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

Arbor Inspirations

Jim and I are in the process of building and installing several arbors up at the cabin.

Yesterday I was at a trendy new shopping center in Costa Mesa called SO CAL and saw this woven twig arbor.

It was love at first sight.

This arbor is is a neighborhood next to ours up on the mountain.

I love the simplicity and the curved and flowy lines.

I showed it to Jim so he has begun to build one for me.

Almost done.

As soon as it's in the ground I'll post a pix.

Kevin & Nida, This Heart is for You!

When seniors Nida Fatima and Kevin Tang built these Twig Sculptures separately they honestly didn't like them very much, so both kids donated them to me to teach with this year.  Well over the summer I had stacked them on top of each other and when I pulled them out the other day I liked the way they fit together, like a big heart.  So I took some wire and laced them as one.  What do you think??

Here is the place I have displayed it;  over top my fresh new dye garden.  Sorry about the shady cast shadows.

Also this summer I spun up a bit of art yarn and made bunting triangles, then used the clothespins that we over-dyed in our Tye-Dye unit to hang them with.  Pretty clever, huh??

I've brought in some new dye plants to work with this year, a deep red African daisy, an ornamental chili plant, marigolds, begonias and basil.  so we'll see what happens.

In the meantime, I miss your infectious smile Nida, and your crazy wonderful laugh Kev.  

Can't wait for you two to visit and tell me all about college life  :)

Lots of love to you both!

Twig Sculptures - Student Work

 

Earlier in the year I had posted about a new assignment I was going to try using fresh vines and branches.

I tested it out on my hubby and he did a fantastic job building the foundation then free-form weaving the structure. 

With a bit of recycled paper pulp poured over top below.

Advanced 3rd year 3-D students Rita, Kevin and Nida really liked the twig part and enjoyed going round the school looking for windfall and I'm sure doing a bit of pruning from a few of our bushes, but asked if they could try something other then paper pulp to embellish sculpture with.  Over the years, I've learned to listen and be flexible as a teacher, so I was open to their suggestion.

In this piece, senior Nida Fatima found some textural weaving yarn that she wrapped around and thru her form.

Senior Kevin Tang decided to go ahead and use the paper pulp idea, mixing up his pulp a bit chunkier then my husbands.

And senior Rita Labib really wanted to showcase her free form weaving structure and not cover it up so instead she chose to dangle hardware from it, for a really cool look.

It was creative play watching the kids build these and see the various forms they came up with.  Not sure though if I will repeat the assignment.  I'm going to ask the kids for their feed-back. 

Handmade Paper Pulp for Twig Sculpture

This is the process I used for embellishing the Twig Sculptures with paper pulp.

I began by ripping my junk mail into small pieces (about an inch by an inch) and letting them soak for about 20 minutes in tepid water.

Notice how pretty my junk mail is?   It's because I save all my lovely invitations and note card covers and mix them with the uglies.   My son's best friend, Adam, has his wedding invitation soaking in my pile, it's the pink and black floral paper.  I couldn't throw it away Adam and bride Ashley, I had to do something wonderful with it, hope you like what I've done  :) 

Although this part doesn't look so good LOL, this is the pulp after I've run it thru my blender with lots of water.

Next I begin pouring thin amounts over the twigs until I have just the right amount coating them.

 The finished, dried piece below.  For you Adam and Ashley, next time I see you guys.  Love you!    

Twig Sculpture - My Work & Jim's

Two weeks ago I showed you this twig sculpture idea I was working on over the summer for a new assignment for my 3-D students, but I didn't show off the final result.  Well here it is, covered in handmade paper pulp .

I made the pulp from junk mail I'd been saving.

Here is my husband's foundation and his final result below.

I really like how his turned out, he thought they were kinda stupid, especially after he saw I had put them on display on our kitchen shelf above the stove.  LOL

I don't have him completely trained yet to be ok with arts/crafts hanging all over our home.   But he'll come around cuz he lovesssssssssss me!  :)

Oh Boy...A New Assignment -Twig Sculpture

And who will I test this out on, you ask??  You know, the man who supports all my artsy-fartsy adventures in fiber, Jimmy Sposa.  So first I made him walk around our complex collecting long vines from various bushes.  We hosed them down, then stripped off most of the leaves below.    

We used the thickest vines to build a foundation and copper craft wire to secure the join.  Then we began to weave every which way, not even sure where we were going with this.

At this point Jim wants to know what is supposed to be.  It's a sculpture of course.  Something interesting and decorative to look at.  He seems to think it will make a better hat  LOL

Jim's masterpiece above, and mine below.

From a couple different angles.

Tomorrow I'll show you another option for these beauties, so stay tuned.