Author: nancyf11

Seasonal Fibers Tree

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Title:   Seasonal Tree of Fibers

Materials:

  • ¼ “ hot rolled steel rod
  • Copper wire, 1/8 to ¼ in diameter, recycled from construction electrical wires
  • Fibers
    • Fall – animal protein fibers (wool overdye, Angora, Wool, and silk)
    • Winter – metals  (copper, silver, gold)
    • Spring – synthetics ( rayon, metallics, metalized polyester, viscose, nylon)
    • Summer – plant proteins (linen, cotton, flax, bamboo)

Manufacturers used: DMC, Anchor, Rainbow Gallery, Kreinik, Excella, Caron, House of Embroidery, Weeks Dye works, The Thread Gatherer, Renaissance Designs, Edmar Co., Glisten Gloss.

  • Wood base from a tree limb
  •  Alene’s leather glue, clear drying
  • Old Master’s Tong oil
  • Clear acrylic spray

Techniques:

Rolled Steel rod was cut into 4 pieces of 25 inches each, cleaned on wire wheel and initial bends made using vise, and hand bending.  Then the four “trunk/limbs’’ TIG welded together.  This was later reinforced with more welding to give additional strength so the upper parts could get more bends.  Welds were ground down on grinder belt and smoothed with sander.  Wood block was sanded and old bark removed then the wood was oiled twice with tong oil and left to dry for 24 hours.  The base metal was bent to form a ‘’rooting’’ similar to the tree I used as inspiration. Photo # 1.  Four holes were drilled on drill press using a 9/16 th inch drill bit. (Original plan was to use epoxy to secure base in the holes but the fit was perfect.) Base legs of tree were inserted in holes and the upper tree was bent a bit more, by hand, to give better shape.  Metal was re-sanded at this point by hand.   The copper wire was stripped of plastic (very difficult to do) and select lengths were wrapped around the upper tree limbs. Then tree was sprayed with clear acrylic spray to help avoid direct metal contact with fibers.  After another 24 hour dry time and buffing with soft cloth the fibers were attached.   Attachment was done with half hitches of fiber bundles and then they were lightly glued to insure they stayed in place. The metals were not glued. Lastly the threads were steamed to get out most of the wrinkles and then trimmed with scissors to give uniform length. (except the metals)

Successes: 

The entire tree looks finished and the fibers color shift worked well.  The wood block gives the needed stability to the project and overall it looks colorful.

Failures:

The initial idea of more welds would not help the overall design. Also the use of brazing copper wire to limbs to make the copper stay in place did not give enough spaces for the number of fibers I wanted to use. (this was tested on scrap metal to verify if idea would work)  And the idea of adding weld buttons to top of each limb to hold the fibers would have taken away from the smooth shape I was going for.

This project continues my exploration into trees as a theme for my art.  The openness and the smooth lines of this sculpture help keep the simplicity of design.  Use of recycled wire, left over fibers and rescued wood show how nothing is going to waste at my house!

(for detailed fiber as to color code, mfg, and color name please ask… it is in my original sketch book)

Chicken Legs I Experimental stitchery

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This was an attempt to use artist canvas to incorporate stitchery (embroidery) onto a painted canvas. This is the first of a series I am working on.

Photo 1. Painted with acrylic paint and stitched with Rainbow Gallery Bravo cotton thread using a # 20 needle. Multiple stitches mostly of woven types (better view of stitches in next photo) Art canvas 9.5 in X 7..5 in.

Photo 2. Close view showing L. to R. half hitch, twisted half hitch, long couching, over under weaving over 3 threads, couching, bullion and long stitches.

Photo 3. Back view showing canvas stapled to frame (commercial purchase already on frame) and threads pulled thru to back.

Lessons learned: Let paint dry at least a week. Use sharp needle and try not to pierce canvas until you are sure of the location, small white spots in canvas will peak thru. I would have been better off using a table clamp to secure the canvas but since it was small it was not too bad to work with. (All projects in this series will be on the 9.5 by 7.5 inch canvas) Tension can be tricky and doing the bullion was not great. I had forgotten how to do the stitch then the cotton thread with the wrong twist (S twist) did not like to behave! I learned the bullion stitch using Brazilian method. I will attempt this stitch again using Brazilian rayon thread and correct “Z” twist.

NOTE: just as in many types of stitchery around the world, Bullion stitch is done in different fibers and methods depending upon the country. Brazilian is the raised embroidery done with the “Z” twist rayon threads. In Australia, the more common “S” twist and everything from cotton to wool to silk is used with beautiful results. At a later point in my experimenting I will do a sampler of each type.

