Latest Playthings...

Here are some of the materials Nicola has recently sent me. I am playing around with a few ideas - how to rust/affect each of them, composition, end use etc. Nicola has a great eye for delicate, lovely things...

Apologies for the darkness of the last pictures. I feel when edited, that they do not correctly represent the true colours of the handkerchiefs... They are beautifully fragile, so I am taking care in considering how to use them. I wonder who 'R' and 'E' are!?!

Will post some sketches soon! 

Chain Samples & Wire Mesh

This is the results of the handkerchief and paper clip chains after a period of time rusting. The photo actually doesn't show the orange tones very well - there is a lot more discolouring than is obvious in the picture. I like the results but I don't think the single chain is very effective. I like the volume produced by the small scraps of fabric and the different shades caused by the different degree of deterioration / rust on each safety pin and I think that the way to get the best result is to have a lot of chains together - perhaps all gathered together draping down maybe showing the different shades (unaffected, slightly rusted, extremely deteriorating.).

I spoke before about acting out ideas that arise from first viewing the items of Sara's parcels and this photo shows a quick experiment with one of the natural fabrics I was sent. The open weave of the fabric reminded me of mesh and I wanted to try weaving wire through the fabric to see if there would be any interesting results. I used silver as I happened to have lots of silver round wire at hand but it might be interesting to use different types of metal wire. I like the idea of silver woven through though as, again, there's a play on preciousness. The wire makes the fabric very malleable so there could be some great opportunities for shaping fabric into some interesting results. I also want to try some different destructive processes on the fabric to see changes in colour and if that will affect the strength or the ability to shape the fabric.