You Are My Specimen; Let Me Take You With Me

A Pocket Album

let's move on

from trying to recreate the moment with the watusi and the grappling hook

by the time I attached to you

you fell through my colander like a fistful of sand

years passed

before I came home to find you crawling through the window of my new address

while my frame scraped your spine, we grew embarrassed in our own ways

Materials For a Photo Booth Pocket Photo Album: old book, box cutter (or x acto), glue (preferably archival), some durable paper (for the spine, and inside), straight edge

I found this Centennial Pocket Album at a thrift store on a trip to Brooklyn.

I liked the idea of a pocket album so much that once I altered the original, I decided to make reproductions.

I think it's simple and low cost enough that the process is worth sharing. Start with an old book. Cut the spine and all the pages away from the book.

Separate front and back covers into three equal pieces each. Slice the edge away, and peel it off (it doesn't necessarily have to be the existing spine, but it is a convenient marker).

Burnish the underlying layer to make it smooth for the next step.

Take two facing pieces from front and back, leaving a quarter inch of space between them. Then, put glue, (I use yasutomo nori paste), down on the raw edges of the spine, and put the durable paper over the paste, leaving the two pieces as square as possible. Gently burnish the pasted edges, and let them dry. Fold the edges of the durable paper to the inside, and fasten them there with more paste.

The left picture is the original Centennial Album. The end paper in each the middle and left picture is the durable paper cut to the full length and width of what you're left with. Then, two strips of any miscellany can be pasted at each of their end edges (the middle of the strips left without paste, so the photo booth album pics can slip in and out, easily).

An Element Plus an Element

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My Third iPod Case

Made from a wide woven ribbon, and a rectangular piece of cloth that would not fray. Hand stitched, windows reinforced with hand stitches, sides enclosed with a decorative stitch.

Screen Printing How to: #1

Here is a slide show, documenting the building of a screen. It was supposed to be the first in a series, but I ended up moving to Australia. I may, some day, continue with it. But it's not the pressing matter it once was.

slide show

Ghost Images: Making Plans and Impressions

Image Transfer and Planner Making

The things you'll need:
Gel Medium (gesso or mod podge also works; gloss or matte), a palette knife (spoon, stick, bone folder, letter opener, or paint brush); papers, envelopes, exacto knife, paper clips, labels (if you want your image transfer to be a planner); an image (xerox or photo copy); a place on which to transfer (fabric, wood, paper, etc.; this will be the planner covers); not pictured: bowl of water and brush (wide sponge brush works best)


The Steps to Take
1) Coat image with medium, using palette knife, turn over and place on transfer surface, brandish with palette knife handle (or bone folder eq.), and allow to dry thoroughly (overnight is safest, but hair dryers work, or heat)







2) Once the image is completely dry, wet with sponge brush and water, and carefully peel paper off. You can use the brush to remove most of the paper, and can roll the remaining debris with fingers.







3)Once the paper is mostly removed, coat with gel medium, and allow to dry



4)To begin making the planner, measure holes evenly along either the top or side edges of the front and back of the planner. Use an awl, or a nail, and smooth with sandpaper. Poke the holes from the face to the inside.
5) Cut planner papers, hole punch evenly with holes on the front and back covers. Use two pages as end pages, and with a thin paste, glue them to the inside covers.
6) In order to connect it all, use binder rings (found at any practical office supply store); size to needs.



The End

You can label tabs with a typewriter, to section off your parts.

Nomad 2029

Felted 3-dimensional robot. Made from 100% natural wool roving, hand carded for a mottled, green metal/marble effect. This robot was meant not to stay in one place, so he is generally accompanied by instructions on how to go about giving him away, and how to make another to also give away.

Nomad 2029

How To:
Begin with the instructions as a loose guideline. Make your own robot or revamp the one you have now. Rewrite these instructions clearly enough to get the point across. Give the robot and the instructions away.

Materials:One set of felting needles
6 oz wool roving
A soft form to felt around: Styrofoam for flower arranging, panty hose stuffed with batting, anything soft enough to poke your needle in without breaking it and that you wont mind covering (size 10x7x4)

Instructions:
Make forms into the shapes you want
Felt the pieces individually. Do this by taking wool roving and holding it against the form. Tangle the hairs of the roving by pushing them into the foam with the felting needle. Be careful, the needles are sharp. Cover the form completely. Felt around all the pieces
Connect the pieces in your desired final form by using extra roving to felt them together.
Once you have the completed form put together, you may decorate it by using wool and your needle around or through the objects you wish to add.
Once you are satisfied with the form you’ve created it, give it to anyone OR sell it to a charitable individual with deep pockets, and give the money away.