Stripping the wood down to the raw white wood I find there are about 4 different layers of to get through till you get to the wood.
My wife worries that I’ll be cold, I have a thermos of hot Japanese tea but I don't need it the work is hot it’s self.
I spent more time stripping wood of it's bark. Learning about the material and how it responds. It informs about the time scale if I want to work larger. It will take longer than I thought.
I also burnt the wood a little, it was green, wet and took time to colour. I'm not sure if I like it. Whether it will work how I imagined. I wanted a gradient that transitioned well but its patchy and organic. It's not how I drew or imagined.
I tested a stripped stick and a natural one against each other. Hammered them into the dark brown earth. There was something about it I liked and I wonder if it might work better on a much larger scale. There does seem to be a language to it - the contrasting vertical presences. Although I miss the craft of drawing and sculpting - this feels too simplistic somehow.
Perhaps when I add copper to it the voice will come through more.
Another thought crossed my mind. how. would the work change in voice if I were to cast sticks in porcelain? It would take black colour well if I wanted to dip or stain. Raw porcelain has that toothy bite to it which would take the black.
I'm also worried that this is taking a lot of time, all this effort for work that's not very good.
I took more sound recordings too, they still amuse.
Oh year and the ribbons, as I shaved the bark off I made ribbons which reminded me of the blown out tire, the same forms occurred, similar violence had occurred to the object to create the form.
Stripped.