Week Seven

Well, the seminar is over. Was all the agonising worthwhile? Yes and no. As I anticipated, I had problems with the technology. It started when I couldn't log into the University site on the desk top. I could on the iPad, but not the desk top. That meant that, as I don't have Word on the iPad, I couldn't upload stuff from home, but had to email it to myself and then save it when I got to uni...

Of course, once I'd calmed down a bit and consulted my friend Google, I worked out what the problem was. Not because Google provided the answer, but because it did confirm what I'd suspected - it was a Yosemite problem. Or rather a Yosemite-Chrome problem. When I switched to using Safari as my browser, suddenly I could log in. 

Of course I didn't discover that until after the seminar...

The seminar itself was scary [only the second Powerpoint of my life] rigorous but helpful. It did reveal the major weakness in my “write the essay in order to plan the seminar” plan - if you get told to make major changes in your essay, a lot of what you've done is redundant. 😥

So, exhausted, I have put the essay on the back burner for the next week (“reading week”) and turned to other things

 

Like a book - my journal/diary sort of book is nearly full, so I've made another one. Its a simple case binding like all the others...

I have also finishing off stuff for the Visual Marks exhibition at Manor Farm - which starts on November 3rd. Be there or be square, as we used to say  in the - er - a few years ago. You don't have to pay the farm admission fee to get into the exhibition, although of course I strongly recommend going into the farm as well, especially if you nave small children to entertain.

 

 I've all but finished the 3 panels for the exhibition - just hanging hardware to add. I am also making a few brooches, and have got to the stage of adding a backing - a layer of felt and a border of satin stitch.

 

 The first one worked beautifully.

 The second didn't quite work as well.

 The third one is being a complete bugger. So much so that I am now sulking on the sofa with a cup of tea and an iPad.😣

 

 Some time later.

Problem eventually solved, when I realised that, having used high tech technology to make a neat straight stitch circle round the edge of the brooch, I didn't need to use the same technology to go over the edge with satin stitch. It worked OK with the bigger brooches, but not the smaller ones. So I just did satin stitch round them without the aid of the technology - which was a drawing pin and a bit of masking tape to hold it to the bed of the machine.

 

And there has been knitting. I suppose I will eventually get to the stage when I stop sampling and start knitting for real... 

 

 Next week is half term so it will be really peaceful 😏. We have already had our instructions for Monday: a creepy cruise is involved.   Little trains have been ordered for later in the week, but no mention has been made of Manor Farm😮!  I'll be surprised flabbergasted if we don't end up there. 

 

 

Week 6.

First, apologies if you tried to read the blog last week, and got spam - and thanks to Sandy for alerting me. I had to delete most of my widgets to get rid of it - hopefully it hasn't come back.

I am still plodding on with the seminar/essay preparation. The goalposts were moved on Wednesday - we now only have to provide a 300 word sample, and as I have already written more than that, that is the easy bit. What I am really stressing about is the PowerPoint. When I try to run the slide show on Big Mac, the program crashes. Every time. So I have no idea how it looks. And suddenly the contents of half the slides disappeared, for no apparent reason. I had already e-mailed a copy to myself and that seems to be OK, but I won't know until I get into Uni on Tuesday whether it will work or whether I will have to start all over again.

Add to that, since I downloaded Yosemite, Word for Mac makes spelling corrections in French. And I can't log on to the Uni website from Big Mac ( though I can from the hi-pad, go figure). You may guess that it hasn't been a very good week, technologically speaking.

The rest of the week has been knitting, stressing about the seminar, working on stuff for our Manor Farm exhibition,  stressing about the seminar, going to a rather good exhibition at Southampton Art Gallery,  stressing about the seminar, grandparenting, and a bit  of stressing  about the seminar. You get the picture.

However, knititng is very therapeutic, and I have completed a demi-tree. Demi, because it is only about 5 feet long. I thought the yarn was wool, but when I washed it, it didn't shrink. However in its unshrunken state, it fitted over an old carpet tube we happened to have lying around, and it looks OK. Maybe this idea is going to work out after all! 

Just think, by the time I write the next post, it will all be over.

I didn't mean to disappear...

but week 4 was very busy, and week 5 🙀 has been no better.

I am beginning to realise that this course manages to combine being 'very flexi', as one member of staff said to me, with being very structured. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be stressful! For example, this semester we have to write an essay - in my case on 'outsider art '. Essay writing , for me, is not usually a problem, but, as preparation for the essay, we have to contribute to a seminar. I can see all sorts of good academic and pragmatic reasons for this, but, although I can talk for Britain, it has become a problem.  

Powerpoint of the essay plan? The plan is no problem, I've already making a mindmap, but I've only ever done one PowerPoint presentation, and that was years ago. 

Hand in an estimate of the number of words in my introduction, conclusion, etc? Haven't a clue, until I've written the essay. 

Hand in a 1000 word section from the 3500 word essay? Might as well write the essay! 

So that is what I'm doing. I'm writing the essay, in order to make a presentation, as preparation for writing the essay.  At least I'll get some feedback before I write the final draft! But - the essay is due at Christmas, the seminar at the end of the month. What seemed like a generous time allowance has become somewhat tight... 

