Fall 2021

This piece focuses on the subject of fermenting foods. The piece makes the viewer consider how much time and effort is needed to ferment foods. An abstracted form of a farmer is shown on one side of the piece. That farmer is holding a hoe, ready to farm vegetables. On the other side, the sun and moon are displayed to imply that it takes time to ferment things within fermentation jars. There are seven light beams from the sun to signify the days of the week. Impressions of fermentation jars sit on the design on both sides of the piece. 

What does jewelry mean to me? I think jewelry gives focus to the area where it is placed. 

This piece is intended to be worn as a necklace. Without the string this piece remains an object with ideas represented on it. I did not want the size to be too large. I wanted the piece to be large enough so viewers can see the images comfortably. The rectangular shape of the overall piece offers a frame sort of to view the images. 

The main fabrication technique I used to construct this is called scoring and bending. I used this format to represent my idea because I was able to have two images in a compact way (once I folded it). I chose the material because of the color which matches with the color of the sun.

After drawing out a design that conveys what I wanted, I used a knife to cut the bristol paper.

I scribed the design onto a brass sheet. Then I jeweler sawed along the scribe marks. I filed the two middle lines.

I filed the a score mark too much and one side broke off. I struggled to hold it in place for soldering even with the third hands. I attempted to solder while sticky tack held the piece in place. However, the sticky tack was not useful after it heated up. My professor Yuta Yang then lasered the piece together with the laser welder, melting the metal surface along the bend point.

After lasering, I still needed to solder the broken part back because lasering only offered fragile support. This time, one third hand was sufficient to do a soldering operation.