Brainstorm

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Em's Beaded Curtain

I made my own beaded curtain from pom poms and buttons. I used scrap wool to make random pom poms and recycled buttons all from op shops.

Other door curtain ideas:

Buttons!

Ribbon and beads

Macrame

Macrame curtain- love this!

Check out more macrame on my macrame post.

'Wave"- Bottle tops- and other curtains made from bottle tops

Paper magazine beads

There are some incredible and interesting artists who create ite-specific sculptures and land art with nature as their medium. The use of sand, rocks, leaves, ice etc, which eventually are moved or erased with wind, water and weather. Photography is of course an important part of the art process, as the sculptures are so temporary.

Andy Goldsworthy's site specific environmental works use rocks, leaves, sticks, ice, snow to alter the environment, commenting on how we affect the environment. He then photographs them. "Each work grows, stays, decays – integral parts of a cycle which the photograph shows at its heights... Process and decay are implicit."

Andy Goldsworthy

Jim Denevan creates large temporary geometric drawings on sand, earth, and ice that are eventually erased:

Jim Denevan

Andres Amador arts is another artist with a similar concept, using local natural materials that eventually dissolve back into nature. He calls himself a Earthscape artist. He is best known for creating large-scale artworks across the landscape, especially on beaches across the world.

Andres Amador

Simon Beck is another similar artist who walks around in snowshoes to create geometric patterns in the snow. Taking hours to create the huge designs, he uses a compass and other aids to finish the mathematical masterpieces that can even sometimes look 3D when viewed from above.

Simon Beck

Calvin Seibert also uses the temporality of nature to create his geometric and architectural sand castles.

Calvin Seibert

Michael Grab balances rocks as a meditative artistic phenomena in his stone balancing Gravity Glue;

"The process boils down to contemplative vertical stone arrangement; involving patience, problem-solving, critical thinking, adaptation, slow-breathing, steady hands, and a host of other practiced skills… Gravity is the only “Glue” that holds these structures in equilibrium."

Michael Grab

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Em's magazine beads

Afri Beads made from recycled magazines by women in Uganda to help them send their children to school.
I have tried to get a hold of Afribeads without much prevail. But have had success in making my own beads from magazines and PVA glue. They are really strong and using a whole page of similar colours creates a great coloured necklace/bracelet. The key is to find pages from magazines that are mainly one colour but with writing etc. to create interest. The necklaces I have made have been 2-3 pages, usually using two colours and two different sized beads. I then cut the page into long triangles (see diagram) and use a skewer to roll them around covering in PVA glue. It is quite time consuming with the hardest part being getting off the stick. I found spraying some oil on before hand helped the bead slide off. They didn't last being made with PVA. If I did it again I would need to use a different glue or cover with some type of water protectant.

They have all been gifts so I haven't got photos for all of them. These are the two latest ones I have made. It takes a fair while to complete them, however I am definitely getting faster.

My own magazine beads!

Pattern for other shaped beads

How to make magazine beads
How to make a recycled magazine bowl.

Paper mache style beads

On the topic of recycled eco jewelry, these bangles made from magazine scraps wrapped around a wooden base..

Em's Clay Creatures

Teaching year 8 and 11 clay gave me access and time to use art supplies to make some clay creations. My year 8 Art class made clay fish, so I made some examples during the holidays. The kids loved them. I got them to draw a cartoon style characterised fish after they had already sketched real fish. We spoke about exaggerating the fish features and giving them human characteristics.

Blue fish: I made this as a sample at home to show the kids and gave a painting demonstration with it too. I then painted over it at home. After varnishing it the colours went darker so here is it before and after:

Pink fish: I made at home as a sample to show bringing human characteristics into a fish.

Yellow Fish: This is the fish I made as I demonstrated to the kids step by step and they followed along.

Gnome: My year 11 art class was also doing clay so I made this gnome as a sample.

My student's fish: Before firing and at our school art exhibition.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Em's Suffolk Puff dress

I love making clothes from recycled materials or crafty styles (crochet, doilies etc). I made a suffolk puff (or yo-yo) dress. It took me a year and a half to sew all the suffolk puffs one by one. I raided my Mother-In-Law's extensive patchwork fabric stash to cut circles from all different cotton pattern fabrics to make suffolk puffs without doubling up on the fabric! She now has circles cut out of a lot of her fabrics. I sewed them onto a nightie/under dress. I wore it to the races, and got a lot of comments on the day but haven't had a chance to wear it again.