I decided to close the spiral so worked the border weave back up along the stakes until the weavers were expended; this has given this last piece more form. I’ve been reminded of where my inspiration for these pieces lies, by a recent visit to the Andy & Peter
I’ve continued coiling with the blue electrical wire and copper wire and enjoying the effect despite it being a very time consuming process; due in part to the fact that the fine copper wire keeps snapping so I’m constantly having to rethread and also because I am tripling each stitch
I had envisioned a change of technique at this point, however, the piece seemed to lend itself to using the thicker copper wire as stakes once again, this time by hooking them at 2.5cm intervals under the top coil. Each stake was secured to the coil by compressing it
Today I have been working with a smaller basket that I’ve initiated using 5mm diameter solid black rubber tubing and yarn as before. Introducing the thick copper wire as stakes didn’t work here as it was too difficult to pierce the narrower tubing. I intended to alter the process for
The process of dissecting cable and extracting electrical cable is both tedious but ultimately worthwhile for the array of coloured wire that I find within.
Using same technique as before (see Part 1), I’ve taken another of the coiled rubber samples and this time added some beautiful copper stakes which I found discovered by peeling some of the sturdier electrical wire I’d already acquired by dissecting cable. This process of deconstructing material to reveal
After a fruitful and fun time exploring and experimenting with materials and techniques, this research has allowed me to begin work on the installation. I am taking some of the samples worked on over the past couple of weeks and developing them further through a fusion of techniques and materials.
This time using a solid 8mm black rubber tubing, stitched with reclaimed yarn as before. Due to the heaviness of the rubber, coiling involved wrapping in between each stitch; each stitch was tripled to give the basket shape more stability. Despite this, the basket is still a little bit
My first attempt today to coil a clear T profile 1mm x 22mm rubber seal length using the previous method, (see blog post ), was largely unsuccessful due to tearing while stitching ; this type of rubber is much more delicate and requires a different approach. More successful was
Today I’ve had a go at coiling some lovely hollow 5mm diam rubber tubing, stitched with reclaimed multi strand polyester/cotton yarn. This was labour intensive but produced quite a satisfying result. There’s no hard and fast rule for starting a coiled basket, it depends very much on your material; this
