The Threadbare Bugs go to the Movies!

For the last couple of months our computer has had a bit of a melt down. Weird things kept happening to the screen and it would randomly shut itself off. Gary finally got to the bottom of the problem and discovered the graphics card had gone kaput. He found a way to keep it all working but compromises had to be made in terms of the quality on screen and some programmes were no longer usable. (Hang in there, this story is going somewhere)

So thanks to my lovely techie geek I could still write and post my blog without having to leave the house to borrow someone else’s computer. I did have florescent green stripes across my screen and all the fancy fancy programmes were gone so it was back to basics for us.

When I finished the Threadbare Bug section of the blog I wanted to show you this little short I had made but Gary told me that, unfortunately the graphics card was a must for using the movie maker programme I had used to put it together. I was very disappointed but moved on to the next phase of the blog anyway.

Gary got a graphics card as a Christmas present (lucky boy!) and finally installed its shiny goodness and we are back in the game. There are no more green pinstripes and most importantly, the computer is back to its all-action self.

By now I think you will be familiar with the bugs and, indeed, the photographs of them that I have used in this little three minute movie I made. But I thought it might be interesting to see them from a different perspective.

A few years ago, a friend of mine was thinking of going back to college to study film. She asked me if I could give her some advice about putting a portfolio together since I had successfully been through the process myself. I readily agreed and we worked and talked together over a couple of weeks.

She showed me an editing programme she was using to cut the film together that she was using to apply to the course. It was a whole new world to me in terms of transitions and effects, sound and visuals. I discovered we had a similar programme on our own computer. Gary went to work one morning and I think I sat at the computer all day playing with this new toy. By the time he got home I had made my Threadbare Bug movie and I was thrilled with myself.

I think I used every wipe, pan and fade-in that was available just through the sheer wonder of experimentation. I don’t think I’ll become a famous director anytime soon but I still love it because I had such a good time making it.

Gary studied animation in college and he contributed a couple of tiny creations of his own to bring it all together. The music is by the composer Claude Debussy and it is called Suite Begamasque Prelude. I think the twinkling notes sound like tiny insect feet scampering across the screen. I was also able to incorporate text into the film, so I used small excerpts from the pieces I wrote for the bugs to add that other dimension to the work.

So if you have a few minutes (3.12 minutes to be exact) maybe you would like to have a look at my Threadbare Bug movie. I don’t think it is long enough to bother with popcorn but maybe a cup of tea would be nice.

A Short Note from the Author

G’day y’all! Just a short one today. The living of life has interrupted my ability to write anything lengthy. Hopefully I’ll fare a little better tomorrow. Here are some more pages from my research notebooks from my insect projects.

Pay attention to the wasps nest on one of the pages. I did a piece based on these kinds of forms and hopefully I will have some images to show you very soon. 

Contemplating Display

A Wasps Nest

A Scary Ant and more Blind Drawings

Notebooks. Sketchbooks. Mood boards.

I love looking at other artist’s notebooks and sketchpads. I love looking at their ideas before they are all smoothed out and in their finished form.

My work starts days, weeks and sometimes months before I’ll even put pen to paper or thread to needle. I’ll get an idea for something or I will have had a discussion with someone about a commission they want done and then I will start mulling. I’ll roll the different aspects of the project around my head, thinking, shaping and building this new work of art piece by piece in my brain.

Firstly in art class in school and then in art college I learned to write down my ideas. It is very important to do this, as you will be very surprised to know just how often you can forget an idea that you have fallen in love with. You could be consumed with it in the morning but by the afternoon between talking to people on the phone, doing your grocery shopping and watching a movie you can have forgotten the whole darn thing. You can be kicking yourself for days trying to pull it back from the recesses of your mind. But there will be zero, zip, nada. My advice to any young or beginner artists out there would be: if you get a good idea, WRITE IT DOWN! You can thank me later when you have made millions.

What I’m showing you today are observational drawings, magazine/book clippings and photocopies and little snippets I have written down for various projects I have done over the years. They are all somehow bug/insect related so I thought they would be a nice follow on from my Threadbare Bug Collection. Before I made these pieces I had really familiarised myself with insects of all shapes and sizes. Drawing them in detail is a great way to get to know how they work and how their bodies fit together. I have always loved to get my teeth stuck into a complicated and detailed observational drawing. It’s such a great challenge to your skills of looking and seeing and following through by committing the image to paper. I love working out proportion and toning everything until it pops off the page with life.

