Blog - Page 20 of 32 - Studio Deanna

The Upcoming Week in my Tatami Room Studio

1. Name Game Contest: Today will be spent completing the winning prize!

Do you know what should I name my Tropical Butterfly Garden art installation? Be sure you are following my blog, Instagram or Twitter to catch the launch and upcoming details.

2. I’ve compiled a list of the flora, fauna and butterflies I’m including in the design of my butterfly rainforest installation. 27 species in all!

Unlike in the deciduous forest area I grew up, rainforest is very, very dense and while 27 species may seem like a lot, it really barely scratches the surface of all there is to discover.

Cairns Birdwing (Ornithoptera euphorion) aka Cooktown or Northern Birdwing
Spur Mahogany (Dysoxylum pettigrewianum)
Birdnest Fern Epiphyte (Asplenium nidus)
Strangler Fig Epiphyte (Ficus aurea)
King Fern (Ptisana salicina)
Birthwort, Indian Birthwort (Aristolochia acuminata)
Birthwort (Aristolochia indica)
Cairns Birdwing Plant (Pararistolochia australopithecurus)
Native Dutchman’s Pipe (Pararistolochia deltantha)
Ulysses Butterfly (Papilio Ulysses)
Pink Flowered Euodia, (Melicope Elleryana)
Northern Elkhorn Fern Epiphyte (Platycerium hillii)
Native Pepper (Piper caninum)
Needleberry (Raphidophora australasica)
Green Spotted Triangle Butterfly (Graphium Agamemnon)
Orange Annona (Fitzlania heteropetala)
(meiogyne verrucosa)
(meiogyne hirsuta)
Calaboa (Uvaria concava)
China Pine (Polyalthia Michaelii)
Walking Stick Palm (Linospadix minor)
Lurcher Butterfly (Yoma Sabina)
Spearpod, Minnieroot (Ruella Tuberosa)
Desert Petunia (Diptercanthus australacicus)
Fan Palms (Licuala ramsayi)

Misc. Lichens and Mosses
Misc. Vines
Possibly some fauna

This week I jump into designing these species and their construction!

3. Still keeping track of my time and how it is being spent: HoursTracker total for this week: 12 hours 45 minutes.

Research & Development: 5 hours 55 min

Marketing: 1 hour 30 minutes

Construction: 5 hours 20 minutes

Follow my daily progress on Instagram: StudioDeanna

Studio Progress Report – Oct 10

It’s been a busy week in my studio. Quite a few hours continuing my lepidoptera and biology research. A few hours sketching, a few hours of construction, a few hours re-organizing the studio all add up to a lot of hours!

My order of Zebra Wire, colored copper wire arrived – Half of a rainforest in a box!

A design sketch has slowly been coming together as I gather information on the butterflies. It’s a sketch that only a mother could love and I can read. Thankfully it’s more about placement and arrangement than the final look. It’s supposed to be a view from the top but considering my poor drawing skills this is about it. A fat stream gurgling through the middle won’t really be that wide.

I did a sad sketch with colored pencil of the Spur Mahogany with it’s planned epiphytes, but it’s another one that simply demonstrates my inability to draw 2D work from the 3D visions I have floating in my head.

The yarn dyer in Australia to which I have placed a special order has begun working and sending updates! I’m so excited to see the steps she is taking to help bring my project to life. I am hoping to post them in the near future.

This Tropical Butterfly Garden art installation project really needs a good name. It isn’t really a garden so much anymore but has grown into a lovely rainforest environment.

HoursTracker – Still checking in using this app to find out how long it is taking to create this butterfly installation. There are a lot of little minutes in various areas such as when my colored copper wire order arrived. It only took about 10 minutes to check that each item I ordered has arrived in good condition but each of these little 10 minute items will add up to a lot of hours over the several months.

Hours of Research & Development: 20 hours of testing butterfly designs, researching lepidoptera and their favorite rainforest plants, ordering & checking in of supplies

Hours of Marketing: 1 hour 30 minutes

Hours of Construction: 3 hours 10 minutes making a lot of little Euodia flowers

For the week of Sept 29 – Oct 5: 24 hours 40 mins

A lot of work done, a lot of work to go…

To receive little updates, more often, follow me on Instagram: StudioDeanna

SPUN Fiber Exhibition – Opening Night is October 17

One of my wire & fiber crochet pieces was accepted into the SPUN Fiber Exhibit in New York! It’s great to be included with these other amazing artists!

After seeing the creative names they have given their pieces I clearly need to up my name game. “Flower” is just so “meh” when compared to ‘Colors of a Soba Shop‘ or ‘Emergence‘.

Opening night is October 17 at Etui Fiber Arts!

Check out the other artists work. They are an amazing, varied group!

