Japanese Things

It was the second strike over pensions for public sector workers today. I should really have gone into town and rallied, but I was too tired really, so had a quiet day at home. I had to do some work, which is not really in the spirit of the stirke, but it is in the spirit of having little other time to do it. After that I went to the shops for tissue paper, string and felt. All sorts of crafting is going on at the moment-crochet wash cloths with ribbon hangers to be wrapped around lovely French soaps, another attempt at double crochet-more successful, and one at a Granny square (big failure!), and a little crochet dress of my own pattern, shakey eggs -egg shells, filled with rice, covered in tissue paper and varnished, and soon to be made felt pictures/needle books inspired by the Japanese craft book below. Some are for presents and some are not.
I took a few photos around the house in the sunny morning-a treat to be here in the sunny morning as normally at this time of year I am not here in daylight, apart from at the weekend.
I like the picture below so that is the one I am sharing. A little old Kokeshi doll from Rye and his surroundings.

This is the craft book. It is so sweet and whimsical. There is a girl dressed up as Red Riding Hood in some of the pictures-sometimes she is normal sized but accompanied by giant felted animals, sometimes small-sitting amongst a miniature scene.

There is so much in it, and the fact that I can't read it is ok, as the pictures are inspiration enough. Fairy tales seem to be the main theme and there are lots of animal inspired objects. I love these silhouette fairy tale pictures and am attempting one of those. Hence the felt.

I have cut out the shape and think I will glue it rather than sew it as I don't want the stitiches to show on the back.

Pretty Lights and a Giveaway

This photo was the result of an unintended long exposure.

I love the gold, green and turquoise colours. I spent a lot of time on Saturday producing these little books. I am not sure if they qualify as a Zine or not but they are certainly little books. The time was spent in working out how to translate a little altered children's board book into a photocopiable and double sided book. Various methods were tried and failed, before I came up with this one. It may not look very complicated-and it is not-but the way of getting there was!

Anyway, this is the thing I am giving away-four copies of my little book. It has been a long time in the making. I gessoed the board book at least six months ago. It sat around until about Halloween time, when I used white gesso to paint ghost shapes on each of the pages. It sat around again until I drew faces on the first four ghosts. After more sitting around an idea finally came to me. I finished it, scanned it, arranged it, and printed it. I watched 'Angels and Demons' for most of the time I was printing and assembling which was good as it is a very long film!

The ghosts have advice to give. It is very simple advice, but good I think. I will put the rest of the books in my Etsy shop-the first thing to have gone in there for a long time!

If you would like to be put in a hat (not literally of course) for a little book, then please leave a comment here over the next week. Thanks!

So pretty! I saw this light when at the shops on Saturday morning. So warm and inviting.

Have a good week!

Books, Art and Collections

I spent an interesting hour or so yesterday reading some of 'Archaeology', a book about American Artist Mark Dion. I happened across his name in 'Nomad' by Sibella Court. I loved 'Etc' by her and found the amazing 'Colour' by Victoria Finlay, because she mentions it.

(Aside one-these two books are gorgeous-as much as the look and content of the beautiful photos, and the evocative tales of her travels, I love the way the pages smell-whatever ink they are using smells great, and the variation in paper, and even the way it is sometimes difficult to read all the words as they are printed onto a dark background)

The Internet is so great for facilitating this kind of thing (as I am sure you don't need me to tell you!) so after about half an hour of searching, I couldn't find the book she mentions, but I chose 'Archaeology' as a likely good choice. Dion is very interesting indeed. (And I realise I have seen one of his works in Tate Modern before, but had not remembered and looked into him)

I think I have understood the main points of what his work is about but the thing that grabs me first is that it is full of the kind of stuff I love-basically old and lost things dug up, dredged up, beach combed and variously found. Things from the shore of the Thames like the things I find. These objects are then displayed in a museum like way and are fascinating to look at.

(Aside two-I love to do this, have made pieces of work in the past which were intended to be museum like-using found things. They are in a drawer somewhere. I curate my own things all the time and our flat is a constantly changing museum of my whims.(Cluttered but I love it!)

Dion assumes the role of archaeologist, explorer, ornithologist-whatever is necessary in the process of making his work. He genuinely does the work. He and a team of workers, sort, clean and catalogue things, before they are displayed. In one of the articles it talks about how the process is important and the participation of onlookers is a part of that. Richard Long was mentioned as another artist where process is the main focus, with a record being made for the later viewer.

The objects are then displayed in an art gallery-and this is the departure from science or the other roles and purposes-the objects are made to be art rather than just, say, an historical piece of evidence. The viewer is made to question what constitutes art (Duchamp is mentioned here) (that old chestnut!-and the art/craft debate too-as in how some things may be displayed in an Ethnographic museum, which later may be displayed as art in a gallery, so changing the judgement made of them)

(Aside three-it just came to me the other night as clear as anything-my crocheting straightforward things such as bags or washcloths is craft-as I know how to do it, there are not any surprises and it is just a case of getting on and finishing it. A felty head uses craft -a simple building block, but the decisions I make about how it will be make it into art. But then, do the decisions a skilled crocheter make about colour, pattern and shape make their work art or craft? It was suddenly not clear again. Really I think most things are a mixture of things-which in a way is what Mark Dion is all about)

Two interesting bits from the book-how the Thames has been dredged consistently to keep it clear and a lot of the ballast ended up in Newcastle. Consequently, there have been significant archaeological finds up there, that are thought to have originated on the bed of the Thames.

The other tale that I loved was about Dion's work for the Venice Biennale where he dredged a section of a Venetian canal, and displayed these finds. The Venetian authorities were ready to throw him in jail for stealing precious historical artifacts, until a deal was struck whereby he 'donated' one of his works to them!

Art rant over!

Shadowy Tea

Last weekend there was sun. My tea looked beautiful steaming away in the light.

For more shadows from around the world, visit Hey Harriet here.

Smile...

...it's the weekend. I will be crocheting string, making a big house for school demonstration purposes, and finishing a book-hopefully! Also making playdough scented with christmas spices and orange essence. Tiger is feeling under represented on here at the moment so here she is looking sweet last weekend.
I hope you have a good weekend, whatever you are up to.

Sadie Paintings

Lovely Sadie. I was talking to my Dad the other night and said I had been thinking of trying to paint her. Here are my attempts tonight.

Manimal

This is Manimal. He is looking up in case of predators. There are none in here, so he agreed to a photoshoot. He relaxed after a while, and enjoyed meeting up with the rest of the felty heads. Manimal has a crocheted base, as a change to a felted one.

Much quicker to construct and easy to felt him onto.

It is filled with poly fill which you can felt into.