Category: Artists

Memory Bowl Tests

Gone back to working on my knitted Memory Bowls. Ran into a problem with the bowls not being sturdy enough. Put them on hold.

The bowls are fiber with some negative spaces within the patterns, a stiffener is in order. In the past I used sugar, shellac, corn starch, liquid starch, floor wax, microcrystalline wax, salt, and miscellaneous other stuff in the past. Wanted to spend some time thinking about how to finish the bowls.

Serendipity?

I have been following Maria Amélia Mendes’ YouTube channel. Her concrete tutorials are easy to follow, with loads of good tips. I really want to make some concrete pieces. Recently she posted a video–How to make baskets with wood sawdust. Thought I would test out her glue formula on a couple of knitted pieces.

The glue was combined with wood shavings and pressed into a form. After the pieces dried and hardened she added an application of her Finishing Glue. It is the same formula as her glue, with the addition of 100 ml of PVA.

Maria Amélia Mendes’ Homemade glue recipe:
1 liter of water
1 cup of cornstarch
50 ml of white vinegar

I made the Finishing Glue for my test pieces. I had forgotten that heated corn starch and water solution can suddenly become thick. Applied the glue to the test pieces. The thickness made it a tad challenging. If the pieces had been fragile, wouldn’t have been able to apply the glue. I refrigerated the left over glue. May try diluting it a bit if/when I use it in the future.

The first bowl is linen with a little plant fiber.

Test Bowl 1

Test Bowl 1

Test Bowl 1

Test Bowl 1

Test Bowl 1

Because the glue was a bit thick, after I applied the glue I gave it a rinse with the kitchen faucet spray function. The bowl was placed over a form to dry.

The second bowl is cotton with plant fiber.

Test Bowl 2

Test Bowl 2

Test Bowl 2

Test Bowl 2

The bowls were placed over forms and left in the sun to dry.

Test Bowls Drying

Both bowls are firm and the appearance of fiber hasn’t been altered too much.

Bowls China Cabinet

My next test will be with wool. Wool can be tricky. My first test using molten wax on wool changed its appearance to a plastic-like surface. Definitely ugly.

Check out Maria Amélia Mendes’ Youtube channel and her excellent concrete videos.

Who Is Left to Connect Me to My Earlier Life?

The quote is from Firewall, part of the Wallander series written by Henning Mankell.

Tomorrow is the anniversary of my mother’s ischemic stroke. An event that changed everything.

Last year was a challenging year. My younger sister survived her third surgery for oral cancer, but while in recovery had an ischemic stroke. She did not survive.

Two months later my mother had an ischemic stroke. For a few weeks the prognosis was positive-negative, hopeful-no hope. Before summer I lost the two most important women in my life. The women who knew me when I was a child. We grew and changed together.

I am working on a memorial series. Typically I my series have 11 pieces. Several pieces are in progress but not quite completed. Partly the delay in completing work is the result of recovering from hand surgery. Still do not have my fine motor skill and manual dexterity in my dominant hand.

I using fiber to embroider on hardware cloth for my code blocks. Holding a needle for extended periods of time still causes hand and finger pain. Needed to figure out alternative ways for making things. Since I can loom knit, decided to give that a go. This will also be the first piece in a long time that does not have hardware cloth. It is a good thing to break a dependence on a material.

Who is Left…, will still have a metal component. The plan is to use safety pins to assemble the blocks. The safety pins will also add the possibility of green patina running down the piece.

Blocks
There are three colors of wool blocks: 41 tan for dashes, 51 dark brown for dots, and 52 cream for spacers. The 144 blocks will be laid out on a 9 x 16 grid.

Layout

Knit Pattern–Dash 41 Tan Wool Blocks

Cast On E-wrap
Knit E-wrap

R1 Skip, K5, Flat Knit
R2 Skip, K, S, K, S, K, Flat Knit
R3 Skip, K5, Flat Knit
R4 Skip, S, K, S, K, S, Flat Knit

Pattern rolls.

