Saturday 24th October I attended Wasp Studios at Meadow Mills Dundee now as a student of jewellery I was interested in the sand casting working with Robin Bell. Now as entered his studio the space was very casual as there was 3 benches which consisted of a table and peg many polishing machines and a large couch’s. he shares this space with a fashion designer and told us he teaches classes in his studio which why there were random scribbles and figures written on the table. Now lets get down to his sand casting tutorial….. well it started off good and im sure he is and excellent teacher however we only learned half of sand casting as he showed us the sand and what happens before you melt the silver but when he attempted to melt the silver with the torch the fire alarm went off! i found hilarious as he assured us never in his lifetime of working at wasp studios has there ever been a fire alarm so there is no need to go through a fire drill and off course a fire alarm goes off… well that’s perfect! anyway that didn’t stop me from continuing the tour even though the firemen id it was safe to go back in
side despite the alarm consantly ring ing which got quite annoying but for the sake of art I tolerated it!
So sand casting was cancelled as apparently the torch was the cause of the alarm to go off so i looked around other studios i seen the studios of Scarlet Erskin and remembering her at the make share event at the vision building and to actually see were she created her jewellery was a fascinating experience. Moreover I also enjoyed looking at other artist, textiles and designers and there work as its quite interesting to see people work after you come out of university as your stuck in this bubble and as a fellow student of art i love to pick the fellow artists brains an how they think. I met an artists who sees things in a different perspective as he paints the tay but in dots and i asks how he sees that he replied:
“I used to go fishing and while waiting for the fish I would see sparkles in the sea and each sparkle would be different colour” ans from that he painted in points each different colour. However also says he likes to take inspiration form others artists as i seen lot cubist work in his paintings inspired picasso and these paintings ere from his honeymoon with his wife and they went to this fancy Spanish restaurant so he felt like cubism was a necessary style since it it is the home of Picasso.
Wasp Studios has some fascinating stories to tell and in ways the whole and the name wasps ins very metaphoric because yes in ways they are wasps as they have there own space and yes they are working away so even in itself the name is artistic so to as the designers. In Dundee we are reluctant ot have such a thing to even exist a place were people can work on projects and base there business there. Most “wasps” have been there for a long time (which is why the waiting list is 3 years for a studio) This goes to show Dundee is full of creative people and it is noticed by the creative community not just in Dundee but in other cities s well, most people do go to Glasgow to work in wasp studios there and Edinburgh but personally because these cities are very big it hard to see the potential in a big city because everything is so big and spread out so sometimes you dont hear event as clear s they should its like living in a large square were everything is spread out whereas if you live in a Circe people will talk of these events and it will reach you in a quicker time as everyone knows pretty much everyone in Dudnee. So perhaps the lesson from these events is that living in a small city i very beneficial for the art scene in Dundee s you will be helped along your path and word will be spread faster and i you decide to move else were like a small seed branching into a tree start small and branch out.
-Kimmy xxx