David Mesple's Craft Project 2

This is my other craft project, but it isn't quite finished.  I took a class in peyote beading 15 years ago and this was a project I designed on paper and always wanted to make.

Peyote beading is an off-loom beading technique practiced in many societies that never had contact with each other, from Africa, the Middle East and the Americas.  It's advantage is that the beading does not need to be applied to a material as you make it (later it can be if desired).  It also works on a hex pattern which can reduce the square-edged patterns common in loom beading.  It is also possible to increase or reduce the number of beads so that concave or convex forms can be overlaid with them.  African drums called Shaker.

I was fortunate to have quite a few beads available to me because my late mother-in-law did some beading.  Despite her Native American heritage, however, she never attempted to do peyote beading.  I took a graduate beading class at the University of Northern Colorado.  At the time, I was supplementing my college teaching with stints in the public schools and was required to keep my teaching certificate active by taking additional graduate coursework.  I just couldn't face taking a theory class (I had been a teacher for 15 years) so the course looked interesting.

As has often been the case in weaving and crafts classes, I was the only male student.  I never understood this because these classes were really mentally challenging and valuable.  I could never induce men to take these classes, though there are many men who have excelled in these media.  Honestly, I generally get along better with women than with most men, so I was not disappointed.

This design was an attempt to use a non-Western beading technique and apply it to a Western motif.  I chose the snake in the garden of Eden with an apple in its mouth as the pattern.  Snakes appear in Native American iconography in an upright position, and in Western African spirit-religions, the flying serpent is one of the most powerful deities.  I use Czechoslovakian beads in the background areas because they have a Raku-like iridescence.  I repeated the snake pattern on this very small fetish bag (just 5 cm. wide).  It takes more time than you might think, and as I spent my last weeks completing the guitar I also made, I pooped out on this project.  My intention was to make a necklace band using the same background beads using the peyote beading method.  As you can see, I didn't get this done as I started to run out of the Czech beads needed.  I need another 20 hours to finish it and attach it to the other side of the bag, because I did not know of a secure way to put a clasp mechanism into the necklace, and fetish bags often hand low enough on the chest to allow the bag to fit over the head.

Here's my semi-completed peyote bead fetish bag:

End of class

As the class ends I want to thank James and David for going the extra mile to bring music into our class.  The instruments look beautiful and I know the sound must also be grand. Thanks to Corina for sharing her heritage and healing knowledge. How exciting to see Nigel try something radically new and for Debbie to return to a memory. I expect to see more from each of you  down the line. And Diana, your kids did a beautiful job. I hope you will be able to come some summer and spend three weeks on YOU and YOUR work. You deserve to have time for yourself. Maia your take on the project is unique and interesting in its ability to combine various conceptual aspect of art while still using "craft" material. ( Maia is working on transferring images from her laptop to this site....keep checking in).

I hope all all of you keep this book as a reference and a source of inspiration for years to come.

Enjoy your summer.

Future

David Mesple's Craft Project #1

DAVID MESPLE'S Craft Project

I come from 4 generations of professional musicians.  I began using woodworking tools at age 3.  Shortly before he passed away, my grandfather, a college Voice Professor and choir director, told my mother that he'd only seen one "untrainable voice" and it was mine.  But I was/am very musical and play woodwinds, love electric guitars, and play the blues on them.  My grandfather gave me adult carpenter’s tools at age 5, which I still own and use today. (I am completely self-taught).  

I have built some simple guitars, but wanted to push my hand and machine skills farther, so…I decided to make an electric guitar.  My design was driven by the woods I had on hand, ideas I had tossed around,  and parts I purchased used on eBay.  The headstock was loosely based on Native American iconography, inspired by a Floyd Rose headless guitar (left) which I redesigned with maple and walnut (right):

I have sent Future a Power Point on this project which you may ask her to send to you.  Next came  body design, starting with a scrap of walnut (which dictated the shape), I overlaid it with hard maple& cut splines, then glued in thin strips of South American massaranduba.  Finally I routed the body to reduce weight and permit the installation of pickups and other parts:

  

Next came the addition of a rosewood top, a very hard wood that was extremely difficult to cut and sand. Alignment was critical to get the most color variation and keep the mirrored pattern effect:

All the separate pieces looked like this:

attaching the rosewood top and adding the electronics and hardware:   

I even got  to use the hand tools my grandfather gave me 60 years ago!

