studio notes #11
To start with the good news: remember how I mentioned in an earlier entry that I was applying for a residency with this body of work?
I got it!
This means that for the next four months I have some financial and material support to focus on this work and I am so excited about what that will make possible. As we get closer to the winter holiday season, I would normally be shifting my attention toward making production jewelry and vending at markets. Instead, I'm scaling that back in a big way and getting to prioritize my art. It feels pretty amazing.
Now onto the more tangible updates.
I got to do a little material shopping at Austin Creative Reuse (where I am doing my residency) last week and came home with a few bags of things that I think might help me fabricate some structures, along with some materials that just looked fun to work with. I'm going to try to document where these materials end up, too. I'm curious to see how many of them eventually make their way into this project.
Inspired by a few things I brought home, I made a puzzle piece necklace. I found a few large puzzle pieces in a bin of orphaned puzzle pieces and immediately thought: necklace. I collected photographs from thrift stores for years, so I cut two of them into scallop shapes to decorate the puzzle piece. I reinforced the back with some folder plastic I already had, and I'm currently adding beads around the edges.
The other necklace has barely left my body since I made it yesterday. it has a gentle pressure that’s quite comforting. It's made from a shoulder pad, some needlework fabric, etched folder plastic to look like a mushroom called angel wing, and a ribbon that originally bundled some dishrags we received as a gift.
I've also been researching slime molds, and I am really getting into the idea of slime molds and other nutrient recyclers as a possible way of thinking about processing grief. I don't know exactly where that idea is going yet, but I keep coming back to it. Also, slime molds are just stunning.
So that's where things stand this week. A residency, a lot of new materials, two necklaces, and another organism making its way into the project.
studio notes #10
I'm still making watercolor sketches of mushrooms as potential designs for the veil and trying to figure out how I'll connect everything once I make it in plastic.
I've been testing embroidery floss versus regular thread, and so far I prefer the embroidery floss. I've also tested a few glues with the thread to see if glue is even an option. Next up, I think I'm going to try jump rings.
I also remembered this mushroom sample I made on salad container plastic almost a year ago. I had thought about turning it into a necklace, but I didn't love it, so it has been sitting in my idea bin ever since. Now that I'm thinking about mushrooms in this context, it suddenly feels connected again. I'm not sure yet what I'll do with it, but I'm glad I didn't throw it away.
I've also put up an idea board for the project so I can start seeing all of my samples in one place. It is getting interesting to see how some of the ideas that felt completely separate when I started are beginning to overlap.
Something else I've been thinking about this week is what it means to bear witness to someone else's grief. I've met so many people through markets, classes, and in comment threads who see my work and are inspired to shared their feelings with me. It is usually some combination of sadness, frustration, helplessness or anger and almost always could be considered ecological grief. I've been thinking about what it means that people choose to share those things with another person, even briefly.
I'm not sure what will come of that yet, but I have a feeling it will find its way into the work somehow.
For now, back to the veil. More tests with the floss, and maybe some jump rings next.
studio notes #9
This week I had the idea to make a mourning veil. There is something about this article of clothing that I find really intriguing. Wearing one signals to the outside world that the wearer is in mourning, but it gives the wearer privacy. That in-between space feels really rich to me. It also creates a barrier between the mourner and the outside world, perhaps protecting both sides from some of the discomfort of visible grief.
I've also been thinking about how my continued interest in mushrooms might fit into the ideas emerging in this project. Mushrooms are part of the process of decomposition, breaking down dead organic matter and returning nutrients to the soil that can then become available to other plants and organisms. I keep coming back to that cycle of decay, transformation, and new growth.
So the veil I'm experimenting with is made up of drawings of mushrooms on black paper and connected with black thread. I'm interested in how closely that starts to resemble lace, and how the finished piece might literally cover the mourner in a field of mushrooms. Eventually I want to make the mushroom pieces from folder plastic, so the material itself is part of that story too.
I am currently waiting for some glues to arrive so I can start testing how to attach the different materials. Polypropylene is notoriously difficult to glue anything to, so this may be one of those projects where the technical problems hold everything up.
I think the testing and designing will continue into next week, so that's the plan for now. We'll see what happens.
studio notes #8
This is a more technical update. I've been researching table hair work techniques, which is basically a way of braiding strands of hair using an elevated flat surface with a hole in the middle. Traditionally, the finished braids are then boiled into shape on molds and used to create the cords found in hair work rings and bracelets. I will be using plastic grocery bags instead of hair. I’ve been surprised by how difficult it is to find modern books about the technique. Y'all may know that I taught myself kumihimo from books a few years ago so I could use it with strips of grocery bags. So I am pretty sure the two techniques are similar but I am curious about what is different when working with hair.
