I finally remembered to bring this grasping/clasping cuff to a photo shoot with Steve Mann of Black Box Photography to document it properly. It’s only been about 5 years since I made it! Blue Reach now has a featured spot on my website under the Adorned WORKS Gallery, BRACELETS and can be viewed in the rotation of images on the HOME page.
While preparing samples for one of the two courses I had offered at Maiwa School of Textiles in the fall of 2017, Felt Secure: Solid Form Felting Techniques for Clasps & Closures, I had the wild idea of taking all my class samples and attaching them to one plane to make a cuff. It has proven to be a good means to keep all those components in one place, but also to address the need for connection, particularly when one is feeling blue. There are both outward protuberating clasp components, as well as receiving holes, hoops, bridges and tunnels.
It’s timely to have gotten these pics and to share them in this post on my website’s blog, INTRIGUE, as I am working on the content development of Course 2 in my Online & Onpoint! Felt Jewelry Series: Material, Technique & Impact this Fall of 2022. Course 2 will focus on the use of Partial Felt in solid form, 2D plane and hollow form wet felting and will be made in a range of initial layout weights/area and felted to different states of integrity (% of shrinkage) of what is possible for that weight/area. One such application will be using Partial Felt as a core as related to how participants of Course 1 developed solid forms. I got soooo excited about stepping the learning up from the Foundational Structure studies of Course 1 while revisiting each of these clasping components for a little shaving and snipping of stray hairs before the photos.