I did take a day off from essay writing, and went up to Compton Verney to see the Folk Art exhibition there. Great exhibition, great venue, just wish it was about an hour nearer... However it provided lots of useful information for the essay, which was my main reason for going.

I have continued with my experimental knitting. This is a sample of 'cellular automaton' knitting, from Debbie New's book, and I think it has bark-like possibilities. It is due to meet the washing machine as soon as there is a suitable load to put it in with.

 

And this is the book of the fortnight. Another concertina book from painted brown paper which ended up vaguely tree-like. The cover is boring black, so I didn't show that.

 

 I'm typing this using IOS8’s predictive typing, and trying to get used to it. It's a bit unnerving when it guesses what I want to say several times in a row - which it just did. Even more unnerving is that it seems to have learned my common typos too...

Week Three

And I still don't feel I've really started. I think it is because the course is largely self-directed, and I'm not used to it! (Plus there have more of the appointments we had to put off over the summer - I now have new glasses and a new bank account. And there has been cycling on the TV. 🚵)

I have worked on some samples - at least one of these you've seen before. I gave up in the hand-knitted 4ply sample:

1. I didn't think it was realistic to knit several 3metre tubes in 4ply by hand, even in 2 years.

2. If I decide to go with fine yarns, the knitting machine makes more sense - if I can remember how to assemble and use it.

3. The samples I made with some scrappy ends of chunky yarns I found at uni are much more interesting anyway. I hope they will be even better when I've put them through the washing machine.

Does anyone know a good - and preferably cheap - source of chunky, neutral coloured coned yarns? The coarser and fuller of vegetable matter the better!

I also made a book. I've been Brushoing papers a lá Frances Pickering, and the results included some tree like forms, which I decided needed a book of their own. Which of course meant I had to paint some paper for the pages. 

Not many in there yet, but there has been some 🚴 going on.

And I have been working on my essay - making notes, producing an essay plan, and planning on going to a relevant (?) exhibition. 🎨

Of the outstanding tasks from BU (before uni) the shawl is finished, blocked and drying. (It's going to be a present, so just a snippet of the very simple border I decided was within my current capabilities. I have trees to knit!

I haven't blocked a shawl in ages: the last time I had a bigger spare bed to do it on, and I didn't have arthritis, but despite that I managed. I debated blocking it on the spare room floor, but that would have necessitated getting down on the floor, getting up again - and vaccing the floor first. 😱

Is it only the second week at uni?

I think I'm beginning to settle into my new routine, although you might not think it when I show you what I've achieved! 

The books of the week are not hand-made, but instead a hand-picked selection for my essay. 🙀 (Plus one about knitting.)

I think all of us mature new textile students were panicking about the essay, but the staff have been very helpful. The general advice we were given was:

1. to pick a topic which was relevant to our studio practice - 

this is my studio practice so far - 

2. if possible, to include works of art we'd seen in real life

3. to keep it simple.

I'd been thinking of something like 'trees in art' but decided that was possibly a little too large a subject for 3,500 words, so I'd narrowed it down to Graham Sutherland's trees - plus, after watching the excellent Mr. Graham-Dixon last week on the subject, a dash of Paul Nash. Not that I've seen many Sutherland trees, but we did potter over to Basingstoke last week to catch the Artists' Rifles exhibition there, which included several Nashes, both John and Paul - though not many trees. 

However my tutor suggested, that, as I want to explore disability issues, I consider looking at outsider art. I wasn't too keen on the idea to begin with, but when I thought about it, it grew on me. I saw some examples by Judith Scott, Ray Materson and Arthur Bispo Do Rosário, at an exhibition at Compton Verney some years ago, so that met criterion 2. They were all textile artists, which sort of met criterion 1, and the fact that they were all institutionalised but for different reasons suggested an essay structure, which helped with criterion 3. Plus there seems to be a lot about them on Google. 😺 

You can tell I've downloaded IOS8, can't you? Don't worry, the novelty will wear off pretty soon... In fact, after I discovered I can no longer use my favourite editing app, iPhoto (that is the iPad iPhoto, not the Mac iPhoto which is >,^*}#]#<>*^) the novelty wore off very quickly.😿 

But I digress. This week I got into Uni for one and a half of my planned two and a half days. Wednesdays look as if they are going to be pretty busy with lectures and tutorials, which means I've got to focus for the other one and a half days on the things I can't do at home - like relearning machine knitting. I was going to have a go on Friday but starting research for the essay took over. University libraries have changed a tad since I was last in one, and I had fun exploring. 😻

I have managed to finish my strange socks, and I have resisted starting another pair, as my studio practice makes excellent subtitle knitting.

I've been procrastinating about finishing the shawl, as I've been so tired that reminding myself how to add a lace edging, (which I do know how to do) has been quite beyond me. The upside of the tiredness is that I am still sleeping well, and I will tackle the shawl this evening as, apart from the excellent Mr. Graham-Dixon, there isn't much I fancy on TV.

