Friday Update

At last, after two months, an entire, wearable garment made on the tamed overlocker. I learned a lot making this. Now I can sew a balanced seam and do a rolled hem (though next time I might make the rolled hem wider. It isn't perfect (it's a nightshirt for George, so perfection is not exactly necessary). I made the stupid and elementary mistake of not trimming the hemline straight before I did it, so it dips slightly - that isn't just the way it's hung in the picture. I made a total hash of the neckband and had to recut a new one from scraps and redo it. It is still wonky on the inside seam, which I overlocked. Not a good move. I should have used the sewing machine for that. I did use the sewing machine to sew the band to the neckline, which worked well. I should have thought through that I have never been very good at V necklines and that doing it on an overlocker for the first time could be disasterous. Funnily enough I managed to apply it with the sewing machine perfectly, better than I have ever put in a v neckline before!

All in all I feel very happy with my effort. I learnt a lot about the overlocker and feel very confident about using it again and again. It has now become a proper member of the arsenal of tools I use for various tasks. Pity it took me two months, but I did set myself eleven challenges because I thought the wheels would fall off at some point - just not quite so quickly! And I said I would not stress over completing them, and I am not.

I also finished the two-page spread for my visual diary thing. Again I am not showing this month's. Off to work on next month.

I am still deciding which challenge to pick for March. And, in tune with my changeable nature and inability to make decisions, I may be changing some of the items on the list anyway!

8 Things Thursday

8 Favorite Fictional Detectives

Lord Peter Whimsey (books only)

Inspector Morse (books and TV)

Inspector Montalbano (TV, have never read the books)

Kurt Wallander (books and Danish TV, though Kenneth Branagh is pretty good too)

Dr Temperence Brennan (books only)

Sherlock Holmes (in most incarnations)

Tom Barnaby (TV, never read the books)

Dalziell and Pascoe (TV, never read the books)

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday Artist - Mark Rothko

Mark Rothko is another of my favorite artists. Please click on links where provided and they will take you to the source of the material used.

His life was long (September 25, 1903–February 25, 1970) and complicated and I will only use a little of it here. He was born in Latvia and grew up in Portland, Oregon, winning a scholarship to Yale but leaving because it was too rarified for him. He worked in the garment district of New York after that, and started going to art classes. His first important teacher and influence was Max Weber, another Russian Jew (although Rothko was born in what we now call Latvia, it was part of Russia at the time of his birth).

The 1920s in New York were a time of many exciting exhibitions of 'new' art and Rothko was exposed to the, for their time, startling works of Paul Klee and the German Expressionists. He had his first one-man show in Portland in 1932, shortly after marrying Edith Sachar, a jewllery designer who would appear in many of his drawings and paintings for many years.

After the breakup of his marriage in 1943, Rothko returned to his family in Portland, and then travelled to Berkley, where he met the artist Clyfford Still, an abstract artist whose friendship and worth dramatically affected Rothko's life and work from that time on.

To cut a long story short, Rothko remarried in 1945 to a 23 year old childrens' book illustrator, Mary Alice Beistle, and enjoyed a happier and more stable life for some time after this. The paintings that most people actually think of as 'Rothkos' started in 1948, exhibited for the first time early the following year. He used oils on huge canvases, often painted vertically, to produce very large abstracts which were designed to 'envelope' the viewer. In fact he prefered them to be viewed very close up. This results in an appreciate of the wonderful shadings and textures that are then apparent in what otherwise may seem to be large blocks of flat colour. Because the canvases were so big he often painted half, then turned them upside down to finish them. This has resulted in a number of famous 'upside down' paintings, were paint drips can be seen running in the wrong direction to the way the paintings are hung. They are not actually hung upside down (though argument still apparently rages on this point) as either end has the paint drips.

His most significant later works include two mural commissions, for the Four Seasons restaurant in the head office of the drinks company Joseph Seagram and Sons, and the Rothko Chapel at the University of St Thomas in Houston, Texas. He committed suicide before these last works were installed. The murals for the Four Seasons restaurant were spilt into three collections, to be seen in the Tate Modern in London, the Kawamura Memorial Museum in Japan, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

Rothko's paintings are held in major galleries all over the world. My first exposure to him came when the National Gallery of Victoria purchased No 37 (Red), painted in 1956, and I thought it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I have subsequently seen Rothkos all over the world, including at the amazing Tate Gallery in St Ives, Cornwall , which has one of the best settings of any art gallery I have ever seen. I was delighted to discover recently, after reading more about Rothko than I had in the past, that the one in the National Gallery of Victoria is an upside- down one!