Knit Pattern–Dot 51 Dark Brown Wool Blocks

Cast On E-wrap
Knit E-wrap

R1 Skip, K, P, K, P, K, Flat Knit
R2 Skip, P, K, P, K, K, Flat Knit
R3 Skip, P, K, P, K, K, Flat Knit
R4 Skip, K, P, K, P, K, Flat Knit

Knit Pattern–Spacers 52 Cream Wool Blocks

Cast On E-wrap
Knit E-wrap
Only Knit Purl Stitches
R1 Skip, K, P, K, P, K, Flat Knit
R2 Skip, P, K, P, K, K, Flat Knit
R3 Skip, K, P, K, P, K, Flat Knit
R4 Skip, P, K, P, K, K, Flat Knit

Swatches

Knitted Swatches with Cotton Cord Separating Blocks After First Fulling

Blocks

Blocks for Code

Scraps

The scraps are random sizes, might be fun to stitch together to make letters in a different code piece.
Been thinking about learning to use my mother’s sewing machine.

Scraps

The blocks were fulled, not felted. Loops for pegs still visible.

Safety Pins
I ordered two types of bronze 3/4″ safety pins from amazon:

Household Mall 3/4-Inch Safety Pins, Bronze (1440 Pieces)

Firefly Bronze Metal Gourd Pin (1000 Pieces)

Received the Household Bronze pins. They are beautiful!

Safety Pins

Safety Pin Detail

Waiting to assemble the piece until I see the Bronze Gourd Pins.

10 April They Arrived…

Gourd Pin

Gourd Pin

The extra space in the curve of the pin might work better with the thickness of the wool blocks.

The safety pins would be lovely for use in the i-cord bowl series I am planning to make. The title is Collected Memories. Got the idea when going through my parents’ collections found in random drawers.

A few years ago I dinked around with the idea of i-cord bowls. Wasn’t the time to develop the work. Maybe I was waiting for bronze safety pins.

Brown Bowl with Safety Pins

Cream Bowl with Safety Pins

According to the email I received from amazon, I may not receive the gourd safety pins until April 12th. So, I patiently wait for the order to arrive.

Anni Albers on Weaving Text

I was looking for the text, Anni Albers on Weaving at Archive.org, but it wasn’t available on that site.

I googled the title and followed a link to Monoskop. Information from their About page, “Monoskop is a wiki for collaborative studies of the arts, media and humanities.”

I found loads of interesting information and a pdf of Anni Albers on Weaving text. It is not the expanded edition that is currently available for purchase online.

I searched for Anni Albers on the Monoskop site and found a link to a 1968 oral history interview. Followed the link to Smithsonian Archives of American Art.

Image of the text from the The Josef & Anni Albers Foundation site.

Anni Albers on Weaving Text Image

Added the Anni Albers on Weaving Expanded Edition to my Amazon wishlist.

Funny How Connections Happen

When I visited my family in SC, I spent time wandering around and taking photos of plants, interesting textures, possible art making materials and processes, and things that struck me as odd.

Moss

As soon as I saw the moss growing on the grate inside a free standing wood burning fireplace, Don McLean’s American Pie started looping through my mind. Especially the line: moss growing fat on a rolling stone.

And while writing this post, again the song is swirling though my mind.

Not being a sit around a fire person, I had to google the proper term for the fireplace. It is a chimenea. According to Wikipedia this is the definition for chimenea.

A chimenea /tʃɪmɪˈneɪ.ə/, also spelled chiminea (from Spanish: chimenea means chimney), is a freestanding front-loading fireplace or oven with a bulbous body and usually a vertical smoke vent or chimney.

So, a wood burning chimney. Odd that moss found its way to growing inside the chimenea. It is sitting on a concrete patio in daily full sun. The chimenea must offer enough shade and protection to prevent the death of the moss.

Moss

Sad that the moss will be destroyed the next time the chimenea is lit.

Don McLean’s American Pie was popular when I was in high school. So much so, my high school English teacher thought it would be cool to decipher its lyrics. The result, even today I remember the bulk of the lyrics for the 8 minute 36 second song.

More connections–I remember my best friend from high school who died suddenly five years ago. Not in a plane crash, but he was the director of my hometown airport. Connections of all sorts can be found when you least expect it. Certainly wasn’t thinking about him when I started this post, but it would have been something I would have shared with him. He would have understood my moss/song connection. We would have talked about the song. When we first heard it. And other reminiscing.

Thinking about my friend, reminded me of a Henning Mankell quote from one of his Kurt Wallander books, Firewall.

Who was left who connected him to his earlier life?

