Wed/Thursday Week 2

Wednesday, except for my part time data entry job which is far too boring to talk about, was taken up with chore that had nothing to do with AA2A.

Today, however.....

I finally solved my problems with the weave, and the solution fit something I was already thinking about and had tried unsuccessfully. I chose a weave with a good texture for the fibers that will be left after the burn out, a form of waffle weave. The design process was based on the idea of every other thread being a burn-out thread, though actually the burnout thread will go from 6 of 20 to 14 of 20 warps (and wefts) over 144 threads and them baci to 6 of 20 with the other non-burn-out fiber. It works with straight draw on the loom for each fiber. Then I played with the burn-out, dye-differently threads to produce an interesting pattern after the dyeing. I was very pleased to be able to make this pattern a sort of variation on a shadow weave. I had wanted to do a shadow weave, but had trouble making it work going straight from the shadow weaves in a book I had.

To work it out took the whole time before I went to work, but it was well worth it. Made my day.

Now I'm really ready to start when the yarns come in, which should be soon.

Oh, and one more thing, I just happened to walk by a theater today and there was a guy outside raking leaves. I stopped to look at the classes postings hoping there might be something related to costuming, and we started talking. The end of it is that I will come to see the head of costumes when he comes back from holiday next Monday. Reminded me I have to follow through on my other volunteer endeavors at the cathedral embroidering, and making a coif for a historical building reproduction room. If I could only get some work like these that came with money, I'd be so happy.

Mon/Tues Week 2

Yes, I forgot last night.

Yesterday morning, I visited the career office to get advice on how to get a job in the arts in East Anglia. It was a good idea. I'll need tp put together at least two new CV's, one focusing on my publishing experience, and one on my art events experience. I also need to take classes in building a website and in Quark. A couple of new websites I haven't been following were suggested along with the UEA career center, which appears to have a sort of informal reciprocal relationship with NSAD's.

I also looked through the selection of yarns on hand, the ones that were a plant base wrapping a man-made, since it looks like my order may take a while to get here. I'm also thinking of crocheting some leaves with this material, using a wire armature support. Wonder if anyone has ever done a leaf with realistic veins about three feet across, with burn-our red-orange-golds?

I am continuing to read the book on marketing, a little bit at a time so it will sink in. My notes say I need to pay more attention to presentation. I'm thinking of some simple origami boxes made from a cheap, but classy, roll of wallpaper, and a classy card, which is really the first thing I need, and I should be carrying them around, NOW! But it's so hard to think up a card that really gives a good clue as to what kind of thing I am likely to do. I think it should include a photo of some work, but which? I should also be keeping a list of contacts to be notified of shows and such.

And today: I showed a friend around the school who wants to apply for the program next year. Through her I discovered that I can have screens made for me by simply leaving the screen design in the right place. Ah, the luxury.

I read more of the marketing book. Not much that struck me, though, except tieing an exhibit to a another event. I'm toying with the idea of an exhibit based on my idea of medals to be awarded for wounds in the war between the sexes. And then place the show at places that singles gather, even work with a singles organization of some sort for sponsorship and have the opening be a singles event. Maybe I did absorb something.

By the way, those crocheted leaves? I'll start by making small leaves and make a larger one if that works. Then the idea is to create a "fabric out of the leaves.

And last but best, but first worse, after repeatedly working with established weaves and not being happy with both before and after burn-out effects, I'm trying starting with a particular textured weave and then ADDING the second fiber in between, choosing it's path for the ability to obscure the weave that will appear when it is burnt out. After, waffle; before I don't have worked out yet.

Weekend

Today, as I was walking home from my tutoring gig, I noticed the autumn leaves. Well, doesn't every artist? But it was near sundown, and I noticed something new. Everybody talks about how the greens turn to yellows, oranges, and reds, but have you noticed that the leaves also go from basically opaque to translucent? Translucent! Like a burn-out fabric after the burn-out. So now, I have to do a burnout fabric, probably knitting a polyester wound round with cotton, painting the poly in yellows, oranges, and reds,dying the cotton a green that will cover them, and burning out to reveal the under colors, just like happens in the leaves.

