[Artists-making-art] my introduction

[Kestrell]

Hi, Jewel

The name kestrell (I spell it k e s t r e l l) comes from the name of the 
smallest kind of falcon (spelled with one l), but I took my particular 
spelling from Edmund Spenser's long poem, "The Faerie Queen," in which the 
Elizabethan word "kestrell" (with two l's) means a low and common person. It 
started off as my online nickname, but then it just seemed everyone I knew 
was calling me Kestrell, so I pretty much use it all the time.

I haven't gotten into brads much. I tried beads, but what a pain in the 
butt! I have arthritis in my hands, so doing lots of repetitive handwork 
with small items can irritate it. Do you use some sort of punch-machine to 
insert the brads, or can you easily do it by hand?

For my tactile tapestry, I used a duck cloth banner/flag which comes with a 
lightweight wooden dowel that I purchased online from Dharma Trading 
Company, which is also where I get some of my dye products. The baners come 
in a variety of sizes, they are all nicely sewn, and it is natural cotton 
fabric. First I tie-dyed the fabric with dark green in a pattern which 
suggests tree trunks and branches. Then I took some wide brown velvet ribbon 
and made three straight up-and-down lines to suggest three abstract trees. I 
wanted to make a green and silver river of beads, so used Big Eye plastic 
beading needles to sew the beading thread onto the tapestry, but 
unfortunately the thread broke, or perhaps I just didn't sew it securely 
enough, so then, beads everywhere! My new plan is to use this silicone 
product called Sugru which comes in little packets which you open, knead 
like PlayDough, and then layer on to the cloth or whatever you want to put 
it on. People use it to mold into bowls, create custom grips on devices, and 
patch holes on boots--it's pretty cool stuff. Then it just needs to cure for 
24 hours.

  Kestrell
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jewel" <herekittykat2 at gmail.com>
To: "An exploration of art by and for blind persons" 
<artists-making-art at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2011 11:43 AM
Subject: Re: [Artists-making-art] my introduction


> Kistrell,
> What an unusual name! I love it! Thank you for the book suggestion; I
> went directly to Bookshare and got his books (there are two of them,
> one on arts and one on history of blindness in England).
>
> I also do tactile art with ribbons, butons, and more. Have you tried
> brads? I use them in my tactile art. they come in many colours, which
> I keep sorted in bead organizers, and some even have textures (such as
> ones I got that have a velevet texture and some that are glittery). I
> have only finished one piece, a dragonfly and flower, but am working
> on several others. What do you use as the tapestry blank (cloth,
> canvas, something else?) I am trying embroidery cloth now, as I've had
> some difficulty with regular cloth taking the brads without tearing
> the fabric. Oh, and brads can be used to write things out in a sort of
> jumbo Braille!
>
> ~Jewel
>
> On 11/29/11, Kestrell <kestrell at panix.com> wrote:
>> Hello
>>
>> My name is Kestrell and I live in the Boston area. I am totally blind, 
>> but
>> was low vision until my early twenties. Growing up, I was an art
>> student.
>>
>> For the past few years, I have been helping to organize a tactile art 
>> show
>> for a Boston-area science fiction convention, and it resparked my 
>> interest
>> in making and appreciating art, so last year about this time, I decided 
>> that
>> I wanted to get more art in my life. A number of great events, such as 
>> this
>> list, seem to have occurred during this year. Another great event was the
>> visit of Simon Hayhoe, an academic who studies and writes books about
>> teaching art to blind people (you can find his books on Bookshare, and he
>> also has a Web site which you can find through his Wikipedia entry).
>>
>> I've been trying different art media, including tactile tapestrymaking (I
>> use things like ribbon, hemp cord, beads, and fabric for this), wire
>> sculpture, and tie-dying. On Thursday, the blind crafters list will be
>> having a class on creating tie-dye with permanent marker, so I'm looking
>> forward to that, as it is a lot less messy than using powder dyes and 
>> gives
>> the artist a lot more control.
>>
>> I've also been blogging about different resources I have found and 
>> writing a
>> book about my experiences reintroducing myself to art as a blind person.
>>
>> Kestrell
>> http://kestrell.livejournal.com
>
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