Anticipations
A Work in Progress · Untitled, Part 1
Welcome to Matte & Shiny Objects!
This Substack’s been in the works for a while now. I’m very pleased to finally hit “Publish” on this inaugural post. Thanks so much for dropping in!
Since the About section covers this blog and newsletter’s raison d’être, I thought I’d dive right in and lay out some preliminary plans for an upcoming panel work.
I’ll refer to this work as Untitled until it asks to be called by its name.
First, a quick note:
This work-in-progress post is part of a whimsical, freeform series that chronicles—in prose, poetry and pictures—the creation of Untitled, a 20” x 24” mixed media work featuring beadwork, washi, and more. To track this work’s development in real time, consider subscribing to Matte & Shiny Objects. You can also access all posts in this series through the Table of Contents, which I’ll update to include new posts as the piece evolves.
It’s here
Currently, Untitled exists as a restless, fully-formed intention just itching to exit the gate. While invisible to the naked eye, it’s very much alive in me, and I could think of no better moment to start writing about it. Expect monthly updates on this piece, more or less, between now and its completion.
A 6-month-old waking dream, Untitled is already front-loaded with the familiar, uncanny sense of inevitability that’s ushered in so many of my most meaningful projects and adventures. (There’s got to be a word for that feeling. My money’s on Norwegian or Japanese.) Though the piece is anonymous for now, it’s no less magnetic, purposeful, and feisty. It comes around right after lunch to badger me, right skeptical that the vapid online self-promotion stuff I’ve been diligently working on these past weeks should have to take up this much time. It sulks and sighs. You get the idea.
In good news, Untitled’s inspiration now waits on me, not the other way around.
We’ve got excellent problems. Onward!
Brass Tacks, Gold Wrap
My creative goals for this year include expanding into new compositional ideas, color palettes and mixed media techniques. I also plan to produce works in larger* formats. Untitled is the first of ~3 larger pieces I intend to create by the end of 2024.
*Here, large and larger are relative to the scale at which beadwork unfolds; so is my notion that making a 20” x 24” piece is an ambitious step up from what I’ve done so far. For context and scale, Miyuki 11/0 seed beads are 2 mm across; my freshly-purchased panel (below) is almost 4 x the surface area than that of Miami (also below), my largest panel piece yet at 12” x 12”. Between technical studies, design, lining up a workable gold-toned background, palette/gradient adjustments, tacking (stitching beads down), final assembly and framing, 120+ hours might realistically go into Untitled.
2 techniques I plan to test out and refine for use on Untitled:
1. Creating one or more large, felt-backed bead appliqués (all of them edged, like earrings, hair clips or medallions usually are) to be glued directly onto a washi-wrapped panel. (Washi is a type of artisanal Japanese paper.)
This is by no means a radical idea, but it’ll be my first time assembling a larger-scale panel work this way. I’m expecting to be presented with new and unexpected possibilities and limitations. My more recent panel pieces (Miami and Segues) feature a very different mixed media approach—one that makes it seem as though the beadwork’s stitched directly into the painted canvas and panel. Briefly, that process goes like this: 1. a small cotton canvas-backed beaded appliqué is sewn onto a larger piece of raw canvas; 2. the larger canvas is then tightly wrapped (using acrylic medium as glue) around the face and sides of a cradled wood panel; 3. once the medium dries, the exposed canvas surrounding the mounted appliqué is gessoed and painted over from the outside in, right up to the outer edge of the beadwork.
The technique I’m after for Untitled should ostensibly be simpler to pull off than the one described above but, as always, we’ll see what happens.
2. Creating a textured reflective background for the beadwork by wrapping gold-toned washi around my 20” x 24” panel using acrylic medium.
The stunning sample pictured here is from this magical shop in Montreal.
If the technique I have in mind turns out to be viable, I’ll create a clean, even background by wrapping a single large sheet of washi around the face and sides of my panel. For now, I’m hoping (but can’t be sure) that the paper will cooperate. Either way, I’ll let you know how tests play out in a future post.
In the meantime, check out Part 2 for an even more otherworldly (!) picture of the sample I’ll be experimenting with—as well as the literal poetry it’s already inspired. It’s that gorgeous, and more. Stay tuned.