‘Silent dog whistle’, 2014, Wooden stick, bite marks, beeswax, acrylic stands, 17 “x 12″ x 5″
‘Silent dog whistle (“oak”), 2014, Wooden stick, bite marks, woodstain, beeswax, acrylic stands, 17″ x 12″ x 5″
This work was made for a show, curated by Dean Hughes, at Maria Stenfors Gallery, London.
I gathered a sticks from the area around my home. These were mostly quite rotted. Some had teeth marks where rabbits had been gnawing at them. (They have to do this to keep their teeth from growing too long and preventing them from feeding.)
When our dog, Elsie, was younger she loved playing 'fetch' with sticks or simply chewing on one, like a bone. She still prizes sticks greatly and when we go for walks will pick up collections of little heather sticks to carry. It seems to give her a sense of purpose - maybe even authority.
I gave some of the sticks I had collected to Elsie to have a bit of a chew on. Not too much though, as they were rotting and a little fragile. After this I selected some of the sticks that I found most visually appealing and trimmed off the ends to produce a more controlled form. Next I decided I would clean, sand and polish the sticks up a bit to see how they looked. I became increasingly obsessive about the level of finish I wanted to see on the sticks.
I finally whittled (no pun intended) the selection of sticks down to just two. After experimenting with different waxes and polishes I settled on an oak stained furniture wax as an initial treatment for one and raw beeswax as the final finish for both. Several layers were applied over a period of about ten days.
It was important to find a way of presenting the sticks that allowed their finish and their bite marks to be appreciated. After some research, I found some bespoke heat-polished clear acrylic stands that seemed to fit the bill.