[Nfb-krafters-korner] Warm Welcome and Questions

Mon Mar 8 01:56:11 UTC 2010

Could you explain the felt art further? I don't think I get the idea.

As for colours, I believe I am blessed. While I cannot see any
details, I can see many colours, especially my favourite...red and
blue and neons. I do have trouble distinguishing dark blue and black
for jeans, and I can't tell white from other light coloured colours,
but many other colours are still visible to me if I can put them right
in front of my face. I just bought a new backpack for school, and I
think the worker gave us a funny look as we were looking at the bags,
and my friend explained why I was putting the bags on the counter and
walking backwards. I was seeing which one I would be able to see
better from a distance so I could keep better track of my bag (my old
one is black and always lost in plain sight). While the pink one was
the best colour, it only came in a regular bag, and I wanted a rolling
backpack, so I got a bright red backpack.

I can't see those tiny brads I talked about, but I have an organizer
that is meant to be a palette with individual plastic cups for
different colours, and I label the top of the cup. The shaped ones are
on one side with the metal ones (silver, brass, gold) and the colours
are on the other side. I have green, blue, yellow, red, orange,
purple, blue, black, and white. I've also considered doing the
pictures with seed beads, and may give that a try soon. I'd just be
afraid of my cat eating the beads, or them getting knocked all over
the floor. What a mess that would be! My sister does French beaded
flowers, which are sculptured flowers made out of seed beads. I think
I could do a 2-d version of that. There are patterns for it out there,
so...I will try that! *grin* Made up my mind while typing.

