Post for January 21:

Last weekend and this past week was spent making nests out of a "weight gain" (supplement) labels and powder. Like I mentioned in my last post, after experimenting with the labels, I thought using the actual powder as a medium could be interesting too. I mixed the powder with just a bit of water, liquitex gel medium, and Elmer's glue. This produced a nice, but very sticky, paste that I was able to work with you form shapes out of. I found that layering the paste worked best to build up the structures. However, this meant I had to wait a few hours for the paste to start hardening before I could add the next layer. But this waiting gave me a chance to make multiple nest forms with the medium. I just kept switching from nest to nest as it was ready for the next layer. I tested different amounts of water and glue that I was adding, and even tried adding yest, but that didn't really do much. I found that although the paste hardened nicely, it was hard to make some of the forms that domed upwards. For this, I used tinfoil, plastic wrap, or other materials to prop up the paste until it hardened. I also tried baking one to speed up the drying process, which worked... but it now relates too much to food and has kind of a golden brown tone to it. I like the forms the best when they dry out on their own.

Overall, I am very happy with how the nests turned out. Most are finished, however, there were two that got quit messed up from a roommates coming home late at night... so I'll have to fix or remake those two. The total time all of this took was about 7 hours, or at least I know I spent all Saturday working on them.

Tuesday I went back to the label nest and completely took it apart and started over again (3 hours). I made an inside structure, then spray glued it and started covering it with the biggest labels. The spray glue wasn't holding as well as I had hoped and was just overall very messy. I even tried sewing some of the labels on, which worked for the big ones, but then I noticed it would start messing too much with the form where the string would pull against it. So I stuck with the spray glue but used it sparingly and super glue. It looks like a nest..... but like a hand-crafted nest. It is not messy enough for my liking and looks too arts-and-craftsy. I think the problem is that the labels are so big that they aren't giving me enough room to shape the nest like I had imagined.

I need the paper/plastic pieces to be longer and skinnier... however, then I have to give up on the legibility of the labels. But I think that I am okay with that. A friend who I spoke with about the piece mentioned that I need to demonstrate "readability," but not necessarily "legibility." So I think I will try again once more for this type of nest, but use strictly nutrition facts only of the food products I eat and shred them very skinny. Thursday morning I spent about 3 hours browsing the internet on bird nests, construction, and sculpture, and came across this artist, Fiona Hall, who made various bird's nests out of shredded dollar bills... exactly how I pictured mine to look!

Anyways, I want to remake that piece this weekend, and then continue on ward to hopefully find materials to reconstruct my sheets nest and then I have been itching to make one out of tea bags and one out of pins with pulled cotton.

Nesting

Post for January 14:

So now that it has been a few days since I have begun my nest out of sheets, I have realized that the materials I used are not conducive to my piece... or to the environment for that matter. The epoxy resin still has a very strong toxic smell, making it hard to bring indoors, let alone keep working with it. Although this is disappointing, I'm almost kind of glad that it is making me start my nest out of sheets over. Now I can use this piece to keep testing on and then rebuild one that is bigger, stronger, and most of all, non toxic. I have found some products that are water-based fabric hardeners. I am hoping to have more luck with these and will be testing them this weekend. If they prove faithful, I will then start constructing a larger, more solid structure to make my nest out of sheets. I want to experiment with using both white, plain sheets, and with flowered, patterned sheets. I feel the two types speak very differently to an audience, however, I am not sure what they will say until they are constructed in the nest form.

In the mean time I am also working on constructing smaller nests out of food labels that will sit on plates. I plan to create one that consists of only the nutrition facts, one that consists out of the things that I eat now since I have a strict diet for health purposes (food labels, facts, peels, stems, seeds, etc.), one that is made out of the labels and facts of things that I was once scared to eat (comfort foods), and one that is made out of the labels from my supplemental nutrition/weight gainer drinks that I have to take every night.

I have already started on the last one I mentioned. I am about half way through. I cut all the labels and nutrition facts into strips and have been weaving them together for some time. However, it is not exactly turning out how I would like it. The walls are still very thin, even though they are layered with paper, but since paper is so flat, there is no dimension. And it also looks like it was constructed by a person, that there was too much thought put into the way it is woven like a basket. So I think what I am going to do is deconstruct it a bit, add some tissue paper, or any light-weight paper to line the inside, then spray adhesive the piece, cover it in more label strips and then from there, once it is about the proportions I want, weave and sew pieces on in certain area to give it more natural look.

As I have been making this piece, one thing that occurred to me was the possibility of using the actual powder from the weight-gain supplements to make a nest. There are some species of birds that make there nests out of mud and sand, as borrows in the ground. With the use of a liquid glue mixed in with the powder, I plan to try and mimic these borrow-nests. I think they will turn out pretty cool and am excited about the medium.

Getting back into the Groove of things

January 10, 2011

Ahh back to work. After a restful break I will be focusing my next few days on writing my thesis draft and continuing to create nests through the exploration of various materials.

Over the break I began creating another nest, out of metal again, but put it down half-way through because it was becoming too much of a jewelry piece. Luckily winter break came at the right time because I really needed to just allow myself to move away from metal working for a while to explore other options and materials.

I had the chance to do so Thursday morning and this weekend. Thursday I gathered up a ton of different materials including fabrics, wood pieces, glass pieces, plates, forks, knifes, hair from my brushes, clothes, ect.
The first nest I constructed was out of my own hair from my hair brushes. Due to a health issue I have recently undergone, my hair has been falling out quite a bit more than usual, therefore, I have a lot of it left in my brushes. Once I took all the hair from my mated brushes, I was able to easily shape a nest form that stands on its own, no glue/structure necessary. I found this fascinating and was very happy with it. However, I still would like to continue adding more hair over time to decrease the transparency of the form. This may take a couple weeks to do.