Monday Quote

Once you begin being naughty, it is easier to go and on and on, and sooner or later something dreadful happens.

Laura Ingalls Wilder

I've decided to scrap the Saturday and Sunday regular blogs as I rarely get near the computer at the weekend. So no actual daily blogging, but five days a week is pretty good for me, IF I can keep it up!

Friday Update

Where I post an update on my challenges for the year.

Two page spread for visual journal thingie is coming along nicely. IT will definitely be done by the end of the month.

Taming the Beast - the new official title for my challenge with the overlocker. I have spent a fair bit of this week fiddling with it, practicing, getting George to examine it - he diagnosed the major problem, which was that the upper blade was binding and not engaging properly. Now I can happily say that I have pretty much mastered threading it and doing a four stitch overlock that is the right tension, etc, and I have started on the nightshirt that was the project (for January, admittedly!) I haven't done much yet, having been interrupted in full flow yesterday afternoon by a school crisis with Wombat (hopefully solved now), but at least the seams sewn so far are straight and look quite good. That will now definitely be done by the end of the month. So I am a month behind schedule but had promised myself not to stress about it, so I am not. Pictures will be posted when it is finished

8 Things Thursday

8 Films I Have Seen Most Recently

Avatar 3D

Toy Story 1 and 2 3D

Sherlock Holmes

Planet 51

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 3D

Coraline 3D

Transformers 2

Dragonball

Mostly with Wombat!

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday Artist - Bridget Riley

Bridget Riley

, pictured here in the mid 1960s, was (and still is) a major artist in the Op Art (short for Optical Art) movement, fond of optical illusions and pictures that you should not jump up and down in front of unless you want to get a migraine. I fell in love with her work at an exhibition in London in the 1990s, and further so at an exhibition in the old sewers of Exeter (strange but true. Actually the exhibition itself was in a gallery, but it was connected to the old sewers, which are no longer in use, and down which one can take a guided tour, which we did) some years later.

This is High Sky, 1992, currently in the Nues Museum in Nuremberg.

This is Blaze 1. Most of her early work is in black and white, though she did experiment with colour from quite early on. I admit to preferring the later, coloured works, which are vibrant and exciting rather than cerebral and a bit too smart for their own good, which is how I perceive the black and white ones. However, the colour ones reproduce really well, but the black and white ones don't, and their true power is only apparent (to me) in the flesh, so to speak.

I won't go into her full story, or the whole history of Op Art, as both are easy to find online.

She is enormously inspiration to me in her use of colour and shape. The very first time I saw her work I immediately thought of how it could be used to inspire textile work - at that time I was thinking in terms of intarsia knitting and canvas work. I didn't follow through with any of that at the time, being bogged down with very small children and not having any real design skills to speak of. Now I want to use her to inform beaded embroideries, and this time, having older children and a three year course in textile art and design, maybe it will actually come off!

P.S. Thanks to 'Anonymous' for your comment. If you clicked through my links you would have seen that I had linked to your page and I found it very interesting!

Can I manage Daily Blogging?

Of course not. I can't do anything remotely optional daily. But I really love the posts on Bear Chick's blog, so much that I have shamelessly pinched her ideas and changed them. I will be attempting to do:

Monday Quote

Tuesday Artist

Wordless Wednesday

8 Things Thursday

Update Friday (update on my 'cunning plan')

Saturday Book Review

Creative Sunday.

And with no further ado - Favorite quote Monday - 'I once bit a man who didn't like Spinoza', Joyce Carey, The Horses's Mouth.

Follow-up on overlocker - getting there, getting there. George worked out that the upper knife wasn't engaging and has sorted that out. I;ve bought new needles today (between us we broke all the ones that came with it!) and will have another go after a restorative cup of tea.

A sad and sorry dog

Sirius had to have surgery recently to remove some lumps. Three were benign, one was a soft tissue sarcoma. Having visited a vetenary oncologist, we are pleased to hear that she has an excellent prognosis and at the moment requires no treatment at all. If it grows back within six months she will need more surgery and radiation treatment, if it does not, then the chances of it growing back at all are infinitesimal. She does need to have some more lumps biopsied, however. She looks vert sad and sorry in this picture, taken a few hours after surgery - she could not keep her third eyelids in their proper places all day! She has healed beautifully, the fur is growing back, and she is a happy bouncy dog again.

