Wool Picker Completion

I finished the wool picker and presented it to the fiber arts class on Friday. It wasn't as simple to finish as I originally thought it would be. I thought a simple stain, top piece, and feed tray would only take 2 hours at the most. In that time calculation, I forgot all of the other nuances that needed to be tended to. In order for the top sleigh to be stored inside the box, I needed to trim the handle, the nails were still fighting with each other, the runners needed to be trimmed, metal isn't easily bent, and it ended up taking five and a half hours to complete. I'm not complaining, I love playing in Dave's wood shop! I will admit that when the nails were clashing and the sleigh wasn't sliding as smoothly, I was ready to burn it. It was very discouraging to have put all the work into the design and construction and not have it work. I learned that almost nothing will work the first time you construct it, it takes time to tinker. Thankfully, Dave was encouraging and after some thinking, we trimmed down the runner and found a few problem nails and things were running smoothly. The top was easy, we decided on the size, cut it, sanded it, added pegs to keep it from sliding around and that was all set. Overall, I had a ton of fun building it and now I have a wonderful picker that cost me around $80 in materials. My building projects aren't over just yet though, I am making legs for the picker and I still have a hackle to make! If you have any questions, I would love to answer them!

Update On The Wool Picker

The wool picker is coming along, in fact it is almost done. After way too many hours of drilling the holes at a certain undisclosed degree angle and then having to re-set the angle on the other side of the drill press because the pieces wouldn't fit on it, and having to constantly check to ensure the holes would match the ultimate direction of the nails, I am done with that part!  After drilling all 450 holes I discovered that because I was using pine, the board would crack when I went to tap the nail in. This was fixed once I re-drilled all 450 holes with a bigger bit and glued the piece I cracked. After that dilemma, I was then faced with how I was going to keep the nails in tight since the hole was big enough to slide them in relatively easily. Glue, lots of gorilla glue that I applied to each nail with the tip of another nail. The results were strong nail beds and hard blackened hands from the oil and glue. Dave Paul (famous spinning wheel maker ( http://www.themerlintree.com/merlin001.htm ) and I debated over numbers and ideas, how this would sit, how that would sit, will this work, and after many thoughts on how things would work, it ultimately ended up being the most simple solution. Thank god Dave is a patient man! We found our height for the runners and where the nail beds would sit, we also decided on the length for the feed tray and the handle height. Now, the remaining work is cutting and bending the metal for the feed tray, making the top, and adding some wood stain to it! I was not able to take pictures of the process but I will post pictures later of the current stage.

The Start of a homemade Wool Picker

 I started off with no resources on how to make the sleigh wool picker except random youtube videos and hopeful google searches. Once I had a base line on what it should look like, I had to count the tines on youtube videos, replay them 6 million times, improvise, and then come up with a grid pattern that would work for my nail spacing and patterns. It took many pieces of paper and a few nights where I had to throw down the pen, but I have now conquered the baseline instructions. this could all change once I begin drilling and chopping, but for now, they seem fool-proof. With the help of one amazing wheel maker, Dave Paul, I have also begun making my sleigh wool picker in his wood shop. This is much more efficient than if I were to use a rusty old saw, hand-held drill, and had to file down 450 nails by hand. It can be done however, it would just take much more time. At this point I have put together the box and have begun drilling the holes for the nail beds. I still need to drill 5 more nail beds, sharpen 450 nails, create the feed tray and top, then finish it off with legs that would transform the unused wool picker into a table and still maintain it's portability. The biggest challenge for me now, is finding the time to go play in the wood shop! Below I have included some pictures of the process and ultimately when I am done, I hope that I will have a ready made plan that will be simple enough for everyone to make one. My new quest is a wool picker for every home, but first I will begin with my own home....

Why do fiber arts play an important role in the up and coming art scenes?

This past week, I did a pretty extensive search for fiber arts in the contemporary art scene, and to my surprise ,at first, I didn't find a whole lot. After taking a second look, and re-wording what exactly I was looking for, I found an interesting mix of conventional fiber use, such as spinning, knitting, quilting,  and a new approach to fiber arts that I had not considered, such as painting with fiber.  To begin delving into how fiber arts as played a role in the art scene, it is important to know that fiber arts is considered to be any type of artwork which uses a linear, pliable element-fiber, as a major material ( I would argue using fiber in any artwork). This could include stitching, weaving, dying, spinning, felting, knitting, etc. A term I came across often was textile arts, which brings up the question, "what is the difference between textile and fiber arts?" Well, they are basically the same and often used interchangeably, but if you had to differentiate, then fiber arts would be more contemporary and conceptual whereas textile refers to design, ethnics, or historical pieces.
               Many young people have begun knitting as a past-time project, in our school, we even have a couple people in class knitting during the lectures. This has been proven to help increase the attention span of those with more fluttering minds. New websites have emerged recently that are targeted at youths and young adults to create, buy local, and inspire, such as etsy, ravelry, and pinterest.
                  My take on fiber arts in the art scenes is that is growing and at this moment people are still playing with fiber as a medium for art aside from spinning, but I will be intrigued to see what people come up with. One popular fiber activity is called yarn bombing or knit graffitti, people knit swatches or designs for objects around cities and cover them with their knitted creations. I can't imagine spending so many hours knitting something and then having it taken off to be thrown away, but I wouldn't mind doing a small project, who knows, maybe you will see a little yarn bombing from me.

Here are a few web sites that I found to be the most helpful and interesting. Also, don't forget to check our the amazing pictures below of yarn bombings.
www.suta.com/misc/fiber_arts.html
www.indieknitandspin.wordpress.com

Introduction

This semester I have chosen to do an independent study in fiber arts tools. The focus will be on the planning and creation of a sleigh wool picker, a homemade hackle and diz, and a brief history of fiber tools and how they relate to us in this day and age.This week the focus will be on the history of fiber arts tools, with the question being "Why do fiber arts play an important role in the up and coming art scenes?" I encourage questions about any of my posts or information that you would like to know about fiber arts tools or their history.