And here is the finished guitar, less 12 more coats of nitro-cellulose lacquer:

This was huge amount of work, but I can honestly say it was the most creatively rewarding thing I have done in 3 years of doctoral studies.

Thank you, Future!

Soap Making as an Act of Resistance and Reclamation

            I have been making my own soap for about four years now, as well as my own deodorant, toothpaste and laundry detergent.  My goal was to weed out endocrine disruptors in my life and improve my health.  The art of soap making has allowed me to have agency on my own health by using what is accessible to me.  This art form has also allowed me to reclaim my ancestral knowledge of Curanderismo, which is healing through natural herbs and oils and other practices.  

I began making laundry detergent to repurpose the soap shavings from sculptures my students were working on.  I found a recipe from the documentary, Chemerical (2009) and began making my own detergent.  As I learned about endocrine disruptors, I began weeding out as many products as I could from my routine. So that is where my reclamation to ancestral knowledge becomes an act of resistance, reclamation, and agency.

Curanderismo is part of my cultural heritage, even without realizing it like: drinking lemon and honey for a cold, using aloe vera to heal cuts, or even using marijuana infused alcohol for arthritis (my dad would always have a bottle of this).  This is health care for minor chronic illnesses.  This indigenous practice comes from various locations that have an abundance of curative plants.  My ancestors come from Nuevo Leon, Mexico, and in the southern regions there are villages that don’t have access to health care that rely primarily on this ancient knowledge to be passed on generation to generation.  My great grandmother, Teofila Puente, was said to be a curandera, a healer, as well as a spiritual healer, a Guadalupana. Reclaiming this the practice of curanderimso has given me agency by making products that have healing properties in my soap.  This knowledge gives me control over my own health. 

My soap is old fashioned lye based soap.  For the materials in these three batches I am using coconut, cottonseed (because of West Texas), olive, and vegetable oils for my base.  Typically, I use tallow, but I went vegan for this soap.  

  

The first batch is Oatmeal Cinnamon soap.  Cinnamon oil can be used for soothing rheumatism and for regulating menstruation, and also an aphrodisiac, (Editorial Época, 35)(Torres, 126).  Oatmeal is soothing for the skin especially for tumors and abscesses, (Editorial Época, 28).  Vanilla is also known to be a stimulant, aphrodisiac and to stimulate menstrual flow, (Torres, 156). This soap smells like an oatmeal cookie, and is I love how the bits of oatmeal act as an exfoliant. 

My second batch is a Jasmine Rosemary soap.  I collected and dried jasmine flowers from my shrub a year ago.  I also added eucalyptus oil which is good for inflammation, (Adrian, 12).  Rosemary stimulates the scalp, although this is primarily body soap, (Adrian, 25).  It also regulates menstruation, soothes rheumatism and headaches, (Torres, 150)(Editorial Época, 86).  Rosemary is also good on the skin to prevent wrinkles and to eliminate blemishes and freckles, (Torres, 150). I added absolut rose essential oil to give it a more floral aroma and complement the rosemary.  The rosemary leaf bits and jasmine petals give this soap a nice exfoliant. 

The third batch is Lemon Lime Oregano soap.  Oregano as a tea regulates menstruation, is an expectorant and kills intestinal parasites, (Editorial Época, 78)(Torres, 146).  Mexican Oregano is used as an antiseptic, (Torres, 146).  Lemon juice is used externally to beautify skin and remove blemishes, (Editorial Época, 68). The oregano flakes turned black in the soap, and some of the zest turned read, so it made for a slightly more beige yellow color soap.  

