8x10 camera and factory sculpture from film

  Last term at the Certificate for Photography program at University of Washington, I constructed a 4x5 box camera thinking I would make it for a pinhole, I did make it and made a shutter out of a floppy disk which you can see in previous posts. One of the projects I made from the film after making drawings for all sides of a factory was to develop the film and without enlarging it onto paper, cut the film into shapes and make an "architectural" model out of the film adhering the sides and clerestories with scotch tape.  The 4x5 factory was a bit small and an 8x10 film camera would make a bigger sculpture from it's negative, so a new camera was built, originally designed for a pinhole lens, but made flexible to take any Horseman or Sinar lens board.  The camera had set a focal length of a little over a meter and used a 210mm lens and lens board from a Horseman 4x5 view camera.  On an 8x10 camera a 210mm lens is a bit wide, so so the drawings to be photographed were enlarged  to fill the negative.  Instead of hand drawing the elevations were constructed them in Google's SketchUp drawing program, printed at 11x17 and then about doubled on an enlarging copier.  The pages were taped together to get a subject big enough to fill the image on the film.  Color corrected compact fluorescent bulbs in two studio lights with reflectors and scrims were used to flatten out the light.  After some sloppy developing (two of the negatives dislodged in the developing tank and blocked a lot of the chemicals for another two negatives, so they were faint) the negatives were dried and then cut out and made into the factory sculpture out of the film.  The sculpture was placed upstairs in the study window and shot digitally south to Lake Union, Downtown Seattle and the Space Needle.  The RAW files were manipulated in Photoshop and made a couple of great prints.

Simply stated, an economical scratch-built 8x10 camera box was built with a fixed focal length, a 210mm lens and a double sided 8x10 film holder were attached to the front and back of the camera, a set of sides were drawn electronically for factory shapes, the enlarged factory drawings were shot on film with the 8 x 10 camera, the film was chemically processed, the film was washed and dried then cut out to be joined with scotch tape, then the sculpture was digitally shot and the RAW files were manipulated in Photoshop and printed on the University's high-end Epson archival inkjet printers.

Seems so simple, doesn't it?

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New sculpture tool and cart

  Taylor Art House has acquired a new tool for joining steel, a Miller 211 MIG Welder.  My neighbor down the street let me borrow his suitcase MIG welder for several months last year, gave me a hour of lessons, showed me how to set up the shielding gas, how to prepare steel for welding and then how to  "hot glue" pieces of steel.  I got so enamored with the process, I bought my own and hope to have some pieces for the PUP show at Phinney Center Gallery in April 2013. Included are photos of a SketchUp model of a welding cart, the MIG welder and cart pieces read to weld.

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8 x 10 camera build - design and parts

  Taking the Winter quarter of the Certificate for Photography class taught by Carla Fraga and David Johnson at the University of Washington requires an end of term presentation of your quarter's project.  I stated that I would build a large camera to get large negatives shot of images of architectural drawings that would be scanned then inverted to "negative" readings in Photoshop, making more or less "positive " images on the film negatives. The film would be cut and taped or adhered to build sculptures similar to architectural models and then the objects would be digitally shot in front of landscapes whether they be rural, suburban or urban.  The camera in this sketch is based on a fixed focal length lens with a fixed focal length from the lens to the film plane (no focus adjustment). The camera is designed to have  lens boards traded out. An additional lens board will have a brass sheet drilled and sanded pinhole lens of the same focal length of 210 mm or approximately 8.3 inches.  Too much information? Not to worry there is more, but first a design drawing that was started December 15, 2012 and has had at least two other additions of drawings and ideas from January 18 and 20th of 2013.

Here is a comparison of film holders to get a feeling of the scale of the 8 x 10 negative. The smallest is a recently purchased 3.25 x 4.25 inch Fidelity film holder, possibly from the 1940s or 50s.   A set of two were purchased. These were basically unused made from aluminum, sheet metal, wood and an anti-static black plastic material for the dark slides. They are from a seller on eBay and had the original box and marketing flyer.  These were attained because someone gifted me a box of Kodak electron microscope film slightly past its expiration date.  A new camera will be built around these film holders and a variety of lens and pinholes.  The next is the 4 x 5 inch negative holder, the most common used for the Taylor Art House film based photographic explorations.  The last film holder is the 8 x 10. To the left of the 8 x 10 film holder is a start in pine and epoxy of the camera back being constructed for the new camera to hold the film holder.  More postings will arrive as construction progresses.

Sewn sIlver based photographs

  Here are some images taken in low light of pre-developed parts of photographic contact sheets or instant film prints mechanically sewn over undeveloped photographic paper. Some of the pieces have been deformed at the top and fastened with the sewing to hold that shape to make funnels in some instances and some of the shapes have paper punch holes to allow developer to flow through the "funnel" or pieces that abstractly develop the new image exposed on the paper. If the developer doesn't touch the paper what is left is white.  Many of the final prints have a background image of the water south of the southern overlook of Gasworks park.