Dear me, that was a lot of bees, bugs and butterflies.

I’m coming to the end of my photographic archive of The Threadbare Bug Collection. Here are a couple of single shots of pieces that I didn’t get to document as well as the others.

Time pressure can play a huge role in whether or not I get to make a record of the work I have made. If a deadline is tight or I am working on several things at once I will generally only manage to get a quick shot of a piece before it goes out the door to its new home.

If I have made a bug or a bee for you along the way and you have been waiting patiently for his or her face to appear and it hasn’t by now, I’m afraid I didn’t get to photograph it before it went from my hands into yours.

If you would like to add your piece to this catalogue, I would love if you would send me a photograph and I will show it here with pride.

I’d love to see it displayed in its natural habitat or if you are a keen photographer, maybe a shot of your bug’s favoured side. I’d be delighted with anything you have to send me so don’t worry too much about how it turns out.

Thanks so much for tuning in for this part of my archive. I’ll be back tomorrow with something a little bit different but still kind of the same.

Please send any photographs to me at

sadhbhsfatbees@gmail.com

P.S. I just thought I would add in these photos I took on my phone of a tiny blue bee I had made. They were quick and simple but had good light because I took them on the window sill in my kitchen. Something like this would be perfect. Thanks again!

Well, well, well, what have we got here then? Part 2

Welcome back for Part 2! I left you yesterday after describing the importance of laying a good foundation for each new piece of art work. To be honest, that is not my favourite aspect of the process, but it is an extremely necessary one.

By sewing in and securing all the structural elements you then get to disguise and beautify them with the next stage. I always get excited when I can move on to the beading and embellishment phase. It is now that the full character and personality of the piece will develop. As I have discussed, I will have chosen the colours I want to feature by this time. For the butterfly, I chose tones of red and blue. I have often used these colours together in my work, to the point that it became a bit of a running joke.

So here they are once again. This was a very involved piece of beading. I generally have quite a free-form approach to it. I will lay my materials out in front of me and intuitively or instinctively pick colours and sizes to go together.

I wanted to mirror the pattern or design on each wing onto the other one. I broke down the wings into eight different panels, four in the front and four in the back. I worked a pattern into one side of the wing and then worked it into the opposite side. I mainly used sequins and seed beads. Seed beads are tiny but when grouped together, they give such a beautiful varied and textured finish. Every single bead was hand sewn into place. The flat design was quite straight forward but the edging can be complicated. You are really filling in any gaps that are evident and making such all the backstage workings are not showing through.

When I have given a bug a lot of legs, long antennae or pointy wings this part can have its nightmarish qualities too though. Imagine lengths of thread getting caught in some appendage every time you go to add some new beads to a section of the piece. If you are at all cranky or irritable the whole thing may end up in the bin with frustration.

I remember when I finally finished this butterfly that I felt a huge sense of satisfaction. It is heavy in the hand, the weight of time, effort and energy can be felt. The glass beads dance in the light and the feathers add a touch of whimsy.

For me, the feeling of wonder when you can think of something in your head and then set about making it with purpose and conviction and then you get to hold it in your hand never gets old. I love to create things rather than destroy things. Make art not war, man! That’s what I say. What a kick!

Well, well, well, what have we got here then? Part 1

I took on this mighty endeavour as a challenge to myself. This encrusted butterfly is something like an unconscious dare, a rumble, a how-far-do-you-think-you-can-take-this kind of throw down.

When I get an idea like a five part, entirely beaded, fully patterned, totally wired, butterfly inspired piece of art, it can work on my mind like a fever.

I think I had worked on the smaller pieces for some time and then one day I decided that I wanted to make something that will bring together all the elements I have learned from the other bugs in my catalogue. From that thought grows an obsession, an itch I have to scratch. I’ll work on this kind of project until it is completed and whether anyone will ever want or need it. If you would like to know how one proceeds with such an endeavour, read on and I will fill you in.