Some of my assignments this past couple weeks at ASU

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Blog Post: Gabriel Orozco

ART 331 Gabriel Orozco Horses Running Endlessly Munier_Nancy 11 Sept 2021

This work references two things, free running never ending and the game of Chess. The social aspect is that of games being played that may have no real end and by using 4 sets of horses, each in a different wood color he also taps into the fact that no matter the color, we are still on the same board/world. He used everyday items of wood and his favorite theme of games to create a work of beauty that, like Ping Pond Table, encourages us to work in groups and still go our own way.

Blog Post: Chakaia Booker & Joseph Cornell

My first impression is of someone redirecting recycled items… rubber mostly. As a collection, all of her work is done with multiple shades of grays and blacks. This is inherent to the items she collects as most rubber such as tires is in the black/gray range. Her one she calls ‘’gridlock’’ mkes me thing of thousands of small fish schooling and running over each other.

Joesph Cornell was a collector of smalls and that being more along some of my collections is intriguing to me. In contrast to Booker, Cornell doesn’t really change the items he collected but presented them in eye pleasing ways.

Homework Week 2: Due Tuesday 8/24/21

In comparing Gates and Milner I see both are collectors of things that are everyday. But the contrast is in that Gates is very structured and Milner is very scattered or unstructured. They both show interest in preserving history but Milner is more of a hoarder collector. Gates emphasizes his collections in structured and organized layouts whereas Milner seems to just shove stuff together in any fashion that strikes him at the moment. Art and collections being used to preserve history.

Encounters with Art ARA 240

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This was a class assignment to illustrate my thought process on my journey in art…. or atleast that is what I thought she wanted!

Mind Map                                Nancy Munier                ARA 240                      August 29,2021

My mind has had many years to travel and see great art.   At birth, I was gifted two oil paintings from the artist, Wm. Thon.  (he had a crush on my mother)   I still have those paintings, very dark landscapes, and not his typical sailing work. (painting is “Snowy Woods by Wm Thon 1948)A picture containing text, indoor, window, picture frame Description automatically generated

I grew up with very artistic but not recognized artists at home and in the local area.  At around eight years (I have little memory of much time), A friend of my mother, Helen Ord, did a bust of me.  It was agony! I had to sit, and I hated being still for two hours every day for a week as the artist sculpted clay and measured my nose with massive calipers!  The bust is long gone, but I do have one of her oil paintings still.  I wanted to paint but was only given cheap chalk and paper.  My mother said it was because I wasn’t good enough to use watercolors.  Years later, I found out it was because we didn’t have the money for fancy stuff.  I often got in trouble at school, especially elementary, for drawing horses in my notebooks!  Yes, I still draw, and now in school, it is expected.  I have some of my early crayon drawings of horses which I hope to work into some sculpture pieces.  It was also during these young years we visited the Ringling Art Museum in Sarasota, Florida.  The statue of David was only one of several statues I sketched there.

School years gone, I moved to Wyoming and continued to sketch and draw and write.  I am glad I did since I now can look back and see themes beginning to appear in my work, primarily trees. But then, college and marriage and a little girl came into life.  She was drawing before she could walk, and only once on the wall of our apartment. (military housing hates anything on the walls!)

We were fortunate enough to travel to and live in Europe, so family time was well spent finding art museums.  My husband was also a lover of art.  The most profound art exhibit was at Checkpoint Charley in Berlin. We were there when the wall was being torn down and got to visit the museum.  My ten-year-old daughter walked out of the museum, saying it was the most moving thing she had ever experience.  Today she still stands by that statement.  The art of the people was horrible and beautiful at the same time.    A bit later, on a trip to Paris, we saw a Monet and Roden exhibit.  Outside in the park, there is the statue of The Thinker.  I prepared to take a photo of my family by the monument, and my husband leans on the sculpture, daughter on the top edge of the base. I tell them, “That is Roden’s grave. He was buried under that statue”. They both freaked out!  (This information is on the sign in front of the statue.)

Back home in Wyoming, I spent happy hours sketching on the University of Wyoming campus…usually under the bronze of T-Rex outside the Geology building.   The Lincon Monument on me 80 between Cheyenne and Laramie is massive and looks like a rooster when approaching from Cheyenne.  

A brief time at Southern Utah University gave me the chance to study art formally.  And a three-week trip back to London with a group of students left me in awe of the city’s architecture.  I had been in London in 1991 while traveling in Great Britain, and the skyline had changed.  I took many photos of old and new buildings side by side.  I also filled two sketchbooks and saw great plays every night for ten days. Then, I attended a Gold Work class at The Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court for the last three days.   That was a high point in my textile studies.