Baldrick Speaking

As far as cunning plans go, call me Baldrick.

On December 30 I posted a list of things that I was going to try to do, one per month, to keep myself a bit more organised as far as creating stuff went.

I had chosen to try the overlocking one for January. Well, it is still cut out and waiting to be sewn. Or overlocked. However today I have spent an hour learning to thread the overlocker from scratch and now hope to get it done before the end of February!

On the other hand, I did get the first two page spread of my creative journalling done. I;'m not showing them at the moment, though I might at a later stage.

I did at least knit a pair of socks. For George. Deliberately non-matching because in the first ball of the Grignasco Strong Print yarn that I used (an Italian sock yarn I bought in Clegs) there were three knots, breaking the pattern up irretrievably. However the colours are fantastic and George loves them.

I might still try to do my February planned task - I had hoped to play with fusing glass. Or melting it. Or whatever I have the stuff to do with the microwave kiln. Both mastering the overlocker and playing with molten glass were things I really wanted to do when I had the house to myself. Well, the first two weeks of the new school year were not unlike most of the last school year - not one single day of having theplace to myself for one whole day. I only have the chance now because George has taken the kids down to Moe for some Nana time till tomorrow morning. If I can feel confident with using the overlocker by the time they come back, I should be able to make his nightshirt quite quickly.

AIDS Jumpers

I have finally finished knitting six little AIDS jumpers. I have to say it is a boring pattern that takes longer than it looks, but uses up lots of scraps of 8ply and will, hopefully, do some good.

I checked up on them on the Net (because there was a minor computational error in the pattern I was given) and it says everywhere that no-one wants these little baby ones any more. But before anyone writes in to tell me this, I know, and these are going with a specific person to a specific orphanage somewhere in Southern Africa where they do specifically want this size (or any size, frankly).

Despite the pictures I only knitted six. One picture shows the fronts, the other the backs (for want of better descriptions; they do not, of course, have a front or a back).

Re New Years Resolutions - going well so far. I am progressing with the first double page spread of the creative journalling I have set myself. My project for the month is using my overlocker, and so far I have chosen and washed/dried a length of T shirting from my stash, searched through my patterns and gone out and bought an appropriate one, because George wants a nightshirt and I seem to have lost/thrown out the one I used for him twelve years ago, when I last made him some. Both on track to be finished by the end of the month.

I have added another, overall year resolution. That is to put much more effort into promoting and selling my textile art, and also to building up a modest second-hand book business on ebay. No real movement on either of those yet, though!

The Avengers Meet The Goodies

Baby Bear and Wombat at Southern Cross Station waiting for their Grandma to arrive from Geelong. Taken by Baby Bear. I love my children!

The Plan - drum roll please...

Since my last post I have been happily rummaging through stash and books to organise my plan for 2010. I was going to set myself a challenge for each month, but in the end I have settled for 11, given that something is guaranteed to put a spanner in the works at some point! Plus, there is a 12th one really, that I will try to do some of each month.

I am not going to get stressed if things don't pan out, they are more suggestions to encourage me to be more organised next year.

(All book links to Amazon. It;s easier).

In no particular order:

Work my way through The creative Entrepreneur, Lisa Sonora Beam, at least one 2 page spread per month.

Experiment with the glass fusing materials, and microwave kiln, that I bought at a craft fair earlier this year (and took a workshop in).

Experiment with the resin bracelet making kit that I bought at a later craft fair.

Attempt at least one technique from Stitched Jewels, Marthe Le Van

Experiment with at least one technique from Design and Make Mixed Media Jewellery, Joanne Haywood

Experiment with at least one technique from Origami Jewellery, Nyako Brodek

Read the book thoroughly, and do a piece inspired by Exhibition 36, Susan Tuttle

Use techniques from A Charming Exchange, Kelly Snelling and Ruth Rae, to create a collection of charms

Use techniques from Fabric Beads, Kristal Wick, to create a collection of beads

Male at least one garment using my stash of patterns and fabrics, that fits and that I will actually wear

Gain enough confidence with my overlocker to make at least one wearable garment using stretch fabric, not necessarily for me

Experiment with at least one technique from Mixed Mania, Debbie Crane and Cheryl Prater

The idea with all of this is to encourage myself to use books, equipment and materials that I already have (though not precluding buying more stuff if ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, enlarging the range of techniques I have in crafting, and giving next year some structure. I will not beat myself up if things do not get done off this list, or if my experiments fail. I will blog about all of them, however. (Unless the failures are just too embarassing for words!) And pictures will accompany blogging wherever possible.

