Wednesday 25 April 2012

Rocket Lamp and Shibori Prep.

OK. I took a few detours on the house renovations. There was an old milk can hiding in the rafters. Rusted and cobwebbed. There had been a small barn next to the stream in the early 70's. There had been a fad to keep milk cows. Poor things. It turns your stomach to think of the miserable cold impoverished conditions these animals were kept in. The dirty old milk container the only artifact left. Hardly a testimony to the hell these poor cows went through tied up in a pen in a small shack where the sun only hit a few months of the year. (At best only three hours day on top of that.)
I wire brush burnished off the rust and cut the milk can in half. Then heating it up and melting on beeswax to prevent it from rusting again. I sketched out some udders and asked my local glass blower to give it a try.  Her first examples were a wicked veined Los Vegas pink. Too realistic.

Do you know what a tequila sunrise is?
Yes.
Try for something like that.

I rigged up the glass udders and said a quick prayer for the old cow that had suffered from a fad and human idiocy. Made me feel better.

Shibori by udder light.

4 comments:

  1. working udder the light. it all looks and feels full of wonder, thanks for sharing.

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  2. I did finally get some photos of those udders, Brian. Am working on getting copies on Cd for all the tour members who can then keep or delete at will.

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    1. Hi Judy:
      It wasn't as quiet as you might think! The burn out came the week after that. I picked up everyones knit fabric today from Kurihara san. Could you send me your mailing address to: leafytails@gmail.com I will get it in the mail to you next week. The next workshop will be on concentrated shibori and katazome work making some good production.

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    2. Can,'t wait for the next one. Just give me a little time to save some more money........

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