The process of soap making is a ritual and is for the most part all consuming.  It requires concentration while measuring the ingredients.  It is also requires months of preparation to acquire necessary supplies.  Silicone molds are the best vessel.  I would like to one day make my own molds, but I cannot incur the additional cost of that right now.  Soap making is a messy process that requires a lot of space and good ventilation.  Some of the healing properties of the herbs, teas, and spices I use for my soap have much more beneficial healing properties when they are taken as a tea, but some of those healing properties will be absorbed by the skin in lesser amounts.  When I add ingredients to soap, I never really know how they will effect the soap, or what color it will change to.  I like to keep my soap natural, not adding any artificial ingredients.  

 Before this course, I did not think of soap making as an art form, and I also had a skewed view between art and craft.  After seeing the emergence of craft from the nineteenth century flourish into the twentieth century, I have a completely different perspective.  After watching a few series of Craft in America, and seeing each artist talk about their work, their heritage, and their craft.  I can say that I see through a new lens.  I have even seen my own practices through a new lens and have learned to appreciate soap making as art.  

Bibliography

Adrian, Ann & Judith Dennis. Herbal Tea Book. San Francisco: Health Publishing Co., 1967. 

Editorial Época. Recetario Medicinal Azteca. D.F., México: Editorial Época, 2003. 

Torres, Eliseo “Cheo.” Healing with Herbs and Rituals: A Mexican Tradition. Ed. Timothy L.          Sawyer, Jr. Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 2006.   

Debbie Caillet's Final Project

I am so imbedded in public education, especially elementary, that it is difficult for me to remember the art world outside my busy classroom. Having taught elementary art for twenty years, I have thought of nothing else in those quick years. My mind is so in tune with their thoughts, abilities, needs, and what they are capable of I seldom think of art on any other level. I guess you can say I have given my students every ounce of passion for the arts I possibly could share with them. So it seemed befitting to me to naturally include them in the process of my semester project. I value their expressive line, their spontaneity, and their unabashed approach to creating art. While I originally planned to focus on my first love: bookmaking, I was inspired by another culture’s art making and decided to marry two styles of art making together: Mud Cloths and Quilting

African Mud cloths are rich in tradition of the Malian culture of Africa. Bogolanfini is the correct term for mud dyed cloth. Essentially the men weave the fabric and the women dye the fabric in a bath of leaves to prep the fabric. Then a series of fermented mud layers are painted one at a time to create a pattern. The layers become darker and darker. The fabric is then washed and the opposite areas are bleached white. I discovered the men are the mud cloth makers but it is still mostly the women who make sure the tradition is handed down to their daughters and sons. There is something about this time honored craft that reminded me of the American tradition quilting. Early on quilting, Latin for stuffed sack, was a resourceful way to stay warm on chilly nights and it was not long before women put effort into designing blocks and became skilled craftsman. Quilting was then taught to the daughters and handed down to future generations becoming a family heirloom.

Both are similar in their use of fabric, creation of pattern and worked by hand, but I found a deeper connection after some research and reflection. Both fabrics’ similarities are parallel in time and place. I found the words protection, historical significance, community describing the foundation these two cultures shared with their fabrics. I wondered what the textiles of other cultures were. Did every culture place significance on a fabric and elevate it to the status of fine craft? I am reminded of Austrian artist Gustav Klimt who created many paintings representing the family cloth or quilt. Like the Malians who wore the cloth as protection when hunting, Klimt’s quilt represented a protection from sickness and death. Both cultures came to hold their fabrics with highest regard and used them as a symbol of status, skill, and eventually fine art. As time progressed, skilled artisans emerged combining colors and patterns for their inherent beauty creating a common visual language of design.

After studying mud cloths and the line designs and symbols of the Mali, my students chose to draw an African animal. They used many of the symbols and patterns used by the Malians. We used clay slip as mud and I added a little blue and black paint to give it a darker look. Using toothpicks and broken paintbrushes the students painted their designs on muslin fabric.  In the next phase, students discovered American quilt making through books, online photos, and PBS series on the Gee Bend quilters. I told my students that we would be creating a tufted quilt design using their mud cloths as the central theme and that I would quilt the border with my sewing machine. Our quilt would be a collaborative wall hanging.

