Repurposed Orthodontic Lace

I was able to upcycle some used orthodontic fixtures, brackets, and wires into my lace project.

Bub's Recycled Fiber Art...

Along the lines of combining recycled things into a large piece of artwork, I was reminded of the work of a friend of mine (Adrienne Billet). The pieces below are made from dyed latex gloves, sewn together:









































These pieces are made from fabric and leather scraps respectively:

Wire Screen.

I found this image of a sculpture by Eva Hesse.
It is made from latex on metal screening stapled to wire with vinyl tubing. I thought it was interesting because it was all materials which could pically be found as waste. I think this is kind of what I was envisioning for our project on the conceptual end.

Last week I asked Wendy if she had any metal screening lying about. I went out and found some and have begun inserting miscellaneous found objects into it to create texture. I think that this process could be utilized with a wide array of materials, all coming to a similar end. I think this idea would enable us to better address the conversion of waste into a "product" even though we already agreed to not stay within such strict confines of the project.

I'll post some of the mesh pieces as soon as I get them to a more final point.


Also, here are some more of Hesse's pieces:

Finished ArtWork

This my finished lace form. I am keeping the final view quarantined until the Open House on the Dec. 8. We will have to work together to display both objects in an informative and beautiful way.








These are some close up and texture views of the same object. Now it is on to the presentation and graphic portion of the collaboration.

Inside Outside Lace

Lace textures. Materials; found polyethylene, glass, cotton, steel, aluminum, and resin.




View from Inside.

Calcium Lace

Here is an organic lace making process where members of the mollusca family extract calcium from seawater and embed it in a protein matrix to make shell. The form is controlled by the mantle of the animal and is reproduced by species. Amazing.

Progress 3

Structurally this is quite strong for its mass. It is maintaining shape and supporting itself. I have begun to consider the finished object in entirety and have focused on the concept of personal sustainability.

Bee Lace

Don't know how I ignored this one for so long since it has become part of my object.

Bottle Lace

Found this one today on my morning skate. It is a broken bottle, but the bits are held together by the label. It looks kind of cellular to me, which brings up many more organic structures like lignin vascular tubes in wood, rings in bone and cathedral arches between the trocanter and head of the femur.

Progress 2

The wrapping and compression strategy is working. The main issue is temperature and timing. Some of the unmolding process has been difficult.

Garden Lace

It finally got cold last night, about twenty degrees. the garden has that past due look and the laceyness is all about contrast it's about noon in the photos and that highlights the on/off, black/white, there/ not there qualities about the forms. Edges become linear elements.

More plastic lace

Nicole found this in the lab.
Bill thinks this stuff is used for drainage around foundation walls.
I am skeptical of schemes for water earth boundaries. I have seen lots of failures as I paddle down creeks past habitations. The natural order is change.
This summer friends served as wwoofers on a bunch of organic farms and shared their pictures with me. On one farm out west a local zoning board had decided that all home built building below a certain size did not need permits. This had lead to some interesting architecture, but also had limited the amount of ground disturbance.
http://www.wwoof.org/

Progress 1

The unmolded lace is holding it's shape. I have begun making more parts.

3D Lace Molding

Here is the in-progress shot of the dimensional lace. The process includes work from Dr. Pastore's class on Green Materials, along with some innovations of my own. I am using mill ends of a glass fiber tri-weave fabric which is very open. I have used my three layer epoxy system to coat the fabric strands and then sandwiched them between plastic films to create the form. Crumpled newsprint provides a counter pressure in areas needing depression rather than protrusion. The end result will be de-molded in 12 hours. I will be able to determine if this expreiment will be of value at that time.

Lacy Lights

I actually meant to publish these yesterday. They gave me the concept of how to make my objects dimensional. Wrapping the filamentous stuff over a framework.

RED Design

This one is for Rob. Red Design has finally come to this this girl. The old method of slow change has run it's course and the consensus of the learned doctors is radical change. They will cut out and modify the underlying support structures so the processes will function better. It will be painful and a good analogy I think. I intend to document the process as sustainable change.

Ground Becomes Figure

Last night, we spent time exploring graphically when, at what point, lace happens. Graphically what needs to happen before ground becomes figure. We took home a basic screen and will be posting the results of this work in our final presentation.

Negative Space...

I love the metal screens Wendy posted and they are reminiscent of some of the metalwork aorund my own home.
This is one of two identical metal gates at the entrance to my courtyard:








Once in the courtyard there is a mounted steel piece which is the scrap from when the artist, Robert Phillips (www.phillipsmetal.com), cut the leaves for the gate out. Personally, I find it a more interesting piece than any of the others as in addition to being beautiful, it provides a lot of insight to the artists sustainable process of having as little left over metal as possible. I think that one of the most intriguing things about it is the fact that the focal point is the negative space.


I took this investigation of negative space into the ginkgo leaves I've been collecting to combine them, leaving intentional holes as part of the pattern. Here are some samples:


From these, I traced the negative areas to highlight that space:

Grill Lace

The texture and color of these cans remind me of Rob's lacy grillz and mine. These grillz have been concurrent with the sustainable design program. They represent the slow gentle nudging of life changes and thinking renewal, soon to be replaced with the RED design of transformation surgery. Rob wears his for decoration, mine can not be removed until the process is complete and then I will have permanent filigree retainers cemented on. The braces have created dimensional changes. I want to make dimensional lace structures narrating some of the process that has changed my life.

Roadkill Lace

This is some of the collection I have made of things run over and flattened by tires on the road. They resemble the shaded topography on the mountain map. I want to make them into a more dimensional object and retain the surface texture created by the compaction. I am considering continents with great circle flight lines showing the connected-ness of the trash disposal problem. I was reminded oft he global issue by Ari's emailed video.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4586903n

Needle & Tape Lace

Outlines are created with tapes and filled in with various grounds. This is taking way longer than I had anticipated. I like the landscape effect of the pins.