The artists selected by juror Bartholomew Bland for SPUN 2014 are:

Natalya Aikens Iron Spine

Francie Bergquist Truffle

Benedicte Caneill Walking off the Grid

Donna Chambers My Peacock

Linda Colsh Grand Place Descent

Eileen Doughty Dragonfly Pond

Eileen Doughty Kasha-Katuwe Hoodoos

Jeanne Flanagan Purple Passion

Deanna Gabiga Flower

Jamie Horikawa Colors of a Soba Shop

Eve Jacobs-Carnahan Knotweed: Not Safe

Cecelia Leiseroff They Came from Outer Space

Susan Lenz Ancestors

Susan Lenz A Difficult Decision

Betty Maguire Hayzlett Emergence

Betty Maguire Hayzlett Desert Grasses

Heather Pregger Tuning Fork #19

Norma Schlager Fractured II

Barbara Sferra Red Squares

Gerri Spilka Helix Sketch #1

Janice Stevens After the Storm

Victoria Swann Eye Candy

Ruth White Bend It Wright2

Beth Yazhari World Quilt – Panel #1

Beth Yazhair Victoria Sensibility

You are welcome to follow my progress on this and other art projects via my Instagram: Studio Deanna

Lepidoptera and the limits of Google

Seeking the scientific details needed to properly build my Tropical Butterfly Garden installation I have found big gaps and a lot of inconsistent information out on the internet.

Taking photographs of the signs at the Cairns Botanical Gardens has been immensely helpful in my research. — Taking photographs of the signs at the Cairns Botanic Gardens has been immensely helpful in my research.

Butterflies are in the scientific order Lepidoptera and to my untrained eye, seem so very distinctive from one another. Yet my in depth studies are showing there are many that simply look alike yet prefer to live near and consume completely different flora!

All those gorgeous tropical plants and flowers have several common names, similar looks to others; so much alike that sometimes the butterflies make deadly mistakes, too! I now know the difference between the Aristolochia elegant and the Aristolochia Indica.

There is a lot of amazing photography on the internet but the identification of the rainforest subjects does need a lot of work. Google can only show me what I request and many of the photos are mislabeled as one kind of plant when it isn’t and much of my research needs to be exactly by genus and species. Understandably, not many photographers tag their work that way. So I have chosen to purchase the Field Guide to Butterflies of Australia by Michael Braby

Flora of Far North Queensland has been generously posted by ecologist, David Tng who spent a year in the Daintree creating a reference collection which includes excellent photographs from which to create my crochet designs. The plants are conveniently organized by scientific name. Thanks, David!

This was never meant to be a scientific project, nor will it be but in the most general sense. However, I do feel a responsibility to ensure I do not put forth misinformation regarding the gorgeous butterflies and their lush rainforest home.

On this rainy, typhoon-y, Sunday, I will be an entomologist, studying the Yoma Sabina, the Papilio Aegeus, and consider possible crochet designs for the Adenia heterophylla and the Aristolochia Indica.

You are welcome to follow my progress via Instagram at Studio Deanna

Not just for Spinners – Tokyo Spinning Party!

Friends and I visited the Tokyo Spinning Party on Monday. A show full of fleeces, silks, spindles, batts, workshops, and lots of other colorful yarn-y goodness.

White Romany, approx US$10.00 for 3oz.

5 Ladies in a Felting Class

Is spinning popular in Japan? Happy Spinning’s booth full of batts was cleaned out! Completely! Yes, spinning is popular in Japan.

Lots of Silk!

& weaving

Looking for more adventure? Check out Boya Sheep Farm in Hokkaido, complete with Sheepdog Shows at the farm.

I picked up a few things that might work for my Tropical Butterfly Garden art installation:

A bit of sparkly blue to use in combination with another yarn to create a great look for the Ulysses Butterflies.

Big texture that might work for the rainforest floor along with this most grass-like yarn.

Looking forward to attending next year!

A Booth at the Tokyo Art Book Fair 2014

My first book fair and, according to Zine’s Mate, it is the largest in Asia! My boothmates definitely agree that it’s huge, the amount of art books, zines, paper supplies, printers, and all the accessories seems to cover acres of booths.

Tokyo Art Byte Critique’s Booth No. H-05 has been enjoying the amazing flood of creativity that has poured into the Gaien Campus. Here’s a look at the write-up for our group in the book fair catalog:

My favorite find so far is an adorable cat mamebon:

Measuring a mere 4 cm this little book has a fat felted tail and a full story complete with illustrations. Created by a student at the Nagoya University of Arts for a Media Communication Design class. You’ll find them at Booth No. D-04 but at only 500 yen each they will go quickly!!

Across from our booth is the enthusiastic Knuckles & Notch from Singapore, sharing a table with another art book designer all the way from NYC:

Buttons, Buttons, Buttons…

Today is all about the buttons! Putting those finishing touches on my Travel Journals for the Tokyo Art Book Fair this weekend.

For every 5 buttons I sew, there is a small Pumpkin Kit Kat reward!

Button, button, button, button, button, pumpkin kit kat, button, button, button…