Category: Process

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Escape to Create Residency #1 – Falling in Love with Paper

January found me in mostly sunny Florida, in the community that spawned the architectural genre of “New Urbanism” and in the presence of beaches that can compete with any in the world (really). However, I was not on vacation. I was there to work and research and develop and yes, okay, then take a walk along the beach to mull things over. I was taking part in my first artist residency at Escape to Create in Seaside, Florida.

My residency project was founded on the research and development of casting lace techniques that I had begun in the summer at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Colorado. My research began not in fabric, but in paper. Working towards complex forms, I started from the beginning, learning how to fold lengths, widths and any angle into equal divisions without measuring or marking. This image is from the first week.

The table eventually became so layered with mounds of folded paper to the point it became hard to find what I was looking for!

I also worked with exercises to design folded structures using the principles of symmetry. Here is an early and simple example of linear reflection symmetry.

And here are samples using rotational symmetry and their inverted forms.

And then came the more complicated glide reflection, which can result in what I like to call “the sexy paper.” Oh yeah.


Super fun and flexible, but not necessarily something achievable in the type of lace I make currently. Something to think about though…

If you are interested in paper folding forms, I basically used Folding Techniques for Designers – From Sheet to Form by artist and teacher Paul Jackson like a textbook. It looks like he’s coming out with a new publication this month as well! Paul Jackson was also one of the featured origami artists in Between the Folds (available on Netflix), a beautiful and fascinating documentary on paper folding. Watch it. I promise you, you will not be disappointed. I’ve watched it multiple times. Really, I could go on and on, but I’ll stop there!

In the next post, I’ll share some my first attempts of casting lace fabric at the residency. Oh, and after our blizzards here in the Midwest, you can sure bet I miss that Florida weather (not to mention the great folks I met down there)!

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Anderson Ranch Arts Center – Soft (and not so soft) Sculpture

I have been so busy that it’s hard to even decide what to write for this post. I should backtrack…

The Kickstarter Campaign was successful. Wooo!! After finding that out, I immediately had to race out to Aspen, CO and The Anderson Ranch Arts Center for my course in Soft Sculpture.

Aspen…yes. Beautiful, amazing, and of course, depressing to leave. Time flew. While it did fit in a smidge of site-seeing and one good hike, most of that time was spent in the studio – a beautiful and well-lit loft space.

A few of my studio cohorts! Such a wonderful crew!

Our teacher, Lynn Richardson was (and I’m sure still is) fantastic. She had the great attitude of, “Yeah! Let’s make this!” Exploration and invention was definitely encouraged. Here’s some of her fabric sculpture…

Red State by Lynn Richardson
2005
vinyl, nylon, steel, lights
20′ x 20′ x 18′

On that note, I’ll just start posting some of my experiments of combining casting resins and lace or other fabrics.

 Cast paper lace.  This was a tricky little mold to make, but I enjoyed the crystalline results when backlit. So much so, a studio cohort even helped me shoot a few videos of it spinning in light. There’s no thread in it (just bits of paper), but hey, it’s definitely lace! I am currently making a series of these in black. Small individually, they could fill a wall and look delicious.

 This is a hanging onion orb, if you will, using only red organza. I recently tried casting one in my own lace, but learned the hard way that I must use clear tints when using my lace – ope!

I donated this little piece to the Art Center’s Auctionette, where I heard it was happily snapped up. This is 100% cotton cast in red-tinted resin.       I am currently trying my hand at this technique to make a lace bowl. I hope to get it cast this weekend (fingers crossed).

Here are a few more studio shots of building the molds and mother molds.     

And finally here I am examining my experiments. I suspended all my little tests so by the end of the week I had a curtain of randomness behind me. I also cast a few fishing bobbers and had some fun little results (the intent is to work with the media on a larger scale, but for the workshop I worked on a small scale to conserve materials and make as many experiments as possible). But I’ll save that for later!

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Work in Progress: Results of First Pit Firing

 

Pit-fired shell form
work in progress - pit-fired shell form - felting will be used to complete piece

Here are a few of my favorite results from my first attempt at pit firing ceramics. As experiments, they are all fairly small, the longest of these is about six inches. Not everything came out on the first try, but the best ones almost look like stones. I hope to have some images of the pit firing event itself soonish. For context, these “shells” (they are hollow or cup-like) are intended to be the bases of sorts for felting sculpture. Or so the idea currently stands…

Process: All pieces are slip-cast earthenware. Various surface techniques, such as burnishing, buffing, oiling, and terra siglatta were used in the greenware stage. They were then bisque fired in an electric kiln. Some pieces then received additional surface work. For the pit firing, various chemicals were added on and near the pieces for coloration, including rock salt, red iron oxide, copper carbonate, manganese dioxide, and cobalt oxide. The speckling in these pieces are a result of the various chemicals.

pit-fired shell form
work in progress - ceramic pit-fired shell form
Shellhorn
one of my favorites - slip cast pit-fired earthenware
the other side of image above - "shellhorn"

 

pit-fired "onion shell"
I call these Onion Shells
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Work in Progress Update

So I’m enjoying the new studio. It made for a nice walk Friday morning and getting to work in front of all the passerbys is pretty cool. Someone actually stopped, knocked on the window and we ended up talking for a bit.

So, anyways, on Friday I added the first layer to the vines, darkened the background, and added a second layer to some of the rocks. I’m going to try to get them to blend into the background a bit more.

I’ve been working on a few drawings as well, and I should have some pics up in the next few days.

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