anna uus elu
Three small wire works I made will be included in a group exhibition that opens tomorrow in Pärnu at Uue Kunsti Muuseum (New Art Museum). The exhibition is called ‘Anna Uus Elu’, which roughly translates as ‘Give New Life’. The idea is to reuse materials, so I made three pieces of jewelry (two necklaces and one pair of earrings) from four kinds of old copper wire and thread.
scribble necklace, 2015
nebula earrings, 2015
rift necklace, 2014-2015
eyes and ears v3
Many things have happened since my last post (in September of last year!). Perhaps the most significant change is that I am now spending more time in the ceramics studio. Now I’m there every Friday for most of the day, plus every other Wednesday evening for 3-4 hours. I go no matter how I’m feeling or what kind of day I’m having, and I never regret it. This last time I glazed two pieces and wedged a bit of clay so that it is useable again. And that’s it.
Actually, that’s not it. My teacher/mentor and I spent some time talking about an exhibition submission we’re preparing. We edited our project idea and divided the prep tasks so that we can get all the paperwork in today. I’ll be thrilled if they accept the project, because I’ve really been wanting to make a larger sculptural work with wire, but since I have limited space in my apartment I really needed a reason to do so. The exhibition is called the KM of Sculpture, and it’s a month-long, outdoor sculpture event.
I created a Project board on Pinterest, so you can track my thinking about the project over the course of the last month or so. Click here to check it out. In the end, we’re proposing something quite different, but I always think it’s interesting to see how projects develop, plus these ideas related to change and metamorphosis are still fascinating to me.
That aside, I’ve been listening to the new album by Screaming Females a lot. Like constant rotation. Click here to listen on Spotify.
i made a book
Years ago, my mother sent me some beautiful paper she had made. I wasn’t sure what to do with it at the time as it just wasn’t meant for letter writing, but when I rediscovered the paper about a month ago it was so obvious what I needed to do. It was time to make a book. I couldn’t use the pages for signatures, and the paper I had chosen for the covers was too thick for stab binding. After a bit of thinking, I decided to make an accordion-style book (but it’s also not quite an accordion book).
To begin, I measured and poked six holes along the tops and bottoms of the papers. (I took the photo at night, so apologies for the poor lighting.) Then I picked out some contrasting embroidery thread from my stash.
Then I stitched the pages together, leaving a bit of thread between the pages to allow room for folding. First along the top, then the bottom. I applied a tiny bit of super glue to the end knots for extra security.
Next, I made some wheatpaste (heating up one part flour, four parts water) and applied it to the inside of the covers, then affixed the first and last papers. I took two white sheets of paper (to protect the books) and then placed heavy books on top to keep things together and flat while the glue and paper dried.
Once the papers and covers were nicely stuck together, the covers weren’t quite as flat as I liked, so I put the book together and placed a heavy book on top again for several hours.
And done.