Elyse Shapiro Studio Progress Mar 5-11

Studio Progress Update for Week of March 5^th- 11^th

This week, I spent a great deal of time perfecting the imagery for my postcard, in addition to working on my thesis paper. While I would have liked to get more physical work out of the way, these things needed to take priority, leaving me with less actual studio hours than typical for me. My postcard imagery is taken from the first lighting fixture stencil. I photographed it on a light table to ensure I was able to see all details through the stencil. This week took additional time to entirely rewrite my thesis. Because it has changed so dramatically since my first draft, I had to simplify my ideas and make them easier to understand. This week, I also spent time meeting with the curators for the final show. I have decided to show my work on north campus in the Slusser gallery. As I was drawing diagrams, it became clear that the Work Gallery would be unable to accommodate my needs. I am interested in showing the pieces in a dark place to ensure the viewers are able to see both the shadows cast by the pieces, but their extreme attention to detail as well. I have also decided that my pieces do not need the unnecessary and seemingly impossible addition of rotation for the pieces. Rather, I am going to have the pieces in the center of the gallery, allowing viewers to make full trip around them and see every side.

In-studio hours, week 9:

Monday- Photograph imagery for postcard 11 AM- 2 PM (3 hours)

Tuesday- Rewrote thesis 10AM- 4 PM (5 hours)

Wednesday- Bend metal in cold metal shop for lighting fixture 1 2PM- 5 PM (3 hours)

Thursday- Edit thesis 2 and collect photographs for thesis 10AM- 3 PM (5 hours)

Total: 16 hours

Elyse Shapiro Studio Progress Feb 20- 26

Studio Progress Update for Week of February 20th to 26th

This week in the studio, I spent the majority of the week slaving over my cutting pad with an X-ACTO blade at hand. I spent a great deal of time developing different textures for the various graffiti pieces found throughout the Detroit area and compiled together to form a fictional, all encompassing building. After countless hours in the studio, I decided the stencil was finally complete, but that required me to strongly alter the initial “stamp” image. The “stamp” imagery that is intended to be printed on vellum had a lot of extraneous details that had the potential to be disturbing to the viewer. I am eager to finally get the vellum printed for the second lighting fixture and apply the two layers together to see their cohesiveness.

In-studio hours, week 7:

Monday- Cut stencil 2 10AM-3PM (5 hours)

Tuesday- Cut stencil 2 8:30AM- 4:30PM (8 hours)

Wednesday- Cut stencil 2 6PM- 10PM (4 hours)

Thursday- Cut stencil 2 and edit torn spots 1PM- 7 PM (6 hours)

Friday- Work on vellum for stencil 2 1 PM- 3 PM (2 hours)

Saturday- Work on and finish vellum for stencil 2 10AM- 4 PM (5 hours)

Total: 30 hours

Progress Since Spring Break

Before break I went to Professor Rodemer's electrical equipment where he, along with Jan helped me figure out some technical details for my installation. During this time Jan recommended I contact an inflatable artist that previously did work at U of M. I went to her site... http://www.patoleszko.com/ and contacted her via email. She was able to answer several questions of mine that concerned materials and fans. She also informed me that she is coming to Ann Arbor around the same time as we are setting up the IP installation so I am hoping to meet with her before the show opens!

For my next inflatable design I wanted to create something that would be much more simple to sew together compared to my last piece that I still need to go back and work on. I am planning on making these three tube like structures that you see on the left. They are a representation of a dream I had where I boiled these dead birds in a pot and then they slowly became brightly colored worms. After I figured out the design, I needed to calculate how large each structure would be and how much fabric I needed to purchase. My calculations are shown in the image on the right.
This is more math of me trying to figure out how much fabric to buy (image on the left). After I figured out how much fabric I needed to purchase I then needed to figure out the sizes to cuz the fabric on the zund knife cutter (image on the right). Even though I am only cutting the fabric into strips for this design, I still want to make sure that each piece is the exact same size.

I called the fabric store that I have been getting my material from and decided to purchase white nylon rip stop so that the bright colors would really pop off of the white. I made sure to text the textile paint that I plan on using for this design on some of the same navy nylon rip stop I had purchased for my last inflatable. The paint seems to really hold to the material so I think it will work ok.

While my fabric still has yet to come, I made sure to create illustrator files for the Zund knife cutter and make an illustrator for the design I plan on printing onto these inflatables.

This is just a screen shot so it is relatively blurry but this is the design I created in illustrator that will be screen printed onto the rip stop. It is modeled after Roy Lichtenstein's dot pattern found on most of his work that reminds me of a comic book. The dots will be the three colors that i remember the worms being in my dream; orange, pink and red. I thought this design my emphasize the the ripples that worms have when you look at them up close.

This is a close up of the design. It will be 12 inches wide and I made sure to put the design in repeat so it would be easy to print. I also talked to Sherri to make sure the dots weren't too small to use a photo emulsion screen.

