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Upcoming Events: Though we've moved off the ice, the Soft Shop is still very much alive! We will be re-installing the shanty at Version '07 in Chicago in late April and early May. The schedule of events will soon be be added to the “participate” section. Keep an eye out for more updates as the Version festival approaches.
Picture updates: If you're impatiently waiting for the blog to be updated, more pictures can be found in these online albums:
Rebecca's pictures
Jennifer's pictures
Dennis's pictures
Sean'spictures
Andrew's pictures
Art Shanty Projects Slideshow
Chicago Public Radio Piece:Jennifer Brandel did an awesome short on us for the Chicago Public Radio show 848. Check it out on their February 8th archive... you will want to scroll down to ‘Soft Shop on the Crackling Ice”
Submissions: The Soft Shop will continue to accept submissions through late April for inclusion in the Version '07 instalation. Learn how to send us your textile art and needlecrafts.
Opening weekend was hectic, to say the least. So, with Rebecca and Charlie back in Chicago for a while, Aay and Ilana kept low-key for weekend 2 of the Art Shanty Projects. Though we didn't have any events planned, a spontaneous embroidery workshop happened on Saturday, and the Soft Shop also served as an emergency repair station for the Vista Shanty's kite-flying event.
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Michael, Dan & Aay work on their chain stitch and floss lubrication techniques. |
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A young friend learns some spool knitting. |
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Ilana readies the Gayla Sky-Spy for flight. |
Next week, we'll be back in higher gear again, as Ilana prepares for her Ice Physics Shanty Talk, and Aay gets set to lead a Freestyle Crochet Workshop. Rebecca and Charlie will be returning from Chicago, so the group will be all together again.
Also, it looks like we're going to try re-engineering our airlock - We've found it doesn't stand up well to high winds, and the entryway forces people to stoop a little too low. Aay tried holding the the edges down with snaps, but the high traffic of people going in and out ripped right through them. Oh well...
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Better luck next time. |
We are now fully SOLAR! Maybe this will make up for the miles upon miles of driving we had to do in order to get all of this junk.
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There's our new solar array. Isn't it cute? We also tacked down the roof a little more to keep it from flapping around all the time. We'll see how long that lasts. |
We took advantage of the slower day on Sunday to get our shanty hooked up to some solar power. After an emergency rescue in the Norae Shanty last night, our battery was in desperate need of a recharge.
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Here Ilana models her new snowsuit and electrical handiwork; Aay installs the panels on the roof.
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Then the panels are connected to the battery via the charge controller (the smaller yellow-labelled box), which keeps the battery safe from overcharging. The battery, which is DC, then leads out to an inverter (not pictured), which allows us to plug in standard AC appliances. Not bad...and we managed to get it all done right before snowfall.
Despite all our worries and exhaustion, the opening day of Art Shanty Proejcts 2007 was still a success. We were tying up loose ends all morning, and in to the day we griped about things like the airlock inflating improperly and not having solar panels up, but no-one else seemed to notice. In fact, most people enjoyed seeing that some of the shanties were still in progress.
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right: Aay tacks down the edges of the entryway |
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This is the fourth year ASP has been running, and with much publicity surrounding this year's project, the shanties were packed for almost the entire weekend. At its fullest, we counted no less than 17 heads in the Soft Shop at one time. Granted, some were small children, but that's still pretty good.
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In addition to the new friends we made from neighboring shanties, we were pleased to recieve a visit from friends in Chicago who helped with construction. Jennifer Brandel also came up to get some last interviews and sounds for her Chicago Public Radio piece, including an impromptu banjo recital from Charlie.
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At the end of the day, it was off to the Norae Shanty.
Everyone at Art Shanty Projects has been worried about the warm spell ruining our chances of setting up on the ice for the past few weeks. In a stoke of luck we arrived at Medicine Lake yesterday to find it very much solid, and our friends at the OurBrr Shanty already setting up on the ice. Our moods soured however, as the weather quickly turned brutal. Spirits were quite low after the first day of construction, with much work still needing to be done in near-darkess and strong winds.
Today was just as harsh, but we handled it a little better knowing what we were in for. The main structure is already up (so we've got some shelter from the elements), and heat and power are getting set up. There's a lot more fine tuning to do, but it's all uphill from here. Everywhere we've been noticing the almost aggressive hospitality and cheerfulness of the folks around us. Apparently it's called “Minnesota nice.” You'd have to be with a winter this mean....
