Red Horses & Blue Dough

TAKING FLIGHT SCULPTURE Detail ©JKreves

 It's a good thing I'm not a '50's American housewife, because I detest ironing more than any other household chore.  Lucky for me, we rarely can't not get away with un-ironed clothing in this day and age.  I'd rather clean a bathroom than iron,  which makes my activity today quite ironic:

TAKING FLIGHT SCULPTURE from WETLANDS  ©Joy Kreves'10

I spent the afternooon in the garage ironing bamboo leaves.  I made a mini ironing board by cushioning a strip of cardboard with layers of cloth and used dryer sheets.  This was needed because I am getting a sculpture ready to show again (Verde Gallery's "Spaces" Exhibition) after it spent several months in storage.  When I took it out yesterday, I thought perhaps the myriad of dry bamboo leaves had curled a bit more than when the sculpture was initially exhibited.  I wasn't sure if I could even iron them permanently flat, but I made the mini ironing board, took the iron into the garage and went to town on the sculpture.    As I ironed my bamboo leaves, it occurred to me that this is not a normal thing to do. Your typical American does not spend afternoons ironing bamboo leaves. 

Baking blue dough.

Coming upstairs for a break, I came upon my daughter and her friend in the kitchen, staring at a big blue blob in the toaster oven.  My daughter explained that they had put food coloring into homemade dough, and were baking it.  This is when I realized that my family is not exactly "normal", either.  Things in our house are just a bit "off" from how other people live and spend their time.  When I raised my eyebrows, my daughter defended her creation by saying, "Well, you drew a red horse, so I can make blue dough!"

RED HORSE ©Joy Kreves

 
She is entirely correct, of course.  She grew up hearing my story about the red horse:

I was a child sitting on the floor, drawing alongside my older sister.  I was finding great pleasure in applying the RED crayon very heavily to create a solidly red horse.  My sister objected to my color choice, saying, "You can't make a red horse; horses aren't red!"  In that moment I suddenly understood that art was this great freedom in which you could depart from reality in whatever manner you could think of.  Of course I could make a red horse; I already had.

Art is what lets me and my daughter depart from the real world to dive into the rich world of the imagination.  Creating art can give one a feeling of great power.  Art can lead one to draw red horses, and bake blue dough.  Art is freedom pure and simple. Oddly it can also bring one full circle into doing what one most dislikes...but this time I'm ironing ironically.

Papermaking Perfection

Tomorrow's rain date won't be needed for Judy Tobie's papermaking workshop. Today was as perfect a day as you could want for such a venture:  sunshine, and not too sticky hot.  My daughter and  I showed up with several other people to literally dip our hands into this intriguing medium.

Judy Tobie, workshop teacher

Judy had set up long tables on the lawn with blotter cloths on them for each workshop participant to work at, and other tables over a gravel area.  On them were big plastic tubs, each filled with a pigmented paper pulp dispersed in water.

Drying paper (l.) & pulp still inside deckle (r.) on cloths

 She showed us how to hold the deckle frame and framed screen together to dip in the pulp.  Then we drained some of the water off, carried it to our table, lifted the deckle off and applied the screen to a piece of sheet (a "felt") layered over the chamois.  After lifting the screen and blotting the paper with a sponge, the paper was ready to either dry or to apply interesting items to and sandwich them under more paper layers.

 

Some workshop participants blotting their paper.

As we got the hang of this it was hard to stop for the break when Judy brought out a beautiful and delicious summer lunch to enjoy beneath the shade of a tall bamboo stand.
Our afternoon lesson was on making a simple shaped bowl form, much the same way you'd make a draped form with clay.

Shaping a bowl from paper pulp.

Since I've done work with clay for years, I was constantly comparing that medium to this as I worked.  Both are sufficiently messy that a special type of indoor studio space is warranted if one can't work outside.  Both (especially wheelthrowing clay) use a significant amount of water during the process. Both give you options for embedding textures.  Although the papermaking set up seems simpler, a serious artist might feel the need for some costly tools like a beater and a drying machine, and of course the ceramic artist needs at least a kiln to fire their finished creations.

Once the drying paper sheet is lying on the felt it can be moved onto a larger flat screen  or just onto the grass to dry in the sun.

New paper sheets drying on cloths.

My daughter worked on a circle theme with the intention of making them pages of a book:

I added pieces of bark, dry bamboo leaves, flower petals, twigs, etc. into my paper, experimenting with attaching them but not completely covering them in additional pulp layers.  As the day went on I got much more daring in my additions, applying significant pieces of bark and tall grasses to the paper. As is so often the case with workshops, just as I got to feeling like things were really cooking, it was time to clean up.

My papers on felts, drying on the lawn.

Papers finishing drying on a screen on the floor in my studio.

 Right before we came home I quickly rounded up the bits of stray pulp we'd pulled off the deckle frames and I rolled them into colorful beads.  Paper jewelry! Yet another use for this versatile medium!

Paper beads drying out.

 The trickiest part of the day was fitting all of our creations into my car, keeping them flat and not stacking them for the drive home.  Now our dining room table and chairs, and my studio floor are covered with them now until they dry enough to lift off the cloths and store.  The main thing paper and ceramic artists need?  Lots of space!
I'll look forward to a chance to participate in another papermaking workshop.  There is so much more to explore!