Caz Guiney

As a teacher I am constantly in competition with Facebook… today however I was up against something entirely unprecedented.  The student above (who agreed to allow me to post this image) put the webcam on and proceeded to freshen up her makeup!

Finally with blog working here is the follow up to the Hands on Heads workshop at Craft Victoria last weekend.  My journey in there was a pain in the A… bus, another bus (to replace train), train then taxi… hence the nickname Hobo. 10kms from the city never seemed so far. I dismantled my chair to get it in there and it made for a much more comfortable ride.

The workshop was quite mental, not really what I was expecting.  I laughed alot, was thrown right out of my comfort zone and made the ugliest thing I have ever laid eyes on.

There she is… Jumperdusa. Part chair, part pillow and much jumper (left over from previous workshop).

The first half of the workshop was full of activities including an obstacle race (timed and yes I won), musical chairs (and yes I won that as well… it was easy to see who had kids at home), hair dressing salon where we got to style wigs…

… and my favourite was the prosthetic… I only have video footage of this and I am reluctant to expose it as it was just too ridiculous.

… Stephen’s head

…Liam’s head.

It really was a mental afternoon.  I am not sure I quite understood the intention of some of the activities however it did make me aware of how uptight I am and how difficult I find it to let go in a public setting with strangers (even though I knew the participants).  I did suggest that next time a Champagne on arrival would be most beneficial.

I checked out the jewellery on Artware Editions but it was mostly crap however I did find these gems… my blog seems to be working again!  I spoke too soon… still a challenge

I am having trouble uploading images hence the lack of posting.  Edublogs have been performing ‘maintenance’ and nothing has worked properly since… I will return!

It has been almost 5 weesk since my last post… BAD BLOGGER… I have been ill with every lurgy that floats by, incredibly busy with all manner of projects,  school holidays the list goes on.

I  finally posted work off to Velvet da Vinci in San Francisco for the Unnatural Acts exhibition curated by Mel and Lauren.  I made 4 pieces and the challenge I set myself was to use all the material I was given.  Every piece that was punched had a hole drilled in it and was threaded onto silk to form the neckpiece below… I warned you months ago… it’s a bit twee.

No.1 The Very Hungry Caterpillar neckpiece

No. 2 Breakfast… Lunch… Dinner brooch

Rear of No. 2… every good jeweller knows you can’t ignore the back!

No.3  Cocoon

No. 4 The Beautiful Butterfly Pin

Just incase you had forgotten the original bits of vegetables, fruit and flora.

… and now I just need to finish the brooch for Bea Miles my rebel/non-conformist… the deadline is looming.

I am interested in a few concepts mentioned here – space, gold, rings -but when your ‘Cosmic’ ring gets it’s own ‘Certificate of Space Flight’, I  am intrigued for a brief moment and then lose interest very quickly.

…slowly!

I am actually drilling holes in these and threading them…yes I am going insane!  It has been a difficult process to resolve what to design and make for this project…I am not used to having such a firm starting point imposed on me and yet complete free range to do as I please. My practice has been diverse but tends to revolved around site specific jewellery installations and investigations into space and place.  However I have persisted with my bag of plastic bits and developed my own conceptual framework for guidance albeit a bit twee…think Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

The above is a work/s in progress for an exhibition titled ‘Unnatural Acts’-mentioned here in a previous post .  I have to admit that the deadline is FAST approaching so I must get off my couch, turn the computer off and get moving!