I am here in Arizona studying sculpture after a short bit of textiles and getting my second Bachelor’s degree.   From here, but staying in Arizona, I am not sure where life will take me.  Art gives me so many options. I am currently working out of my garage and hoping to find a small studio space in Apache Junction.  I hope to do some work with museums, possibly doing dioramas of the floor plans in miniature settings.  Life will tell.

This last photo is of a challenge piece of stitchery I did for an exhibit at The San Franciso School of Needlework and Design.  The title is Jewels Benithe the Sea and required the use of 50 Swarzki Crystals and needlework.  The canvas is hand-painted, and many of the coral bits are ones I found as a child in Florida.

Dog days of summer 2021

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Lady wants us all to remember the important things in life… food, pets, tummy rubs, and showers. My dear GrandDog loves water, at least when it is in a dish, from a sprinkler or better yet… in the shower. She will lay in the tub for what seems like hours, waiting for someone to turn on the shower. BUT rain outside… no way. And we finally have rain here in Arizona! Lots of rain and lots of very happy desert plants. Also lots of flooding so let us not forget that people are losing lives in floods and loosing property.

Classes start Thursday for me: Sculpture II (metal work), Wood I, Encounters with Art and Intro to Digital Media (proff already sent assignments as of today, Monday am!) So most posts will be about class stuff for the rest of the year.

Enjoy life, many don’t have the privileges’ that we have!

PS she is an elderly mostly English Mastiff weighing in around 140 lbs! oops trip to the vet and her weight is 154 Lbs!!!

Summer of fun projects 2021

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Summer fun with fibers done with perle cotton overdye threads

Pounding clay, trying out release agents with plaster, learning to carve with Dremel, cutting wood with new bandsaw and I did some regular stitching also. But I am priming up for classes in the fall and watching YouTube videos on carving and welding and sculpture too!

3 D Design The Chicken

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3 D Design         Unit 5               Nancy Munier                                        23 April 2021

Going from a drawing on 8 by 10 inch paper to 5 foot high and about 4 foot wide sculpture was a challenge.   The original idea of using chicken wire, 16 g rebar tie wire and plywood quickly morphed to using drip irrigation tubing, fabric strapping, table cloths, fabric, foam insulation board and a camera tripod. 

Challenges were to construct a moveable sculpture that was larger than my 5’2” frame.  The ability to transport the artwork turned out to be the hardest challenge.

Process:

 1. Scale up the drawing and find materials. I used my logo chicken that Torrie created for my model.

 2. Assemble the tubing into circles of graduated sizes. I had a bunch of drip line tubing so I used that and used wooden clothes pins to connect the ends of the tubes.

 3. Figure out, and cut fabric strapping to support hoops. I took a page from old time crinolines and how they were assembled and able to squinch up on one side to pass thru doors.

 4. Sew hoops together while maintain about a 12 inch spacing between hoops and keeping the strapping equally tensioned around the row of hoop. This was probably the most time consuming step in the assembly.

 5. Using the tripod to support the hoops I then had to figure out how to shape the top 24 inches of the head.  This was done using the foam board and cutting it into graduating shapes, then gluing them together.  I did discover that the purple foam insulation board is hard to cut with a hand saw and it was too tall to use with the band saw.

6.  Cut and sew fabric for “skirt” and head.  Discovered that the yellow fabric let too much light thru so I added black table cloths as a liner. This added to the weight but helped hold her shape. (Thanks Joanne Rice for the yellow fabric.)

 7. Using a length of board – 8 foot 1 by 2 cut in half- I set the wood on cardboard and sprayed “crack filler foam insulation” on for legs.  This required a 48 hour cure and painting with spray paint. I also used the spray paint on three shorter boards to make a tail.  All boards were hinged with bolts and wing nuts at untreated end to allow for transport and adjustment. 

8. The arms/wings were created using pvc pipe (1/5 inch) and covered with fabric.  The hand parts were spray foam.

 9. Her top knot was made from twisted 16 g. wire and felt, hot glued onto the wire. 

Transporting from my house in my Subaru was done by collapsing the tripod, folding up hoops and shoving her in.  I had to finish the feet (added plastic straw toes) and attach her skirt in the lab.  Then we moved her to the photo site in the back of a small pickup truck which was quite funny.

Sculpture I Tin Horse Mask

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Requirements:  to create a wearable mask using tin and soldering.

