Finally after years of wishing I could study gold and silversmithing at RMIT University Melbourne, I am finally there.

While I really enjoy readng other peoples blogs I never considered writing my own – but as it turned out, I had to as it is part of our assesment.

For my first attempt at blogging I wanted to keep a level of annonimaty, hence in part the title Handsignals. It was impotant to me the word hand be part of the title. All the names I first though of were already in use. But hand signals has relevance to me for  a number of reasons including teaching hand signals to our young German Shepherd Dog ‘Lyra’  ( pr Leera).

Lyra - early training

She is named after the Greek musical instrument from Crete the Lyra

Earlier this week I sat on the train next to two older couples, probably retired. I imagined they had enjoyed a nice day in town. They were happy in each others company and laughing as they all spoke with thier hands as they were hearing impaired. This experience gave me more time to consider the importance of our hands and gave further inspiration for my blog title.

Most of our Art History weekly lectures  in semester 1 have been given by Kristen Sharp. I have very much enjoyed the lectures after not having studied Art History for so long.  An aspect of the lectures that really stays in my mind is Kristens use of her hands when speaking about art, when she describes something with the obvious passion for art she has,to me, her hands play an important role in the delivery and expression of ideas.

I see working with my hands and making art a way of communicating. It is another language.

For as long as I can remenber I have liked to make things with my hands. So for the next three years at least, I will be doing so on an almost daily basis!