When we were given the first assignment, I sat there for a few minutes not really knowing what I wanted to do. Everyone else seemed to jump straight to action which made me worry that I was thinking fast enough. I sat there staring at the big green piece of paper for a while until I started ripping long strips. At first I tried to make the strips even, I even folded the paper to make crease lines to follow, but hands don’t have the same control scissors do. I then took those strips and rolled little tubes between my fingers. This repetitive action was calming and allowed me to think while I was creating. Once I had a handful of rolled green tubes, I tried to assemble them and tie them together with a long strip of green paper. I could not get it to work and the tubes kept erupting out of their bundle. I decided to create a ring from the long strip and then insert the tubes. Once in their ring, I placed them trying to vary the heights and widths throughout the whole piece.
I chose to use an old bus ticket and the receipt from that same bus ticket as my two pieces of paper. I chose the bus ticket because I was feeling a little homesick for my family. I had just used the bus ticket for my trip back to New York from visiting my family. The bus ticket is a little sad, but also exciting. I did not originally choose the receipt as my second piece of paper. I tried manipulating a couple other pieces of paper before I tried the receipt and liked the “download” image.
I knew I wanted to try to braid part of my paper. I tore the bus ticket into sort of even strips and twisted and crumpled them in my hands. Once they were pliable enough, I twisted two pieces together until they became stiff, rope-like material. I repeated this process a few more times. Once finished twisting, I braided the three combined pieces together to form a very strong and inflexible braid. I tried a couple of different tactics with the second piece. One paper was crumpled and folded into a boat-like shape. The second time I tried to create a basket by crumpling and pinching a piece of paper until the texture looked woven, but I could not get it to hold its shape. Out of frustration, I folded the receipt three times, ripped small openings, and stuck my braid through the openings.
At first I thought I would braid both pieces of paper, but I did not want both pieces to have the same texture and shading. Even though it developed from frustration, there was something simple and organized about folding the receipt so it too was strong like the braid, but it didn’t have to change too much to be that strong. Ripping slits in the folded paper just seemed like that made the most sense.
The handle is a part of a bag that is usually forgotten. When you’re purchasing the bag, you make sure the length and color is fitting, but after that, not a lot of thought goes into the bag handle. I like that the handle is the interesting part of this piece and the bottom part is the simple, easily forgotten one. When I look at the handle, I see hard work. I can feel my hands carefully twisting each strip of paper. Tough enough to soften the paper, but delicate enough so the paper won’t break, and fast enough so my hands don’t get tired.
process and structure 