Hearts and Thorns - The Passion of Christ

My first soft sculpture mobile - an art form I have been fascinated by for years (soft sculpture AND mobiles - though I have only recently considered combining them).

The brief was to produce a textile piece using symbols (we had done a unit on symbolism) which incorporated three of the same symbol, and using only fabric, paint and stitch.

I have learnt, among other things, some valuable lessons in construction, and also just how difficult it is to photograph the silly things! I will also post a full length picture of the whole thing, but these are the components. There are three stuffed hearts of various sizes, each with stitching on both sides. The fabric is cream homespun that I sprayed fabric paint onto through lace and then added some gold paint - in drips, by painting the outline of one of the flower shapes, and then using a toothbrush to do a fine spatter over most of it.

I'd done a whole lot of research on hearts and flowers and ended up doing the Passion of Christ - interesting where symbolism can take you!

More Fun with Embellishing!

More stuff for Yarnfest. More fun on the embellisher.

Top pic: Gum leaves I had knitted and crocheted and had hanging around (ha ha ha) waiting to be made into something. Felted all over with the machine to make them more solid and then felted onto a backing of bright polar fleece to make bookmarks.

Middle pic: More of the gum leaves - these were thicker and I thought they were a big too thick for bookmarks, even before felting, so I felted them thoroughly to make them stiffer and sewed brooch backs on them.

Bottom pic: Lengths of yarn twisted together and felted to make more bookmarks. The one on the far right is twisted yarn with a small crocheted spirally thing felted onto it, the others are just all twisted yarns curled into a spiral at the bottom and felted firmly together.

I will be making more brooches and bookmarks and trying them out on Etsy and wherever else I can think of. They are fun and addictive!

More Yarnfest Stuff...

...and first use of the new embellisher! Both of these were things I had knitted in the past that were sitting in my wardrobe, unworn. I did some practice emebellishing on them and decided that I would put them in for sale at Yarnfest (see previous entry for URL).

Embellishing is fun!!!

Oddball Scarves and Hats

I have been busy making things to (hopefully) sell at Yarnfest at The Highway Gallery in Mount Waverley. If you're in my part of Melbourne and fancy some nice knitted/crocheted bits and pieces, drop in between 9th and 20th June and see what takes your fancy.

These are oddball scarves and hats that I had a lot of fun making. My stash contains A LOT of oddballs and they went into making some nice colourful things.

Curley Whirly!!

I've just knitted a Curley Whirly scarf! Or rather, a Short circuit Scarf from Taphophile.


This is a birthday present for my sister-in-law and it wasn't finished quite on time, so she was allowed to see it halfway through and then I whisked it away to finish it. She loves purple and blues and pinks. I dyed this wool a couple of years ago and had been hanging on to it till I thought of the right thing to do with it, and she was the obvious recipient!

Specifications : 4 x 50g 5 ply, not all the same brand but all pure wool. Dyed by me in Landscape dyes with much glee. Knitted until it ran out. It measures over 3 metres! She can wrap it round her neck at least three times. Apparently her pupils (she is s secondary school teacher) delight in checking out her handknits so this one should keep them amused for a few minutes. It was fun to knit but I couldn;t have gone for any longer, I was starting to go a little stir-crazy! Brilliant pattern, thanks Taph, easy to memorise and looks fiendish but isn't at all.

Sheeprustling Brooch

I bought this today from a third year student at TAFE. She claims it was an abstract piece (as all hero thers were) but to me it immediately looked like sheep - so appropriate for the Sheeprustler! Funny thing is, no-one else can see sheep in it until I mention it. It's hand needlefelted.

And guess what - I got an embellisher today! I may not have much time to play with it for a couple of weeks - I have to write a plan for a 12 hour workshop to be finished by next week (for assessment purposes - I won't actually be teaching the workshop, though I do think I have come up with an excellent idea, but I'm a lousy teacher) and the next week there will probably be tons of homework too, but after June 15 I am free as a bird for several weeks until Semester Two - expect to see some embellished pieces in that time!

