Nostalgia for Bluebell woods

I'm writing my research paper which is presented within a frame story. Part of that story includes a bluebell woods. I find myself sighing over bluebells and my lack of them, my lack of over 20 years. I do have very fond memories of the enchantment that is walking through English woods in springtime. Oh well. Is it coincidence then that I bought Jo Malone's Wild Bluebell perfume?

Appley apples: confessions from an apple stalker

I'm afraid I have become one of 'those' people in the supermarket. You know the ones who stare at the fruit and vegetables, pick one up, stare at it then put it down? Well that's me with apples at the moment. I'm trying to find the most perfect shaped apple to make a cast from. I started off with red delicious for their shape, but they are too big. Once they are cast in crystal they are too heavy. So I turned next to Royal Gala (my favourite eating apple). The organic ones are smaller..so I check these out very carefully when they are in.

Musing on Wax

I use wax, modelling wax quite a lot in the casting process. Every now and then I think I should actually use it as a sculptural medium in its self. Today I went to Schaeffer Library (the non borrowing Arts library at Sydney uni) I even got to look at something from the rare book room (though why it is in there I don't know..Large and expensive books room maybe) which was a large book on Kiki Smith. She uses wax in her sculptures and it is... so visceral.
So today I have been thinking about casting twigs and branches in black coloured wax, maybe beeswax for that beautiful scent or a subtly perfumed soywax....

Kiki Smith in Studio c. 1993

The Keep by Jennifer Egan.

I've just finished "the Keep" by Jennifer Egan. It was recommended to me by my supervisor as an example of fiction with multi-voiced texts. So was 'The people of paper' but I haven't got to that one yet. The Keep carried me along sure enough, I read it super quick so I may have missed some brilliance. I liked the swapping between voices, and the unstated connection between them (until the end). It was enjoyable and surreal at times, a page turner (or tapper) but not brilliant. The story sets up with two cousins meeting again after years of silence. A teenage prank gone wrong is the cause of all the tension, there is a castle, there maybe ghosts and delusions and then there's this guy in a prison....

Crazy casting day

I've been trying to work out how to pump out casts of sticks quickly. One of the slow parts is the first essential layer...as in the most important to 'get right' layer. I had though about dipping them, in the end I got the clay 'resevoir' mounds ready. Part dipped part sloshed the plaster over the sticks in the bucket then stuffed one end of the stick into the clay and quickly redabbed over the place I had touched. I did this 8 times and thought wow this is really working until I realised that I would have to complete 8 moulds before I went home...smaaaaart. (this was in the afternoon, I had already made 8 simple openfaced moulds. Crazy but I made 16 moulds in one day!

Rob Snyder: Lost twig caster!

Anum Cara (detail)

A website

Well finally, I hit the publish button.  I have been, here and there through Wix putting together a website. Something very plain and simple but not quite so informal as the blog, It still needs work but it is out there now!

www.spikedeane.com

Can't imagine anyone else wanting that domain name...

Glass branches, twigs: natural and manmade

See my Pinterest board for more trees, branches n twigs here

'Aspen Glade' for Steuben Crystal

Su Taylor-Glasgow 'Communal Nest'

Elizabeth Lyons 'Large ladder'

'Communal nest'. Top view

Jeff Zimmerman 'Fallen Log'

Jeff Zimmerman 'Tree Sculptures'

Su Taylor-Glasgow sorting glass branches

'Frosted Tree Branches' Anthony Goto

Glass Bush from flicker

Jeff Benroth. Sand cast "fireplace logs'

Naoko Ito

'Selkie' crochet beanie

Tonight I finished off a piece of crochet that has been hanging out in my handbag for a month or so. It started off as a play piece, messing around with my new favourite stitch 'Shell stitch'. I had an idea of a lacey-ish beret kind of beanie in these gorgeous sea colours with a scattering of sparkle on the crown. Since I wasn't following a pattern it got stitched and pulled back (is frogging, frogging in crochet too?) quite a few times. The last few weeks or so it has been totally ignored, what with the first draft of the paper due, installing at Stills, working in the studio etc... But I needed an evening to relax in (after the previous few days leading up to the first draft deadline) so I finished my Selkie Beret exactly as I wanted. Its even got the subtle sparkle with a scattering of sequins I bought in Singapore and some very tiny Maria George seed beads.
The other thing I was trying to make up my mind about was the picot stitch around the edge...to picot or not to picot? Eventually I realised I could have both!

Picot edging on one half, plain on the other

note the subtle sparkle...

More reading for the RP

This burst of new material was brought about listening to Norma Cameron's TED talk 'Cultivating Narrative Intelligence' which I found through a site called Storytalk.


