Last week I blogged about my recent experiment with white crackle paste made by DecoArt. It was such a success that I ordered five more containers from City Art. They arrived while Steve and I were in Slippery Rock, PA for Christmas (which as lots of fun and filled with fabulous food!) I had already sealed each fiber vessel with a nice coating of gel medium ... anticipating the crackle paste. I got it on Monday afternoon and went immediately home to coat the fiber vessels. The first, experimental one was PERFECT overnight, but Tuesday morning did not have the expected results on these newer works. Steve said, "Have patience! The humidity is so high that they probably aren't totally dry." I was still very, very worried.
(Above: Detail of the crackling!)
Steve was right! Thank goodness! I couldn't fret over them yesterday. I had no choice but to wait. Why? Well, Steve and I drove to Carrollton, GA to collect my solo show, Last Words, from the Southeastern Quilt and Textile Museum. Carrollton is a little more than four hours away. By the time we got home, it was evening ... and the fiber vessels still weren't perfect. Yet, they were "almost perfect".
By this morning ... Wallah! PERFECT! It really is quite humid here in South Carolina ... and record high temperatures were set all last week (as in 79 degrees ... with some areas reporting 80! Humidity has been in the nineties.) It is nice to know that this ultra cool product is sensitive to humidity but will slowly crackle just the way I wanted it even in such poor atmospheric conditions! I have one container left and a couple new ideas for it!
Today was spent checking items off the exhibit's inventory list and putting everything away. It took several hours longer than I anticipated. It always does. This is just one of the many, thankless tasks that working, professional studio artists must do. It isn't glamorous. It isn't particularly fun but it is unfortunately necessary. Yet, it wasn't the only " arts administrative" chore on today's "to do" list.
(Above: Rolls of art quilts headed to another Last Words solo show at the Etherredge Center's art gallery on the campus of the USC Aiken.)
I've shown Last Words on multiple occasions. No two shows have ever been remotely the same. This coming Sunday I'll deliver another version to the Etherredge Center's art gallery on the University of South Carolina-Aiken's campus. None of the chiffon banners on which I've stitched collected epitaphs will be in the show. None of the artificial cemetery flowers are going. There will be lots fewer art quilts but seventeen "Angels in Mourning" pieces will be featured. (Some of which can be seen HERE and HERE.) There used to be twenty-five of them. Some sold! Maybe a few more might find a new home!
Your crackled fiber vessels are indeed awesome. I mean....REALLY awesome! I didn't know it was so hot and humid at the moment there. The responses left for Last Words were great...what I could read of them. I definitely think it is an wonderful, meaningful idea to be able to comment on something that touches you when you see it. I personally love doing inventories. Once, a long time ago, I regularly went to a workshop where I could re-finish wooden furniture. They were going to be closed for inventory on my "work days" so I volunteered to help with inventory!! I think they thought I was pretty crazy. After all, who volunteers for that? I can just imagine how much fun I'd have if I could help with YOUR inventory!! Happy New Year
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