halfway...

I have not posted...or exercised...or read the New Yorker...or vacuumed...and I only cleaned the bathroom when it was too gross not to.  This is what I have been doing:

It is a horrible iPhone photo, in a dark house and there is no where for me to lay the whole thing.  But it is 12 feet long.  And painted.  And nearly stitched.  I still have one last thread mass to sew on at the top right.  But I can see the end.  

Another terrible image, but still.  Each of the thread masses are between 8 and 13 inches.  I think there are twelve masses.  Now I am on to this:

I have four different hand gestures and five of each hand.  They are plaster and painted with an acrylic wash and then I add the pattern paper on top.  I won't be painting the paper...but I will be covering portions of the fingers and hands with masses of hooks and eyes.  You can see a couple at the finger and thumb ends.  When the hands are finally installed, there will be thread masses stitched between the hands.  There is still so much to do in two weeks, but I am beginning to feel like I can pull it off.  

Can't do it all...

I realized just before Thanksgiving that there was no way I could get panel done, make molds of the hands and then make the positives.  I am so happy to have found the Anurag Art Studio in Stillwater, Minnesota!  I drove my plasticine hands up there a couple of weeks ago and left that responsibility with them.  I will have 25 hands for the installation when they are done.  I can't wait to pick it all up.  There will still be more work in attaching the hooks and eyes to fingertips, but I feel like I am getting close!

just working....

and stitching.  I love it.  It is my absolute favorite thing to do.  It is not very balanced in my life right now while I am trying to get this panel done.  But hopefully there will be time for other things after this goes up.  I have my helpers...

who are determined to be exactly in the place I need to be.  I have nearly ten feet now.  

I started this brighter pink thread in this one, but I am not loving it.  I have run out of two colors and needed something in a light-mid value.  This is too bright I think.  Now I am off take the orange cat to acupuncture.  LONG STORY.....

4 x 12 feet....

Is the size of a panel I need to make for my installation at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts.  I am halfway there.  Today I stitched together my painted sewing pattern paper fused interfacing pieces and finished with about 52x70 inches.  I have another big panel halfway painted, but that will have to wait until after our trip out of town.  Hopefully I can get it done next week.  

hands....

found the plasticine in my basement.  Sculpting some hands for this new installation.  Just ordered mold-making materials today.  Hope to start next week.  

I think I really like the marked up surface.  Mostly I just like pushing the clay around.  I have a couple more gestures/hands I would like to finish, and I may start playing with elongated proportions.