Hundertwasser

This was an interesting exercise we did in class over the past couple of weeks.
1) We studied the Hundertwasser picture The Houses are Hanging Underneath the Meadows and analysed it in terms of design - colour, balance, repetition, motifs, etc. We were also asked to think about in terms of maps (an obsession of our current teacher, but a worthy one for this exercise).
2) We were told to produce a series of coloured papers using inks and oil pastels in various ways (there was a list of about six or eight ideas of what to do with them - including painting ink of wet paper, doing pastel rubbings and then inking over, etc.
3) We were each given a photocopied portion of a Melbourne street map and told to design something based on our study of the Hundertwasser piece, using all or a portion of the map to create the design.
4) Then we used the papers we had created to produce a collage based on our design. We were allowed to add small bits of extra drawing on top - I drew grass with green oil pastel on top of the centre section of mine, and then outlined it with black texta to make it show up better. (This was when I discovered that fine line pen, which is my favorite, doesn't work on top of oil pastel - derr!!)
5) The next week we had to produce coloured cloths to recreate (approximately) the paper collage, using fabric paints, fabric crayons and transfer dyes and crayons. I have never had much luck with transfer dyes (I know others who swear by them, though) and got rather frustrated trying to get the right magenta for the right hand section of my piece, giving up in the end and settling for the more red-pink which was all I could mix with the available fabric dyes. I still liked the ultimate effect.
6) Then it was just a case of vliesofixing the relevant bits of fabric down and doing some stitching. The funny thing is, in class I was saying that I was going to do hand stitching only, and resist my usual urge to put beads on everything, and how I had sworn off machine embroidery - and look what I did, machine stitch and beads!!
Ultimately I am pleased with this piece. It may not be great art but it was an excellent example of structuring a series of classes (which is what we are actually studying at the moment, Strategies for the Artist/Teacher, doing a textile piece was just a bonus way of demonstrating the process to us!) and I enjoyed the process.

Repetitions of Nature

We haven't done much actual textile work this year, so it is a relief to be able to blog about a pice at long last!

This was created from using leaves to make prints, then embroidered on top of (with the addition of some tiny sequins and a bigger one), and finally some more leaf prints on top. There is also a tiny bit of gold paint spatter on various bits of it, but it's very subtle and doesn't show up well.

It's stitched onto a piece of handmade paper (not made by my hands!) - rather wonkily, I realise looking at the photo!

There's another textile piece to show off when I scan it, and another work about 70% finished. That's it for the semester - not NEARLY enough textile work for a supposed Textile Art course, but of course they insist that everything else we are studying is worthwhile too.

I Haven't Done a Meme for Ages

Thanks to Yarnivorous I found this "I Never" Meme.

Instructions for this meme are: Edit the list, bold for stuff you've done, italics for stuff you plan to do one day, and normal for stuff you're not planning on doing. So here goes!

Afghan/Blanket
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with banana fiber yarn
Domino knitting (modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting (???)
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffiti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Knitting to make money
Button holes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colors
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cozies…)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars
Olympic knitting
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn
Knitting with DPNs
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dyeing yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with self-patterning/self-striping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Baby items
Knitting with cashmere
Darning (does this mean mending, in which case NO, or Swiss Darning, in which case yes).
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/arm warmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Knitting in public

Well, I;ve done a lot of them, and as you can see there are quite a few I still want to do, but there's a number of things there I am really not interested in and won't be doing. Still, an interesting meme - go on, take it, you know you want to!

Edited to answer comment: Fair Isle and Intarsia are quite different. In fair isle you strand wool and carry at least two strands across each row. Intarsia is blocks of colour done by twisting yarns together at the joins of the blocks. Of course you can use a mixture together - I often have! Steeking is a possibly Scandinavian technique (I may be wrong there!) where you knit a whole jumper/jacket in the round and then cut it apart where you want the sleeve holes and/or front opening to be - having reinforced the relevant areas and prayed to the knitting gods first!

Saturday Sky

I haven't posted a Saturday Sky for ages, but here is one at last. And yes it is a real photo! But it was blurry and an insignificant part of another picture (taken by Baby Bear who was focussing on something else) so i played with it until it developed this look, which I like. Those were real clouds and they evens prinkled some rain on us. Most of Victoria got lots of rain, we didn't get much in Glen Waverley (5mm) but the farmers got lots which is great. There is some more rain forecast today. In fact it is chucking down at the moment (whee!) and I am pointedly not complaining that in an hour's time we have to be over at the school at the official opening of the environmental project that George, among a tiny handful of other dads, has been building almost every Saturday for the last nine months. (I love it that he is so involved in the school, but sometimes I wish a few other people would get off their ar**s and do something too!) I am hoping that our wonderful principal has remembered how to make contingency plans for rainy days!

