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!)

Progress

Wiring LEDs

Adding lasercut textiles

Go go go

Right now my desk looks like this.

This is some of my lasercut silk grass!

Lasercut silk grass

This is our lasercutter at work on silk.

Note bene: Iron fabric before cutting. The laser will be

more consistently focused.

Yum and Wow

The "Wow" is that I just planted cotton, and it has grown so much so quickly! I got the seeds from the cotton gin at Slater Mills in Pawtucket. Slater Mills is where the Industrial Revolution began in The Unites States, thus it's the oldest mill in America. Today it's a museum with tons of beautiful and functional old machinery.

"Yum" is because I juiced a lot of apples, and reduced the juice to a syrup. The syrup smelled like baked apples, my favorite smell!

I used the apple syrup to make a flan, in place of caramel.

I also made fresh rice milk

and gluten-free pancakes.

Electroluminescent wire

I received an order of EL wire today in the mail, and used it for the first time, which was pretty easy. It's appropriate and pleasing that half of their catalog photos are pictures taken at Burning Man. I intend to incorporate some EL wire into my diorama project, as well as use some for night biking visibility.

Popular Memories

I've been lately remembering elements of popular culture that deeply impressed me as a child. In no particular order they include:

"STYLE with Elsa Klensch" on CNN

Yogi Bear's early 1960s slang vocabulary

"Today's Special" and the idea that mannequins come alive when stores close

Cyndi Lauper's hair

the character of Claudia Kishi

the movie, Beetlejuice

"Voltron" and the idea of many individuals making a larger whole

John Waters' Hairspray

my mom singing Shel Silverstein songs

Jem dolls

the fanciness of Miss Piggy and feathery Fraggle hair

issues of VOGUE magazine from 1967

A new kind of poster!

Tonight, Thursday, the 20th of May, a lot of friends will be playing a show in Pawtucket at Machines with Magnets. I lasercut a poster for the show! The bold text is cut out, and the names of the bands are lightly etched because I want the viewer to be drawn in to see it, like a visual whisper.

The Big Fab Academy Project

That's what!

Follow this link to the longer post on the Fab Academy blog.

In the same direction

I lasercut silk for the first time. The pieces on the left began as a Chinese silk robe. The pieces on the right were polyester organza, which I lasercut and hand- painted.

I've been working on the chandelier component of my final project, and thinking about these older form studies.

Final Project Progress

I've been wiring lots of light- emitting diodes for the chandelier component of the diorama I'm making as my final project in the Fab Academy. It's due in two weeks, so I'll be working on it intensely to actualize all of my ideas.

Lasercut & airbrushed textiles and lampworked glass will be added to the lights. The larger diorama will include a lot of different components.

New York Weekend

I went to New York this past weekend for Mothers Day.

I also went to see Rebeca Raney's terrific opening. Throughout the duration of her show at the Union Gallery (359 Broadway, 3rd floor) she will be making 1000 drawings!

Another attraction was the overwhelming ITP show: The Tisch School of the Arts at New York University has a two- year graduate program known as ITP, which stands for Interactive Telecommunications Program. I'll be blogging thoroughly about this for the Fab Lab, but here is an example of one cool project that I saw there:

http://www.shaharzaks.com/scans/?id=10154628

You can interact with the data if you follow the link and play with the

sliding controls on the top left.

Providence Art Windows

I'm trying to sneak up on you.

Today I found out that I've been selected to do an installation for Providence Art Windows! I will be filling a storefront window downtown with a sculptural installation. It will be displayed from June 15th until September 11th, and it will definitely involve lasercut textile & flameworked glass plant forms.

Mikey also got the great news that he'll be doing a window, too!

I'm going to New York for Mother's Day. (Shouldn't it be punctuated "Mothers' Day"?)

I apologize for my longest absence yet from posting since I began this "web log." You know, it's nice outside and friends are always visiting and there's so much good food to cook and share.

Today I spent 2 hours at the Rhode Island State House (our capitol building) attending a meeting of the House Finance Committee as people testified against Governor Carcieri's proposal to cut RISCA's budget by an unthinkable and potentially disastrous fifty percent! The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts is the same organization that awarded me the Fellowship of Craft so I will forever be thankful, and eager to defend them!

Servo motor mosh

I attached a doll head that I sculpted (with flameworked

glass eyes) to a servo motor. This will be part of a larger

diorama of dancing automatons that I'm working on.

This clip is very brief because I recorded it on a computer

in the lab. This computer is so stuffed that it doesn't have

the processing power to record something longer than

about 7 seconds.

Still recovering

Tragically, the parking lot looks like Wolf Myrow threw up. Figuratively speaking, it's still ill.

The tenants of the first floor are continuing to clean out, even though nearly a month has passed since the flooding happened. Power still hasn't been restored to some buildings in the complex.

Businesses have had to throw away millions of dollars worth of merchandise that was covered in chemical sludge- sewage- riverwater.

Moira and Gareth

Today Moira and Gareth had an intimate marriage ceremony at city hall!

