Untitled from hbare on Vimeo.

I took a video of myself making paper the other afternoon!
I made about 25 good sheets of abaca paper: I overbeat the abaca for about 8 hours. The old beater in our studio doesn't really do more than saturate the pulp fibers because the blade height can't be adjusted, but the paper still ended up being delicate and translucent. We're getting a new beater at some point this spring. Look out, world!

This past week I worked in the metal studio welding beast armatures! I have been MIG welding 1/8" rod together and angle grinding the joints.
I'm glad to be back in studio before classes start. I've been hanging the beast's torso on a giant hook and strapping on the lower limbs - taking massive amounts of real estate. Next steps: fitting the limbs onto the torso in some detachable way, adding wooden limb-ends (feet), and testing out paper skins.

The first photo is the back leg + torso.

Hello! Sorry for the semester-long radio silence. It was pretty busy!

I took an amazing class (perhaps the best of all time): Natural Systems and Plant Ecology. It was in the landscape architecture department. We met every Tuesday, Sunday and one Saturday to learn native Virginia flora. These photos are from our Saturday trek to VA beach's First Landing State Park: cypress knees and beach grasses!

* I'll post some pictures of the journal we did for the class too - drawings of every plant & descriptions.