This piece has four segments that make up the wings. It has a long beaded segment in the middle that makes up the body. I started by designing paper templates for the wings. I cut out a felt base using the templates as a guide. Then the wings had to be reinforced by hand-sewing a coloured wire around the perimeter of them. This gives extra strength to the overall structure but also some pliability. I was able to position and shape the wings when they were finished.

I have found it very important to get the structure right at the beginning. It gives you the opportunity to see if the shape and silhouette of the bug will work without any embellishment. You can ask necessary questions like; is it pleasing to the eye? Can it stand on its own? Will it bear the weight of the beading and other materials?

It is also at this point that I will add in any feathers if they are part of the design. I prefer to sew in anything like feathers or material or wire rather than gluing it. I feel glue can come away or break down over time but if you sew something in place it can go on lasting for much longer than you may believe possible when treated with care and attention.

If you tune in tomorrow I will follow up with Part 2 of this piece and how it all came together.   

Hey, this one looks kind of familiar!

Well, if you were thinking Grace Faithful here looks kind of familiar, you would be right. This bug is a sibling to Epoch John, who appeared in last weeks posts. The people who these two Threadbare bugs were made for are also siblings so it seemed only right to keep the heritage going strong through the art work too.

As you can hopefully tell, this bug is more feminine in her colour pallet and also, she is more rounded out through her body and her legs.

The decision to make a piece that is so close to something else that I have already made is a rare one for me. As I’ve already explained, I do like to make things within one concept e.g. The Threadbare Bug Collection but I generally try to make each one very individualistic after that.

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule and the decision here, felt like a good one to me. It’s strange that even though I’m the one making the rules in my own work practice; it still feels like I am breaking some sort of code, rather than just creating a new rule to go along side the one that already exists.

These kinds of traps can happen when you work for yourself. I have found it very helpful to discuss my work with other trusted people so that I can weed out such patterns which may stop me from making beautiful or interesting things or going in a new direction that feels unfamiliar or scary.

Having a sound board can be invaluable to open up new possibilities and also, to help you to see where you might be getting stuck or sabotaging yourself.  

Why, thank you Sir David!

This is the Springtail. I was watching the amazing television series ‘Life in the Undergrowth’ (of which I have already mentioned the book that accompanies the series) by Sir David Attenborough and the BBC. He was doing a segment about a very fancy bug called a Springtail. I’ll post a link below so you can watch it for yourself (The Eiffel Tower!) I feel if I can let the man himself tell you, why pass up that opportunity.

Anyway, I was very inspired by this tiny creature and I decided to make a bug in honour of him. The real thing walks around on little legs but for my version I decided to dispense with them and just give him a spiral spring to hop around on instead.

I gave him a small head, simple antennae, black eyes and a dome shaped body like the insect in the documentary. I thought he was so cute and he had adapted to survive in such brilliant ways that it was only right that my Springtail should look somewhat like his living breathing counterpart.

I love when inspiration strikes like this. You can see something or hear something and it just makes you want to make.

I know my version is much showier than the real one. In thinking about it now, I guess it’s a little deity I can offer up to the Gods of the Springtail. Carry on you little wonders, I salute thee!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwOL-MHcQ1w

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Sq2gjsysG0

The Glassy Green Spider

 This bug I made just for myself and my own amusement. He has never had an official title but I always think of him as The Glassy Green Spider.

Like Strum, he is comprised of a single felt ball but in contrast he has long dramatic legs and colourful plumage.

The beads I have used on his body have created a very pleasing textured finish, well, to my eyes anyway! I guess that’s the good thing about creating for yourself, you can use materials, colours and your imagination to suit your own tastes and you don’t have to worry about pleasing other people.

I find it helpful to my work practice to make things not only for commission but also to expand my own creativity.

When I have been making just for myself I find I can push the boundaries a little further. I can be a little more whimsical or add a little more darkness. I can experiment with ideas. Not every one of them has worked out, some get discarded at the halfway point (some sooner!), some get finished but I never find them appealing enough to display and some have aspects to them that I will definitely use again in future projects.

 When I can take the space, sometimes reluctantly, to make something for myself I’m generally glad that I did it. I like this guy and his feathery eyelashes. I like the expression they give him. I like how well I was able to finish him, but mostly, I like that I am able to keep him.  

