More etching

I'm nearly finished with the etchings for a leather bound book I'm creating (well, there will be a few books in this new series). I'm really excited to start planning the design of the cover, which I will stain and hand stitch. Time consumming but oh so fun, indeed!

Metal Etching

I've started dabbling in metal etching using ferric chloride. I'm aiming to do a series of seven images on brass and copper to use in a handmade leather book. A slow start but it's working.

Handmade equals Awesome

I'm really inspired this semester at ECU. With all the new tecniques I'm learning, I'm starting to realize that you can pretty much make anything you set your mind, heart, and hands to do. This is a simple start in my fabric dying endeavors but I'm pleased. This is long rayon scarf that I did a gradation effect to using a mix of wedgewood blue, nickel, and turqouise MX dyes.

And the winner is...

My friend Toni scooped up my Steam Punk inspired hand made leather journal as soon as she saw it. I know she'll enjoy it for a long time, it's built to last! There are other journals on the way so start saving up : )

New Dye Technique

I'm having a ball this semester in my textile classes! We learned about using MX dyes a couple of weeks ago and last week we did some acid dying. This technique is used for dying wool and silk. Here's my professor Christine Zoller showing a design she created by first twisting off sections of a silk scarf with a marble and a rubber band.

Soldering demo

It seems like everyone at ECU has a wealth of knowledge about all
kinds of things. Friday I got a great soldering demo from my
studiomate Linda. She has a blowtorch.... Cool!

Back to School

Well, the summer is over and I'm already in my second week at ECU. Whew, does life ever slow down?? Anyway, I have an extremely busy schedule this semester because I also have a graduate teaching assistantship. I'm helping out in a distant education art class. Very unique indeed. One of the highlights of this year will be working with renowned artist Bob Ebendorf . I'm taking his mixed media class called Material Culture. For this class we will be using alternative materials to make wearable pieces, assemblages, or wall pieces. I decided to use my leather scraps to make a brooch for the first project (and I'll probably continue to work with leather because I love it).
This piece is still in the first stages, but as you can see from the photos, I am using a wet form process and hand sculpting lots of tiny components that will eventually get sewn to another leather base. Stay tuned!