Projects at Work

At job #1 I wear many hats. Studio Specialist, Museum Educator, Exhibits Personnel, Performer, Fabricator. Simply put, I do a lot. Yesterday and today were no exception. I've been busy creating backdrops for our Theater stage. Currently, its a terrifying, dimly lit, black room with a few costumes on a rack. Its intention is for kids to be inspired to put on a play and have fun. I can't imagine anyone ever doing that in the current space. So I've taken it upon myself to create three or four backdrops that can be pulled out at will and used to liven up the space. I just got my fabric in the mail yesterday and started sewing. Let me go ahead and point out that a standard, personal sewing machine is not intended for sewing together 15 yards of heavy canvas. I didn't really think about that when planning this project.

So, like I said, I had 15 yards of heavy canvas to work with. The widest canvas you can buy is 60", but the backdrop I'm working on needed to be 10' x 19'. Which means sewing together two panels of 19' long canvas along one edge. This required some help, but my lovely assistant managed to snap a few photos while I was working. Apparently I always make a funny face when sewing... at least, I did while working on this.

I took over the whole office with this mess! It still needs to be hemmed, but I needed to give my poor machine a rest before I do that. The thing nearly overheated because the canvas was waaaay too heavy for the feed dogs to do anything with! Oh well, tomorrow is another day. After it is all hemmed, I'll project an image I drew onto the canvas to trace out, then kids will get to help me paint it! I'm pretty excited about the whole process.

Today, on the other hand, I worked in the shop all day. Cutting and nailing and stapling and epoxying. I was asked to make paper making screens and frames for use in after school classes. They actually turned out quite well for the most part, and next I'll be making them for use in the studio since the ones we have are very, very worn.
New frames:

 

New screens:

Used together:

 Ready for pulp!