Technical Process: In Process Work

Research:

     At the Malton Gallery I observed the work of a former peer at DAAP, Emily Sites. Her work inspired a lot of things for me involving my sculptural work. She explores metal forging and welding along with the sewing of stretched fabric to her work. 

     Ernesto Neto, an artist I previously did a blog on created a piece which seems to have striking similarities to what I am attempting to create.

How To:

     As I have posted in an earlier blog regarding my forging and welding processes I explained how I created my sculpture representing both a the form of a chandelier and jelly fish. 

    In sewing fabric to metal, first choose a fabric which reflects your intentions and begin stretching and sewing. I have begun attaching fabric to my metal sculpture by using a needle and thread. It is a rather difficult process, the fabric must be stretched very tight or it will cause rippling in the fabric. Around the curves of the metal rods, it is very complicated to prevent such rippling. 

     Furthermore, hemming the edges of the fabric is a very interesting process. The fabric was rolled tightly to cause tension throughout the medium. I stitched with cross hatching creating the hem to form a border.

Technical Process of Forging Metal

In forging wrought iron metal, the artist must first saw the rods to the correct sizes. Most wrought iron initially comes as extremely long poles which are approximately ten feet tall. After preparing the metal to the accurate sizes, the metal must be inserted into the already lit and burning forge. The wrought iron must stay in the forge for several minutes until the metal is red hot. Once red hot, the metal can be carefully removed when the artist is properly wearing the correct protection (i.e. protective jacket, safety glasses, pants and heat resistant gloves). The wrought iron can be bent on the anvil but either monotonous hammering or bending on the slots available of the anvil. After the metal is formed in the desired shape, cool water must contact the metal until it has stopped steaming. Then the artist is capable of handling the now cooled metal while still wearing protective gloves.

Here are several images of my latest wrought iron creation. This piece will be covered in a stretchy mesh fabric, illuminated from within and suspended at eye level. This work in progress in far from completion, the end product will be a piece with derived inspiration from by Ernesto Neto, Lee Bontecou and the form of a jellyfish and chandelier.

Here are some rough in progress photographs to give you further understand of the design. Current size: 3 x 2 x 2 ft

Here is one final image to give you a visual of the size.