Klein Flames

the Flame is very important to a Goldsmith,

who uses one every day to make things.

I've been wanting some kind of way to express this.

I could write an essay- but that seems like a little bit of a fizzer;

an essay about Flames ??

*pffft...goes that idea, followed by wisps of smoke, knotting their way into blackness*

anyway- I guess, what I do with Gold is a tribute to the Flame.

Its just that my audience never sees that part-

they never know the heat and brightness, where my works are born.

(ahem, except for the fact that most people who like my stuff seem to be mainly

other jewellers, and know quite well what a flame can do)

Yves Klein said something about the Flame- not quite what Im driving at,

but extraordinary nonetheless.

Bike Thu

-Coppi and Bartali- an entertaining story of Le Tour rivalry.

-Rudge chainring- well, its a cool logo- but puzzlingly inappropriate-

its a sign for "stop" and its in a place that is clearly for feet.

-Old timers with old time geometry.

1896 Olympians Masson and Flameng

Elephant Motif / ¡PRIZE!

before I credit all these pix, I'll give you a chance:

The Gowden Smiff quiz ( yes, I will keeping trying to get you to participate, dear reader)

Can you attribute a creator to any of these elephants?

(PRIZE: Ill make you a little elephant in silver, if you are the first to name 5 different makers)

UPDATE:

1. Danuta Zukowska

2. Kay Bojesen

3. Bit of a trick one! its the bottom of something else, but makes a great elephant.

from Gustavsberg anyway.

4. Upsala Ekeby

5. Walter Bosse

6.Walter Bosse

7.Walter Bosse

8.Walter Bosse. (So... if you'd got him, plus an easy one like Kay Bojesen,

you might have won!- but Rolfa was like lightning- I call her 'the Northern Bullet')

9. Kjeld Jordan for Palshus

10. I actually dont know...( I think this one came from bibliodyssey??)

11. errm?

12.Lisa Larsson

13. Bob Gill- from the book Continuo a cambiare or I keep changing

Thank you all for entering! it was pretty hard really- so well done!

I had to look them up myself!!

the winner of the yet-to-be-made-by-me silver Elephant is Rolfa, who was very quick!

(please send me a p.m Rolfa so I can mail your prize; meatdavidnealedotcomdotau)

I will make it in January.

Siren Song

Tuesday equals historical artefact day! yesssssss

Greek, 300-330 B.C.

44 mm (so, about half as small as she appears on your screen)

shes a siren, playing a stringed instrument-- not so very seductive--

except maybe to the goldsmiths; because she's a virtuoso piece:

the strings measure a mere 0.1mm!!

¡vaya!

shes wearing spherical earrings!

Are they the tiniest earrings ever??!!

It looks as if they are about 4 of her lyre's strings wide, so about 0.4mm diameter. thats like this big: "."

L'Œuvre Peint

Its fascinating that Le Corbusier was a modernist zealot, well, on paper, at the start...

but seemed to just contradict all of that tight modernism with a whole lot of primitive, Picasso-esque, suspiciously colourful, decorative paintings - which I think is very balanced, in truth.

"Je suis un acrobate de la forme", he reckoned.

And I dont know if his famous little cabanon was all that functional, but it looks fun, anyway.

(actually maybe Corb was pretty sad toward the end... alone in his fun cabanon... poor old Corb.)

The very top pic is a mural with which he vandalised a wall of the 'E-1027' house by Eileen Grey- he was obsessed with her and the house. This event says it all really- was the wild expressive heart stronger than the rational, bespectacled architect? err...oui )

Thursday: Velo

Daily posting on The Gold on Smith is a challenge!

So, Im going to schedule the topics for each day of the week.

we'll see.

I thought:

Thursday, Bicycle day? maybe...

Fri can be Other Artists,

Mon can be My Stuff,

Tue can be Historical Artefacts,

Wednesdays could be Motif day

... hope this blows your hair back. I think the most successful blogs tend to

have a large proportion of self-generated content, yes, but I also like to post

things from elsewhere that are interesting to me... I think it all relates somehow

1. Columbus tubing stamp. Good bikes are made from special tubing- lighter,

stronger steel alloys- and are sometimes 'butted'- not the same wall thickness

throughout. Columbus is still a leading manufacturer, the motif is a dove-

('columba' signifies a dove) these days you'll only see a sticker rather than a

stamp.

2.Gettin' around...

3.Peugeot Fool. from the owner's manual I think! Ha! well, I put this up because

its funny, and also because I recently scored an old Peugeot with nervex lugs

( very fancy). Will show you the restoration...

4. beauties from collectvelo. really like the old bidons ( drink bottles) and

good colours. Natural or white tyres.

Difficult Motif: Spiral

(can anyone set me straight on the plural of 'motif'?)

Anyway- some motifs /emblems etc are difficult- too many associations,

 some are irredemable.

(is that a word? my spell check doesn't like it)

So, Im going to present a series of Difficult Motifs.

Spirals. 

If you can pull off a spiral,

 -a non-ironic, non-cynical one-

 well,  you've really got some élan, some éclat, some chutzpah.

1. roman? bronze

2.Calder. the model is great. Are the earrings good?  Im not sure. 

They are gutsy, and playful, yes- but maybe too much? please opine.

3. Jensen. Scando-folk vibe. Note reluctance to just have a spiral alone;

 evidently it was felt that balls were needed. 

4. (?) ancient... dynamic line is effective, (thick to thin) and the 

square profile too. as I understand it, ancient wire was not extruded

 through steel drawplates as it is today, but chiselled out of sheet as a 

strip that was then rolled between stone plates to round. This might

 explain the square profile? but then, it looks so laterally neat, extrudey.

Rigg Revisit

(click pic to embiggen)

These works appeared in the Rigg award at the National Gallery of Victoria 

a few years ago.  Im revisiting. It was a privilege to have been included.

I thought quite carefully about this grouping- it is difficult to compose 

a coherent group of objects that have a strong 'solved' identity of their own.

Certain people (mainly Family: the toughest critics!) wondered about the

 logic of the set; how did they relate?

I thought I might explain some of it now.

What strikes me immediately about this group is how disparate and various it is.

Similar subjects are treated quite differently from one piece to the next, 

but I intended a balance and logic to this. There is a spectrum of realism/ abstraction, 

which I built into a linear 'sentence'. (sadly, the display of my linear arrangement 

was broken around the ridiculously obtuse corner of an ngv cabinet. 

I was very dissapointed, because the logic of my set was confused and veiwers

 literally had to walk around the back of someone else's display to see the rest of mine.) 

The large black plant brooch is very realistic; simulacra. 

It references Greek and Roman gold work. The ring with a tiny ploughman

 atop and the red white and blue flower brooch have more stylised execution, 

both in colour and form, not quite real.

The gold pendants have enscribed wheat motifs, so these are really drawings-

  another step toward abstracted representation.

The gold horse brooch and the bone flower earrings are flattened,

 cut-out graphic representations, becoming simpler and simpler.

 ( referencing metalwork from the Americas.) 

Finally, the wooden hair comb is completely abstract, just made up of coloured strips.

 (riffing on Pacific-culture combs, woven from plant material)

Im changing gears a lot here- some wouldnt like this- but Im inspired by

 ancient artefacts- where such contrasts are often effortlessly combined.

 Im following an instinct to mix it up, create tensions.

 I said in the statement that mystery is an important ingredient for creating 

preciousness- you've got to put in a pinch of wonder- a slight question; 

what is it made of? how was that done? make it slightly unfamiliar, 

without being alienating. Its a tricky but fun game. 

 the jeweller's raison d'etre is to make treasures, after all.

Free Wheelin' Biro

Biro, sheathed in silver.

Sometimes Biro is good.

(I wont fool myself that its always good)

For a while there I was quite taken by it, filling whole canvasses with blue.

you can see, if you peer closely, how the ball point is kind of just smearing the goopy blue ink around. Rolling along the paper terrain, free wheelin'

its a good blue though...

Torun again

torun again... modelling her own jewells, always with an expression that seems to say

"yeah , Ive got it and I know it"- yes, even when soldering- look, its there...

(except for that Picasso incident?)