I have a cunning plan...

I have been reading about Paisley Womble's idea of knitting from her book stash. She chose six knitting books that she had not made any projects from, and picked a project from each to knit during the year.

I haven't had a 'plan' this year, not really. At the start of the year I was recovering mentally from finishing three years of studying for the Studio Stitch Diploma (now more appropriately named Diploma of Textile Art), and then preparing for the exhibition at the Substation in Newport. After that I sort of slumped, coping with family issues (like Baby Bear coming down with Post Viral Syndrome and having six months either not attending school at all or attending half-time) and pootling around making textile jewellery which I have not had the energy to put up on Etsy.

I did have one 'plan', which is under control, sort of. I was going to reread all of the Wheel of Time books by Robert Jordan, one a month, until the final one was released in November/December. That was going fine until a couple of hiccups along the way - in November I realised that I had borrowed far too many library books, most of which looked too interesting to return unread, and missed my November fix of WOT while working my way through them. I still have three of them to go but then will read Volume 11. And I will certainly read Volume 12 in the near future after that, though it may be January holiday reading. The other 'minor' hiccup is that Volume 12 is not, after all, the final one - there will be 13 next year and 14 the year after! So much for the trilogy he planned some time in the 1990s. (Oh, and the last three are being written by someone else, using his copious notes, 'cos the sod went and died before finishing it!!)

So my plan for next year - I considered doing projects from books, but I don't really do that any more. (Except for some knitting patterns). So I have decided to trawl through my books (of which there are altogether far too many!) and choose 12 techniques or 'things' that I want to work on over next year. Hopefully each attempt will produce at least one finished item that is worth displaying. I have already chosen two of them, and they aren't from books - at various times this year I have bought a microwave kiln and glass for doing glass fusing; I did a workshop so technically I have already 'done' the technique and produced a rather nice brooch, but I want to work on it at home and see what I can come up with. So that's one of them. And I have also bought a kit containing a bracelet mould and resin and instructions and I want to have a good play with that. In the meantime I am looking through books thinking about things. A full list will appear either late this month or early in the New Year. I wonder if I can carry it through!!

Socks

After barely knitting any socks for ages (or anything else, really) I have had a sudden urge to take up tiny needles again. These are the result. The top pair are knitted in a cheap Spotlight sock wool that turned out very nicely indeed. It was the usual wool/nylon mix and the colours are lovely. It felt a little bit coarse as I was knittingt, but not enough to hurt the fingers, and it softened up immediately after the first wash. These ones are for George, hence them looking too big for Baby Bear who is modelling them.

The second pair are also possibly a cheap Spotlight brand, I lost the band immediately after starting them. Again, nice colours and knitted up beautifully. These ones fit her perfectly, I am glad to say! I winged the heel a bit - I have George's pattern off by heart and it fits him, but she has smaller legs and feet and I had to guess a bit about the exact heel placement, but it worked very well and she is deligted with them.

I currently have another pair for her on the needles. This time a proper Opal yarn which I admit is nicer to knit with. However I am very pleased with the Spotlight yarns, which are about half the price (and yes, I know all about their terrible labour practices and the fact that these yarns were probably made by slaves in third world countries).

George's are matched perfectly, they just look a little skew-whiff because they are on smaller feet. Baby Bear's are too, but she has rolled one foot slightly so they also look off in the photo. (To be fair she was taking the photos herself and it is hard to keep the feet perfectly perpendicular while in that position AND photographing them!).

Please excuse the disgusting carpet. It is far too old and, although clean, permanently stained with too many things to bear thinking about!

An unusual form of textile art

While visiting the Melbourne Museum last week to see the Pompeii exhibition (VERY interesting and worthwhile, by the way) I happened across this little curiosity in the museum section devoted to the workings of the mind, which includes some stuff about the treatment of the mentally ill over the last couple of centuries. A quick Internet search reveals nothing more about this item other than the fact that the mental hospital referred to closed down in 1995 and is now leased by Latrobe University.

