Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Challenge Day 7

February 19, 2019 Tuesday


Process: I laid all of the bags of ties out on my work table and played with them for awhile. There were various sizes and thicknesses. I took a box of fiber washers out from my stash when I realized I needed some structure to give the ties some shape. My first attempt with both ties and washers did not work. I started again with two large black zip ties with ridges. I tied them together and started using small white ties to reinforce the black loops I created. Once I started that, I began to see how I could make a spiky pattern that created a dinosaur-like backbone with the tales of the ties oriented outside of the loop. I continued that pattern of applying zip ties most of the way around and cutting every third tie shorter than the full length. I came to a place in the loops where they were too far apart to force them together. The structure was already stable so I decided to tie a fiber washer to bridge the two loops similar to a fish eye. I liked it. Done after about 1.5 hours. It will go quicker now that I learned how to control the way I use them.

Challenge Level: 7 and fun when I got up to speed with the process

Lessons Learned: When learning something knew about a common object like zip ties, you have to be willing to sacrifice the objects while you experiment and fail and fail until you figure out how to give them a long-lasting artistic life. Give the process time and look for ways to make simple patterns and repetition until you discover the key to success. Also, you cannot re-use zip ties because you cannot take them apart once they are zipped shut.

2 comments:

  1. This one looks so festive and fun. You're certainly finding a variety of materials and coming up with some interesting pieces. I've told a friend about this blog and she'll probably stop by. She's an artist and photographer and a very cool person. Her name is Neha Luhar-Trice and she lives in Jacksonville.

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  2. Thanks for spreading the word about my blog, Lynne.

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