Wombat this morning said something terribly sweet - he is nearly 11 and we came back to Melbourne when he was nearly 3 - 'I remember that day when it RAINED ALL DAY'. Of course there have been a few of them in that eight year period, but precious few. I didn't remind him that his first 2 3/4 years were spent in Gloucestershire in the UK where it rained all day every day for most of his short life!

Latest Etsy Offerings

I've been whiling away a little time playing with beads.

I am getting concerned about Etsy. Apart fromt he fact that I haven't sold anything yet (not a whinge, the whinge is coming though!) I am worried about the future of the site itself. On the last week there has been a huge amount of down time while the backroom boffins did some boffining, and then some more, and then tried to fix the boffining that had already happened. It seems to be working OK at the moment...

I hadn't bothered reading the Etsy forums up till now, being a bit busy with other things, but cast a glance at them while all of this was going on. There was a mixture of people grumping that this was no way to run a business (it isn't), but far more people praising the boffins and stroking their egos and saying that everyone else should shut up and let them get on and play with their software.

I;m not going to get into that argument (much) and haven;t posted on the forums. But it makes me think, with a shudder, of Themestream, a pay-per-click creative writing site that I had the misfortune to become heavily embroiled with several years ago. Exactly the same things happened - they expanded far too quickly, didn't put enough of their (considerable) profits into keeping the site up with the traffic and the punters, and crashed in a blaze of - what is the opposite of glory? - owing thousands of people like me money.

I know that Etsy can't screw me of money - especially if I don't sell anything! But if I do, the money comes straight to me via Paypal. But it just has the same smell of death about it. I really want it to succeed - I like the philosophy of the site - I;d like it more if I could sell something, but that's probably got more to do with my photographs or merchandise than anything else. But it worries me none the less.

Rant over. I have schoolwork to do - actual textile art! Not just writing business plans!

Lovely Lichen!

Here is the next set of bush texture photos I took. I love lichen!

All pictures are clickable to view in greater detail. The same goes for the previous texture photo post, the photos look muchbetter in close-up than they do smaller. (Two posts ago).

Latest Etsy Stuff!

I've been playing around again with stuff for my Etsy shop (see sidebar). The earrings are self-explanatory (except that the blue pair is quite deliberately mismatched, just for a bit of fun). I spent a couple of hours making rolled paper beads and decided that it was quite fun, except that there must be a way to get them off the skewers before the glaze dried without them sticking - I got most of them off but now I have to buy new skewers! And then I dabbled with the idea of putting a kit together of fabric embellishments and glass beads - it wasm y first time making wrapped fabric beads and a wrapped cord, and I hope someone thinks it's a good idea because I could happily turn these out in lots of different colours and have a lot of fun.

Texture Photos

Regular readers (all three of you!) may remember that I enjoy taking texture photos in the bush. Here is the start of a series that I took while in Beaufort over Easter. The top one didn't work out properly, it was blurry, so I used Sharpen in Picasa until it got that brush-stroke look to it. There will be more photos to come over the next couple of days. The bush is so beautiful!

Is It Nearly Over?

I try not to whinge about the school holidays, 'cos I really do love my kids and like doing things with them and the general mess and hilarity that comes with having them in the house.

But by this stage (Thursday of the second week) I do find myself hanging out for next Monday!

Baby Bear returned from China cheerful, covered in spots (lots of greasy food and no fresh veges, she was not impressed with Szechuan food - turned out Chengdu was NOT in Shanghai province as I had thought), and laden with cheap and cheerful pressies for us and her myriad of friends. I have hung the Buddha head over my bed - I;m sure it must be good feng-shui - and she bought me some red envelopes to use in crafting.

Wombat has been a darling, but a very clingy and demanding one. The fantasy life we live together gets a bit wearing when it is twelve hours a day without a break. His anxiety levels are still very high despite nearly two weeks off school and his OCD is exhausting for both of us. On the upside he is happy and cheerful and having a good time. We went to see TMNT the other day (good enough, but SO violent and noisy!) and are off to see Mr Bean's Vacation, or whatever it is called, in half an hour.