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All packed up and ready to go... |
We're off to Minneapolis for the opening! We're a little worried since the winter's been so mild and the ice is not thick enough to build on yet. Hopefully we won't have to resort to setting up on shore. Wish us luck.... Meanwhile, a big THANK YOU to everyone that's helped to get this project off the ground:
Art Shanty Projects
Ayla Zeimer and the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association
Andrea Fritsch
Marian Runk
Theaster Gates
Kevin Womac and Boulevard Bikes
Graham Stephenson
Jennifer Brandel
Barbara Laub
Bill Hannigan
Adam Ring
Rachel Dobkin
Sarah Miller
Ed Marszewski, Matt Mallooly, Ringo and Moron Village
Anja Moen
Margaret Cunningham
Luke Andreoni
Sung Pae
Nick Travanty
Mary Grady
Casey Droege
Mary Ellen Vinz
Erin Foley
Ken Camden
Chris & Meejay
Sonoscan
It's the last weekend before the opening, and we're working pretty much around the clock to to get everything ready.
With construction under way for about a week, the shanty finally departed the second dimension for the third today, when we started framing out the walls. Many thanks to Theaster for flooring supplies, and of course Edmar and all our buddies at the Community of the Future for letting us build at their space.
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Left: At the day's start, the heptagonal floor begins to fill out. |
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Charlie works on trimming the floorboards (left) while Aay & Rebecca piece together the walls (below). |
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Left: Charlie, Khalil, Carissa, Theaster, Ilana and Rebecca test out the shanty ambiance. We can pretend the dust in the air is like snow. |
Hey all, we were having problems with our old e-mail server, so now we can be reached at: thesoftshop[at]gmail[dot]com. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused - our old server was dropping messages, but also failing to send a bounce notification to anyone that sent us something. So, we weren't ignoring you guys....feel free to try us again!
We had the third and final Soft Shop Sunday today, and we've gotten some good contributions over the last three weeks. Our guests churned out embroidered quilts, plush dinosaur claws, robot dolls, and paisley planets.
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There's Jen in the background taking notes for Chicago Public Radio...
Meanwhile in the back, the organizers got their hands a little dirty cleaning up our roof materials: used soy & rice milk containers with a waterproof, reflective coating. They were washed before they were shipped to us, but while they were still closed. Which means they had been stickily brewing in the box for a couple of weeks before they arrived in Chicago....
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GROSS.
Now it's on to the construction phase for us, but we'll still be needing your submissions through the opening in January!
We were joined this week by chicago Public Radio's Jen Brandel, who interviewed us about the Soft Shop before our second “Soft Shop Sunday” fabrication event. Jen will be covering the story through construction and our opening on Medicine lake, so be on the lookout for the piece to air early 2007!
Well, the folks at Art Shanty Projects have finalized their funding, and each shanty team will be awarded a residency of $700! We're on our way!
By the way, Chicago buddies: take shelter from the snow at Soft Shop's Illinois HQ this Sunday for our first fabrication party! We're gearing up for our first round of submissions. Bring some building or craft materials, we will provide some as well. We'll have refreshments too! E-mail thesoftshop[at]gmail[dot]com for details.
The kids at OSCA (Oberlin Student Cooperative Association) will be supplying us with recycled soy and rice milk containers for cladding. The plan is to use the flattened boxes, with their reflective foil lining, to help insulate the roof. Although the semester is drawing to a close, we're quite sure that OSCA's 600+ members will drink quite enough beverage to provide us with ample coverage by December's end.
Also, in an unexpected but happy turn of events, we have just secured our first $100 from a private donor!
Take a look around. Love it!
The Soft Shop has been invited to participate in the fourth annual Art Shanty Projects exhibition on Medicine Lake, MN. The 2007 list of participants includes:
The Soft Lake Shanty: Adam Collignon, Molly Roth, Angela Zammarelli
Warming Shanty: Ashley Duffalo, Megan Leafblad, Joel Schwarz, Loren Smith, Angie Vogt, John Vogt
Club Medicine Lake: Beatrix Reinhardt, Gordon Marsh, Melanie Almeder
Knitting Shanty: Bob and Marilyn Thompson
OurBrr Shanty: Brennan Vance, Sam Soule, Mark La Venture, Jamie Barber
Soft Shop: Ilana Percher, Aay Preston-Myint, Charles Vinz, Rebecca Grady
Art Cars: Jan Elftmann and the Art Car Artists
Postal Shanty: Jes Schrom, Robert Marbury, Brian Lesteberg, Gabe Welker
Science Shanty: Jim Hood
Playground: Karen Kasel, Willie Pike, Marlaine Cox, Kurt Allis
MNartists.org - 10,000 artists on a Lake: Kathleen Kvern, Ann Klefstad, Jeffery Kalstrom
Bigloo ver. 5: Matt Zaun, Sean Connaughty
Norae Shanty: Michael Hoyt
Jack Shack Team: Molly Berg, Heidi Heise
Rendezvous Café: Monica Sheets, Jane Powers
The Cactus Conservatory: Peter Sowinski
Pinhole Camera Shanty: Richard Lindberg, Kurt Perry
Vista Shanty: Sarah Peters, Sarah Petersen, Kristen Murray, Bryan Kennedy, Zvie Razieli
Darshanty: Stephen Rife
Lincoln Log Cabin: Wes Stitt, Joe Lindeberg