It was beautiful and joyous. A lot of people showed up, considering the short notice. There was even rice (which I wanted to throw in the elevator, but I waited until we were outside.)

Congratulations!

Sewing with LEDs

LED stands for "light- emitting diode". I recently made some copper jump rings and soldered them to surface- mount LEDs to produce lights that can be sewn onto textiles, using conductive thread. I was inspired by Leah Buechley's article in the first issue of Craftzine.

I removed some insulation from a copper wire and coiled the metal into a spiral around the shaft of a tiny screwdriver.

I careully snipped through the wires of the coil to create individual jump rings.

I flattened the copper rings with pliers and soldered them to the sides of the LEDs.

More soon!

Servo

Last week I stuffed this bare bones Arduino board and programmed it to oscillate. I plan to use it to make a puppet dance (or mosh.)

Laptop case

I made a case for a little netbook from a thick, old winter kimono that I got in Japan.

Teaching in June

I'll be teaching this class at AS220's Fab Lab in Providence on Sunday, June 13th and Sunday, June 20th from 1-6 P.M. It's not yet in the class schedule online but it will be soon!

Lasercutting Textiles

Learn how to lasercut textiles! This machine enables entirely new possibilities from easily cutting pattern pieces (within 1' x 2' dimensions) to creating new textures, functional decorations, dimensional objects, and even etching images or text onto fabric! We can work with both synthetic and natural fibers (both plant fibers and animal fibers.) Some materials will be provided, and you can bring in your own fabrics. This class will also include sewing tutorials for lasercut textile applications. Different techniques will be demonstrated and experimenting will be encouraged!

Alixa and Naima

You should know about this powerhouse duo of inspiring and amazing brilliance.

Naima and Alixa perform as Climbing PoeTree.

Providence has been lucky to have them for three days, and I've been enjoying their company for sure!

Small piles of color

Gil surprised me by showing up in Rhode Island, a few minutes after convincing me that he was asleep in New York. I love surprises.

Above is a picture that Gil took today of the new "pothole" on the side of the building-- more damage from the flood. I am in the picture for scale.

While displaced I spent a lot of time in the lab, lasercutting fabrics.

This is what my studio desk looks like right now. I'm working on more form and material studies for a few projects: I just found out that I'll be having a solo show at the Houston Center for Contemporary Crafts (next January through March) and I'm working on a new puppet show that I'll perform in Providence on April 28th at Mars Gas with Los Caballos de Dusseldorf (they're actually from Barcelona) as well as a puppet show by Moira Brady!

A dress

As I was getting over illness while still displaced, I spent a lot of time in the lab. One night I made a dress, including the pattern!

I had this koi print fabric for a while, but I was waiting for a project that could really showcase the scale of the pattern. I began with an existing dress that fit me well, and I made a paper pattern by tracing the panels of the constructed dress onto paper. I cut out those paper pieces and pinned them to the fabric, taking into consideration the fabric's grain and print when deciding the orientation of pinned pieces.

Two important steps in sewing with woven fabrics: clip the seams about a quarter of an inch where they curve, and iron the seams open to see the true shape of the garment.

My maternal grandmother was a professional seamstress, and she taught me how to sew when i was five years old! Thanks, Lola!

Aftermath

The power was finally restored and we've been allowed back in the building!

The waterfall usually looks like the picture above. Notice how low the river is.

I took the photo above on April 31st after the water had gone down a lot. The day before the water covered the land on both sides of the river.

The river should not cover the electrical transformers.

Flooding in the basement. The two images above came from the Atlantic Mills facebook page.

A fleamarket will happen in the parking lot tomorrow with the few vendors who didn't lose everything. Here a family tries to clean and salvage some of their inventory.

It's a good thing I'm accustomed to being away for days at a time. I'm lucky that the Artist- in- Residence room at AS220 is currently vacant, so I can stay there for the few more days before I (supposedly) get to return to my building.

Not yet

Almost all of the large industrial buildings in my neighborhood housed jewelry companies within the past few decades. Many basements stil contain large vats of chemicals for plating and polishing metals. Cyanide was definitely a popular one. The neighborhood air now wafts caustic.

According to FEMA laws, if floodwaters contact any part of a building's electrical system those components must be replaced because chemicals in the water could cause an electrical fire.

Because the river flowed high into the entire basement all of the conduit, outlets, breaker boxes, transformers, et cetera need to be replaced.

We're still not allowed back in our studio. This is being typed from outside of the RISD Library as this building has been evacuated for a fire alarm and there are now four trucks outside. It's impressive how quickly all responders arrived, and hopefully this is just a false alarm. I love that I can borrow a laptop from the RISD Library.

Still out

I'm not back yet, but at least now I look more like a Thundercat.

Flooded out

We're still not allowed to return to our building, but at least I felt well enough to go into the lab today!

Who knew these definitions? flooded out

Evacuated!

I had gone to New York to spend holidays with my family. I got pretty sick and had a lot of trouble breathing (I have very sensitive asthma.) Through all the rain, my building in Rhode Island flooded and was evacuated. I'm feeling better now, but we still haven't been allowed back in yet.