George said last night that I seemed very tense and when did I last meditate? I laughed hollowly and pointed out that for two weeks I have been unable to go to the toilet without someone coming and talking to me through the door, let alone have any quiet time. The only way I can get away is to take the dog for a ten minute walk in the evening while dinner is cooking, or spend a couple of hours at the local shopping centre (this is alone time for me - I can tune out the other people and live with my own thoughts, and I don't have to interact with magic lemurs or all the baby Pokemon).

I have been trying to catch up with some homework - wrote a short piece on Anubis yesterday for the topic of symbolism that we are studying - and what a huge, fertile, exciting area that is, it's given me enough material for artworks for the rest of my life! I've also written half a business plan. Given that I haven't sold a single thing so far it seems a bit stupid writing one, but I guess that's what they are for.

There's a few more bits and pieces to go up on Etsy but I haven't photographed them yet or had the time to put them up. I am trialling lots of different things and when something actually sells I will make more than one of it/them! I have lots more ideas so will just keep trying until I hit the sweet spot. I am determined to make this work in the long run, not to make a fortune but to at least turn it into a part-time business - at least that's what the five year plan in my half written business plan says!!

We went to Beaufort for part of the Easter break - in the Pyrenees - the Australian ones of course. WE have friends who are building a house up there - VERY SLOWLY - and we took the two family rooms at thelocal motel and hung out together and had fun. A couple of short bushwalks (a bit too short, I wanted more exercise!) and some real 4WD stuff - no-one can say that we never take ours off road! We spent some time in Ballarat, visited the local gallery which has some excellent Australian art plus the real, original Eureka flag - important to our family because George's great-great grandfather was at Eureka - and found his great-great-great grandmother's grave and the address she used to live at - now a car park, of course!

Lots of close-up texture photos to come that I took in the bushm but I haven't sorted through them yet.

School holidays

Thse are the two latest doodads I have made for my Etsy shop (see sidebar). I'm now working on some fabric cuffs and then another style of bag. It distracts me from doing homework! Actually I have done some homework but there is more to do before next term, just nothing very interesting.

It's the school holidays and so far Wombat and I have had a pleasant time together. Yesterday we went to the cinema to see Meet the Robinsons, about which I knew very little but turned out to be a charming film that I thoroughly enjoyed (so did he). This was followed by lunch at the Pancake Parlour, a family favorite. Today we only went out to do a little shopping but, followed by coffee (for me) and icecream (for him) made an enjoyable little trip. Season 9 of The Simpsons is out so we bought that - addicted to The Simpsons in this house, especially Wombat!

We are being hounded by a major company who shall remain nameless over a supposedly unpaid bill. Fortunately we can prove that we paid it on time, but it is starting to be a stressful experience. To add insult to injury, I own shares in the company and do not appreciate my shareholder profits being frittered away in postage sending overdue notices to innocent billpayers!

The Norah Gaughan bolero thing is coming along great guns but has been temporarily suspended while I do some secret knitting. I won't show a picture of the bolero at the moment because it looksl ike a shapeless mess.

Wolf, Looming

I was taking photos for the latest jeans bag in my Etsy shop (see sidebar) and I was trying to get a close-up of a tiny wolf button that's less than a centimetre square. The photo turned out really blurry but I kept pressing Sharpen in Picasa until this happened, and I decided that I really liked this picture. I am considering printing it out and doing things with it. Trouble is, my head is so full of ideas at the moment that it is exploding and I have homework to do which is less explosive and Wombat to amuse for the next two weeks of the school hols (Baby Bear is about to jet off to China to sing at the Festival of the Giant Panda with a school choir).

Edited on 2nd April to add: Poor kid, after two hours on the plane it was declared unfit to fly and they all had to disembark, be sent to a hotel, then sent to another one in the morning. She is flying out tonight at 8pm. It means that they lost the connection to Cheng-du, of course, and it was quite hard to organise them again - apparently she is going withm ost of the choir and two teachers, still via Singapore, but the remaining few, plus the other teacher and the tour rep, have to go via Singapore AND Hong Kong. I imagine there are three teachers there wishing they had booked something else for the holidays! She phoned me this afternoon sounding tired but quite cheerful and still looking forward to it. Not a good start to her first OS trip without her parents, though!