Wabi Sabi

Working with little ones can be tricky. As artist in residence at a preschool and pre-k child development center means I'm not only responsible for doing kid friendly projects but making sure the little ones come away feeling good about it.

Very loosely translated, wabi sabi is a Japanese concept that embodies the appreciation of the flawed, imperfect and "real" over predictable and more obvious beauty.

Little hands can make useful and beautiful objects but the smooth beauty of a perfect piece of stoneware is likely years away if it will ever be part of their lives. Wabi sabi as a teaching tool helps them not only accept but revel in creations that might not match their imaginations.

Ceramic Venus

I know, I'm gettng a little obsessive with these but it was a worth while exploration and the recipient seemed pleased.

Shibori Scarves

 So, the scarves turned out well. A little less precise than I've accomplished in the past but I've typically had the proverbial "all the time in the world" and only done a couple of pieces at once. Most of shibori is in the prep work, something that can be done over time if you plan ahead but after a summer of it in Japan and a bit of it now and again I'm not sure I want to devote a ton of time to it, and that's pretty much what it takes.

I do love indigo and I'll likely find further reasons to do dye batches of one kind or another. Between the "developing" effect of the dye when it hits oxygen and the stunningly deep, organic blues, it's really hard to beat real indigo. Somewhat endangered, imagine that another heirloom technology, it's still fairly easy to obtain. Something, I think ought to be taught in schools, it'd make a fantastic chemistry project, art or home economics; not to mention History (note the capital H).

The next thing I'd really like to approach is woad, another ancient plant dye. I've found the materials but it looks to be a bit more complex than indigo and certainly more so than something like Rit dye that can simply be mixed in a bucket or washing machine without a lot of fuss.

This batch of scarves will be up in the Susan Howell gallery at 1987 Hyde St in Russian hill for another month or so and then I'll either find them homes in a little more personal way or put them up on Etsy, who knows?

If anyone is of a mind, let me know and I'll run an indigo workshop where we can explore the dye itself as well as basic shibori.

Venus redux

Got a nice little piece of alabaster today. I'll be carving another venus idol starting in the next couple days. This time i'll be doing more documentation and shooting miniatures images to accompany the statue.
My loose goal is to build a kickstarter project around it to fund this summer's Norway show.
Regardless i'm excited for another stone carving project.

Shibori

Just prepped the cloth for a small batch of heavy cotton scarves. I'll be doing an Indigo dye treatment with Japanese shibori methods I learned while living in Japan.
They will be shown and for sale at the Susan Howell gallery in San Frsncisco.
Look for a post with production shots and the finished scarves!

Literally Literary

I've started a couple of novels, not reading them but writing. I don't think I've actually scrapped one yet but I can say for the first time, I'm in range of completing one. Nearing 100 pages in, that's a respectable third of the way plus a bit more for a first novel according to a number of internet sources.

I decided to post a little about it, no spoilers, for a couple reasons. First is that even if I stop at "novella" length, not likely as the story isn't finished, 100 pages is still a lot. Second and more important reason is that I feel that putting it out in the open that I'm writing a novel and I'm a third of the way there will at least somewhat bind me to finish it.

So there, I've said it, as openly as it gets and I'll post on Facebook as well when I'm two thirds finished. Here's to going big or going home.

Carving bone with stone

I've been putting off learning the Oslo nalbinding stitch for months now, lacking a needle and not wanting to buy one or make one out of modern materials.

I recently got another block of obsidian that I don't mind knocking blades from and thought i'd try making another needle as well as carving it with an obsidian blade.

Rather than a lamb bone I used a wild deer bone this time. It's a lot harder, more brittle and prone to shatter. The take aways are that i'm now fairly certain paleo people smashed bones to make needles as carving is extremely difficult and time consuming. Cleaning up a bone shard into a needle, blade or harpoon isn't all that tough, it's the initial shape that's difficult.

Success loomed when I decided paleo humans had bones a plenty and that simply smacking mine with a rock to obtain one or two workable pieces was a realistic strategy given historical context.
Further, in the course of processing bones to obtain marrow, you'd be doing that same smashing anyway. Seems realistic that hanging onto choice, tool worthy, bone fragments is a natural extension.

I've now got a couple of predictably crude bone needles, but both are shorter than an i've seen in the record. I may go ahead and order the oh so sexy mammoth ivory needle i've been lusting after or i'll switch to making one from modern materials, I know how, just been avoiding it even though it would work at least as well if not better and take all of 20 minutes to turn out.

Incidentally, I looked at other technologies contemporary with nalbinding  and may have discovered a flaw in the theories of how it was done. I'm putting in my due diligence now and planning on writing a "white paper" about it with hopes of presenting at a conference if i'm correct.