Last day at my school

Today is the last day at the high school I teach at in Pyeongtaek.  I'm sad, I really liked it here.  Next week I'll start teaching at an elementary school in a different city.

Cedar Rapids Museum of Art

I found out last week that the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art recently had two of my pieces donated to it's permanent collection, a brooch from 2009 and a ring from 2005.

I was told they would be in an upcoming exhibition this spring (probably this exhibition, but I'm not sure).  

recent wax

Here is a recent wax I finished.  It is a plumeria, the national flower of Laos.  The wax is about 11mm in diameter.  After it has been cast I will make a rubber mold from it and make earrings.  

 

 This is a photo I took of some in Laos 2 years ago:

watercolor rendering

Recently I became interested in doing watercolor renderings of jewelry designs again.  I took the jewelry design course at GIA in 2001 and learned how to do watercolor renderings, but within a year of finishing the class I had completely stopped doing them.  I like the look of them, but they were usually just too much work.  Living in a small apartment in Korea I am really limited with the kind of jewelry work I can do here, so I decided to relearn to draw and paint.  In December I ordered some books and jewelry illustration and rendering.  I also asked my parents to send me all my drawing and painting supplies and all the instructions, handouts, notes and samples from my design class. After I finished that class I had kept all my papers organized and in a folder because I felt I would need them again someday.  I have never been so organized with any class materials before or since then. 

Since there is no school all January and February, but I am still required to be at school, I have had a lot of time to practice drawing and painting here.  So far I have been doing the technical drawing exercises in Jewelry Illustration by Dominique Audette and the painting exercises from my GIA design class.  I recently got the book Techniques of Jewelry Illustration and Color Rendering by Adolfo Mattiello, which seems like a good book.  I did a few of the exercises in the beginning but I think I will wait to start on that after I have done most of the GIA design class assignments since they use a different painting technique. 

There are some designs I did in the design class in 2001:

World Jewellery Museum in Seoul

About a week ago I went to the World Jewellery Museum in Seoul.  Most of the jewelry wasn't my taste, but it was worth the visit.  Photos weren't allowed inside the museum, so here's what it looked like on the outside: