short stories and everyday objects

Trompe L'oeil Home and Life

something about implied closure

something about implied closure...and if it's not real, give it time and rest; a forged peace.

we use what we have to make what we need. 

vessels we use

words without vessel of idea, these letters i save for you
stripped to lines and re-created in the image of:

Portfolio Slideshow

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Iced Coffee Vessels for Cold Brew System

Iced Coffee Vessels for Cold Brew System is constituted of a reusable filter, a gallon jug, and hand drawn instructions. The system is meant to be easy to use and to cut down on the economic and emotional tolls your local coffee shop takes

the business cards i designed

deliver me from what i want

After a Place in Kansas

hand bound journal, embroidered with a William  Morris style sugar skull. 

Merriam stops by, looking for cash, maybe once a month around four. She brings her nicest things. The first time I meet her, the words stretch and hang from the scab at the corner of her mouth.
She has really nice things. They're worth more than I can give, but she is in a hurry. Merriam doesn't have the time that I have. She's on her way to mass. 

Weltanschauung:

a particular philosophy or view of life of an individual or group

Week one was on color, referencing Josef Albers's Interaction of Color and his theory that "colors are governed by an internal and deceptive logic". 

I provided the class with some basics on the color spectrum, theory, and subtractive mixing. Some of it held, and some of it went out the window, appropriately enough.

We used kool-aid to dye wool roving and made some amazing colors. Like a nervous dummy, I forgot to take pictures, but am hoping to get some when the class is back in session.

I wanted to start with the word weltanschauung which, in terms of Josef Albers and color theory, means a common vision. In terms of the class, it's a unifying theme, propelling the trajectory towards the final technique instilling a totemic thesis.

This was my first time teaching and I'm not a super linear person. I don't know if starting with color, and a group philosophy was an appropriate jump-off, but it felt right, and we didn't dwell on it. I hoped to create an ambience, and something to reflect upon before class two. 

The entire class was spent using the different flavors to make straight colors, mixed colors, and over dyed lengths of roving. (I bet you're really wishing to see these colors....it will happen soon). 

There's a lot more to be explored in the arena of Kraft Services Kool Aid product as a dye method, but I was emphasizing the experimental aspect, the internal deceptive order of color, and for time's sake.

My instructions come from experimenting, and following other internet people's instructions, but if you have any questions feel free to  direct them my way: chyatt320@gmail.com

In the mean time, shauen and I will type out my instructions and reference links, below. 

Dyeing Wool Roving With Kool-Aid:

supplies: 1/3oz wool: 1 packet of sugar free kool aid, heat source, heat safe container, water, soap (synthrapol, or any other non-abrasive and unperfumed detergent)

directions: 1. empty packet of kool aid into heat safe container and add just enough water to dissolve the packet

2. add wool, add enough water to cover wool, and mix the two with a gloved hand so color spreads evenly (as possible)

3. heat container to boil (it doesn't hurt to leave it over, but keep an eye on it. it's non toxic, but you probably won't like the smell of burning wool). 

4. turn heat off, cover the heat safe container

5. let cool for 30 minutes *if the water isn't clearish, you may want to repeat the process from heating for the wool to soak it all in and allow to cool, again

6. rinse roving, starting with a warmer and similarly temperatured water, and working to cooler. add synthrapol and carefully wash it out, attempting to refrain from felting as much as possible (unless that's the desired effect)

7. hang to dry (or set on plastic bag)

To the right are samples of my initial experimenting and the colors I arrived at from the flavors I could obtain. 

I'm teaching a class at the Orlando Pottery Studio!

It's a class I designed based on Wool, and the many useful forms it can take. It's a six week, six session, 3 hour per session, class. Each class includes a new method, correlating with a concept and an artist. There will be dyeing, spinning, wet felting, needle felting, weaving, and repurposing...oh! and book making. The more it evolves, the more excited I am...keep reading in the coming weeks...
(link to Orlando Pottery Studio, and course description linked, below)


to the left is the cover of the packet for the class, with all the fathers and mothers of wools: angora, cashmere, mohair, qiviut from rabbits, camels, muskoxen, goats, llama, alpaca, sheep. 

where there's a wool, there's a way

How Are Living Things Built?

"My father stooped to my level, his eyes glad, 

My mother had names for some and could recognize them by the way they walked

Now I realized how much leaving them had cost me.

through the vast, dirty kitchen, and out the back door. As I started I saw that it must be a paradise.

easy exit.

Pigeons will nest in trees, but they don't like it. Their large sloppy nests fall out of the branches at the first good wind.

the male brings his motley collection

the female sits inside the chosen place

devoted parents care about their nesting place more than anything. And I could see that they simply watched my approach, craning their necks this way and that to get a better look at me.

'Hello,' I called softly"

I felt better than I had in a long time. I was going to like this place. "

With Nothing Left to do....

