Auction #27: Wrapped In The Moon

I picked Bruce’s story because it was fabulously vivid, demanding and strange.

Pam Noles

Pam posted her progress in making this piece to her blog:

• Raw Materials – Interfictions 2 Auction
• This Is What 446 One Inch Hexagons Looks Like
• This Is How 446 One-Inch Hexagons Are Turned Into 40 Flowers
• Creating Stage 2 Hexes
• Assembling The Block
• Bossy Ladies
• Don’t Yell At Me For Boring You With Sewing Posts. Blame The Amish Of My Childhood, Like I Do.
• The Next-To-Last Sewing Post About The “Berry Moon” Skirt
• The Completed Piece

Auction #23: A Hat For The Moon

This cocktail hat is based on Camilla Bruce’s short story, “Berry Moon: Laments of a Muse.” In some ways, it’s a straightforward illustration of the story, which is about the interplay between inspiration and fiction, or more precisely an illustration of the words of the story, which are dense with image and texture and color. The hat is divided, with a clutter of objects – a rose, an origami frog (a crumpled candy wrapper in the story), pebbles – beneath a bent dark red moon caught in a net along with words, mostly pronouns, words devoid of specificity but full of implication in their relation to each other.

All the materials used in making the hat were either recycled or repurposed, just as the muse’s inspiration is repurposed in making fiction. Much of the fabric is recycled from Anita Rowland’s wedding dress, with the rest recycled from a shirt I made a few years ago. The fabric beads wrapped in gold thread and the semi-precious stone beads are from Anna Vargo’s stash; the small semi-precious stones used as cabochons were Elise Matthesen’s (”Here, do something with this,” she said). The origami frog is made from holographic wrapping paper.

The extremely soft-sided fabric box holding the hat is an improvised liner for the utilitarian box, intended to make shipping the hat easier. Sometimes improvisations spin out of control, and that one certainly did. It will serve to protect the hat, as long as the buyer keeps the acid-free paper as padding.

The hat has two toupee clips to hold it on the wearer’s head. They snap open like little snap barrettes, and as long as they are able to grab a few hairs in the combs, they’ll hold the hat on most securely.

Kate Schaefer

Auction #16: A Binding For The Moon

I chose Camilla’s story to work with because it so wonderfully describes the relationship between artist and muse. It is said that the muse – whether she dictates writing, binding, beading, singing or painting – knows her artist more intimately than anyone else. It is also said that we must not neglect our muses. In ancient times, shrines were built to honor the muses and cults existed which venerated them at springs or fountains or caves. Today some believe that the muse is no more than a myth.

When I begin to bind a book, the text with which I am working becomes my muse, informing the color, shape and structure of its eventual container. For this book, the text of the story clearly revealed the colors, texture and decoration of the finished piece. It is the text that creates the book; my hands are merely the tools through which the story operates. I find that my work flows more smoothly when I maintain an awareness of the muse who guides me. This book came into being like magic; there was no hesitation between its initial layout and the final bead being tied to the spine. I can say, after binding it, that the muse is no myth. She is real, and this is my offering to her.

Erzebet Yellowboy