bench activity

Here is a bench shot showing some of the lovely big hollow balls I made for a great big neckpiece I completed about two months ago, it's a work in progress shot and also shows some French knitting I was doing at the time. The French knitted pieces haven't been photographed yet, which is a bit slack. Whilst I was making them I was watching the film Gangs of New York which is a bit gory, in true Scorcese fashion. Thus, the French knitted neckpieces are a bit intestinal... seems I am a bit infatuated with the intestine at the moment!

You might have seen an earlier post where I was having fun taking pictures through the first couple of balls I made and deciding that I needed to wait till the cooler weather to finish making the neckpiece due to studio hotness. Anyway the balls are about 8cm at their largest diameter and I made them using thread dipped in PVA glue and then wrapping the thread around balloons and pegging them on my washing line to dry. It was super messy and lots of fun! To complete the neckpiece, the balls have been strung on some rope I made from the thread, my first (and not last!) use of the thread rope as a stringing device. I am about to embark on a series of ropy neckpieces to match the brooches I have been making... I haven't photographed these yet either!

The picture also gives a bit of an idea as to how much thread is left, something I am getting asked quite a lot at the moment. I REALLY regret not measuring its girth before I started! I reckon I might be about half way now... it's going to start getting precious fairly soon! I love how when you work with found objects, or non-precious things they become ever so precious once the supply is limited. I remember Mark Vaarwerk saying this about the plastic bags he uses so beautifully in his work - that when he started using this material it seemed an unending resource, but now the bags are becoming more scarce. I love that he is immortalising them in his work.