~Jewel

On 3/7/10, Susan Roe <dogwoodfarm at verizon.net> wrote:
> LE,
>
> I have seen the nail and wire art as kits years ago, but do not know what
> they were called.  They were popular the same time as pictures drawn out
> with burnt wooden match sticks.
>
> Susan
> dogwoodfarm at verizon.net
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "qubit" <lauraeaves at yahoo.com>
> To: "List for blind crafters and artists" <nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Sunday, March 07, 2010 1:43 PM
> Subject: Re: [Nfb-krafters-korner] Warm Welcome and Questions
>
>
>> Hello Jewel and all --
>> Jewel, what a pretty name, and what an awful experience being almost all
>> alone after you lost your vision.  Even if some blamed you for whatever
>> the
>> accident as, that was no reason to treat you so callously.
>> I am glad you are on the list as you obviously have lots of ideas.
>>
>> But back to art, I never tried doing one of these myself, but back when I
>> was a teen and had much better vision than later on, I was in a doctor's
>> waiting room where my mother was noticing a very curious looking piece of
>> art work. She got permission to take it down so I could look closely at
>> it.
>> It consisted of a background of black velvet, on which were nailed
>> hundreds
>> of little nails with wide flat heads outlining the form of a bird standing
>> with its wings slightly extended from its body.  Then among the nails, the
>> artist had strung brightly colored thread -- like embroidery floss -- in a
>> in a geometric pattern to look like the feathers and legs and feet and
>> beak
>> of the bird.  It's hard to explain, but the different colors were strung
>> in
>> such a way that it filled in what the nails outlined.
>> I was an art maniac at that time and also math-oriented, and so the
>> thought
>> of designing one of those types of pictures for myself was very tempting.
>> But I didn't have time before college when there was no longer time for
>> all
>> my art projects...
>>
>> Anyway, I was thinking that would be an excellent project for this list --
>> get a tactile line drawing of something, nail the nails down the various
>> lines and decide how to string the thread.
>>
>> Now if anyone says they have seen these projects and they have a name,
>> I'll
>> be glad.  I know of no special name for this type of art.
>>
>> Anyway, that's my idea for the day.
>> Have a great day.
>> --le
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Jewel S." <herekittykat2 at gmail.com>
>> To: <nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Sunday, March 07, 2010 7:07 AM
>> Subject: Re: [Nfb-krafters-korner] Warm Welcome and Questions
>>
>>
>> Dear Joyce and Cindy,
>>
>> I saw the listing for the Crafters group on the list of NFB discussion
>> groups. I have been doing more and more crafts as I get settled into
>> life as a blind person. As I said, most of my interest is in drawing,
>> but I am also interested in other forms of art, including sculpting
>> and scrapbooking. And any research you desire me to do, I'll give it
>> my all, Joyce.
>>
>> Cindy, I have tried many different ways of drawing. A few have been
>> successfully, but a few have failed. My first drawing experiment was a
>> very successful, but extremely time-consuming project, and I have only
>> made one picture in that manner. The way I did the picture, which was
>> a tree with multiple branches reaching upward but no leaves, sitting
>> on a line for the ground (green, of course), and a sky full of stars
>> and the moon) was brads on a piece of black canvas. I took a piece of
>> black canvas for the dark night, cut it to a small square, and placed
>> each brad (such as you would find closing an envelope or holding a
>> small pamphlet together) in the fabric, pulling it back out and
>> re-doing it if it didn't feel in line with what I wanted. I used many
>> silver and brass dots, but all of the stars are actually silver
>> star-shaped brads I found at Michael's and I used green circles to
>> make the ground's line. I have named it "Alone in the Dark" as a
>> representation of how I felt when I first went blind, because my
>> mother and her boyfriend gave me no assistance, blaming the accident
>> on me, my husband of the time was in Iraq, and I had no friends in
>> Virginia where I was. I had only my doctor and a kind lady who worked
>> for $50 per week for 5 hours to assist me with mail and shopping. It
>> really is a beautiful piece, and I'm proud of it, but it took over a
>> hundred hours to produce, and I believe about 140 brads. My fingers
>> were quite numb at the end of each session from pinching the brads,
>> and I became frustrated several times because the tree wasn't looking
>> like a tree, but more like a stump. I consider that project both the
>> most successful and the least, because it has a great finished project
>> but requires the most skill and time. I don't think I could ever do
>> many of them, though I am considering starting a new one which will be
>> a bouquet of roses and perhaps baby's breath if I can figure out how
>> to do it with string or some other sort of flower.
>>
>> Another method I have used is the gold-ole Braillewriter. I am very
>> inexperienced on it, but have been able to make a castle, a house, a
>> building with pillars which was meant to represent the main building
>> on campus at the Rehab Center, and a few other blocky sketches. A
>> cat's face was a failure, and I was able to make the Eiffel Tower from
>> another person's design (basically the equivalent of tracing). But I
>> have a friend here who used to be a Resource Room teacher and can draw
>> a great number of things. She once used a Braillewriter to draw a
>> helicopter, though she didn't keep the design and she told us (me and
>> her daughter) to never ask her to do it, because it was too hard. I
>> hope to learn more from her. She has pretty much adopted me into her
>> family, so I'm sure I will.
>>
>> To get basic ideas of shapes, I have a 10 by 10 pegboard that has
>> large-ish pegs that fit in the whole. This board cost me $13 from
>> Future Aids, and was definitely worth the small price, as it has
>> helped me understand basic shapes and concepts, such as stars and
>> houses. It is definitely not a drawing tool, but a rough-draft tool
>> that will be great in the classroom when I become a teacher to teach
>> children basic shape concepts.
>>
>> I have not yet tried a thermo-pen, as they are so expensive (I think)
>> for someone on a low income, but I heard they are great for people who
>> know how to draw to use like a regular pen. You use special plastic
>> paper and use the thermo-pen to heat the plastic. The plastic raises
>> up a small amount, and you have a tactile picture. They use this
>> technique with thermoform pictures, using a scanned image.
>>
>> I enjoy looking at other people's work, too. I have a book called
>> Florence and Michaelangelo. A small Braille book, plastic paper, it is
>> nonetheless a true treasure. It gives great descriptions, but the true
>> treasure is the two thermoform pictures, one of a chapel in Florence
>> and one of Michaelangelo's David (a statue). I just wish it had more
>> pictures!
>>
>> I have tried drawing with a needle and thread, but I never could keep
>> a straight line! I have also drawn using cut-outs in different
>> colours. Mostly this was abstract, for which I was well known for
>> making with prisma-colours or markers in high school, but I have done
>> a few basic others. There was a poster contest at the state convention
>> this last year, and I joined in. My poster had pictures made of
>> construction paper of a refridgerator that opened and there was a can
>> label with Braille on it behind the door, and an explanation...there
>> was also a barn with a seed packet that had Braille and its little
>> sentence, a door with a Braille clothing label, and a few other doors.
>> The top read "Braille Opens Doors" for the theme, which was what
>> Braille means to you. It didn't mean, but I though I did a good job
>> all the same for having done it all by myself.
>>
>> Let's see...what else have I tried? I play online text-based
>> roleplaying games, and have made fantastic "paintings" by text alone.
>> Not by shaping the letters, but just describing it. I shall
>> demonstrate:
>>
>> Painting of a shipwreck
>> Here is drawn in charcoal a picture of a three-masted galleon, its
>> side open tto the elements and shadowy. It is leaning heavily against
>> a large, sharp rock that juts out from the water just beyond a beach.
>> The shore is teaming with small children, many pointing to the ship
>> with excited looks upon their faces. Though the sky is clear and free
>> of charcoal for the most part, in the far right corner opposite the
>> shore and shipwreck, the viewer can see the faintest section of storm
>> clouds moving away. The sunrays extend straight and long, a few nearly
>> touching the wrecked ship, which looks to be deserted. One mast is
>> leaning precariously, and the sails are all in shreds. Near the bottom
>> right hand corner, among the smooth water's ripples, the signature of
>> "Jewel" is visible clearly.
>>
>> That's the sort of thing I might do for a text game. It keeps my
>> imagination flowing, and allows me to describe what I cannot draw on
>> paper myself.
>>
>> One last question on my part, and I will end this long-winded reply.
>> The question is for Joyce, the moderator. The classes you have...are
>> the phone numbers long-distance, or are they 800 numbers? I don't have
>> a long-distance plan is why I ask.
>>
>> Thank you both again for the warm welcome, and I hope you can tolerate
>> my over-talking the subject of drawing. Do share with me what you
>> enjoy drawing most, as well as your favourite photographs you have
>> taken. What do you like to take pictures of most, Cindy? I love
>> drawing horses and loved doing medieval painting before I became
>> blind. Because I can no long see the tiny details of medieval
>> illumination, I have given up that particular type of art, but I will
>> not give up all!
>>
>> ~Jewel
>>
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