chair reupholstery

i found this chair sitting on the sidewalk when i came to work one day and decided it was too good to pass up.  it's a mid-century eero saarinen executive chair knock off.  the vinyl upholstery was ripping off and the foam was gnarly, but it had good bones and i thought it would be cool to reupholster.  i've never reupholstered anything before, so i knew this was going to be interesting.

the first step was to rip all the nasty vinyl off which turned out o be more of a challenge than i bargained for.  it had a gazillion rusted staples in it and i only got half done before i had to give it a rest because i got two blisters.

i went to mood and got a really nice loose weave red canvas that i thought wood look awesome.

the original vinyl cover for the seat back was one piece.  i tried to lay the red fabric the same way, and it just wasn't working out.  luckily, the real executive chairs have two seams on the arms, so i decided to go that route.  i test drove it with brown fabric.  this is also the first time i've ever made a pattern by draping!

success!  the interior back worked out great.  then i had to figure out how to attach the exterior back fabric.  the original had this piece of aluminum that crimped the fabric and held it in place, creating a nice "seam" edge.  after doing another test or two i realized that the only way i was going to be able to do it was to bite the bullet and find the same kind of aluminum strip.

i found the strip, called "curve ease", from the same place i watched youtube videos on how to reupholster the chair: diyupholsterysupply.com!  it's a bendable strip of aluminum that you staple one side, wrap your fabric around the edge, catch it on the barbs, and hammer it closed.  that did the trick!

the cushion (i knew) was going to be the trickiest part.  the original seat cushion was stapled from the inside.  and no matter how i tried (and i tried lots) i couldn't figure out how to do it.  i settled on making a u-shaped wood strip that i could attach the fabric and padding to and then nail that to the fiberglass shell.  i put the nails in first, then wrapped the fabric, that way i could just hammer the finished cushion in place.

getting close!  once the cushion was nailed in all i had to do was wrap the "tongue" flap under the bottom and reattach the base.

oh yeah, baby!  i'm sure it's not the best upholstery job in the world, but it's my first attempt (no word yet on wether it will be my last.)  i originally thought i would fix it up and then sell it, but i've been wavering a little on that--even though we don't exactly have the room to take on more furniture.  for now i guess i'll just enjoy it in my studio.

viewer mail

i love it when people reach out and post comments or send me emails about what's going on on my blog.  after i did the post on how to make bodega bags christine sent me a picture of the brand new bags she made.  awesome!  they look fantastic!

patrick costello sent this to me about a week ago and i have been loving it.  we were actually in a show together last year (though he couldn't make it to the opening), but i just recently got to meet him in person.  i really, really like his work.  ironically he does a lot of preserving as well, and he sent me a jar of his latest: apple butter with a special printed top.  delicious!  apple butter always takes me right back to where my family is from.  there's a big amish community there and i love going back and eating at das dutchman essenhaus and slathering apple butter on everything.

thanks guys!

shows!

check it out!  i've got two shows going up within a week of each other!  the first show is called "border line: the craft of fine art" and opens on jan 27th at the mikhail zakin gallery at the art school at old church in demarest, nj.  the curator, john mcgurk, saw my work at the x initiative: byoa event 2 years ago!  i guess everything counts--even if you don't think anything came of it.  he put together a show of contemporary fine artists using craft as a medium.  i've checked out the other artists and i think it's going to be a kick ass show.  alicia ross is actually another artist in push: stitchery book that i was in a while ago!  the opening reception is feb 2.

when the curator of the rocky mountain quilt museum approached me to be in "out of this world: contemporary star quilts" (i just realized that i never did a post about the show--fuck!)  let's start over.  i am currently in a show at the rocky mountain quilt museum.  they are hosting the traveling show: "stars! a study of 19th century star quilts" and thought it would be a cool idea to have a show running concurrently of contemporary star quilts.  irene, the amazing curator there, contacted me and asked if i would include phobos in the show!  while we were working out the logistics for that she told me that immediately following that show was a show of quilts by men and that i should send a quilt in for that as well.  sooo...  if you're in the golden, co area check out "male call: quilts made by men"  i won't be able to make it to the opening, but i'm sure it's going to be awesome!  the show opens on the 30th and the reception is friday feb 3rd.

website retooling

while i'm sitting around waiting for lightening to strike in the studio i went ahead and retooled my website a little bit.  although i love making the quilts, have been doing it for about 6 years now, and most people know me solely as a quilt maker i wanted to put some stuff up to show the work in context.  i posted a gallery of 5 pieces i worked on over a span of 4 years before i started making the quilts.  i've always considered myself more of a sculptor than a quilt maker and i view the quilts as sculpture more than just "quilts".

the gallery is of sculpture and site specific installation done in my various studios and living spaces over the years both in brooklyn and chicago.  the "grandest" piece is a room that i built to look like a mission control room.  it's a piece i made in 2003 shortly before moving to new york.  in addition to making the room i wanted to make a video that would show the installation in action.  i got my friends to dress up in uniforms i made and filmed them going about their business.

while working on the site i remembered once again how awesome the people over at other peoples pixels are.  jenny and brian are fellow saic alum and started doing opp to help their friends out with easy to use and affordable websites for artists to showcase their work.  i highly recommend if you're ever in the need of an amazing website thats super easy to use and manage to check these guys out!

and lastly, i'd like to give a shout out and thank you to all the people that have written to me and left encouraging comments about my recent studio frustrations.  i know that it's completely natural to be going through this (if totally annoying), and wanted to  write the post to show just that--that it happens to everybody.  thanks again for your support!

hitting a wall

it's probably not that great to start off the new year with a downer post, but sometimes that's just the way things work out.

i've been pretty down lately in the studio and feeling listless.  in addition to things that i needed to get done, like making new shirts, i've been working on a bunch of other things too.  i made the warnings, and had some ideas for other embroidery projects too.  one of which is this image of an accurate star field that has been flipped 180 degrees with an additional star added directly in the center called "way home".  it would essentially be as if i was looking through space toward planet earth.

someone left this outside of my job and my boss said i could take it home.  it's a saarinen knock-off executive chair.  it's got great bones to it and i thought i would reupholster it.  well, i'm about half way done and whoever upholstered this thing the first time did it with about a million staples and i've got blisters all over my hand from trying to pull them out.

i've also been trying to remake this sweatshirt.  it never really fit quite right.  i made two attempts with a pattern that i had made, and then i broke down and got a simplicity sweatshirt pattern to make a better pattern out of.  still doesn't work.  i'm on my 5th attempt and it's super frustrating.

the chair and the sweatshirt are just annoying things that i would be working on anyway that just add to the frustration, but the embroidery projects are different.  i'm about a quarter of the way through the star field and i totally don't want to work on it.  i was excited about the embroidery projects because it would give me an outlet for other ideas while still continuing with the quilts, but now i'm not so sure.  once i've started working on them i've lost interest.  i'm starting to think it was just a way for me to stall on working on a quilt.  i'm not even sure if i want to still make the quilts at this point.

of course there's other external factors that are tying into this as well.  i've got the grad application in and i won't hear back from them until around april.  with the likelihood of getting in being low (there's 900 applicants for 35 spots), there's also the consideration that maybe i should just buck up and get a real job; something that's arts related and i could just focus all my energy into that.

i'm all shook up and i don't really know what to do at this point.  i called my friend judith and she was really helpful.  she reminded me that these things come in cycles, and i have been doing this for a while now (about 6 years).  she told me to take a break from the studio and do something else.  don't think about art.  so, i'm trying to take her advice.  maybe this is good and something great will happen for the new year.  who knows.  guess i'll just have to keep my fingers crossed.