Hasta La Ideas

Man-made materials outfit a series of wildlife sculptures from Rachel Denny

Making a name for herself by way of her “domestic trophies“, Rachel Denny reinterprets the impact of human contact with the natural world in her sculptures. Her wool and cashmere-coated faux-taxidermy creatures represent our instinct to remake that world in our image, an extension of carefully groomed gardens and domesticated animals. Her upcoming solo show “Works of Nature” at Foster/White Gallery in Seattle demonstrates a movement beyond cable-knit game creatures to animals composed of various man-made materials.

Denny’s unique perspective comes from summers spent in the wilderness hunting with her father balanced by winters of embroidering indoors, creating a fluid and unencumbered fusion of domesticity and wildlife. A few of standouts from the upcoming show include “Sweet Tooth”, a beast composed of cellophane-wrapped hard candies and “War Horse”, a penny-plated mare’s bust that raises questions surrounding money, war and the natural world.

We recently caught up with Denny to discuss the new works and her fascinating process.

What are some of the new materials and how did you select them?

I love working in a variety of materials and have always collected interesting odds and ends for future studio use. “War Horse” is armored in train-flattened pennies and I chose the material for its duplicity of meanings and the aesthetic quality of the shimmering copper. I generally work with the materials of each piece to bring more meaning to the place that these creatures hold in our lives and how we interact with them. I try to make the work aesthetically pleasing with rich materials to draw the viewer in and then hope that the other layers of meaning sift through.

Can you tell us a bit about the construction of “War Horse”?

That piece took a little over five months to create and quite a bit of patience. It started as rigid polyurethane with a steel frame inside and wood supports with a covering of tar to seal the foam and prevent any UV damage. Then it was a process of taking thousands of pennies to the railroad tracks and laying them down, going for a hike and returning to pick them up. I had to hand-drill each penny and applied each one with copper nails and a marine-grade adhesive. I was thrilled when it was completed and I could hang it on the studio wall to see the final result.

How does the process of sourcing materials and making patterns work for the knit pieces?

I collect discarded woolens and clean each piece—sometimes felting them if the knit is too loose and occasionally dying them to make the colors more vibrant. I have lockers full in the studio and use them as needed to match the correct curvature of each piece. Each work is made individually without the use of a pattern and each one is unique.

What constitutes the frames for your sculptures?

Each sculpture is different, depending on what is needed for the shape and scale of the work. I sometimes use taxidermy forms and carve them down for a specific look or pose. I also use rigid polyurethane foam blocks and carve them down with wood or steel “skeletons” inside to support the weight of the piece. I have also used wood frames and aluminum armatures with clay and plaster. It really just depends on what the individual piece needs and what will look the best while supporting the weight of the work.

Portland or Seattle?

I have lived in Portland since 1993 and it is a very comfortable city that has a slower pace of life and it is a very supportive community for the arts. It is also a smaller city that doesn’t have a wide collector base and I rarely sell work to my fellow Portlanders. I love the landscape of the Northwest and that there is still a wildness to the area. Seattle is a bit more cosmopolitan and has a different feel than Portland—a bit more energy and seriousness. I have had positive experiences with the galleries there and appreciate the quality of work that they show.

“Works of Nature” is on view at the Foster/White Gallery through 28 April 2012.

Foster/White Gallery

220 Third Ave South #100

Seattle, WA 98104

Handcrafted rings inspired by surreal structures and existential themes

Influenced by existential Nouvelle Vague films and the dark Northwest wilderness, Eric Saeter‘s eponymous jewelry line is marked by rich detail and surreal structures. The Seattle native was initially driven to the trade in 2008 by what he felt was a lack of inspiring jewelry on the market. Since then his work has continued to grow in its level of craftsmanship and unique, unisex style.

Saeter uses only solid sterling silver, 22k and 24k gold vermeil—rather than finger-staining bronze, nickel or pewter—throughout the collection for a weighty effect, casting each piece in a series of molds and finishing it by hand. The holistic, hand-crafted approach ensures no two rings are alike, each earning its own naturalistic character in singular imperfections and blemishes. The Earthworm ring pays proper homage to the mother of mulch with deep ridges on a substantial band, showcasing the designer’s knack for detail and texture.

The geometric Salt riffs on the jagged natural crystal of the ocean in gold vermeil with smooth surfaces and softer edges. My personal favorite, this statement piece bears tiny witness marks that help create an organic aesthetic reminiscent of something one might find deep in the mountains of Mordor.

Playing on themes of mortality, Snakes is a “textural serpent” devouring itself in a coil of intricately detailed scaled bands. The Oyster hides two small pearls deep inside the ring’s structure, kept safely close to the hand and away from the prying eye.