I was fascinated by the idea that this woman created textile art out of a desire to order her mind and sooth her anxieties. And she 'gleaned' the materials in order to do so. (Should I be surprised that a mentally ill patient was allowed a needle and, presumably, scissors? Maybe she was surpervised, or was not considered a threat to herself or others). I would love to know what happened to her, what was wrong with her, whether an effective treatment was ever found, where she went after the hospital closed down (if she was still alive - I have no idea how old she was in the 1970s) and if she made more of these objects. And if they really did bring some sort of peace to her.

Why do we create art, of any sort? Most people who do, feel 'driven' to do it. Not necessarily in a high-faluting, 'genius' sort of way, but as a compulsion. And that goes for the person who is slightly obsessed with knitting socks as much for the person who creates internationally famous works of art. I cannot spend a day without doing something with textiles or I start to feel anxious and restless. And yes, knitting socks counts!!!

I love this worn out little jumper with its delicate stitching, and all that it stands for. It makes me want to include the ideas in a body of work and it makes me sit still and think about why I do what I do.

School hols

Apparently being a newly fledged teenager does not prevent you from enjoying a swing. George thinks he needs a haircut. Wombat does not. It doesn't actually look too long in this picture, but the tossing the fringe out of the eyes is a bit of an issue.

My kids claim to hate each other.

Baby Bear and Sirius on a rare sunny day. The rocket run to seed is a bit of a worry. We did eat a lot of it during the winter though, and very nice it was too. Behind Sirius's head there is healthy sage and oregano, and to the right of the disgraceful rocket is a healthy parsley plant. I am not complaining about the paucity of sun recently. It won't belong before we have six months of blazing sun and can't find a way to keep cool.

I believe Baby Bear had tidied her room before this was taken. As you can't see much of the floor it is hard to tell. She has a filing system for her clothes but it mostly involves the floor and is so arcane that an alchemist would scratch his head over it. She has had this bed since she was 2. We bought it in an antique shop in Tetbury (Gloucestershire, UK) and it is Dutch, I think. It had fallen apart last year and she had spent the time sleeping on her mattress on the floor whining that she needed a new bed. WE did look briefly at new beds in the summer but she hated them all (they were horrible, i don't blame her!) except for the expensive and huge ones that we were not going to buy her. Eventually I got sick of the situation and told her to mend her own ******* bed if she wanted one, she didn't need a new one. Being a girl with a power drill, she did just that (with some help from George), reassembled it herself, and is remarkably proud of it!!

It being the school holidays we are being busy, in between providing Wombat with the space to relax as he is exhausted from school. Baby Bear, having been off school for most of the last term with Post Viral Syndrome, is exhausted anyway, poor thing. Wombat and I have been to see 'Up', which was an utterly charming Pixar film that I cannot recommend highly enough, and are no doubt going to see less edifying films as well - he wants to see 'Shorts' and we are off to that 'shortly' (groan). Baby Bear is about to take the train to stay with her Nana for a few days. Hopefully Nana will spoil her, and teach her to sew. We bought some fabric last summer and I have been trying to summon the strength to teach her - we do not survive very well as teacher and pupil but she will listen to Nana!! So I am sending her with a skirt pattern and three lengths of fabric (which probably need rewashing and ironing as they have been lurking around since January!) and hopefully she will learn basic operations of a sewing machine over the next few days. (She does want to do this, I am not forcing her!).

We will pick her up on Sunday when we all go down. There is much excitement at the old homestead as she has just bought a house in town - 82 is getting a bit old to be living on a 7 acre property out of town that no-one will come and do the maintenance on, despite the supposed unemployment rate in town! So there is a flurry of activity (which I am avoiding as much as possible). She has been resisting the move for some time, but after last summer when she had to evacuate herself 2 or 3 times from encroaching bushfires even she has decided that it would be safer and easier. That said, I think the local estate agents were a it bemused as to why a woman her age would be wanting to buy a 4 bedroom house!!

I don't think I took any of these pictures

My beautiful children. Pity about the cross-eyed one! We were waiting for a bus to gointo town to the opening of my exhibition, of which more in another post.

Baby Bear WILL play with her food. We eat kangaroo at least once a week and for some reason it prompts her to play. The first is a kangaroo, obviously, and the second, a bass and treble clef. What can I say, she is a mad muso with a camera and a warped sense of humour!

And this to prove that my kids hate each other. Honestly, they are always fighting, and then someone catches them looking like this! Notice the tense, coiled spring of a dog as protection.