Weather Vessel

Crochet work involves a lot of sitting, which leads to thinking, which inevitably leads to trouble. The deep shattering realization that there are no pink butterflies eventually brought me around to what will I do when I have finished the Butterfly Flight Prep installation piece?

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This trouble had me creating this multicolored vessel as step one in my experiment to take my colored copper wire crochet sculpture work outside.

A nice little piece measuring 9cm x 10cm x 8cm (2 1/2″ x 4″ x 3 1/4″)

Of course, the first question is how well will it hold up to the weather long term? Then comes, How fast will the colors fade in the sunlight? And How soon will the color coating start peeling?

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Now is the perfect time to let this piece ferment in the sun & rain for a few months.

Each layer of color is it’s own experiment. Starting with the large 20 gauge fuscia colored copper wire. It is a destash piece from my earliest experiments and suffered a bit of chipped paint from the pliers I used.

The next row of light blue is a colored copper wire that has a thin layer of silver plating before the light blue color was added. Copper is too dark of a metal for manufacturers to provide light colors without some kind of treatment. In this case, silver so this row is likely to react a bit differently than the other rows of simply colored copper wire.

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The row of Purple is colored aluminum wire so that may react differently than the other rows also.

The remaining rows are simply various colors and wire gauges to check for sun fading or other concerns I hadn’t thought of.

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To see my day to day art progress, follow me on Instagram: Studio Deanna

Knit Artist Saki Chikaraishi

Part of the Cosmic Girls Exhibition in the Marunouchi House across from Tokyo Station is a fun knit & crochet exhibition by Saki Chikaraishi. Check out this huge Earth installation piece complete with satellites orbiting:

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A satellite complete with it’s solar panel.

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Wire holds the shape of this item as it orbits the large knit Earth.

Find more of Saki’s Chikaraishi’s work on her website – http://www.muknit.com

The Cosmic Girls Exhibition runs through Sunday, November 16 so get there soon, before it ends!!

And now, because every post should end with yummy sweet potato (焼いも)  ice cream accompanied by dried and salted wakami and a cookie:

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Special Rainforest Order of Yarn

As I experiment with the colored-copper wire designs, the special order of rainforest colored yarns I ordered from Yarn vs. Zombies is being completed.

Check out the great colors!

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The scale of the Butterfly Flight Prep art installation has necessitated specially ordering the yarn. The alternative is running around multiple yarn shops in Tokyo searching for specific colors in specific textures. The train system is amazingly convenient but not cheap.

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And what happens if I didn’t buy enough?  Will I be able to get more from the store?

The correct colors are so important to this project!

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You can follow Yarn vs. Zombies on Instagram and also follow my daily progress as I build the Butterfly Flight Prep installation project at Studio Deanna on Instagram.

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All photos by Yarn vs. Zombies

Ginza – Tokyo Art Gallery Adventures

Every Ginza Gallery Hop starts at the elephant in Ginza. Ginza Elephant

It’s decorations are regularly changed by advertisers so we’re always curious what he will look like next. This time around we have no idea what was being advertised.

Stopped at the Mirror Exhibition and saw work by Kohei Nawa using acrylic on paper that reminded me of the Spirograph drawing toy I had as a child.

 IMG_0258 Kohei Nawa also did a work directly on the wall of the gallery using glue.

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This amazing paper artist, Mikito Ozeki, has hand cut these pieces of archival paper! IMG_0264

There are thousands of cutouts on multiple layers of paper within these frames that are more than a meter in height and at least a meter in length! Whether or not you like the art itself, I find the amount of work and patience it takes to do this mind-blowing!

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What drew me to this exhibition was the write up in Spoon & Tamago regarding Sayaka Miyata’s embroidery work.

Sayaka Miyata The photos don’t do it justice. The work is extremely well done and the threads have an iridescent quality to them. This piece is about 50cm x 50cm. The size and scale of her work is also difficult to see.

IMG_0267 I love this piece, love how the artist enlarged a detail and then extended it into a large 3D installation.

 IMG_0268 The hand embroidered piece also shows Sayaka Miyata’s talent with hand embroidery work. The choice of colors, subject and stitchwork are beautiful.

Our next stop was Tokyo Station area’s, Marunouchi House, and a visit to Cosmic Girls Exhibition. This fun, visually warping piece is done by Haruka Kojin:

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Found a great yarn and crochet stitch artist, Saki Chikaraishi, here at Cosmic Girls and she deserves her own post so be sure to stop back to read about her unique use of Addi knitting machines!!

Follow my daily progress on Instagram: Studio Deanna

Wire Crocheted Leaf Designs

Completed several leaf designs for the Butterfly Flight Prep art installation! A few experiments with wire gauge sizes, research on the look and size of the Ulysses Butterfly eggs and I’ve made heaps of progress. The addition of white glass beads amongst the wire crochet work really work as the butterfly eggs in the leaves.

StudioDeanna Leaves Approx 120mm x 45mm sized leaves using 24 gauge colored copper wire and 100% Linen yarn.

Each design is then written down lest I forget! StudioDeanna Leaf Pattern

StudioDeanna Lg Heart-shaped leaf Another design but using 26 gauged wire.

To see a more art adventures, be sure to follow me on Instagram: Studio Deanna

Art on the Move – As Fast as a Speeding Bullet!

Artist Michelle Zacharias boarded the Bullet Train (Shinkansen) on her way to Kyoto with hoji-cha, chocolate-covered almonds, and 2 pieces of art for two different group shows!

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There’s great art to see in Kyoto!

The International Exhibition of Art: Kyoto Art Show from Oct 28 – Nov 2

and at the

Gallery Kei-Fu 

Follow her adventures in Kyoto on Instagram: Misheru32

Rainforest Butterflies: Flight Prep

The wire crocheted butterfly art installation project now has a name!

– Butterfly Flight Prep –

A big thank you to Lori of The Spendy Pencil for her great idea, it really encompasses the concept I have to include all stages of the butterfly’s life cycle within the piece.

I did receive a wonderful surprise in another entry from Stacey:

– Petal to the Metal –

This title works so perfectly for my individual wire crocheted flower pieces I created another small hand crocheted wire flower prize for her.

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Thank you so very much, Ladies!!