Since I couldn't find any modern texts, I started looking for original sources.
I first came across Self-Instructor in the Art of Hair Work by Mark Campbell, which has been interesting, but the first pattern I tried was a complete failure. I had a feeling there was something I was missing.
That led me to Godey's Lady's Book and Magazine, which has been utterly fascinating as an artifact of its time. But it also turned out to be a really useful technical resource. The magazine actually starts from the beginning and teaches its Victorian readers how to make hair work at home, starting from the beginning and using things they may already have at home.
I didn't have a top hat or a band box just laying around, so instead I'm using a makeshift "third hand” that I'm in the process of designing to give my left hand some relief. I started with the first suggested pattern and, unlike the Campbell pattern, it made a cord!
It did take me 2 more tries to get what I think may be the correct pattern. In sample #2 I added a strip of black plastic to the center to see how that looked. And in sample #3 I used 1 brown and 1 black strand with no internal cord. Each time I worked on balancing the weight with my quilting clips.
Here are the Godey's sections I've been using so far:
Volume 58, Issue 2 - february 1959 — overview
Volume 58, Issue 3 - march 1959 — overview continued
Volume 58, Issue 4 - april 1959 — overview continued + round chain plait
I also finished my second sample! I've made it into a necklace and have worn it on several walks so far to see how the weight feels and how it moves.
Inspiration for the future
While I was scanning through Godey's, I came across references to vivariums and fans, among other things. Both immediately made me wonder if they could become part of the visual language for thinking about climate change.
I'm not sure where either of those ideas will go yet, but they're going in the binder.
My husband also put the latest sample up to his forehead which I fell in love with and now I want to make something that would work like that…
studio notes # 7
I think I was in 2nd or 3rd grade when I first learned that animals could go extinct. I remember it being a kind of gutting realization. I was obsessed with animals in general, but especially elephants. I remember handwriting several pages comparing and contrasting African and Asian elephants for a writing assignment. I didn't understand what poaching was and thankfully the sources I was researching were age-appropriate things like National Geographic World. But I didn't have to know the details to be heartbroken by the idea that elephants could just stop existing. Like the dinosaurs.
This realization kicked off quite a few creative projects around conservation. In 5th grade I wrote a passionate poem about manatees that I read aloud to my class over an instrumental tape my mom had.
I bring these stories up because memories from that time in my life have been surfacing more lately as I have been working on this project. It feels like another clue as I stumble around trying to figure out which direction to go in. This is starting to feel connected to something much older in me than I originally thought. It is inspiring more questions than answers but that feels good at this stage. Here are a few:
Why did I love elephants and manatees so much back then?
Was it the perspective of being a child that helped me feel more hopeful than I do today?
What would Charity as a 5th grader make if she was given the reins t to this project today?
What made the 1990s different than today in the framework of environmental protection?
It looks like I have some journaling to do!
After reading a section in American Afterlife about obituaries, where Sweeney mentions someone writing an obituary for a tree, I started thinking about what it might mean to make memorial drawings for species that have gone extinct since I was a child. I already have a goal to draw more this year, so over the weekend I got out my watercolors and made a portrait of a conus lugubrus, Diospyros angulata and brunoniella neocaledonica
It felt especially timely after reading about the recent weakening and rollback of environmental protections in the U.S. I felt like I was able to bear witness to the past while sitting with the sadness of the present day.
As I'm wrapping up the month and thinking about the one ahead, I'm excited to have less planned for August so I can spend more time on this series.
sample progress : another row of bead strands.
studio notes #6
This week was a slow one. Between an upcoming class and a few days lost to a migraine, I didn't make as much progress on this project as I'd hoped.
I did get my latest sample a little further along. The grocery bag macramé part is done and I started adding strands of black beads. The arrangement of the beads started to feel like it could be referencing either hair or tears, which I really like.
I also learned that I need to be more intentional if I want the ends of the beads to create their own lines. I wasn't really sure what I wanted when I started, but as I added more strands, I realized I wanted the ends to create a line that mirrors the curve of the navette/eye shape of the macramé part.
I really like the look of the strands of beads and they feel really cool in my hands. I want to see what it looks like when the whole thing is covered in them, almost like hair. So I'll be adding more and taking pictures at each stage.
Sometimes I'm afraid to add something if I already like where a sample is. But because I'm framing these as samples, I'd rather follow an idea as far as I can and learn from it than stop myself from experimenting just because I like what I have.
