Letterpress

I can't believe I've been at my Eastern Papermaking apprenticeship for a full month now. The time is flying by and each day brings something new. Aimee has been an incredibly helpful and patient mentor and my papermaking skills are getting better all the time. Even from one day to the next, I can see myself improving. And by this point, I've scraped so much fiber that I'm pretty much an expert.

This Thursday morning, Ivey (my apprenticeship counterpart) and I got to come in before our shifts started so that Mason (studio assistant extraordinaire) could give us an orientation on the letterpress studio. While there was obviously a lot to cover, and printmaking has a whole vocabulary of its own, Mason was a good teacher and offered to help us with our projects when we're ready to actually print something. I just hope I can come up with an idea that's worthy of all the time and effort it takes to make a good print. Certainly, I'd like to start making books again soon, and the letterpress would be a great tool to actually make a printed book instead of just the blank books I've made in the past. Last summer I took a woodcut class at the Morgan with artist Andrij Maday, so I'll have to put my woodcut skills to use in order to make something to use on the press. That's probably more of a summer project, though, as I'm already over-committed with my current classes and projects.

Anyway, I think the most fun part of the letterpress orientation was getting to go through all the drawers of old wooden letters, etched illustrations, and stamps. This could definitely be the start of a whole new obsession for me.

Time Off

I had some days off this past weekend, Friday and Saturday, which were my first days off in five weeks. My first instinct was to stay home in my pajamas and lie around on the couch the whole time, but I ventured out instead.

I headed out to 78th Street Studios to check out some local art on Friday night. There were lots of great pieces there and I bumped into some friends and got to catch up with them. After that I went to the movies to see Monuments Men. The movie was entertaining, if a little cheesy at some points. Nevertheless, I enjoyed myself and stuffed my face with massive amounts of popcorn.

Mansfield Art Center

I slept in on Saturday morning and then grabbed some lunch at the West Side Market before heading out to Mansfield to see Rebecca Cross' show at the Mansfield Art Center. The show, called 'Liaisons' is a two-woman show, with Rebecca's pieces hanging alongside of painter Annette Poitau's canvases. Rebecca's pieces were amazing, as usual, and they looked good with Annette's paintings. It was nice to see them in such a great, open space.

Sunday it was back to business as usual and I don't anticipate any more time off until the end of March, when I'll have a brief respite for Spring break. While I'm grateful for the time off, sometimes I think I'm better off without a break. The more time off I have, the more I want. I guess I'll just have to keep going...

A Rebecca Cross piece from the Mansfield show 'Liaisons'

The Apprentice

A little more than a week ago I started my internship at the Morgan. Actually, it's more of an apprenticeship, as the work I'm doing is more focused than what a regular intern usually does. I'll be working exclusively with eastern papermaking and I'll be doing research and reading about  the history of the techniques related to my hands-on learning. I'm so excited to have Aimee Lee as my mentor and everyone at the Morgan is so nice and helpful.

On my first day, Aimee showed me around and then I got right to work scraping the bark of the kozo trees

Dried kozo bundles from Novermber's harvest

that were harvested at the Morgan in November. A local blacksmith dropped by that very morning to deliver a set of scraping knives he made for the Morgan, based on a prototype of a Korean knife Aimee had given him. I was the first person to try out one of the new knives and I am happy to report they worked quite well.
I also got to spend a good amount of time beating fiber, which is exactly what it sounds like. Literally, you stand there with some wooden mallets and beat on a wet clump of fiber that has already been scraped and cooked. The idea is to get the individual fibers to loosen and separate, but you don't want to cut them because the longer the fibers, the stronger the resulting paper will be.

Bundle of kozo fiber with mallet

Scraping kozo with the Morgan's new knife

 After spending my first day beating and scraping, I got to actually practice making some paper on my second and third days. It's a skill that's easy to pick up but I can tell it's going to take a while to master. But even though I'm new at it, it's nice to see a finished sheet after all the work I've put in so far.

Some people might find the repetitive work tedious but I find it kind of meditative. There's something calming about working with your hands and creating things that just feels right.

Between work and school and the apprenticeship, I don't have any days off, but I've been able to cut my hours at work in half to make more time doing the things that I love. My bank account may not be happy about it but it's good for the soul. It's funny how, when you're working really hard doing something you love, it becomes energizing rather than making you tired and drained. I'm working harder than I ever have and I honestly don't think I've ever been this happy in my entire life. On the days I go to the Morgan I wake up cheerful and excited to start my day and at the end of the day, when I drive myself home, exhausted from working on my feet  with my hands in cold water for hours on end, all I can think about is how completely lucky I am to be doing this. I feel fulfilled. There were times in my life where I never thought I would move forward, where I was either lost or stuck, or both, and I didn't have any hope for the future. But then I see that I've managed to get myself to a place where I can be content and take pleasure in the work that I'm doing. It just makes my heart sing. I feel so fortunate and grateful to be given the opportunity to work at the Morgan and to be Aimee's apprentice.