Washington Post article about American Pie written by Justin Wm. Moyer.

What is it? Sugar and Rodin Quotes

“To the artist there is never anything ugly in nature.” Auguste Rodin

When I started to clean the oven after a baking mishap, I paused to look at what I scraped up.

Burnt Sugar

It is burnt sugar from an apple spice cake. At fist glance it looks black, nearly ash. On closer inspection it has a lovely texture of holes and craters.

Burnt Sugar

In the past I used sugar as a stiffener and in molds. There is a history of folks using sugar as a stiffener for crochet. I had been using microcrystalline wax, shellac, and varnish to stiffen and age my work. Wondered if sugar might work as a substitute.

Sugar Twine Vessel

This is my first test piece, made in 2006. It is constructed of cotton baker’s twine. I immersed the cotton vessel in molten raw sugar. The sugar impregnated twine collapsed. I wrung it out and place it over a foil covered coffee can taller than the vessel. Placed the lot on a plate to collect the sugar run off.

The piece is still strong and not in the least bit sticky. And no insect activity.

I also made a series of cast sugar vessels. I used several recipes for sugar glass. One recipe was 3 1/2 cups of raw sugar, 1 cup corn syrup, 2 cups of water, and 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar. I used a silicone mold for the casting.

Melting Sugar Cup

Clearly I did something wrong. Raw sugar rather than granulated. Possibly the thickness. Temperature.

But it was fun to watch the sugar cup melt.

Will I try it again? Sure. Will I have success? Maybe.

“Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.” Auguste Rodin

Spencer Byles and Andy Goldsworthy

Today I ran across the work of Spencer Byles. I was not aware of Byles’ work. So, I looked at all of the images of the project, A Year in a French Forest before reading about his process and checking out his body of work.

Spencer Byles Sculpture

Sculpture No 15. from A Year in the Forest. Photograph by Liza Karakova.

This is a portion of Spencer Byles’ artist statement:

Every piece I create is a different and new experience. I work with different materials, these can be ‘man made’ or ‘natural forms’. There isn’t a common link to these other than I find I am drawn to materials that lie abandoned, or discarded.

I find that one of the most interesting things about choosing materials that have been abandoned or discarded is to integrate reference of their previous life into a new context. That doing so respects the previous life of the material. It can also act as a point of access for the viewer.

While viewing the images of Spencer Byles’ work, I of course thought about the work of Andy Goldsworthy. I love Goldsworthy’s work. It is lovely and elegant, often seeming to defy gravity, but always feeling that it somehow occurred naturally.

Goldsworthy Arch

Andy Goldwworthy Woven Branch Circular Arch, Dumfrieshire, 1986. The image was found here.

Some of the materials that Goldsworthy uses include: large rocks, ice, branches, and even leaves. I have not seen any of Goldsworthy’s work in person, but suspect if you are lucky to happen on one of his works what would occur is what folks write about when they use the phrase, startles the soul.

There are several books of images of Andy Goldsworthy’s work. I only own two: Hand to Earth: Andy Goldsworthy Sculpture 1976-1990 and Wall.

To see more images of his work, check out the Andy Goldsworthy Digital Catalogue.

There is also River & Tides, a great video about Goldsworthy’s work. It is available to rent on Netflix, and to rent or purchase on Amazon.

Lichens and Glazes

When my chosen medium was clay, I used a lot of layered, often gritty glazes. In the back of my mind always thinking lichens.

Today when I was sweeping the deck, to my delight I found this piece has actual lichens growing on the surface.

Sculpture on Deck

Sculpture on Deck with Lichens

The piece was made in a class at Ohio State in the early 80s. The clay is a buff colored sculpture body with some nice aggregate. The piece was bisque fired to cone 5. A cone 05 lithium blue glaze was applied for the base color. Then low-fire lead glazes were applied. The last fired to cone 015.

The piece has been on the deck since 1994. It looks so much better with the addition of lichens.

Sculpture on Deck with Lichens

If interested in viewing lichen glaze surfaces, check out Lana Wilson’s work. Lana’s text, Ceramics: Shape and Surface has some great information for the beginner; and it also has loads of information on how to achieve gorgeous glaze surfaces. The text is available on Lana’s website.

