Technical Hitches and Jubilation
I was working towards a set of shadow puppets to be laser cut out of a very thin laminate material, and was very excited about the possible results. I imagined beautiful sharp laser-cut edges on art objects in four colours of shiny laminate, but it seems the CNC routing man had the wrong idea. I was not clear enough on the details such as shadow puppets needing to allow light through them, and some parts being delicate (hence the laser cutting option). Either way, that has come to a dead end, so reluctantly I will be making my own puppets. It’s a shame though as I liked the idea that by having them made, they would not connote a hand-crafted artefact from the island, which is now a potential hang-up. I am thinking maybe I’ll make them out of really modern materials and stick with really simple silhouettes (as opposed to hand-woven wicker-dolly clichés! If I did that, I wouldn’t blame islanders if they decided to lynch me!).
On a more jubilant note, both of the two major sponsors- Scottish Arts Council and the Highland Tourism Development Fund have confirmed their financial support! Hurrah! Hurrah! My past 12 months of hard labour will not be in vain! I can now cover my costs, buy the best production materials for the artworks, and even pay myself for the trouble. I am, in case you can’t tell, extremely pleased and relieved…3 weeks to go. Bought a mosquito net-hat and a book on foraging.
(For anyone still following this blog, you might be interested to know that what I said earlier about the percentages of scottish arts council funding was slightly mean (and they are now my best friends of course); This round they funded almost a fifth of the money requested, but with my £3,000 representing just under 6% of the total amount awarded. That could mean as little as twenty individuals in all of Scotland receiving arts funding this quarter! There really isn’t very much to go around…)