Back to School

My favorite nap time buddy

I had so many plans for winter break. I was going to get a head start on projects for Spring semester, organize my studio, create a website for myself, exercise daily, and even finish sewing those damn kitchen curtains that I started a year ago and that my husband never stops giving me a hard time about. But I did none of those things. Instead, I rested. Blame it in the fact that I was still working six days a week, blame it on the art-making marathon that was finals week, blame it on the holidays, whatever. I napped with reckless abandon, hibernated under multiple down-filled comforters, read good books, and I don't feel at all guilty about it. If there's anything I've learned about life so far, it's that if you don't take time to rest and reflect, the opportunity will pass you by, leaving you perpetually tired and burnt out.

Now that I've taken the time to relax and recharge, I'm ready to get back to it. Spring semester starts tomorrow. I'm taking an art history course on Dada and Surrealism and an independent study studio course. And, of course, my internship will start on February 1st. It will be interesting to see how my work there will inform the art that I make. I'll post my projects here throughout the semester. I promise not to slack off with the blogging like I did last time. Seriously.

Eastern Papermaking Internship

I'm pleased to say that I have been chosen for an Eastern papermaking internship at the Morgan Conservatory. I've been involved with the Morgan for years, taking workshops, going to shows, and donating work for their annual open house, but to actually get to intern there is a dream come true for me. I was so excited that I almost started jumping up and down when I got the news. Not only do I get to learn from the best, I also get to give back by working as hard as I can for them.

Starting in February and running through July, I'll be working with Aimee Lee, Fulbright scholar and hanji (Korean handmade paper) expert, in the Morgan's Eastern papermaking studio. Basically, I will be learning how to make paper from scratch, starting with scraping bark, which sounds pretty exciting to me. I don't have much papermaking experience to date but I can't wait to dive in and really immerse myself in every aspect of it.  

There are some challenges involved, though. For one, I have to cut my hours at work in half, which also means cutting my paycheck in half, and the internship is unpaid. I'm currently in the process of writing a grant proposal to secure some funding through school, but it's going to be a struggle no matter what. Even if I don't get the grant, though, I'll make it work (even if I have to eat Ramen noodles for the next six months) and I guess this is a great chance to finally learn how to do the grant writing thing. I know all the hard work will be worth it. This is an amazing opportunity and it's so completely in line with all of the art I've been making. This is exactly where I need to be right now. I couldn't think of a better way to start out the new year and I know there are so many good things ahead.

Finals

I did it. I completed my first semester of graduate school. It was touch and go there for a minute, but once I found my stride, I had great fun and allowed myself to embrace being a real artist. I took a Feltmaking class and an Independent Study. Feltmaking was pretty amazing-there's something kind of magical about taking a bunch of wool fluff and turning it into whatever you want. My class was given a full month to work on our felt final. While my midterm project was really different from what I normally do, my final was very much like the rest of my work in that the structure was very repetitive and some might describe the whole thing as obsessive. I can't help it. That's just the kind of thing I like to do.

Felt pods in process

To get started, I made over 100 felt pods. I constructed them by winding natural colored wool roving over ping pong balls and, after felting them and allowing them to dry, I cut them in half, thus forming two little bowl shapes. Once they were off the ping pong ball, I finished felting the pods and allowed them to dry. The way I describe making them sounds simple but, trust me, it took so long and my hands spent so much time submerged in hot water and soap that I thought all the skin on them would fall off. Seriously, the tips of my fingers were blistered.


After I finished felting all the pods, the next step was to sew them together. I sewed them by hand, of course. I thought the individual pieces would look more round once they were all connected, but they took on kind of a honeycomb shape, which I think ended up working really well.

The front and back, after pods were sewn together

The concave side of the piece was intended to hold many, unique miniature sculptures. I like working small,

Paper sculptures in process

so this was the perfect project for me. I used mostly paper to construct them, as well as thread, wood, metal, and adhesive, among other things. I'm really pleased with how the little sculptures came out, so I'll likely make more of them in the future. It's interesting the shapes you can make with just scraps and glue.

Once I finished making the paper sculptures, I inserted them into the base piece and glued them into place. For my final critique, I hung the piece from the ceiling with fishing line so that it appeared to hover in mid-air and people could walk around the piece to view both sides. I spent so much time putting all of this together, probably more time than I've ever spent on any individual project, that I was definitely short on sleep in that week leading up to final critique, but it was all worth it. And I'd like to thank my wonderful feltmaking teacher, the lovely Dena Gershon, for helping me through all of our projects. She's a patient and inspiring teacher and I feel lucky for having the opportunity to learn from her.