Jewelry by Eric Saeter is available in select boutiques and directly through his online shop where rings range between $355 and $515.

A hunting inspired coat re-issued from Eddie Bauer’s archives

New from Eddie Bauer’s Fall line of heritage garments is the Camoweave Forester. The handsome coat pays tribute to its hunting-inspired predecessor first introduced by Eddie Bauer in 1965, using the same superior construction techniques and materials. The unique, shadow plaid pattern is woven into the fabric—rather than printing directly on top—using yarn in 14 different colors, blended together to create the distinct camouflage.

The 11-oz. wool and quilted lining deliver plenty of warmth for those days when your shell won’t do. When it comes to wet weather, it should be noted that the jacket relies only on wool’s natural, but somewhat minimal, water repellence—to preserve the fabric’s purity, the finish was left uncoated and untreated.

For utility, the jacket features four cargo pockets on the front, and a larger, dual-entry field/game pocket on the lower back. This kangaroo pouch style pocket is often found on traditional hunting jackets for extra storage that won’t get in the way.

The Camoweave Forester dropped today at Eddie Bauer online, and follows in select stores in early November. At $399, think of it as an investment.

The top-floor living room of this Seattle house projects across the garden in a twisted cantilever.

Local studio Elemental Architecture designed the three-storey house, where living rooms and a kitchen are unusually located on the cantilevering top storey.

Glass doors open the kitchen out to a large balcony.

A staircase leads up from here to a rooftop terrace that overlooks the neighbourhood.

Bedrooms occupy the first floor, while a utility room, office and garage are on the ground level.

Other cantilevering houses on Dezeen include one over that projects over a river and another with a base of stacked ceramic wine racks – see all our stories about cantilevers here.

Here are a few sentences from Elemental Architecture:

Phinney Modern

2510 sqft single family home located in Seattles Phinney Ridge neighborhood.

This home was designed for a young family on a small in-fill lot.

The lot was very challenging just over 2000 sft with a access easement covering a portion of the southwest corner.

This created a situation where the building footprint covered the majority of the yard, so it was essential to capture outdoor space on the structure.

This led to the reverse floorplan (living on the third level), allowing the main spaces to easily access outdoor space, light and view.

The homeowners created a welcoming contrast by their choices in furniture and wall coverings.

The upper level opens to a west facing deck and exterior stair leading to a view roofdeck which overlooks Ballard and the Puget Sound.

See also:

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Nakahouse by XTEN Architecture	House on Zaru Street by Open AD	House 20 by Jolson

Artist Ellen Lesperance weaves new meaning into knitwear with an exhibit honoring women activists

Fair Isle fans have long fetishized the winter staple, but Ellen Lesperance‘s upcoming exhibit at Seattle’s Ambach & Rice Gallery explores the sweater as more than a cozy way to keep warm. Named “The Strong, Star-Bright Companions,” after an elegiac poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson, the show features Lesperance’s gouache paintings of sweaters worn by female activists, as well as three actual sweaters knitted by the artist herself—all rendered with precise attention to detail.

Lesperance painstakingly replicates the pattern and gauge of yarn in large paintings, piecing the whole pattern together from photographs into flattened-out diagrams. Much of her source material came from archival photos of the Greenham Commons Women’s Peace Camp. For nineteen years, from 1981 to 2000, women camped out to protest the storage of nuclear missiles in Berkshire, England. While they waited, they knitted—incorporating their ideologies, in the form of fish and axes, into intricately innovative patterns. “I’ve been knitting for over 20 years. I used to work at Vogue Knitting in New York, and I’d never seen patterns like these,” Lesperance said from her home in Portland, OR.

The exhibit also features the artist’s tightly-gridded visions of sweaters worn by contemporary women, like Nawal el Saadawi, the famed Egyptian feminist activist. And Lesperance commemorates the darker side of activism in the form of triangle-shaped patterns that serve as death shrouds for activists who died in the line of duty, including Helen Thomas, who was driven over at Greenham Commons Women’s Peace Camp, and Italian activist Pippa Bacca, who was raped and killed on a symbolic peace protest while hitchhiking to Jerusalem. “They were definitely maligned for being stupid young girls,” said Lesperance. “There’s definitely an interest in elevating them.”

By memorializing and replicating these sweaters, Lesperance also lends a deeper resonance to the simple, utilitarian act of knitting a sweater. As Rosa Parks might have suggested, in the face of greater forces there’s something very powerful about the act of sitting down, taking your time and creating a useful object of beauty. “Sweaters can be worn,” said Lesperance. “You can stretch out the experience of being with the work. You could wear the sweaters for years, if you wanted to.”

“The Strong, Star-Bright Companions” is on view through 15 May 2011 at Ambach & Rice.