The sewing is done in a bathroom with the window and door edges blacked out. A red darkroom light is the only bulb illuminating the room.

Cut up pieces of exposed photographic paper are sewn on to an unexposed 8 x 10 piece of photographic paper.  These sewn composites are put into a "dark" box and taken to a full darkroom with film processing area and enlarger developing room. A negative is put into an enlarger and the image focused on to a test piece of paper, the composites are taken out one at a time, exposed with the image then taken over to the developing tray. The exposed composite is held above the bath and the developer is poured with a beaker over the print held at an angle.  The developer is poured over the sewn pieces directing the flow of the development to produce the best final indication of the history of the flow and creating the best  image.  Sometimes the developer is applied over previous pours to get overlapped darker grays and blacks.  Note the flow of the chemicals around paper edges, sewn threads and through paper punched holes.  Some of the earlier images with cut up smaller contact sheet images have white lines where the exposures were blocked by threads. These composites have been modified in a post developing stage and tacked with zig-zag sewing to pull the thread away from the white lines.  The two factory composites have many sewn line marks to further define the outlines of factories and structure below the implied waterline as if they are sitting in moats recalling paintings of factories from earlier this year.

Many of these photos were accepted for the Blue Sky's Pacific Northwest Viewing Drawers in Portland, Oregon, juried selection 2013.

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Factory Film Sculpture Prototype

  While taking the Certificate for Photography Program at the University of Washington this term, I was in the darkroom as much as possible.  I would do my own film developing at home for my 4x5 negatives then take them to the Art Building darkroom to do contact prints and enlarging on photographic paper.

I decided for the last critique of the class I would do some architectural /art drawings based on the factory paintings and sculptures I did earlier this year. I scanned the Sumi/watercolor/ink drawings and inverted them in Photoshop then inkjet printed them.  Lights and camera were set up and the inkjets were pinned to a wall, the negatives were developed and dried then cutout with a sharp hobby knife.  This prototype was taped together with a couple of different Scotch tapes.  Not sure what the next batch is going to be, but I think I will shoot the next negatives in a n 8x10 format. Fun!

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Open House for MDA donors

  Here a couple of shots from donors picking up their prints after generously donating to Muscular Dystrophy fundraising this fall.

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Sculpture becomes Spacecraft

  I have given myself a goal of making 12 new sculptures by the end of the year.  Most are less than 100 square inches varying in height from a couple of inches to around ten inches.  Most are made of steel plate, used steel tools and formed pieces like angles and channels that are joined by MIG welding.  Added to some sculptures will be wood or pieces of acrylic.  The wood and acrylic may be adhered to the steel with screws or rivets or epoxy. A couple like the one below as no steel, just wood and acrylic resin.

This piece is a composite of 2 x 4 scraps - one kept silver from weathering - with added scraps of poured acrylic resin, dowels, and bamboo.  I really didn't have an idea of what it was going to be, I was just creating from scrap and constantly testing component forming on a band saw and disc sander and drilling dowels for the legs then checking composition of elements on top and adding bamboo antennae or feelers.

A friend of mine, Kim Krech had seen some of these at a party and was curious about them.  I told her I had made up a story about one of them, the piece pictured below.   She asked if I could come by Bellevue Community College and talk about this and other sculptures and architectural models in the context of concepts to her design students who are trying their hand at early idea models. I agreed I would.  More posts on the progress of the dozen sculptures will come in the following months.  Double click on the image below for a larger view.

New October Linocuts for MDA fundraising 2012

  Here are two exciting  new lino cut additions that donors get to choose from for this year's Muscular Dystrophy Association's fundraiser.

The plates can be seen on the Relief page under Printmaking.

Sewing Shop

This isn't very far from the real sewing machines used at Taylor Art House.    The depiction is of an Singer 29K patch machine and a very robust Juki 1508NH, a heavy duty industrial machine used for multi-layer sewing of leather and nylon webbing and other hard to sew materials.  The Juki has a modern synchro motor with electronic controls. - it is very precise and user-friendly.  The Singer is a classic design that is over a hundred years old.  It has a new motor, although many leather shops used this with the wheel moved to the front face of the machine to do very fine machine work without a motor, feeding the piece through the machine by turning the wheel by hand.  The  top-only feed dogs rotate 360 degrees so sewing can be accomplished in tight places. This machine is on a modern sewing stand that rests on a mobile steel dolley.

Photo Studio

The Photo Studio proofs are a depiction about a sitting model and a photographer using a large format camera, some lighting from a side window and supplemental lighting from studio lights in an small space, maybe as small as 8 x 8 x 8 or 9 feet tall. I have thought I might pick up one of the smallest used box vans from UHaul and/or build a little room off the plaza to the north of  the Taylor Art House printmaking and painting studio.  This idea started from the fledgling Double Exposure Project. This as well as the Sewing Shop cut are studies in light and composition and use white and black to a greater extent than used before in the linos.  They were cut thinking they would be rolled up with black ink and the results are very pleasing. The pattern of the cuts in this print are economical to give the composition the right balance of objects, pattern and amount of black and white.

