Kristen- ALL

TO PULL

11/17 Update

    These pieces are almost done, they just need patina and the final materials to be added.

I'm unsure how much more I can do to the large sprue spot on my wine cork. 

Chase it until it is right. I feel like the forms are lost here and you need to bring them out so the soul of the piece shines. 

    

09/21 Update:

        Here is my sketch of how I predict I will have to sprue my wax pieces. The main thin I am uncertain about is if I can squish in the hair stick antenna into the same spruing system as my wine cork. The black is supposed to be the wine cork and the blue is the antenna.

09/16 Update:

    Here are my in progress photos with the clay before casting:

        Here are my molds: I am not sure what I did, but the second half of both of my molds turned out very bubbly. I had let the plaster sit in water for a few minutes and then mix it. It was super silky and there were no clumps.

        And finally, the wax! I started taking off sprues on the big guy before I took this photo.

09/08

Additional Ideas for Pull

        I enjoyed the snake cork we passed around in class on Tuesday. I made a moth inspired one and then realized I don't drink wine. So then I made an iteration with a tube for olive oil. I don't know if it still counts as it's main function is to pour, but you to reuse olive oil spouts and they need to be pulled off of the bottle in order to get reused. 

                    Hair Sticks:

        Maddison inspired this idea with her idea for a headband piece and then in Metals II Leah showed a hair stick piece for her enameling example. I know bronze is freaking heavy and also not the biggest fan of super small, but it's worth a shot. This is so far my favorite idea.

        Hair sticks twist and pull in order to keep the hair pinned. 

                            Example:

The three dots are for an idea of how to attach the piece to wood. They would anchor in, but I need more clarification on how it would be feasible to attach bronze to wood.

I adore the idea of creating a head/hair piece that correlated with antennae, the head piece of the moth.

        In the presentation Ashley showed use there was a wooden gazebo with very graceful linework which inspire the above. This idea and the antennae idea are my favorite.

  To Pull

This is a bronze drawer handle and moth wings. I made this sketch just to get the ideas flowing, but I still appreciated the simplicity of this. They're the right amount of gaudy and kitsch while still being toned down.

        Above in To Hold I have a concept inspired by cast wings that I pulled molds from sewn wings. I think doing that process but for door handles is the most cohesive idea I've had for Pull.

        For these I am considering trying a new embroidery stitch called the brick stitch. These would be approximately 5-6" and the posts to use to connect it to the drawer would be 3" apart. 

                

        I was reading the prompts for Pull on WyoCourses and I was intrigued by the idea of the hairbrush. I drafted this quick sketch with the idea this would be the bronze project.

I am struggling most with ideas for Pull which is ironic as it is the first one that we need to share ideas for. I will continue pulling out some sketches and update if I make something that interests me. 

TO HANG

12/01/22

    I completely understand Ashley's point of testing my skills and while I was making a three dimensional crocheted form without a pattern (it's new to me) I had an idea that may suit this class better (At the very end of the semester, yay!) I was playing around in Metals and constructed a brass circle and semi circle that I had the idea to make a haute couture style hand bag/ clutch that HANGS off the body still. 

Now for this class I'm going to weld 3/16ths rod and get just a tad bit more comfortable with welding! 

w    "So where's the rest of the bag?" you're wondering. It's going to be fiber of course! I think it'd be humorous to the situation of shelving Mr. Olm (Don't worry, I'll eventually finish him!) for yet another crochet project. I did a couple minimalist sketches just to record the basic ideas and do some color experimenting.

    Moss themed was my first idea, but I was inspired by some silver yarn I have. I don't have enough and it is expensive to use this exact yarn for my silver idea (below), but I found some cheaper yarn with a similar color and texture and silver thread to try and make it a dupe. 

    I really like this idea of a metallic looking fiber with a steel piece. It's a very simple form, but it is contrasted drastically with hard and soft materials as well as the oddity around the handle and opening. 

    I am considering adding pockets and a drawstring at the top. I'm not sold on the drawstring idea, but it would be extra functional if there was a divider (crocheted or sewn) down the center with a pocket on it (also crocheted or sewn) to hold miscellaneous items that are small. 

    One last note is regarding the yarn. I brought a bunch with me. I considered chunky yarn as it would make crocheting faster. It has a velvety look which in my opinion looks crafty and not Haute Couture-y. I have the dupe I mentioned that is chunkier than regular weight yarn. I have my remnants of the silver yarn that inspired me and it's gold counterpart, they are what I've been calling regular weight but I think it's around worsted weight. Then a red acrylic yarn I grabbed in a panic for no reason other than I have a lot of it. I'm deciding between the gold and the silver dupe.

 

- - - 

    For my BFA Stick I need to adjust my welding spots and then patina it. My moths are close to done, but I can't decide which one to put on the iron stick. I'm between two moths, the Rosy Maple and the Southern Flannel Moth. The caterpillar of the Southern Flannel moth is actually venomous and leaves welts when in contact with skin. I am going to use paper to emulate the welts, but on the branch so perhaps doing the Southern Flannel moth for the iron branch is a good idea since I had already planned to use paper on it.

11/29/22

    I suppose I got lost in the if I'm using my tree branch now versus later. I can pivot where I'm at and use my tree branch instead and crochet elements and add paper as I had originally planned.

    In my idea there are crocheted leaves and I use a similar process to casting paper (after patina) in order to adhere it. I've done this with bronze before and it worked very well. I used Nori paste and the paper was very sturdy.