The big piece for Visual Marks was also been on hold as I hadn't had time to heat up the soldering iron. I did that today and cut out 66 petals, before having another look at the flowers I'm using for inspiration and realising they don't have heart shaped  petals. Tough, they do now...👹

Week 1: the journey begins

It has been a busy week, what with my first two days at Uni, two days grandparenting, 1 day fitting in all the boring appointments we had had to postpone because of the disruptions to our routine over the summer, and a weekend spent trying to sort out what I need for next week.

It has, however, been a very good week for sleeping.  I am tempting fate by saying this, but  the combination of having to get up at not quite silly o'clock most days of the week, plus long drives and a certain amount of uncertainty related stress, has (temporarily?) banished insomnia.

The down side is that I've been so tired that I haven't done much creative stuff, not even at Uni. I registered, got a parking permit, went to an introductory session, a lecture and a tutorial, sorted out and cleaned up my little corner of the art block, and panicked about what I was actually going to do. The tutorial, and sitting down and going through all my scrappy little notes of ideas, has helped with that. A bit.

Having told my tutor I was going to knit trees, I decided I'd better get started on a trial one.

Five hundred grammes of wool-cotton blend I happened to have lying about, a 4mm circular needle, and 100 stitches. In 5 hours I managed 10cm. At that stage  I was planning on 2 metre trees, which at that rate would take me 100 hours. Since then Wensleydale has found an old  3 metre carpet roll in the loft, and 3 metres looks good. Er - 150 hours.

This suggests that, assuming I don't change my mind completely, I need to

1. make the trees smaller

2. machine knit them

3. use a heavier weight yarn

4. or any combination of the above.

Of course, I gave away my last knitting machine and my associated books over the summer. I asked if there was one at Uni - no - but the next day they were offered two, and as I'd asked... Serendipity or what?

Before I can really get cracking with Uni knitting, I need to finish the knitting I started before I started before, plus the embroidery for the Visual Marks exhibition. I was hoping to crack on with the VM stuff this afternoon, but the soldering iron was playing up. I eventually realised that the tip was coming unscrewed. I managed to resist the temptation to rescrew it with my fingers, but waiting for it to cool down took a large chunk out of the afternoon. (As did watching the final stage of the Tour of Britain, but we won't talk about that...) However the last major piece is more than half done - I shall be glad when it is out of the way.

I also have a pair of strange socks on the needles. Strange, because they were going to be grey and blue, until I realised I didn't have enogh grey, so they became grey, blue and variegated.

The shawl is  on hold because I don't understand the instructions for the lace edging, and I need to find some I do understand.

No book of the week this week, I'm afraid. I had a couple of ideas, but no time. The closest I got was putting a cover on the educational year diary I had to buy - I can't be doing with the electronic versions, I need to be able to turn pages and add notes. The cover was definitely too naff for an art student, so I had to cover it with a bit of left-over Cas Holmes inspired fabric. 

While I was stationery buying I went into Staples to buy some paper for a ring binder - and came out with this. Plus planner pages (I decided to by-pass my own system), two sorts of paper, dividers etc. Fortunately I already had some of the big binding rings so I could expand it. Unfortunately this was before my NUS card arrived, so I didn't get the student discount. 

I like it because it is small, if not slim, (bit like its owner), I  can move pages around, and with the dividers I can, I hope, use it for almost everything without getting confused. I could probably have found a diary insert as well, but I don't think there's room. 

The excitement is building - or do I mean panic?

The highlight of the week was my visit to the Mature Students - our visit to Finkley Down on Friday, closely followed by the Mature Students' Welcome Event at Uni. Both were informative and well organised, but only one included tractors. The clincher, I'm sure you'll agree.

I have another, subject-based visit to Uni on Monday, when I hope to get a timetable, and some idea what I'm doing - although the latter may never happen.

Those were the highlights of what has been a busy if mostly uncreative week. Fortunately I've been participating in Myfanwy Hart's 'Createaday' which involves a series of short daily prompts, building up so that the results are greater than the sum of the parts. I've managed to make a book for it, and keep up with this week's prompts. That, together with a little shawl knitting and a bit of embroidery makes me feel I have achieved something.

Although part of me is panic stricken about what I've got myself into, part of me can't wait. We had fun with the little guys over the summmer, but I think we are all looking forward to settling into term time routines, despite someone not believing I'm going.

Granny: I'm going to school soon, just like you.

VHC: Noooooh!

Granny: Yes I am. It's a school for grownups called University.

VHC: Noooooh! Grownups don't go to school. School is for children.

So that settles it!

Living Dangerously.

In my extensive stash I have several rolls of something, bought from a floristry supplier who used to come to college. (She had lots of interesting things: I think she sold more to the embroiderers than she did to the florists.) 

When I bought it, I may have had some idea of what I was going to do with it, but I suspect I just liked the pretty colours. I used some when I was being repetitious last summer, and found out that you can iron it and cut it with a soldering iron: it is non-woven and holey, and from its texture, I suspect it of being lightweight Lutradur.

