she's come undone - close up

she's come undone
Originally uploaded by bluepupae.

she's come undone

she's come undone
Originally uploaded by bluepupae.

my latest piece, she's come undone, which originated from a photo shoot with a model arranged by jerry (instructor) for a class, and consists of squares of photographic images of a woman's skin on japanese paper sewn with transparent "thread", is coming along. i only had 15 min with the model (all that was allowed in the class setting), and there was some overlap in the photos, as it was my first time trying this idea, so i don't have a lot of photos to make up the squares.

this is a prelude to where my heart, my mind, my soul (, my body?*) touch. after working through and sketching out some ideas, i had mike help me take close up photos of the surface of my body from head to toes. since i'm liking how the tests are turning out, i will start editing and cropping the photos for the final piece, which will hopefully be approx. 6 ft. tall and spiral from ceiling to floor and include strings of lights on the inside.

*i'm still debating on whether to include this in the title as it is suggested in "my heart" which could have a double meaning - both feeling and physical

photo of my late father, update 2

photo of my late father
Originally uploaded by bluepupae.

mike helped me prototype out how the pieces would look spray painted and wired together. i was unsure about the spacing around, but am liking that it is looking like individual pieces (pixels). I'm embracing the whole advent of the digital and it's affect on photography. i also like breaking up the integrity of the image / surface / body as i have done with other pieces.

i didn't want any electronics on the front where the leds would be to be distracting. mike modified the design of the board a little such that the resistors mount on the "back", and lights go through holes and mount on back, so that i could have that and save some money and order single layer boards. i ordered 7200 yesterday (an extra 1000 will be for another project i'm cooking up -- a suit of leds -- yes i may be a little insane).

photo of my late father, update 1

photo of my late father
Originally uploaded by bluepupae.

the prototype boards came a couple weeks ago for my second go at this project.

last class

woodturning
Originally uploaded by bluepupae.

my last intro to woodturning class came and went this past sun. we only had until noon to work, then clean, so i was frantically finishing the lidded goblet thing, not that i cared that much for it, but it was something that incorporated different techniques. i wanted to see if i could do it. i think i should have made the ring diameter smaller, carved out more of the inside and did a more thorough job sanding, but considering the limited time, i had to rush it a bit.

the cylindrical container i made the week before. it was nicely shaped until i tried to do the last bit of sanding of the top and bottom with sand paper mounted to a hand drill. i think i made it a little worse trying to take a shortcut, so now i'll have to go back and manually sand it.

the teacher from the segmented bowl and closed form vessel class came to convince us to take his class. other people in the class were encouraging me to take more classes, saying i am a natural. i do like that my skills are coming along, and enjoying making things, but i'll have to see if time permits.

you're the inspiration

yesterday marked the 2 yr anniversary of mike & i dating. we celebrated this past weekend by having a lovely breakfast on friday at starling diner. i had egg, bacon & cheese on a french baguette with some roasted potatoes, and mike had a decadent french toast (also made from a baguette) with candied apples, mascarpone & whipped cream. i really love this place, so cozy and cute.

on sat, we treated ourselves to the inspiring dan flavin retrospective at lacma, with the most interesting pieces exploring space, light, color & perception. when you enter the first gallery to see the first few pieces - mounted, painted canvases with various colored light bulbs attached, you may mistaken his work to be minimalist, but as you read the titles and experience more of the work, there's more than meets the eye. and you really can't believe your eyes, as light changes hue depending on where you are standing or where you just came from. the room (pictured above) appears green, but linger long enough, and it starts to look white, while the world outside turns a violet. one large room made up of smaller "cells" of lights installed in rows and columns was a kaleidescope of color. as you move, the colors mutate and mix. it's truly amazing to see what flavin has done with the simplest of materials -- fluorescent lights.

i am inspired and excited to experiment more with light. leds are as cheap as you can get, but when you use thousands of them, it can get pricey (as in my current piece).

after a brief visit to a gallery whose name eludes me, in culver city, to see deborah sussman's (mike's boss) work in a group show, we dined for the first time at frenchy's bistro. i always thought the name was rather silly every time i saw it driving by on anaheim, but some reviews on yelp made me consider giving it a taste.

after the escargots appetizer, mike had a baked salmon topped with crab meat in a lobster sauce, and i had seared sea scallops in a tomato-y sauce with wild rice and roasted tomatoes. we finished with a chocolate souffle. mike enjoyed his salmon, although not as much as i enjoyed my scallops, which i've never had with a tomato sauce. for the first time, i did not take home leftovers. it's better than la creperie, but not as good as ammo, which is still one of my favorites, but we will definitely be back (7 out of 10 stars). of course, i forgot my camera, so no food porn...

