Hoopla Update

Though only made a few months ago, the hoopla set is getting an update.

I was informed of an exhibiton at NTU for technicians, to show some of the art that we make. I really wanted to submit to this exhibition and thought the Hoopla set would be a great tactile piece for it. I would like to make some changes though.

The main reason I made this was to get away from using plastics in favour of more natural materials. In doing so I neglected the fact that I had used acrylic paint, and a synthetic embroidery thread. This is something I wanted to change.

Making thread and natural paints are 2 things I’ve never done before. After a bit of research I found that I could make some nettle cordage, and use vegetables to create dyes that I could then turn into pigment powder and make into paint.

I started with the nettle cord as it was a lot easier to get my head around. I visited the arbouretum with a pair of scissors, a big bag, and some gloves and cut a lot of nettles at the base. This had to be brought home and processed before it all dried out. All the nettle leaves were removed from the stem, and I crushed the stem using a mini anvil I have and an old iron. The gloves had to then be removed so I could half the stem along it’s length and remove the inners. Each of these fibres needed to dry over night before I could twist it into cord.

All these individual fibres were twisted together to create a long length. I’m still going with this as I have a lot of cordage to make. It’s a fun process, if not a bit itchy!