Finally finished one of my pieces! To be honest, I haven't thought about anything but the making these past couple of weeks. Here is the writing that i've been doing. It documents the making!
For crit i'd like to talk about the displays i've worked up, and about the quilt.
Beaded pad:
·
It’s less embarrassing buying the pads for the
art product then to use for my period. Except I use them for both when I use
the wrappers. It’s dumb because the store person doesn’t know the difference
anyway.
·
I back them with interfacing so that the needle
has something to go through and so that there is a stronger base. If there is
no interfacing on the bottom, the sticky parts stick to the needle and the
thread pulls through and rips the pad.
·
Choosing colours from memories I associate with
different years of my life, or stories of those years for the ones I was too
young to remember.
·
Use those colours to choose larger beads to
accent the colours. Choosing colours and accent beads takes 5-10 minutes
·
Start from the middle out, from the focal point
to the outsides. This sets the pattern from the beginning, and creates an even
tension from the middle out so that there are no folds in the cotton.
·
My finger pads get cracked from the cold and the
work. I hate thimbles because they are unweildly and annoying, so sometimes I
tape my fingers or wear band-aids to prevent stabbing my fingers. Mostly they
are calloused enough to protect from getting stabbed.
·
1/24
o 9:30p.m-12:30
a.m, 3.75 hours
o Watching
30 Rock, Bobs Burgers, Xena Warrior Princess
·
Worked with band-aids today because my fingers
are torn up from working with metal.
They keep fraying and getting caught on everything. The needle gets
stuck in the pad part and disrupts the flow of the work.
·
1/25
o 8:00p.m.-1:00a.m., 5 hours
o watching
Last Vegas
o Eating
Mollasas cookies, drinking Limoncillo and La Croix
·
No band-aids today but have to use the pliers to
pull needles through pads.
·
Finishing the middle is always
rewarding/relieving because it’s a contained area, one unit. The patterns in
the middle repeat from pad to pad, three designs in all. It becomes very
familiar. The outside patters are annoying but challenging and become interesting
at a certain point because they are always different and very small.
·
1/28
o 11:30p.m.-1a.m.,
1.5 hours
o Watching
The Heat, it’s completely uninspiring. An un-feminist comedy masquerading as
woman’s empowerment. A men vs. Women attitude only encourages hate.
·
So cold out. The dog is going crazy because she
hasn’t been out for a walk in a week. The cold is so disruptive, I can’t work
when my hands are cold because they cramp up.
Total time for 1 pad is 8-10.5 hours
Quilt square
·
Working in a small space
·
Trying to save pads so as not to waste money,
using scraps in between them so they don’t stick to each other.
·
1/28
o 12:30a.m.-1:30a.m.
1 hour
·
It’s tedious cutting out the patterns. There is
a lot of prep-work because I have to cut out both the patterns and interfacing.
·
Putting each individual quilt block’s pieces in
its own zip-lock helps because I can just grab one and I know all the pieces
are there ready to be sewn together
·
Just cutting out pieces I get sick of the smell
of the pads. It is this weird baby powder/floral scent. I read that there is
only one pad that is actually smell free and odor trapping but it costs much
more than any other pad. All the other ones just mask the scent with deodorant
type products in the lining of the pad.
·
The scent gets sickening but I think part of it
is the scent/memory connection. It reminds me of having my period which makes
me a little nauseous, which is what having my period tends to do.
·
The act of unwrapping the pads is somewhat
soothing. The sounds and feel, the way I have to straighten them, becomes a
small prep-work ritual. The actual use of a pad is somewhat ritualistic as
well- unwrapping the clean, white cotton, and then wrapping up and throwing
away the dirty ones.
·
9/2
o 11:15-1:00
total time: 1 hour cutting out patterns, 1-1.75 hours to put
together one square
Reproductive system
·
Cutting out the patterns I do in a big factory
style. I have 5 patterns I’ve been working with, so I cut out 5 at a time.
·
I have to make sure to keep every pattern
together; I’ve lost pieces before and had to re-cut them.
·
Using the sewing machine goes pretty quickly.
It’s hypnotizing, the sound and motion of it. I’ve used my machine so much over
the years it’s very easy to get into the swing of using it.
·
Once I get one all sewn together, I have to
stuff it and do the hand work. I stuff the ovary pieces first and sew them up,
then stuff the tubes and sew the ovary pieces into place. Then I stuff the body
of the piece and sew up the vaginal area. Then I sew the definition of the
vaginal area into place, so it creates a dip in the fabric.
Sewing
these by hand goes a lot slower and is counter-productive. I have done 2 by
hand so far because the fabric was slippery and hard to control under the
machine. These turned out well, but because of the type of fabric they are more likely to get holes in them
The meditative nature of process based work. Boring yet glorifying and invigorating at the same time. I do sometimes wonder if we are driven to do it naturally. Is there something about process that resonates in us? is it similar to gathering berries and other foods to survive? and now we just attach it to everything we do? I think about this a lot because there are so many women the do process based work even just in the confines of the MFA program.
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