microcomb

the quest for the microcomb

what is a microcomb? an enigma? an illusion? a dream within a dream? perhaps one day i'll find out, but for now, maybe it's what i've written below.

can you make a 1/16" rake?

probably.

that is my first attempt: a 5" wide comb, with 1/16" spaced tines. the tines are 70-gauge stainless steel wire. holes were hand-drilled with a needle-nosed handdrill – the chuck slipped occasionally, hence why the tines are of uneven length.

there are a few things at play here that leave me unfulfilled:

1) something about the tines are causing what appears to be too much paint being lapped up by the tines and causing streaks of carrageenan. i welcome any additional theories: currently my mitigating strategy is to try to put as little of the comb in the size as possible

2) as you can see, it is very obvious where i deviated from the sixteenth of an inch progression

thus as a "standard" comb used like a non-pareil comb, there is still some experimentation to do. i'd like to try with 80 gauge wire – i've since gotten better at using the micro handdrill, so the uneven nature of the comb should be mitigated in the next go around.

use as a free-standing rake

due to the small size of my test rake and the large size of the vat i was using (19 x 16), the next test i did was to use it like a stylus while making "fantasy" patterns. that is, free-form, not anchored to the sides of the tray.

i have been quite inspired by Norma Rubovits' "vignettes" (an example below) and endeavor to reproduce the technique to the extent i am able and it seems like a microcomb may have been used.

my own personal experiments have used the above rake as well as this tiny 5-tiner that i made while at studio.

for example, an attempt at a "vignette" with the 5-tiner.

some of the examples have worked better than others – it does seem like the 5-tiner would work well as a skip comb.

here some additional "fantasy-esque" attempts with both the 5-tiner and the 5" rake. with the 5" rake i attempted to have the tines in the size as little as possible to avoid streaks, but that means that the wonky length of the various tines was much more obvious.

last updated: 2023-01-01 17:49:11