A matter of scale

This used to be a teaching sample that was crude and not useful, so I had taken it out of rotation years ago. I finally took apart the kozo bark thread (it was dyed with cochineal but obviously not mordanted!) and then re-wove it into what began as a basket and now is a button. Very curious about what garment it will eventually grace.

I have been so fortunate to meet Stephen Yusko, a fantastic metal artist and blacksmith who has a long professional career in making museum mounts. After he made some excellent duck stand prototypes for me, I had a sudden realization that he could make a mount for my hanji lamp that for years has never made sense to people. This is because the last bit of it was missing: the candle inside that proves it was an ancient flashlight for palace guards. My teacher had a metalworker in Korea make a rough one for me but I was so NOT taken by it that I left it behind. I showed Stephen pictures and explained what I needed, and he did the job quickly even when he has a million other things on his plate. It's beautiful! Granted, we won't light the candle in the museum display, but now it makes sense.

I leave soon for Atlanta to install and open my show (next Thursday is the magic day).

Also, someone wrote up a nice piece on joomchi artists. Always nice to see people put things in context. Now that the whirlwind of shipping my Atlanta art is over, and I'm hopefully on the recovery end of a sudden spring cold, I'm back to work on art for D.C. and planning the next bit of travel. Though I have to admit that the travel never really ends.