Project 8 Stage 2 Ex 4

Experimenting with structures

I've had this idea in my mind for some time and have been quite excited to try it out.  I cut an A4 sized grid out of an old Ikea chopping board.

I toyed with idea of using a new board but felt it would be wasteful when this one was ready to be thrown away.  In the event I love the way the knife marks show on the plastic; it looks like it's seen life. I'm starting to get a real kick out of using rubbish.

I painted some tyvek with a copper metallic fabric dye and when it was dry I added a bit of green felt tip.  I heated it and tyvek did what tyvek does then I cut it into shapes that would approximately fit my "windows". The plastic was too tough to push a needle through so I made holes with my soldering iron.

I chose to leave gaps in most of the windows and I used copper wire to stitch the fragments in place.


I made some tyvek beads using the same colours and some fragments to just hang.

I've been really happy making this and I feel it's worked well.  If there's a bit I'm unsure of it's the hanging bits but I can live with them if only to add some variety.  I think the colours work well together and the play of light makes interesting shapes and patterns.  I like the unpredictable nature of tyvek and the contrast between it and the rigid shape of the grid makes an intriguing combination.  I think my delight in the work comes through in the outcome and that's a learning point in itself!

Mini review

I've enjoyed this part of the course very much; it's give me something of everything. I've been able to return to paints and yarns and make structures that have both challenged and intrigued me.  The failure of my first triangle (ex 3a) was largely because of poor choices.  The triangle itself was a challenging shape and the materials I originally chose were totally inappropriate.  Fortunately I've learned to back off when it's looking that grim and have a re-think.  Generally I'm quite pleased with my structures, my braids and my cords.

What I loved most was choosing the colours to paint match and put on to windings.  I found the water colours lacked definition for what I wanted to achieve and the crayons were too hit and miss; I find them hard to work with.  Acrylics gave me the best results.   I think it went well but I wonder just how good it has to be to be good enough.  The matching was often difficult because of light conditions or the lack of resources (not that my husband thinks that's a problem)!