Tag: object runway

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More Buttons and Pendants

Buttons
Buttons

These buttons are made out of clay from the Anchorage mud flats (Cook Inlet glacial clay), the same clay that is used in my tiles, and the images are from the stamps that I have created to decorate the back of the tiles. They are approximately one-inch in size and destined for a coat that I will make soon. Last year, I had bought wool and silk, and processed my own fish skins for the purpose of making a coat for the 2015 Anchorage Object Runway event, an art/fashion show, but it was cancelled. The coat will be patterned after a paper coat that I made a few years back that had won people’s choice award in the same Anchorage Object Runway event.

I’ve been busy since Christmas making tiles, inventory was down to three tiles. So everything I made last year sold! I hired a temporary part-time artist to help with waxing, while I did everything else.

I participated in the Colorado Indian Art Market, Jan 22-24, and did well. My favorite customers were the interesting couple that bought two twelve-inch tiles plus a few other tiles of various sizes.

My next two events will be the Anchorage Fur Rondy sale at the Dimond mall, March 2-6, and the Heard Museum Indian Arts & Crafts Show in Phoenix, Arizona March 5, 6. There is an overlap, so someone will cover for me at the Fur Rondy.

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Object Runway Coat

Object Runway Coat
Object Runway Coat
This is what I made for Object Runway 2014, an International Gallery of Contemporary Art sponsored event in Anchorage, Alaska each January. It is pseudo lambs wool with salmon and halibut fish skins sewn on plus Cook Inlet clay pendant buttons. The diagonal zipper actually works, so bully for my new found sewing skills. Sixty-seven pieces walked the runway and mine was one of twenty to make the second round but it did not get in the top five. Bummer. I will gather up other pictures and post them next. Moriah Walker was my model and she also wore my previous entry three years ago, she did an excellent job.

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Object Runway 2011 Anchorage Alaska

Paper Coat for 2011 Object Runway, Anchorage, Alaska
People's Choice Award for 2011 Object Runway, Anchorage, Alaska

(Photo by Mike Conte) Here’s the back of the paper coat. The seals on the upper back are cut outs that are gesso-ed on to the etching paper. The x-ray style of showing parts of the inside like the ribs and stomach is common in Alaska coastal areas where wood food bowls and drum skins were decorated with these types of images. Most of my time is taken up making art tiles with the local clay from the glacial mudflats and it was fun to make something different.

A model wearing the coat was posted a couple of weeks ago. She did a fantastic job of selling it to the audience.

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Object Runway 2011, Anchorage, Alaska

Object Runway 2011, paper coat

What can I say. I got People’s Choice Award for my coat construction in this years Object Runway show. I can’t make tiles all the time. It was nice to do something a bit different while the tile business is slow during the winter. I cut out small animal designs and lined the bottom edge, like the way old time parkas had your area or family designs along the bottom. The coat is made from etching paper, 140 lb cotton paper, sewn together from a design that I got at a Joann store, a former project runway design. The paper is coated with gesso, acrylic medium, and inked in burnt umber, with most of the color wiped off to give it some surface texture. The buttons are made from the local glacial clay from the inlet and fired like two days before the show and quickly sewn on. It was a fun night. My model, Moriah Walker, was beautiful and helped sell the design. I’ll post a picture of the backside when I can, it has a x-ray style, double seal cut out in red.