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!)

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!