Materials: Copper, Sterling Silver, Fine Silver, Lab created rubies, 24k gold foil, Acrylic paint
Dimensions: Teapot: Height 4" Width 3" Depth 3"
raised formed and fabricated
Babycakes,is a functional tea set, the tea pot is a cupcake/ice cream hybrid morphing into a girl. Her tutu is turning into cherry topping and her spout is a silver pirouline cookie! Three of the cups are filled with baby cupcakes! one cup is empty- It's cup is waiting to be filled or maybe- it's cake has already been eaten.
This is an example of how color on metal breathes life into each piece that I create! create a sugary shimmer. This alludes to textures such a fabrics Color is essential to convey both the mood and narrative of the piece. This piece was painted with acrylic paints and embellished with gold foil and lab grown rubies. To create the illusion of icing I apply the paint thickly and shape it with the end of a paint brush. Many layered applications of matte and metallic paints are used to and icing while maintaining the physical appearance of metal. This process is what allows me to literally "Put the icing on the cake!"
Alison Greer Pack
Radford, VA. USA
Alison Pack's work is based on telling stories through imagery that pursues stereotypes, misconceptions and clich?s of womanhood. Often parts of the female anatomy morph with ordinary functional objects to create humorous fantasies with sexual overtones. As a traditional southern girl, tools were considered inappropriate and unfeminine. Ironically, the development of her hand-skills through sawing, filing and forming proved to be powerful expressions of her femininity and sexuality as well as commemorative pieces enabling her to re-live some of her life experiences. Her small copper and sterling silver sculptures are created by the traditional metal working processes of shell forming, raising, and fabrication. She employs color on metal techniques using Prismacolor pencils and acrylic paints to allude to decorative surfaces such as fabric and icings.She is an associate professor of metalsmithing and jewelry design at Radford University, where she has been since 2003.She holds a BS in art education with teaching certification form Appalachian State University and an MFA in metalsmithing from East Tennessee State University.
The exhibition explores metal works whose primary theme is color embraced as their primary visual focus, whether that be using colored materials, exploring creating colored surfaces, or encasing the object in color.
As the world's largest jewelry related internet site, Ganoksin strives to develop exhibitions showcasing work from around the world. This exhibition was open to all metalsmiths, professional and amateur, advanced and beginner.
In total 303 artists contributed 814 show pieces for the permanent online exhibition.
The exhibition was curated by Beth Wicker, President of the North Carolina Society of Goldsmiths in the United States, and Adjunct Instructor at Northeastern Technical College in South Carolina. Director of the exhibition is Hanuman Aspler, founder of The Ganoksin Project, the world's largest internet jewelry site.
Hue is one of the primary properties of color, it refers to the place the color occupies on the visual spectrum. Humans have used hues throughout time, to create cave paintings, to decorate themselves, their clothing and their housing.
Different hues have taken on different meanings throughout time. Gold traditionally has been a color of purity - the metal gold is relatively unchangeable, and the hue of gold has come to stand for gods and goddesses, for royalty, for durability and for purity. Red has often meant love, or passion. Hues often reflect the meaning of the seasons, with pastels referring to spring and the burst of new life after the pale hues of winter. Summer is reflected in vibrant, deep hues, followed by the browning of hues in the fall as plants go to seed and die, and the land turns fallow.
The worth of a hue has often been tied to what is necessary to make the pigment that creates the hue, and the expensive involved in the process. Often created from crushed stones that had to be mined and carried by caravan over thousands of miles, or from fermented roots of plants only grown in certain areas, or the carapaces of rare insects - the creation of hue in a way that could be used by man was an involved and generally expensive process.
In today's world metalsmiths have access to perhaps the widest range of materials and hues in the history of man - and in some of the most affordable ways ever.
This exhibition celebrates hue - color - as an integral, inherent element of the work. We talk of the "richness" of color, and examples of this abound here. One expects hues from the colors of gemstones used in metalsmithing, but we also have hues from some less expected places. Glass enamels are an ancient way of adding color, as are a variety of patinas. Today's artists also use synthetic man-made materials to add color in ways that didn't exist a century ago.
We invite you to enjoy this celebration of hue, and the ways hues and their use have changed over time.
http://www.ganoksin.com/exhibition/var/albums/Changing-Hues/03_Pack.jpg