Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Torpedoes And Cloisonné


I spent an hour wandering the Torpedo Factory this afternoon. They made torpedoes here until just after WWII. Here's one; it's about twenty feet long:


Now the building is an art center, with painters, sculptors, potters, weavers, photographers and jewelers. The pottery gallery next to the big green torpedo is called, what else, "Fire One":


This sculptor works with tin cans. This is "The Center Of The Known Universe":


It's about seven feet in diameter.


I woulda bought it but it won't fit in my car.


I passed by an artist using dozens of little plastic spoons. He explained that he was making cloisonné.


The spoons contain pigments that he is selecting for the process. He is making oval cameos. He starts with a solid silver sheet and cuts an oval from it for the base. Using gold ribbon, he builds a design on the base. The gold ribbon will separate the pigments.


He is working on the gray panel in this picture. The colored beads show him what the pigments will look like after they are fired.


There are also big fish:


And landscapes:


The Torpedo Factory is located on the mighty Potomac. Here's a view out the rear window:


This is a view across the street from the main entrance. Suitably funky, don't you think?


1 comment:

drjim said...

Pretty interesting. There was a big base here in San Pedro called Fort MacArthur. A lot of the original buildings are now housing some kind of artsy-fartsy stuff, and being out here on the Left Coast, it's suitably full of whackos!