Friday 26 July 2013

Sculptures 2 of 2

My first attempt at a sculpture was not so successful. I took a large sheet of white card , cut some curved and some straight lines on it with my craft knife and then connected edges together using staples and double sided tape. It looked OK to begin with but keep unravelling itself and collapsing . So I began again. Same idea but now on smaller sheets of thick cartridge paper and using staples instead of tape.

This is more successful I think. The disadvantage of the staples is that they are quite visible, but the advantage is my sculptures are likely to look the same tomorrow as today.

Photographing them is also a challenge for me. White sculpture on white background, gave my a kind of grayish cream blob of a photograph. I am advised this is all to do with the white balance , and a complex colour averaging that our sophisticated cameras perform without us knowing. So I looked up my camera instructions and tried to override the averaging then turned them into black and white. It's not perfect but here my white on white sculptures.

 

Next in this complex process is to draw the sculptures and draw the photographs I made of the sculptures. If you are still following this story you might be wondering the purpose of all this. I think it's purpose is to help me develop good designs for three dimensional objects. I am keen to be able to make better three dimensional felts so I am sticking with it.

So finally I draw my sculptures .

Overall an interesting exercise . Finally here's another interesting living sculpture from the Kroller muller park.

I wonder how many years it will take for the tree to fill the hole in the hammerhead

 

 

Thursday 18 July 2013

Sculptures 1 of 2

Once I would have never really looked at a sculpture, I'd have walked past with hardly a glance. I think I was missing something. I have realized this as for my last assignment I have had to look at bit more closely in order to draw some.

Where to go ? Well the Kroller Muller museum in the Netherlands is the obviously place. This collection was started by Helene Kroller Muller and contains many Van Gogh's . In 1935 she donated the whole Art collection to the Netherlands. In 1966 a sculpture park was added to the musuem. The especially nice part about it is that you can't drive but have to pick up a white bike and cycle to the museum.

So I needed to draw some sculptures. What a challenge. To sit and draw in public and then to make something recognizable , well maybe.

I browsed around a bit , there are many sculptures , old and also quite new, by people I have heard of and people I haven't.

I particularly liked this one by Barbara Heywood, I liked the way it draws your eye into the vista behind.

Here is my attempt to draw it from the back as I needed to sit in the shade you can see in the photo above.

I also really liked this one by Sorel Etrog. It's is called "complexes of a young women " and I think this title really describes what I see when I look at it.

I tried sketching this too. I hope I captured at least some of the complexes.

Next I have to try my hand at making my own sculptures, photographing them and drawing them. That's going to be fun.

 

Monday 8 July 2013

Wild at Woolfest?

One year on , I returned to woolfest. No longer a newbie.

I was far less wild the the previous year, not wild at all in fact. I did not buy a fleece , as I still have loads left of last years, and I did not have to make numerous trips through the rain to store my purchases. Even more bizarrely I did not even buy any knitting wool, just some needles. What has happened to me?

I did buy some Gotland fibre , as I tried a sample last year and liked it so I need more for the dark dismal tree picture I have in my head. I hope there is enough.

I bought some yarns and fibres to dye.

After a great demonstartion by classic carders of a way of making fibres mixes I was treated for my birthday to a finishing brush for my machine.

 

It's resting on a small wooden felting block I want to try out.

Not much colour at all in these purchases. But I did splash out and got some dyed silks ---maybe for a water related item.

I really enjoyed the whole atmosphere and many many stalls.

Here is the Artybird stand with my Shyrdak on display , alongside some other wonderful items.

Here is Kate enthusiastically demonstrating in front of Paula's wedding rug.

So not a wild day just a wooly day!