Showing posts with label Recycled Art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Recycled Art. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

IMAGES TO INSPIRE

JACKIE ABRAMS BASKETS

Just recently while browsing the internet,
I found Jackie Abrams
and her contemporary work in Basketry.
Her pieces spoke to me & it was love at first sight.
In the 1980's I was into making traditional baskets,
but Jackie's work is so much more alive and inspirational.
I would love to take a few of her workshops.
Perhaps in retirement  :)  
I hope you enjoy her work as much as I do.

Not Your Mother's Coiling

Collect & Connect

Recycle and Repurpose

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

INSTRUMENTS GONE WILD

FREEFORM KNITTING/CROCHET SCULPTURE
ADVANCED 3-D ART
vintage instruments, handspun/handdyed yarns, & various other goodies

This project took a whole different twist this year.
In years past,
 it was referred to more as a Twig Sculpture with Free Form Knitting/Crochet,
but superstar seniors Shreya Sheth & Jacqueline Yu took it in a whole new exciting direction.
Instead of starting with a large interesting found branch/twig,
they rescued old discarded instruments and turned them into amazing works of art.
They were required to incorporate their handspuns that we saw them spinning in last weeks post.
And they also learned to free form knit & crochet in order to sculpt with the fiber.
Let's see what they came up with. 

Shreya  was able to find an old child sized guitar to use as her foundation.
The green fiber is her handspun.
She also dug thru my eco-dyed scraps, burlaps & laces to add a bit of color and texture.
And check out the adorable flag bunting that she knit up to drape around the neck of the guitar.
And last but not least,
she named her piece Sage.
Priceless!


Jacqueline was hoping to work with an old brass horn as her foundation.  
I was able to find her one at an Antique store up by our cabin.
I adore what she did design-wise with this piece.
How it has tentacles that reach out into space,
how she incorporated the hanger and brought in wood as well.
And do you see the glass shards she has glued down to the branch?
Her handspun is wrapped around the branch as well.
And her free-form knitting is done with some dark blue cording she found.
I also really enjoy the vintage crocheted doily that she is using to create a focal point with.
Jac also thought to use wire to build this tree form,
and it's feels so good that she has wrapped fiber thru it.
Plus my eye likes all the little dangley fibers.
You are a very clever girl Jacquline!
A highly unique piece.

Thank you Shreya and Jac for always pushing my assignments in great new directions,
and coming up with amazing pieces to display

Thursday, March 17, 2016

BUSY BEAVERS - PART II

WOOD ANGELS
BEGINNING 3-D ART

I'm hoping you enjoyed yesterday's post
and are ready for more creative goodness.

We start today with senior Jenna Llamas.
She has chosen to work to a beach theme
 in a fun & pleasing complimentary color scheme of orange and blues.
I took a side view shot so you could see her wood burned edging.
Were they required to wood burn somewhere in their piece?
Yes.


Senior Hapshiba Kwon,
and outstanding student in so many arenas,
brought in some of her poetry and love of rain in Eau de Rain
Notice the empty spool that she used for the torso and how she paper colleged it?
And then to go back to the bird's nest unit and used what she learned there to build the umbrella skirt.
Brilliant!
I asked Hapshiba to say a little something about her piece and what inspired her.
So in her own words:

Hello, I’m Hapshiba Kwon, a high school senior, and I will be guest blogging about my piece!

My piece is titled “eau de rain,” a slight play on the “eau de toilette” phrase that I see so often on perfume bottles and colognes. The title has been wood-burned onto the base and stained over with lavender acrylics.

I started off with a small wooden block for my base. It had been pre-stained on the bottom with pink and aqua colors and studded with metallic “stars.” I built my figure on top of this block, fitting a wooden dowel (later collaged with blue tissue paper and music sheets) into a small hole to serve as legs...or rather, one leg :)

Next, I built a wire nest so that I could weave a variety of yarns through it. We learned to use this technique during our bird’s nest project, and I wanted to turn the nest upside down to use as an umbrella. I utilized baby blue, pastel purple, gray, white, and silver yarns to create my umbrella, and then used this color scheme throughout the rest of my piece.
I definitely had the most fun stringing all sorts of beads on wax linen threads to hang around the edges of my umbrella, so as to encapsulate the movement of falling rain.

