Another leather scrap project! This was for keeping my hands busy between meetings with artisans in Bolivia.
ring, necklace, and earring
necklace, leather
ring, leather and bronze
earring, leather
various earrings, leather
After working with wood and fabric before, I decided to take advantage of the availability of solid wood in Bolivia to create a totally different lamp. Ivan Franco, a woodworker from La Paz, is the skilled artisan who brought these from drawings to reality. The fabric lining these lamps is linen that I dyed in a subtle color range for each.
We started with a small prototype, 9.5" diameter in pine. Then Ivan moved on to the full-scale model, approx. 17.5" diameter.
This is the largest piece Ivan has turned in his shop. He's made all his equipment by hand, and he's working on another lathe that will allow him to turn large pieces more easily.
We also made this wall sconce version... pardon the scuffs! This photo was taken after this poor lamp was dragged from bus, to plane, to customs, to plane, and to bus again.
These next three photos show the lamps installed in our exhibition in La Paz.
One of my main goals for my work in Bolivia was to find uses for the mountains of scraps left over from Cynthia Escobar's leather works. It was so fantastic to be able to grab a handful of soft colorful leather bits and play with them until something real emerged. What made this project even more engaging was that creating a product from the scraps would help Cynthia's business save money.
Using little bits of leather as accents puts a spotlight on their rich colors and textures. It also allowed us to pick and choose the most perfect spots of color and texture. The skins always include unusable sections due to defects on the animal or imperfections in processing, so the flexibility of working with small pieces helps to maximize usable material.
See more pillow photos at Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/allicoate/
Hi friends,
These past five weeks I've had the amazing opportunity to travel to Bolivia with a group of 18 design students to collaborate on projects with local artisans in a huge variety of materials including leather, wood, totora reed, alpaca yarn, bamboo... more new ideas than we could begin to explore in such a short time. With the help of our new artisan friends, however, we worked with lightning speed to develop a wide range of products by the end of the trip. We are all so pleased with the results and are many of us are making plans to return for a second dose as soon as possible!
Right now I'm working on getting myself back into the rhythm of life back in the States, unpacking (still), and working my way through hundreds of photos. Soon I will have plenty of stories and images and new products to share. Hang in there, dear readers....
In the meantime, get to know my dear friend and classmate Laurel (www.alaurelborealis.com) who is responsible for the above photo. She is amazing.
Now available in my Etsy shop: eight tree pendants for $12 each. Perfect for gifts or a little treat for yourself. Enjoy!
acrylic and fabric on muslin
want to come live on a little hill of an island with me? this is an assemblage centered on an egg carton. The skeleton of the hill is a construction of the egg cradle pieces, with a thin layer of tissue paper mache and acrylic paint over everything.
My dream for post-graduation: keeping all my friends with me!
These two pieces are responses to the question: What do you like least about being female? most? My answer to both is sensitivity. The first shows how I feel so often- controlled by my emotions- resulting in yet another meltdown.
The second shows how sensitivity can be an increased awareness of how others are feeling, and an ability to reach out to them.
This is recent work from an assignment on gender & sexuality.
These are pretty teeny- 4"x5" each. I used colored paper, acrylic, thread, and some lined notebook paper.
Good news- the leaves are finally changing colors around here. We were worrying they hadn't gotten the memo.
These pendants really are coming along, I promise! I'm hoping to update the shop by the end of next week. How do you like my high-tech spray booth?