3 and a Half Handmade Minutes

Cold and rainy out in the studio, but gotta keep moving forward or work starts dying on the shelf.

Slip-up 2

I was secretly happy that it rained off and on today... I got to spend a few hours this morning putting the finishing touches on the greenware from this weekend and I got to watch a bit of the streaming videos of demonstrations from the pre-conference at Montgomery Community College while the rain fell here in Northern California. What a treat!

After it was over, I felt empowered to get back to work pursuing my own vision... In the spirit of sharing, here is a demo that shares peeling away paper the stencils on today's canister.

And What If I Don't

What a title of a post...


It's actually the title of the background music by Herbie Hancock and I like how it pushes and groves this video along all the way to the end. The kids and I were all pumped-up from all of the great feed back the past 2 days... thanks everyone for chiming in, the feedback really helps. We ended up spending some more time figuring a bit more of this process out. Learning to divide up and compress time is a something new for us, but we are having fun trying out a few ideas. It's not hurting that I'm learning you can buy enthusiasm for a project with the prospect of an ice cream.

This is another wack at slip stencil demo.

Paper Stencils Replay

Here's two quick blips the kids and I put together this spring showing how I create and use paper stencils. It's not a tutorial, but it gives a good idea of the processes that are involved in creating a piece.

Creating a Paper Stencil Part 2

Here is the second part of this weeks demo...

The first part is in the previous post. It shows the technique I use for cutting out 30 to 40 stencils at a time. I do this by cutting my design out of a billet of newsprint sandwiched between sheet plastic using a jewelers saw and bench pin. I can actually get 60 to 80 stencils out a a single billet if I plan my design around the cut, using both the positives and negitves in a design.

This clip shows how I apply the stencils to create a composition. It goes on to show the slip being applied and the paper being peeled away revealing the surface design.

Enjoy!

Creating a Paper Stencil Part 1

Alright... I know I've shown the process before, but shooting the pictures for these stop motion "how to" videos are how my kids are earning their allowance at the moment and I'm still learning how to put it all together.

This demo is divided into 2 parts. I know I have a hard time sitting still longer than 4 minutes, so I've tried to keep each clip relatively short.

I've got lots of question marks with these videos, but my big question right now is... Does it need sound? I have my stereo blasting Miles Davis and Trombone Shorty while I'm sitting around slapping these videos together, so I assume that everyone else sitting at their computer has their own trax playing in the background.

Self doubt and second guessing always seems to lurk in the shadows, luckily it rarely keeps me from having fun!