The Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI is known as RISD (pronounced RIZ-dee). It’s the school that rescued me from a liberal arts education back in the day. I was already an avid photographer prior to transferring to RISD, busy as the photo editor for my liberal arts school newspaper, and capturing scenes of student revolution in Chicago in those tumultuous days. By the end of my first liberal arts year, when the time had come to declare a major, I realized that I was far more interested in photography than English, Economics, Psychology, or any of the other offerings. I didn’t have too much self-awareness in those days, but at least I got that part right. I headed off in a different direction.
RISD was, and is, a busy world of creative studios, crammed into historic buildings at the bottom of College Hill, where the school of design and Brown University sit at the edge of downtown Providence. I happily embedded myself in its environment and made my home in three different departments during my time there – first photography, then furniture design, and finally architecture.
Every October there’s a RISD weekend when the school invites graduates and parents to wander through the studios and take a look at what’s going on. I get the same pleasure exploring this world today as I did when I was a student, looking at the tools and techniques used in the various departments – ceramics, sculpture, foundry, glass blowing, jewelry, metalsmithing, woodworking, industrial design, architecture, and more! There’s no end of fascination for the curious who are interested in materials and how they are formed, shaped, joined, and constructed by hand into objects of design in these busy studios.
On the way down to the studios, a figure framed by a window in Carr House on Benefit Street, which was full with the school’s annual craft sale.
Almost to the studios, an interesting figure in the alley behind Carr House, crouched next to a wing of the RISD Museum.
In one of the metalsmithing studios in the Metcalf Building a small project in copper sits on a workbench. The building has fours floors of industrial space originally built in 1915 for teaching about textile design and manufacture.
Small metal tiles with a variety of finishes in the process of being organized into a design project.
Michael Glanzy, an accomplished studio glass artist and RISD faculty member, working on a vase of glass and electroformed copper.
Glanzy carves his glass creations and uses an electroforming process to deposit layers of copper to the carved areas.
An amazing array of hammers lines these racks in a metalsmithing studio. The hammers are color-coded according to the shapes of their heads.
Some of the many varieties of metal shapes that projects are hammered and formed on are protected here under canvas to ensure their surfaces stay smooth.
A miniature anvil for delicate metalsmithing and jewelry work. It’s held by a vise that is bolted to a wooden stump, a good material for absorbing blows.
On one workbench a collection of worked objects on their way to some sort of project.
Miniature projects of golden pieces with applied color elements.
A student in the ceramics department cleaning up the rough edges of dishes of pressed clay. Glazing and firing will come later.
A pile of unfired clay pots. Is the pile intended to be one work?
Down in the furniture design studio an intriguing assemblage of woven steel straps waves its arms. Maybe this will become a seat for a chair?
A furniture design student at work on a project. A bulletin board with student mugshots shows that a significant majority of the department’s students are women.
In the foundry a student at work with a blow torch forming an armature of some sort for a project.
A collection of interesting sheet metal shapes waiting to be attached to the armature in some way?
Over in the Industrial Design building a studio’s workbenches are filled with small sheet metal projects. Students are learning how to shape and fasten the material together.
In another industrial design studio students have disassembled small appliances and organized the components into displays to study the designs.
In a wood class all the students are creating a standard cylindrical block of wood that they then must shape with hand tools for an assignment.
The block of wood is being worked with hand tools into a domed shape that must fit precise requirements of the assignment.
In an architecture studio first-year masters degree students model imagined spaces into a variety of site contours.
In another architecture studio an interesting form is created with simple strips of cardboard.