Relief Prints and Muscular Dystrophy Association

Both of these prints work well as a pair, I can see a series of this type of composition and light in the future.   Both images depict part of the art process at Taylor Art House and some pieces of the real art produced have and will use both photography and sewing.   The Factory Quilt made for the Print Paint Flow show  at Johnston Architects used both instant film, film packaging and the final piece was assembled with a couple of sewing machines.

Read the previous MDA Linocut post for more process information on the printing of linocuts in general and for this great fund-rraisiung effort for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

If you are reading this post before October 18, 2012 feel free to donate.

(Go to http://www2.mda.org/goto/JonTaylor to donate)

Linocut proofs for MDA Jailbird Fundraising 2012

I volunteered for this year's Jailbird fundraising for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

(Go to http://www2.mda.org/goto/JonTaylor to donate)

I think everything that could go wrong with our car and our computer happened in the last two weeks so I am a bit late getting started.  For this fundraising anyone interested can get an un-framed proof of some lino-cuts I started in Maui a couple of years ago, another plate cut earlier in the year to make a double print and a recently cut factory image made last week.  For everyone donating $30 dollars you can get a single print, anyone donating $60 dollars or more will get two prints.  There are several prints that have images from two plates that will be counted as a single while they last.  All proofs are made with extremely high quality components: inks are Charbonnel etching inks and the proofs are printed on a tabletop Takach etching press on Arches Rives BFK paper.  These will be un-framed and un-trimmed.  There will be a date on the back and a signature on the front.  In printmaking terms these pieces are all unique prints, so there will be no numbering system.  Similar prints were on sale at a recent show and sold for $100 each.

This first image is of the current plates being used for the fundraising.  The Beach 1 plate to the left was the first plate I cut in Hawaii a couple of years ago. I had another sister plate that was like fronds overlapping that I could never get to print as an underlay for the beach scene.  The second plate cut earlier this year, Beach 2,  was to be a better aligned background for the first beach scene, but although it was better, I never really liked the combination, although a couple of proofs were alright, a bit more detail will be added to this second plate and it will be used as a single.  The last plate, Factory, was a spin off of the factory theme that evolved from the PRINT PAINT FLOW show at Johnston Architects this year. This plate may have a couple of colors, but will probably have a background color that is overprinted with a darker ink.  A new plate with gliders over a valley landscape also has some recall to paintings from the PRINT PAINT FLOW show, it was cut specifically for this fundraiser.  The new Glider plate and proofs of all plates can be seen at the end of the post below.

Inks are prepared and rolled on a glass surface over a support painted white.

Here is  a proof that was just pulled off the plate after printing. There is a registration guide that is drawn on acetate with a Sharpie. This technique is important when trying to get a series of proofs to look the same on similar sized pieces of paper and when registering two or more plates on the same piece of paper.

A series of proofs with different inkings and plates, since these are all experiments in inking and number of plates, they are treated as unique prints.

Here is a variety of proofs

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Panel Making for PRINT PAINT FLOW show

For the Print Paint Flow show there was just a bit less than a month to put together artwork that had been recently made or needed several hours to complete. In addition there were a number of new painting s that were to be produced which included reworking on one and painting new on four 20 x 30" birch panels;  making four 24 x 36 inch panels for stapling on archival sleeves to hold 20 x 30 works on paper and making four 36 x 60 inch panels for new paintings. On top of that there was so much sculpture and three-dinetional work that we decided to make three new platforms for this show and space. This post  focuses on how and why panels were made from hollow core doors.  Hollow core doors are relatively cheap if you can buy them at ReStore or Second Use or other recycled building material centers for about 10-20 bucks each. New blank flush doors with primed Masonite skins can be purchased at Frank Door or Dunn Lumber for about 30 bucks - these are cheaper in time because you don't have to fill hinge slots or door handle holes and they already have one coating of primer.  After the doors are cut to length, filled with new edges, glued, clamped, sanded and gesso is applied they are ready to paint.  Near the show and before transport the eye hooks are installed and they are ready to hang.

Panels are relatively cheap and much cheaper in the larger sizes than canvas or frming of canvas or works on papaer.   Panels are very stable and flat.  Panels from doors can be hung from the top with eyehooks.  The largest panels were less than twenty pounds, easily held by most hanging systems.

Process used to prepare panels:

Step 1: Cut doors to length (and width if needed).

Step 2: Make correct thicknesses for cut end fill pieces and glue and clamp. Fill any holes or mortises with wood and filler.

Step 3: Afer glue and filler is set, sand and/or plane for flushness. Fill as required.

Step 4: Sand, then gesso at least 3 layers on painted surface and 2 coats on sides and back.  These panels were painted with Daniel Smith World's Best White Gesso.

Step 5: Paint and draw.

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