Improvisational Comedy

For anyone looking for a break from your studio work this weekend (I can't imagine).
The Baltimore Improv Group (BIG) is performing in Federal Hill on Friday at 8 pm. Check out the
Fresh Monkeys, Moving Walkways, and Plan B at Christ Lutheran Church,
701 S. Charles Street. Tickets are $10 ($8 for military and students).

Improvistion is a much desired skill and a lot of fun to watch. The ability to think on one's feet and be creative.
I highly recommend improv shows.

Rebecca Dortzbach-Honor's Project Opening

Rebecca Dortzbach's Honor's Project exhibition, Comfort/Discomfort, is opening Friday, May 9th from 6-9pm at 2808 North Calvert Street in Charles Village. Please come and celebrate Rebecca's hard work and beautiful objects.

Senior Project Students Talk About Their Work

Senior Project student powerpoint presentations!
Come + learn about how this year's seniors formulated their senior project work.
Thursday, May 8th, 7pm, CA 2006
All are welcome!

OMG You MUST Look at this!

I am very happy to end my Friday blog posts with this link to a hilarious story sent to me by Jenn Parnell one of our grad students. Thanks, Jenn. This is an event by Belgian students. A creative response would be a great Creative Caffeine. Let's try to get an international Creative Caffeine wave going. No volleys (that is so 5-years-ago).

Honor's Project Meeting

I am holding a meeting on Friday, May 2 at 3:30pm in CA 2006 talk about the Departmental Honor's Thesis Project. There are 3-4 students who have expressed interest in doing this project next year, 2008-2009. If you are interested in learning more, please join us. If it is nice we can meet outside.

Honor's Project is a great way to build a larger body of work. This can be very helpful if you are planning to go to graduate school or enter the marketplace. Think about it.

Food Drive for the TU Metals and Jewelry Club

Canned Food Drive

The Towson Metals and Jewelry Club is now accepting donations of canned food items for use toward community service hours. If you are a member of the club or even if you are not, we would greatly appreciate anything you can give.
A box is located in 2015 under the Metals and Jewelry Club bulletin.
Also, if you have clothes or toys you wish to contribute you can contact Sherri @ ohsherri76@hotmail.com.
Thank You!

Design Pulse

I am going to try to make a series of regular posts called Design Pulse of designers, people, places to know. This is an effort to assist students in keeping their finger on the pulses of the design world. It is my hope that students will spend some time on line learning more about these pulses as a way of informing their education and their own studio practice. It is an interesting world, learn about it.

Here we go.....
Louise-Anne Comeau
Studio Job
Alexander van Slobbe
Jaime Hayon
Murray Moss
Julia Lohmann
Vitra
Artek
Artecnica
Established + Sons
Milan Furniture Fair (Cosmit is the organizer)
ICFF- International Contemporary Furniture Fair (NYC)

These are folks I mentioned in class this semester....
Maarten Baas
Hella Jongerius
Ronan + Erwan Bouroullec
Jurgen Bey

Interested Internships?

There will be a meeting on Thursday, May 8th at 5:15 pm in CA 2006 to talk about various types of internship opportunities. Anyone who is interested in doing an internship should attend. If you have done and internship and want to share your experiences with others, please come. Many of our internships have turned into full-time employment. You can do more than one internship and it is a great way to get on the job experience and learn first-hand about job opportunities. Pass the word. Open to anyone in a 3D area.

Arthur Hash at Towson University

Hooray! Arthur Hash is our first speaker for the fall 2008 semester! Mark your calendar now. Arthur will speak about his work on Thursday, September 11th in a lecture titled New + Alternative/Methods, Materials + Venues. If you don't know his work, check it out.

Barbie Goes Green

Barbie's new tote bags are made from remainder pieces from her manufactured clothing. Is this a case of greenwashing or an instructive method for younger generations? My upload photos isn't working so check out www.ecorazzi.com.