a day's work

what an exhausting morning it was. i rented a uhaul van (i'm almost a regular now at the a-rentals on 7th & coronado) and drove to irvine to pack up my project, which i have decided to rename 28 days (prev. these days), at least until i have a better bit of inspiration. titles are difficult. you want them to give some supporting information about the piece, but not too much. often, i only have a fuzzy idea about my piece when i complete it. i don't want to limit it's potential by giving it a name that lacks any ambiguity or takes away from the piece's ambiguity. i guess it goes along with making the piece.

it took eight trips to disassemble the piece and pack the individual components neatly into the van. they are not heavy, but there are a lot of them, and when you try to carry four at a time, it can be taxing. i was thinking about what the author of this book called art and fear said, that the more decisions and choices you make, the more the piece could only become what it is to become. the piece was about time, not western time, but on a lunar cycle. 28 pieces, there had to be. i had committed to that.

luckily, the storage place had carts, so it only took one trip to load up and take upstairs, but of course, i forgot the "padding" (pieces of felt and underwear from a previous project) to put between each piece. i realized as i started unpacking, and packing into the space that i had miscalculated the amount of padding i needed, so had to improvise. they all just fit into the space, although now, it won't be easy to get to stuff. all in all, it took about 3 1/2 hrs. after a shower and a burger & fries from belmont burgers, i felt refreshed.

i washed dishes, tidied up a bit and made a dr.'s appt. the day flew by.

the prize money has helped to pay for the transportation costs. i had a couple people, including a young boy, comment on my work as i was packing up, to the effect that they liked it. i try not to let what other people (except maybe mike, and i don't always listen to him, either) think affect what i do, but it was nice to know that people appreciated what i did, and the space and exposure was great. i'm not sure if i will put a lot of work into having it shown elsewhere. i probably should, considering the time i put into it, but i'm ready to move on. it's a lot of work setting up and taking it down. i put thought into the project's portability and being able to store the pieces, but it's a good sized piece that does not work well except in a larger space ( 8 ft sq +). i won't limit myself too much, but i'm thinking it wouldn't hurt to try to make more manageable-sized projects, at least until i can afford not to worry about space constraints or transportation. it's always good to have parameters.

child sock 2

knitting
Originally uploaded by bluepupae.

if the sock fits

knitting
Originally uploaded by bluepupae.

my first adult sock
turning the heel was a little fuzzy, and i somehow ended up with an extra stitch, but it looked ok, so i think it went well. i made it a little longer than a typical sock, but not quite knee length. i may try some stripey socks next or something with a more interesting pattern...

knitting fo

knitting fo
Originally uploaded by bluepupae.

finished these up this morning. the thing about doing something in pairs is that the second one is a little less interesting and slower to finish up. i guess it's the one sock syndrome.

tool box progress

woodworking
Originally uploaded by bluepupae.

thursday, the last lab class day, came and went. surprise, surprise, i misjudged how long it would take to finish my tool box.

some of the mistakes i made delayed progress --- e.g. i cut the handle shape out before deciding how i would connect it to the sides, so when i decided to make mortise & tenon joints, i had to make a jig of sorts with some double stick tape and flat boards to square up the handle.

i should have held off on sanding the outside of the box until after gluing it up as i had to do it again. i did a poor job sanding the pieces for the tray, causing them to no longer be square, and having to recut to correct. it seems like a lot of the learning i did had to do with correcting mistakes.

i haven't decided yet if i will sign up for another lab to finish the tray or try to do it on the table saw at home. i wish i had learned to do rabbit joints. the inserts fit a little loosely, but i like how they compartmentalize the box. they are also a little too high, so the tray will not fit very snugly.

there's still some sanding to be done around the glue joints and then the finishing, but then my tool box will be complete for the most part...at least usable.

cute cute sweater

knitting
Originally uploaded by bluepupae.

i want to make this one, too, but i'm not there yet. speaking of things i want to make...the patterns in twinkle's big city knits are really cute cute, and i'd love to have all of them, but looking through the patterns only made me confused. maybe after i get a sweater or two under my belt.

summer vest/top

knitting
Originally uploaded by bluepupae.

i think i will try making this. it's very cute and on the more beginner end (2 out of 4 on the difficulty scale), although i've never knit cables, so that will be something new to learn. i really like that magazines put these difficulty scales on the patterns. when you buy or borrow knitting books from the library, they usually don't indicate how difficult a project is.

