Connections

Connections

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Saturday Rays Rust a Rising

Well today finally the weather has warmed a bit and there is some sunshine which I am so grateful for. I am tired of the rainy dreary days as much as we may need the rain. Before the week of raininess I decided to take a cloth that I have worked on for some six months and had pretty much left outside for that entire time. I had tried just leaving this cloth on some rusted metal thinking that it would over time add rust to the cloth with only water or the elements being involved. I would periodically go and check on it and nothing much would happen/change. So I decided to do something in the south we call Hep It. haha .. I decided recently to go ahead and add vinegar to the mix and to wrap it in some plastic so as not to have the moisture evaporate so quickly. I did this before the rain and it's been raining for a little over a week here so thats how long it's been. I have gone out a few times in the dreariness to turn the package over just to let things change up a bit. Today was the unveiling, unwrapping the revealing of the treasure. Thats what it always feels like to me. Ofcourse I was delighted with the results. Rich tones of rusty reddish browns and areas where I have added something to act as a resist and not .. i know that seems obscure but hey .. it's exciting. I took a huge quantity of photos of this cloth and it's not small its about 8 feet x 10 feet. What I am struck by is that several of the photos of portions of the cloth are so interesting to me that they stand on their own as small works. I'm not quite sure what to do with them yet but I'm posting a few of them here to see if any of you lurkers that stop by will have anything to say of them. I love the texture and the effect. I am so amazed and yet reminded yet again how there is so much beauty in this form of degradation. That is what I get out of this. A reminder of words written by a friend that said "break my heart beautiful" and my friend that wrote a book on forgiveness that "nothing is more whole than a broken heart." Which all of this reminds me of.. this isn't broken cloth but it is a breaking down of fibers and an addition of metal that is breaking down infusing itself onto the cloth in a way that I am compelled to look and stair long stairs at. Below are some of the areas that were the most interesting to me of cropped portions of photos of this cloth of rust.








7 comments:

  1. ooooooh - how beautiful!! Your must be thrilled with the results. I did some rusting awhile ago and was so happy with it that I find it really hard to cut into it to create anything!!

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  2. Art is such a crazy enterprise: everyone else is fighting rust, and some of us are doing our best to encourage it. Every piece looks fantastic, Tammy! I'm sure there are hundreds that you could isolate from a cloth that is 8x10 feet.

    Brokenness IS compelling, probably because we all are broken in one way or another. Some people are destroyed by it and others use it to expand their compassion and love to a greater size and depth than before. That is beautiful.

    Thanks for this post, Tammy. You took it beyond mere description and really shared your own feelings.

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  3. Magpie, I think your name is Mary Anne so forgive me if I am wrong. Thanks for the comments!!! I don't know if I am going to cut it or not. I have not decided how to use this. I do love just having the ability to use the photographs as much as the actual cloth.

    And Carol thank you for such a thoughtful comment. I agree with you that it does have the power to destroy but I do think that it can give you great compassion and love and I am happy that my words conjure such thoughts. I posted a while back that it is the connections of others that "feel" broken that is beautiful like the connections between the pieces of broken glass. I am just constantly amazed to see beauty in the most unusual ways and I find the contrast between destruction or degradation, breaking down .. and beauty, connectedness, order, peace, silence to be very very interesting. And so nice to have to drop by. Please do come again.!!

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  4. Hi Tammy, I saw your post on SEW and would like to visit your blog and see what else you do. I can see you are India Flint's fan. I'm too actually. I love eco dyeing and other natural dyes. I have taken many of Jude's workshops and found everyone in the group talented and creative. It's good to have met you - See you around this blogland - Hugs Nat

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  5. These are little universes opening. There is indeed beauty in each cycle of life, even when
    we are a bit broken open. A place to enter is sometimes painful to make.

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  6. Hi! I followed over from SEW, and I really love your blog/art work/experiments/text. And these photos- so wonderful. Now, I am one of the two people on earth who doesn't have India's book, so can you tell me what you used for resist here?

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  7. Hello Tammy; thanks so much for your reply. I love the ingenuity, and will most certainly be doing this myself. Wonderful.

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