Happy Print Table Day!

Check one more thing off my list of things I'd have in my dream studio: Last week, Elisabeth helped my build my very own print table! So much yay!! Pray tell, how did we accomplish such a feat? Well I'll tell you.

Lucy and I had already prepared a table-like structure using a plank of wood measuring 2' x 5' and the build-them-yourself saw horses. A proper print table is slightly higher than a normal desk or eating table so that you don't have to ruin your back bending over while you print. Ours is about 36" high. Because the legs of the sawhorse are at a completely indeterminate angle (shhh) there was some complicated/fuzzy math that happened in Home Depot that completely baffled both ourselves and every single employee we tried to ask for help. (Why is it that everyone who works there seems to be dumb as posts? Maybe it's having to sell posts.) But we succeeded in the long run and scampered home with our wood.

I ordered enough carpet felt to cover the wood table top twice and when it finally arrived in the mail... we got to work!

Step one: trim corners of felt and stretch it around the wood. Secure with staple gun.

The lovely, talented and tireless Ms. Elisabeth Roskos!

Step two: repeat with second layer of felt!

An actual conversation I had with the woman who sold me the felt:
me: "do you know if the felt is made entirely of wool?"
her: "well... it's felt."
me: "right, but I was wondering what the felt was made of."
her: "felt. It's made of felt. Reconstituted, factory leftover felt."
me: "riiiight. Nevermind.

Step Three: Repeat with canvas! In this process, I learned a few things about canvas. Those canvas drop cloths they sell at Home Depot? NOT 100% canvas. We were about to start stretching it onto the table when I noticed a tag that read "warning: FLAMMABLE. Keep away from heat." And I was like hm... on of my favorite things to do on a print table is iron... which seems a bit dangerous if the table is covered in 43% polyester and coated in a flammable coating. Blast! Thank goodness I'd already ordered a bunch of natural 100% canvas for bags! On with the stretching!

Wonky corners. Don't worry, you can't really see them.

Then we placed the newly padded top onto the sawhorse legs! I am now the official owner of a fully functional print table!


That looks a little like an imperial walker.


Right?!

These cocktails were called "the bee's knees!" They tasted just like summer. It was uncanny.

Out for a quick celebratory dinner at Lula... and then back to the studio, batman! We have printing to do!

I love pinning...

The first print:

Ok, so clearly I get a little nervous and carried away there what with the million passes... but yay! Happy First Print in the Burrow! Huzzah!

Now back to business...

Some seriously Nora-style printing. At least one of those Elisabeth took off her body to print.

The Burrow Studio Productions

Before I start this announcement-filled entry, I just want to take a moment to celebrate the fact that this is my 100th entry! Yay! Happy Birthday, blog! And it only took me 2+ years. Ok, onto the news.

***************************************************

I never thought I would be the kind of person who moves around a lot, but I can't seem to help it. Last week I listed my 10th address on Netflix. It's a little unsettling (unsettled? Pun intended) to repack the same boxes every June and spend the summer months traveling only to find myself homeless every August.

This summer, the only difference was one of scale: instead of moving across town, I moved half-way across the country. And now I'm a resident of Chicago, IL. So why did I move away from all my lovely friends in Philadelphia? Love, Life, Friends and Itchy Feet. And while it was sad to leave Philly and scary to land in Chicago I keep having to remind myself that every move I've ever made has been worth it. Change can be terrifying but with it comes new possibilities. And I want to be the kind of person who gambles big.

So at the end of my summer frivolities I loaded my truck and headed west!

Yeah, I packed it pretty tight.

A very angry Ripley was my road-buddy!

I share my new apartment with Lucy Knisely, the brilliant comic artist and author of the graphic novel French Milk (and other autobiographic comic collections!) It's a beautiful and sunny space on the third floor. We have windows that look out in all 4 directions and because we live on a tree lined steet it's a little like living in a tree-house. One of it's other perks is the ample studio space! (Swooon!)

