25th September. You won't regret it.
Also, in all of the gallery spaces at First Site are equally brilliant work by other MFA students that are of interest.

2010-09-13T12:39:00.000+10:00

Last Thursday I went to the Wheeler Centre for the event Critical Failure: Visual Arts. Very interesting - thanks to Melissa for the prompt.
I am not a writer nor a critic so I will not try here. I do however wish to draw attention to UN Magazine, an independent magazine focusing on art in Melbourne. It is also free! I discovered it this year and really enjoyed it. I mention it because Phip Murray, who spoke at the Wheeler Centre is the editor of this magazine.
She was not the most entertaining of the Critical Failure speakers but I believe that what she is involved in is the closest to what the conversation was about. I just wish that there were more issues.

images

2010-09-11T13:48:00.000+10:00

I love the photos children take. The first three of the following were taken by my daughter.

the steel pile

silhouette

at the window

The spiral on the image below swept from the top to the bottom of Australia, as you can see.

the spiral of an impending storm taken from the internet.

Strange

Graffiti on Plenty Road Preston

dump the dump

2010-07-31T11:23:00.000+10:00

I intended to write today on my work, after all that is what the blog is about, though instead I would like to draw attention to a petition started by the Australian Conservation Foundation called dumpthedump. It is a petition telling Martin Ferguson to stop plans for a radioactive waste dump in the NT. I believe that he is using his power to push a situation onto locals which they disagree with. Read it and make up your own mind or disregard this blog entry. Martin Ferguson is a candidate within my electorate and his views on this subject are not mine.

finished?

2010-07-24T14:41:00.000+10:00

What is finished?

The poet Paul Amboise Valéry said: ‘a poem is never finished, only abandoned’.
Usually, we don’t show work until it is finished. How do we know when that is?

Baking seems to me, as a mum to be an ‘unfinished’ process: crack the egg; mix the dough; form the desired shape; bake; eat; gone; start again. This process is of giving pleasure, of presenting family or friends with an object of delight to consume with the eyes, nose and then with the mouth. When is it finished? The thought of that pleasure can stay with the consumer even into adulthood. In an essay in Evocative Objects by Sherry Turkle, called the Rolling Pin, Susan Pollak describes a situation of a man who was a writer with writer’s block. He remembered biscuits bought for him by his estranged father when he was a boy. The emotional power of the biscuits was such that when he bought some himself and left them for a day to age, as happened in his childhood, and then ate them he was able to remember and feel things that he had blocked. They became a catalyst for telling stories to his own children about his father. They were also the lock and key to his writer’s block. The biscuits bought by the father years before were still being ‘tasted’ by the man, his children, his readers, and readers of that story etcetera. Turkle referred to a passage from Marcel Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past of a similar experience while eating a madeline. Both edible delights seem to me ‘unfinished’.

I imagine that the origins of cooking tools is almost as old as human kind and the basic structure of baking is still fairly similar - binding, shaping, heating. The objets for this practice would also be similar - objects that contain, bind, shape and hold. These objects have a particular relationship with the human body and in particular the hand. The hands themselves can contain, bind, shape and hold, though they are not completely suitable for baking. Humankind needed objects that were projections of the hands and were more practical for the job. Bricolage and never ending tool designing was born and a special relationship with humankind and tools began.

The tool/human relationship does not end with the physical. There is the possibility of an emotional relationship as well. Susan Pollak also addresses the emotional attachment to objects that happen. Within the text Rolling Pin, Susan Pollak writes of the inheritance of her Grandmother’s rolling pin. She describes telling stories to her children as she bakes and notices that the rolling pin connects her to her grandmother and the life that was hers. The rolling pin also has the potential to create future memories. I interpret her text as suggesting that objects can be vessels that hold memories waiting to be evoked. She sites D W Winnicott who has looked at the ability for sentiment, recollections and inspiration to be stored within objects. This suggests to me that objects, like a good ( or bad ) cake, can be unfinished as they hold the memories of their users and have the potential to transfer those memories.

This poor egg. The bit at the top I believe to be the culprit. It is fine as I kind of like the disturbing nature of the egg as it is. It is filled with ice at the moment because I will try to planish using the ice as a stake. This technique was suggested by Ray Norman a respected and much loved metalsmith and shit stirrer. I will see how it goes.
The writing above is unfinished.

