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Boys Making StuffYoung boys in a workshop need some pretty cool things to keep up their interest. I try to make available a pile of interesting metals in different forms for them to root around in. And try to show them how to use a fairly wide range of fascinating tools and equipment, plus some basic jewellery-making techniques using simple tools with a bit of precision on occasion.Always with a strong thread of fun. I teach with a readiness to ad-lib, reconstruct or re-invent. They roar into the workshop full of ideas, ready to go. I hardly have to think up projects for them, the boys think up stuff to do and ask to do it. I simplify their suggestion and show them some suggested materials and off they go. Projects come and go, and some are very catching: when one initiates a project, soon several others also want to do it. Naturally I insist on their knuckling down to the chore, and get each to do their own hard work. But I'll help out if it seems they're getting discouraged. Making things is fascinating fun, and these boys all end up with neat little products after their hard work.
Brian Adam the studioBush Jewellery studio is surrounded by kowhai, kanuka bush, mamaku tree ferns, cabbage trees, and mixed border NZ bush Waitakere City Reserve land. We are equipped for a variety of both standard and alternative contemporary jewellery activities. Ruth and I work here fulltime making our different lines of jewellery, and we have a bench-hand, usually a jewellery graduate, work for us here 2 days a week. I teach private students here at a regular time that suits them, a Saturday morning class according to demand.
feesChildren's jewellery (up to 3 hours):$15 /hr each
Prices are in New Zealand dollars
MATERIALS extra as needed.
For health and safety reasons, studio access during
self-directed time is naturally dependant on a demonstrated skill
level. Beginners might have some restrictions to
studio facilities placed on them.
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copper ringRing makingHammered, forged, textured, stamped designs. This simple beginning exercise introduces you to many traditional tools in a new way and uses specially created tools for speed/efficiency. Involves measuring finger sizes accurately. using Lo-tech tools for rounding metal strip into ring.       |
leaf pendantFold Forming is a technique devised by Charles Llewton-Brain for getting sheet metal to quickly resemble 3D shapes. The shapes easily obtained are very like natural forms and the fold provides strength to thin metal sheet. The tools are very simple: fingers, hands, hammers, mallets, a steel anvil. No soldering is necessary, but some heating is needed for annealing.    |
bronze castingBronze melted into a cuttlefish mold.Cuttlefish bone is another simple and effective way to cast. Objects pressed into cuttlebone and cast in either pewter, bronze or silver. The results are a little less true to the original but come out with an unusual surface pattern.
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mini-knifeBrass knife pendantDrawing, sawing, filing, sanding, and polishing. This is a great little object to make, especially for boys. The knife might seem a little risky but what child doesn't enjoy some element of danger? What's certain is that it occupied their attention for 2-3 hours. As a bonus to the three older boys, they each made a bullet.
Thomas files his mini-knife
James filing the blade
Reuven drilling
Brian finished!
JD went on to make a bullet
drawings
mini-knife and 'bullet' pendant |
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Brian Adam
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www.adam.co.nz/workshops/subjects.htm |
Auckland, New Zealand |
