Marbling Paper

Going into this activity today I honestly had no idea what I should expect. I never knew anything about Printmaking and I still know very little about what it actually is. Despite my lack of knowledge and the inclement weather that faced me, I went in with an experimental attitude. Experimenting allows me to fully experience an activity without any possibility of disappointment. I've found through previous artistic endeavors that actually planning something out just ends badly. This being said, I did plan out my different color schemes. I quickly learned that my favorite technique involved scrambling the dark ink with the fork to make a melded marble pattern. After first trying it, I used that technique for every different paper. Within the last few seconds of the activity I made my favorite pattern by just plopping it down over the mixed up remnants of a previous paper. Great things can come from spontaneous actions.

Artist Response 2: John Paul Miller

Creepy crawlers get a new life in the fantastic jewelry of John Paul Miller. Under his skilled hands these bugs transform into beautiful pendants and brooches. The trick to Miller's marvelous creatures lies in an ancient technique called granulation.
In 1940, Miller's research led him to discover that the technique reached it's peak in the 7th and 6th centuries before falling out of practice. Few people knew much about it, but still he continued his research. Through experimentations with gold he began to revive the lost art of granulation. "Little by little, I learned to control the surface of the gold,"quotes Alan Revere who named him an innovator. Truly, his legacy proves Miller worthy of the title.
Not only did he uncover a lost art, he also mastered the ancient art showcased through his extensive collections of work. Perhaps most famous are his collections of beetles, moths and snails. Each tiny insect of 18k gold showcases the masterful granulation that Miller strived to perfect. As you can see in the piece below, the golden body of the creature is covered with smaller fragments of gold fused to the surface to give it a floating effect.

Miller's granulation provides each individual insect with its own texture or skin. The uniqueness of each granulation seems to be instilled with a life all it's own. The moth below stands out as the most unique among all the other creatures. The insect could simply be frozen in gold during his average day in the natural world. Except the vivid color of the enamel and the careful granulation of the body provides it with a new kind of beauty that nature never can. This particular twist on realistic art makes him a true innovator in the art world. Miller takes the creatures that humans detest most and makes them beautiful in ways our own eyes never could.

Revere, Alan. "Innovators Part II: John Paul Miller."Professional Jeweler. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan 2013. <http://www.professionaljeweler.com/archives/articles/1998/mar98/0398pm1.html>.

Artist Response 1: Kristen Hassenfeld

Kristen Hassenfeld brings new life to the average everyday fixtures of light that we all hang in our homes. In a truly unique approach, this artist uses paper as her main material in constructing all sorts of floating masterpieces and unparalleled pieces of jewelry. 

The young artist began creating these designs with paper in 1999. Building off of the natural desire for wealth and luxury, Hassenfeld decided to create her own form of luxury out of more affordable materials. She honed her craft at the Univeristy and Arizona and the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design. Most of these illuminated pieces of hers focused on transparent colors such as blue and white.  

Pastel colored material focuses the viewers' attention on the natural light and makes each piece, like the ones shown above, into more of a custom chandelier. After looking at a majority of these bland looking pieces the striking red color of her piece Pink Cluster. 

The light that comes through these particular paper creations illuminates the room with a surreal pink color. Placing this in one of my own rooms would serve as my own personal escape from reality. It transports my mind back to my childhood, when I would experiment with shapes, colors and different possible methods to put them together. Pink paper clusters draw me into a world just through the incredible shades and patterns coming from shaped papers. Truly unique and insightful pieces of art, such as Hassenfeld's incredible light features, somehow manage this despite their regular setting.
In another way, the cluster of individual paper pieces draws in elements from the natural world. The dangling creations mirror the floating jellyfishes in a fascinating combination of  the natural and the fantastic.
Kristen Hassenfeld's gleaming red creation draws in viewers with her own simplistic version of luxury as well as natural fantasy. This man-made escapist ideal is what fascinates me most about her effervescent imaginations.



Citations

Pinar, . "Luxurious Jewelry Made of Paper." My Modern Metropolis. N.p., 17 Feb 2012. Web. 26 Jan 2013. <http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/kirsten-hassenfeld-paper-art-jewels>.