Repair Shop

The Pinwheel sculpture I made and sold a few years ago for the Alaska Botanical Garden Outdoor Art Show was in desperate need of repair. The customers who had purchased the piece told me that high winds directly off of Cook Inlet had damaged all three metal pinwheels shortly after they placed it in their yard. I originally designed the piece so the pinwheels would actually move with ease but the sculpture wasn’t designed or reinforced to move fast or continually. I used galvanized metal so the pinwheels would be impervious to the weather but was too weak. The majority of the sculpture is made of ¼” steel plate and was more than sturdy enough but the

poor pinwheels flew so fast they spun right off of their bolt mounts -repeatedly! Though I love them, Kinetic sculptures are in a whole other arena that I don’t have too much experience in. The repairs were tricky because I no longer had any of my patterns and had to re-cut and

weld three new pinwheels. At least I was able to use the old pieces as templates and guides. More importantly I feel so much better knowing the sculpture goes “home” tomorrow and doesn’t look so broken and sad!

For those of you sweltering in the summer heat how about a FREE trip to the Antarctic?! Kristen sent me this from the National Science Foundation: The Antarctic Artists and Writers Program furnishes U.S. Antarctic Program operational support, and round-trip economy air tickets between the United States and the Southern Hemisphere, to artists and writers whose work requires them to be in the Antarctic to complete their proposed project. It does not provide funds for salary, materials, completion of the envisioned works, or any other purpose. Hurry, the deadline is September 12, 2011. Here is the link.

Birds of A Feather

My latest art quilt pattern “Empty Nest” was inspired by the metal version I have plasma cut and welded before. My friend Ann gave me the idea to make an art quilt chicken pattern this week. Ann had wanted to buy the metal chicken sculpture this summer at the Spenard Farmers Market and was going to put it in her living room. Thankfully she was talked out of it and suggested I add the hen to my art quilt pattern idea to-do list. Well, this little chicken got bumped right to the top! I was so inspired that Kristen (she has great color sense) and I went fabric shopping and with her color help “Empty Nest” flew the coop! I’m going to work on the vector file and pattern instructions this weekend. I’m finding that designing, cutting and piecing, whether it’s

in fabric or steel are very similar. Trying to give each piece some movement or illustrative style in both mediums is also important and a fun creative objective. The challenge for me working in fiber is the use color –I’m still working on being color brave.

The "Hawk" commission was completed this week too. I told myself that I needed to cut and

weld steel the majority of the week before I could even start on “Empty Nest!” If I don’t work by some “Cindy Rules” in the studio my production schedule would go out the window. Sometimes, I get so inspired that I want to ignore my regular work and can get so caught up in the timelessness of inspiration that a lot of other important work suffers and more importantly, so do my bills. So, before I even went to the fabric store with Kristen, I told myself that I had to have the Hawk which is approximately 50” long, cut and welded -well. No rush-rush, hurry-up work either. We could go fabric shopping ONLY after I put the finish clear coat on the Hawk and it was drying! It felt good to have such a productive week full of all kinds of

various projects and Kristen being able to help me. She packaged pattern orders, made Gallery trips with me, made deliveries and was a huge help in the studio. And speaking of flying the coop and Kristen…my sweet studio assistant and eldest offspring flies back up to UAF tomorrow ~sigh~ we’ve had such a wonderful Holiday together I’ve actually gotten used to bumping into another body in the studio! I’ll miss her and I know she’ll miss the brain break as she returns to wrap up her thesis work in 20 below zero winter weather. Thanks sweetie for all your help and FUN these last couple of weeks!