A couple of visitors from out of town dropped by today. I met them at the studio and showed them my stuff. Then I went kayaking, as I needed another day away.

But having two full days away from the studio was good.

While working on the small chorus members, adding La Doll clay to the armatures and making skeletal type figures, I had started to think about the lacy nature of the pelvic bone, and wondered if I could create or copy a lace pattern from somewhere else, and use the clay to “make lace” as part of the skeletons/choral figures. But the thought didn’t really go anywhere…until this morning on my walk, while I was listening to a radio show called Jazz Record Requests, a show found through BBC sounds.

In an interview excerpt with Julian Siegel, Siegel was talking about the inspiration for his latest album, Tales from the Jacquard, and that he had been thinking about lace, and how lace and the patterns of lace might influence his jazz composing. His sister, his story goes, introduced him to someone who worked at the one remaining lace factory in Great Britain, the Cluny Lace Factory, in Ilkeston, and a contact there sent him some jacquard cards…

http://www.clunylace.com/

A quick search took me to photographs of jacquard cards, cards with patterns etched into them that are placed onto jacquard looms, a loom that automates the process of lace making.

But, better than my words, is the following video briefly explaining how jacquard cards and jacquard looms are the predecessors to today’s computers.

And, because I mentioned Julian Siegel having been influenced by jacquard cards, here is a YouTube video of one of his pieces from the album, Tales from the Jacquard.

But how does this all fit together, and how does it influence what I’m doing in the studio now?

I will, on Monday, remove most of the Minor Aspect figures from the piece, keeping only the two larger ones. I’m going to drop the Major Aspect and Minor Aspect monikers…

I’m going to continue to make the chorus members using La Doll clay on wire armatures, and once I have completed the five that I wanted to have for the chorus, using the same technique that I started with (clay directly on the wire), I’m going to start experimenting with building up the armatures with other non-deteriorating materials. Then I’m going to experiment with making “lace-like” appendages on the additional figures that I make AFTER I finish the five choristers.

This means that this week my goal is to complete the five chorus members, begin three new models that will be the basis for the “lace work”. I will read more about lace and lace-making…

And, I have both visual and auditory inspiration to help me reach my week’s goal.