Construction Series

I 've finished the second in this series on the demolition in my house, and there still seems to be more percolating around in brain, so I have a third piece up on my design wall.  I'm running out of the background fabric so I may switch gears.  I also think I want to go bigger, in fact I ordered three 12 x 36 inch canvases from Dick Blick, and I'm thinking about making a tryptich.  I've never done this before where they are seemingly connected, so I'm thinking about either making one big piece and cutting it up, or cutting the fabric beforehand and making sure the pieces all flow together.

Terry at http://studio24-7.blogspot.com/ asked me to explain how I mount these on canvas.  I can't remember where I learned this, and I don't even know if it is the "correct" way of doing things, but it works for me. 

The first thing I do when I know I'm going to wrap a piece around canvas is try to stop stitching where the edge will be, as I want to avoid wrapping the felt batting I use around the edge.  This just makes it really bulky to work with and I can't get clean edges. When I have a piece with a straight edge on the front, that would look "off" if it didn't line up, I pin the piece on the side first to hold the straight line in place.

  This has been a problem for me in the past, as when I staple, I tend to pull it tight, and sometimes that throws the line out of whack. When I have one side lined up, I start by stapling the opposite side from the center, working to the edges.  I then go back to the pinned side and secure it down with staples.  After this, I finish off with the top and bottom.

For the edges, I do a fold into the corner,

Then a second fold to parallel the edge. 

This gets stapled down and to finish the piece off I staple a piece of fabric with the edges turned under to the back covering up my first staples.  I will usually sew the label to this before I attach it.  I then put in the same hanging method you would use for a picture.

Big Beam

Yesterday the workmen brought in a 30 foot steel beam.  It was supposed to go by crane over the top of the house which would have been so cool.  Instead, they brought it in from the side street, which was also cool, but not as much. My husband Ted took about a thousand pictures of this.  I took two. 

 

Then I started looking at the detail.  To me it's way more interesting.

Construction continued

The guys working on my house are so clean and tidy, I have to really look for messy photos to take. I don't think they understand this artists need for disorder(at least until the photo is taken.

When they leveled the back of the house yesterday, I was left with some cracks in the grout in my bathroom and splits in the drywall, but hopefully the shower pan is intact, we won't know that for a few days. 

Tomorrow they are lifting a 30 foot long beam over the house with a crane, which I think will be the most fun part of the whole addition!.  Lots of photo ops happening.

This is some of the fabric I dug up to play with.  The three background pieces are something I made in a Claire Benn, Leslie Morgan class last year and never thought I'd use. Glad I kept it.

Making art where you see it

We are doing a remodel here, moving the back of the 2 story house out to expand the kitchen, family room, and two upstairs bedrooms.  Since the kitchen had been demolished, we have moved a temporary kitchen into the dining room, living with a microwave, toaster oven and fridge. 

No sink, but we are getting used to paper products. I seem to be needed for endless discussions about when to do what, and how do I feel about crooked beam, and by the way if we straighten it, the bathroom tile will crack.  OK. So I'm hanging out here at home, and to stay out of the way, I'm hanging out in my art room, and amazingly, I'm making lots of art.  I have no excuse not to. 

 I started photographing some of the stacks and piles, and I'm sorting through my fabric, finding loads of stuff that looks like construction.

  I also started putting some fabric out to be rusted.  I did this over a two week period and and now have it just about where I want it to be.

I've made one piece, for a show I'll be in soon, and will show it to you as soon as I'm allowed. And now I'm starting on a series, as I have so much to say about this, and lots of time to say it.