Monday, December 7, 2009

Must Be Fate

So here is the first unusual item up for grabs, it's the very vintage player piano rolls that I mentioned in my first post.



     So after my first post I went back to the place where I had come across the player piano rolls and underneath a pile of other stuff, I came across that same lot. I had been kicking myself for not buying them when I first saw them, but as luck would have it, they were still there! This paper is really cool stuff, it is quite delicate as you can see on the pic of the end section on the full roll. It has an aged colour to it, like old manila paper. The square holes are 1/16" wide and range in length from about 1/8" to 2" in length. I'm not sure how much paper is on each roll (I will eventually unroll one and measure it), but if feels pretty substantial.
     I've cut off a small piece from one roll to mess around with. I think I'll first try gluing is down to a hard surface and then applying a high gloss clearcoat ("lacquer"). But if anyone has any ideas, let me know. I'll post some pics of what I come up with.



Saturday, December 5, 2009

Welcome

     This is my first official post here on PakRatt, so I guess I should explain a little about the concept of this blog.  Basically it's a communication tool to explore and present unusual materials and/or techniques that we (Kolectiv) have available for use in custom art installations and/or surface finishes.
     The idea came to me recently after I had a chance to purchase a sizable lot of vintage player piano music rolls. At the time I thought that they would make a really cool addition to some sort of installation, but I did not buy them because sampling with a material that is not readily available can prove problematic. I have a knack for finding lots of strange items but I've had to keep my pack rat ways in check so that my workspace doesn't become over run.
     So, enter PakRatt, here you will be able to view the stuff we collect and our ideas for their applications. Alternatively, if you see something you like and have your own ideas for its use, please get in touch. Keep in mind, most of the items you will see here will be one off type of things, so they will be best suited for a really unique feature area or object and once gone they will probably not be available again.
     The second objective of PakRatt is to let you know about any new techniques and materials that we are playing around with. Lots of discoveries happen in our sampling process, sometimes as the result of mistakes (which often lead to the most interesting directions). We're pretty excited about some new stuff we've been messing around with like wire macrame and some unconventional takes on French polish.
     Hopefully you will find this blog to be a useful resource and a good taking off point for the creative process. We're all really eager to share our ideas, so keep an eye out, cause I'll have my next post up within the next 3 days.