Many months have passed and many changes since I last wrote. Hietala is now legally my new maiden name. So a new chapter begins. This spring semester I am teaching adjunct at Haywood Community College in Clyde, NC,  and really enjoying it. In Advanced Craft Design, 3-D design, we have been working with line using wire, planes using foam core, manipulation and transformation using clay, and our next project will be functional containers of gut and wire. I have been intrigued by translucent gut stretched taught over wire forms for a number of years.

This is one of my gut and wire pieces, "Instrument of Motion - Textiles" that is currently on exhibition in Breaking Ground: Innovative Craft at HandMade in America here in Asheville. The exhibition was curated by Kathryn Gremley, Director of the Penland Gallery and showcases work by artist that are pushing the boundary of their medium in unexpected ways. The exhibition runs from March 8th through
May 31, 2013.

"Instruments of Motion" is a series of paddle like forms that are inspired by some aspect of trade goods that were brought back by vessel. When I think of vessels, I am a romantic and inspired by the era before diesel, when sails and the wind carried new ideas, materials and information around the globe.

"Instruments of Motion - Textiles" is a piece inspired by the labels I remove from my clothes, and save of course. Most of them are made in far off places. The labels represent textiles disseminated across the globe by vessel. Paddles/oars or what I have come to call instruments of motion were an integral part of that journey.

It is created of steel wire in the manner of tinkering or working by hand with simple tools. Hog gut is stretched and dries taunt and translucent. It has a natural tone that alludes to nostalgia and a sense of time passage. In this piece there are three compartments that house mother of pearl buttons and labels removed from clothing. I inherited a jar of white mother of pear buttons from my grandmother. Over the years I have used them and replaced them with new mother of pearl buttons that I have collected and saved.  The labels are presented showing their front and backside for variation in color. The work is stationary yet creates the sense of motion and sound that a rattle would create. Due to the delicate nature of the gut I now present the work in a white shadowbox frame for protection.