Anthony Burrill

friendly reminder: towson design collective

Just a reminder for anyone interested in talking about the Towson design collective there will be another meeting this Monday, April 21 at 5PM in CA 2006. Hope to see you there!

ICFF Show- NYC May 17-20, 2008

The ICFF show is just about 4 weeks away: May 17-20, 2008 in NYC at the Jacob Javitts Convention Center. This is a premier, not-to-be-missed international design show. Furniture is just one aspect of it. If you want to go and want a show pass please let me know by Friday, April 18th. There will be lots of events throughout the city in addition to the show. Superior Tours is a great bus line with a Towson pick-up. No stops, clean bus, you can leave things on the bus. Departure from NYC is around 6:30pm. $55 round trip. Must make reservations. There is also the China Town bus which is cheaper but it makes stops.

There is a great exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum.
The Whitney Biennale
Great shows at the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum.
I haven't checked the Museum of Art and Design.
I am planning to check out Moss and lots of other things as well.

Design and The Elastic Mind at MOMA ends May 12....so catch that before it closes.

See you in the Big Apple!

Jumping-Out-of-My-Skin-Excited

THE HEARTLESS STONE: A reading and discussion about the global diamond industry Towson University Department of English welcomes Tom Zoellner, a literary journalist, for a reading and discussion of his book THE HEARTLESS STONE: A JOURNEY THROUGH THE WORLD OF DIAMONDS, DECEIT AND DESIRE (St. Martin's 2006). Zoellner reads Wednesday, April 16 at 6:30 p.m. in the Towson Room of the Cook Library as part of the Towson English Department Reading Series. Zoellner traveled to ten countries to tell the story of the global diamond industry, from mines and smuggling in the Central African Republic to the mills in India where stones are processed to a jewelry store in Pittsburgh. Salon.com called the book "a graceful, well-documented tour through decades of diamond-related lore." Zoellner is also the co-author AN ORDINARY MAN, the autobiography of Paul Rusesabegina, the heroic hotel manager whose story is told in the film HOTEL RWANDA. Zoellner's reading is made possible with help from the Clarisse Mechanic Fund. For more information, contact Michael Downs, mdowns@towson.edu or 4-3695. For more information on Tom Zoellner, see http://www.theheartlessstone.com

ID Magazine

The new issue of ID is out....and another great one filled with all kinds o discussion about design, art, the world......Get it. Absorb it. Educate Yourself. Happy Reading.

Orphaned Works

Go here to listen about the Orphaned Works bill, and how it will affect you negatively. IF THIS BILL PASSES YOU WILL LOSE YOUR COPYRIGHT PROTECTION TO EVERYTHING YOU'VE EVER MADE!!! Tell every creative person you know!!! This needs to be stoped!

Towson Public Library Book Sale

The Towosn Public LIbrary is having it's fantastic book sale this weekend. It starts tonight, but you have to pay a $10 fee to get in. Tomorrow and Saturday, they'll be offering reduced prices and on Sunday, books are $2 a foot!!! (Yes, they measure your books and charge you by the foot!) I went last year and they had a ton of books, fiction, non-fiction, biography, CDs, and videos. I'm betting that they have a few art books. It's deffinatly worth checking out!

Thursday April 10th- Megan, Whitney and April

On Thursday, April 10th starting at 12 noon, Megan Pase and Whitney Staiger will present powerpoint presentations Ancient Beads (wearables) and Native American Jewelry respectively. Everyone is welcome. Everyone in the advanced studio class did a great job on their historical research project investigating the original impulses of body adornment. Megan and Whitney's will be a good concluding note. Hope to see everyone there.

And at 5pm April Wood is giving a gallery talk on her solo exhibition currently on view in the MFA gallery on the second floor of the Center for the Arts. This is a great chance to hear from the artist herself about her work and ask YOUR questions. Please join us in celebrating April's accomplishment. Whoever is interested, we will be going for drinks and something to eat afterwards. Everyone is welcome. (Someone tell Lindsay Smith!)