In an attempt to use it up, I decided to try printing on it. Dangerous! What if it melts? I didn't mention this possibility to Wensleydale, lest he suspect me of deliberately sabotaging the $^<%#>€}<\> HP all-in-one which I hate, in order to justify buying something else. (Would I do something like that? Of course not. Well, not so soon after buying a new car...)

I remembered I had bought Marion Barnett and Dijanne Cervaal's publication on Lutradur, and went and found it, more easily than I expected. From this I learned that:

1. In order not to choke the printer it is a good idea to back the finer stuff with freezer paper, 

2. As the ink tends to come off, it is a good idea to use a pre-coat. (Fortunately I had come across the remains of a bottle of clear Inkaid the other day, while looking for something else. I also found some PrintAbility, so I thought I'd try a comparison and use up some more stash.)

3. The Spunart website suggests only printing in black - just like all those transparencies I've been doing.

To cut a rambling story short:

1. Did I wreck the printer? No.

2. Did the prints come out OK? Yes.

3. Is it Lutradur? Who knows.

4. Which was better, Inkaid or PrintAbility? Who knows: I forgot to make a note of which was which. 

5. Will I do it again? Yes, but not with the Lutradurish material, as I would prefer white to the the pretty colours I have. So I have ordered some of the real stuff from Spunart. I'm thinking tranparencies over Lutradur. Whoops, stash extension.

6. Have I managed to use up significant amounts of the Lutradurish material, Inkaid, PrintAbility, or freezer paper? No, nothing but printer ink.

What did I learn?

1. Printing on draft mode worked fine.

2. The freezer paper looks great, but unfortunately it tends to smear, even when sprayed with fixative.

3. There are differences between the two pre-coats: one lets less ink through, sticks the Lutradurish material more firmly to the freezer paper, and makes the print stiffer but shinier (more on the back than the front). More experiments needed, with careful note taking.

On other fronts:

1. There has been some knitting - the boring but good for subtitle-reading body of the shawl before I get to the exciting but needing concentration lace border.

2. There has been some embroidery - the framework of my latest Visual Marks/Manor Farm piece. (The dots are where the first flowers will go.)

3. A couple of books. I added transparencies to the recycled card book I made a while ago, and made a quick index card book for the latest Daisy Yellow challenge. They should have been ATC’s, but I found these small index cards in a drawer, so decided to use them inste

4. We have had exciting outings, to Manor Farm again, by special request, and to the  Hythe Ferry, which we have only just discovered. If you wish to entertain a transport mad small person, it cannot be beat. Narrow gauge train ride? Yes, times two. Boat trip? Yes, times two. Huge ships to look at, which are loading and unloading cars, tractors and diggers? Yes, times two. An icecream while you watch the Isle of Wight catamaran sail in and out? Yes, but only one, unfortunately. Wensleydale suggested that next time - and I'm sure there will be a next time - we can make it nearly perfect by getting the bus between the ferry terminal and Southampton. Times two.

Next week should be marginally quieter as the little guys go back to school, but I have an invitation to the Mature Students' Welcome Event at Uni. It's beginning to get scary...

Little to report.&nbsp;

This has not been a very productive week. We had some worrying news about a member of the family at the beginning of the week, which led to the little guys spending more time with us than usual. So far we have visited the perennial favourites, Manor Farm and the Lakeside Railway, and two new places, The Vyne and Winchester City Mill, which the VHC loved so much he went twice. That boy is going to be an engineer. 

Babybel elected to go to the Cathedral to light candles, and have a look round. Riding on the Park and Ride buses, and playing with granny and granddad's toys, went down pretty well too. 

The gaps in grand-parenting have been filled with boring stuff like shopping and getting hair cut, so I really didn't have much time or energy left for creative stuff. The VHC has a VI BIrthday coming up, so we are partying on Sunday, leaving today as the only day I could get into my workroom and get going

on a couple of books. I started with this one inspired by Daisy Yellow. It's not my usual style, but given my state of mind, I, for once, made some attempt at sticking to the guidelines.

And then, as usual, one thing led to another. A combination of ideas from the first book, and a failure to get iPhoto to print my acetates the size I wanted, led to this, which is more to my liking. I like the shadows too.

And there is another sock, plus half of one still on the needles.

We are likely to be doing extra grand-parenting until the little guys go back to school, so major creativity may have to wait until that scary moment when I go to University for the third time - although the second time was virtual, before anyone ever used that expression. Before that, we have a mature students' day next month: it will be interesting to see if any of them are more mature than me!

On organisation: more than you wanted to know. Probably.

I was reading my last ever subscription copy of Quilting Arts a couple of days ago. (It and I seem to be moving in opposite directions these days - one of us likes representational, naturalistic art quilts, and one of us doesn't much. If you feel the same, I recommend 'Fiber Art Now' which is much more wide ranging and goes from strength to strength.)

