WWW Jewelry 2009

Many of you are dropping by on your own time to Finish (polish) your pieces.  I’ll drop by the workshop to photograph work in progress, but if you complete a piece, bring it to me for a final picture before taking it home! I loved watching you work. Now I’d love to preserve the results for posterity!

Mr. R.

Jewelry 2009 was a Joy to work with. As in my own field (libraries), it is refreshing to deal routinely with kids who are truly engaged with what they’re doing. Back when I was a classroom teacher, I found myself too often feeling like a used car salesman trying to peddle an Edsel to kids who didn’t even need a car…

Jewelry, and all of the courses offered at ISB by Jerry Hochberg and Khun Jong, are truly different. We have been talking recently in both a SUNY grad course, and at the leadership level in HS, about focussing on increased “Understanding” rather than the disengaged amassing of course “content” in order to maintain a certain GPA. By understanding, we refer, among other things, to the ability to;

• apply prior knowledge to a current situation
• develop knowledge and skills in a specific content area
• transfer skills from one specific subject area to another
• interpret general learnings in solving a specific problem
• demonstrate learning by accessing prior knowledge, applying new skills and synthesizing something new

The students who chose Jewelry  this year may have had another option on their selection list, but Jewelry was in no way a fallback option. It was a true choice based on real interest, and during the course of the week, I saw that interest morphing in many cases into a real passion for what they were doing.

The results (cast, but not yet “finished” (polishes, set and presented) speak for themselves.

For full-sized images of these and all the cast pieces, go to the Flickr Feed for this course (click on any of the thumbnails in the set at the right)

Enjoy! I certainly did.

Robert J. Rubis, Asst Advisor, WWW Jewelry 2009

Since the “Reflections Gallery” (below) does not open to individual reflections, we will post representative samples here as individual pieces. Enjoy!

J. Hochberg/R.Rubis/K. Jong

Lost-wax Jewelry has been one of the most rewarding Week Without Walls experiences I’ve had the pleasure of being involved with. Over the nearly twenty years the program has been in operation, I’ve done local, regional and international trips, and without a doubt, this course kept students engaged right until the last call better than most trips I’ve been on. At 2:00 on Friday, students were still putting the finishing touches on their pieces and all are looking eagerly forward to seeing their creations in silver next week.

I’ve already posted some of my reflections on the program in an earlier post, but as a teacher, a librarian, and a fellow learner this week, I’d like to take the opportunity to thank Mr. Jerry Hochberg, Industrial Design teacher, and Khun Jong, Teaching Assistant “Exraordinare” for their commitment to providing a carefully crafted, challenging but ultimately highly rewarding learning experience for this year’s group. I know that Mr. Hochberg spent at least two virtually all-night sessions during the course to be sure that the most focussed, relevant lessons were ready to present to students based on their experiences of the previous day. Khun Jung too, went the extra mile in hosting our ten Thai student guests at his home, where he housed, fed and entertained them outside of class hours since their arrival from Loei on Sunday. ISB is indeed fortunate to have such consummate professionals offering this amazing “hands-on” learning experience to both ISB and to Thai students.

Thanks for a wonderful week, Jerry and Khun Jong!!

Rob Rubis - Assistant WWW Advisor

Khun Jong and Mr. Jerry Hochberg with our Thai Guest Students from Loei at the completion of the course.

On Thursday evening, students were asked to reflect on the jewelry course as both a “Week Without Walls” experience - and as just a learning experience in general. Here are most students’ thoughts

If yesterday was “hump Day” for Week Without Walls, Today was “Thoughtful Thursday”. In Jewelry today, students arrived still enthusiastic about their work and keen to get down to it. To start off, Mr. Hochberg presented a short powerpoint on the mechanics of the casting process students saw demonstrated at the Poh-Change art school on Tuesday. Although the demonstration was effective, a description of actually what takes place in casting provided an added level to student understanding of the process.

Then it was down to work, and once again, students were quiet, focused and intent on getting their first pieces done so they could move on to another project. Some got so excited, in fact, about creating a mini jewelry collection, that they started cranking out pieces in mass production style. And so it was time to put on our “teacher hats”.

