Sometimes you just have to make something new. Making new products is always a gamble but there is an absolute joy in making something new. That feeling when you are working on something new and it is going well. That is what I live for.
I picked up some of these hoops a while ago (and recently grabbed more). I’m slowly choosing anatomy to fill them using calico and the stem stitch, one of my favourite embroidery stitches. I think the next one will be a kidney.
I was looking for something, a hand necklace, to replace one that sold and I found a bunch more brass anatomy. It was re-found, dug back up, surfaced again, something like that.
So I’m thinking I at least have to add a kidney and a brain into this mix.
These brass pieces were all made 2-5 years ago, nothing too recent and they are done batches of 5-10 at a time. The process is fairly involved and the etching part is done in a spray etcher, made by my partner.
The only piece of the collection I have kept for myself is the skull. Maybe next go around I’ll keep a hand and a ribs…
My partner first came up with the idea for making Brass Anatomy when I was asking about a way to turn my drawings into something. I am not great at drawing but some of them are okay, they certainly have potential for some sort of use.
As making the brass pieces needs to be done in bulk we only do it to so often. We recently did some new ones for Finders Keepers, and the upcoming GoMA market here in Brisbane.
Find the new brass in my shop, here.
This St Andrews Cross Spider was in a web in our yard for all of Summer and she has thousands of babies! It seemed like she had a new green egg sack every week.
In late May I found her all dried out and dead in her web. I left her there for a couple of days and then thought I’d like to pop her into a jar to wear as a necklace. I’ve collected a Chrysalis top from a plant in our yard (I followed a creature from Caterpillar to Butterfly, though did not see if emerge) and wear that so thought it would be nice to have another creature who was a fixture in the yard for a time to wear.
She was quite a bit too large to squeeze into the jar opening so I kept setting her aside and thinking about it. Unfortunately last night some creature got to her and ate the body, leaving me a pile of legs and a small part of head. oh no! Though she is now safely sealed in a jar for me to wear.
Your Organ Grinder 