Glass Robot and Sculpted Glass Heads

Terrific!

My friend, a student I had been mentoring, received some tickets to Gogol Bordello as her high school graduation gift. Tonight we went to the show, and it was so much fun!

I finished making bilingual signs for the community garden, the kiln is full of glass, and I feel great.

Oh, and of course- my tiny jointed glass robot was featured on BOING BOING, which is one of the most popular blogs in the entire world!! Huzzah!

Elsewhere on the innernerd

Waiting outside of the taxi garage

I finally added some work to my etsy shop, mostly bigger pieces. More smaller pieces will soon follow. Also, I put some new pictures up in my flickr account.

Textile hair

I love exploring these possibilities.

Diandre Fuentes approached me to be my apprentice, and I really appreciate her help. We lasercut this fabric and gathered the strips by hand. I made them into this wig- like cap by hand- sewing the gradients of color to a fabric base. I usually do every single thing myself, but I'm prepping a lot now for bigger pieces and Diandre's help is wonderful!

Women on Money

Hanging out at the door at a show

Downtown Providence

A number of storefronts in downtown Providence participate in a program called Providence Art Windows. Every three months, twelve people are selected to do installations. Pictured above is my installation-- 120 forms of lasercut textiles and flameworked glass. This will be up until mid- September at 201 Westminster Street.

The First Fab Academy

This our class in Providence, the first class of MIT's Fab Academy in the pilot year of the program. Click to enlarge, from left: our local teacher, Shawn Wallace, the photographer of this image, Elliot Clapp, Makeda's younger brother, Jemuel, Anna Kaziunas- France, Makeda Stephenson (blurred), me, and Noah Bedford. Anna joined halfway through and caught up amazingly fast. Makeda and Noah were both 17 when they started, and Makeda commuted from Boston 3 times a week. This picture was taken the morning that our final projects were due, and I had not slept at all the night before.

The way I feel looks like this; that's why I make these things.

I feel like I am the luckiest person I know.

Thank you for being.

A little artist statement

I'm frustrated by the inescapable theme of "Humans vs. Nature." To tolerate it, I have to find humor in the inanity of this idea, and its failure to recognize humans as nature. Though it might be possible for people or other animals to survive in mostly- synthesized environs, such a state of existence would be an artificial life.

The most inspiring works I've witnessed have all been naturally- occurring ones. I aim to make things that reflect my respect and awe for the natural world, my quiet sadness for its/ our uncertain future, and the irony of humans trying to control and recreate nature itself in artwork that can only strive to be as beautiful as authentic life.

A lot of my work is also inspired by math that I find in nature.

I wrote out this multiplication table and found cool patterns.

Studio Photos

Gisel Florez also photographed my studio in Rhode Island. Above are some screenprinted posters and drawings by me, Mat Brinkman, Brian Chippendale, Lisa Hanawalt, Paul Lyons, Caroline Paquita, and Rebeca Raney.

Additionally above are Merrilee Challiss, Liz Harris, and Xander Marro.

The painting on the top right is by Alex Schloss. I don't know who made the two prints in the middle. The name on one is in Russian and the name on the other is in Japanese.

My often- messy desk

More from Gisel Florez

Thanks again to Gisel Florez for these terrific photographs of my work!

Above, flameworked glass, silk, nylon-coated steel cable


flameworked glass, sterling silver, wool felt, computer cable, nylon-coated steel cable


flameworked glass, sterling silver, nylon-coated steel cable


hand sculpted cernit, pearls, trochus shells, flameworked glass, sterling silver, acrylic paint, nylon-coated steel cable

In New York

I flameworked this tiny jointed robot in Pyrex glass. It's about 3 inches tall.

My friend, Gisel Florez is an AMAZING photographer, and today I was so privileged to have her photograph some of my work! Check out her beautifiul website!

I made these Pyrex glass chains. I flameworked each link individually, by hand.

I also went to the Renegade Craft Fair in McCarren Park in Brooklyn. There were so many vendors and a farmers market, too. Follow the previous links to see who sold there.

Potentially dangerous in many forms

I built nunchaku (nunchucks) from plastic bags. The "chain" is made from twined fruit bags (the kind that you find on a roll in the produce department.) The handles are thermoformed shopping bags, which became very dense and hard when the many layers of plastic were laminated together.

I made the ends of the handles into two types of flowers: a rose on one side because this flower was originally printed on the shopping bags, and a ginger flower on the other side because I enjoy the form.

This isn't the huge project that I intended to make, but beginning progress on that looks like this:

It took me years to save all these colors!

Upcycling

I've been collecting colorful plastic bags for several years. I like to execute textile techniques in plastic, and make utilitarian things like rope. I've been waiting a long time to use many of the bags in one project. This week I'll finish an entry for an upcycling contest (among doing many other things!)