The Body

The Body is central to what we do as jewelers yet few art jewelers consider the body as site. Consider it. I came across these two books on my bookshelf: Adam's Navel, A Natural and Cultural History of THE HUMAN FORM by Michael Sims and The Body in Three Dimensions by Tom Flynn.

Pattern + Ornamentation

A lot of you have expressed interest in pattern and ornamentation and including it in your work. This weekend I took a few hours to try to get some of my office space under control and I came across a book that was recommended to me when I was using a lot of ornamentation in my work and writing a paper about it so I thought I'd share it: Reading In Detail Aesthetics and the Feminine by Naomi Schor. Add it to your Summer Reading List! Also look up the pattern and decoration art movement. I have a bibliography somewhere......

OPENING TONIGHT! REBECCA + LIZ +

TONIGHT! April 5th, from 6-8 pm is the opening on the Metals Guild of Maryland exhibition at Gallery G at the Rotunda (or directions click on the hot link you just passed) in Hampden just north of 36th street! I don't have a current postcard in front of me but I know the following people associated with our program will have work on display: REBECCA DORTZBACH, our fearless Metals Club president who poured so much great time and energy into the club, LIZ MATHEWS, an esteemed alumni, JANET HUDDIE, current faculty and past president and founder of the Metals Guild of Maryland, JOHN FIX, professor emeritus of the Towson Univeristy Metals + Jewelry program.

And HEIDI LOWE, of the Innovative Jewelry Studio, in Rohobeth Beach, Delaware, curated the exhibition. Heidi will be teaching with us beginning with the fall semester 2008. We are s ucky to have such a smart, visionary, sweet soul joining on our team, Hooray!

PLEASE SUPPORT ALL OF THESE TALENTED, CREATIVE, WONDERFUL, GENEROUS PEOPLE WHO HAVE ENRICHED AND MADE OUR LIVES BETTER!

Case Study Design Branding: Tom Dixon

Especially senior project and advanced students, please read "Coming To America" by Nathan Silver in the February issue of Metropolis magazine. The article profiles designer Tom Dixon who talks about the design playing field and the role of branding. You can access this and most articles through the Cook Library homepage. Blog about it so I know you read it.

Design 21 Website and Design Competition

Design 21 is a great social design site. Some of you learned about Design 21 through the Design Like You Give A Damn Class last semester. [Fall semester 2008 the course is: ART 370.002, Design + Social Entrepreneurship- sign-up and tell your friends!] Design 21 has many design competitions. And Metropolis magazine in addition to being a great resource also runs design competitions. Check them out. Bookmark them. Enter competitions. Make the world a better place through design and creativity.

Laws Of Simplicity

In October 2006 I attended a great conference, the International Design Summit. John Maeda of MIT who probably has a cult following at this point, spoke about his book The Laws of Simplicity. I think I will order it this weekend. Under the Features Tab at Barnes and Noble you can preview the chapter titles. If you have a chance to hear Maeda speak, it will be well worth your while.

IDEA Awards

International Design Excellence Awards: including eco-design, product (think: object) design among others.

Big Ideas for a Small Planet

Big Ideas for a Small Planet is a series produced by Robert Redford's The Sundance Channel. The second season just started so check it out. On Comcast it is channel 165. We used the first season in Design Like You Give A Damn last semester. So inspiring. There are so many people in the world thinking about how to do things differently...smartly. Not just thinking- implementing their ideas and making it go. The Sundance Channel's The Green has so many great resources and information. Immerse Yourself.

Ponoko Profiled in Wired- Please Read

Wired is one of my favorite magazines. The current issue profiles Ponoko which is why it is receiving so much attention right now. Check this out.

Feeding Ponoko

Here's a blog associated with Ponoko.

Here are some design sits that I want you to visit on a frequent basis: Design Boom, Core 77, Make...and more!