The Return of Barry

Oh Lord, this has been sitting in my drafts. Mostly because it's quite terrible. That's because I had (have) too many things to do and not enough motivation! The link is below:

Linky link.

I just wanted to get it out of the way and get on with the essay!

Frame Making!

Last week, with the help of Dad, we made the frame for my weaving! Here's how it was done...

Ingredients
3 x pieces of wood/skirting board
4 x L-bracket
Very thin screws
Chisel
Hammer
Ruler
A good biro

Step 1: Prepare the wood. I kept two planks the same size and cut the other one in half. That makes four. I think. Remember to use masking tape where you saw! It prevents splitting and other nasty defects. File and sand the edges too!

Step 2: There was much discussion about how to attach the L's and how to layer the wood. I needed space to weave but didn't want too much metal showing. This is the compromise below. We found the wood was prone to splitting so we couldn't drill the holes. Instead we developed a very scientific technique of hammering the screw in a little bit then screwing it in by hand (like the olden days) with a screw driver.

Step 3: I started weaving without grooves but it was so difficult! The warp was slipping all over the place and I couldn't keep control of it. So I marked out some lines for where I wanted grooves. As a haemophiliac, chisels are a bad idea so Dad helped out again with this one.

This is the finished result:

Swanky.

Desire Paths

 

A desire path can be a path created as a consequence of foot or bicycle traffic. The path usually represents the shortest or most easily navigated route between an origin and destination. The width of the path and its erosion are indicators of the amount of use the path receives. Desire paths emerge as shortcuts where constructed ways take a circuitous route, or have gaps, or are lacking entirely - from the Wikipedia page

I think these paths would make a lovely metaphor for the way AW lived his life. He always had clear destinations but went about it in his own way. Even though he set out alone, people eventually began to follow his desire paths and now AW's legacy is ingrained in paths across the country.

I found all these images in this forum : www.reddit.com/r/DesirePath/ 

More Techniques + Materials Inspiration

Scrolling through the internet and came across these, not all of the artists/makers tagged their work so I guess they want to stay anonymous, I will link to respective blogs and instagrams.

Ifices I like the surprising materials - a fabric cement block and ceramics seemingly crumpling into themselves. It's surprising and looks like something I want to touch and play with.

Look at it... I love how with the frames weavings become more 3-dimensional, more obstructive. Yeah. I dig this a lot.

DGTRF

What is that weird thing? I don't know. The paintings are all so spare and weird, it's great.

Caption says:

Testable Predictions at Carl & Sloan

Amy Bernstein, Perry Doane, Michelle Liccardo

http://www.carlsloan.com/

“Hot Potato”
 Ben Gocker

It's in New York so I'll never see this in real life but it my god........................ I want to live this life.

I'm also making a (mental) note about curation for these pieces, how they've used and interrupted space. Que me gusta. 

Alexandra Kehayoglou

Alexandra Kehayoglou is an Argentinien wool rug artist. I looked at her because I was trying to find ways people have portrayed landscape through 3-D forms, how do you communicate something on such a different scale? Alexandra uses textiles to recreate the grass of rolling hills, it works so well and is something I'll definitely take inspiration from. I have used rug techniques before, in weaving and on 3-D objects. Her work is very tactile and inviting, using predominantly natural colours and forms - although the landscapes are idealised.

Tove Jansson

I love Tove Jansson. It was suggested to me that I research her work due to the elements of nature in it that relate to AW.

 

The Moomin troll series are my favourites, they're so witty and charming. Jansson makes great use of line in her pen drawings - similar to AW - creating texture and depth with the density of pen strokes. I love it when she combines this with block colour like in the above illustrations.

She also greatly appeals to my love for kitsch. Oh to make wonderfully ugly things. I actually didn't like Moomins when I was a child, I thought they were quite creepy and unsettling. 

Also, her website has a wonderful section showing the island she spent so much time on with some great photos. :^)

It continues...

Found this fella who has taken it upon himself to do a watercolour painting of every single AW ink drawing.

I'm not sure if it's got quite the same magic to it. AW's self-imposed task for the pictorial guide books was just that, self-imposed. He wasn't following anybody else, his inspirations were the Lakes. I think people see the success of this formula and try and latch on to it, is that cynical?