Do you know the small press Uppercase in Canada? Excellent magazines and books. I purchase Issue 13 at The Ink Pad recently. It is filled with inspiration. One of those publications that you read with your journal on your lap.
The Aquamarkers and inktense pencils got a workout.
and then Cy Twombly's clouds.
I wandered into Connie Hozvicka's Flow class at 21 Secrets a couple of weeks ago, after I'd begun this crochet madness. You can see what was on my mind. Funny isn't it. How one thing flows into another. This was a lovely class. Just right for a weekend afternoon. (The link to 21 Secrets is on the Workshops tab up there under the banner).
Last night I finished my first crochet project. Many stitches were dropped. And yet, it is functional and these high tech/low tech combos always make me smile.
Besides, it is a well known truth that when a handmade item has mistakes, it is more perfect. That is how the magic gets in (and out).
It has been a bit crazy around here lately. Plans for Italy are all finalized. I will be there in one month!
Also, the website/blog merger is as complete as is necessary at the moment. I will post more on this after the weekend. We have company coming in and fun in store.
Have a happy holiday weekend, my American readers and the rest of you, too.
Craft Spoken Here is an exhibit at the Perlman Building (part of Phila Museum of Art). The idea here is to discuss Craft as Art and illustrate that Art can be created with what is traditionally tools of craft. I listened to an NPR radio discussion about this exhibit and feel, as one of the guests pointed out, "that train has left the station."
And yet, it is a discussion that continues and good-on, I say. The work in the exhibit is beautiful and in some cases very provocative.
It doesn't matter what a piece of art is made from, does it? To make art, meaning or beauty transcends media.
Some (alot) of what is considered Craft is traditionally women's craft; such as the above piece. There is no mistaking The One for craft, though.
Say you go to the bookstore to look for Gee's Bend Quilter's exhibition book. You will NOT find it in the art section. It is in the quilting section amidst the how-to manuals.
We have a long way to go, clearly. The train may have left the station in my mind and yours but not in the mainstream. Think about this too: learning to paint or draw (or anything creative) requires craftsmanship. You (or I, someday) could crochet 1,000 granny squares using odds and ends of yarn from relatives' sweaters. Exhibited in a museum, this could be considered Art but thrown over a bed, it is simply a blanket.
Some years ago, I walked into the home of one of my daughter's friends. The first thing I saw was a knitted piece - large: 5 x 5' -ish. Knitted in a gray-white by the mother during her time with the Israeli army, it documented the hours she spent "watching the door" (this is how she explained it). The square was not at all square. The tensions were different throughout as her mood shifted from tense to relaxed to nervous and anxious. Art.
And your thoughts?
PS: The top photo is the front of the Perlman Museum, gussied up with swags of knit and tapestries of crochet. Yarn-bombed (I love it). And is that graffitti? But that is the topic for another post.
Glorious artwork from Susan Cohen
My friend, artist Susan Cohen, recently shared some information about Peerless Watercolors. We were talking about what supplies to bring to Italy in June. These are such a great travel tool, I wanted to share with you folks as well.
The Peerless Watercolor sets are little bound books of papers on which the watercolor is placed. A system originally invented for retouching photographs.
These pages from Susan's journal show what these waterolors are capable of.
Jane Davenport has a fabulous little video showing a great way to put together a palette using the spunky watercolors.
This weekend was devoted to "me" time. Only a couple of "have-to's," the rest was whatever whim took over.
The crocheting is coming together and finally a couple of flowers emerged, along with my very first granny square. I found some great yarn, Debbie Stollers "Full O Sheep." It is a roving yarn so it seema easier to work - no twists to confuse my hook.
A beige hand-me-down sweater got a dip in dye (Procion) along with one of my white flowers (above: the purple flower). I worked with the flower a bit more to see how the wool felted. I took it only a little way along but, yes!, that is a good felting yarn.
Next up was Connie Hozvicka's Flow class over at 21 Secrets. Oh yummy: paint and portfolio's. I took this page further than I normally would and am happy with the stretch. Clearly the crochet was on my mind. I love to work intuitively; there is no better ride around.
In between: re-reading "Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness and watching a British TV show on Netflix: Doc Martin, about a surgeon who moves to a small English village filled with eccentric characters. Fabulous and funny.
How was your weekend?
And I've been scarce here working "behind the scenes" to make some changes to this little blog to make it more navigable and beautiful for you, dear readers. Have a lovely weekend and happy Mother's Day.
and Teddy in his place.
Teddy loves a good laundry pile and since I'm a really super pet owner, I like to accomodate him. You can see a bit of my livingroom rug under the four loads of unfolded laundry.
Great.
I fully intend to get to this today.
You folks sure seem to like pictures of my messes so here are a couple of more for you.
My sewing and journaling supplies are also in the livingroom. And really, I do have a place for everything, it's just that I tend to jam things in there instead of neatly putting things away.
These bookshelves are really great. All of my paper goodness is in that basket and I keep my journals on the other shelf. Above is poetry and books on writing.
The sewing basket holds all of my extraneous threads: sashiko and the crewel threads (which I recently took out to play, discovered that I didn't have an big enough needle and stuck that little basket on top of my sewing kit.)
There is a stack of baskets in the (ha!) diningroom. The theory is that when I run out of "project" baskets, it is time to put stuff away. It is kind of helpful.
There is another bookshelf right behind my livingroom desk that holds art supplies and my electronics. It is a nice cozy place to play in the evenings, work on the computer and write and blog.
I was wondering why there was extra space in that bookshelf. Eureka, I do have space for one more craft! Crochet! But this is it. Really.
This is the bottom shelf of the bookshelf. The stuff I took with my to my Wye Island retreat is still there. Right where I left it, very close to its place.
In my defense, the past several weeks have been full of work. Preparations for Italy, meeting with my new web designer/developer to wrangle my online home a bit.
I'm also getting a new online class ready. Well, revamping Inner Circle Journal. Which should be up end of June.
And then, there is the crochet.
And so it goes
This is a "Mom's Refrigerator" kind of post: a (very brief) history of crochet - a retrospective! (hehe, sorry, I'll stop now.)
This madness started two weeks ago. I saw a book on crochet flowers and it was the final straw: I needed to make crochet flowers. I had no idea what I was getting into.
Here are some resources that I've been using
Stitch & Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker
Leafy Garland from ShopEtsy, I actually produced this which was a great incentive to keep moving forward.
5 Petal Flower from ShopEtsy. Still working toward this little bit of heaven.
I was over at Amazon looking at Crochet Adorned and stumbled upon her Craftsy class. I signed on and things are progressing a bit better.
I am humming "We Will Overcome" under my breath and picturing the Little Engine That Could huffing and puffing his way to the top of that hill.
