Robert Dancik Workshops throughout Australia
The PMC Guild is proud to announce that Robert Dancik from the USA is the Inaugural Visiting Artist for 2007. Robert will be travelling to Australia to run a series of workshops in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide from October to November this year.
About Robert Dancik
Robert Dancik holds a Masters degree in sculpture and a BA in fine art and has been an artist/teacher for more than 30 years. He has taught people from kindergarten to graduate school while exhibiting his jewellery and sculpture in museums and galleries across the US and in Europe and Japan. He regularly teaches workshops at art centres in the US in the U.K. and France.
Robert's work is displayed in numerous collections including the Wustum Museum of Art, Boeringer- Ingleheim International, Schamberger International, Mitsubishi International, Japan, Gallery of Art and Design, North Carolina State University. His artwork has been published in many books including PMC Decade, Fine Art of the Tin Can, 1000 Rings, The Art of Resin Jewelry, and Creative Metal Clay Jewelry, whilst he is a regular contributor in magazines including Niche, Art Jewelry, Lapidary Journal and Perspectives. Robert is the originator of Faux Bone™, a new, wonderful material for artists involved in jewellery, artist's books, sculpture, and many other artistic disciplines. He lives in Oxford Connecticut . USA, where he is an avid cook and collector of toys, maps, and compasses.
Dancik's creative process
Dancik's use of various materials is driven by what he has to say. To him, recognisable materials have some sort of reference, a history and/or association. "If I want to imply an aspect of permanence in a piece, I may choose to use concrete, as that is part of its association. If it's more about pure design, I may go to Plexiglas or Faux Bone™ since they have less of an identifiable reference. If I want to show wear and tear by having lots of marks, scratches, dents, and dings, I might use copper or silver and oxidize it and then rub off some of the oxidation to enhance the characteristics of age. Marks, on any of these materials, imply the passing of time and I like to play with how much time and use a piece has seen by the type and placement of such marks." The diversity of his works sees many mediums used and a distinct love for found objects, At times, an object will suggest the idea for a piece by what it references in its previous life. I tend to work in a narrative way. An object can carry with it a story, mystery or comment. It's the design that that's important not the material."
Playing and Working : Learning is the key
It is clear to anyone taking a class from Robert that he is keen to learn from his students even as he is teaching. He is a member of a number of different guilds and organisations. "I do believe strongly in artistic communities of varying types and constituencies. I think it is vital to be able to glean information from people who are working in a particular field as well as to share what we know with anyone interested. It is important to forward the arts in anyway possible. To this end, the idea of local guilds and grassroots groups feeding into a larger organization is an effective way to exercise the power needed to get things done and to be heard amongst the crowd. I belong to one such guild, a local chapter of the PMC guild, and find that I can call on anyone in that group for any of the things I mentioned. I like the idea of brainstorming about technical problems, exploring new avenues to get to a solution, and being part of a community that is moving forward."
To those of us who know Robert, the words "Play Well" are synonymous, Robert explains this process in this way "I often make a distinction between working and playing. For me, playing is where the serious exploration of material, process, and procedure is the job at hand. While working is the actual fabrication and making of a piece."
Lisa Cain, who is the Director of the PMC guild in the UK and owner of the Mid Cornwell School of Jewellery where Dancik teaches Master classes, summed up a teaching experience with Robert recently "If you have an opportunity to work (play) with Robert- then DO IT!! The man is an outstanding human being, amazing artist, superb teacher and he has already forgotten more than we could ever know about materials if we all put our heads together. Robert was a fantastic guide in all this and it was a truly remarkable experience."
Dancik's workshops are journeys of discovery. Attend one and come home ready to explore a whole new way of expressing yourself using an array of materials and techniques.
Like to know a little more about Robert Dancik? Click here to read a 'fun' interview (pdf) the PMC guild recently did with Robert.
Workshops
Faux Bone™ and PMC - A beautiful Relationship
In this very hands-on workshop, students will explore Faux Bone™ a new, friendly and extremely versatile material for artisans and craftspeople which can be cut, carved, sawn and sanded, filed, hammered, polished, drilled, stamped, inlaid, dyed and painted. It can look like ivory, have the patina of aged ceramics, or be polished to a pure white; and it can be heated and bent using nothing more than a small embossing heat-gun. Students will also explore using the material with rivets, die forming and hammering metal (PMC) around it. Others uses for jewellery, book making, sculpture, scrimshaw, embossing and printmaking will also be discussed. Students can expect to leave class with a number of samples and/or finished projects. For further information you may like to visit : www.fauxbone.com
Adventures in the Material World
This workshop will take you through a journey using materials including traditional and non-traditional, old and new; concrete, paper pulp mache, epoxy resins, metals, wood, paper, Faux Bone™ and metal clay. These materials will be addressed in non traditional ways. We will learn to look at them through a different lens to reveal uses and possibilities you may never have considered before. You will be encouraged to use them in your present work and to explore new avenues to allow your personal, artistic expression a fuller voice. The second half of the day will be spent using paper pulp mache, a material that is at once exceptionally strong, lightweight and durable. It can be finished to look like stone, bronze, or concrete, or be painted, polished or patinated. It can be used to surround a fired piece of PMC or as an inclusion in a bead form and it can be drilled, carved, inlayed and polished.
Forming Meaningful and Lasting Attachments - Connect your work
You have a button, an old photo, a piece of fired PMC from a mould you made of a Monopoly piece, a broken bicycle tail light and a carnelian donut. All these need to be connected to form a piece of jewellery that is as durable as possible. Students in this very hands on workshop will explore a wide range of cold connection processes including: riveting, tabbing, prongs, folds, micro fasteners plus many more. Use of various chemical bonds (adhesives) will also be thoroughly addressed as well as several different methods of setting and attaching stones and found elements. This workshop is for all levels and has applications for book artists, sculptors and jewellers alike. A detailed handout covering cold connections will be provided.