I have several ideas I want to see through before I jump into the next book or possibility for inspiration, so I'm hoping to spend some time making more samples next week.
The next idea I'm excited to try is making little plastic folder mushrooms and incorporating them into the grocery bag macramé.
sample #2 - changes so far, pointier tips and less round than sample# 1
added first layer of strands of beads. I didn’t have any black cord so I painted it with acrylic ink. I did end up buying black nylon cord for the future.
studio notes #5
Unsurprisingly, I have less to report today. I’ve made some headway on the next sample, and I have done some reading and taken notes.
Since I don’t have much to share visually, and most of the ideas are still percolating, I thought I’d use this week’s check in to talk about my idea binder instead.
When I was in school I created power points for each of the projects for my metals classes. I did this mostly because my anxiety was high during that time and I had a hard time keeping my thoughts straight when my mind was full of unhelpful opinions. I was also on a medication that gave me serious brain fog. But! When I created a powerpoint for my project proposal, I felt supported by the images and ideas I had already put together at home. So now, if I spaced on an idea I could literally just look to the slide for help. Even though I don’t have to present my ideas before doing them anymore, I have found creating idea and process documentation for work still helps me focus or jump back in to a project if I needed to put it away for some time. It also just helps me think. The act of making it helps me slow down and process my thoughts.
Over the years I’ve experimented with different ways of organizing projects. For smaller ones, a slide deck is enough. Bigger projects seem to need something more flexible. A binder allows me to rearrange pages, add different kind of media and let the structure change as the project changes. This year I have been using these smaller a5 binders. I appreciate the smaller page size limits how much can go on a single page.
As far as what goes in, I kind of just play it by ear. Right now the binder has visual inspiration, historical jewelry, notes from books, sketches, technical research and ideas that don’t fit anywhere else yet. The binder allows me to shuffle, add categories and remove pages as the project itself changes. I have made them for general inspiration, something that feels more like a common place book for artistic inspiration, but this is the first time I have done something like this for a bigger project.
One thing that I am keeping in mind as I am building this series is this question: What do I wish I had slowed down and documented when I was making Year of Plastic?
One thing I am noticing already is that it just feels really nice to have a book I can come back to when I am feeling lost.
sample #2 - navette/eye shape macramé grocery bag
idea binder - notes from a book I am reading.
studio notes #4
I went on a field trip this weekend to a place that inspired my BFA series Year of Plastic. I am still processing the visit, so I am going to leave this intentionally vague for now. I mostly want to mark it in the timeline. Maybe it will become important again later and if it does future me (and maybe future us) will know where that thread started.
I’ve started my next sample. For now it is just a brass ring in that navette shape except I made the points a little pointier. Today I plan to get the grocery bag macramé started and follow a slightly different design plan than the last sample. I have also been wondering how other shapes might look.. a coffin, a teardrop, an urn? It currently feels a little literal for where I want to go with this so I am noticing the hesitancy. That said, I am not in editing mode right now. I’m in the follow what is interesting mode so lets see where this path goes.
I am also making my way through the book American Afterlife: Encounters in the Customs of Mourning by Kate Sweeney. Besides the fascinating collection of stories, it’s also helping me contextualize some of the visual sources of inspiration in history and the culture of the time. One of the highlights so far has been learning about a graveyard quilt made by Elizabeth Roseberry Mitchell in 1843. It is an aerial view of a cemetery. The details are incredible: a black fence around the edge, coffin shaped quilting stitches, and movable coffin panels with paper labels with family names written on them in script. I have made quilts before and am familiar with mourning quilts made from loved one’s clothes, but this feels different. It isn’t centered on remembering one person. It feels like a map of grief itself(past, present and future) all held within this imagined map of a cemetery. I couldn’t add it to my binder fast enough.
It is a rainy day here in Austin, which is my favorite weather to read and be quiet. It may be more reading than making this week. Research can be hard for me to prioritize, but i’m trying to remember that I’m learning a lot, even if it doesn’t look like much from the outside yet.
studio notes #3
I finished up the first sample. I probably shouldn’t form any kind of lasting opinion because the first thing I thought was “This doesn’t look like something I made” yet I don’t get any excitement like when I see something someone else has made. So it's getting put out of view for a little while.
I think I have been stepping out of my creative comfort zone a lot recently. Its exciting in theory, but it can also be really scary and discouraging because it kind of feels like you are starting all over again. and Nothing feels sure. I felt similarly about the first samples in my bubblewrap mineral series. Even after I finished the whole series I still wasn’t sure about it. Now, years later, it’s some of my favorite work. Brains are funny.
