foundations of design/recycled materials

soooooo. I have been working on a few things. I have always been dedicated to the idea that strong design fundamentals in a piece can make it or break it. Sometimes that comes in the form of symmetry, shape, color or whatever. Sometimes I just try and sit down with a material and work it until I feel comfortable with it and then make a piece from what I have learned. In this case that material is felt. Specifically industrial felt. I just received a large box of scraps from Filzfelt (my new best friends). I know I have talked about them in previous posts but I LOVE the felt they sell. The best part is that it is 3mm thick! This felt is normally used in industry for gaskets, filters or padding. For me it's thickness produces an easy transition from 2D to 3D. Sliced chopped or perforated it has this unique quality that I can't get out of my head. My brain just processes it easier. Its like working with play dough instead of porcelain or cardboard instead of paper. Maybe its just my chubby fingers or my bad eyesight but I love that I can see it. I think it may also be the way that I gorilla fist things sometimes. It just works for me. Also its a second generation raw material and that makes me happy. Now if I can just keep the cats away from it. Anyhoo here are some new brooches I am working on.

stain matrix

Article 2 (for BHO) from Andrew Sloat on Vimeo.

SNOW BIRDS

So I just got my latest ponoko order in. Thought I would share. Just another experiment in a long line of experiments with laser cutting. ACC is coming up fast.

Part three: more

So just some more stuff..... sorry about the blurry photos.

Part two: Walls

Sooooooo just some new developments. I started working on how my booth is going to be set up. I finally came to the conclusion that I am going to have to rent the pipe and drape and also buy the hollow-core doors. They just don't sell that weird y-junction for pipe at Lowes. I remember buying piping for my house that was threaded in 10 foot sections. It would have been perfect if they had that damn junction piece. Oh well I decided to do the doors instead. I reverse hinged them so they are like an accordion. They fold up flat for putting in the car and the stand up by themselves. The next step is to do the vinyl signage. I really want to do white on wood but I don't think it stands out enough. I am going to try and do red maybe. I think I am almost ready I need a few more things. I will post more in part three. I also got in some new postcard/business cards. This is my attempt to streamline my packaging this year, just a card with a brooch on it...... No boxes with batting or tiny zip-loc bags or little stickers. I have decided its a huge waste and generates a lot of trash. This is simple. I will bring a few boxes just in case, but I am going to try not to use them.

Part one: ACC booth testing

So after spending a painful four hours at IKEA Liz and I bought a new table and a pretty nice display case for ACC Baltimore. The case locks which is perfect! I have to admit that it was probably the cheapest IKEA trip I have ever made.
I thought that people might interested in the process of doing an American Craft Council show so I am going to try and document everything. It will be interesting to see how this pans out. I am trying some new things this year. I am working with some new people to gather material (Filzfelt, Ponoko, P&T surplus). I am trying some new processes. Most importantly all of this is a great excuse to get back into the studio and make stuff. I think I spend way too much time on the computer and not enough time in the studio. On top of all this I am teaching two new classes this semester (Rhino and Blogging packaging and Assembly). This should be interesting.

On to the process:

First we tapped off a 10' x 10' space in our kitchen. Then after figuring out which way our booth would be facing we labeled the front and the back. I found out that it costs about $250 to rent the curtains and pipe. That seemed a bit pricey so I thought that I might try to do some kind of accordion style partition walls with some lightweight hollow-core doors from Lowes. The doors cost about $30 each and they are 36" x 96". I figured with a quick coat of poly and some signage with the vinyl cutter it might look really nice. I am going to get a door today and I will report back here in part two.

Objectified Felt!!!

Just got some fabulous felt in from Filzfelt (Girl in the green dress)






Also the new trailer for Objectified just came out. I am sooooooo stoked. I loved Helvetica.

dogs pooping

Thought I would post some images of some new pieces. I am still trying to master basic enameling. These really fast pins I thought would be a good place to start (white enamel on 18 gauge copper). I had made some stickers of these a while back and never got around to making actual jewelry form the silhouettes. Anyhoo, I hope everyone is sticking to their new year resolutions. I haven't. :)