Inserting the paper sculptures

My independent study class was interesting because I was allowed to make pretty much whatever I felt like. Once I finished a piece, I got to present it to the other grad students. It was really helpful to get meaningful feedback from them and it's so nice to be back working in a community with other artists. I mostly stuck to working with paper for that class, as it's the medium I'm most interested in. While I was able to combine the paper with felt in my feltmaking class, the paper pretty much stood on its own for independent study. My favorite piece turned out to be a sort of net I made out of thread and strips of paper with hand drawn hash marks on them. The picture doesn't do it justice, but I'm sure there are many more iterations of this one to come.

I'm pleased to say that I'm a straight A student and I have a lot of great ideas to work on in the future. I'm on break for a few weeks now and, although I'm grateful for this much-needed time off, I'm actually already looking forward to next semester. I'm taking another independent study as well as an art history class on Dada and Surrealism. I hope I have as much enthusiasm and fun as I did this semester. It's weird how I planned on going to school for so long and now I'm already finished with one semester. When long-term plans become a reality it's kind of surreal. But here I am, doing what I love and moving ahead. I couldn't be happier.

Mid-Term Project and Exhibit

To say that I have been busy over the past few months is an understatement. Between work and school and projects I had little free time and that free time was mostly spent sleeping. Now that I'm on break, it's time to play catch up. First, a review of my Feltmaking mid-term and some words about the exhibition I was in. I'll cover my final projects in another post since I have too much ground to cover. Next semester I'll have to be better about keeping up with the blog.

Laying out the wool roving for the base

The semester was amazing. Given that I was completely terrified about what was ahead the first couple of weeks of class, I was doubtful that things would turn out okay. But once I settled in I actually started to enjoy myself. By midterms I was really getting into classes and I made this really cool felt sculpture that looks kind of like a tentacled monster. Here it is, step-by-step.

Pre-Felt stage and adding felted spikes

I first felted the base of the project, laying it out flat. I knew I wanted the final piece to be sculptural but I decided to work flat and insert wire later on for shape. Once I laid the roving out, I pre-felted it and added felted spikes once the base dried. The spikes were insert from the inside out since the inside wouldn't be visible when the piece was complete.

Inserting rubber tubing as a resist

When I finished inserting all the spikes I began to sew in some rubber tubing as a resist. With the tubing in place, I could later come back and insert wire to form the piece into something three dimensional. This was by far the most time-consuming step of the project. Not only did I have to carefully hand-sew each of the lengths of tubing in so they wouldn't move around once I felted another layer over them, but I then had to remove all the stitches once they were secured so it wasn't visible from the outside.

The legs in their pre-felted stage.

Then it was on to the legs. The legs you see here are actually the second set I made. The first set didn't come together as nicely as I would have liked and I spent so much time and effort on the base of the project that I didn't want to ruin it all by attaching legs to it that didn't fit my high standard of quality. If something is worth doing, it's worth doing right, right? Anyway, I constructed the legs by winding the wool roving around some flexible armature wire. I did two layers of contrasting colors so that I could cut multicolored stripes into them after the pre-felt stage.                        



Once the legs were finished and dry, I was able to start assembling the finished piece. I cut holes in the

Assembling the finished piece

middle of the base and threaded the legs through. After that, I flipped the piece over and sewed the petal structures together so it would form a sort of pod shape. It didn't turn out exactly like I thought it would, which was a little disappointing, but I did learn a lot while creating this piece. Sometimes messing up is the best lesson there is. I intended for the petals to all come up into a point, but the structure was too wide for them to all come together, so it wound up being open on top. Next time I'll make a better pattern so things match up the way I envision them.  I also would have liked the legs to support the pod but they weren't strong enough in the end. Next time I'll use a thicker gauge wire.

Finished piece, top view

 In any case, I really like the finished piece, flaws and all. It's something I worked really hard on and it's completely different than anything I've ever made before. It was nice to get out of my comfort zone and attempt something totally new. Although this piece was quite a departure from my normal style of art, I do like it and I see myself making similar items in the future.

Finished piece, side view

Around the time I was working on this felt piece, I also had the chance to be part of the Morgan Conservatory's annual open house exhibition and silent auction. I donated a piece made entirely of origami folded paper, sewn onto a 2ft by 2ft canvas. I made the piece over the summer and was so proud to finally see it displayed for all to see. The open house was great fun, with live music and amazing food and my piece even got auctioned for a respectable amount. I already can't wait for next year's event.

Me, smiling next to my lovely piece