  

Colour is the name of the game and I sure hope I know how to play it.

 Colour played a strong part in the design of this particular bug. When I think of the person it was made for, the colours turquoise and yellow always come to mind.

Colour can be a way to communicate subtle details you notice about a person. It might be colours or tones they wear often or decorate their homes with. It also can be used to show aspects of their personality. For example, red can be used to demonstrate a passionate person; you could use yellow to show someone’s sunny disposition; use soft purples and pinks for someone who is particularly feminine.

 In my experience, people who have received art pieces that have been specially commissioned for them, are really pleased when the colours they are drawn to or feel express them are used in their new piece of art work.

It can be a subtle hint of a blue feather or a vibrant green that dazzles but colour really plays a huge part in how appealing or appalling we will find something visually.

I have found it invaluable to ask the colour question every time I start a new project. I feel I have quite a strong approach to colour but I think I will share more with you about that on another day with some other examples of my work.

P.S. This is just an added photo, the lighting in it is not so hot but I like the feel of it. (Very arty I know, please excuse, but I am an artist)

The Rocker

  

This is Strum T Metallus. He is one of the smallest, most compact bugs that I have made to date. He is comprised of a single felt ball, six pin legs and a bright red mohawk, that starts at his antennae and sweeps down to his feathery tail.

 Although small in stature, I feel he has bags of punchy personality. He has duo-tones of red and black which is a nod to his rocker heritage. As with a lot of rockers I have met in real life, he may have a dark and slightly hard exterior but I think you can tell by the eyes that he is a big softy really. He has a lot of heart and determination.

I like how simple his design is but I still feel he delivers in character. Rock on Strum, Your public adores you!

One for the Weekend

This is a rather unusual group shot of the Threadbare gang; Madame Salve Melodious, Benevol Ant Bound and Epoch John. The nature of commission work can make it difficult to predict what kind of pieces you may be working on at any given time especially when you have a range of things that you make. Luckily I made these bugs in succession, so I was able to take a couple of snaps of them altogether before they went to their respective homes.

Two of them were going to the same place anyway, so they live side by side all of the time now.

I feel seeing them together shows how even within one concept or theme in my art work there is still room for huge individualism. I made each one of them with the person it was being given to in mind.

I go through a process of asking about or thinking about what colours are associated with that person, are they male or female, what is their temperament, is there anything in particular that I want to communicate about that person visually.

Every person is different in so many ways that what you end up with is a collection as diverse as the people they are made for.

I really do like this side of my work. To start with an idea, which is my own, then to sit and converse with someone else about a friend or a partner or a family member and then to take this information and visualise, design and actually make the thing that is in my head. Then on the day you hand over the finished piece, all wrapped in ribbons and bows, you get to experience your work in a totally new way as the person sees it for the first time. This can be a lengthy, sometimes challenging, sometimes frustrating process but in general I have found it to be very rewarding. I have often found in myself the ability to express things that are little said but often felt. To be part of something that is mostly all about the Love is true magic indeed.    

The Guru

  

Whenever I look at this guy I always think that there is something very “otherworldly” about him. His colours are jewel tones, rich and deep. His wings form a wizard’s cape in my imagination. (I know, I know- too much Lord of the Rings for me!) I think I think he knows something that I don’t know but maybe I should know since I am the one who created him, ye know??

…….Never Mind….

 The beading on the back of his wings is regular and patterned like a butterflies wings. I remember that they took a long time to complete and they were heavy with embellishment when they were finished. 

 I feel everything came together quite nicely with this bug. I tried to make him so that he was visually interesting from many different angles but also that he had a calm and meditative spirit about him. I always think if the other bugs needed a guru this guy would be it.

Anyone up for a visit to the Dead Zoo??

By the time I was making these particular pieces I had looked at a broad range of insect photography through books and magazines. Some of my favourites have been “Collins Wild Guide- Insects of Britain and Europe” by Bob Gibbons, “Life in the Undergrowth” by David Attenborough and a beautiful book I got for a bargain at a book sale called “Eye to Eye” by Frans Lanting. I also looked at a huge amount of old “National Geographic” magazines.

