Love Lace

Yes, It's been a while between posts.  I've been busy etc...study....home.....life....exhibitions.....

Image from the powerhouse website

Anyway, the opening of the Love Lace show at the Powerhouse Museum is getting closer and they have images, profile's etc up on their website.  My work is there and Melissa Cameron's.  There are others from Melbourne.  Take a look.

tablecloth or Tea at Nan's

Below are a couple of my drawings for the tablecloth, the beginning of my piece for the Love Lace exhibition.

Ink drawing working out the doily pattern

drawing showing placement of patterns

The History Tablecloth

I want one!

rolling pin

This is a video that I took of one of my kids using my rolling pin before the spikes were taken off.

I love the pattern that it leaves behind in the clay that it is rolling.  Unfortunately the clay dried poorly and broke.

rolling pin from Mary Hackett on Vimeo.

egg bottle

I want to make an egg for the instillation, chocolate tart, that I've started.  Above is a copper trial.  It is going to work!  I couldn't cut off the top of this one and turn it into an egg because its form is quite lovely.  This is about a centimetre off from closing and, in silver, the metal I have chosen for the egg, it will not be that difficult to finish.
This was raised using silversmithing techniques and then drawn in using a blacksmiths fuller.  To use a fuller the object is put into the closest curved end to the anvil and the top of the fuller is hammered placing force on the metal object which is turned slowly as the fuller is hammered.  This action shrinks the diameter of the object.

 

The copper pot split early on and I had to change my technique.  I was drawing the whole end down after fullering and this caused unnecessary stress on the end.  It seemed wiser to leave the end and concentrate on the fuller.                               

Installation

I wasn't happy with what I had made so far. I had no direction and the work was bland. After having a play at a blacksmiths demonstration I started looking at domestic objects and the rawness of the metal. Also, the pieces that I had started there and at Uni were far more interesting than they would have if I had 'finished' them.

For my first tutorial I decided to try an installation. I went in the day before to work out where I would show and how. The image below was taken on my phone before the tutorial and before the 'flour' went down.

On that weekend Nick and I took the installation to a car park and photographed it there.