Bethany Project 3

August 16

I have been working a lot on the project this week. I made two more parts of the snake, finished the beadwork and felting, pieced everything together, and then added the stitching. I added a cardboard base to the back, and I’m still working on getting it ready to hang on a wall well. I might also need to go in and clean some edges up to make it nice and clean. 

I decided to make beaded pods on the body of the snake, similar to how Amy Gross does her beading. Originally, I had a diamond pattern, but I like this better. I also added a little bit of a gradient to the end, which I liked better too. It took me a while to figure out a good pattern for the stitching, but I landed on straight lines in various directions. I think this fills the space well. 

I used some mesh for cheeks for the mouth and a nail I had to go through the skull. I had to make a hole in the felt big enough for the nail, which was good practice in learning how to make holes with felt. I ended up adding a lot more beading around the edges of the skull after felting on my beaded fabric. that really filled in the space and made a nice skeletal outline. 

I will be going in and cleaning up the fuzz, edges, and adding weight to the back for structure in the next few days. 

August 10

Deadline for this last piece: August 20th. All three pieces should be in the sculpture room together. Titles included. And a final statement for the work you did this summer. I'll have a place for you to upload this. 

My husband and I were on a road trip this week for a friend’s wedding, so I had to fit in work between driving and all the wedding activities. I was able to do some beading, but I realized that it takes a very long time! You might not guess it from the picture, but that took me several hours. I have almost finished all the beading for the face, but I will have to put in a lot more work next week (and today).

I found that beading on a flat piece makes it a lot easier to bed close together. I had a lot of fun learning how to bead and figuring things out like the pattern the beads can go in, how many beads can be placed at a time, and how to make them face the right direction. I am hoping with more practice will come more speed.

Don't you love saying husband. :) Life happens Bethany so no need to explain. I think a huge part of this process- summer school, is to figure out how to schedule this work into your life versus the other way around. This summer has been CRAZY for us with our son leaving for college at the end of this week. But I also need a break so my summer has work, but not like the fall and spring. In those semesters, I am all for the students, but summers have to be for my art and my family. Its a good balance for me.

I find that the longer something takes, the more you see the time in the work, and as a viewer- I want to look longer. 

(So far I like the way the beads look like snake scales!)

So one way to do this is to bead on another material and sew that onto the head. Also think about finding beaded objects that you can appropriate. This works well in times of busy. Start collecting a bit so you have some options.

 I felted the first beaded piece onto the head and it turned out good! I think I will try and cover most of the head in bead, but I might not use the same strategy for all of it. I was surprised how well it bent over the skull: 

What reference images are you looking at? It looks a little like a duck. :) 

August 3

For this project, I chose Amy Gross to be my inspiration. She makes nature inspired artwork that is usually in the form of a wall hanging. They have a grown quality to them and use a diverse amount of materials.

This artwork of hers, “ Cloche Blossom Biotope”particularly inspired me. I like the white beaded orbs incased in leaves. This one made me think of The Garden of Eden, so I was inspired to do my take on the fall of man. I designed a snake entailed in fig leaves sewn together inpsired by Genesis 3. I want my serpent to reflect the description of “An angel of light” from 2 Corinthians 11:14. Do do this, I want to mimic Amy Gross’ white beading, similar to this artwork above, on the serpent’s head. The fig leaves will be sewn together, referencing the clothing Adam and Eve made for themselves after they ate from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Bethany, what if the back portions were drawn or painted instead of built?Trying merging your 2d and 3d together. 

This design will hung on the wall, so I will need to make sure to add a support on the back. It should fit in well with my other two projects, all with animals, nature, and a biblical theme. I may have to simplify the design of the snake due to time constraints (I have a very busy week coming up), but I will try to manage my time well and go from there. I’ve tried to get a good start in this week to help.

  I think Amy Gross’ use of color across her portfolio is very strong. For that reason I chose another of her artworks for my color inventory:

I like the natural shades of green and the use of light lights and dark darks will help me demonstrate the theme of good and evil.

So far, I have constructed three segments of the snake, and the fig leaves. My plan is to bead the flat felted pieces, and then felt them onto the structure afterwards. This should give me better control over the needle. 

For the leaves, I attempted to wet felt them first. I did some research on methods. My attempt is below. Unfortunately, I must have missed a step, because it ended up coming loose and falling apart. I had to start over and needle felt them instead. I think I needed to roll the wet felting more before letting it dry. But it did have a very cool effect while I was making it!

Did you break this apart already?