But I digress. When I first glanced at QA, I found one interesting article - on Melinda Lin's organza pieces - but then I realised that Lynn Krawzyck's item, which is superficially about making a little pouch, contains some good suggestions about organisation. She distinguishes between two types of creative ideas, which she calls 'Fun' and 'Big Goals': she says fun ideas are necessary to stretch our creativity, but big goals are the more involved, artistically important, and goal oriented ideas. She gives criteria for picking your big goals, and describes how she uses index cards to break down big goals into smaller steps, and prioritise organise, and monitor the steps.

For some reason I can't remember, I have a lot of small pink index cards (plus a few blue ones). I had been thinking of using them for ICAD, but they are really too small and too pink. Krawzyck's idea seemed a better use, especially as I will need to be more focussed when I become a university student again.

Krawzyck uses pouches to hold her cards, but I remembered seeing an index card 'book' - you can guess the rest. Some scrap card, a recycled painting, Bondaweb, double sided tape, some elastic and two book rings, and I have two books. The worst bit was punching the holes, and I was very relieved when I realised I didn't have to do them all at once.

While I was making the books I was pondering on my love of organisational techniques - nicking adapting other people's, and developing my own. And now, for my benefit (clarifying my ideas) more than yours, you are going to suffer a diatribe on the subject, so you may wish to switch off now, or at least scroll down to this week's obligatory textile content.*

I am not always organised, but I can be if I need to be. I had to be at work - young people's progress, and part of the college's finances depended on it. I was reliant on other people keeping good records, so I had to develop systems that were simple for others to use, and which allowed me, and others, to extract the relevant information easily. Other people, including auditors, told me I succeeded.

One of the things I learned at work was that if something isn't staring them in the face, preferably leaping out and biting them, people will miss it. (Like the auditor who told me that a student's assessment record was missing, when the top piece of paper in the file was headed 'Assessment Record'. It wasn't the type we usually used, so he missed it.)

When I started the Foundation Degree, on a couple of occasions I lost marks because the marker thought I hadn't done something when I had. I got all bureaucratic and made some forms, to record things like time management and planning. I don't suppose anyone ever read them through, but they were bright green, clearly labelled and collated, so they were hard to miss, and my marks improved. Plus I knew where I was with my work, and what I needed to do to keep to schedule.

Of course once I finished the FDA I stopped all that, but I still keep records - of ideas, of what I've done, what I could do, and what I want to do, of materials and techniques I've used, etc. etc. etc. For a long time this was mostly scribbled notes in sketchbooks, printouts in folders, and lists on scrappy bits of paper, but it just wasn't organised enough for me. So over the last year or so, long before I thought of going back to Uni, I've begun to try to sort it out.

A few months ago I discovered Bullet Journalling. I don't use it to the extent that its creator seems to - although I might if I was still working. Nor do I use the recommended Moleskin notebooks with squared paper - I did track some down in Paperchase but jibbed at the price. Guess what, I make my own with squared file paper. (The squared paper really is better, I've tried lined and it's not as good.) 

I use the technique in a monthly journal, where I summarise what I've done and what I want to do, in real and textile lives. I use it in two disposable notebooks, substitutes for the scrappy bits of paper. I have one upstairs and one downstairs. In those I record ideas from books, and flashes of inspiration (!). And I also use the technique in themed sketchbooks, where I collate relevant ideas from the notebooks at the back of the sketchbook. Notes on the techniques and materials I've used also go in the sketchbook, on the relevant pages.

The system does involve quite a lot of rewriting, when I transfer uncompleted activities from one month to another, or from the notebooks to the sketchbook, but I like that because it makes me evaluate the ideas or activities and weed out the dross.

I've recently discovered 'Sticky', an iDevice app which sticks virtual Post-It notes in virtual notebooks. I like it because I can make notes when I'm web surfing, when I have my phone, but not my upstairs/downstairs notebooks. I can add hyperlinks, websites, or photos from the Camera Roll, and, I realised this week, I can use the camera phone within the app to add photos direct. I can save notebooks as images, which means I can print them and add them to the sketch book.. I like it so much I paid for an upgrade to allow unlimited notebooks.

 

I realised that I had folders and scrapbooks full of printouts and images, which I never looked at. Now I save articles to Pocket (where I do occasionally look at them) and images into a digital journal on the desktop (where I don't look at them).

But the gap in this system, which I was unaware of until I came across Lynn Krawcyck's article, was that I didn't have a system for planning and monitoring Works In Progress. Possibly because since I finished the FDA I haven't really had any serious WIPs to plan and monitor.  I do make To Do lists, far too long and on scrappy bits of paper that get lost. (The aforementioned green forms had a space for a To Do list, never longer than three items and carefully monitored.) As I see major WIPs in my future, I also see a need for a structured system for their planning. I have no idea if task management will be on the marking criteria at Uni - I rather suspect not - but, as I think I have made clear, I like having structured organisational methods - plus an excuse reason to make books...

Don't be fooled into thinking that I am one of those people who is completely organised, and lives in a neat and tidy house. I am not. Neither my house nor my workroom is tidy. I have too much stuff in too small a space and although I try to keep it under control, in the throes of creation everything comes out and ends up draped and dropped everywhere. It does get put back again when I've finished - and the next lot comes out. Nor am I so organised that I keep records of what fabrics, yarns and threads I have. That would require a major audit, plus keeping on top of what I import - although recently there has probably been net emigration, rather than immigration, of books and materials from Cheese Acres - a lot has gone to charity shops and the National Needlework Archive at Greenham. I've still got too much though. 