     The Little Skeleton began as an homage to Frida Kahlo, and Dia de Los Muertos. As a woman familiar with, and brilliant at expressing loneliness and pain,  Kahlo's life and work opened my eyes to an aspect of our culture that is hugely amiss. We are uncomfortable people who don't want to talk about bad things. I envy older cultures, more mature and brave in tradition.
     I created the Little Skeleton's image and a one line explanation, hoping to evoke discomfort, but also a fondness for the character that would conquer the discomfort.
     People began to inquire about him, and that encouraged me to tell his story...
     The Little Skeleton is abandoned by life, too quickly, and left in the wrong season at a theme park. Going through the motions, without an animate friend or guardian, he is not so much trumped by rides and games without operators, as forlornly playing until he just moves on. He plays every game and rides every ride, but it's not what it's supposed to be. Then he departs.  It's not meant to depict suicide, as the little skeleton is already dead, but I guess the imagery is a bit macabre. It seems to me he was just born that way, more a sad symbol of the loneliest thing: being a child with no play mates, in a space that's usually filled with color sound and company; everything with him is just a bit off.

      The story book is hand dyed, embellished, and screen printed with my original drawings. I made eight copies and have two left, available at   The Little Skeleton

Encyclopediae

"we live in an era of terrible preoccupation with presentation and interpretation. Sometimes people strive to abide by the strictest etiquette, but in the process behave inappropriately." -a dictionary of modern American usage


I made a couple reference books from altered books.
Both bindings are similar, coptic, with the biggest paper and
folders I already had for the book block.

About Animals has my collection of animals from land sea

and air. They're arranged not exactly according to the Carl

Linnaeus' binomial nomenclature. Mine is a little more esthetic. 

Dried Plant Material and Other Lifeless Forms contains

plants, rocks, and flower arrangements. Both books are meant

to be references for my bouquets, and stitchings. 

Grandma Party: Orlando FL

This year, using cut paper and stitches, I created the poster for the annual event called Grandma Party. It's held in Orlando FL at Stardust Video and Coffee (1842 Winter Park Rd.), and many craft makers, artists, and artisans have booths and sell wares. (Generally December, the week before Christmas, each year).

she smelled like a Four Roses factory

This a cursory example of a coptic bound, pretty raw book. I made two for friends who tend bar, and needed a place to keep their recipes. The cover is a repurposed book, and the insides are graph paper, lined on back. They each have a moniker placard, some tabbed cards to use at will, and elastic to close, with an envelope for recipes written, on the fly. 

an excerpt from Music for Chameleons by: Truman Capote

Dear, please deal with the negative space I left

     It started with a ledger I found,

preserved in its original plastic, to

make a home planner/vision for a 

friend.  

     Using text books and other cut-outs, 

I provided things native to his land, 

leaving space for adding and subtracting. 

     The subtracting part is important,

so rather than glue, I sliced the pages

with a utility knife (trying not to cut 

the next page), and placed the cutouts' 

corners in the slots (remove at will).

     My favorite feature uses three 

similar layouts to the house, implying 

a garden using velcro on certain 

spaces on the plots, and providing a 

library of plants of varying sizes and 

colors, with velcro on their backs, in 

the envelope. 

Practice Makes Perpetual Motion

      

     I made this journal for one of a very few people I know who keep track. Memory is difficult... 
    I began keeping a daily log of one liners, but it's only a slight hint.
    Anyway, this is a repurposed elementary school "practice book". The book block (above) is coptic bound, and glued to the covers by the end pages at the beginning and end of the block. The covers are joined by more of the repurposed purse leather. The leather is concealed between the back of the front cover and first end page, and comes around the back cover. The spine has a spot to index the book. 

"The instant of petrified violence that sometimes foreruns a summer storm saturated the hushed yard." -T. Capote

for a friend who understands the petrified violences in the yard before the storm, and the other kinds.

The Analog Nature of Planes

A repurposed book, originally from 1929,  I gutted this copy of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. Using leather from an old purse I connect the covers by using a Japanese Stab Binding design and waxed thread. The inside pages are blank and are made from old white paper bags, cut to make pages, while maintaining their creases. There are no end pages because the beauty of the original book deserves display, and the Japanese Stab binding is exposed with the wear of the purse leather.  

You look so strange as a continuous wave
Reaching and sweeping
The valleys were our all night diner and you were always up in the air
Have you heard of wait and see? These things take time
and all the other cliches
I was going to show you life as a full object, not the dispensation of memory
I wanted the momentary beauties to approach infinity
Don't medicate me; it can't be that bad
and all the other cliches
Let me be specific
I am in literal hell while you run a marathon through the pathos of your past
I spoke with the devil, (his proximity not at all coincidence), and he let me in on it
Regret is his irony, and distraction his imitation of beauty. 

The Hard Part is Over

To know you and not believe in you is a peaceful acquiescence to heritage, while wanting more from now on.

Deconstructing Truths

I'm trying to stay current, and it isn't easy.

The era of the love letter gave way to this: a tip not a throw...back
Anticipate the absence of show; a hidden timing that is not private
Turpid and Teflon, the language of intimacy is also a crime without reprehension.