As for the bodice, I used a tan spool and collaged on top of it with tissue papers and yellowed hymn book pages. I also marbleized white and black clay to create the polymer head, and then stained it with teal metallic compounds for a subtly glittery effect.

To finish off the piece, we all needed to add a special accessory to personalize our figurines. I chose to add a miniature book with one of my poems titled “Little Moments.”

I think my piece strayed quite a bit from what I’d originally had in mind (as per usual), but I enjoyed the assignment because it allowed me to pay attention to small details and also gave me a chance to work with a variety of materials--wood, yarn, wire, clay, beads, and even aluminum foil for the arms. I imagine it on a bedside table in a little girl’s bedroom because of the soft, fairy godmother/rain princess feeling it gives off, but I suppose that’s wishful thinking because my room is a big mess, hahaha.

Thank you for reading ^_^


This next one is English teacher Deliana Park's second piece.
(we saw her first one in yesterday's post)
This piece is so deep that I asked her to write an explanation.
So in her own words:

This bird man is in his office cage,
 locked and  restricted by his own drive to succeed and work long hours
His facial expression is semi shock 
and his color pallid from being indoors.
A dragonfly ironically rests outside his cage, 
beckoning him to come out.
The quotes on his work desk are from Dante's Inferno
 and the epitaph from Fahrenheit 451
 - a contrast of warning (to all who enter)
 and advising (to escape restrictions).

Wow Mrs. Park, 
that was a fascinating read,
a glimpse into your mind.
Thank you for sharing your message with us,
and for putting so much of yourself,
and your time and energy into this class.
We love having you here with us.


This next beauty was made by junior Insha Khan.
She took great pains in constructing this exquisite dress
with all the lovely details.

Incredibly gifted 8th grader Sydney Eng constructed this amazing chest board 
to go with her figure.
Her's was one of the class favorites for it's creative design
 and the amount of effort she put in it to pull it off.
All her little chest pieces were made with Polymer,
her board wood burned, 
and board edge paper collaged.



And finally we get to junior Helen Park's piece.
She was the gal in Part I who was carrying in the chair and sawing.
Was she able to incorporate any part of that chair?
I don't think she did,
but I'm sure one of these years someone with do something special with it  :)
So thanks Helen for your donation!
Helen's design is very clever in that it is two sided.
Warm & Cool.
And her wood burned saying leads us to think about what she is trying to convey.
Perhaps I will remember to ask her one day and slide it in here.



We finish with junior Cheryl-Mae Mallabo.
Super complex and thought provoking,
it takes some time to see all that she has put together.
Cheryl,
like Hapshiba,
used rebar to build out the front shoulder of her form (above),
then she came into it and wove yarn thru.
I just love when these kids use their critical thinking skills and apply earlier learning.
Cheryl spends hours looking thru all my bead and hardware containers,
selecting just the right pieces to incorporate into her creations.
And as you can see the amount of effort as well as attention to detail in her work
 is truly remarkable.

Thank you all for working so very hard for me.
It's always a pleasure to show off what you do here.

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

BUSY BEAVERS - PART I

WOOD ANGELS
BEGINNING 3-D ART
wood scrap, wood burning, saws, drills and paper, c-clamps, miter boxes, paint staining, 
paper collage, & embellishment


My little crafty  woodworkers have been busy recycling,
tearing apart and putting back together again
to create these fanciful little creatures you will see.
Here junior Helen Park is bringing in an old chair 
to be used for the assignment.

And here she,
 is in complete safety gear,
 using the jigsaw to cut out the main body of her creature.

