Work in Prgress

Took down the little spirit to Skara for casting.  Thought I would make a few copies to give out as gifts. Instead of making six copies of the little spirit,  they made nineteen.  I think it might work as a sculpture piece on its own.

"Taking A Journey" - who is taking a journey?  the lone spirit or the group?






"Fish" - working title for the show in Red Ochre next year.  The show will include installation, sculptures, paintings and drawings.  Steve did a great job in casting of Ted' Fish.  Still have to figure out the mounting of the aluminium piece.  I also tried out rubbing on copper sheet and quite liked the effect.

Ted' Fish - Aluminum

Ted's Fish - Copper

Ted's Fish on Bough

Worked on the branch before taking the piece down to Arts and Culture Centre.  Would be better if the piece is on a base with lighting.

There are many options to display the fish.  I am still addressing memory of the past and fragility, perhaps preservation as well because of the chosen materials.

Pouch Cove Flake

Ap and Wayne did it.....Pouch Cove has its first flake in 30? 40? years!!!  I am so thrilled and excited.  I thought I was going to help unloading the longers but Ap and Wayne had them all out and Ap started laying them down.  One longer at a time, and a couple of hours later...a flake!!!

Recreational Fisheries

Today is the first day of the fall food fisheries.  Weather is perfect.  It's 8:00 o'clock and Hudson launch is busy with boats going out and coming in.  Gruchy launch is still under repair.  I miss hanging out at the cove bank, chatting with the locals.

Pouch Cove Heritage Day

It all started from my application to Dept. of Tourism, Culture and Recreation back in June for an Culture Event funding to construct a fish flake.  The initial proposal was not accepted because their funding does not allow 'construction'.  In the mean time, Bernie from the Heritage Committee suggested that the project is to go ahead with the support from the Heritage Committee.  At the end, we did receive a small funding from TCR to carry out an event to 'talk about the flake'.   Katie Pittman approached us to see if we would do a joint Culture Days activities with them (Pouch Cove Library Board).  Well, this has turned into Pouch Cove Heritage Day with various activities in addition to building a flake.

Ap is going to help us with the flake since Ted is not able to do it this year.  We have to get longers and it doesn't look like I can get video footage for that.

Dan gave a presentation of our Culture Days celebration at the council meeting tonight.  Ap, Sue and Bernie were there.  We got what we asked for...money, opening of town hall and museum.   The Mayor and one of the councillor were so excited about the project.

Poster is done, flyer is done, book mark is done.  People start getting excited about the event.

It's happening....

Got my thesis paper in last week.  I can now focus on the installation.

Stan's suggestion on adding a triangular piece around the corner really helps.  Finally got another MP3 player to mount onto the flake.  I still need to make some kind of a holder for the player.  All these details have to be sorted out in a week time.

Miss the chance of having the salt cod scanned by Creaform yesterday.  Claire might still be able to do it next week.  We'll see.

Flake structure - finally

You couldn't make the flake by yourself in the old days, and you can't make the flake by yourself in the studio.  With Kate's help, we have the structure up so that I can see the scale and the feel of it.  I do like the size of it.  I think it is going to work if I reinforce the joints with knots and put some plasticine or something like that to secure the branches.  Will ask Stan this week.

Ted's Fish - 3D Rapid Prototyping

Darryl got one side of the fish printed for me.  The support is more than 10 times thicker than the actual fish.  Took me 2 hours to remove the support material.

The act of peeling off the support, the act of removing the wax cast from the mould, the act of Ted filleting the fish....

Computer Problems

Why now???

Spent two days worrying about loosing all the data on my computer.  Apple Store people are wonderful.  After many hours of checking, removing, installing, reinstalling, more checking and finally everything is ok now.  All that because of a corrupted font - perhaps.  I can now open Blurb to work on my book.

Ted's Fish - casting

After five lbs of Flexwax and two days of working in the mould making studio, I brought back 26 pieces of Ted's Fish to 205 Richmond.  I really like the translucent quality of the wax.

Got permission from Nick to work in my studio space if I need to.  Have my frying pan there just in case I need to do more, or to do repair.

Branches

I know I shouldn't be making another model.  Got the dimensions of the gallery I thought I should make a model to the scale of the gallery to get the feel of the size.  Collected some longer branches in a field just across from our apartment.  A trip to Home Depot for nuts and bolts.

Based on the measurement I need to cast 40 pieces to make a line across the gallery...

Flake and fish

Did another small flake with branches.  I am still drawn to a larger flake for the show.  Have to start looking for branches.

I really like using Flex Wax for the fish.  It is white with a tint of blue in it.  I just brushed the wax on directly to the moulds.   I also cast a copy in foundry wax this morning.

Ted's fish

My first rubber mould....  quite a process...

Thursday: build up the side
Friday:  continue to build up the side with clay and build up walls, sprout, vents, 1st layer (400 gm) of silicone rubber, 2nd layer (300 gm) of silicon rubber with accelerating thickening agent (a few drops), 3rd layer (400 gm) with thickening agent
Monday:  George suggested to build up two sections more
Tuesday:  Build the plaster shell (Hydrocal + burlap + metal rod) and start on the other side.  We were short of silicone rubber.  This side only approx. 1,000 gm in total (400+400+200).  Learn about Flex wax.  I like the colour of it - white with a tint of blue.
Wednesday:  Do the plaster shell
Thursday:  Demould.....yeh...fish is still ok.  My first rubber mould.

Preview of videos

Bert, Barry Doris and Paul came by this afternoon to watch the videos.  They enjoyed it very much.  They were very curious to find out who is who on the audio piece.  After the videos, they started talking about the time when they were small, things that they had to do for example, delivering lunches to the people who were working down by the water.  Doris said both the audio and video piece brought back lots of memories for her.  When they started remembering the flakes and stages, I wish I had my recorder on.  To run to get my recorder is not a right thing to do.There are so many stories to be told.   I keep making new connection with the locals and that makes the project so worthwhile.

Casting Cod

Went down to see Ted this morning.  I think I am going to bring back a salted cod to Toronto.  I hope the fish is not going to go bad.

Gerald N. - making of flakes

Had a casual visit with Gerald this morning and showed him the videos.

"... there are wood lots with trees that grow so close together that there aren't many branches... they are called longers and are used for building stages and flakes.  You get in trouble if you cut them down for firewood..."

Ted told me one time that when building boats, they would go into the wood to look for tree branches with special shapes.  These shapes are perfect for particular sections for a boat.

Videos - preview

December 30, 2011

Our friend Elke asked me to show my videos during her Friday "Happy Hour" social.  I took the opportunity to invite the people who were in the interview to come as well.  It went very well.  It generated more stories telling afterwards from the group and I wish I had my recorder on.  I created another video using the audio tracks and played it on TV for the group.  Watching the video in front of a TV screen has a different feel to it. 


Roger B. has this to say about recreational fishery: