If I was in Melbourne...

...I would be going to this exhibition

I certainly would.

Two wonderful jewellers Katherine Bowman and Vikky Kassioras

Jet lag depending, I might be able to get there on the 9th.

I'm in London and there will be posts to come of the last days in Hallein. boo hoo
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Random Hallein Entertainment

Getting steel cut at the local Bauhaus (hardware shop!)...

Buying tools...

diamond drills and burrs, high-tech cup burrs, a pair of titanium tweezers (solderer's friend) and CHECK OUT THOSE REAMERS!!!!! I love them. They come with a beautiful hand attachment and lovely white plastic container - and they're ten times better than the three I have left from the set of 6 I bought when I first left school.

hmmmmm... reamers...

Melanie, Sateeta and hammock.

 The view from my new desk - we had to move when a new group of students arrived. Between these windows and those buildings is the Salzach river which flows from here to Salzburg.

Austrian comedy: make your own champagne from bath water, skim milk powder and yeast...

...and disgorge.

Note the change of POV of those last two photos - Yes, I got sprayed with disgusting milky, stinky sparkling muck!
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Intention project

I'm so sorry. I thought I would have loads of time to post but I'm at the studio from 8 til 8, then have (need) a beer and then crash. But here's some photos of preliminary paper models for our current, and last, project: The Intention Project.

Hopefully I'll get in another post before my fingers stop working...

This was my intention...

Thinking about voids and spaces...

And movement...

and composition...

a photo of a relatively tidy bench - it's been better. It's been worse
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I'm in!

just found out by email
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Just to prove it's not all work and no play

Saturday night in Salzburg...

at a great bar opposite the künstlerhaus (art house)

that's our Jacqueline on drums!

and yours truly clanging heads with Lucia on the dancefloor!
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zinc and salt

I think I might have already mentioned it but I'm really interested in using steel in a place which has a history of storing mountains of salt.

In the first week I grabbed a piece of what I thought was steel sheet from the scrap box, covered it in salt, dripped water on it and left it to see what happens. I subsequently found out it was zinc so I just forgot about it.

Then I found it again...

wierd, huh?

Anyone able to give me the chemical formula of what's going on here?

Anyone?

Bubble-Man?
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'at' project complete

We all managed to understand what we were meant to do... in the end.

This is the piece that was made by Melanie 'at' me... (not my best angle)

And this was the piece that was made by me 'at' Melanie...

It's a pendant made from card and sterling silver.

The crit... (l-r Sateeta, Peter, Anja, Jacqueline, Manuel, Flora and Wolfie)

It's been interesting to work from drawings and models. Normally I just get started working from the ideas in my head and make things straight in the material I imagine is right for the idea. This is not the way I was trained but over the years I've gradually slipped away from drawing and model making. But it's so much fun! I guess it's because I have so many things going on at any one time in the studio it's difficult to clear a CLEAN space to work with paper.

Here we each have a jewellery bench and in another room we have a large trestle table each on which to make our drawings and models. A lot of us end up making our final work in paper or textiles - So far I have used only a limited amount of time at the jewellery bench because it's really difficult not having my own torch, my own pickle, my own tools, and everything at my fingertips. Normally to drill a hole in something, I reach to my right, get the drill bit, put it in the flexi on my right and drill away. Here I have to get up from the bench, go to the tool selection, pick out the right drill bit (I only brought 1.0mm), go to the other side of the room where the flexi is set up, possibly wait for someone else who's already using it, try drilling, realise I need beeswax, walk around looking for the beeswax, go back to the flexi, someone else is using it again, wait, and then drill. I'm so spoilt.

Anyway, here's an image of all the models I made for this project and there will be plenty more to come with the new 'Intention' project already underway.

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The leadership of the nation

I've voted! It's in the post.

When I left I was quite pleased to be leaving behind all the palaver that comes from the pollies and from the media in the weeks before the election. But, strangely, I've been missing it! I've downloaded the missing bit on my computer so I can now listen to 774 live... And all I get is Ben Bloody Cousins!

in progress...

The "at" project.

Can't be explained.

Sorry.

Even I don't understand it. We have moved from direct representation (the Australia brooch) through to a more subliminal, instinctive way of working. We've determined that one thing that jewellery is is a language. It's like we're trying to translate from the subconscious. You can see from my self-portrait, and from my work generally, that I work in a very constructed, thinking way, so all this emotional codswallop is doing my head in! (This is not strictly true, as one of the reasons I wanted to do this course was to try to develop this side of my creative practice. But, boy, when you're used to working one way, it's difficult to make the switch.)

Manuel has named the course: "Jewellery and Other Stories" and it's very appropriate.

So to "at"...

it's not this.

and not this.

and definitely not this.

but it might be this (note the wearing of new birkenstocks)

and this

but I'm still not sure
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Italian Market

Every year in Hallein they have an Italian market which runs for the weekend. The streets of the old town become lined with Italian produce stalls.

hmmm... salami...

antipasto...

strange fruit...

Italian love songs...

Italians...

Porchetta...

Gluttony....

And fun! (Wolfie, Soo Yeun and Sateeta)

Yours truly and the translator (Lucia)
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My name is Anna

A self-portrait...

... in steel...

... 4mm thick steel...

... with a saw.

75mm x 75mm. Not heavy enough.

cut more.

encase in wool.

put around your neck.

everyone else
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