New York Times article
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Monday, May 12, 2008
Starting Your Own Business Tips
Good Tips from the NY Times on Starting your Own business:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/26/business/smallbusiness/26hunt.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/26/business/smallbusiness/26hunt.html
I am constantly scanning my environment for objects to transform and explore in my studio. I have been using latex balloons to create jewelry. Above is a brooch made of a balloon stretched over a silver form. Where balloons come from is something I have not considered in the past. As I buy bags of the latex beauties I can't help but wonder about how they came to exist. There is a great video of latex balloon production on you-tube.
Joe Segal - Textile Designer - Lace Factory Visit
*LACE*
I visited this amazing lace factory, Leavers Lace Company in West Greenwich, RI. They manufacture nylon lace used in lingerie and trim. The lace is made with Leaver lace looms, which are nearly 100 years old.
I visited this amazing lace factory, Leavers Lace Company in West Greenwich, RI. They manufacture nylon lace used in lingerie and trim. The lace is made with Leaver lace looms, which are nearly 100 years old.
The lace manufacturing process begins with artwork of a pattern. After the artwork is purchased, a designer for the lace company drafts a grid pattern that can be translated into lace. The pattern is then translated again inot a punchcard pattern. Each row of lace uses a different punchcard to determine the pattern. Each card is linked to another and the ends are looped. There are hundreds of punchcards used in just one pattern!
Learn more about lace! This site is great: http://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/books/rv_ll_01.pdf
Offset Printing Press Visit
Melissa and I went to visit Meridian Printing, an offset printing press in East Greenwich, RI.
http://www.meridianprinting.com/
Meridian prints mostly fine art publications.They claimed to stress quality, at least that was their sales pitch, when we asked them about printing in China, which is significantly cheaper. Quality in printing means, among other things, color control; a lot of the variations in the printing process have to do with adjusting color. This means that despite all of the automation and machinery being used, the human intervention in controlling the print colors is critical.
Here is a breakdown of their printing process:
1. Scan original artwork with best quality flatbed scanner and drum scanner; person adjusts scan, does color correction. These scans have to be approved by client.
Here's Melissa looking at the drum scanner; it's essentially
a tube that's great for scanning large scale images or painting.
The drum scan adjustment knobs. Lots of tinkering possible.
2. Plates are printed, 4 per sheet (C, M, Y, K)
The plate printers.
3. Proofs are printed on a high-quality ink-jet printer; colors approved by client.
4. Plates get printed; Meridian uses sheet feeder printers. (As opposed to web printing, which uses rolls of paper, sheet fed printing uses pre-cut sheets).
The pre-cut sheets (on the right) are grabbed by mechanical arms
and fed into the printer. (watch video below)
5. A test print is done and color is corrected yet again, trying to match the proofs. They guys use a remote-control-like object to read the color value on the prints and then adjust the saturation of the ink being
The woman's face is very red on the right print, so the magenta
ink was made less saturated; the right print is the color corrected version.
6. We watched an Ansel Adams book get printed; it uses black and spot greyscale colors.
7. The press printing the Ansel Adams book printed on one side of the sheet only; the sheets are stacked until they are about 2-3ft hight (this depends of course on the print run. The stacks are then turned over by this machine:
This used to be done manually!!(The machine's name is Toppy, by the way.)
p.s. don't stand under Toppy!
8. Once the stacks are flipped, the other side is printed. There is anther press that prints both sides at the same time; though it is used for very high print runs.
9. Once everything is printed, the stacks get cut and bound out-of house. The print work is done!
A Meridian employee fixing the machines.
http://www.meridianprinting.com/
Meridian prints mostly fine art publications.They claimed to stress quality, at least that was their sales pitch, when we asked them about printing in China, which is significantly cheaper. Quality in printing means, among other things, color control; a lot of the variations in the printing process have to do with adjusting color. This means that despite all of the automation and machinery being used, the human intervention in controlling the print colors is critical.
Here is a breakdown of their printing process:
1. Scan original artwork with best quality flatbed scanner and drum scanner; person adjusts scan, does color correction. These scans have to be approved by client.
Here's Melissa looking at the drum scanner; it's essentially
a tube that's great for scanning large scale images or painting.
The drum scan adjustment knobs. Lots of tinkering possible.
2. Plates are printed, 4 per sheet (C, M, Y, K)
The plate printers.
3. Proofs are printed on a high-quality ink-jet printer; colors approved by client.
4. Plates get printed; Meridian uses sheet feeder printers. (As opposed to web printing, which uses rolls of paper, sheet fed printing uses pre-cut sheets).
The pre-cut sheets (on the right) are grabbed by mechanical arms
and fed into the printer. (watch video below)
5. A test print is done and color is corrected yet again, trying to match the proofs. They guys use a remote-control-like object to read the color value on the prints and then adjust the saturation of the ink being
The woman's face is very red on the right print, so the magenta
ink was made less saturated; the right print is the color corrected version.
6. We watched an Ansel Adams book get printed; it uses black and spot greyscale colors.
7. The press printing the Ansel Adams book printed on one side of the sheet only; the sheets are stacked until they are about 2-3ft hight (this depends of course on the print run. The stacks are then turned over by this machine:
This used to be done manually!!(The machine's name is Toppy, by the way.)
p.s. don't stand under Toppy!
