iarc: year 4.: 2014

so in cube class (as i've affectionately renamed it), we've now worked with cement and acrylic as well.
we had to cast and clad cement cubes

made a mold to cast into

mixed concrete

poured into mold

removed from mold after a few days

mixed cement to clad with (concrete proved to be difficult to clad...very difficult)

dried cement clad cube! concrete attempts behind it...

we also had to make an acrylic cube using the laser cutter and joining our sides in at least 3 different ways

top view

made small rope hinges for the top

used a finger joint for one side

made small slits to tie string through on another

cut slits for brads on this corner and wove some string around them

this one was my favorite-i cut strips out of the acrylic and wove some hand-spun wool through

in internship news...

another visit to louise brought me to an alpaca farm! wild rose suri ranch is located in havre de gras, maryland and is an awesome place! we got to meet some of the gang and learned a lot about grading fleeces.

grading is based on the ratio of primary (rougher, guard hairs) hairs to secondary (finer, softer) hairs. we got samples of various grades of fleece to spin and weave and report our findings as to which were easier to spin, etc. louise and i split the samples and put them into unlabeled bags to see if we could guess the grades by working with them. so far, i've only worked with bag #1 and it was very soft and easy to work with!

oh, i also made a spindle out of sticks, twine that i made, and wool that i spun!

3 1/2 hours for such a small ball of yarn...

it wove beautifully

i also made a for-salvage loom while at louise's

progress shot

so many parts!

samples woven before the loom was put together to test how many threads per inch i wanted to work with

her workroom has such good lighting...

i also made myself a frame to weave samples on here at home with sticks i found in the local bog garden

i made a pretty big mess, but it was done in the name of weaving!

not bad, eh?

and finally, hannah, my research professor has an abundance of husky hair in her office from her dog (with intent to spin it) and she let me have some to spin! it's probably the best fiber i've worked with so far. she carded it on her drum carder (which i will soon explore) and so i just picked it off of the carder and spun it with my little twig spindle.

soon to come: i attempt to extract the fibers from some bamboo i came across in the bog garden, a dyeing workshop with louise next month, and weaving on my loom!

also, we're making rotational mold machines in cube class so stay tuned for photos and more progress there.

so, this being my last semester, classes are looking a little different. my studio class consists of an exploration of materials and methods. the first week, we explored paper cubes, last week we made wooden boxes, and this week we're tackling cement. it's a lot of fun and unlike any other class i've taken in my years here. here are the results of that so far:

it's safe to say, i'm no expert at either material yet! it's still great to be able to experiment and work with these materials.

i'm also interning with an extraordinary woman this semester. her name is louise wheatley and she is a weaver, print maker, textile conservator, and much more! she's taught me how to hand spin my own yarn from all sorts of fibers using a drop spindle. she's also taught me how to make twine from locally-grown dogbane, or indian hemp. very soon i'll learn to grow natural dyes and carve wood blocks as well as how to weave!

my hopes are to one day take my knowledge of craft and the primitive methods i've been learning and go overseas. i think that it would be incredible to teach children and to work with women to set up their own businesses and support their families. there are a lot of fair trade organizations that partner with women and families in their crafts and through them the families have much gain.

here are some photos from what i've been able to work on so far: