New Sewing Projects

As if I don't have enough of them.
I've decided I absolutely can no longer stand the despicable vertical blinds in my bedroom (I am counting the days till I may burn them!) They always fall down, manage to open up when I'm in my room naked, and are generally uglicious.
So, I am now sewing a curtain. I couldn't possibly have a plain old one, so I am piecing it in a log cabin pattern (basically squares of colour). I'm using a blue and dark brown palette (the colours of my room). The blocks are 16".
I'm not sure what I'm going to line it with yet, but so far the blocks look pretty good.

I Finished One!

A little quilt named "Hotter Than 'Ell" after the incredible Fletcher Henderson song of the same name. I was attempting a 30's deco/cubist style (indicitive of the era of the song itself).

I designed it originally as an ATC, and liked it so much that I translated it into a quilt to send out as a swap with another quilter. It went together quite well considering that I had all these little tightly curved pieces. I do hope it does the song justice. :c)

A Thought

You know how it is considered truly bad form to liken your opponent in a debate to the Nazis? I propose a variant for that for apologetic debates.

As soon as you say your opponent's position is 'pharisitical' or compare them in any way to 'pharisees', step back and throw your hands up, you have just lost the debate.

I wonder what Rabbinical Jews think of that whole supposed line of defense...

The Bauhaus Manifesto

I am still thinking about the art of craft....

I found The Bauhaus Manifesto. Hmmm...

Red Hot Jazz

I have visited the Red Hot Jazz site many times and find it to be a great site in general, (but then you know I love Red Hot Jazz-so how could it not be?) though the music links had never worked for me.

Since I switched to Firefox, they have begun to work (go figure) and I can listen to Fletcher Henderson to my heart's content!! (which requires a lot of Fletcher Henderson.)

I have always felt that if someone were to take total abandoned joy, distill it down to it's purest form, and put it on a record, it would sound like the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra.

Listen to Shanghai Shuffle or Wrappin it Up-any of them! Yeeeeaaaaayyy! This stuff is basically audio-serotonin. You can't help but love it. If you need to do a happy dance, Hotter than Ell/Yeah Man! should be your sound track.

Which is just what I need right now. Don't we all?

The Inner Critic

As of late, I have seen and participated in many discussions where 'the inner critic' came up. This is the little voice that many artists (and non-artists) hear in the back of the mind, picking out of the flaws in their work. The niggling doubt that insists people only compliment your work because they are 'being nice'. You know.

The inner critic can be a genuine problem for many artists, but I do not like the now familiar meme that I have heard in these discussions, which goes something like this: one must banish him, shut him off or ignore him in order to really create great art.

What?!! While I understand the good intention behind it, that is about the last suggestion I would make. It is perhaps the way to create falsely self-satisfying work, but hardly the way to create work that anyone but your mom would like, much less great work. It is not good advice for any artist.

The inner critic is a fabulous tool if you use him right. Nothing can make you push yourself, challenge your cherished notions, get you out of a rut, or make you work until you do achieve your vision like he does. He always reminds you that as well as you may be doing, you could do better. This is not self defeatist, this is aspiring to excellence. The inner critic believes in you like no one else. And if you enter into the creative process with him, he becomes like iron on iron in conjunction with your determination-he hones you into the artist that he insists you can be.

Some may say, 'well I don't want to be well-known, so it doesn't matter what my art looks like. It is just for me.' You are selling yourself short with that argument. You are saying, 'others deserve powerful and insightful art pieces, but I do not'. Why the heck not? Excellence is not about other people or how they perceive you, as many seem to think. It is about what you are saying about yourself, how you perceive yourself. Is putting out a crappy piece of work good enough for you? It isn't for me, and I can thank the inner critic for pointing that out.

Also, when you make a piece that you are satisfied with, that the inner critic looks at and says 'it's pretty good' (and yes he does do this sometimes!), the feeling of accomplishment is amazing-no outside affirmation can give you that-and in ignoring the inner critic, you never get the feeling of his approval either. It is safer, but I would argue on the whole, much less satisfying.

Having said all that, I do know people whose inner critics have become monsters-nothing they do is right-even beautiful works are judged as garbage. I do not know what the cure for a monster-critic is, and it is very unfortunate situation given all the good the inner critic can do for an artist. As I said earlier, he is a tool, not an end, and certainly should not be the dominant component of your art-making. You might have to 'put him in his place' occasionally.
The thing is-the inner critic should never say-'you'll never be any good'. He should be telling you 'I know you can do better than that'. Then you know you are enjoying a healthy relationship with your inner critic.

This whole 'aspiring to excellence' idea is of course very dear to my heart. I don't want to just say 'ah-good enough'. What's the point of that? This is perhaps the craftsperson's aesthetic that I love so much- it has also earned me a reputation as a bit of an 'art nazi'. But I suppose that is not that far off. Yes my work is judged ruthlessly by me. Then other people's objections come as no surprise.
So says the iron-clad armadillo.

Hmm the story of my life right now...

Crap.

On a UFO mission...

No I am not hunting down creepy little alien thingers.
I am pulling out several Un-Finished Objects and getting them a little closer to completion. I don't have the means (White fabric!!) to get into any of my newer projects going, so I'm looking to make my 'to-do' pile a little smaller.

I pulled out bluesman today and worked on the left hand. That's my oldest UFO (soon to be four years old) and I will get it done someday. Yes it is an indeterminant point in the future, but it will come. I am going to have to paint it a little as the dyes are migating in the darkest (#6) fabric and it is now the same value as the #4 fabric-and purple. But I am not giving up! It will be done, oh yes, it will be done.

As previously mentioned I have actually gotten the fishy quilt to the binding stage.

I finally got over my annoyance with my glorious DWR and have it in the hoop. I quilt on it when mom and I watch Coronation Street (damn her for getting me addicted to that show! She has watched it for years and years.) This quilt is seriously the reason I started quilting-I wanted a traditional Double Wedding Ring, in the scrappy 30's colourways. I always wanted one. So when we finally got a working sewing machine I started with the quilts. It only took me 5 years to start on it-oh and another year and a half of languishing in the UFO pile. I might have it done by spring.

And there are others. I am such a 'starter'. I know many artists are. You become enamoured of an idea and it is the center of the artistic universe-until the next epiphany comes along. Hopefully the first inspired work is done by that time. If not, it may just find a home in the purgatory of the UFO pile-until such time as you are again inspired-this time to go on a UFO mission.

Bead Buy!!!

A few people on N'ness got together and bought a whole whack of beads from Fire Mountain Gems. My share arrived in the mail today. All I can say is I'm in bead heaven! I am enjoying myself just looking at these babies. Am I the only one gets art-supply induced euphoria?
Sometimes just admiring and handleing my fabrics, yarns, ribbons, fibers and beads is enough. I therefore also love to shop for supplies, even when I'm too broke to buy anything.

With this buy, I finally got to get my hands on those eye beads that I have been coveting for Spirits of the Living Creatures. They are quite small and irregular, not as turquoise as they appeared in the pictures (or in the one below as a matter of fact) , but absolutely perfect for that piece. Now I guess I'll have to actually make it. ahem.
I really need to buy a large piece of dyeing fabric. I only have 5 or 6 pieces that depend on it. This is the problem when you have too many good ideas, you get about as much done as when you don't have any. Well and self induced poverty due to overspending on beads doesn't help either.


Here are the beads!


Eye beads-beaauuttifuull.

I am prioritizing in artistic endevours, believe it or not-I'm concentrating on getting the materials together for the Haus Eines Kunstfreundes quilt. Though this of course is strictly craft and the term 'art' would be an insult to it. I am supposed to be finished it in two months...good thing it's small. Eeeps!

quilt stuff

I am almost finished the dragon/fish quilt. I really don't know what I'll do if I actually get it done after three years. Of course The thing I have to do is bind it, and I have been known to actually use quilts for months before binding. You know how some people farm tops out to be quilted? I'd like to farm whole quilts out to be bound. Tedious and annoying. I always get frustrated with binding.

I was reading a disscussion about machine quilting from the 'front' of the machine, which at first made no sense to me, as I thought 'well you have to quilt from the front anyway.' Then this 'front' quilting was likened to longarm quilting and someone mentioned that it would take getting used to to quilt sideways, and I realized what they were refering to as the front of the machine, I would consider the side.

So anyway, I tried it with this quilt's border (this has just become an experimental quilt). The fact that I had a hard time seeing what I was doing would be the main complaint, rather than getting used to going in a sideways motion. I actually tucked and sewed over the backing-an amateur mistake I haven't made in years-though there were advantages to doing it this way. It was easier to control the bulk of the quilting being chief among them. I'll have to try it a few more times to decide whether it is truly helpful or not.

Also, I found this site and I think it might work much better with the machine recessed like that. I do need a new table, that old one spent many years outside, and seems to like to grab pins while a piece is going by. One of my great nemeses, that table.

Speaking of Nemeses, I found another site, which I found quite useful in helping me get one up on another object of eternal frustration-the bobbin case. I had to try it straight away. It worked. This made me way more happy than it should have.
Like my uncle said, I'll never need a man as long as I have the arts. And bannock.

fractal thingy

Ooo. A thingy I made. I have no idea how I did it. Looks cool though.

Naalbinding

I actually managed to finish a piece of naalbinding! (yay!) I decided to make a wristicuff as they are simple and easy.
I read of naalbinding ( also nalebinding, nalbinding and a whole slew of other spellings) about five years ago and have been driving myself insane trying to learn it ever since. It is one of the oldest textile processes known, I had to figure it out. Now normally I have always had an aptitude for needle arts, and while it may take a couple of tries, I will get the hang of it. I have always had to teach myself from books and diagrams. But I could find no good diagrams for naalbinding, only pictures of the textile form and instructions to 'get someone who knows this to teach you' (how helpful is that?) Apparently all the experts insist it is very hard to teach yourself (well yeah when no one puts good diagrams or pics together) but getting a teacher is not an option in the middle of nowhere. I don't know why someone doesn't make a video instruction manual; if one needs to be 'shown', that will certainly do it.

Anyway, about six months ago, I found this site. Pictures! Finally! It was an epiphany moment! I could figure it out, after all that time of trying and trying again. The epiphany moment I think is why I do needle art in the first place.
I had to learn to do it right handed as the pictures, which makes me forget the stitches all the time, heheh. I think I will have to figure it out left handed. I do that for most needle arts. I get a tenuous hold on the concept right handed and then switch over to left and become quite competent.
I do have my first successful piece, just a small example, in my 'first try' box, which will eventually be put together in perhaps a crazy quilt.

I was busy doing nothing for the better part of the year, but decided the other day to make a wristband using the stitch on the site from the merino I spun last spring. So here it is on my very cold blotchy arm:

Remembrance Day

Remembrance Day bugs me.
Not because of what it is, but rather for how we approach it. I find it interesting that the focus of Remembrance Day has shifted to WWII. Some may say that is more out of practicality, more living veterans were in that war, the original vets of Armistice Day are almost all gone now. I think though that it has as much to do with the fact that, as I heard on a program the other day, it was one of the few wars that had to be fought. It was about liberating people from tyranny. It was about the deaths of millions preventing the deaths of millions more. It was, in many ways, a 'just war'. Isn't that what we remember, the giving of lives for us (and others) to have freedom? For that war, it is an appropriate sentiment I suppose.

But the original day, Armistice Day, marked the end of WWI. (The end of it, that was the point) WWI was not about freedom. It was not about honour, or a higher cause. It was more akin to a schoolyard fight with deadly and cruel weaponry substituted for rock pitching. 'We'll show you our country rules!' 'yeah well you may have lots of guns but ours are bigger' 'You stink and you're gonna get it now'. Millions upon millions of people died as a result. It was the most catastrophic event in modern history, with so many other world events merely being fallout. For what?

So the label of fighting for freedom being applied to that war or anything to do with it has always irritated me to no end (Actually the war itself makes me angry-perhaps that is why my disposition is so snarky on this). I find it rather trivializing to the people who died there, whose lives were permanently scarred there, that when we come to remember there is all this talk of how noble this was and how we should remember as a way of saying thank you. Thank you for what? Being forced to become the fodder for a silly argument between a bunch of other countries acting like petulant children? I am not saying we shouldn't recognize that many of the soldiers were noble, brave and honourable; they were. But the cause was not. There was no 'cause', only death because well 'every generation needs it's little war to distinguish itself.' And it's pointlessness is compounded by the indescribable horrors associated with it-war tactics so awful attempts were made to outlaw them.

One thing the war and it's combatants did give us was the desire to think twice about going to war. It is not glorious, and it is not always a necessary evil. It was a total turning point for the way we thought about war. There is one thing to be thankful for, to remember.

Of course the second thing it showed us indirectly was that war is indeed at times a necessary evil. Had WWII started in 1935 or 36, it probably wouldn't have been WWII, but no one wanted another Great War or another lost generation. You can't blame the people for being war-weary. But each threat needs to be debated on it's own merits. People were being enslaved and murdered. Should something have been done? Well I suppose only if one hopes that another would do the same for them. Total pacifism is often as unconscionable as reckless bloodshed.

However fact is that the second World War was merely act 2, the horrific result of the events of the Great War. So even that returns us to the stupidity of such a war. Stupid. There's something to remember. These men died for nothing. Isn't that stupid? Isn't that wrong? That is what the original Armistice Day was about-remembering an entire generation crushed and fallen, so disillusioned they became the "lost generation". Yes there was thankfulness too-but for the fact that the theatre of battle was closed, not that people had been in it.

My great grandfather was there, a pinky finger away from lying in one of many mass graves. My grandma doesn't remember him talking about how they fought for freedom. She remembers him unable to enter a church because he had murdered. She also remembers him saying that if they wanted a war, why didn't the leaders fight themselves instead of sending kids to do it. My dad says that in fact he never talked specifically to any of them about the war. He would go back there sometimes; he was 'shell-shocked' and full of shrapnel. He was traumatised and burdened for the rest of his life by what he saw and experienced there.

This too needs to be remembered.

Lemuism

Since it has come to my attention that several people are now creating creepy secret shrines to me, (as per N'ness) and that they will soon be churned out enmasse like cheesewheels and cotton underwear by the lovely Walmart, I feel I should post some ground rules for the Cult of lemur.

Eat Bannock everyday. No love for bannock means no love for Lemur. Anyone who would dare tread upon the sacred nature of bannock is a heretic, and is hereby anathematized.

Never keep other people's mail art for a really long time, and then drop of the face of the earth. This will get you a long stint in purgatory.

Hijack other sites and threads to delare your love aliegance to lemur whenever possible. You will gain extra indulgences to give away.

Absolutely under no circumstances should one describe the eyes of the lemur as b**dy. This is the most dastardly type of blasphemy and will be subject to severe punishment


Okay those are the vital ones, I will think of more later.

Oh yes and thunderstorm-19 is hereby the first bishop of lemuism.
As you all know prophets are always freaky outcasts therefore larrissa is gifted as the prophet. Heheh.

huh?

Well working on arty projects for the most part, which is fun. I'm almost all caught up on the things I need to do; then I can concentrate on the things I want to do. :c)
I think I will make a bannock map (long story) and post it to N'ness. I have also been working on a picture for Aves-I think Richard will like it. I am going to tint some gesso green and gesso a panel tonight I think. Would you believe I've never used a gesso ground in painting? I am going to look it up for pointers and then like everything, go for it. It's always fun to try something new.

mjolnir

mjolnir,
originally uploaded by char111.

Working on Christmas presents finally!
Since I won't be working by December, I am definitely going to have to get off my arse and make presents. I have two more cheques to come, but I'd rather conserve as much as I can.
This Mjolnir is for my brother. Making a Mjolnir out of wood only makes sense if I give the background. We had a tree in our yard that was hit by lightning twice. It finally fell down this year and my brother wanted me to make him something from it. Since mjolnir is the agent of lightning, that is what I decided to make.
I had no idea how hard siberian elm was going to be to carve, or even how to carve it, but after browsing the web I decided I needed an angle grinder-this was what everyone seemed to use. We had an old one that my brother picked up at the neighbours when they abandoned their place (they also left weapons like crossbows. Fun for the neighbourhood kids!) Anyway, the cord had been destroyed so I had to get a new one. I actually asked for an angle grinder for my birthday just to do this project-I got a nice one-dewalt with a removeable handle sos I can make it left handed. Leftifiable tools are always good.
I had to figure out what I was doing, Mjolinor suffered a little for this-it started out quite a bit bigger, heheh. But once I learned how to handle the angle grinder, it got much easier.
So my first piece of wood carving. I'm actually pretty pleased with it. The small size actually works for me (it is only about 3.5" tall)-pocket sized. :c)
I still have to make a twin for my other brother, but it did not take as long as I thought it would, maybe three or four hours all together. Yay for angle grinders!
(BTW Mjolnir means lightning. It is the hammer of Thor, the Norse god of thunder.)

