Sticks, Stones, and Paper Stew Blog

For those interested, the leaf coat titled “Winter’s Remains” received the award in Fiber at the Ruth and Jim Howland Community Open 2009. Here is an image of it hanging in the gallery space.

My friend Joanne McLennan’s alabaster sculpture is right below the coat. Beautiful piece Joanne!

I’ve been home a week and feel all the incredible energy slipping away. The dogs have taken me back as their mom. Mocha took several days to re-adjust. She was seemingly depressed at my leaving. Her energy levels have decreased. What a difference a week can make.

Class 1 taught by Melissa Manley.

The first class really opened my mind to new sculptural possibilities. Who would think Hog Gut could be so much fun! Paper could also be substituted in place of the stinky mess (a bucket of pig intestines looks remarkably like a mass of tape worms!). If you can put that all aside, the translucent qualities are fascinating.

So here is the front of the bug creation. Rebar wire rusts quickly after application of salty intestines! Eyes are stone beads.

Left side view….

You can see the armature of wire under the gut. I used 19g, 22g and 24guage rebar wire.

This was my spiral test pod for figuring out how to lay the covering. I also inserted small stones and sea glass to test durability.

Class 2: Abstracts by Mary Beth Shaw

This class was totally out of my normal comfort zone.

We started with 4 clayboards arranged as a single square piece and drew random lines.  Next we carved, textured and colaged over the surface. After that, we applied chalk pastels and matt media. This class was about building up many layers over the clayboard. Once the pastels were to our liking, we moved onto fluid and airbrush acrylics.  Here are my results.

Things are finally moving along. The sides required more leaves and I created a sleeve off one shoulder. That part didn’t work. It’s all a learning process.

Once the coat dried, everything was peeled off the glass so “real sleeves” could be produced.

Voila! A vest is formed!

After the sides were secured in vest form, I was then able to glue the sleeves into cylindar forms and attach to the coat.

Here we have the finished piece:

Now all I have to do is finish picking out the clear bits and create a bundle of branches to hang it from. “Winter’s Remains” coat will be complete. Drop off time for the Community Open is Saturday March 21 from noon to 4pm.

Happy Spring!

This coat did not just come to life one day, but has come from the past many months of Mocha’s life.  Yes, the old dog. I actually gather quite a few good projects from the ending months with my lovely companions. Chloe’s slow daily walks brought about examining little changes along our walk. I collect small bits along the way and sealed them in paper packets using a sewing machine and wax. Some days I dyed the paper with coffee or tea. The packet contents started changing into black paper silhouettes (still sandwiched between paper,stitched and waxed).  I would choose one visual stimuli from that day and cut the silhouette.  Chloe was a basset hound and lived to 15 yrs 6 months and 24 days before we put her down. The project is waiting to be revisited in larger form. It did gain an honorable mention at the Howland Community Open in 2007.

Back to Mocha. Her specific project is still in the works and will not be completed until after her passing. I’m collecting all of her canned dog food labels and turning them into a “burden coat”.  It involves shredding, weaving and quilting the labels together. If she keeps going as well as she is…. that’s going to be one big coat!

My brain has been wrapped in a coat theme for many months. Daily walks through the park, examining changes in the beautiful leaf skeletons… it became a challenge to turn leaves into wearable art.

I’ll try to get the images updated later.