Projects & Process
I realized that the most interesting part of making things for me is the process. The problem solving. The negotiation between what the image in my head and what my eyes and hands are able to do. After a project is finished, its great, but its much less interesting. I'm not good at showing off my finished work, maybe because the fun part is over. It makes more sense for me to document my process, and then just post the final products in a gallery of something where they can stand on their own two feet. (ha. feet. like on a bowl or mug. the bottom is called the foo....nevermind.)
To kick off this new perspective on showing the soft underbelly of my work, I'll share something I'm working on now. It started as a bonus project for an anatomy class. Now that the class is over and I have all the time in the world, the challenge is trying to figure out how to add the cranial nerves. The original plan of just stitching them in would work, but ... it wouldn't be great. I decided I can't just embroider them, because there are so many round parts, and also it would be harder to remove mistakes. It will be better if they come out of the brain, like the real nerves would do. At this point I'm experimenting with spool knitting, seeing how many different diameters of knitted tubes I can get out of one wooden spool. I have three finished, so it is possible; but now the color scheme needs to change. It turns out that the perfect grey background canvas wasn't actually canvas but some kind of laboratory created monstrosity. Because it melted when i tried to iron it. Bad scene. Old jeans stash to the rescue. Now i can use the better colors that would have been lost on grey.
Some will need more shaping, so i'll try to actually knit the trigeminal nerve on wee needles. Looks like I need to add some gray matter, too; between the cerebellum and the skull side. I'll update with the progess. Probably. Maybe. Eventually, for sure. I got some clay stuff I'm working on too, with more tangible deadlines, so....
PS: Planning this project only helped me memorize what nerves come out of which holes in the skull. For the nerves themselves, I went with these mnemonics: On, On, ONWARD! they travelled. And found Voldemort guarding very ancient horcruxes. (cranial nerves) and: Some say marry money, but my brother says big brains matter more. (whether the nerves are sensory, motor, or both).
Onward!