Can't sleep ... and electrocution

It must be the full moon but here I am at 4.50 am writing my blog.

I had a full week last week with open days, felting and ceramics but really enjoyed it all.  I'm excited too about the work at the moment (or maybe it's hysteria caused by lack of sleep). Here's what all the excitement (or hysteria) is about:-

This is the felt piece I made, inspired as ever by the electrical wires and in particular from a photocopy of a photograph I made:-

I really enjoyed the process of making this - it's a bit like printing or ceramics, you know the effect you're after but you're not quite sure how it will turn out.  Liz mentioned a couple of other ways to represent the electrical wiring using textiles (bleaching black cotton and using threads with latex) and given time I'd like to explore these also.  

I also did a ceramics class.  There's nothing to show yet but next week I'm looking forward to getting stuck in trying to produce something using this as my inspiration:-

The last thing I did last week was to finish off the wire piece I was making inspired by Petah Coyne.  At least I thought it was finished but now I'm not so sure.  At the review it was suggested that I just hang it from the ceiling but looking at it got me thinking about electrocution. 

Sometimes when you switch on something you see a blue spark.  Other times you switch on sockets with wet hands even though you shouldn't and the whole made me think that the wire piece was the electricity crawling out of a socket so that's what I made.  When it was wired in it reminded me even more of this and the ambiguous nature we have with electricity - we can't live without it but treat it improperly and it'll finish you off. 

I fixed the socket to the wall and took some photographs.  I can't decide if the wire should be going up the wall or along the floor.  If along the floor it needs to be longer I think.

I like it running over the floor, it looks more menacing.

The house I live in is surrounded by electric fences or rather surrounded by fields with electric fences.  Everywhere I walk I can hear them 'clicking' as they pass over tree trunks or fence posts.  It's actually quite a malevolent little sound and I was thinking of trying to incorporate this sound into the socket so that as you approach you can 'hear' the electricity too.  In this way the semi-attractiveness of the wire with it's curves and coloured pieces would be offset by the sound of the clicking.  Is it really plugged in?  Could I get a shock if I go too close?

With these cheery thoughts in mind I looked up electrocution and got some rather disturbing images and also found a lovely term - 'macroshock'.  This is the name given to an electrical shock that can kill you by causing the heart to fibrillate. I think I would like to explore this a little further.

Last of all, the back of the socket I was using was lovely!

I wonder if I could print directly from these pieces?  They're so random and geometric and have those unexpected little bronze and gold inserts.

I know I shouldn't but I started Photoshopping ...

The image below is from a photograph of the wire piece going up the wall, there's even the shadow of a telegraph pole in there and I want to print it NOW!