Drought-->Flood

In the same day I borrowed my mate Diana's camera to update, I also found my own camera, buried under a drift of army surplus from my new best friend I. Goldberg. So get ready for quite a flood of pictures. I guess I will try to break them up a little bit for readability

First, the oldest, most out-of-date pictures. I found these on my camera when I recovered it, and was so happy I managed to snag a few pictures of my robots before I handed them over to the lovely guys of the band Deadly Technologies.

These were quite a challenge--two people-sized robots that could be taken apart, and were light enough to carry around on tour for under $100. They also had be able to be open to the back, so they could be entered and performed in. I decided on a PVC frame--light weight and modular--with a "slipcover" of upholstery fabric with silver fabric over top.

The PVC frame works in progress. I ended up having to drill hole in all the PVC connector, because a four-way connector configuration did not come in 1" diameter. It is a major pain to drill PVC, and an even bigger pain when your 1" drill bit is slightly smaller than one inch.

Heads, which are made of a dollar store plastic bin and some foam balls with glitter (I will take any excuse to use some glitter) The sheer panels in the sides allow the band to put mics up to them to sing through.

Two very happy customers! Definately a fun project, even if it was difficult to do on top of my school work.

Okay! One post, one project down. Next up: My Fleisher Art Memorial award.

A quick note

I haven't updated in a while mainly because my camera has apparently been stolen, or lost beyond all attempts to locate it. And I refuse to use iphoto to take pictures of my work. However, my boyfriend (the guy behind Days Run Away) recently acquired an old digicam, and we're ordering a battery charger for it now. I promise once that's up and working, there will be a very large series of updates.

Not already~

So I'm behind on my blogging already. No surprise there. Got a lot of new pictures of the hair-chair, formalism, wood, ect. But I'll start with the photos I just got done of some pieces you've already seen--Ken, the Crafts department designated photographer did a shoot with everyone, and the photos look about ten times better than the ones I take, Consequently, the pieces look way better! I've already talked about them in earlier posts, so just enjoy the nice pictures.














Okay, so onto the new. The Hair-Chair is complete! After many packages of weave and lots of giving everyone in the studio fake rat-tails and extensions, it's done.


Unfortunately I don't have any shots between primed and this, but it got three coats of red enamel, and I made a slip cover out of a loosely woven black fabric. The chair is made of some sort of fake leather, and I knew sewing through it would be almost impossible. It was a bit of a challenge, because the screws were rusted shut, and I couldn't take the chair apart, so I had to directly handsew the cover onto it, then sew the weave directly onto that.


I was using hair elastics and bobby pins to keep the excess hair out of my way.

Finished shot--I teased the hair to make it fluffier and stranger, and so it didn't just look like straight lines of hair.

The back--I left it hair-less on the back, partially because of monetary concerns, but also because I think it gives the viewer a frame of reference--you can see what the chair used to be more clearly.

For all you hair-phobics out there


Not sure if I mentioned it, but I'm taking Intro to Wood right now--our first real assignment was to make a tool, so here's my little two-handed comb-thing.


It's all hand-planed, hand-finished white ash with black milk-paint on it.

And...finally formalism. I got into a bit of a fight with my teachers on this one--I assumed by formalism they just meant "considering line, color, shape, ect" which is what I did in my samples, but apparently they were much more concerned with "process based working." That is, work on something without planning and letting the process dictate the outcome. I've tried to work like that my sophomore year, and to be honest, I was bad at it, and didn't find it very interesting. You generally either get a lot of little units or a blob.
But I won't ever let it be said I don't finish my assignments the best I can.

So I took my jar of little triangular clips (from when I clip the seams on my t-shirt quilt) and bodged 'em together with the tiniest stitches possible.

Jar of bits.

More little bits

Connecting the bits together starts to make this nubbly thing.

Yep. They think it's fantastic--I don't get it?

Oh well. More updates later--on TIG welding, Plasma Cutting and PVC robot building~

Rusty, rusty rusty

A rusty week--both literally and figuratively. I've been scrubbing rust furiously with coke and vinegar off the bottom of a barber chair, and I've been easing back into the idea of actually having to fufill assignments.

But before all that school junk, the -final- roundup on my winter break projects.


The quilt keeps on keeping on. I swear it's going to take several years to finish the top, let alone quilt it.


The eye-ball skirt is finished! Eyes might be second below horns for motifs that I repeat a lot. Thanks to my matey Astrid for the dramatic modeling!

That placket is a total mess on the inside, but it looks pretty clean from the outside, and it works.

Hand quilted bottom hem. I'd see stuffed, quilted hems in a book of historical costumes, and I liked the way they held the shape of the skirt.

Eyeball border made with some odd upholstery trim I found at Jo-Mar.



I've also been working on these portraits since the beginning of the break, and I'm hoping I can continue to work on them in my spare time. Eventually, I'd like to make a quilt of all the characters I've ever come up with--like a giant character map.




Annnd on to work designated for school. Wood is nothing photo-worthy, learning how to hand-plane, Metals is basic mess-around welding.

Advanced Fibers--Narrative Object. The idea is to take an existing object and modify it to give it narrative, or create an object with narrative qualities.

The Sketches:



I actually really like all three ideas, and I want to do all of them eventually, but for this project, I choose Option #3, because, well, my mate Astrid found a barber chair in back of her building! How could I resist?

Here it is as of yesterday, when I was priming it. It had been sitting outside for a while, and the metal was badly rusted. No picture, but I've just finished putting the first coat of red enamel paint on it.

And Projects--Formalism

Ho boy, not my best area. Forget any and all content, context, meaning or narrative. You're only allowed to think in terms of color, form, shape, line, and texture.

Ugh.

Anyway, just making some stupid little samples right now, nothing interesting yet.


Exploring some ideas with color and geometric shapes.