Day 5

End of the first week. Since I won't be going in to the school over the weekend, I may not be posting. But that does not mean that I won't be working on following up all the resources I have discovered this week.

Today was a good day. A woman appeared with yarn to sell at the workshop. Turned out she was a grad student in the area of "textile culture". I had seen that you could get an MA in that, but didn't really understand what it was, really. Still don't. But I now know more than I did and I know that to do the degree part time would not cost a huge amount (thogh twice what a year at the Fashion Insittute of Technology did) and would only take one day a week, so could be done while still working. (Totally impossible with the one-year program at FIT which had me working dawn to midnight six days a week or more.)

She works in environmental textiles, choosing purposefully materials that degrade. I got to thinking about that. One thing I know in relation to women's artwork versus men's artwork is that there is less of women's work in museums. And that's partly because women tend to make useful things that are meant to "give" when in contact with the human body. They wear, not the body, and eventually wear out. So there is just less remaining of women's art of a given period.

The result of this thinking for me is that I now have a reason for working with non-degradable materials, because I want my artwork to be around for a good long while. It's a good reason to work in silk, which lasts for a long time, but even silk degrades. I may do some research on what materials a fiber artist could work in that would last the longest.

I also looked at some magazines and found some great resources that I want to track down on the web: www.twistedthread.com, which will be at the Knit and Stitch show this weekend. Wish I was going, but I don't dare. I could spend an absolute fortune at such a show.

I read about a company called Cred that specializes in ethical jewelry materials.

And I finally figured out an interesting way to use something I've been fanacizing about using for some time. You know those light-conducting fibers? Well, I want to use them in a fabric as well as a yarn treated with light-reactive dye. then input light and see what happens.

Day 4

Concept of the day, camoflage, as in the way that animal's skin, fur, scales work. The two weaves I have tried, on paper, so far are a weave that resembles zebra stripes and one that resembles fish scales.

I'm a bit disappointed, so far, in the amount of interaction I've had with others at the school. I've been the initiator every time, and only once has the person talked to me afterward. I understand because they have classes with one another and are bound to interact and be aware of each other's projects, and also because they are Brits who do tend to be slow at connecting. Today I ate at the school cafeteria, hoping that someone would come and share my table. There do seem to be a good number of, let's say grown-ups, around.

I got a chance to run my idea past a friend who is an artist today and it was well-received, understood right away. She's going to apply for the AA2A next year.

Now, i may get repetitive here, but I don't remember whether I wrote about this or not, so I'm going to add it. I'm not looking back before I do each day's posting, because I want each day's impressions to have to do with that day. Yesterday, one of the students was working with a knitting machine, combining yarn and wire, and acheiving a scuptable fabric. Intriguing. She was also workin with raw linen, laying it in as you might any other kind of roving, and getting a furry fabric. Wit the wire, you would have scuptable, light-weight, "fur". That and the iron on foils that were going up on the board are sticking in my mind. I can't quite imagine how they would fit into this project, unless I used the foil as a resist, but I will have my notes to remind me of the possibilities afterwards.

Day 3

Following up on the Donovan song, I did the math for my warp variegated fiber-wise and put in the order for my yarns. That uses up about half of my materials grant, which seems about right.

I began reading one of the marketing books I got in the library. It's not going to be an easy subject for me, but I hope if I read it slow, it will sink in, especially since I'm taking notes.

I got an e-mail from the head of the school's career center telling me about their website with all kinds of information and inviting me to drop in. To access the website, I had to visit the IT department and get a sign on and password. Tonight, I checked it out. It would have taken me months and months to track down all the information. There were even some jobs I can apply for immediately.

