Artists & Copyright

If you are in the Sydney area on Wednesday June 17, I recommend you head on over to Contempo and attend “Art Smart: Learn the legal side of art and design”.

Here is an excerpt:

Contempo and Arts Law will be presenting an evening on intellectual property rights in the world of art. Learn what copyright and design protection is, and how it helps you as an artist.

For more info on this event go to their website. I think I might knock off work early that day and pull an all-nighter drive… If they can pack in even just a little of the information I’d like to know in those 2 hours, it would make it worth driving 7 hours there and back!!

Mosaic Tabletop – Progress

Well, today I finally finished gluing down the last 2 panels of this table commission that has been consuming my life for the last couple months… It’s very exciting, but by the same token I still see how much work there is. Firstly, I need to move it out of my studio (!), then I need to seal the tiles before grouting and then finally seal it all over again. I’ve used the unglazed porcelain tile, and in my experience they tend to get easily stained by the grout. The trick is to seal the tile before grouting… I need to move it out of the studio now before I grout because it already weighs a ton and I have no idea how I’m going to move it. When I started on it I had to have it in the studio because I could only work on this table after hours and it was still freezing outside. I thought I’d be able to take the substrate up and that’d be easy enough, but I’m loathe to try and get it out for fear of messing it all up! I could always take the windows of my studio out, lol!

Anyway, I’m very happy with it. I can actually look at it now and think OK! That’s what it is supposed to look like 😉 Almost  all of it has been made with the reverse-indirect method. I have that down pat now! I know the best glue to use, the best dilution necessary, the best way to cut out the paper to fit correctly, lol… The things you learn by doing huh!? Plus all the tile has been hand cut.

My original plan was to use a light grey grout. I decided to do a grout test, to compare the grey vs. a light brown. I ran out to the hardware store to get a couple light browns only to get home to find out that one of them contained the wrong colour grout. I hate that! Where’s the quality control?! So in the end I could only do one of the browns, which is fine really as it gives me an idea. Needless to say my gut instinct is always right. I’m going with the light grey 🙂 I really think you can get to complicated with grouting. Though I have been known to use different colour grouts, I am a strong believer in keeping it simple. For my work atleast it’s my tile that speaks louder, not my grout lines so that’s what generally works for me. The overall feel of the table was to be coo/light in colour. I think I get that more from the grey. Although I don’t mind the brown, it’s a much warmer tone and really creates a different feel.

Scaly Building

In the area of Seoul known as Samcheongdong – the new “it” part of Seoul – were some really interesting shops and buildings. One of which was this restaurant.

Very cool! It was closed when I walked past, so I couldn’t go in and taste the food 😦 All the “scales” are made of recycled metal. Not sure what!? But, interesting and colourful anyway…

Table centre sections

Finally I feel like this table is starting to come together. I’m actually very happy, so far, with how it is turning out. I’ve done some of the borders direct and the rest I’ll be doing indirect. I still havn’t glued down these centre sections that I finished the other day. The middle one made me work for my money! I diluted the glue too much and ended up having to redo most of it… I suppose that’s what keeps us humble. 🙂 Anyway, I’m now doing the small half circles and then it’ll be mostly done! I have given up on the idea of getting this finished before my trip OS. There’s no way I can do it. I couldn’t have chosen a worse time to be going on holiday actually. Work is busy – I have two huge events I’m organising for when I get back (Fun!!!). This commission ended up being handed to me now and my studies have had to be put on hold. I am so relieved with that! It got to the point that I was really not enjoying it any longer.

I decided to go with a little bling here. I couldn’t help myself 😉 Plus it’s not like it is brash and unappealing… I felt like it needed something more to it. Anyway, back to do more.

Table on the go

Yesterday I got stuck into this table. Very exciting as it is now starting to come to life. Hopefully the tiles will be in shortly so I can continue on it. For now I’m just happy to have the pattern transferred.

I started outlining some of the borders directly. I think it will end up being partially direct, partially indirect. Thankfully I have a steady enough hand that when I work direct I can generally get a good, even surface. I brought the table inside because it’s too bloody cold outside to work, and I’ll be working on this mostly at night. There was no way I was going outside, at night to work in a Canberra August! So it’ll be interesting when we go to take it out of my studio 😉 It’s so heavy as it is!

I’m excited about this though now. I wasn’t feelin’ the lurve before, but now that I’m starting it’s feeling good. I’m just anxious to get moving on it.

Enlarging the pattern. There are various ways to do this and I think everyone has their way that works best for each different application. With this one I went the old fashioned way of measuring everything out using a ruler and keeping things square with a homemade chalk line. They’re the best! This method of enlarging is easy to do on a flat surface like this…

Table Commission

This is the design for the table I’m making. I’ve just received the table from Nyree, who designed and made the table. Yay it’s very exciting!!! Out of all the designs, the client preferred this and chose these colours out of a variety that I made up. Of course this is a very crude interpretation of what it will look like, but it’s really just to give the client an idea…

I was really given artistic freedom on this so went with an Asian feel since the rest of the client’s home has a very Asian feel to it. It was also requested to keep it fairly subdued: nothing too brash, more earthy tones. Ceramic was chosen over glass. I’ve decided to use a vitrified ceramic.

These colours are really not very accurate and of course it is solid in this representation, which it won’t be in the final product. It’s very exciting though! I do need to trim off a little more on the substrate since our last effort because the table has been painted and a zinc layer also on it (for rust), so it has added a little bit of thickness to it. That’s what I’ll be busy with this weekend, buying the tiles and magnifying the design to fit the table.

I think it’s going to look good. I’m going to make every effort to have it finished before I leave in 3 weeks. It’s no drama if it doesn’t, but I’d really like to also for other reasons. Shall I set myself the challenge then?!

Babooshka

Finished her off last night and am getting her prepared to put her in an exhibition, along with Bambino (a little 3D bird I did back in March). Hopefully they’ll both be selected… The Exhibition is the Mosaic Symposium being held this year in Tasmania. It is organised by the Mosaic Association of Australia and New Zealand. From what I gather, it seems to be an event that happens every two years. I’d love to go, but I will be gone OS (very exciting!!!). Still I thought I should submit a few pieces.

Although I was quite unsure about her to begin with, I like her. She’s kitsch. I didn’t like that she was cute to begin with, but I chose a subject matter that is cute, so there’s really no getting away from it! Grout colour was the other issue, but she’s all good 🙂