This weekend I dove into the beginnings of another nest, however, I am finding myself running into some problems. I plan to construct a large scale nest out of bed sheets, representing the comfort of home and being able to sleep in one's own bed. However, the issue I run into is that I want the sheets to ultimately be hard, or uncomfortable rather, to sit in. This is because I always reach home with the notion that I am in a place of comfort, refuge, but within a short time of actually being there, I often feel uncomfortable and want to leave again.

To achieve this "hardened" effect I began first experimenting with plaster. I covered this bowl shaped fabric chair in plaster for the underlying base of the nest, however, I moved away from this medium when it came to the sheets because of its color and obviousness to its material.

So I tried dipping the sheets in expoy resin to mold them over the base to harden. I found this technique done by an artist, Muriel Castanis, who draps epoxy soaked sheets over mannequins, and then removes the mannequins when dry to create these holy-like beings. I must further investigate this process because:
a) Even with a bucket of epoxy, it was not nearly enough for the sheets... so they are currently blotchy with epoxy spots
b) the epoxy is highly toxic with a strong smell, making it impossible to work in doors, which leads to
c) drying time is very long, especially in the cold I have noticed the sheets haven't hardened yet and its been 24 hours.

So going off of that, I am searching for a better solution or material to use to harden the sheets without making them unrecognizable as sheets.

The process of trial and error...


Anyways, after this nest I would like to move onto creating a nest that hangs (large scale), but haven't exactly decided the materials yet. I like the bed sheets as a medium, so possibly those again, but this time I don't think I want them to be hard... rather I want something inside the nest that cannot be seen from the outside, exploring the concept of discovery. I haven't figured out what yet though.

Break Time

Moving away from I.P. for a second for some personal work.
ahhhh... relaxationnnn

Nest 1

Here's the nest!

I used a Liver of Sulfer patina on it to darken it, however, I discovered that the 24 gauged wire I used was not real copper because it didn't patina.... at all, unlike the rest of the wire. So needless to say, this photo is of it before the patina, and now I am probably going to remove the patina and either paint or color pencil some of the wire to add a more rustic look.

But anywho, let me know what you think of the stucture, form, etc :)

Follow my Intuition... Finally

Post for week 14:

This past week was spent away from all things that involved my thoughts as I worked purely with my hands and own intuition. I put my sketchbook down, my computer away, and just began making.

I made a nest.

I used various gauges of cooper wire that I hammer textured (between last Sunday night and today, I spent 18.5 hours doing this). It is almost finished. I have the just the very outer layer to weave into the structure and then to patina it and add finishing touches.

I wasn't exactly sure why I wanted to make this next at first, but I think ultimately it lies within the theme I've been coming back to over and over again. I keep returning to these ideas of preciousness in nature, nesting, home, and elements of surprise through discovery. These are themes that have been laid out in my sketchbook since before the semester began, but I had always felt they weren't saying enough, or there wasn't enough of a dramatic concept behind them to create with them. Thus I've spent the past part of the semester trying to jam too many ideas into one. I feel that this new direction I am going in... although I'm not 100% sure where that is yet... takes my previous ideas and simplifies them. Intuitively I've always wanted to constructed objects/forms that mimic nature out of metal. However, before I was too scared that that would restrict me to just making pretty nature jewelry, but now that I've finally just let myself start creating what I am an most interested in, what my heart tells me too, I realize these don't necessarily have to be wearable pieces, unless I have a reason for them to be. I also realize that I don't have to hide or conceal them inside another "ordinary" form or structure just to make them precious to the owner. AND they don't have to be transportable or carried around just to get their point across.

Therefore, I have redefined my project to making a series of personal objects fabricated out of metal and other various materials that will mimic and capture unique forms and textural qualities that can only be found in the natural environment. I still would like these objects to act as a form of escape... but this time, as an escape into nature, not just an escape from our culture of mass-media, consumerist society. I want my pieces to provide the same therapeutic qualities nature does, such as peace, mental release, and physical and mental healing. This is important to me because whether or not we humans are aware of this, we depend on nature for these attributes. I know I definitely do, and I think that is why I consistently have returned to these concepts in my process this far.

Back to the nest. I want to put continue making a series of nests and experimenting with different forms, structures, and weaving techniques. Ultimately I want them to house something, but I am not quite positive what yet. I was thinking small portraits of the women in my family, but I am not positive... that is just an idea.

Still in love with my walnut locket that I produced last year, I want to continue with a series of lockets fabricated to look like different nuts. Again, I want them to hold something and am not set on what, but keep picturing using the actual ediable portion of the nut as the charm inside each.

The only other things I worked on this week were my Abstract (1.5 hours) and did a bit of reworking for my presentation (1 hour) but I still have a bit more to go by Tuesday.

Well... that was a lot to say, but I am going to get back to making now. I am really gun-hoe on this and find myself really enjoying the process... so why stop?

The countdown begins

Post for week 13:

This past week I spent a bit more time sketching (3 hours) but more so I focused on constructing my practice presentation (5 hours) that I presented on Thursday. The presentation part went really well and I have only a few changes to make plus a few things to add for the actual presentation which will be giving December 14. However, with that part in a good state for now, I am lacking on the process. Running into a bit of a mind block, I am considering redirecting my project goal. I am not totally sure what is "exciting" me about my project anymore and feel like I am hitting a wall. I think the only way to get around this is to start making... which is precisely what Janie and Seth highly recommend I do. Therefore, this weekend will be full of making and experimenting. I need to just make for the sake of making, without a specific focus or concept. I just need to make something that will allow me to find that "excitement" again, and if it veers me in a new direction, then so be it. I will only discover what I like and dislike like by trying....