I originally wanted to “draw” the eye in beads. Turns out I didn’t like how that looked and I spent way too long trying to make it work before giving up. So, instead, I cut out the shape in black folder plastic and stitched that on with beads. That worked better.
I still like the navette shape and that it looks like an eye and I also like the black-on-black-on-black of the grocery bag, folder plastic and beads, so I am not going to give up. I also printed out a few historical brooches for my binder. I think they are made of jet but what I am really looking at is their construction. I am wondering if I could build something similar as a macramé frame. Something with multiple shapes connected.
It’s Friday so I am taking the weekend off from making. My hands could use a break and honestly my brain could too and some time to catch up…
studio notes #2
In addition to the researching and sample making this week, I have also been working on a residency application that would help me focus more on this project if I got it. Besides the nerves over possibly getting rejected, I also noticed how grounding answering the application has been. I feel like I got to time travel to the near future and plan from there instead of just next steps for today. I would love to be invited into the residency program, but I already feel like there are some things I can do without it that I hadn’t considered until I thought about what I would do with the dedicated time and resources. Mostly it made me think about creating work on a larger scale, but it also made me realize this topic may be bigger than the first series I have in mind. It feels like there are more paths to explore than I originally thought. If you know me, you know I love a journal prompt… I might come up with some similar questions inspired by this that I can revisit throughout this series. Help me get out of the immediate and think from a future version of the project
In the studio side of things, I have finished the little navette sample and sketched out an eye design. I also transferred some of my rough notes and sketches from the book In Death Lamented into my project binder. It’s been a few weeks since I read it so it was nice to go through the notes and only transfer what was still interesting and relevant. I also redrew the idea sketches I had onto their own page. Mushrooms are always trying to figure out how to get into the mix! I’m looking forward to designing a sample that combines folder plastic and macramé. I am not sure if they will work together in the way that I am imagining. physics is something my brain doesn’t always account for but that is tomorrow’s problem!
studio notes #1
So, I've been circling this idea since the end of last year (2025)...
How can I address the grief I feel every time I see a headline about warming oceans, garbage patches, or insect population loss?
The first connection I made was mourning jewelry. I made a small series of pieces around that idea, mostly to see if it was something I could say in a few works or if it was a topic I wanted to spend more time with.
Turns out... it's definitely the second.
One of the first books I read was In Death Lamented by Sarah Nehama, which I absolutely loved. It sent me down a rabbit hole of historical mourning jewelry, symbolism, and materials. Since then I've started a mood binder with images, notes, and ideas, and I just picked up a new stack of books from the library.
For anyone curious what my research process looks like, as I read I usually make a few pages in my binder: a word bank, an idea bank, and a quote bank. Sometimes an idea ends up needing its own page entirely.I'll share some of those as they start to fill out a bit more.
Image info (you can click on the images to make them bigger)
image 1 - July reading stack
image 2 - mood binder with rings from in death lamented
image 3 - first sample - I fell in love with the navette setting used in several pieces shared in Nehama’s book so I am making this one using my 3d macrame technique and some black bags. I just added the back this morning, it is fused scraps of plastic grocery bags. The shape is indistinguishable from an eye shape so I am thinking of going in after I finish the macrame with these matte black beads to create the iris and pupil. I think I might turn it into a necklace if I like it once it’s done.
studio notes - welcome
I have been craving a space where I can share what is unfinished. It can feel too vulnerable to share works in progress in spaces that are more for broad public consumption. I keep thinking about the early days of social media like live journal crossed with something in the moment like field notes.
what I like about sharing:
accountability-knowing someone else might be interested keeps me engaged in my research and making.
perspective shift-thinking about explaining an idea to someone else helps me understand it more clearly myself.
community-studio days can be quiet, peaceful, and sometimes lonely. Sharing here is a reminder that there are other makers reading, thinking, experimenting, and asking questions in their own studios too.
what I could share here:
book/article/documentary notes and summaries
sketches
images
questions i'm wrestling with
samples and experiments
ideas that may never become finished work
progress on larger projects
More than anything, I hope this becomes a place where ideas can build on one another over time. I’m also hopeful to catch the ideas and connections that are almost impossible to see in a single moment but become visible when you look back at months or years of documentation.
If you'd like a reminder when there's something new to read, you can sign up for the separate “studio notes” email list at the bottom of studio notes landing page here. Otherwise, feel free to stop by every now and again to see what’s new.
-charity