Posted on

Skinless Portraits




Halloween  house party
Invites called for something eye catching so I decided to use a current landscape painting and make a double portrait out of it but with the twist of removing our skins. For years I have been bring painting materials up onto the hills were I hike,  here up over Steven’s Creek in Cupertino. The painting was in color, drab but more about recording a favorite place than a final so it was fair game for expermentation.

Adding figures to a local landscape was a new direction for me. To do this I scanned the painting and then went skeleton hunting on line. The context of a specific place along with well lit snap shots turned out to be the key to making the mash up work . I plan to continue as purchased ($$$) rigged 3D skeletons  to position them into scenes with greater dexterity than “grave digging” on line.

Soup House Jam
(second slide show of musical friends) It started with the figures but I found it did not come together until I situated them in a particular place. I wanted to see them in their new home but I had not seen it yet, still have not some how imagine that, what a shame.

The piece was a fragment until I committed to bringing them into my home. See the image in progress on the painting stand with my own velvet curtains that frame and ground them in the final version.

The Godfather
This piece did not go beyond the photo mash up. Because this fellow is near and dear to me and currently facing health challenges I hated to depict him as skeletal and alone. Once I saw it coming together I put it aside for now. 
Today the “dogs of fashion” are barking , but it’s spring and things are feeling more hopeful. 

 

 

Posted on

Sewing with Circuits



Sewing with circuits 
Over the years I have used EL wire and LIly Twinkle products to get some glowing light into my sewn creations. This year I have been introduced to using the raw LED lights directly with conductive thread and hand made coin cel battery holders for a DIY approach that makes the work even more affordable and flexible. Using an LED, a 3V coin cell battery and a metal bell on a conductive thread a negitive power supply form the battery can make a smiple tilt switch that light up when it hits a negitively charged bit of conductive fabric.  Rather than buy lots of switches and fixed parts I want to learn to make my own to be appropriate to conditions and cost constraints. 

Using  pliers I learned (from the We Are Three, circuit sisters of FabMo) to custom bend the LED for easy identification and to catch into sewn stitches.

positive bends into a  spiral 
negative bends into a triangle

This has been a fun and with some further research I found a nice little project
Tilt demo module, involving a jingle bell as a switch to turn on several LEDs. 

First cut from conductive fabric a battery pocket (on black) I found it has too much surface area and is at risk of shorting out. Next I drew up a simple shape and laser cut a from card stock a coin cel holder for the 3 volts to be safe and not have to use the tiny needles sizes the traditional holders require. 

The original is design is a neat project that I have simplified to fit in to a one hour session for a high school art class this week. It is my hope that everyone will be glowing by the end of the session and they like the idea of building a tilt switch as much as I do.