If you are still reading, what do you think? Do you share my need for bureaucracy or do you think I'm completely nuts? Do you have any organisational tips to share?

*Obligatory textile content.

After my last post, I pulled back the too long sock, and started again. It may still look too long, but I have tried it on and it is OK. The ribbing pulls it in, so it looks long and thin, but on my foot it is short and fat. Just like the rest of me, really.

Something old, something new.

Starting with the new, something which always cheers me up in the middle of winter.

While I was out in the garden I took the opportunity to photograph some old friends. Some have survived better than others: 'Mirror' is looking very good, but 'Storm Cones' has become 'Storm Cone' and there was no trace of the other half. 

'Moving On' is not moving on much. The second attempt at page 3 is not much better than the first. W. reckons it needs more arrows, but that would mean some unpicking. I know he's right, but... 

I can't make up my mind whether to get started on page 5, which is sort of designed but needs some preparation, or bite the bullet and tackle page 3. I'll see what I feel like in the morning.

And finally - some exciting news <g>. The FDA graduates have been selected as the student team of the year, so we are invited to the Eastleigh College Awards Evening, where we will receive the applause of the assembled multitude, a pen set each, and presumably a bit of paper as well. 

In my former life I attended a number of college awards evenings, on occasions making witty boring speeches about awardees, so it will make a change to be on the receiving end. Bet it's no more exciting than the graduation ceremony, though, but hopefully with fewer speeches...

Congratulations to my classmates!

And all the others who graduated this week.

This is probably the only picture of me which will ever appear on this blog.

For some reason I look like a rabbit caught in the headlights, although I was feeling quite relaxed. 

The ceremony swithered between being quite moving, and very boring. Moving when I caught sight of the procession of dignitaries coming up the nave, from the West Door of the Cathedral, and when we left the same way. (I've never seen those doors open, and probably will never see again, so it was great to walk through them.) Boring after we'd had our brief moment in the spotlight, and had to wait while hundreds of others had theirs. And it was cold ! 

We followed the ceremony with an enjoyable meal en masse (more or less) at Brasserie Blanc, and came home knackered. But Winchester Cathedral is definitely the place to have your degree ceremony - I can recommend it - if you wear your thermals.

A quick note...

between meeting the External Examiner this morning, going to the dentist this afternoon, and the opening of the Degree Show this evening. (six p.m. at the Desborough Campus. Be there or be square, as we used to say in the dawn of time.)

I have posted a few photos on my website, link at the right of the screen.

Posted with Blogsy

The road to hell...

So much for my good intentions - to post more regularly. In my own defence, hand-in day for the penultimate three modules of the Degree is tomorrow, and I have been chasing my tail completing everything I needed to do. Now I have a box full of stuff, a headache and other flu-like symptoms, and a lingering feeling that I've forgotten something.

Next week we hand in our 'final body of work' for marking, then set up the degree show and it's all over. Hard to believe it's been three years! If you want to come and see us, information here: http://www.susanchapman.com/.

I have managed to play with another iPad photgraphy app, as promised. This one is aremaC, a general photo editing app. Like 1-Bit, you can either take a new photo while you are using it, or download a pre-existing photo. There are a wide range of filters, most of them in the section headed 'On-Line Library' on the right, with a number of different categories. This one is 'Banksy', for obvious reasons, from the art category.

There is another section, accessed by the + sign bottom left, which allows you to select new presets. This is Colour Splash.

And finally you can use the preset presets, if you know what I mean. Warhol, to the right. There are some interesting effects, but I don't find the app easy to use, so it gets 3.5 INTUTs (intelligence needed to use them).

Finished at last.

The piece formerly known as ‘Compass’ – or possibly ‘No Direction Home’ – but now known as ‘Road Atlas’.

I haven't decided yet if I like it.

Finishing Road Atlas – and college starting again on Wednesday – concentrated the mind and I started exploring a new idea for a large network of tubes arranged in diamonds and equilateral triangles – and when I say large, I mean large, a couple of metres across, at least.

 

 

 

This was a good example of why it is always a good idea to make a sample. Working out the thread path was difficult – I ended up either with knots, or going round almost every section at least twice. And although I think a larger piece might have behaved more the way I was expecting, the small piece lost its shape and wouldn’t hang flat. I could have persevered but I decided I didn't have the time to spend weeks making lots of tubes only to find it didn’t work.

It was time for Plan B – which at Cheese Acres is thinking of Plan C. Plan C is either making tubes for some other ideas [3D pieces] or getting back to the prayer flags.

But I needed a bit of instant gratification, so I made a book – a pipe cleaner bound notebook, adapted to international paper sizes, and some odd leftovers of paper.

I think it would be a great thing to make with children, as intended – however I wish I’d made it A5 instead of A4, and I shall replace the pipe cleaners with thread. But instantly gratifying it was.

