Lockbox

My first commission! This is exciting. The fact that someone appreciates my work is wonderful but having someone pay me to make them something especially for them is phenomenal.

This project has come along at the most perfect time. I have just converted our unused formal living room into my studio. It’s a beautiful sixteen-by- twenty-foot room with a seventeen-foot-tall vaulted ceiling. I have skylights and huge windows looking out onto my acreage. It’s a very inspirational space.

In the centre of the room is my newly built four-by-eight-foot craft table with a nice smooth masonite surface. I am all set and can’t wait to begin this new project.

I am an Artist and I do something a little different. It’s like a combination of photography, woodwork and upholstery. Intrigued? I will explain.

My process begins with a photograph. Normally I would use a landscape photo. I take that image and turn it into a vector graphic. In Adobe Illustrator I simply use an effect filter called "Cutout" to simplify the image and then I use the “image trace” function to turn it into a vector. This gives me what I call "blobs". Those are the different coloured elements that I can separate into pieces that, when combined, form the image again. It kind of looks like a posterized image, if you can imagine that.

Now that the image is separated into elements, I convert that file into information that my CNC machine understands. CNC stands for Computerized Numerical Control. Simply put, my computer is hooked up to a machine that cuts things out of whatever materials I am using. Think of a little overhead router cutting out the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. In this case, I am using one-eighth-inch plywood which becomes my “blobs”.

This piece I’m creating for my customer will be a little easier than my usual landscapes. They have sent me a portrait photo of themselves which breaks down into much fewer blobs.

After the pieces have been cut the most important thing is to number them and take a picture so that I know where every piece goes.

How does upholstery figure into all this? Well, I take a piece of inch-and-a -half foam and use the previous file to cut out the same image on my CNC machine. Each “blob” of the foam gets glued onto the corresponding piece of plywood. Then the fun begins!

My craft room has a giant wall rack of hundreds of fabrics of different colours and textures. After choosing the perfect fabrics, each plywood/foam piece will be fabric wrapped, stapled and mounted in its correct location on a three-quarter-inch plywood piece. Then whole piece is framed.

That is my art.

Working with the fabrics is my favourite part of the whole process. I am a firm believer in having the right tools. When cutting my fabrics I have to have the perfect scissors. Since I began this work I have tried many types. Some were comfortable to hold, but wouldn’t retain their edge. Some were sharp but uncomfortable to hold. It took me weeks to finally find the perfect pair, but there was a problem. When I would look for them where I last put them, they would be gone. It seems like I am not the only one who appreciates good tools. I have two very creative children who discovered them and don’t think twice about borrowing and not returning them.

I finally bought them their own and locked mine in a box.

It may seem a little strange but, for me, the best thing about working with fabric is the cutting. I like to unfurl the fabric bolt on my nice smooth table then measure and mark out my pieces. I keep the bottom scissor blade on the table surface while I cut along the line that I’ve marked. It’s the exquisite feel of the scissor blades coming together separating the fabric and that sound of it reverberating through the table. That is such a visceral experience for me. Second to that, is holding the fabric tightly and just pushing the sharp open blades, separating the fabric without even closing the scissors. That is so amazing to me. My wife says it doesn’t take much to amuse me. That may be true.

And my children…You can tell they are mine because sometimes we will look for some bolt fabric we know we will never use. Each of us will take turns slicing through it while the others hold it tightly. It makes for great fun and yes, I make them use their own scissors.

As much fun that the sport of wasting fabric with my kids is, I get the most satisfaction from actually working on my art. This first commissioned piece is promised for a week from today. I am thinking I had better get on it. I have one problem though. I can’t find the box I locked my scissors in.

“Children!!!!”