It's Run Its Course 13 #8

I woke up this morning and started making this piece. It required 38 holes drilled into coconut shells. I made it through without any neighbors complaining...

It's Run Its Course 13 #8, 6 x 7.5 x 4 inches, coconut shells, seashells, steel wire, copper wire, 2014

Fragility and Strength

Fragility and Strength, 18 x 22 inches, fabric, thread, copper tubing, 2013.

I usually make many different pieces of the same thing then decide how to connect them.  Here is an example of the many ways I thought to sew the circles.

Potluck Sunday!  I made a garlic scape pesto on broccoli and squash from the garden.

Kombucha 2 Weeks Later

So after 17 days of fermenting my kombuca tea, this is what it looks like.  The picture below is what it looked like when I started it 17 days ago.  As you can see a new scoby grew on the top.  You can drink it like this with no flavor added.  I will save the scobies for two new batches of kombucha along with 2 cups of fermented kombucha to start two new batches.  It is not carbonated like the one you'd get at the grocery store.  In order for it to be carbonated you flavor it (without the scoby).  I made two bottles of flavored kombucha.  A citrus one where I added about a 1/4 cup of orange juice and 3 cups of kombucha.  For the other bottle, I chopped up some ginger and threw it in with the kombucha.  After 2-3 days it will be carbonated and flavored.  It tastes best when cold.  

I followed this video to learn how to flavor my kombucha.

Interactive Art Piece

I have been invited by curator, Anni Holm, to create an interactive piece for her show Earth to Table at the West Chicago City Museum.  I have had a lot of interest lately in making artwork that viewers can be involved in.  This was the first idea I have come up with.

The statement and question would be placed on the wall, "Each fruit and vegetable has a season when they grow in the Midwest and when they taste their best.  What vegetables and fruits do you like to eat during each season?"

There are 4 plates for each season and surrounding each plate are plushie vegetables and fruits grown during that season.  They are velcroed to the wall and attached to the wall with jute so that the viewer can't put a tomato on the winter plate.  There is also velcro on the plate.  

I want to create a piece that is educational, fun, and touchable.  Children really like my work and I'd like to pay more attention to that in the future.