It has also been a favourite day trip of mine for years to go the Natural History Museum or the Dead Zoo as they are calling it these days on Merrion Street in Dublin 2.

My parents took myself and my siblings there when we were children. I loved pulling back the heavy leathery covering that is over the glass cases containing their insect collection. I would look with wonder and fear at all the different tiny bodies pinned in rows. I was always one of those kids who worried about how the insects had ended up there. Had they been murdered callously for science or had they died by natural causes and their bodies had been gently collected in baskets by lurking entomologists? I always convinced myself it was the more unlikely natural cause’s option. I didn’t want to be racked with guilt as I wandered around the museum, haunted by the ghosts of murdered bumble bees.

I revisited the museum several times for research purposes in my college years. We would sit for hours drawing on hard floors and getting in the way of tourists. But they are always happy memories for me.

These bugs that I make are not supposed to be accurate representations of those insects I drew from books or from real life. They are generally a mash up of real shapes and silhouettes taken from my research mixed up with the happy wanderings of my imagination. They have feathers and Victorian bustles but they also have thoraces and antennae too.

Epoch John is one such bug who is a mixture of real insect bits and a concoction of what lives in the strange landscape of my mind. He has long spider’s legs and tiny short millipede ones too. He has a hard bumpy snails shell and a tall upright torso.

I never think he is particularly handsome but I do like how I constructed him. Sometimes I am able to quieten the critic in my head and I can just let myself go all out. When I can allow myself to play as an artist, I find I can come up with some interesting creations.

Here's some helpful links to things mentioned in today's post.

http://www.museum.ie/en/intro/natural-history.aspx

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Collins-Wild-Guide-Insects-Northern/dp/0002201348

http://www.amazon.com/Life-Undergrowth-David-Attenborough/dp/0691127034

http://www.lanting.com/books-posters-dvds.php

www.nationalgeographic.com/

The Threadbare Bug Collection begins in earnest.

This is Madame Salve Melodious. She is a good example of one of the pieces from my Threadbare Bug Collection. This bug was constructed using three felt balls for her body structure. She stands by balancing on her two front legs and on her elaborate flowing tail. I wanted to give her Tim Burton inspired long spiky eyelashes.

  

You can see from this view a tumbling, unfurling tail. I used strips of hand-made felt strengthened with wire and feathers to create movement and drama. Everything has been enhanced with glittering glass beads and sequins.  

 

In this close up shot you can see all the detail that goes into these Threadbare Bugs. I am a detail junkie. Most times I will start a new project I will tell myself that this time I will be more restrained and that I will simplify. At the half way point this has totally gone out the window, I’m generally thinking up ways I can introduce more sewing, more beads and more layering to a piece.

I am pleased with how the layering can be seen in this bug. It is full of different textures and colour tones. She is one of my favourites because she is so over the top. 

Bees, Bugs, Jars and Bustles

Gary’s Fat Bee

(in a jar)

I made this Fat Bee for my partner just 1 month after we started going out together. It was that awkward time of not really knowing what to buy someone because it is still all new and shiny.

I decided to make him this bee instead. It is very similar to what was in my graduation show from college. As you can see I have changed to a coloured wire and also there is more embellishment with glass and seed beads.

Gary and the bee are still knocking around with me over ten years later so I guess I must have done something right.

  

The Shopper Bee

I made this bee for my wonderful boss when I worked at Tokiki in Georges Street Arcade, Dublin. She has moved on to bigger and brighter things but this bee was on display in her small unit while she was there.

I had gotten more confident with my work by then. This bee included texture with bright fibres and yet more beads. She even had a tiny skirt on a tiny wire hanger because the lovely lady behind Tokiki is a fashion designer and she was selling her own creations at her stall.

Bugus Totalus

Bugus Totalus is a weird and colourful creation I came up with after I left college. He has spider’s legs, wings for flying, exuberant antennae and a bright bustle. A bug complete and total with everything a bug could ever want or need. I had moved on from having a wire frame for its body. I was now using hand-felted balls to create the structure. I embellished it with wire legs & wings, seed beads & sequins and felt accents. He is the beginning of what was to become my Threadbare Bug Collection.