newly crumpled

A new way to crumple! Well new to me. I am sure serious crumplers know all about it. I have found very little instructional information so it's an assumption, but a pretty safe one i think.
It involves turning the thing inside out repeatedly and creating a fold each time. These ones are made with sewing patterns, and wax.



Previously my crumpled things had all been variations on the technique used for the piece in my last post.

exchange (Bundanon)

Hisako was very interested in the origami crumpling i was working on at Bundanon. She gave me some of her calligraphy that she said was 'practice' or 'mistakes' to make 'something new.' So i dyed the paper and made it into a crumpled piece. Had no wax (or saucepan for the wax) at that point.

We ended up deciding that some workshops for one another would be a good idea. Hisako taught us about calligraphy (shodo), which, i discovered, is extraordinarily difficult,though very enjoyable. Sunanda and Dhaneshwar gave some cooking lessons. And i did origami crumpling. Which was a bit of a challenge because i'm still learning.



In my Bundanon studio; Sunanda Khaduria, Dhaneshwar Shah, Hisako Tsuzuku and Hiroshi Tsuchiya. Unfortunately i didn't get any close-ups of the pieces that we made, but you get the idea.

It took me a few days to figure out exactly what it was i was doing when crumpling. I showed everyone how to make a simple 4 pointed form, like this -



The fewer the points, the easier; four is also visually effective and often looks better than eight or sixteen. But it's enough to be interesting, and the structure can stand on its peaks, or in the outer 'arms,' like the one above.

By that stage i had found an old saucepan in Sunanda's studio and had bought some wax during one of our weekly trips to Nowra, so we dipped the pieces in wax, and i assisted with the shaping as the wax hardened. I was very impressed with everyones work, and they were all rather pleased with themselves, and i was quite pleased with myself, too!

Hisako became quite devoted to crumpling, this is one of the pieces she made later on, with a bit of help with the wax -



I was very taken with this one, so took a few photos.
Hisako's enthusiasm was quite a thrill for me, I had the feeling that maybe, just maybe, i had played a part in another artist (one i greatly admire) finding a new way of working, a new avenue to explore.

I am still working with Hisako's 'mistake' calligraphy, she was very generous! Some as collage,
some 3d things. At some stage there'll be pictures.

sketchbook slideshow

dirt paint

Bundanon is very sandy. A nice grey sand, though sometimes red. I collected some to mix into a kind of paint, with a bit of paste and glue and sometimes a bit of gouache. Made a nice texture.

For this book i used some of my 'dirt paint'.

The photo below sort of shows the sand, peeking through river stones and casuarina needles.

the paper garden

Something i enjoyed doing while at Bundanon was a series of temporary miniature sculptural installations in the bush, THE PAPER GARDEN, made of paper (of course). I would have liked to do some more of that sort of thing, but had other stuff i needed to work on. I would like to do something similar in an urban setting, so i'm keeping an eye out for good spots.

the real world

I'm back! Had a fantastic time at Bundanon and now i'm exhausted. I think this is a problem when you take so much stuff.



This is one of a group of sculptures completed during the residency.

One of the best things about the experience was being there with my fellow residents, it was all much more sociable than i had expected. Living together in quite an isolated spot you spend quite a bit of time with one another - there are shared meals, afternoon tea (often lemon tea - yum!) lots of walks, studio visits and an occasional DVD on Hiroshi's laptop.
I was fed a lot, mostly by the two artists i shared a kitchen with, Dhaneshwar Shah and Sunanda Khaduria, from New Delhi. Not only talented artists, but very good cooks. And very good makers of lemon tea.

The other visual artist was Hisako Tsuzuku, a calligrapher whose work was wonderful. We did a workshop with Hisako, after which i developed an even greater respect for what she did; japanese calligraphy is very difficult!



From the left - Dhaneshwar, Sunanda, Hiroshi (Hisako's partner) and Hisako.


This photo was taken the day before Dhaneshwar and Sunanda left. They had made us some delicious semolina, and Hisako provided some lovely green tea.

More to come about Bundanon.