Tops and tails

I'm in the process of taking the tails off the teasels. The tops and tails will create two different pieces of work. I'm making up bags of 500 teasels heads which will be used for an installation (using several thousand teasels) as part of Quartz Festival at Queens College. This piece of work that will be created with help from the Junior School pupils.
The teasel tails are being wired together to make 'clothing'.
These teasels are very hard and I often prick my fingers and bleed everywhere.....memories of last year?

Mannequin, manakin, manikin, or mannikin ?

Well I now have one of the above......whatever the spelling......courtesy of Ebay. At the moment,  I perceive her as a sort of Lara Croft type individual, and I purchased her outfit from a charity shop.
She needs to be feisty, as my son is using her for target practice!

I have also started to slice up the teasels and experiment with ways of turning them into clothing. I've got hold of some coffee sacks (the cultivated teasels were sewn into sacks before been transported to the mills), so I was keen to try it as a possible backing material. But, I may just wire the teasels together.

Today, being a dry day with a good breeze blowing,  I've managed to dye a small amount of teasels using the remainder of the Indian ink. These teasels don't take up the stain as well as the wild teasels but I think the results are still interesting.

Last impression rather than lasting impressions?

I went to Somerset College on Friday to get more sketchbooks and found that the remains of my sculpture had finally been removed, and all that was left was the memory........

Photos in memoriam of 'Square Peg'

This could become a whole new 'body' of work following on from last years Horn of Plenty...

Hibernation over?

Now we're nearly in British Summer Time, I've decided to come out of hibernation. But working outside in the arctic wind this morning I may change my mind....

I've just taken delivery of 10,000 (40kgs) of teasels from a company in Yorkshire that imports them from Spain. This is Dipsacus sativus, the hooked teasel, which is still used by top-end clothing manufacturers, such as Johnston's of Elgin, to hand finish their garments.

I became fascinated by this humble teasel when researching it's history last year, and have several ideas for new work. The huge boxes are now taking up space in my hallway and blocking the daylight from our front door.

Winter weather takes it's toll

Driving past Somerset College today I saw what was left of my six foot six cube……notice the absence of the college sign, and further down the road several garden fence panels had been ripped apart.
Never underestimate the power of nature.

I wonder how long the college authorities will leave it before it becomes firewood!