TIME, making a silver flower necklace sundial
The most fun thing coming out of this assignment was realizing a sundial can be anything, since it’s purely about casting a shadow that’s telling. I may have gotten overly excited here and missed out on an opportunity to reflect on how time passes in natural organisms, such as a flower, versus as it's felt via human commitments and routines. I have been wanting to play around with clay that when heated turns into pure silver, so I decided to make a flower pendant with a stem tall enough to cast shadow. In the process of making this, I had a chance to reflect on how shadows are made and how to create meaning with them.
Materials: 50g of Art Clay Silver, Water
Tools: Clay shaping tools, Torch 1300 degrees, Butane gas, Soldering block, Silver Polishing tools.
Process
For this to work as a sundial, the flower petals should be quite low and the stem should be high so that the shadow that creates the sense of passage of time can be very easily distinguishable.
After a few hours shaping, I realized the shape might be a little too sugestive for my taste and that’s how I ended up with the stem that bifurcates.
I ran into a number of issues with the material. When shaping, it wasn’t melting into itself and was often cracking, which left me thinking it might crack when fired (it did not!)
I started preparing for firing. Silver melts at 961 degrees, so with my torch that can reach 1300o I was afraid the design would melt. Eventually, I realized that the whole piece would have needed to melt at the same time - meaning I have to return to this project with a bigger torch. The final step will be polishing.
During class, I realized I missed an opportunity to determine what time is it from the sun’s position and on what scale I want my time to be shown in, which I had previously not considered a key part of the exercise.