So far, I have borrowed fans from the fibers studio so I looked into renting vs. purchasing fans. I also sent out a mass email to the IP group seeing if anyone had any lighting or fans I could borrow for the exhibition. Few - no people responded. However, I found out that target has the best selection of fans with a 90 day return policy. So, my plan is to purchase the fans and return them after the show ends. As for lighting, emailed Jeff Alder, a U of M faculty member that works at the Dude on lighting and stage setup. I was informed that I will not be able to rent the equipment I thought I could from the Dude and that Jeff would be able to help me "make" the right lights I need. Hopefully he responds to me soon so I can figure everything out.


Logged Hours:
First off, I have been having a difficult time with the scanner and that is why I was not able to post my work over this past weekend. Luckily I was able to get it to work again and finally post. However, after spring break, it is hard for me to log my hours during that time considering I was on vacation.

Monday: 4 hours
Tuesday: 6 hours
Thursday: 4 hours
Friday: 5 hours
Sunday: 5 hours

Total: 24 hours

New Schedule for the last month:

Week 1 (March 11-18th)
-try and contact the Michigan theater program or dude center to see if I can rent/borrow industrial lighting equipment
-figure out if I should make a photo emulsion screen or laser cut design onto paper
-cut fabric using zund knife cutter
-sew material
-make photo screen

Week 2 (March 18th - 25th)
-Finalize all lighting and fans
-figure out what fabric to put on the end of each worm
-go back and fix 2nd hanging inflatable

Week 3 (March 25th - April 1st)
-last minute touches on inflatables
-think of additions and entry way for installation
-how to secure attach fans to inflatables

Update 3/4/12-3/13/12

So I've been busily carving away and completed my wallpaper blocks last night including sealing them to be ready to print.

I've cut down most of my paper to prepare for printing the wallpaper this evening as well.

I researched a couple recipes for making wheat paste including a video instruction that seems promising: http://video.about.com/interiordec/Make-and-Use-Wheat-Paste.htm

I'll be doing some tests at home to make sure it goes on smoothly as well as can come off the wall.

I've come up with a couple ideas for the raccoon block but that still needs to be flushed out a bit.

The hours for this past week:

Somewhere over 20 hours carving

1 hour cutting paper

5 hours sealing

Everything since spring break

OK! So since spring break, I have printed my entire first zine, designed a lot of my second zine with plans to print by the end of the week/weekend, and hammered out a lot of things with my show. In terms of the exhibition, I've found my cabinet (whew!) and I've planned out how things will be laid out. I am going to be getting the advertisement together this week after I talk to Michael Rodemer tomorrow about technical things for the show that I need answered. I've been drawing like crazy for the next zine, and here are some in process images from all that jazz.

Hours:

Monday: 2

Tuesday: 4

Wednesday: 4

Thursday: 3

Friday:  5

Saturday: 4

Sunday: 7 

Update for the past month

This post consists of an update for the weeks of: 2/12, 2/19, 2/26, 3/4, and 3/11
Instead of showing hours I figured the best way to show what I have been doing is to show images of my progress.



The rhino model that I made- the concept was to use one sheet and drape it in a manner so that the fabric itself acted as the table top and leg at the same time.



cutting of the full scale model itself.



Attempted to see how the concrete cloth would drape by testing out thick felt. Looked somewhat promising.

Spring Break.



With the help of Parisa and Kayla I tried to see if the fabric would wrap around the model in different ways. That failed.



Testing of the actual fabric to see what simple shapes I can make. Also testing to see the strength of the material. After it hardened I stood on it and it didn't crack one bit!



Another sample test.



After all this I have decided to make an indoor/outdoor chaise lounge. I have realized that I will need to work with other materials including concrete cloth inorder to create my furniture. My revised thesis is that I want to showcase the lightness of the material and its ability to be indoor and outdoor. I have done market research and do not believe that there si a successful chaise lounge that is both visually pleasing and has these attributes. I plan on routing my model this week and purchasing teak to start building. I have also decided to make a simple coffee table to go with it.

That's all for now!

Progress 3/12

Since I forgot to log my hours for the week before Spring Break, here they are. Most of that week was spent getting ready for my critique on Thursday, and assembling the first part of my second quilt, which currently looks like this:

Hours:

Monday, 4-10pm (6 hrs)

Tuesday, 10:30 - 1:00, 1:30 - 6:00pm (7)

Wednesday, 10:30 - 3:30 (5)

Thursday 10:30 - 12:30 (2)

Total = 20 hrs

Since I ran out of one of the fabrics for my second quilt, I've gone back to working on the first one this week. Much of my time was spent tracing and cutting out more pieces for each of the squares, and this week I'll sew them together to create more squares.

This week I also made a number of squares that are smaller in scale. They're 1/4 size of the regular ones.

Lastly, I worked on deconstructing the piece that I had showed at the December critique (my first quilt). I reworked my design for that quilt, so I'll need to take apart each of the individual squares so that I can reassemble them in the new layout. Therefore, I've spent a good amount of time with my seam ripper this week...

Hours:

Tuesday, 10:30 - 11:30, 1:30 to 4:30pm (4)

Wednesday, 4:00 - 7:00pm (3)

Thursday, 10:30 - 12:30, 3:00 - 5:00pm (4)

Friday, 3:00 - 7:00pm (4)

Saturday, 1:30 - 5:30 (4)

Sunday, 4:30 - 6:30 (2)

Total = 21 hrs