8. Once the stacks are flipped, the other side is printed. There is anther press that prints both sides at the same time; though it is used for very high print runs.
9. Once everything is printed, the stacks get cut and bound out-of house. The print work is done!
A Meridian employee fixing the machines.
natalie wright....wallpaper artist!
I decided to take this course because I have always had a dysfunctional relationship with the “idea” of “manufacturing” my designs. Coming from a “fine arts” perspective, having someone else make my work seemed against the grain of my work. If I didn’t physically make it, then how is it mine? I also struggle with the fact that I am adding more stuff to the world. Do we really need MORE clever hand made pillows? More paintings? More silkscreened wallpaper? I think that this course (and maybe now this blog?), a microcosm of the dialogue of our generation, is my way to work through these concerns and doubts and insecurities, so that together we make things better and make informed decisions along the way. I don’t believe that “guilt” is going to change the world. I don’t think it’s always about “going without”, but a matter of simply changing the way we do things. In Paul Hawken’s book “Blessed Unrest”, he says “Evolution is not about design or will; it is the outcome of constant endeavors made by organisms that want to survive and better themselves.” He says, “Evolution is optimisim in action.” I do believe that is the key, to be optimistic and actively creating a better world.
My love for art and an obsession with repeating patterns landed me at RISD where I am about to graduate from the textiles dept. with a thesis of hand silkscreened wallpaper designs. I also have a design being printed by Flavor Paper for their spring collection. My work naturally lends itself to the manufacturing process, whether it is just myself making all the prints for my thesis work, or Flavor Paper printing my designs in their New Orleans studio. One thing that I realized though, especially during the conversations we’ve had in this class, is that as human beings, we are engulfed in a global manufacturing culture. If someone says they don’t “manufacture” or make “multiples” of their work, no doubt that the tools they use are a part of that global market, there is simply no way around it. The clothing we wear, the food we eat, the cars we drive, the bikes we ride, the appliances In our homes, the computers we communicate with, the pigments and brushes we paint with, the music we listen to; we are living in a manufactured world. The following is a list of all the tools and products I use to make my “hand made” wallpaper:
Rolls of 100% cotton, acid free, archival printmaking paper
Bristol paper for initial drawings
Ink and pen nubs
Pencils and Pens
Charcoal
Eraser
Acrylic paint
****
Gesso
Cutting blade
Ruler
Scissors
Masking tape
Adhesive Putty
Paint brushes
Plastic containters (from deli food and other food containers)
Plastic spray bottle
Water
Electricity
Water based screen-printing inks
Silkscreen
Squeegee
Ulano QTX Photo Emulsion
(ulano tech data)
Ulano Stencil Remover Paste
“degreaser” or “mr clean”
****
Newsprint
Brushes for removing “stencil”
Power-washer and utility sink
Light Table and Timer
Yellow light for light sensitive screen
“Trough” for coating screen with emulsion
Digital Printer
Acetate
Computer (mac) with Adobe Photoshop and Internet
Digital Camera
Copy Paper
*not including food, housing, loan money, blood, sweat and tears…
Gesso
Cutting blade
Ruler
Scissors
Masking tape
Adhesive Putty
Paint brushes
Plastic containters (from deli food and other food containers)
Plastic spray bottle
Water
Electricity
Water based screen-printing inks
Silkscreen
Squeegee
Ulano QTX Photo Emulsion
(ulano tech data)
Ulano Stencil Remover Paste
“degreaser” or “mr clean”
****
Newsprint
Brushes for removing “stencil”
Power-washer and utility sink
Light Table and Timer
Yellow light for light sensitive screen
“Trough” for coating screen with emulsion
Digital Printer
Acetate
Computer (mac) with Adobe Photoshop and Internet
Digital Camera
Copy Paper
*not including food, housing, loan money, blood, sweat and tears…
Monday, May 5, 2008
MFA to MFG
This space is a continuation of the conversations we began this spring in a seminar course titled 'Contemporary Production Practices.' This blog allows us to further our examination of the multitude of models for the manufacturing of goods, from products to projects, as well as expand each students’ knowledge of production possibilities for his or her own work.
At times it seems like there are more questions than answers...
What is the relationship between the designer/artist and the factory? What defines a factory and what constitutes an “industrial” process? How do things get made? Who makes them? These are some of the questions that will guide us through the complex world of small to high volume production of consumer goods and the global marketplace.
We will also look at artists who manufacture and examples of creative projects where making multiples through outsourcing of labor has been the means by which large pieces, collections, editions, and bodies of work have been realized.
At times it seems like there are more questions than answers...
What is the relationship between the designer/artist and the factory? What defines a factory and what constitutes an “industrial” process? How do things get made? Who makes them? These are some of the questions that will guide us through the complex world of small to high volume production of consumer goods and the global marketplace.
We will also look at artists who manufacture and examples of creative projects where making multiples through outsourcing of labor has been the means by which large pieces, collections, editions, and bodies of work have been realized.
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