Chocolate Tart

2010-05-26T16:41:00.000+10:00

I thought that it might be time to review what I had written for my application for Master of Fine Art:

I will create a collection of vessels which will extend my exploration of the making process and the partnership between maker and metal. Additionally, I will consider the relationship between the core and the skin of the vessel – exploring the vessel as receiver and container. Finally, I will examine the dynamics of the group of vessels.

I am still focusing on a collection of vessels, though they are not all vessels in the traditional sense. The collection that I have chosen are those used in chocolate treat making. This became a necessity as I needed something that tied me to home, and the fun, nurturing parts of home. These are - the mixing bowl, the rolling pin, the wooden spoon, the patty pan, and egg.
Slowly I am examining the dynamics of the group of vessels by placing them in different arrangements in drawings and, soon, in situ.
The core and skin of the vessel is still important, though I can't quite remember what I meant by those words.
Vessel as receiver and container is still an important aspect of my work. The importance of the mixing bowl to be large and heavy; the patty pan dripping of chocolate; the purity of the egg.
Now that I have my forms I would like to explore their 'beingness'. Their ability to function or not as the objects that they propose to be.
The words - partnership between maker and metal - spring out at me at this point. Is metal as important to me as I believe? What would happen if they were not metal?

egg bottle

2010-05-12T15:09:00.000+10:00

I want to make an egg for the instillation, chocolate tart, that I've started. Above is a copper trial. It is going to work! I couldn't cut off the top of this one and turn it into an egg because its form is quite lovely. This is about a centimetre off from closing and, in silver, the metal I have chosen for the egg, it will not be that difficult to finish.
This was raised using silversmithing techniques and then drawn in using a blacksmiths fuller. To use a fuller the object is put into the closest curved end to the anvil and the top of the fuller is hammered placing force on the metal object which is turned slowly as the fuller is hammered. This action shrinks the diameter of the object.

The copper pot split early on and I had to change my technique. I was drawing the whole end down after fullering and this caused unnecessary stress on the end. It seemed wiser to leave the end and concentrate on the fuller.

Installation

2010-05-04T09:48:00.000+10:00

I wasn't happy with what I had made so far. I had no direction and the work was bland. After having a play at a blacksmiths demonstration I started looking at domestic objects and the rawness of the metal. Also, the pieces that I had started there and at Uni were far more interesting than they would have if I had 'finished' them.

For my first tutorial I decided to try an installation. I went in the day before to work out where I would show and how. The image below was taken on my phone before the tutorial and before the 'flour' went down.

On that weekend Nick and I took the installation to a car park and photographed it there.

Photography

2010-03-24T09:02:00.000+11:00

Playing with the camera towards the light. I'm not the greatest photographer in the world, though this was enjoyable. Light, shadow and perforations have become a common theme within my work.

My mischief was inspired by Hilla Becher and Fiona Hall. I was interested in Hilla Becher's portrayal of industry as icon and her ability to say so much in a very simple manner. Fiona views objects differently, especially in her photography. She will put unusual things together to create her images.

Painting and etching

2010-03-23T11:52:00.000+11:00

I've been too busy for posting. These images were taken last week after I painted them with white and blue rust resistant paint.

I intend etching holes into the surface of the copper (which is the spiral) of the shell object. This is being done as I write.

For the funnel object I sprayed the paint through the stainless steel mesh onto the funnel shape to give the idea of layering. The unpainted surface has been rusting ever since.

I am not very happy with the blue colour of both pieces. It seems too bright and pure. Nor am I happy with the shell shape - naive. They are a start though. At the weekend I forged a few more components for work and will play with them.

First Work Day

2010-03-10T09:06:00.000+11:00

It was my first work day at RMIT, yesterday. The hammer room is wonderful.

I am ambivalent about these new pieces. They are not quite where I want to be.

It is Melbourne and my belonging to it that I wish to express. What I have made, though, are shells. I want to make vessels with soul.

They are not quite finished yet. I intend using the plasma cutter on the dish of the first one. I don't know what I'll do with the other two.

Port Melbourne

2010-01-11T15:21:00.000+11:00