overboard (bored)

knitting
Originally uploaded by bluepupae.

at my regular wed night stitch n' bitch gathering last night, alie, whom i sat next to, brought a knit.1 magazine, and was knitting up a skirt in a hot pink colored, shiny bam boo yarn. it inspired me to go to borders this morning to see what knitting magazines they had.

the interweave knitscene and vogue knitting had some really cute patterns. there was a woodturning magazine that had some technique basics. i don't know if i will have time to take any more classes, let alone do any more woodturning. the next woodturning class they are offering sounds very advanced - polychromatic and closed vessel turning. it's kind of nice, and i feel somewhat like it is natural or that i'm a natural. at least i haven't caused any bowls to explode or cut off a finger. or maybe it's because it's fast...haven't decided yet what the future holds for me in terms of woodturning.

i had to pick up the art in america. i'm suppose to be an artist, right, and there are a couple of interesting articles on feminist art, and the whack show that was at moca that i saw recently. the japanese cooking and sudoku books were in the bargain shelves..too cheap to resist. and i fell for a silly marketing ploy. even though i wasn't crazy about most of the patterns in the simply knitting book, i had to have the sheep shaped point protectors that came "free" with the magazine. i was admiring the ones alie had last night.

automatic cat box udpate

automatic cat box
Originally uploaded by bluepupae.

the last cat litter we tried was the scoop away multi-cat formula, and we are moving on to arm & hammer's high performance clumping cat litter.

Results so far:

Tidy Cats Scoop® Long Lasting Odor Control Formula
This litter didn't stay clumped and seemed to break apart, depending on where the clump was as it was raked. if it was too close to the center, and the clump wasn't very big or somewhat submerged. the rake smooshed the litter to the bottom. this seems to happen with all the litters we have tried so far, but this one was particularly problematic. the box started to retain the cat urine, rather than it getting dumped into the plastic bin, causing it to reek. it was pretty horrible by the time we changed out the whole box with completely fresh litter, and used up all the tidy cat litter 2 weeks later.

Scoop Away Multi-Cat
this litter was the least stinky. it clumped well, and though there were stray small pieces, most of the clumped litter got raked up and into the plastic bin. it lasted two weeks, and did not start to smell until the very last day when it all the litter was soaked.

Arm & Hammer High Performance
so it has been about 4 days, and this litter is starting to reek. i'm trying not to be impartial. i wasn't sure about the color. it's suppose to be a more natural litter ( as opposed to the other clay litters ). i wasn't crazy about the smell of the litter to begin with, and it seems to be having some trouble absorbing stinky cat odors. dumping contents of the plastic bin was pretty bad last night. they all stink to some degree, but this one seemed particularly stinky, so i changed out the liner completely.

i guess we'll see how it holds up. stay tuned...

matzo, matzo ball

matzo ball soup
Originally uploaded by bluepupae.

the cauliflower called out to me with it's lovely off-white florets, so i had to take it home with me this weekend. i've been craving matzo ball soup. the past two visits to wild oats for matzo ball mix proved to be unfruitful (is that right?). it seemed like a few months ago, because of passover, matzo ball mix was available everywhere, and in the family-size containers, too! i can't believe how long it's taking for them to re-stock. aren't there jewish people in long beach? i'm kicking myself for not stocking up when it was readily available.

after wild oats, we tried olives, a small gourmet grocer not too far from home. disappointment yet again.

this evening, on the way home, i stopped at henry's market in costa mesa. they didn't have any either, although i did end up leaving with gummy cola bottles. ralph's was my last resort. we don't visit ralph's or any of the "regular" grocery stores very often except for the occasional run for coca cola ( i'm an addict ), since we try to buy mostly organic, but i know i bought matzo mix from ralph's before. i was happy to see they have an entire aisle to ethnic & kosher foods, but tricked! what liars. there was nothing resembling kosher foods. i asked the lady at the checkout, and she said that they were low on some items because they were going to be closing for remodeling...

i couldn't take it any more so i went home. in the end, i scrounged up barely enough matzo mix leftover to make soup, and honey pie was sweet, and stopped at a ralph's on the west side of LA to pickup two containers of matzo mix. matzo matzo mix! hooray!

i'm not jewish, and neither is my honey, but i love matzo ball soup. do you remember the story about stone soup? i imagine it's something like matzo ball soup--comfort food, which i guess i needed after driving all over the place. there aren't any "exotic" vegetables in it. i don't follow a recipe and like putting lots of "stuff" in the soup - mushrooms, celery, carrots, cauliflower & cabbage. it's almost a stew. i may have gone overboard this time with the extras. seems like i need more matzo balls now...

