Studio Saturday

Welcome to my weekly update on my studio classes at school. I'm a bit tired so I'm going to make this brief.

Our first sculpture was due for critique. Last week I shared my ant's body. Well I finished the rest of it in class on Monday. My concept behind this sculpture is how mankind functions like a community of ants. I used the toy cars and images of houses to represent the human community. I like it better without all of that but just the ant didn't express my idea too well.

Upon completion of this project I have crossed off (re)learning to weld from my Crafty Bucket List to the right. I remembered why I never stuck with it. I just don't have the patience.

I missed a day of painting this week because of being so tired. My eyes wouldn't open more than halfway and I was basically a zombie. Not a good thing at all, though it's not that good that I missed another day of class. The one day I did attend (we only have class twice a week) we made supports for canvas and had a demo in the wood shop. I've already been through it but it as required to attend anyway. No photos of that because I'm sure you know what a stretched canvas on wood looks like.

I played around more with cyanotypes for photography. For these I didn't yet have my contact frame so they aren't as clear as they will be with that tool.

These two are more like photograms, where you place objects on top of a photographic paper and then expose them. In this case, I used a pair of scissors and a random half gear thing I found on Chad's brother's farm.

I also tried exposing on bass wood. This didn't work as well because the wood absorbed most of the solution. If I were to do it again, the wood would have to be sized.

And this is what happens when playing with household chemicals to see if they will tone the print. I found some Lysol cleaner under the sink (active ingredient is lactic acid) and sprayed it on the paper. It did turn a brilliant turquiose and there was an image there. After drying the image was gone and the print turned this blue. Good thing I have a use for this in other work.

The weather has been putting a damper on printing though. Since cyanotypes need ultraviolet light, having the sun shine is essential. But it's been overcast and foggy most of the week through today. It's supposed to go away tomorrow though, which will give me time to expose the prints for my final project on cyanotypes before watching the Super Bowl. As much as I love football, I am happy to see this season over and for racing to start in a couple weeks.

I took some photos yesterday and today of the one thing I love about winter: hoarfrost. Yes, the fog is essential for this, so it's not all bad. I do like it more when it's early in the morning and the sun is rising, the sky is a beautiful ice blue and everything is quiet. Because of the overcast sky, the hoarfrost has stayed all day long instead of disappearing by afternoon.

See, white on white on white!

These last ones are with my new camera. I went with a Sony again because then I could use the same memory card and it is a point and shoot, which I will use more than a DSLR. So far I'm pleased with and have been playing with the panoramic setting. Thank you for your camera insights!

This is a view of the Red River, which seperates Minnesota from North Dakota. It's hard to see the banks because of the snow, but it's there.

Ok, so that was longer than I thought it would be. Hope your weekend is going well. I have more things to share with you tomorrow. See you then!