Even more pissing around. A prairie lily I drew. 

Even More...

I can't do anything creative until I finally play pan gu to the back room's swirling chaos. I have no idea where I am going to put half of the things that have somehow been sucked into the vortex-well yes I do-the GARBAGE. Of course with the recycling program we have now, I will have to hoard all that garbage until someone can drive me down to do the 'waste management' guy's job for him.
I really hate purposefully hoarding garbage. Having it there because you are a slob and lazy and don't realize how bad it is is one thing. In that case it has usually disguised itself and cleverly blended in with all the irreplaceable treasures you own. But actually knowing it's there, having it separated out and just sitting in a bag is annoying. Like it is just sitting there taunting you, 'even after you got off your ass and made an effort-I'm still here. heheh.' It's also way too tempting to pull stuff out, like the old pair of pants with fifteen holes in the ass because they are the special ones. They have to be purged immediately! Then I can think about whether I regret it later.
They (waste management)could at least come and get it-or even provide bins that are not five feet high so that you have to swing the garbage to shoulder level to get it in there. There is one thing I am not going to miss about my uselesso job-hauling 70 pound bags of garbage up to those bins in -30 conditions to throw away the 9,866,654,873 bloody Christmas flyers that each store releases, which of course everyone throws away.
Bah.

The things that make me happy...

Ooo I got my little dooder in the mail today! I lurve him! I bought a silver mask pin from viking trader for entirely too much money-especially since I am most likely soon to be unemployed (though in my defence I ordered it when I still had two jobs). Having a good look at him, he seems handmade-not just cast-in which case I would say he was probably worth what I paid just in the time it would have taken to make him-a few hours anyway-and I do believe in paying for well made craft products (that would be the artisan within speaking).
Well time involved notwithstanding, the brooch was worth the money simply because it was little dooder! Btw, 'little dooder' is a Norse mask painting better known to the rest of the world as the mask of århus. Some have likened it to the mask of Odin. I saw him somewhere while looking for Norse art and ornament and just glommed on to him. I cut the design into a stamp and put it on everything I could think of, ultimately making him into my signature piece.
The term 'hey dooders'-is a Mooreism. I decided that since this was my siggy piece, he would be my little dooder. Of course when I saw someone had taken the time to make a little dooder (silver too! My favorite metal), I figured 'hey destiny' and whatnot, and I had to have it.
(The true reason I bought it was simply that when I saw him I knew I would just covet him if I didn't buy him. I am keeping myself from sinning, that's my excuse.)
I showed it to my mom and she just said 'oh that ugly thing.' I would've been surprised if she hadn't. :c)



The original little dooder-the mask of århus.

Beading

Working on a collaborative beaded art doll for N'ness. I am finding it a challenge to match what has already been done as they are both quite different. I am doing the torso, which also happens to be the largest section of doll I think. So you know it has to look decent. We started feet up, but I think if we (or I) do this kind of thing again, I will suggest going from the middle out, simply because the doll is quite bottom-heavy and keeps falling off my lap, out of my hands, etc. I was using a bead that is kind of between purple and brown for a fringe I made, and against the doll it looks more brown-should be more purple-I tried to paint them with a bit of nail polish, but I may just have to pull them out depending on how it looks done. Ah the colours I picked went with the scheme-but not everyone did that. Mom thinks I should just make it as I was going to, and the difference in colours won't matter, but I am trying to kind of balance the other colour schemes in the doll, with out really having that many different colours of seed beads. Most of my beads are fancy ones-I can't resist them. But some of those are going on as well. Well I know in the end as long as it looks okay, it'll be fine.