11/17/22 Update

    

    I still stand by this idea. I originally planned on sewing it, but I wound up crocheting it. I've never made my own crochet pattern, but so far I feel like I have a good understanding of how to make a more sculpted form. The tail went along smoothly after a few tries and getting the right weight of yarn. I think the head is going to be tricky because it's the most organic and complicated. I have about two rows left on the body and then I'll start the head. I'm going to stuff the head which will be the only stuffed section. 

    I'm also looking at types of clasps that would allow me to change out the strap so I can use different sizes. Where is the metal for this piece either cast iron or steel?  Your BFA piece should be on here.

11/1/2022 Update

I bring to you the case of what can be argued as an object that hangs. One could argue a purse HANGS off of your shoulder. 

I would like to also bring the case of my newest favorite animal, the Olm. Also known as the axolotl's strange European cousin. 

These two cases are seemingly unrelated, but I raise you my idea: The Olm Bag:

    I want to take another shot at sewing. I really enjoy working with textiles and I am pretty proud of my Barbie Mushroom wearable from last spring. This olm bag brings me a sense of creating a little friend which is a great motivator for working on projects as a little bonus. I am playing around with the idea of size. 

    The original olm is approximately 8 to 12 inches long and quite skinny. As a functional little bag I want to size this up so it could actually be useful. A diameter of 5 to 6 inches is ideal for this piece. Trying to do math for a length appropriate to 5 inches as become impossible for me because the diameter of an actual olm is a decimal number that has thrown me off. I found over 6.5 feet for the length so artistic liberties in proportions make need to be taken to make a functional bag that hangs off a shoulder. OR I could just make a really small bag that holds Chapstick tubes. 

    As I said before I want to do more sewing. I love how sturdy sewing makes a textile as an object. I also love this weird shape and the simple colors of the olm. They're very rare in the wild and only found in underground caves in Eastern Europe. They have no eyes thanks to years of evolution. Crazy enough they can survive off of one meal for 10 years if food is scarce and the longest record of an olm staying in one spot is 7 years. These guys are crazy.

I just had the thought that curtains hang. Curtains are also flat. What if they had three dimensional relief? My cat would adore it unfortunately.

These are inspired by the Jadot and Kehayoglou furniture pieces.

I plan to sketch an idea for a curtain rod that would be inspired by the curtains above.

        Another idea I had for Hang is a key holder with a built in dog leash holder. It would be very convenient for my needs to get a key holder.

        The forms are inspired by fluffy moth antennae. I imagine this would be cast in bronze and the green is my attempt to depict the ammonia patina. There are three regular sized hooks on the right and a large one on the right is to hang a doc leash on. I also hang the harness so a larger hook would be hand to hold both at once.

        Another idea I had for Hang is a towel rack. I went abstract with the sides while thinking about working in wood.

TO LIGHT

11/29/2022

    This is my lamp. The lightbulb gets very hot, I need an LED warm light with a small base if at all possible.

11/17 Update

    I'm going back to my original idea based on the Chinese money plant that I realize I never uploaded! 

    I feel I goofed it by not uploading this which it was my favorite idea! My main idea is that I make these leaves out of cast paper (I think I'll have to dye it with tea or coffee for a subtle brownish ten like my photo). I'll make a bulb out of the cast paper that will go around the light bulb. I'm getting the lamp off of Facebook market place as my Goodwill trip was a bust! I'm going to make a note in my planner to update the blog when I get a lamp! 

    These are the photos straight from the sellers, so they aren't the best quality images, it's at least something for now. These are two I'm looking at and will try to get at least one. The top needs spray painted so it's not that horrid teal color. Does it need sanded or just primed before repainting it?

sanded and then primed and painted.

11/1/2022 Update

    After casting the branch in iron for my BFA project, Luis mentioned it looked like a wand. One thing lead to another and I am intrigued by the idea of making this branch a light fixture. In my idea I would like to fabricate thin paper flowers that are translucent as to allow the maximum amount of light to emit from the tiniest light diodes or light bulbs (here is where my lack of light fixture knowledge comes in. I want the lights to be super tiny and dainty. Looking up what my options are I saw a lot about LED light diodes).

This should be created.

    At the moment of drawing this I did not have any particular flower in mind. The forms I drew resemble lotus flowers and they could be convenient in the wide petals working well enough to create a sturdy flower form when hardened with glue.

    This is definitely a continuation of whimsical nature I keep making when I'm not making whimsical and bizarre nature (I'm looking at you Olm Bag and Moth Eating Fungi). 

    A real challenge I have is how to incorporate the wiring required for the lights. Incorporating a vine or moss structure to this idea could be a way to mask the wiring.

                                        

I don't want my rough sketch to be the poster child for this post.

        

        As I mentioned earlier I am interested in muting the light. This was my first idea but the light pouring out of the top would still be too harsh.

            For these, I got a box of wire from high quality spiral books. The wire has a nice line quality that inspired ideas from Dr. Seuss's truffula trees.

          Below are flowers I'm inspired by for this idea of diffusing the light.

This is hopefully my last spur of the moment idea. Lights are usually on ceilings, but never on the floor. How about a rug lamp? It's not easy to wash, and it's a pain for mobility.

    

        I mentioned I am interested in creating a form that emits a soft light that does not trigger my migraine sensitivity. I am intrigued by the steel fabrication with paper additions. 

        Paper casting is another option I am interested in. I've attached a sample of crocheted wire. Paper casting and enveloping with crocheted wire would help reinforce the paper.

 

        I  am drawn to a few examples from the presentation during class.

        I pulled these off of the presentation, but I love to subject of the first one and the warmth a soft light of the bottom two. The bottom two look like they're made out of paper which I am intrigued to work with.