It's been a while since I did any artsy fartsy posts, so I figured we were due for another episode of "What's going on in the studio?"
Long story short, not as much as there probably should, and a lot of experiments and sampling. But I do have photos, and there has been work in all three of the mediums I've been puttering in lately--my two focus areas, jewelry and textiles, and my hobby art, painting. I've been held up a bit in the metals and painting, since they're in the downstairs studio with no heat and it's been pretty chilly (and a space heater only does so much when you have to have the door open for ventilation).
But here's what's been going on....
Metals
There's not been a lot of work in this area, mostly because I've still been recovering from North Carolina. But I'm starting to work past it and am about ready to make something serious. Our first piece of the day is a copper and silver flower. I had initially formed the petals and leaves in grad school and they got set aside. There's some dings in those pieces that I wasn't able to get out (you can't see them here), but all things considered, I'm fairly pleased with it as a getting back into the habit piece.
Yay! Flowers!
Another thing that I'd kind of been playing with (or wanting to play with) that I got started in grad school was woven metal and liquid enameling. See, in order to weave with sheet, you have to use pretty thin gauge metal. It's hard to enamel because if you get the enamel too thick, everything cracks and warps. Liquid enamels are ideal for this sort of thing because you can pretty much just dip stuff in it, let it dry, and then fire it. The only down side is I don't have a kiln, so I have to torch fire everything. Acetylene is a pretty dirty gas, so I can only fire one side--cool 3D stuff isn't really doable right now. I whipped up a few small batches of liquid enamel and knocked together a few quick sample pieces.
The top one is my favorite.
I mixed the white with way too much water, so it came out pretty wonky. I think I may have over fired the red a touch, but I'm pretty pleased with them--I'm looking forward to playing with it some more. I have no opinion on the blue.
Finally, I have a paper mock up for a pair of candle holders I'm planning. I read in article in
Lapidary Journal about slot in slot construction, and the idea just sounded so cool. But, being me, I didn't want to do the project in the magazine, so I started doodling. I wound up with two shapes I liked and decided to combine them--the actual piece will have two slot in slot sub assemblies soldered together. I'll probably add in a ring in the top piece for support and to better hold the candle, possibly to catch dripping wax. The plan is currently to do a pair in copper, see how they look, then do a pair in silver. Supposedly we're going to be able to cut some stuff out on a waterjet machine in one of my classes this semester--I'm seriously thinking about using it to cut out a bunch of these pieces in copper--I'll have 'em for my candle holders, and maybe I can do something else with the shapes, too.
Painting
I finally figured out what needed to be on that horrifyingly awkward 2'x2' panel. It's based off a photo I took in undergrad of my parents magnolia tree. I started to turn the buds into flowers, but then I realized it was done and wiped them off.
I'd never consider myself a painter, but it's so relaxing.
Still in progress is the first painting in the Lovecraft series I'm planning. Pretty much all that's left is to flesh out the sky a bit--it's still pretty flat.
"The Mountains of Madness"
And, for anyone wondering about my color choices, I'm using as my inspiration the last view that our heroes beheld as they flew away from that ruined city--the purple mountains beyond it. My whole idea here is one of eldritch beauty--illustrating those rare moments of beauty in Lovecraft's work. I figure, my drawing skills are lacking and anyone can pull the horror out of the stories. This way, I can use my strength--large blocks of color--and still do something kinda cool.
Textiles
What with cold weather and a colder studio, I've been doing a lot more inside work. I've learned how to use a knitting loom (sorry, no pics of the results), and I've been working on my weaving. I finally decided to cut my losses on the jewelry scale weaving--that skinny ass silk was killing me. I wove enough for a choker and decided to scrap the rest.
I've dyed it, but it still needs to have the ends properly finished. I'm honestly not sure if I'll use it for a choker or not--the one selvedge is pretty rough.
Here's a detail, showing the structure better and showing the color a bit better. I rolled it up and tossed it in a light turquoise dye bath, then rinsed it, unrolled it, and tossed it in some purple. All in all, it could have gone much better, but I learned a lot.
Continuing with the debatable success (we'll save the good stuff for last and end on an up note), I decided to renew my exploratory efforts in the area of sprang. Sprang, for those of you who don't know, is a very old textile technique in which you string up a warp, then intertwine the threads. There is no warp, and the whole thing is one piece of yarn. It looks kind of like this when you're working it:
Why, yes, this is the sprang piece I'm about to tell you all about! Why do you ask?
So, I've also been dabbling in yoga, and I thought to myself, I could make a sprang yoga mat bag! So, I did a little bit of measuring and a bit of eyeballing, and strung up a warp. And then I screwed it up. Badly. The yarn was cheap, so I said, what the heck, it'll be easier to just start over. So I did. I strung up another warp, and starting twisting threads again. That is what you above. It looks like is should have about the right dimensions for a yoga mat bag, right? Fold it half, stitch the sides together...
I'm slightly disturbed by how well it went with my Pokemon t-shirt.
...and it had the totally wrong dimensions to put a yoga mat in it. I'm not really sure what happened. I probably should have made my warp narrower (the width of it is wrapping around my waist there), and should have allowed more room for takeup--length lost to twisting (the length of the finished "bag" is the length of the skirt). That said, something happened here that is is beyond my comprehension, and I clearly do not have as good a grasp on how sprang works as I thought I did. I'm really not sure what I'm going to do with the result here. It does make a kind of cute skirt. Either way, it's sitting folded on the table in the studio until I decide.
Our final project for the day is the sample/test weaving for a scarf that I'm planning.
Initially I had hoped to have the blocks separated by leno (a hand manipulated woven lace), but it simply would work and still look good. These little mug rugs or whatever (if I ever finish off the slightly too short fringe on the bottom of them) are half size, with each block of color at 2 square inches. I also used what I had on hand for the sampling. The final scarf with be red and black with four inch squares. It also won't have that awkward bit up the middle--that was for the leno that didn't work out. I'm really looking forward to it. For those inquiring minds who want to know--the structure is what I'm affectionately referring to as double huck. In order to get the alternating blocks of color, I have to do double weave--I'm basically weaving two layers of fabric at the same time and just switching them back and forth. I love lace weaves and have wanted to do a patterned double weave since I first learned the basic structure. I also have an eight harness loom that I hadn't used all eight harnesses on yet. Huck is one of your more popular loom controlled lace weaves, and one I'd been wanting to do more with. You can actually start to see the effect of it in the sample on the right. It's a bear to set up the loom for, though, and the treadling is pretty nightmarish.
So, yeah, that's mostly been what's going on in the studio. There's been some other small projects here and there (like a big ass key fob for the hubby's shop. The key to the bathroom storage closet has not been lost since), but I honestly don't remember most of them. I make shit. It's what I do.
Next time: Serious post is serious!