Better late than never…

Today I finally got down to finishing off Compass/No Direction Home [still haven’t made up my mind]. Yes, nearly a week has passed since I wrote that I had started it, but one or two things got in the way. Good things, like exhibitions, trips and watching exciting cycling - middling things lie taking another hourly series of photos of ‘Mirror’ [slide show here] – and less good things, like visits to the dental hygienist. Plus the piece itself took longer than expected.

You may notice a slight discrepancy between this – my sketch…

 

 

 

 

and this – my prepared materials.  Unfortunately I didn’t, until I came to assemble the piece. I needed 18 tubes and I had only made 9 [couldn’t even count the 8 I thought I was making properly…]

So I had to make another lot – and as that involved three coats of wax on each, it took a while.

Then life intervened, and it was only today that I got down to the final assembly – or so I thought.

 

 

 

 

Mmm – think that outer ring needs to be black, not cream.

I was despairingly thinking of taking the scissors to the whole thing when W. suggested I over-wrapped the cream yarn with the black yarn. Told you he was wonderful.

Now I just need some interesting TV which I don’t actually have to watch, and I can get it done. [Wrapping yarn round a lampshade ring is not the most exciting activity I have ever tried.]

 

 

 

Our trip out was yesterday: it dawned on me that because it was exam board at college I had a day off. We decided to go to Corfe Castle, which is one of those places we kept saying we should go to. without actually doing so.

W. described the weather as ‘atmospheric’ – by which he meant it was cold, windy and wet. As you can see. So we scuttled round, indulged in a little retail therapy at the National Trust shop, and came home via Walford Mill, where there was an interesting exhibition of Brazilian jewellery made from recycled materials. Very inspirational, although some of the recycling was a bit out of my league.

The tea and toasted teacakes were pretty good too.

A chapter of accidents

I really didn’t feel like getting down to any college work this month this week today, but I decided I had to do something, so I forced myself into the work room to roll some tubes. That went OK, apart from slightly dodgy cutting of the paper.

1. Then I remembered that I wanted to wax the tubes, got the liming wax out of the basket where it lives – and trapped my thumb pushing the basket back into the shelf unit. 
2. When I levered the lid off the wax with a screwdriver, the screw driver slipped and I cut my palm.
3. When I started painting on the wax the [admittedly cheap] brush fell apart.
4. When I was climbing back on to my stool with a new brush, I fell off it and landed on the floor. I suspect I now have a rather interesting bruise which I will not revealing to anyone except W. [No,I hadn’t been drinking!]
5. When I resumed waxing the second brush fell apart.

All the pain [literal and metaphorical] has been worth it as I am pleased with the results. The wax has made the tubes smooth and shiny, and it glued down the loose edges which even super Pritt refused to do. So I have assembled the ingredients to complete the piece tomorrow. I spent last night wrapping yarn round the ex-lampshade ring, which is not the most exciting activity, but fortunately there was lots of excitement in the cycling on the telly.

Though this piece is currently called ‘Compass’, the phrase ‘No Direction Home’ keeps running through my head, and I am thinking of renaming it. I find naming work difficult – as you may have realised, most of my tube pieces are named after the materials they are made of. Even ‘Chronicle’, which is made from our local paper – although it seems a good name anyway. W. is responsible for both ‘Postage of Time’ and ‘Storm  Cones’, which otherwise might have been ‘Envelopes’ and ‘Brown Paper’, which are rather less exciting. Obviously ‘Compass’ doesn’t follow my usual pattern anyway – but why does it want to be named after the chorus of a nearly 50 year old Bob Dylan song? – although it’s the Stones’ version I remember best.

I am officially fed up -

fed up with this cold

fed up with blowing my nose – I’ve emptied at last 4 boxes of issues over the last 11 days

fed up with the cough which kept me awake most of last night, despite the Lemsip, Benelin [sp?] and Vick

fed up with feeling as though my head and ears are full of cotton wool

fed up with the headache

and fed up with not being to taste or smell anything. Apart from oranges. Riverford’s organic oranges have been the one bright spot – well, W. as well, of course.

At least the sore throat’s gone. The cold is not anywhere near as bad as the  chest infection from hell, but I slept through most of that – sort of. I’m awake enough to appreciate this one in it’s full glory – and if W. is anything to go by, I’ve got at least another week to go.

Grrrrump.

I did manage to stagger into college yesterday morning, to get the details of the final 2 modules [‘Stitched Samples’ and ‘Final Body of Work’], plus the module I’d missed [‘Sketchbooks’].

I think the overall reaction was ‘Is that it?’ – more of the same, only more focussed. However it did motivate me to think about getting started –as you may have noticed, I've had rather a long hiatus. I was intending to start sampling tubes today, but I was so tired after a really c****y night last night that it didn’t happen.

However, I did manage to add a couple of envelopes to POT, photograph everything, and make a sketchbook and a work book Nothing can start till I have the right book. The usual recycled Amazon mailers – quick, easy, and fairly strong.

