|
||||||||||||||||
|
journal |
December 2002 |
|
|
12-10-02 I really hate to put up a papermaking journal page for December, because most of my work with paper during the winter months is included in the bookbinding journal. However, there are a few things that I do that don’t exactly belong in bookbinding. This paper mobile is one of them. (Getting field of depth in the photo was surprisingly difficult, and the picture truly doesn't do justice to the beauty and charm of the piece. The mobility and graceful mutability are totally lost.) The individual folded hanging pieces (for lack of a better term, they’ll be called flying saucers) range in size from 3.5”x5.5” down to 2”x2” for the smallest. Each is handmade paper in its natural color. This one, the largest saucer, is abaca with daylily inclusions. This one, made from agrimony, is 1.75” tall x 2.5” wide. There are basically two forms, each with different variations in measurements. One form has a central band with no folds; the other form has no central band. Once I learned the tricks of folding, they weren’t difficult to make, but the measurements had to be exact. Even so little as a sixteenth of an inch error would cause major problems. I’m not at all happy with the mounting for the mobile. The 1/8” dowel rods are too heavy and the arrangement doesn’t suit. (There are three rods that are attached to each other on the same level.) At some point I’ll redo this, but for now, I’m working on a true mobile, one with free-floating, counter balanced rods. This one will be done on pampas grass stalks rather than dowel rods. 12-12-02 Yesterday and today I worked on the “true” mobile, but scratch the idea of using pampas grass stalks. Oh, the stalks are the right diameter and weight, but they’re so slick the glue that secures the strings won’t stick. I did use the stalks on this mobile, but I won’t do that ever again. Putting this mobile together was a delightful series of logistical problems dealing with measurements and balance. I understand layout better now having done it, and I’ll go about it differently next time, using more wildly balanced rods, but I still like this one. The mobile is 3’ deep from the top rod to the lowest saucer and about 28” at it’s widest. Here is a close up of one section. Layout starts from the bottom and progresses upward. Fine, but you have to do both sides at once, and there is nothing to attach any of the sections to on a permanent basis until the whole thing is completed. I suspect that laying it out on paper might be a better way to approach the whole mess. I had three saucers left over. I’ll use those plus the ones from the first mobile, which I intend to disassemble, and try yet another one, this one ever so carefully laid out on paper. Yeah… The world is full of dreamers. **A local poet friend, Linda Caldwell, has written a poem that includes references to teasel. This afternoon I pulled paper from some dried teasel pulp and printed her poem on it. I’ll send it to her via JimT who will see her at a writers’ meeting on Monday. 12-14-02 The proposed mobile looked so good laid out on the drafting table...well balanced, well proportioned, simply lovely. Reality set in when assembly time came. No matter how I changed the weight of the pieces or altered distances, I couldn’t achieve the envisioned piece. The “on paper” mobile was a physical impossibility. Tossed the idea of designing before making. I’m not happy even with the altered mobile that came out of the design experiment, and I’ll likely work on it tomorrow. Changing these things is interesting. Anything that is moved or removed alters the balance of the whole. It’s actually easier to tear the whole thing apart an start over. Still, there are sections I actually do like and I’d prefer to keep them as they are. Dunno. We’ll see how it goes. **While I was fooling around with the folded saucers, I tried scaling them down to make earrings, but the paper wouldn’t handle the stress. In order for the folds to be crisp and clean, the paper would have to be thicker, but if it were thicker, it would be bulky and impossible to get the creases close enough. Forget that one. Trial and error. Whatever happened to trial and success? 12-16-02 Ended up removing part of the mobile and moving two existing saucers to a new arm, which improved the looks and balance of the whole. (Sorry, no picture.) I’m running out of places to hang/put things, so I took the mobile to the Kentucky Guild office and foisted it off on them. 12-23-02 The Guild’s mobile ended up going home with the Director as a Christmas present for her brother. Made another today to replace it. SPECIAL NOTE: This is the time of year that my papermaking pretty much winds down, and as a result, the journal will wind down for awhile, as well. There will be a few entries along, but if there are not, please know that this site is not dead. It will spring back to life next March or April with the coming of warmer weather. I’ll spend the winter bookbinding. There is a journal for that. Check the right-hand column of the archive list below. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