That led me to an article and clip 'Your story telling brain'
"Cognitive Neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga, a pioneer in the study of hemispheric (left vs. right brain) specialization describes "the Interpreter" - a left hemisphere function that organizes our memories into plausible stories" 
Gazzaniga, Michael. Who's in Charge?: Free Will and the Science of the Brain 



Then to a whole host of articles via Culture Lab (New Scientist) on story telling
Storytelling 2.0: When new narratives meet old brainsMetamorphosis of the storybook by Amanda Gefter


and through one of the culture lab articles 
"E-literature may even change the way we see ourselves. Neuroscientist John Bickle explains how our brains create our sense of self through narrative (see opposite). As cognitive scientist George Lakoff puts it, "Narratives...are instantiated physically in our brains. We are not born with them, but we start growing them soon, and as we acquire the deep narratives, our synapses change and become fixed." Will new narratives lead to new selves?"
and a blog post on 'Red Riding Hood: Neurology, Narrative & Storytelling'
&
Rose, Frank. The Art of Immersion. (maybe)

Instructions by Neil Gaiman

This articulates everything I love about fairy tales...

Neil reads his poem 'Instructions', the reading starts in at about 1.45 and the sound is quiet.

Messina, transcendent gelato

After the gallery opening, Dougie and I wandered (puffed and pushed actually up the steepness of Liverpool road) back up to Victoria road to grab something to eat before we went home. As we promenaded and peered at various eateries I noticed a disproportionate amount of people walking around eating ice cream. On a winters night 'an all! After dinner we found the source of all the ice cream..easy by the long long queue of people winding out of 'Gelato Messina'. Choosing was difficult with so many flavours with imaginative combinations (and the fact that the crowd obscured getting a good look at everything). To be quick I chose 'Apple Pie' and 'Coffee'. The apple pie was scrumptious, real pieces of crunchy pastry and sticky caramelized pieces of apple studded the creamy vanilla base while the coffee nearly knocked my socks off! There was more caffeine in that there gelato than 2-3 weeks of cappuccino consumption in one go.

I am impressed and will visit again. Read 'the incredible lightness of being hungry blog review'.

Stills opening: 'Water hole' and 'Into the woods'

I love how 'Into the woods' ends up looking, even on the floor.

Install at Stills

As usual, any install that involves carting heavy boxes in and out of a vehicle means it must rain (Mikyoung i'm thinking of you), I wasn't disappointed, it rained. Today I helped install 'Into the woods' on Stills Gallery's mezzanine level. Considering the ceiling height is quite low, we had to make a few adjustments...like omitting the plinth entirely. In the end the glass and animation sits/plays over some thick foam core. Despite the lack of height I really like how it turned out. Thank you Kenzie for doing most of the work and figuring out the hard stuff.

Bundles of twigs, sticks, branches

I am planning on trying out making bundles or arrangements of glass twigs/ sticks, so checking out images. Thanks to all the stick photographers out there

Surgery!

Surgery...well it felt like it. After having left the rubber to cure properly, I came back to it a few days later and sliced it down one side in a wavy pattern so it it more likely to lock together more. I used my scalpel, and having to prize apart the rubber with my fingers (which as you can see is red and rubbery) it felt rather gross. I also ordered 4 kilos of plastimake today to make my 'mother mould' with. The mother mould will keep the floppy rubbery bit firm and in shape. A lot of people use plaster or fibre glass. I have made one with plaster, but with this size it becomes very heavy and somewhat fragile with man handling. Fibreglass on the other hand is light and strong but isn't allowed in our studio because we aren't equipped safety wise. However yet another offhand comment from Marcus made me think...yeah WHY don't I make it out of plastimake? We shall see...

chopped meat, watermelon?

This is my pile of cleaned chopped and drying PVC mould material (its reusable). I kept hoping that none of the scavenging birds around uni would mistake it for food!

Remaking the long branch mould

My last attempt at making a long branch rubber mould was a failure. After a chat with Marcus I decided on another method.
The idea is to pour the rubber around the entire object in one go then slice it open. This means entirely surrounding the branch and levitating it.  With a new microwave and electric stove top we just had enough heating power an volume to pour most of the mould in one go.

Branch held up with boards and screws
The beginning of the clay damming

branch inside completed clay dam

View of poured and set rubber

Kiln 15 set to go!

I have been furiously making moulds and kiln 15 is now full and set to go

Mould mash ups with Matt Perez - Day 3

Last night we were told to make a small wax object to cast, no bigger than one's clenched fist. As I was doing some other work on the computer, it was 11pm before I thought WAX! Yikes!
Here is a pic of my wax bird before it gets covered in plaster silica.

The whole class invested their objects, my invested bird looks rather cat like.

Invested bird

After the moulds were steamed, cleaned and filled with furnace glass frit, lunch was eaten before the coloured bullseye glass sheets were brought out. I think everyone else was pleased to see colour...in glass I find it overwhelming...unless I have an idea to go with it. Here are some of the designs put in the kiln by the class.