Digital Prints on Recycled Beverage Cans and Crochet

Needle arts have always been a major part of my art life.  I learned to crochet when I was 7 and made a ripple afghan that was anything but exact in the ripple department.  It was pretty pitiful, but it was so much fun I didn't worry if the ripples were a mess.  Much later in the 70's crochet was popular so there were always plenty of patterns around for me to make endless pieces in crochet.  Now I tend to leave patterns behind and just figure it out and crochet when the inspiration hits.

Today I still always have a crochet project going and when it comes to assembling my beverage can digital prints, I crochet pieces together.   Yesterday Kathryn who blogs (on her website)  Crochet Concupiscence sent me an email to tell my a piece of my crochet work was highlighted on her blog "20 Creative Things a Crocheter Can Do With Paper" You can see my piece and others in her post.

This got me to thinking how much crochet I have been doing in the last couple of weeks with my beverage cans so I thought I would share a bunch of pieces front and back and then show you how I start these pieces.  They are labor intensive and a bit wearing on your hands, but rewarding.  These pieces are small, nothing larger then 12" x 12".

Detail 

 Front

Back  

The general plan with these pieces are to string the can pieces and crochet together. 

Many of the pieces are then secured to a piece of hardware cloth so they can be hung.

 Front 12" x 12" piece

 Detail

 Detail of back

Back

You can see I started with a small square and then crocheted the rest of the rows around the square.  I

approached the first piece on the page the same way.

 This piece rolls together and can be hung in the round.  It is 8" x 20"

This would actually be the inside of the piece since it naturally rolls together.

 This piece is 10" x 16" with the height of 2.5"- the loops of the beverage can are rather long.

This is the back:)

Now let's see how they all start-  

I print the beverage cans- you can actually find my ebook on printing beverage cans on my kathyanne art site the title is The Complete Guide to Digital Printing and Assembling Beverage Cans.  It is also available on Nook and Kindle.  

After the cans are printed and varnished and ready to go I cut them in the size pieces for the project - punch holes and then string them onto colored hemp.

When I string the cans I don't put tons on.  As I want to add can pieces I just cut the hemp, add pieces then tie the hemp back to the piece and crochet.  So as you see in the pic above I chain stitched and then I crochet the pieces into the crochet chain.

Every other row I crochet without can pieces.  Otherwise it is totally unruly and there is no room for the cans.  As it is I pack them in.

Please visit my Digital Alternative Sites to get more information on digital printing.  These sister sites are about my digital alternative print processes. 

Digital Alternative Surfaces

Digital Alternative Studio

Digital Alternative Journaling

These sites also have tutorials.  They are new sites and I am in the process of building the content on them.

Beverage Cans and Crochet

Tomorrow I will be leaving for Colorado on a trip that combines business and pleasure.  Why is it that whenever I leave my studio for a bit I think I have to set up all sorts of work on the road?   Then even as I drag the work in progress with me, I could never possibly finish much of it when I am out of town.  Case in point today while trying to clean my studio a bit and get a little further on some of the projects for deadline, I get involved in setting up the pieces to continue work on my 4 foot tall Forest Book.  This page involves beverage cans and crocheted hemp.  So even when I should be packing, I am cutting cans and punching holes in them to string them on hemp to crochet while I am out of town.   At least I had the cans printed from a few weeks ago, so I wasn't varnishing them in a hurry to get them ready to string. 

Looks like this right now as I work through the pile to punch holes:) to add to the crochet section.

Bordering the Ridiculous

In the process of finishing the last 2 pages in my first Forest Book in a series.  There will be 10  total- 2 feet by 4 feet pages.  Once these last 2 are complete, the book pages will be attached to the metal spine.  This would be really exciting except that it will still take quite awhile.  The labor for this page is pretty time intensive. The hardware cloth in the frame for these last 2 pages has to be worked side to side in stages so as not to ruin the assemblage being constructed on the opposite side. As the pages are worked on, the work is juggled side to side for the correct time to put pieces together.

The part being constructed below needs one 8" piece of jute twine in each 1/4" square of the grid that is open.  The twine is pulled through, doubled over and tied close to the grid. The composition in the center is also being built up with layers of melted and torn lutradur that will attach to the top of the cheesecloth skin digital print.  Before the lutradur goes together the jute has to be completely attached to the grid.  It took 2 hours to do the small section in the left bottom corner that is finished.  I'll be here awhile:)

The crochet grid pattern you see in the background of the frame is the back side of this page.  The crochet grid will be the bottom layer of an assemblage using digitally printed tyvek, metal grid and waxed linen.  Some other elements are also being considered.

Adobe Photoshop CS5 Beta Testing

Recently I was invited to join the Beta Testing team for the new Photoshop from Adobe- CS5.  Like the rest of the prerelease team, I signed a confidentiality agreement, so I can't say anything about the new features or what features I used in the creation of this image, until the software is released.  What I can say is that this version of Photoshop is incrediblel.  There are new features that have so much potential for what I do that I am excited to use them in my work.  

Being on this team has been an awesome experience.  In general the software is faster and improved.  As usual Adobe's team does a great job.  Reading all the information on the forum has taught me a lot. It's just been exciting to be included on this team. 

The news will be out on this software soon, so keep watch for it. Photoshop is something I could not do without and it's always inspiring to get into their new ideas.

At the top is the image recently finished with CS5. The image at the bottom, is the original photo.  The bark photo is a Kauri tree from the Waipoua Forest, on the north island of New Zealand.  

This print will be printed 4 times, each one on different weights of lutradur. .  The base will be a crocheted hemp panel and as the lutradur is heat distressed, the print will be layered and assembled into the crochet.  The study that was done for this piece is on my texture blog. I am still not sure what the finished size will be, but at this time the proposed size will be 24" wide and 96" to 120" in length.  Size could depend on when I run out of hemp.   

Mariposa Grove 3 and this Kauri piece will be the last of the pieces for the Yavapai College Gallery Show that will open this May.  Lots of work to do by then.  All the other work is complete. Loved working with the new Photoshop to complete this image and I am looking forward to continue working with this dynamite program as I get the new Creative Suite 5

Mariposa Grove 2-Recycled Beverage Cans

Mariposa Grove 2 is the latest piece in my Forest Surfaces Series.  The recycled beverage cans in this piece are coated with inkAID Type ll precoat before printing with my Epson Stylus PRO4800.

Meriposa Grove measures 81" x 36" and is composed of 146 cans.

The squares of cans are pieced with 3 layers.  Each squares bottom layer is half of a can, the middle is crocheted 28 gauge steel wire, the top layer is a half of a can that is cut in 4 pieces and then wired to all the layers with 24 gauge copper wire.  The squares and other can pieces are assembled with 24 gauge copper wire.  There are detail pictures in my post of January 15, 2010-Assembling Digital Prints on Beverage Cans.

Also there is a video update on printing the cans and how I assembled them in my blog post of January 20, 2010- Recycle a Beverage Can to a Digital Print-Video Update.

Details below