turning pens

woodturning
Originally uploaded by bluepupae.

almost every sunday morning, i lay in bed wondering why i signed up for such an early class, and try to think up ways to leave early to come home & sleep, but once i'm there, things change.

i made these pens. compared to the bowls, they were pretty easy. they were turned at the highest speed, and it was easier than cutting butter. I made the one with the gold band first. I really liked the silver better, so i made he first one, figuring i would make more mistakes my first time around, but it went well. the only thing i didn't really like about the first one was getting too much glue on the wood, and it left a slightly darker ring at the join with the tip.

there was a shortage of bushings ( these metal tubes that are used as reference for how thick to cut the different parts of the wood to match up with the end, tip & band ), and i had to give my mandrel & bushings to someone else to use after i finished the first pen. i was able to get another set from someone else, but didn't pay close attention, and made the mistook a spacer for a bushing so the end with the clip was too small. I also mistook which piece was which, so the part with the tip was cut too short. i did not realize my error until i was half-way through assembling the pen, and the pen was sticking too far out. my poor instructor had to help me disassemble the tip, which was near impossible. we were able to salvage it, so the only thing is the end being too small. most people probably wouldn't notice, but my eye is immediately drawn to it.

making these were fast and a lot of fun. i would like to make fountain pens & mechanical pencils, since those would be more to what mike & i would use, and in some exotic woods.

with about 2 hrs left in class, i opted to try turning a knitting needle. you would think that it would not be difficult as it is straight, but turning something long and skinny and consistent in thickness is tricky.

moving on & letting go

photo of my father
Originally uploaded by bluepupae.

it was not an easy decision to make, and i fought it every step of the way. that's the way it is with me. change is difficult, that's why i give myself these challenges.

so my led project that is to be a photograph of my father, has been progressing abysmally slow. i still cannot say that i am halfway through. i also am only 30% sure that it will even work. i tried to do a test "swatch", but that took a zillion years and only somewhat worked. impatient to get started, i improved on the design, and started the final piece. after several more months and thousands of woman hours, my confidence wavered. i wanted to have faith that it would work eventually, if i kept at it. persistence or stupidity, only time will tell. i thought about all the bad relationships i had continued to work at long after they should have ended. i didn't want to come to this realization after a few more thousand hours of work. so i started to think that there had to be a better way. that it was better to take the losses--the thousands of work hours and cost of materials--and start somewhat afresh with a new approach. it is time to let go and move on.

there are a number of problems i have noticed with the current "design." It won't be easy to store. when i fold it up, the fabric gets wrinkled, and led & resister pins and wiring gets tangled up (are these all different, but related problems?). if it is more modular, and can be taken apart, it will be easier to store. i really like the idea of using fabric. of softening the appearance and feeling of the leds & technology, but the fabric is not working. i started to think about modular boards with pairs of leds & resistors, and having the wiring be connected in columns or rows, and the whole piece held together along the edges with thicker wire, like on my other projects. this would make it easer to take apart, and should an led burn out or be wrong, it will be more efficient to replace.

i also thought it would be better to unload some of the menial labor onto someone else or to a machine. no one is paying me to do this, and i am not able to work, and get paid while i'm doing this. well, if i could get someone to produce the boards at a cost that is less than the woman hours it would take me to do it times how much i get paid making websites, well, it would be well worth it. i will still be doing all of the soldering and assembly (can't escape all the work).

my next steps are to get prototypes made to test out the boards, then have the final made. there is a new hope and belief that the new process will take less time and be more likely to work than if i continued the way i have been going. i'm keeping my fingers crossed.

turned bowl

turned bowl (ash wood)
Originally uploaded by bluepupae.

turned lidded bowl

turned bowl
Originally uploaded by bluepupae.

i turned my second green wood bowl (from ash) today. practice does make perfect or at least much improved. the turning and the sanding was much smoother. i'm debating bothering to further sand the first bowl of its imperfections.

after lunch, i made a lidded dish out of mahogany. i thought it would be easier since it's like a bowl, except with a lid. the thicker grain in the mahogany made the edges prone to breaking out, and trying to make it thinner to accommodate the lid was tricky. i didn't sand as much as i would have liked to, but i thought it better to finish it today than spend too much time and make it worse.

the lid fit the first time i cut it, but i screwed up gouging the inside of the bowl, and caused a chunk of the side to break off, so i had to cut it back. then the lid didn't fit, so i had to thin the sides, and I went a little too far.

it looks nice with the tripoli & wax polish.