- On edge: Wood, metal and cloth assemblages

Don has been working on a series of assemblages made from repurposed wood and metal, of which this is the most recent ...

Wood from Junkology

This angle view shows off his edge work, as well as the dimensionality of the clockwork spring found during last summer's junk haul at the Outer Banks ...

This, in addition to last week's assemblage, made his original moon phase assemblage look washed out. Since the plan is to hang them all together, he made the edge of the moon assemblage a bit darker (dare I say edgier?) ...

Meanwhile, I finished stitching together four layers of linen with coral cotton strips woven in ...

a much more substantial piece to give the wood table protection from serving dishes ...

Close-up view showing the variation in cloth weaves

I dipped one edge into a simmered brew of windfall lichen ...

letting the color wick up close to the first row of cloth weaving ...

then hung it out to dry, during which time the color continued to migrate upward ...

This persimmon has become my de facto cloth-hanger

A second dip, a-side ...

and b-side, shows how much the color on the side softened after drying compared to the wet bottom edge ...

Two more cycles of dipping and drying remain to be done on the other two edges. At that point I'll consider whether to stitch along the boundaries created by the wicking, then put it all in the washing machine to see how the color will stand up.

I think I could get used to living on the edge ...