I also took a broadsheet for an opportunity in London at Alternative Fashion Week. It's in March and I would like to put together a booth's worth of stuff, perhaps with Denise, by then.

And last, I stopped in the library and looked at Fiberarts magazine. Nothing stuck with me in particular, but I think I was going over it too fast.

Got to go. I'm wearing myself out with these intense days.

Day 2

Today I chose my yarns. I need yarns that are as thin as possible in order that the plant fibers can be burnt out, but they must also be strong enough to serve as warp threads in weaving. I will be using wool, cotton, silk, and linen to begin with. I calculate that it will cost about £75 for a 5 yard 24 inch warp. This is my chance to use silk, which may not happen again soon because it is so expensive.
I also spent some time in the library choosing books on marketing and shibori tie dyeing.
The project is beginningto take form in my mind. An old Donovan song was running through my head "First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is." and "Caterpillar sheds his skin to find a butterfly within." It's related to the project. What I want to accomplish is to share the magic of a plain white cloth being dyed and a pattern emerging because of the differend dyeing characteristics of the fibers and their different vulnerability to burn-out. I want to see changes in the texture of the woven pattern of the cloth. And I want to see the differences in the texture of the fibers "rise out" from a cloth that includes two different fibers.
I'm now thinking of a warp graduated across. Silk to cotton to wool to linen to silk. And then maybe copy that arrangement in the weft.
Just having the time devoted to art is improving matters as well. The time gave me the opportunity to see an article about an Anglian group of artists who are all 49 or over. This resonates with me because I see so many opportunities for young people that are at the same point in their UK art careers as I am, only I'm 54 and a new immigrant.

Day 1

Two Mondays ago, the four of us who had been selected for the Artists Access to Art Schools program at the Norwich School of Art and Design met with the school officials overseeing the program. We were a sculptor, two print makers, and me, a textile artist. The other three were allumnae of the school. Not me. I'm told it's unusual to have such a preponderance of alumnae. We were given the door cards that give us access to the school, taken on a brief tour, and left at the workshops of our respective departments.

The program is sort of like a mini-residency. It comes with no money except for an allowance for materials, but you have full access to any and all equipment you need to do your project for 100 hours. You have access to the library. You can eat at the school cafe. You have a grand opportunity to network with a lot of other artists. And in the end, there's a website with some of the work you did while in the program and a link to your website, assuming you have one.

I've been working my way through A-N magazine's (www.a-n.co.uk) development toolkit. It helps you "do an inventory" of the way you practise your art and figure out where you are coming out short, so you know where to put your efforts. I'm short on networking, on taking advantage of new technologies, on knowing my audience and marketing to it, and on letting myself brainstorm and produce freely.

Basically, when it comes to the last, I do too much rejecting of ideas because I don't see how they can lead to something that will be saleable. I'm scared to death I'll waste materials even though I have a room full of them in my home, some of which I've had for many years. And I manage to do this to myself even though when I have let myself do pieces just because i loved the idea of them without considering whether they would sell or not, the results have been good. Once, after a bad breakup of a relationship, I turned out a series of shield-shaped brooches and pendants based on the idea of a "purple heart", awarded for wounds and bruises (purple) suffered in the war between the sexes. They sold in short order. Another time, when I was working with polymer clay, I made a millefiori cane of the hard eye of Newt Gingrich, thinking of it as producing "Eye (of Newt [Gingrich]) Artist's Protective Amulet", because he had tried to take every penny out of the US government's budget for arts. (He was soon brought down, hard. I take credit. Artists loved them.)

I can only give a few minutes to this blog per day, if I even manage that. But part of the idea of the thing is for the artist to be a sort of "Exhibit A: Artist at Work" for the students. When it occurred to me to keep a journal of the e xperience, it seemed like a good idea. I'm pretty sure I will always think it a good idea, even if I don't have time because I have to somehow bring some money into the family while I do the "residency". I hope it proves useful to someone.