Line drawings out of abaca paper straps
We wove straps of overbeaten abaca and then cut the weavings into 2” x 3” pieces for the 2019 Swatch Swap book.
woven abaca straps cut down to 3” x 2” (very approximately in some cases) and ready to be sent for Swatch books
2” x 3” nets for the swatch swap book.
This year it is being produced by Yama Ploskonka of Papel Texano in Austin Texas. To make them, we put a bunch of holes in a piece of pink insulation foam and set it in a vise.
Barbara weaving abaca straps through insulation foam board which produces a net on each side
We wove strips of abaca through and across the board.
When we worked on either side, it felt like a fibrous version of the old game, Battleship. The result was 2 webs of abaca (one from each side) which we cut into these roughly 2” x 3” shapes. We waxed them with beeswax and poppy oil to bring up the black and brighten the green and blue.
the abaca straps were cut with rotary scissors to different widths for the weaving
a pair of nets of abaca straps after they dried and each side was cut off the pink foam board
We had to make 6 of these 2x webs to get 110 swatches. We sent Yama 105.
sample of our 3” x 2” design
Later, we thought, “These might scale up pretty well. . .”
we decided to go large. . .
LandesSullivan at gmail.com
bamboo ribs, abaca skin
We have made several of these bamboo and abaca structures and we’re still learning. We’re inspired by Peter Gentenaar’s amazing works.
abaca and bamboo artwork held up to the light to show the translucency of the paper
We have made several of these bamboo and abaca structures and we’re still learning. We’re inspired by Peter Gentenaar’s amazing works.
bamboo slivers and hot glue
Bamboo design, hot glued together. We taped off the contour on a pellon on top of a felt on a vacuum table. Then took the bamboo frame away.
pouring the pulp
We laid on the 6 hour abaca pulp as evenly as possible. We drained about 2/3 of the water to make it easier to handle. We put the bamboo back in position and covered just the ribs with more fiber pulp.
See For the other side to see an object like this one in a composition.
Assisting the shrinkage
With the pulp vacuumed until it was dry/stong enough to lift, we set blocks and bunched cloth under it to help the bamboo and pulp to dry in an aesthetically interesting way.
As it dried, we pushed the manipulation further.
We inadvertently made it very thick, but the dry object still glows in back light. It would hold up well as a wind spinner in a Wisconsin winter storm.
LandesSullivan at gmail.com
making puffers
Putting a patch of low shrinkage cotton fiber onto a high shrinkage ground like abaca produces a wonderful puffing effect. The post follows the creation of the puffer shown above.
Detail of a work incorporating a “puffer,” see recent work
Lightly beaten cotton on overbeaten abaca will puff up when dry.
Here, the ochre ground is abaca beaten 6 hours. It shrinks a good bit (maybe 30%) by itself. The veronese green shapes are 60 - 75 minute cotton linters which produces a low or no shrinkage fiber. When a low shrinkage patch of cotton is stuck on a sheet of high shrinkage abaca, the tension during drying makes the cotton area puff out to accommodate the greater shrinkage of abaca.
step by step process to make a “puffer”
The purposely irregular shape in Photo 1 is made up of still wet, but pressed ochre abaca sheets. The next photo is a thick sheet of freshly pulled cotton broken into shapes while still on the mold. These shapes are then couched individually - and carefully - onto a scrap of pellon or even onto a large hand. Then they are transferred onto the ochre ground.
In Photo 3, Barbara is “couching” a cotton shape from pellon to background abaca. Once we had the shapes in place, we blotted them again with a large piece of pellon. We liked the light coming through the wet parts of the pellon as we peeled it away so we include it here even though it also shows our dye still running a little bit.
As shown by the sheen in photo 6, we slathered on the methyl cellulose, a reversible glue, that will help strengthen the bonding of the abaca and cotton. (The cotton could pop off the abaca as it dries because of the shrinkage differential.) We left it uncovered overnight. It finished drying quite quickly the next day in the hot summer sun.
We tend to think of the front of the sheet as the two color side, but it is beautiful on both sides. Either side may face out in any particular composition.
LandesSullivan at gmail.com
The "puffer" is the central focus in this work called Stay, I'm coming all this way to show you something
Talking on the phone with Joan 92
Heftier coils - part 4
The next step for our coil evolution - making them heftier and more resilient to studio and composing wear and tear. Without losing the linear drawing in space feel, we also want to make them more sculptural.
Bathroom/window sealant became our medium for cores. We tried several. The one we went with cured the fastest, retained a nice rubbery feel and was the strongest when tugged on.
some non-silicon sealant coil cores ceremoniously curing outside the studio
finding a suitable core for coil among sealants
The next step for our coil evolution - making them heftier and more resilient to studio and composing wear and tear. Without losing the linear drawing in space feel, we also want to make them more sculptural.
Bathroom/window sealant became our medium for cores. We tried several. The one we went with cured the fastest, retained a nice rubbery feel and was the strongest when tugged on.
3 beads of DAP sealants - latex, non-silicon and silicon on wax paper.
Use freezer paper for the non-silicon sealant. On wax paper, it managed to melt a gouge in the insulation foam board without damaging the wax paper. Compare this photo taken 2 days after the one above when it was first squeezed out.
curing took a long time to be tack-free
the perfect sealant other than being a bit pricey
We tried 3 sealants - latex, non-silicon and silicon.
The latex bead at its fattest never really felt fully cured and stayed squishy soft. It seemed weak when tugged on.
The silicon didn’t offer any manipulation while still uncured. Just a recalcitrant stickiness. It also doesn’t feel very strong in its cured floppy ropey state. Afterall, it is designed to stick and fill a rigid surface.
