[Nfb-krafters-korner] Warm Welcome and Questions

Mon Mar 8 19:29:03 UTC 2010

They had these back when I was a kid...I think they were called string art.  I remember the ship that my Dad had.

Cindy Zimmer 

-----Original Message-----
From: nfb-krafters-korner-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-krafters-korner-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of qubit
Sent: Sunday, March 07, 2010 2:44 PM
To: List for blind crafters and artists
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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