Materials:  Tin, soldering kit (iron, flux, cleaning block, brush, solder and various metalworking tools).  I also used copper, brass and jewelry wire for the face decoration and knitting wool for the mane

I chose to do a stylistic horse head using primarily the tin cut into flat shapes.  I then used the bender, cutting tool, roller and the ripple edge machines to bend and texturize the shapes.  I had problems with the ears not setting up on the top of head as I had planned. So they wound up going out to either side.  I also had difficulty with the upper cheeks of the horse.  I had planned for them to go as more of a connection between the neck and face.  That became problematic as the metal did not want to bend the way I wanted.  This created a bit more void and empty area between the neck and the face and also aloud the neck to flex more than I planned.  It did make wearing the mask a bit more stable though.

My order for assembly after cutting out the pattern from paper and transferring it to the tin with a felt tip marker was as follows.   1. Do all folds and creases in tin.  I discovered that if you use a strip of blue painter tape on the edge of the tin then you can line up the bender edge to get a more even bend and fold.   2.  Attach with solder the cheeks to the mane face using the flux and heat to cause the solder to flow under the two pieces.  I discovered later that I should have ‘tinned’ both sections of the tin before putting them together. 3.  I used a jig to start the bends of the decorative wire and finished by soldering them to the face front.  Some metals use much more heat than I was able to apply to get them to solder easily.   4. I punched the holes for the mane in the center neck strip of tin, then connected the neck to head.  5.  I inserted the wool yarn in the center strip thru the holes using a loop method.   6.  Mane strip and ears were then attached to the face.

This project was a challenge but a lot of fun.  I am already planning to use the method in part of another sculpture in 3 D design this semester. Thanks to my son-in-law, Jef, I learned a lot more than was taught in the class. I think I have a long way to go to be proficient in this type of metalwork, but next fall I get to play with welding and such! If I had access to all the big benders, little benders, cutters and such from the class, I know I would make better and more interesting sculptures.

3 D Design Mass project March 23, 2021

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“Life as a Beach… Or constant change.”

Mass is represented as the earth and its mass of sand and water.  The palm tree’s top also has mass to help balance the design, yet the slanted trunk gives a motion and direction leading the eye to the tag in the upper corner.  The open area under the tree on the right side represents a house and home stable and solid. The left side open area is of fractured and broken material as life is often fractured but heading to the solid tree of life.  The water with one specific wave is on the left side, directing the wind and tilt of the tree. The pebbly base of sand is the roughness of life, with tiny seashells representing signs of life and new beginnings.   The tree trunk of glass beads showing the fragile, breakable glass of life and the roughness of the world.  The tree itself – a bendable, flexible base with flowing fronds – shows the desire to be flexible, flowing yet anchored to the sandy earth even as the wind blows and tosses the fronds about.  Although most of the shells are of subdued colors, there is a bright spot in the lower right corner giving hope for life.  The two coconuts are symbolic of the two lives reaching for the sky, yet eventually, both will fall to the earth and wash out to the sea.  Sharp edges speak of shattered dreams and cracking spaces, and smooth ones around the “home” space show a calm, secure space.  Tiny scratches on the water are the bits of turbulence in the world and how they erode the earthly base’s mass.  As the earthly beach is eroded by the rough water of life, small, some bright shells of life appear to delight the eye.

  Rough and smooth shells, some shinny, some dull, some bright, some circles and lines, pointy and not. Flat and round, oval and spiral such as life.

I enjoyed doing this project once I figured out how to cast the negative spaces with the foam.  Being able to carve on the material. What I would do differently next time, and there will be the next time, would be not to use as much glue when putting layers of foam together.  Also to make sure to smooth the foam edges and perhaps even put a bit of angle, so they are more easily removed.  I do think the thickness I chose worked well with the project.  The plaster should have been thicker to start with so the pebbles on the bottom of the project did not slide around so much.   I am happy with not using any paint and keeping the white material as part of the main design element.

Project:  To create a 12 in by 12 in by 4 to 6 inches deep sculpture from plaster of Paris.  This should show mass and open-air with found objects and have meaning to the builder/artist.

Materials used:  plywood for the form for casting, hot glue, screws, foam board and other plastic,  Murphy’s oil soap for release agent, Plaster of Paris and found objects.

Procedure:  formulate an idea to be able to reproduce negative space areas in the final casting.  Cut plywood for a 12 in by 12 in base and 4 sides 12 in long by 6 in wide and make a box.  Using purple foam cut with the band saw to form the negative areas and hot glue to the bottom of the box (or sides if wanted) also hot glue all box seams.  Slather the interior of the box with Murphy’s oil soap. Prepare to cast material by gently sifting it into a bucket of water until small island forms in the center of the water, mix, and apply to the interior of the box.  Attach any items as the material sets up. Let dry for at least 48 hours. Finish with found objects, paint, resin, or in whatever manner you wish.