The DAP Ultra Clear non-silicon worked best for a couple of reasons. We could more easily squeeze out a wonky, fat then thin bead. It’s somewhat workable when “wet.” It felt the strongest of the 3 when ready to wrap with abaca.
It also cured the quickest - about a week. After several days, we could remove it from its backing sheet. It felt strong enough to support its own weight, so we hung it up to finish curing more quickly. We wore nitrile gloves when handling it even after it seemed well cured and not tacky. We also kept the studio well ventilated.
We rolled the core up the same way as we did for the other (coreless) coils. We lay strips of wet abaca sheets attached end to end. Then, it’s one long rolling wrap, completely sealing the core.
comparing the first beefed up, hefty coil @ 3’ long and a coreless coil.
Wrapping the core with abaca
The next sealant core coil has a fork in it. We thought to mummy wrap it, but it was problematic. Even with a lot of overlap, it tended to hinge along the spiraling seam. We re-enforced several places, but the problem still remained elsewhere. Next time, we’ll go back to the longitudinal wrap and use it in several overlapping sections.
mummy wrapping the core requires a lot of overlap to keep the wrap stiff. apologies the clear sealant is hard to see.
We added in more elaborate fences, skewers and lengths of duct tape to keep the coil in its 3 dimensional pose as it dried.
We thought if we left some of the sealant uncovered it would give us a bending and stress-relieving point. We later covered it. We decided the coil was resilient without the “tendon” showing.
The 2nd sealant core coil. It’s about 5’ long and weighs maybe half a pound.
LandesSullivan at gmail.com
These Coils change planes - part 3
Up to now, the coils have stayed on one plane, fabricated and dried on a flat table top. When we used them in compositions, we liked that when they were under load they lost their flatness and twisted into 3 dimensions.
We decided to make them 3 dimensional from the get go. Recently, we had some bright white rope piled on a work table. We wondered how we might make a coil act more rope-like and loop about in space.
making the abaca coils 3d from the get go
Up to now, the coils have stayed on one plane, fabricated and dried on a flat table top. When we put them under stress while composing with them, they twisted into a more interesting and 3d shape.
We decided to get some of that third dimension into the casting stage.
Recently, some bright white rope was piled on a work table. We wanted the coil to look and act more rope-like and loop about in space from the get go.
The skewers and fences cut from flashing adapted well to lifting the coil up and around in space while restraining it.
A nice first effort, at right, seems to be stiff and tough enough to hold up to the rigors of composing. Still, it is fragile being so thin. We really liked the delicate line it introduced into our work. We wonder, however, how a thicker coil might work.
So, fattening up the coils became the next challenge. . .
LandesSullivan at gmail.com
Coils racing around flashing - part 2
Carving grooves in pink insulation foam board to cast coil designs seems clever, but impractical.
Our next idea is to use strips of aluminum flashing held in position with kebab skewers. They may have a miniature race track feel to them, but they work really well.
flashing and skewers hold the abaca coils in position
Carving grooves in pink insulation foam board to cast coil designs (see previous post) seems clever, but is impractical. You would have to gouge a busy road map of grooves to have much flexibility of design. Or go through a lot of pink foam.
Our next casting idea is to use strips of aluminum flashing held in position with kebab skewers.
coil design considerations: girthy is good
Here are a couple of design sketches of the several we made. The second one is the one we went with. While the other one seems good, we wanted a girthy design with large open spaces since that would allow us to connect other elements by pulling things through the openings.
Another consideration is fragility. The first image has a neck that sticks out without much support. It probably would bend and permanently crease with the amount of abuse we give our inventory. Abaca coils are pretty strong in tension. They don’t have much compression strength, so they fold without much load. Once folded, all you have then is a loose hinge.
fencing in the coil design
Below, the coil is walled in and ready to dry. Where the coil design has an opening too small to be fitted with a flashing fence, we used taped clumps of thicker skewers to guide the drying coils.
The detail image below shows the strength of 6 hour abaca as it lifted the flashing and pulled the skewer through the pink foam floor. To adjust, we removed the skewer, repositioned the fence to allow some shrinkage and then re-skewered.
LandesSullivan at gmail.com
Coils in the groove - part 1
We use a lot of hidden wire, velcro, tape and nails to attach our paper objects to each other, but we don't like hiding things. We prefer making connectors part of the work.
So we rolled overbeaten abaca into coils and figured out how to cast them into linear forms. An attractive length of stiff abaca "rope" seemed useful for cobbling things together.
Afternoon, November 29, 2018, waiting on a coil to dry.
visible connectors - coils of abaca
We use a lot of hidden wire, velcro, tape and nails to attach our paper objects to each other, but we don't like hiding things. We prefer making connectors part of the work. Along with their physical chore, they need to shoulder an aesthetic role.
Abaca is pretty strong when rolled into a coil.
As such, an attractive length of such stiff abaca "rope" seemed useful for cobbling parts of our sculptures together.
We rolled some 96” x 4” strips of 5 hour double-couched abaca into coils. Once dry the coils have some flex but they will permanently crease pretty easily. The restrained position you dry the coil in is what you get.
We moved the coil around on a sheet of pink insulation foam to find a design that would look good hooking parts of a sculpture together. Then we traced the design on the foam board and put the coil aside.
We used a cutter and carving tools to gouge out a groove to serve as a mold for the coils.
With the ends tacked down with T-pins, the coils shrank taut and stiffly structural. Even with a fan blowing across the surface, it took 12 days to dry - about 2x as long as expected. Foam board does not breath or wick.
If the dried coils are too thin, they lose some of their visual punch. It also makes them more vulnerable to hingeing which leaves a permanent crease in the coil.
LandesSullivan at gmail.com
LandesSullivan at gmail.com