little tower block pin

little tower block pin, originally uploaded by Donna Nicholson-Arnott.

I was making balsa wood frames for the backs of the clown collages, to make them nice and sturdy and stable and hangable. And I was ending up with random little off-cuts, not much use for anything, but a shame to throw away. I'd been thinking of making badges for ages, and I started whiting up the off-cuts with ink and drawing words and stuff on them. Rather fun to make, and wear. Indeed, I did wear this one for a few days, just to road test it. I thought I'd stick this one on etsy for a couple of months and see what happened. If no-one buys it, I'll just wear it myself again.

Working on balsa.

I've been working with balsa, it's bigger than paper somehow; can be inked up, sanded, made smooth, drawn on, inked again, collaged on. It stands on its own. These two balsa blocks hint at mini canvases for me. It seems to change the modality of the drawings.

My work sometimes occupies a frustrating no man's land between applied and pure. All the work I make that doesn't have anything to do with another text feels to me like it sits in some space between them, not really one thing or the other in the world. I don't think I should worry about this. I should probably just get on with it.