Tah Dah..,.
some of the finished ones that sit or stand 
and the others that hang.

So let's take a closer look at several.
This first one was crafted by senior Eileen Wang.
I added a new requirement to the assignment.
Eileen has done so many clever things to make her piece special.
Wood burning on the cork body,
hand spun yarn for the hair,
and recycled eyelet fabric for dress.


The next one by senior Clarissa Gutierrez conveys such peace and happiness thru facial expression.
This year they had to make their faces from Polymer clay and paint or stain them,
and I'm thrilled with their results.
The kids had a choice to attach wings or not.
I love that Clarissa did.
Adorable! 


And let's check out what Mrs. Park created.
She actually made two,
and we'll see the other tomorrow in Part II.
One of the things she thought to do with both touched my heart so much.
She found two old wooden play toys of her kids,
sanded them down, 
sawed them up and used them as bodies for both her works.
I also really like that she surrounded her piece in wire,
incorporating other lessons learned prior to this.
and the crochet dollie was rescued from a garage sale.
Deliana made it her own by embroidering on it with little blue flowers.


Next we have 8th graders Carl Estrada and Iris Lin,
both super stars from last years Art Wheel.
Carl thought to marbleize his Polymer before making his face (clever boy),
and both their faces are so very expressive!!
Iris has reused lots of hardware and flip top cans in her piece,
and Carl has done some cool wood burning and staining on his arms.
Great job you two!

And this little cutie was done by senior Iris Xu.
Check out below the awesome wood burning she did on the side of the body,
and the amazing feet she created out of Polymer.

Well this is it for Part I.
I hope you'll stop by again tomorrow for Part II of Busy Beavers. 

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

AN EXCELLENT ADVENTURE

A couple of weekends ago in Torrance, Ca. 
was the 
Southern California Weavers & Hand Spinning Guild's Annual Show,
and since I missed last year's show,
 I thought I might have to check it out and see if there was anything new.

One of my favorite booths was Wooly Walkers.
Una (owner) uses hand spun yarns and hand felted pieces
 to create beautiful punch rugs with embroidered areas.
This piece is her booth banner which is to die for.
One of these days when I am rich  LOL
I'd love to commission her make me an ARTISUN banner.
I just love how she uses both felt, yarn and other goodies in these works.

Another booth that grabbed me 
was the hand made wooden spinning and weaving tools.
I love products that are lovingly crafted from beautiful hardwoods.

And below,
this gal was using resins to create tiny leaves and flowers to embellish with.
I bought a sweet little set and gave them to senior Haphiba Kwon
for excellence in hand stitching on her Felt Basics piece
that I posted a couple of days ago.
She also was re-purposing vintage finds into necklaces and pins.
I might have both one of those. 
and maybe a few yards of antique trim as well. hee hee

And then I can't go to this show
 without stopping to say hello to my dear friend and mentor
 Lori Lawson of Capistrano Fiber Fame.
Lori was decked out in one of her glorious silk wraps that she had eco-printed.
And check out those adorable kitties in her basket.
Of course I couldn't leave without taking one home.
His name is Milo,
and the yarn is hand spun and hand knit by Lori.

Then off we went to the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro.
Did I mention that I dragged my husband along for the ride?
He is such a good sport 
and would follow me thru the gates of hell
 if that was where I wanted to go  LOL
to a huge warehouse called CRAFTED.


One of my favorite things here was a banner that hung from the ceiling of the warehouse.
It was made entirely from recycled blue jeans into this large fish.

Pretty darn cool, 
right?


But it was Peggy Zask's Gallery space that stopped me dead in my tracks.
She is sculpting horses from a variety of found objects,
and using clay as her base foundation.
I must have spent at least 45 minutes with her,
chatting and trying to pick out my favorite piece.
This is the incredible beauty I settled on.
I just adore everything about it and have it sitting on my desk at school.

 It has inspired me to create a new assignment for my 3-D students.
What do you think???