“It’s all about quality,” we told them. “Finish one piece really well so that you’ll have a lasting memento that you’ll be proud of for years to come.” Moving from student to student, Mr. Hochberg and Khun Jong showed each one techniques they could use to bring the best out in their work. At the same time,  Mr. Hochberg asked  them to complete a “Reflection” on the course. These will be turned in tomorrow, and as they are handwritten pieces, we’ll post jpegs of each reflection on the blog tomorrow.

Meanwhile, some of the Notable works in Progress today;

For his part, Mr. Rubis gave up trying to trump Michaelangelo and settled for “making weight” on his piece, the bas relief of his son. By day’s end, he had only managed to pare the piece down (by hollowing out the backside of the piece) from 6 grams to 3.4 - still 1.8 grams to go to make the 1.6 g maximum. Seems Mr. Rubis has his own homework tonight…

…actually, there have been walls for the 32 students taking Jewelry as a “Week withou Walls” course, but these have largely been of the students’ own choosing. Today at lunch, we had to shoo the kids out of the room to take a break, and while I slipped off to check on things “back at the office” (the Main Library), Mr. Hochberg stayed in the room, and he reported that after 10 minutes, students were back, asking if they could go back to work.

From 7:10 to 2:05 today you could have literally heard a pin drop in the Lost-Wax Jewelry Workshop. Except for the strains of Mr. Hochberg’s unique brand of “New Age” music (lounge-lizard crooners interspersed with big-band be-bop) and the muted whir of high-speed circular cutting tools, both rooms were virtually silent; students hunched deep in concentration over their workbenches. A few sported headphones which perhaps transported them partially to some musical shangri-la, but mostly, they were far too busy concentrating on the next sawcut, wax-scrape or file-stroke needed to bring an inner vision of their particular piece one small step closer to reality. Some held muted conversations with their nearest benchmates, but by and large these were slow, halting exchanges interspersed with long pauses as they contemplated the next challenge.

And challenges there are a-plenty with Lost Wax casting.  Teasing a work of lasting beauty from an inanimate scrap of blue wax pipe or a block of featurless green takes an inordinate degree of concentration to transform an initial concept into a 3-D working sketch, and finally into a faithfully rendered three-dimensional object. Anyone who can achieve this feat has good reason for self-congratulation.

I know this for a fact. Deciding that I could better assist students with their challenges if I faced my own,  I’ve spent two days attempting to translate an image of my 20 month-old son into a recognizeable bas-relief cameo. It’s been rewarding to see a face emerging from the wax over the eight or so hours I’ve labored over it, but truth be told, the image began as a decrepit 70 year-old derelict,  gradually morphed into a likeness of the Three-Stooges Larry, and finally has a vague resemblance, if you catch just the right angle, to what I imagine my son might look like at eigth. But it’s not my son at 20 months. It’s HARD!

The industrial arts program at ISB has always been, to my mind, one of the unique features setting ISB apart from other schools. The jewelry and sculpture programs are a wonderful creative option for students who may not be inclined to follow the traditional liberal arts college path, or for students who are destined to become doctors or lawyers to experience, at least breifly, the joy in actually creating, from scratch and with their own hands, something of lasting value and beauty. I’m thankful that I’ve had, although somewhat belatedly the same opportunity.

Rob Rubis - Assistant Instructor, Lost-Wax Jewelry Course

After the inspiration of Poh-Chang school yesterday, today was a solid workday as students rethought their designs (sometimes going back to the drawing board) and approached their work with new excitement and concentration. Follow the steps from “wax pipe” to exotic ring here;

Now this was a learning experience. Traveling first to a local high-end jewelry company, we saw how the hollywood elite get their jewelry done. Several pieces in production that are apparently on order for a famous Hollywood celebrity. We won’t divulge who, just in case the information is confidential, but you might pick them out in the photostream and can try to guess who they would suit:)

At the same shop, we watched as Nokia’s single worldwide order for engraved phone covers (200 total, in gold, we were told) was being prepared. The price wasn’t openly discussed, but there was loose talk of $3,000 for the stainless models (more of these than the gold). Do the math…

And finally, it was off to Po-Chung Art School, where we were treated to a full demonstration of casting Lost Wax in Silver, and got a chance to see what serious art students can create in Lost Wax. Again - absolutely amazing. ISB students have nothing if not food for thought after this trip.