One of the scariest things about moving to a new city is the prospect of finding a job. Although a few of the teaching jobs I had hoped for look like they will pull through, after a TON of deep contemplation I've made the decision to try to eke out a living by my craft. Eeeeeeeeek! Right? I mean, really scary: there's NO guarantee of income and the studio start-up costs alone are pretty unthinkable! But that's the plan: I'm going to produce a new line of products and sell them via Etsy and local craft stores.

I announced this terrifying prospect to my new studio-mate and, somewhat to my surprise, she immediate exclaimed: "That's great! Let's start a home studio!"

And so, I'm proud to introduce the new collaborative home studio of
Nora Renick Rinehart and Lucy Knisely:

THE BURROW!

The Mascot: Ripley and Linney locked in an eternal tussle.

Like I said: the space is amazing! I've never had so much space to organize my studio supplies (that wasn't also my bedroom. Actually, with a studio space for most of my stuff my bedroom is pretty sparse.)

Lucy working in her studio nook.

The room is built with two sizable nooks, each with windows and lights, with enough floor space for a work table and a large closet for supply storage.

Thread! Beautiful beautiful thread...

Swoooon.... I had a blast organizing all of my supplies!


Unpacking all my familiar desk stuff...


...decorating the studio with Lucy...

I'm a little addicted to collecting paint samples. I may have spread the addiction to Lucy.

...and integrating our two felines into the space!

This photo is IN NO WAY indicative of how they get along: there's usually quite a bit more hissing involved.

They certainly do look good in the space, though!

I'd call it more of a brownish gold.

And to top off all of this wonderfulness? The west-facing window by my desk has an amazing view of the sunset. So much swoon!

This week has been a lot of unpacking, cleaning and getting organized; but there's no time to dawdle! If I'm gonna make a living at this, I've gotta get to making stuff. The first wave of supplies is ordered so next week: print tables, prototypes and photography. Stick around!

Snow Farm 2010!

This summer marked my fourth year teaching at Snow Farm Summer Art Program for high-schoolers! And it was awesome as per usual!

(This is a stuffed dino-dude I made for a staff collaboration that was never completed. Which was fine by me because this guy got to hang out in my studio all session!)

My studio assistant of years past was unable to return to camp due to getting a job running costumes on the set of Conan the Barbarian in Bulgaria (seriously). So I called in my good friend Liz to fill the position:

(Shown here holding her "worlds best liz" trophy made by artist Heather Beck.)

Liz is a spectacular fibers artist and textile designer as well as being an absolutely splendid person to teach with! We started the session with dyeing and shibori:

(MX Chemical dyes and Indigo! Check out those sweet Arashi style, Indigo dyed t-shirts there on the end!)

I've taught this class four times now but this summer really made it clear that I have to think of a new assignment for the dyeing/shibori. I've been having students make samples, which is something I love to do, but they seem to have a hard time connecting the tiny pieces of brightly colored cloth with the rest of their projects: they're just not that excited about them. I'm always left with a ton of abandoned samples at the end of the session. I've been working on some ideas for how to make the first few days of dyeing fun. Part of me wants to have them do a whole new assignment that would tie into the screen printing... or maybe just having them jump in and start by dyeing a t-shirt... I'll keep brainstorming for next summer.

After the dyeing we moved onto screen printing!

(Miriam helping Lauren print her print exchange image: lace!)

When I was in college I always wanted to participate in the print making department's print exchanges but they seemed skeptical because I was printing fabric instead of paper. But print exchanges are awesome! So I have my students participate in our own exchange.

(Caleb and Simon printing Caleb's Dali image.)

The assignment is to design an image to fit inside an 8" x 8" space and to print a set of those images onto dyed fabric squares measuring 10" x 10". I try to get the students to think about color, contrast, use of space, images/symbolism, text and directionality. The hope is that making a set will be enough practice with printing and registering that they will be able to print however much they'd like to for their final project.

(Caleb, Lucie and Joni exchanging prints.)

We had a pretty good critique about the images in both my morning and afternoon class. The students, although a bit hesitant at first to talk about eachother's work, had some pretty insightful comments. Critique is something I struggle with at Snow Farm: there is so much work to do and not a lot of time for discussion. As my syllabus evolves it is another thing I'm going to designate time for.

