Tuesday, June 19
Today, Siegfried began a larger vessel of the same shape as the silver maple vessel, this one of box elder. He was shooting ribbons to the ceiling turning the very wet wood.
When he began deep hollowing of the vessel, he tried out the hollowing tool with the Stewart armbrace and Jean-François’s attachment. He says he enjoyed the experience, though he found himself switching back and forth between the tool and a heavy gouge. Yesterday, he tried out my Exocet tool. He regards trying new tools as one more of the opportunities afforded us by the ITE. So do I.
Sean gets tired of working on long, complicated projects, so today he decided to make a “fast” bowl from a cutoff. Here, he is already carving the foot. The photos below show the finished piece. Yes, the color is artificial.
I have begun thinking of Sean’s sculpture as our mascot. Here it is in its latest form.
Jean-François has finished his three ailanthus bowls. Here they are. He cannot quite hide the break in the first bowl, so he doesn’t yet know what to do with it.
Jean-François and Sean are collaborating on the oak sculpture for which Sean turned the pieces. Both are carving and texturing the pieces that will be joined for the final work. Here, Jean-François is using a Foredom to work (or not) on the disc that will be the base of the sculpture.
My large mulberry bowl exploded today. I had just turned up the speed, looked at the dial and thought, “That’s probably too fast,” and it blew up on me. The glue joint at the waste block gave way. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Sean took the largest pieces to use in one of his freeform sculptures. No, no photos of the explosion or its aftermath.
After picking up the pieces, I picked up a log of Cryptomeria japonica instead. Now, as it happens (thanks to Gus and the cosmos), I’ve gotten wood from three important species of Japanese trees here: this one, paulownia (kiri), and Japanese cypress (hinoki). This is also known as Japanese cedar, sugi in Japanese, and it is the national tree of Japan. Its earlywood and latewood differ greatly in density, so it is a perfect wood on which to use Jean-François’s texturing technique. Look at the texture I achieved using a wire brush in a drill. I applied the brush both with the piece turning and turning it manually. Jean-François showed me the trick of reversing the drill as needed to brush with the grain; for all you novices to this technique like me, this greatly reduces the fuzz inevitably raised by brushing.
Hey there Lynne and other ITE’rs. I’ve been loving the blog since I was the blogmistress last year for this residency and am so glad that you are posting daily so I can relive last summer vicariously. That was the best summer of my life and I hope it is for you all as well.
Anyhow, looking at the work you all have been making so far, I thought I’d remind you of some materials I left behind last year for future ITE’rs. A sewing machine, some Plastidip paint….hmmmm I can’t think of what else now. I’m issuing a formal challenge to your group to use one or both of these things, somehow, during your Philadelphia stint. Sorry…..I think I used up the glitter from a past resident or I would have suggested you use that too.
Don’t miss the opportunity to visit to the Nakashima house and workshop, Lynne. It was one of my favorite visits all summer. If you caught the recent series on craft on public television, they showed some of the grounds and Mira, who is the daughter of George Nakashima who is carrying on the tradition. She will give the ITE group the grand tour that most visitors don’t get. Don’t forget to say hi from me too!
Okay…carry on.
I shouldn’t tell you this, lest you insist we use it, but the glitter is still here. And when we found the sewing machine, we all went, “What?!” Now we know where it came from. But I’m not sure we know what you used it for . . . ?
I made a wall piece with sandpaper. It proved to be a bigger technical challenge than I’d anticipated, but I think Albertina own it now.
I’m so glad to hear there’s still glitter left! It took me the entire residency to figure out how to put that to use, but now that piece is in the collection of Marilyn Campbell. You’ll have to let her tell you what it is.