The Curator's Eye

Hog-Tied

selected by Lynette Miller, Washington State History Research Center

Gift from Los Angeles, 21.5 inches high, 10-inch diameter, 2006

The native people of the Canadian and Alaskan far north, who historically used seal and walrus gut to make clothing and vessels, inspire my work with hog gut (better known as sausage casing). You can buy natural sausage casing packed in salt from a meat market. When wet, it is white and opaque and resembles fettuccine. When dry, the casing becomes transformed into a delicate, translucent, parchment-like material. Because of my embroidery background, I often use needle lace stitches (sometimes in combination with twigs), threading the wet casing on a needle, then stitching over a mold to form an open grid-like structure. In other work, I layer sheets of wet casing in a process similar to papier mâché, sandwiching threads, wire and found materials between layers. More recently I dye the casing before stitching, but I still prefer the warm caramel color of the dried natural material. — J.N.C.