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Sorry for starting a new thread if that's not acceptable I can consolidate all my student work into one thread!
Created as a one of a kind entry into a local student competition, these cufflinks were inspired by the haunting beauty and tragedy of the rapidly retreating glaciers across the polar regions.
Serendipitously, shortly after beginning this project I saw the multi award-winning documentary Chasing Ice. The documentary follows the work of the Extreme Ice Survey (EIS), who use time-lapse photography, conventional photography and video to document the effects of global warming on glacial ice. It is the most wide-ranging glacier study ever conducted. The EIS aims to show epochal change happening within the time frame of human life, and to provide scientists with a photographic record to understand the mechanics and pace of glacial retreat and how it relates to climate change.
Creating the cufflinks involved a long developmental process, both first deciding how I would represent the glacier and then how to introduce colour.
I made a silicone mould from the glacier shape I’d carved and spent weeks casting it over and over in resin trying to get the colours as authentic as possible; milky aqua with grey-streaked walls. From there I painstakingly carved and modelled two cufflink settings – similar but not identical – with a vicious rocky base for the glacier and a miniature mountain that would secure it to the cuff.
Because I had to cast the glaciers one at a time (I used slow-curing resin that took 10 hours to set) the colouring of each isn’t quite the same as the other. One has whiter peaks, the other has heavier grey streaks. If I’d have had more time I would have kept casting them until they matched, but as it is I suppose it’s an appropriately symbolic nod to the poetry of imperfection found in both naturally occurring and hand-made things.
Created as a one of a kind entry into a local student competition, these cufflinks were inspired by the haunting beauty and tragedy of the rapidly retreating glaciers across the polar regions.
Serendipitously, shortly after beginning this project I saw the multi award-winning documentary Chasing Ice. The documentary follows the work of the Extreme Ice Survey (EIS), who use time-lapse photography, conventional photography and video to document the effects of global warming on glacial ice. It is the most wide-ranging glacier study ever conducted. The EIS aims to show epochal change happening within the time frame of human life, and to provide scientists with a photographic record to understand the mechanics and pace of glacial retreat and how it relates to climate change.
Creating the cufflinks involved a long developmental process, both first deciding how I would represent the glacier and then how to introduce colour.
I made a silicone mould from the glacier shape I’d carved and spent weeks casting it over and over in resin trying to get the colours as authentic as possible; milky aqua with grey-streaked walls. From there I painstakingly carved and modelled two cufflink settings – similar but not identical – with a vicious rocky base for the glacier and a miniature mountain that would secure it to the cuff.
Because I had to cast the glaciers one at a time (I used slow-curing resin that took 10 hours to set) the colouring of each isn’t quite the same as the other. One has whiter peaks, the other has heavier grey streaks. If I’d have had more time I would have kept casting them until they matched, but as it is I suppose it’s an appropriately symbolic nod to the poetry of imperfection found in both naturally occurring and hand-made things.
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