Looking outward

After completing an installation yesterday for a client (which always feels good), I spent tome time browsing the periodical section of my local Borders. I was looking for the latest issue of American Craft. I came across Clear magazine [ www.clearmag.com ], which unfortunately is a bit too far on the "fashion" end of the design spectrum, but the current issue has an article about Wendell Castle and one on the work of Belgian Artist Arne Quinze [ www.arnequinze.tv/ ]. It was interesting to see the fluff written about Castle, but seeing Quinze's work got me thinking back to a piece I had designed months ago (more as a doodle than fully developed).

Castings.2

Unfortunately, I had other things to get to this weekend, but the very cold weather gave me an excuse to stay inside the house and try to pull off some molds from the deteriorating "fruits". Great success. I first poured two silicone rubber molds from (2) of the globes. Just in case they didn't work, I poured some Alginate molds of two others. I then pulled (4) plaster castings off the Alginate right away, since they will start to break down themselves.

The photo at the top is a detail view of one of the plaster castings (I also cast beeswax as an experiment). The next one down is a top view prior to pouring the Alginate, showing the breakdown of mother nature quite clearly. The final is the bag of globes that I'm working from. The orange and honey smell from the "materials" is a nice by-product.

Castings

I feel like I'm running out of time... to get castings off the Osage Orange "fruits", or seed pods, or whatever these wonderful green objects are. I've been drawn to their color and especially the surface texture, which varies widely. There is a OO tree a few blocks north of our home, and on our walks we find them "littering" the ground in late fall. This tree produces globes about 4-6" in diameter. Some have said they're often used to ward off spiders from the dank basements; they do indeed put off a significant citrus smell. 

In any case, I've been planning on using them as models to produce castings for insetting into furniture.. but they're starting to deteriorate from the inside out. Hopefully I can get some molds made this weekend.  

Image source: www.edupic.net/images/plants/oasage_orange326.jpg

First Official Day

With the kids returning to school today, I'm considering this the real start of the sabbatical work. In order to get the studio ready, I spent a good deal of time working to complete a commission for a residence in Elmhurst, Il. It should be complete by the end of the week. 

I also spent some time cleaning, straightening up, and organizing. It's daunting to begin. the studio is like a puzzle that may pieces have to move until the one piece can be put in place. It's been like this for some time, but now it's VERY distracting.

I had to go pick up some supplies for the commission, so I also picked up some materials for the first _material board_. I purchased some plaster lathe...after completing a jewelry cabinet years ago for the Chicago Contemporary Decorative Arts exhibition at the Betty Rymer Gallery at SAIC, I'm going to look at using "real" lathe instead of material to give the impression of lathe. We'll see.

"Material Board_1" 

Looking

In addition to looking inward during this time, to attempt to revive the way-of-working that I feel has been compromised over the last 5-6 years, I will also be actively looking outward and posting the influences that I find. One such recent view is the work of Atelier Bow Wow. Particularly interesting is the recent work "Life Tunnel", located within "exhibitions".  

It has begun

With the end of the fall semester last week, I am "transitioning" into sabbatical. Since I've never had the pleasure of doing so, I'm a bit unsure how to proceed. I am, however, keenly aware of time passing. With my children off for the holidays (joy in itself), I'm taking the time to prepare the "system" for recording progress, and scanning many of the sketchbook pages for inclusion here.

One of my goals is to produce a series of material investigations that can be presented in an orderly way. At this moment, the module is 12x12, but I'm beginning to feel a bit uneasy about the constraint. I'll put off that decision until the actual sample manipulation begins. I would be remiss not to acknowledge the influence of the book Mondo Materialis on this process.

The scan to the right shows a page from March of this year. I wanted to be able to have a starting point when my sabbatical work began, so I began sketching along the right hand side whenever I had a notion of what one of the material investigations my entail. In almost all cases to date, they employ a variety of materials. I also plan to be less "planned" once I get in the studio and produce these without "designing" them. I hope to continue a process seriously begun in grad school at the School for American Crafts whereby I consciously attempt to break from my design training and work more intuitively.

Inspiration

As part of the preparatory work for the sabbatical, I've been trying to get back in the frame-of-mind of someone formerly focused on the CRAFT of what I do. Happenstance would have it that SOFA showed up at Navy Pier the weekend of November 6-8. In years past, it's seemed a bit like a gloried glass exhibition, but not this time. Wonderful work across the media expanse.