Okay. So I have been compiling ever-growing lists of both materials and imagery that may make it into the final piece for the Studio Art Quilt Associates’ Radical Elements exhibition. Jill Rumoshosky Werner, ‘Curator to the Stars,’ as she calls herself, has encouraged us to go far and wide in pursuit of our radical elements to replace the fabric and thread in our ‘art quilts.’
Remember, my element, samarium, is used in nuclear reactor rods, cancer treatments (both curative and palliative), and is magnetic. I have also found that it is used in the music industry–in guitars, headphones, etc. (Go figure.) I chose it as a play on words with ‘samaras’ or maple seeds, the imagery I use in one of my series. Here is the list of possible materials and/or imagery to date, in no particular order:
- gummy silk throwsters waste, silk roving, rods, and coccoons (for silk ‘paper’-making–all can be painted or dyed)
- Angelina fibers and film
- Lutradur
- Grunge paper (gray, tearable, but wonderfully thick, flexible, and leather-like)
- sequin waste
- abaca tissue paper (ordered some and it is not translucent enough for my taste)
- maple seeds and leaves (for handmade paper)
- mulberry bark
- ostrich feathers (let’s expand that to any kind of feathers)
- vellum
- mylar
- wire
- raffia
- screen
- steel
- wood
- medical exam-table paper
- vinyl
- records/CDs
- Fender guitar (it contains Samarium! and costs $1500 on Amazon.com)
- X-ray film
- syringes
- rubber gloves
- chain mail
- credit cards
- plastic bottles
- rattail ribbon
- aluminum foil
- yarn
- rush
- metal grid
- jute
- hemp
- cat gut (not likely for the companion of 3 cats)
- guitar strings
- sutures
- soda cans
- sinew
- mizuhiki (look it up)
- earphones/headphones
- fabulous translucent origami papers
- duct tape
- caution tape
- mylar
- foil
My next step will be to start experiment with painting and printing on, and assembling some of the materials. The final work will ‘reference the layering and stitching’ of a quilt. So, what have I missed???? Leave your suggestions here…nothing is too outrageous.