A sneak peek (ha!) at the piece I'm working on for Artfest. Think woodsy mythical stuff. Attendees can bring two pieces to display and possibly sell... ooh, I hope someone wants to buy it when it's finished. I only have so many flat surfaces to display my art here. Someone needs to take this home.I was looking at the work so far all day yesterday, and this part of it just wasn't meshing yet. I'd incorporated a plastic syringe (no needle!), and it looked interesting, but not exactly part of the whole. So I pulled out my Dremel tool (whoo-hoo!) and cut up some smaller syringes (again, no needle) to add to the roots. I'll need to tone down the part of the root that goes over the edge, though.
I twisted the yarn you see dipping into the picture from the top, and attached it. Then it started looking more like something.
The Husband wandered by and said, "Wow." So I waited warily for him to elaborate. He added, "Now it doesn't look like you just stuck a syringe onto it."Thank you. That's what I was going for.
I'm really starting to get the idea behind securing elements in an assemblage piece. When I took Michael de Meng's class back in October, he explained structure in assemblage. Gluing one element to another is fine, and sometimes all you need. But usually the elements work better together when you make one part of another.
So you could easily use a strong glue like E6000 to hold heavy-ish things together. But the piece has more structural integrity -- and will last longer -- if you drill holes and then bind them together with wire, for example.
Assemblage also forces you to consider weight distribution. If you give an art doll a metal head, but its body is hollow plastic, you could make the elements stick together -- but the doll probably can't stand or even sit upright on its own. So you'll either have to reinforce and weight the body down somehow, or use a heavier material for the body.
And there you go. Boys and girls, remember to wear your safety glasses when handling a rotary tool. And if you drink, don't drill.