Strawberries, Cookie Dough, and Bird Shit… Oh My?!

pillow with wire coming out

(Sorry to post late!- I didn't have access to internet until today due to two days of traveling)

Blog Post for Friday, Feb 25

This past weekend and week was spent split between working on the sheets nest (8 hours) and the mirror nest (16 hours). All was going well with both nests until Thursday. I was just about to put the final touches on the mirror nest, while I did something very thoughtless. I had reminded myself over and over that because the nest was so heavy from the glass, I would have to find a sturdy support to carry it on from the bottom. However, while I presume I was still half asleep, picked the nest up by the handles of the bowl (which were towards the top of the nest) and carried it all the way down stairs….. and then literally 2 inches from the table…. The weight of the glass gave out and the whole thing went crashing to the floor.

Heartbroken and down, my roommate took me to get ice cream to cheer me up after seeing so many hours work fall apart from a silly mistake. The ice cream was delicious, but what came to follow was not quite as appetizing. As we were walking back to my house, I felt something wet plop on my face while I was mid spoonful with cookie dough and strawberries. I looked up and saw nothing but clear skies above me only to realize I had just been shit on by a bird… on the face.

Oh the irony, broken nest- getting shit on by a bird. Part of me wonders if I should take this as a sign for something, but I can’t figure out what. I could only laugh about it all. I mean really… who does this happen to. If anything, it just made me wanna get my butt moving and really start focusing on the details in both my nests. Luckily, some of the stacked pieces remained in chunks, so I thought this would be easier to put the nest back together… but in a way it makes it more confusing now that it is somewhat puzzle-like. I am about half way done again, this time only gluing the mirror pieces to each other, and not the bowl as well so I don’t make the same mistake of lifting it that way again. To my surprise, as I moved the bowl from inside the nest just to see what it would look like, I was pleased to see what the form of the inside of the stacked pieces. This kind of made me think maybe I don’t want the bowl in there anymore, and that I could just use it to continue building the structure around until it is at the top. This will leave me more room to play with what I want to place on the inside.

Also, like I said before, you can’t see your reflection from the outside of the nest, however, once the bowl is removed, you can see your reflection on the inside from how the pieces are stacked. I was happy about this aspect as well, and I feel like it gives more of a distortion in reflection.

As far as the inside goes, a fellow classmate suggested knots or tightened thread. I had been picturing knitting something and stretching bits and pieces of it over the sides to get caught on the sharp pieces before. But I really like the knots idea! I am imagining a series of threads or yarn knotted and mingled together and in layers, lining the inside. Also, now that I can remove the bowl, I can stick thread through some of the open gaps and crevices in between the shattered pieces.

For the sheets nest, things are going a bit better finally. I was a little unsure about it for a while as I was getting the base layers on. It looked too plane and neat. But finally Thursday I was able to start adding in shredded pieces of sheets, along with pillows and the stuffing and really began to manipulate things. I think its finally heading in the direction I like, the tiny details of tattering and distress.

Both professors and GSIs came by to see it (before I got started on adding the things I mentioned above) and made a few good suggestions I would like to give a try. They all agreed that I needed some heavier material that signified stress/danger, and more of it, which I totally agree. The wire right now is too thin against the mass of the fabrics. Erica suggested mattress springs, which I think would be really cool to try out, so hopefully I can bring that in right after break.

I am still struggling on what to put in the middle. I keep returning to feathers for some reason, but I am not quite sure they will say what I want… or I am afraid they will look too much like a bird had once lived there and has flown away- which is, in some way, how I do feel about home… I go home to see all these things in my room that used to mean so much to me, but now that I don’t have them with me everyday at school, I don’t think about them.

My room is an empty nest, uninhabited, but still arranged and decorated, as if it were waiting for me to come back to live in it once more.

My room is also one little piece that fits into a house, a house I have constantly changing thoughts about. They bounce back and forth between the good and the bad, the sad and the comforting. It’s a chaotic mass of feelings and thoughts, encompassed by a man-made two-story structure.

Its funny how we manipulate these structures to fit our idea of comfort, yet we can’t always achieve that feeling no matter how hard we try. I wonder if the birds experience this when nest making. Or are things always as sweet and simple as cookie dough and strawberry ice cream.

