Studio West

Welcome to Studio West, aka our guest bathroom. Since my move to the
studio, Henry started calling our apartment Studio West. Technically
speaking, it should be called Studio East since we leave to the east
of 9th Street.

This weekend, I quickly realized that my tobacco would never last in
my studio space. The humidity had dropped from 22% to 12% during the
cold spell. And my tobacco leaf on display shriveled to a crisp by the
end of the opening 24 hours later. Stanley suggested that I lay the
leaves out next to the shower and turn on the hot water. So our guest
bath became the obvious hot spot.

So I’ve been hard at work twisting and weaving the tobacco into the
hardware cloth in no specific rhyme or reason. I am hoping that the
project will at least survive until next week. At this point, my goal
is to complete the tobacco weaving before class tomorrow. Then I’ll
weave in the text.

As with most of my projects, this one doesn’t look exactly like what I
had in mind. But I believe that the twists maybe a little more durable
than the strips of cut tobacco. (Keep your fingers crossed.) Plus, I
love some of the beautiful twists and rosettes that have turned up. I
also like the variations of the stems and a couple of the dried tips
of the leaves.

Henry warned me that the final piece might look a lot like Mr. Hanky
from South Park. My concern was that it would look like Mr. Hanky
after he had passed on and began to dry up and fall apart.

This weekend, I met someone who passed through my studio, who was
visiting from Brazil. I told her about this most recent project, as I
had the process on display. She seemed quite excited and wanted to
follow along online. I promised her that I would keep her up to date,
even if it was a complete and utter failure. More to follow…