Hot! Hot! Hot!

As usual it's been a crazy past few weeks, and now that the pour is finished, it seems so long ago.... This is one pic from the second day of the bronze casting. Everything went smoothly, all 24 of my pieces came out though some have some cracks that will have to be filled.

Fibers

Today we were fortunate enough to have a visit from fiber artist Erin Curry! She gave us a brief presentation on her work, introduced us to many beautiful natural fibers, demonstrated various spinning techniques, and gave a felting demo. What an awesome, inspiring experience!

Bronze Casting!

I've been working on the mechanism for heliotropis mostly, and this week I will cast the bronze petiole plates, which will join the glass petals to the central hinge hub. The process I use is lost wax ceramic slurry- you can see all of the brown wax positives before dipping, and the chunky orange ceramic silica shell after 8 layers of dipping.

Central hub

Sent from the field!

TJ Erdahl and Dialogic Sound

Last week I had the opportunity to collaborate with TJ Erdahl on this beautifully rich ceramic sculpture installation. TJ is an extremely talented ceramic sculptor who combines texture with electronics to create contemplative works about inner and outer dialogues. The interaction was an artist's residency of sorts as TJ was awarded a supporting grant from NCECA, the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts. I'll have to get the exact title from TJ, but the conceptual thrust of the work is based on an opposing dialogue, that of boy and world as in a young boy being told what he can and can't do. The electronics are a mashup of arduino, mp3 players, and other custom electronics. The audio is triggered by an Infra-red sensor and is randomized to give many unique compositions of the always opposing voices. It was a lot of fun to work with TJ on this piece! Check out the thick, crunchy textures! Amazing! Thanks TJ-

Massage Peddler

This is a custom-altered Burley D-Lite kids trailer, re-designed to carry a massage table above and sheets or clothing below. It was a fairly simple conversion- just cut the sidewalls down, re-sew sleeves to create new, lower edge, and bend new pipe to form side rails. After that, I added two pinned cross bars that quickly clip out to allow flat folding of the sidewalls. With this light and practical trailer my friend Aaron will be a Massage Peddler for hire, going zero-carbon and biking to you to give you a great massage!

Crystals

I've been thinking a lot lately about crystals, how they display the complexity of nature in a visually simple way, and how they are symbols of value that men and women place upon them.

The Klein Bottle is a sort of crystal, it's interior and exterior are one and the same, interchangeable surfaces. I am thinking of doing an open space frame in stainless, more geometric than the drawing above.