1 fish, 2 fish, red fish, blue fish

Wire peaking out of sheets

Under wire structure

Sheet nest

Stacked mirror pieces

Post for Feb 17,

Since we are using these posts as group crits, it may be helpful to read/skim my last one or 2 posts :)

So I took a break from the sheets nest for a few days and have begun my mirror nest. I was able to find a really large mirror that I've slowly been breaking pieces off of. I was suprised to find the mirror wont actually shatter (it must be tempered) but this is kind of nice because it breaks into bigger pieces when I hammer the edges and gives me a little bit more control on the size they break into. I am using a large mixing bowl as the inner structure of the nest. I originally had begun by gluing the mirror pieces all around the bowl at various angles.... however this began to look like mosaic. So i started again this time stacking the mirror pieces. This provides a very cool texture look on the outside... however the reflect quality is lost on the sides. At first I was apprehensive about this, but as i began placing the mirror pieces on the top edge i liked the idea of only truly being able to view myself from one angle and that it plays into the idea of the mirror being a deceitful (see last post for more explanation).

I am still unsure what I will make the inside of the nest out of. I am still thinking of the weight gain paste like i talked about in my last post... or possibly more of the mirror, but shattered into much smaller pieces and displayed facing up so you can see your reflection, but more distorted.... Ahhh i donno!

I think i need to finish the outside first before I'll know, but I am totally open to suggestions :)



This weekend I plan to keep working on the mirror nest and sheets nest this weekend.

For the sheets nest (its in 12C if you wanna peak), I definitely still have many layers I plan to put on. I am leaving the inside as is for now (still fairly comforting-- reasons see last post). I want to continue adding more sheets, wire and even some pillows. I want them all to have a distressed quality.

Here are my questions:

-I am having trouble deciding how much wire I want to incorporate though. Right now there is a lot on the nest because I wanted to use it in part to add volume. I like the areas of sheets that are ripped open with the wire just barely poking through. I also like the areas where I layer sheet, wire, and sheet again. I don't know if it works better with more wire exposed, or just some.

- Should I incorporate other materials?
I want to keep it strictly to bed items, but someone mentioned that the wire alone might not have been enough to display the message, but they liked the wire where it was minimal because it reminded them of bed springs. I was considering trying wood pieces from a bed frame. Thoughts?


ThAnK yOu!

Works in Progess

Post for Friday, Feb 10

This week was more of a work in progress week. I continued working on the sheets next (6 hours), but still have a ways to go. My goal is to have this next done by the end of next week. I am still toying with whether or not I want to destroy the inside padding (which resembles a mattress) or leave it soft and "comforting." I spoke with Janie about it on Tuesday and we decided it best to finish the nest with out doing anything to the pad and then decide based on intuition afterward.

Also this week I spent time toying with images I already had of some of my nests for postcards (3 hours), however, I want to continue working on them. Today I took some more photos (1 hour) I want to try on the cards before I post a final few to pick from.

This weekend I plan to start another nest as a mini break from my sheets nest and use a broken/shattered mirror. This nest will be medium size to start closing the gap between differences in size I currently have.

Next stages...

Blog post for Friday, Feb 4

As of right now I am kind of feeling all over the place again. I really like what I have created so far, but I have made enough to start sorting out the message I am trying to portray through the nests. I think I have a few different ideas floating around and I would like to find a way to unify them into one concrete concept. I do like the idea of refining my current pieces, such as the pins and pillow stuffing one.

Over the weekend I started a large nest out of sheets, pillows, fabric stiffener, and chicken wire (5 hours). The piece is in process still and is requiring many more sheet than I had anticipated, but I think this will only add to the idea I am going for. I want the pillows, sheets, stuffing (from inside the chair I used as the base) to be mangled around and tron through by the chicken wire. Yet, I still want to be able to sit in the piece... so I am struggling with just how uncomfortable I want to make it. Do I want the outer layers to appear soft with the inner resting area to be destroyed by the chicken wire? Or do I want to have the whole look stressed, but keep the inside less stressed so I can lay inside an feel some comfort. I am thinking to myself and seeing both happen because I feel both ways about home at times. I may just have to let this one play out on its own while I create.

I also bought materials to start some more medium sized ones. I bought a large glass mirror that I want to shatter it to create a protective outter layer of the nest and use some soft material inside. I was almost thinking the weight gain power as paste again. I want to use the mirror because for a while during my illness, the mirror was very deceitful to me, and me not having known this, relied on it to reassure myself I looked the same way I always had. Once my perception of myself as still normal sized was shattered, the weight gain came into my life as a source of life, sustaining myself, and a comfort on the way to recovery.
I've also considered using my old clothing in this nest, the pieces I don't fit into anymore, however, I still want to keep thinking things over.


At this point now, I think I really need to sit down though and think about the materials I am using. Like I said, I want to find a way to unify or have consistence with the nests, making them a whole. I don't know if this will be through context, materials, scale, etc., but I am at the point where it is a good time to figure this out.