the Saddle Maker

I’m also greatly enjoying the bevelled edge detail that was formed by the computer modeling. I didn’t actually realize it was there when looking at it on the screen but has formed quite an elegant way to terminate the surface in my opinion. Particularly because it of the thickness of the print (where the material has coped by building support structure in-between), it’s been able to taper in a bold enough line that it adds a bit of character. That to me is an interesting touch that is in a way the makers’s mark - a detail made by the software where I as the crafter was looking more at the bigger picture instead. Happy surprises. 

I’m quite charmed by the amount of artists who have produced their own tools, digital or not, in order to achieve new methods and art forms. Is that not the essence of art in itself - To question and to try new things? To explore. And to want to make beautiful works of art.  

A fourth mould has begun as well and is set in the kiln, hopefully which will not crack. Oh the anticipation! 

No rest for the wicked. 

Testing more moulds, testing my patience.

Before I move on to the next mould, RIP to the first. 

With regards to glass making and technology, I think we are perhaps just as much up to fate as we were previous to digitizing work. As opposed to shaping with our fingers directly on the object, we shape our parameters and boundaries. We are still in a position to test, to explore, to revise. In many ways I feel we are up to the mercy of the materials and the way they develop in their environment, where we must still understand its (re)actions and characteristics. We as the brains behind the operation must apply thought and translate through the tools, be it our hands or robot arms as our extension. Perhaps yes, our thought processes are not in the same order or type as in traditional methods, however we are simply exploring new routes. Digitization does not mean lack of soul for we are still challenged and must therefore reason with the material. 

This time I’m piling on the plaster. 

In Arabic, we have saying that goes something like “a cup of coffee with your walk”, to signal its time a guest should leave. Today I found out that my poor little glass mould didn’t make it, so yes, it was time for that sucker to hit the road and (for me to) grab some coffee. Time to make a new one! Lesson learned the hard way but I like making a good cup.

In response to the question of how could we use a lense in our practice, and how does our practice relate to the concept of projection - I appreciate the notion suggested by Rocio Jungenfeld in her talk that a “lense” could be any medium or method of viewing the theory of something being formed into practice. In architecture sometimes we speak about “framing” a view, using the surrounding context to build our understanding of a particular happening or moment or formation. Technology weaves its way into the situation by allowing us to “hack” the site, by playing with the surfaces and our understanding of what is really there. Do we see black or do we see the abscence of light? The idea of boundaries in Rocio’s work as well helps me to think on what happens to your work when you experience it through perceptions created by imposed realities through technology. Glass in particular is an interesting medium in this case as we often not only see the glass object in its full form but see through it and recognize that a reality exists in its midst. That space in between, where reality and imposed medium of material is applied, that we explore. Another idea raised not in the talk but in the workshop spoke my curiosity today - the idea that it is when materials are brought together that we begin to understand interaction through its making and its products. Continuously in this class I’m learning about what the “rules” are in terms of techniques and that the greatest reward is in learning then abusing them in order to push those boundaries we talk about.

What are the things we build from but never see?

In thinking of architecture along with technology and the making and supporting of glass, I see the links between the frames we build in both fields in order to allow something to take shape, to exist. What is a house without walls? What is a wall without a structure? And in glass, perhaps we do the same - what is a formed artifact without the mould and what is the mould without the casted object to make it? I’m equally interested in showing the frames in which we cast as the object itself. 

At last. PLA print using Shapeshifter, cura then the Ultimaker for printing. And next for the plaster mould to turn this to glass 🙌🙌🙌👯

More for the mixes.