Wool and Metal

                                                                    Ascend Pendant, 2007

                                                             silver, felt, citrine

                                                       photography by Larry Sanders

This is part of my first group of dimensional felt pieces. I began with three wads of wool roving, which I wet felted into balls. Then I needle felted them together and proceeded to fill in the form and added detail to the color. The colors can be blended. When I need large amounts I use hand carding tools, but mostly I just use my hands for smaller quantities. 

This piece lends itself to varied interpretations. First I sketched various mountain-like forms, grouped together. Then this pendant emerged from a subconscious level of creativity as another sketch. I can only ascribe meaning to it in retrospect. I didn't decide to make an object to represent a particular narrative. I think this is why people respond to it so differently.

                                              Solitary One (homage to Rufino Tamayo), 2008

                                                         silver, felt, enamel, 24k

                                                   photography by Larry Sanders

The genesis of this brooch is entirely different. I have a beautiful book about the Mexican painter Rufino Tamayo. His work has abstracted human forms, rendered with great texture. I saw his piece "El Solidario" and immediately wondered how I could capture the feel of it. 

The felt form was made using pre-felts ( lightly felted not fulled or harden) cut and needle felted to a pre-felt backing, enhanced with additional color.  Thin layers of wool were added to the backs and then they were lightly wet felted together. This way three separate sections: the background, the figure, and the stripped center, were created. Next, I cut these into the precise shapes to fit inside each other, needle felted them again to another pre-felt backing, added additional roving to the back again and wet felted once more, this time fully hardening it with many rolls of my bamboo mat (quite a work out). This inlay method allows for sharp, clearer designs, the process is more like making a collage. 

The felt was set into the oxidized silver frame and secured with epoxy resin. 

Another View

Another view of the studio, thanks for the pics Micha Hamilton. Micha took pictures of over 50 artists who participated in the studio tour and is creating a book with them.

Inside the Studio & Inside My Head

Finally, a picture from the studio tour. This work table is shown here "organized" for the studio tour. I laid out samples of needle and wet felt. I demonstrated needle felting with the roll of grey foam on the right. I also had my sketchbook open with the completed piece beside it. People thought that was interesting.
You can see two kilns behind me ( I still have to put together my hood vent over these), to the right of those (out of view) my soldering table, and bench. My work was set up on display tables in front of this table. More pictures? They would be clearer than I am.

I am just back from a family vacation to the beach, where I collected many clam shell segments. I spread them on a towel. It was surprising how quickly criteria developed for organizing them. If they could be snapped in half, discard. The shells' rings varied in color. They could be positioned arcing in either direction or in opposite directions from a focal point. Sizes could be gradated, alternated, or entirely random. All of these decisions where no different from any other human's, living in any age, regarding their materials at hand. I thought about the ancient need to organize into ornament. Surrounded by ocean sounds and smells, I didn't care about shows, sales, the economy, bodies of work, or technical prowess, but instead I followed that most basic of instincts, while I imagined my place along the continuum of humans, engaged in transforming pieces of their environment into markers of their culture and time.

Hydraulic Press Tips

Habeas Corpus Brooch, 2008

Photography by Larry Sanders

First night of a new class, the first offered in the summer and it is filled beyond capacity! I'm juggling three levels and several students working independently. 

We have a Bonnie Doon  hydraulic press, which I have coveted ever since my student days. The College of Marin in Kentfield, CA where I first studied jewelry with Glen Campbell (no not that one), had a drop hammer. I don't know how much that thing weighed, solid steel over 5 feet tall with an enormous wheel. It looked like a medieval torture devise. Turning the wheel cranked the platen up, giving it a push would unwind and lower it with I don't know how many psi of force and a very distinctive sound, "whomp", after which it was named "The Whomper". Let me just say, I formed  .25 " 24 gage metal soldered to 1.5" 22 gage through a plexi matrix die, one time, getting a nice deep form. The 20 ton hydraulic press is kid stuff in comparison, however it has been developed into a truly useful tool, by Lee Marshall who founded Bonnie Doon. 

The 22 k bimetal in my Habeas Corpus Brooch (see above) was formed in the B.D. press with a matrix die. I used clear .25 " plexi, this made it easy to see the fine silver design and line it up properly, also it's what I had on hand. I prefer black plexi because it cuts much better with a jeweler's saw blade. It doesn't gum up and get stuck. If you leave the paper covering on you can draw registration marks on it and the metal to aid alignment.

 From bottom to top we used: plexi spacer, .25 plexi die, 24 gage copper, urethane pads and more  plexi spacers. You want to keep the metal in the middle of the presses' range for optimum power. After annealing your metal, start with 2500 psi, re-anneal and increase psi to 3500, 4500, adding force bit by bit. If you have an extra 80-durometer urethane pad you can cut several pieces that fit into your die, adding one at a time in between annealing. Pauline Warg, explains this well in her book, "Making Metal Beads"

What I like about her approach is you can easily judge when to stop adding pressure. Stop when the top plexi spacer comes in contact with the metal.

If you want a deeper effect you can either cut your die out of .50" plexi, or cut it twice in .25 and use carpet tape to stick them together. For additional safety, use duck tape around the edges as a precaution against the plexi cracking (not something I've had happen).