So, I did work on…

So, I did work on art yesterday, though most of the day ended up being more about paperwork. By evening, though I was happily puttering away, finishing a few different projects. The one to the right is entitled "radio-astronomy", with text taken from the interior of a very old poem of mine:

fluttering wings against wind --
song-dances of souls.

song-dances of souls;
only imagined whispers
in the moondark hours?

in the moondark hours
radio-astronomy
lights the far spaces.

lights -- the far spaces
of the city weep crystal

It's very much influenced by the work of Joseph Cornell, whose gorgeous shadowboxes always capture me when I visit the Art Institute.

I'd like to build more shadowboxes, using bigger boxes so I can do more even when I've added an interior light (I love having that light in there) -- I'd also like them to have more layers, so that I can do partial frostings of the front glass, for example, to add depth and mystery. I was tempted to etch part of this, but couldn't come up with anything coherent that I was sure I wanted, so I decided to leave it as is, at least for now. If it doesn't sell at WisCon, I can always futz with it more later. :-)

(And yes, if that paint color looks familiar, it's because it's the same color as my bathroom. Have to be frugal with that leftover paint, you know...)

These should look familiar, if you've been reading my journal for a while -- it's another set of coasters. I've done poetry coasters before, but this time I've added some refinements on the design. I've printed the text on transparency paper, and then cut it to exactly the size of the glass squares that it's sandwiched between. This is a huge improvement, because it lets me dispense with glue to hold the paper down, giving much more clarity to the pieces. I have yet to find a craft glue that actually dries as clear as glass, though many claim to dry clear. The pieces are wrapped with copper foil to hold the two slabs of glass together; now that I know how to solder, I've soldered those. This doesn't actually add any structural stability in this case, but I like the glistening silvery look of the solder, and it does eliminate the subtle-but-visible seam where the copper tape overlapped itself.

I don't actually love the little silver wire holder I made; it's pretty enough, but a bit wobbly. What I'd ideally like to see this set in would be an open-topped wood box, with openings cut down opposite sides so that you could lift the coasters out. They sell things like that for coasters, but I haven't seen any that are the right size for mine. Again, if this doesn't sell at WisCon, maybe I'll take a stab at making such a thing, though I think I need more power tools first. :-)

The poem is "gold rose dust" -- a simple treatment with gold leaf.

And this last one was just fun -- I staped some gold sari fabric onto some forms that I got at the art store (designed for framing, I think?), sewed them together with red embroidery thread, and then drew mehndi patterns on them with red glitter glue. :-) Silly, but cute, and I think it'd look nice on a wall in a South Asian-style room, something with elephants or lions and lots of gold and red. :-)