I chose a tufted quilt design because I did not feel right sewing over their art on the muslin. First, we laid out each piece and worked together to choose the best place for each animal. I pinned each into a row and sewed the rows together. I selected a black fabric with a grey swirl pattern to give a little decoration since the muslin was so simple. I edged it in flat black. Quilting on my sewing machine at school is easier since it is a new machine with many features but since I am not a skilled quilter, I still had challenges because I was not quilting over the animals- just the border. I eventually got into a rhythm on the machine and although my stitches are not consistent I felt I did a decent job in all. It is a little wrinkled from taking it home to quilt. I am going to try to steam it carefully.  

Meaningful discussions between students about our journey in discovering, learning, and working together to create a communal work of art help them realize that not all art is singular in nature. Art can be valued, appreciated, created, and shared together.

Diana's Final Project - Crewelwork

Arts and Crafts in America 

Spring 2017 

Craft Project 

I have such fond memories of family and craft from my childhood.  So much of the female conversation and time spent together on my Dad’s side of the family was accompanied by needlework of some kind.  My grandmother did crochet, and my aunts were always involved in either needlepoint, crewel, or cross-stitch.    My aunts shared their knowledge with me and I was involved in this craft from about age 12 forward.    

In my first year of college, I connected with some art students, and I began creating my own needlework designs for gifts for friends and family.  I continued doing this for quite some time into my 20’s and early 30’s.  Then life got busy with other goals and responsibilities, and I stopped working with this medium.   

This class brought all of those memories and experiences rushing back, and I realized that I had wanted to work in the needlework crafts again.  I have some needlepoint projects from years past which were never finished.  In addition, some that were finished but never framed.  Therefore, I am more motivated to complete these projects from the past. 

When I began to think about what project I wanted to do, I was simultaneously cleaning out my garage in preparation of a move.  I found some things from childhood, and even a crocheted vest that my grandmother had made for me when I was about six.  I also found some of my art from elementary school.  My first idea was to create something from either my childhood or my daughter’s childhood.  I kept leaning towards my own though.  This train of thought caused me to decide on the cloth of denim for the surface of my work, which is representative of the sixties decade.  I was also interested in The Makers book to find out that denim made it's way into America by means of a curious woman doing needlework! 

My main idea was to get back into needlework and to refresh my memory on the different stitches and ways to work.  I found some Persian yarn from decades ago, and I bought some needles, and found my Stitchery book.  I also used google and did a little research first through the internet and at JoAnne’s Fabric store.    

My idea evolved into creating some kind of sampler.  I did not want to plan too tightly and just wanted to experience the medium again.  I was hoping to re learn some different stitches that I used to have memorized.  The first stitches were not planned at all.  In addition, the stitches reminded me of fireworks, which made me think of my son’s July birthday.  Truly, the project idea evolved from some associative thinking.  My denim piece was large enough to accommodate 12 circles.  I thought that I would begin with July fireworks and work my way around the calendar with sample stitches, and seasonal themes.  I want to complete the circles with a kind of abstract representation of the month of the year that I am sewing.  Circles represent time, eternity, and wholeness to me.  A kind of completeness, in the cycles of life – and I like the way that the repetition of the circles look on the denim. 

When I complete this, it will make a nice size “throw” if I finish it by quilting the piece.   I was also thinking of future grandchildren – and something for them to cozy up with while learning the months of the year and the seasons of the year.  That is a future thought though – I am not a grandparent yet.   

My first challenge was threading the needle!  Seriously – this was a problem.   My eyesight and my finger dexterity is not what it used to be – I am in my fifties – and aging is not for the faint hearted!  I bought several kinds of needles, and still was having issues.  Until, I humbled my pride and went to JoAnne’s Fabrics and asked for help.  I had even tried to use those “needle threaders”, and had watched a YouTube video – still with no success.  A kind older woman at the store showed me how to use a cut up and folded post it note to solve my issue of getting the yarn threaded through the needle!  Eureka!   Then I was off to be able to work on this project.  I did some research and found that a darning needle would best fit my needs for the crewelwork.   

I have not completed as much as I had hoped to by the end of the course.  Cleaning, remodeling, painting a house, and moving my kids and me to a new place for the whole month of April and into May, interfered with my progress.   

I am going to stick with the idea of the 12 circles representing the 12 months of the year, and viewing this as a sampler.  I have never quilted before – my only experience with quilting came from finishing an edge of a postage stamp quilt that was handed down in the family.   I have an aunt that can help me with the quilting part in the future.   My goal was to complete as many circles as possible during the course of the class.  My eldest daughter and son in law just bought their first home – and it is a beautiful four bedroom on a half-acre of wooded land.  They are planning on children – maybe more than I realized!  Therefore, my hope is to have this project completely finished and ready for the first grandchild! 

 

Working at the old house

Beginning stitches

Fireworks in July

Working in our new home!

Second circle represents Water in August

James's Final Project

Crafting Rhythms

About eighteen years ago, I hand carved three drum shells from reclaimed willow wood. I was living in Arlington, Texas and had taught art for about four years. Prior to becoming an art educator, I drummed for various bands in Waco and Austin. Being a new teacher, husband and father did not allow much time for a band, so I began playing hand drums. Through happenstance, I was contacted by a man who told me that he had seen my paintings in a gallery. He was also an artist and wondered if I would like to meet and talk. The man was from Nigeria and was a drummer. We became quick friends. After he helped me repair a talking drum I owned, I became determined to create my own drum. The process was labor intensive and somewhat technical, but in the end I had three different sounding drums. Around that time, I purchased a set of Moroccan bongos, which are ceramic with natural skin heads. Since then I have wanted to make a ceramic darbuka drum. Now that I had a potters wheel and kiln access, I was ready to make one.

I made a simple sketch of the drum shell that I wanted to create. I was not too concerned with decoration at first, but I wanted to make sure that the form was pleasing and that it produced a good sound. Darbuka's need to make a deep bass (DOUM) and a sharp treble strike (TEK).

I had not thrown a large form in a while and misjudged the amount of clay needed to pull the shell in one piece. I decided to create the upper bell and the lower cylinder separately and then combine them. It worked out well, and I ended up with a shell that had the basic size and proportions that I wanted.

There are many different traditional styles of goblet drums with ornamentation varying from simple color to elaborate patterns and inlay designs. I found myself leaning towards a more austere surface, using blue and black glazes to echo the shells structure and a loose, lavender glaze to contrast and incite feelings of improvisation.

Traditional darbukas have a goat skin drum head, so I purchased a 14 inch skin from Amazon to cover my 9 in diameter drum shell. The extra skin is needed to gather and tighten the head. Applying the head was the most time consuming part of the creation process. The skin had to be soaked in order for it to be pliable. During soaking, I prepared the cord, which is used to secure and tune the drum. The cord was three parts, a bottom ring of knotted loops, and a two part top system where one ringed cord holds the skin in place while a second pushes them down over the ceramic shell. Between the top and bottom a very long cord is strung through holes I punched in pairs around the skin. It travels down over the top cord, then to one of the bottom loops and back to the next punched pair. The process is repeated for each of the twelve knotted loops. Once all of the loops are connected, the slack is taken and the drum head is made taut. 

After tying the cord off, and braiding the extra to create a handle, the skin is allowed to dry overnight. I played the finished darbuka for several days, trying to find all of its voices and to decide if it needed further tuning. The drum had a good ringing bass and treble sound, plus various effect depending on how the head was struck or muffled. Overall, I was very pleased with the visual and functional character of the drum.

Having created something that is both visually exciting and useful is an powerful experience for me. The coursework of our craft class has helped me understand, through the history and struggles of other makers, why I am drawn to craft-work. The Makers book has given me a fuller knowledge of craft and its possibilities. As an artist, I have honed my resolve to explore those possibilities and as an educator, I will work to endear artistic and functional crafting to my students.