[I thought I’d already made some, but can’t find them – that cottonwool-head effect again.]

 

 

I also made another bib. I had only intended to make two, but last night I stumbled on this pattern which I think looks great for little boys. [OK, that’s sexist – it would probably look equally great on little girls.]

It was very quick to do, even after I’d adapted it slightly as I wasn’t convinced about my ability to add poppers that wouldn’t come off. We’ll have to see which one the VHC and his mummy prefer tomorrow.

Did you know I was trendy?

 

http://www.style.com/fashionshows/complete/slideshow/S2012RTW-MKORS?iphoto=10#slide=10

No, neither did I. [I'm sure no one says ‘trendy’ any more, proving irrefutable that I‘m not.] Can’t work out if it’s a wrap, a top or a dress, but I like it – although I would undoubtedly wear rather more underneath.

Coincidentally, I tacked up the hems on this lot yesterday – though as I was watching a bike race at the time, I was a bit distracted. Well – a lot distracted at the end.

250 metres out I was sure he was going to lose.

But he didn’t. And by the end my heart was going nearly as fast as his must have been. [Well, perhaps not quite.]

Several good things have come out of Copenhagen this year.

That was the highlight of my week. College was catching up and finding out what we’re doing this term [‘student directed learning’ mostly]. However next week is ‘print and stitch’ which meant that most of my free time has been spent assembling this lot.

I want to experiment with printing on collaged backgrounds – which meant collaging some backgrounds, both fabric and paper. Then getting things to print with – paint, gesso, gels, Inkaid, stencils, leaves, feathers, collagraph plates, plastic bags, crisp packets – yes, that is a Guinness can  on top.

Then things to stitch with sewing kit, threads – that bit was easy. Plus the stuff I’ve worked on over the summer for a tutorial.

Getting it all out took far longer than the lesson will – and then it will have to be put back.

I took this in to do during lulls in college, and got so much done I was inspired to finish it – though it still needs blocking. I like it, and I enjoyed doing it, but I’m not sure it says anything about litter. So it’s into the box for the tutorial.

 

Tomorrow I need to go through all the other UFOs and decide what to work on next. The partly embroidered photo? The disgusting plastic bag that never got finished? Some more fake cans? Or the adaptation of a Japanese basket using a plastic bottle and plastic bag cord? Decisions, decisions…

Exciting ironing?

A contradiction in terms, you may think – but ironing my indigo pieces was definitely exciting.

First up – the plains and fancies – samples dyed without any shibori at the top, shibori’d or discharged at the bottom.

I’ve had trouble getting the colour of these images to look right – for example, the ‘grey’ piece [middle left] isn’t grey at all, but a slightly greenish blue, because the original colour of the silk was a yellow-cream.

 

 

The sample in the middle at the bottom is the discharged piece you last saw looking like this – bit of a change there.

the one above it to the right is also discharged, with Tiggy’s wooden stamps. It has come out better than I thought it would and is probably good enough to make a little bag for Babybel, which is what I’d planned. I’ve learned never to judge an indigo piece till it’s dry – the contrast is usually stronger than you think it’s going to be.

Cotton muslin tied with rubber bands at the top, habotai silk bound with string at the bottom – each about a metre square.

Both of these are saying ‘scarf’ to me. I think the silk one would make a great beach wrap – if I ever went to the beach with the intention of swimming.

 

 

 

This one was always going to be a scarf, after I’d seen Tiggy’s pole wrapped muslin, though mine is silk noil. I wish I’d given it a few extra dippings, but it’s still pretty.

 

 

I think I enjoy dyeing threads even more than I enjoy dyeing fabric – so I did some of those too.

The wool at the top was going to be a hat for me but it is such a beautiful baby blue [paler than it looks here - one dip only] that I think it will probably become a cardigan for Babyboy – don’t want him to be jealous if his big sister gets a bag…

Most of the threads were from a dyers pack from Texere – there’s cotton, linen, wool, rayon, viscose – and a couple that had lost their labels. The differences in colour are fascinating, given that they all went into the vat at more or less the same time.

And finally – the piece de resistance. [Sorry, couldn’t resist.{Sorry again}].

Again – it’s bluer than it looks here. It was experimental because the resist was tied buttons, which as they were wood – or possibly coconut shell – we thought would take the dye. They didn’t – instead some of the colour from the buttons transferred to the silk, giving a browny green blob in the centre of each circle. It’s a happy accident which I love. I think this is destined to be a wall hanging, perhaps quilted, with some stitch using those dyed threads.

Despite having officially given up quilting, I’m inspired by Tiggy’s sampler quilts to use the smaller pieces to make one – and, despite what I said yesterday, I have a purpose for most of the other fabric. I can still pet it though.

I will need a bit more dyed fabric for a quilt, but this afternoon Wensleydale braved the loft and found a long-unused beer brewing bucket, and its associated heater, which I hope still works. I’ve got a vat, got fabric [just a bit] just need the other ingredients. And some time, as all of this will, of course, have to be fitted in round a bit of degree work – back to college tomorrow to find out what this year has in store for us.