A note about my use of lead glazes. Yes, they are gorgeous low-fire glazes. But lead is potentially dangerous. I haven’t been used lead glazes for several years. Since I have been attempting to use safer materials and processes, I reluctantly decided to remove all potentially toxic ceramic materials from my studio. I had quite the stash. I was fortunate that during the yearly clean-up, the materials were accepted for disposable without cost.

Did I really remove all of the lead from my studio? Well, I did keep a small bag of a leaded frit, just in case. I also found a small sheet of lead that I kept. It is a lovely soft material. I used it to line and wrap portions of boxes.

Lead Detail

Detail of a piece in my Make Your Own Luck series.
The vertical section is wrapped in sheet lead.
The nest-like material is lead wool.
The three objects are whole nutmeg.
Nutmeg was used for luck.
If consumed it could be deadly.

Concrete as an Art Medium

I attempted to use concrete several times over the past 20 years. While some results were promising, I wasn’t ready to commit time to figure out why problems occurred.

I am currently working on a series of pod pieces. The pieces are constructed of actual woody pods. The contents removed and replaced with coins or metal bits woven into fulled wool, with hinges and bindings added.

Pods in Progress

Yep, they are in a plastic box. Ever since casemaking moths came to live in my studio, everything they might like to eat is stored in plastic or glass.

The plan was to make cedar boxes for the pods. And then a fun thing happened. I was rearranging some things in my studio and found some concrete cups and tiles from my last concrete casting attempt.

Concrete Cup and Prototype

The concrete cup on the right was cast in a silicone mold.
The mold was made of a waxed woven cup similar to the on the left.

Immediately I started thinking about making concrete boxes for my pods. But how? Concrete box with wood lids? Concrete with bamboo support? Concrete with inlaid copper? Concrete with metal mesh and code?

I googled concrete and found loads of stuff on using ready mixed concrete to make functional objects and tons of stuff on hypertufa.

Then I found Andrew Goss. He has a website with lots of great information for using concrete to make art pieces.

After reading the information on his site, I realized that I had attempted to cast thin walls without compensating for the removal of aggregate. Adding latex wasn’t enough especially when I was not caring properly for the pieces. I did not know the importance of wrapping the pieces in plastic. Why, I don’t know. My background is in clay and I definitely know how to care for clay during forming and drying.

I selected four concrete and hypertufa mixes for my first test–

 Materials Mix 1  Mix 2  Mix 3  Mix 4 
 Concrete 1  1  1  1 
 Vermiculite 4  1.5  1    
 Peat Moss    1.5  1    
 Sand       1  3 

I added very little water so that I could press the concrete into silicone cup molds. I wrapped the concrete-filled molds in plastic. After two days I removed the pieces from the molds, leveled the bottoms of the cups, then wrapped them in plastic. Every day I have given the concrete cups a dip in water, then rewrapped them in plastic, and popped them in yogurt cups. I do think that a thinner plastic would be better.

Wrapped Concrete Cups

The main objective is to find a concrete mix that when cured will live nicely with my pod pieces. I like the texture that results from using peat in a hypertufa mix, but I do not like the bits flitting about in the air when it is sifted. Wearing a respirator does not keep the peat dust from collecting all over the studio. Also, I really dislike the way it smells in the wet mix and every time I unwrap the test pieces.

Since I want to make a success of concrete this time, I thought it would be a good idea to use good and tested information. I purchased Andrew’s book, Concrete Handbook for Artists, Technical Notes for Small-Scale Objects. I wish that I had found the book the first time I attempted concrete.

Andrew Goss’ blog, Art Concrete.

Elder Jones’ blog, Sandpudding Studio. Wet Carved Concrete

John Annesley’s blog, Sustainable Buildings as Art. Burlap-crete

The Hypertufa Gardener

The Cement Tile Blog

Dots

When a dot is placed over a vertical line it can become an i. When it is placed at the end of a sentence it emphasizes a thought. Dots and dashes together can become a message in code. Dots used by artists can become so much more.

It is amazing that minimal materials, tools, and a limited palette can result in such beauty.

Today I ran across the work of Dorothy Napangardi on Margaret Cooter’s blog.

Dorothy Napangardi

Dorothy Napangardi

And then I saw Junko Kitamura’s bowl on Musing About Mud.

Junko Kitamura Bowl

And finally the post Africa on the Floor on Fibercopia.

Africa On The Floor