Off-Press/Print Restraint

Tackled the torso, I kept finding I made mistakes in similar places across the surface. Could be the density of the wood, the sharpness of the blade or a dozen other factors, bloody annoying though. I’m going to have to work out some way of making repairs.

Anyway made some progress, added some nice details. I love how much shaping I can get with the hand tools. Also I using my industrial carver with an oversized blade to create what I can only describe as stretchy–fabric look!

So here we are, didn’t get as far as the arms…

Today I’m aiming to complete a human torso.

I’m naturally finding that any open areas feel right when I pack them with details akin to previous works. In the 2 example works I gave a few posts ago, I was sewing actual costumes for myself and for other performers. It never seemed enough to simply have a fluorescent colour shirt or walking trousers, they needed to be so densely packed with tapes, ropes, reflectors, compasses, bobbles and hazard markings that the performers would begin to look more like ordinance survey maps than the people that use them. Like a dense focus-draw in the landscape. Both incongruous, and completely ‘of’ a contemporary landscape- waterproof, hi-viz, branding, the lot. 

Coming back to maps for a moment, it is interesting that so many designs and logos used by ordinance survey and other mapping firms- Chevrons, double stripes, dash stripes, strings of diamonds, dots, contours et al; find their way into outdoor clothing design. As if we feel safer because of the likeness our clothing has to maps and mapping…