The Baker's Dozen and the Yearly Ornament
Disclaimer: This article was originally published in the previous host, GoDaddy on December 13, 2024, and has been transferred for preservation.
At
last, the semester is over! The holidays are rolling in, and everyone
can relax after a handful of stressful months of work and school! For
this article, I’d like to describe two compositions created as final
projects before winter break, one from the Begining Sculpture and
another from Beginning Metalsmithing and Jewelrymaking.
The Baker’s Dozen was a casting project where I had to make thirteen casts from four molds resembling cupcakes. Each cast is made out of thirteen different materials:
- Hydrocoal Plaster
- Hard Putty
- Water Resin Plaster
- Plaster of Paris
- Clear Resin
- White ResinCeramic Resin
- Beeswax
- Paraffin Wax
- Coconut Wax
- Soy Wax
- Crayon Wax
- Mixed Wax topped with Acrylic Paint
In all honesty, I may have been taught woodworking, welding, and ceramics in high school, but I have yet to learn casting, and that was a significant struggle. For instance, I had to make multiple mother molds out of Paris bandages tirelessly, keep watch of leaks coming out as I applied a new cast, build new molds after accidentally tearing apart old ones, mix or heat casting material on the stove(yes the sculpture studio had one, believe it or not), and wait to pour new layers of the next cast. This was my most stressful project in the class, and I couldn’t finish all the cupcakes by its deadline, December 2nd. I was hoping I’d complete the project during Thanksgiving break, but I had a lot of trouble with mixing and measuring the resin, which was a bit of a disadvantage. Luckily, I wasn’t the only student in the class with less than thirteen casts completed that day (I only had ten, for example). Despite this, I refused to give up and finished the last three cupcake casts on the 6th and took some lovely photos of them the night I completed The Baker’s Dozen.
Yearly Ornament
Since my parents were married, they wanted to start a tradition of buying a unique yearly ornament to hang on the Christmas Tree. The tradition grew with my and my two brothers’ first Christmas ornaments and continued when we bought any beautiful ornament worth hanging each year. Instead of purchasing another yearly ornament for 2024, I vowed to create a new one for the Jewelry-Making class.
This Christmas Tree-Shaped ornament is built from sheets of brass. The three pieces of brass that make the tree are coated with green spray paint and decorated with holiday-themed beads and colored rhinestones. The rhinestones represent twenty-nine years since the tradition began. The next piece of brass is the Star Charm (my first jewelry piece and assigned for the Shilouette Project), which is glued on top of the tree and decorated with golden rhinestones to make it look more flashy. While making it was a bit time-consuming, this ornament ought to be my favorite project in class.
While my first semester as a junior was nowhere perfect, I have learned to improve my skills in my last two sculpture classes, and I am proud to have completed all of the required 3D Distribution courses. I look forward to starting two new accomplishments in my degree: completing three art electives (starting with Intermediate Printmaking) and a minor in Art Entrepreneurship (starting with Financial and Managerial Accounting).