(Many of the prints as they were hung in the end-of-session gallery.)

The third and final project of the session is the flat-patterning and sewing of a three dimensional object or garment. Early in the first week of class we take a field trip to the local (HUGE) Salvation Army so that each student can start thinking about their final project. Then, they learn how to take their garment/object apart, lay it flat to create a pattern and then recreate the garment/object out of their own dyed and printed fabric. In the process, they also learn how to operate a sewing machine and sew a variety of seams and hems.

(Liz with her deconstructed garment.)

This summer we had a couple of dresses, a few skirts, a painterly corset, a pair of dapper vests and an extremely awesome handbag! I'd like to see more students choose to make objects instead of garments but whatareyagonnado.

(Joni was clever enough to pick a simple garment. Which meant that she, unlike some of the rest of us, had ample time to complete her project. Nice work, Joni!)

This is definitely the most challenging project of the session and it's a project that I think needs to either be altered a little or made the main focus of the class. I like doing the print exchange a lot but I realized this year that as that assignment has come into it's own more, the garment construction has lost a little bit of time. Which ends up meaning that many students don't have enough time to finish their projects.... which is a bummer. Next summer I hope to have a set of assignments that fit better into the two week period.

(World's Best Liz demonstrating the Map Project.)

I love fiber art for a lot of reasons but one of the biggest is that it inherently carries with it history, culture and the weight of global economies. For that reason, I try to infuse my classes with discussions about textile history as well as the ramifications of a fashion-based culture that treats cloth as something that comes from H&M and can be disposed of as soon as the season changes. Which is false! Cloth goes through so many process to get from the plant or animal to the clothes we buy for super cheap and there are hundreds of individuals and environmentally detrimental steps in between!

Last year I started a project to initiate conversation along these lines: I bought a huge world map and, at the beginning of class, had each student place a pin into the country that produced the garments they were wearing.

(The morning class "mapping their clothes:" Ronni, Sarah, Rachael, Miriam, Lauren.)

The project helps to remind us that the things we take for granted come from somewhere real. It also acts as a great geography review: I have to admit that even I had to google a couple of the countries/regions that produced our clothes! But seriously... highschoolers should know where Nicaragua is. (They do now: lots of pins in Central America.)

(Not so many pins in the US.. but thanks to American Apparel we got a bunch sticking out of LA.)

I love teaching... but I also really love the all-camp field trip! This summer we went to local glass artist Josh Simpson's studio:


... and then we went to MassMOCA which is one of my favorite art museums ever!

From the Material World: Sculpture to Environment exhibit:

Tobias Putrih, Re-projection: Hoosac, 2010.

Orly Genger, Bog Boss, 2009-2010

Michael Beutler, Lightning Generation, 2010
(Actually... a detail shot of the piece next to the window. I really liked how the textures of the sculpture and the space related to one another.)

Alyson Shotz, The Geometry of Light, 2010

MassMOCA is semi-permanent home to the largest collection of Sol Lewitt wall drawings in the world! They installed it last year in it's own wing of the spacious museum:

It's pretty amazing. If you get a chance: go!

Back at camp... Snow Farm theme nights are some of the best. This year? Pirates!

(Arrrrrgh, mateys!)

(So goooooood.)

(The piratey staff of first session, 2010.)

(Arrrrrrt camp? Pirate camp!)

And as always, the end of the session brought on a flurry of last minute staff screen printing! It's secretly my favorite part of the session: staff members bring clothes to print on and we have a farmhouse printing party all night long! I think we counted around 40 printed garments in one night this year!

(Me, Rumi and an armload of t-shirts.)

I am so lucky to have found such an amazing place to return to every summer and reconnect with smart, funny, supportive artists. I have a lot of friends in my life in the city(ies) but for some reason spending two weeks in the woods with the Snow Farm staff recharges my battery: I leave feeling motivated and excited and capable. Which is sooo important to me seeing as, for some reason, I also always seem to leave Snow Farm in some state of homelessness. This year, having just moved to Chicago and feeling a little nervous about it, Snow Farm was especially reassuring. It felt like home. :0)

Thanks, Snow Farm, for another amazing summer!