process post: Suspend

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I found this rusty weird-ass chunk of wire in the backyard of a house in Albuquerque, & I knew right away it was gonna turn into something like this. When I tucked it into the basket to go out to the woods yesterday, it told me its name: Suspend.

Not a lot of framing on this one, so we start with the wire & the two seaglass pieces that form the main part of the design. I wasn’t sure what I was doing with the rest of it until I got out to the woods, even though I spent an hour or two the night before thinking about it, while trying to get to sleep.

Sometimes you just need the wire in your hands, though, before it tells you what it wants to be.

The seaglass pieces are surrounded by shapes in thick copper wire -- a spiral, a spiral triangle, & two zigzags. Each has a loop at each end.

I got to play with SHAPES & it was FUN.

Then I hammered them all flat & tapped em with the round end of the hammer to make em all dimply.

One of the best parts of this job is that basically I get to be five.

More copper shapes: a squared off spiral, an s-curve with extra curves, & two long, shallow s-curves. All have been hammered flat.

Looking back, I’m kind of surprised at how close I stayed to the arrangement I worked out here. Especially considering how much I had to tweak last week’s piece!

Figuring out how to attach everything took some messing around, too, but I got there.

One of the zigzag pieces has been attached to the clothes hanger wire by thinner copper wire that winds through the loop at each end several times, & then around the clothes hanger wire.

I had a bit of a problem with the top seaglass piece …

The seaglass piece is wrapped in copper wire such that it has a loop of wire sticking out from each side. Each loop is attached to one of the shaped copper pieces, but the seaglass is hanging so that the edge is towards the camera.

… but it turned out to be a pretty easy fix.

Yes, my finger is holding the seaglass piece in place, but also I've made another loop at the top of it with thinner wire, which will hold it right once I've attached that to something else.

no, not holding it there with my finger *exasperated sigh*

That’s where I hit the ‘forget to take more pictures until I’m done’ part of the operation.

It's done! All of the copper pieces are attached to the clothes hanger wire & to each other or to the two seaglass pieces by thinner copper wire that spirals around the the clothes hanger wire.

I am REALLY happy with this piece. It’s wild, it’s random, but it’s got a balance to it. I’m seeing influences ranging from 80s school folder covers to Neolithic European pottery. It’s gonna be a PAIN IN THE BUTT to get good pictures of.

… as witness.

I hung the piece on a ponderosa tree to get a picture. The dark clothes hanger wire is nearly the same colour as the tree bark. The seaglass & the copper show up pretty well, though.

Enh. I’ll figure it out. Or someone might buy it before I need to take more pictures. It’s happened before.


This was posted originally to my Patreon, a little over a week ago.

If you want to see these posts sooner, & not incidentally help support me & my cats in our travels & such, the way to do that is to sign up as one of my Patrons for as little as a buck a month.

I’d REALLY like that.

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