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Monthly Archives: August 2005
Touch and Go Post
I’m still alive. I have too much pressure at work which is stiffling my creativity, and generally numbing my brain. Tonight I found having a good scream in my car very theraputic… I just saw 6months work and possibily $7million worth of projects going down the drain…. I’m a bit melodramatic, but the shit really hit the fan tonight. I’m short staffed, inexperienced, stressed … you get the story.
This too shall pass.
Back Soon
PS Kiri is onto the 9th repeat of the 2nd chart, but I don’t even feel like knitting in this state. Continue reading
Ink Drawing
I occasionally get the urge to buy art supplies. Last week I bought a pen nib and holder and some sepia ink. I wanted to practice drawing… something I’m not natural at, but I know I can improve with practice.
I also drew heaps of studies of the bottle of ink. I improved heaps even in just a few tries. The key here is to not expect perfection, just plunge in and try, learn from the bits that don’t work and continue. I wish I could take my own advice LOL
I framed up some of the little collagraphs (I spelt it wrong in the last post) and they are now hanging on a wall in our sitting room, pretty swish looking 🙂 I wish I had a frame which would accomodate the squashed cake tin print, but alas, I don’t. The question is, where do I store these prints now? I think it will neccesitate buying a large portfolio folder thingy, so I can slip them in beside the shelves in my sewing room.
Talking about sewing. I NEED to clean my sewing room out again, it is attracting clutter like you wouldn’t believe and I haven’t worked in there for months.
We are just about to send our second Ipod back to Apple. It has the same problems as the first one they replaced. Very annoying!! Especially since the work I’ve been doing lately (at work) requires a fair level of concentration and piping music into my ears cuts out all those ‘open plan’ office distractions.
Posted in Books
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Printing
The big printing weekend is finished and here are some of my results, click on the photo if you want to see a bigger view:
These were photograped as the ink isn’t dry enough to put the prints in the scanner. I’ll especially try and scan the collographs as they are quite delecate and the details would show up better.
Kudos to Jenny Peterson for running such a great class, and thanks to my fellow participants who were a pleasure to work with (they wont read this as I forgot to tell them about my blog!!). Continue reading
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What a Day
I am exhausted after spending the day in a printmaking workshop with Jenny Peterson at ARC Yinnar.
I go back for more tommorow 🙂 I constructed some collographs today, I am full of doubt about how they will print, I used lots of fibrous stuff which will take too much ink and cause dark blobs, all will be revealed tommorow.
We also explored using found metal to print with. I had found some lovely rusted corrugated iron on the side of the road on the way o the workshop
I had to squash the metal flat then pound the crap out of it to make it suitable for printing. I was very impressed with the results which I will show here tommorow.
Knitting on Kiri continues, it would boring if I continued to post pics of its shriveled self.
Ski Weekend and a bit of knitting
Skiing Rocks! I knew I’d love it! We’re expecting some good snow falls this week so I’m hoping we might be able to nip up to our local resort (Mt Baw Baw) next week sometime… the snow there can be a bit patchy and apparently there are only tow bars, not the most elegant mode of transport, but I’d appreciate a bit more practice.
I can’t believe how quickly we all picked it up, we had a 2hr bulk lesson on the first morning (how to put your skis on, how to turn, how to stop, how to snow plow), then a private lesson in the afternoon, where we learned how to swish down the run (ie ski). Our instructor was Japanese with limited english, but he really got us going and ready to face the slopes on our own. Riscy took a bit longer to get it ’til I realised that he needed to crouch a little bit to help his balance, it was like magic and everything pretty much came together for him after that.
It was also great to catch up with my old friends Lynne, Carol, Nathan and Lynne’s partner Roger who flew in from Gladstone, Queensland for the weekend.
We are thinking of all going sea kayaking next year, around Easter time. Riscy and I will need to find a suitable kayak in the meantime. Actually it would be great if we could get one in time for summer so we can get out for a bit of paddling.
In knitting news, I’ve started the Kiri Shawl:
Wave and Shell Scarf Finished!
Ta Daaaa!!
Wave and Shell by Laurie Osborne. The yarn was spun from beautiful Silk and Merino tops dyed by TreeTops Colour Harmonies. It is a very light, but warm little scarf. The pattern is for a shawl, but I cut out a repeat and used thinner needles.
I started the Kiri Shawl last night. I’m on the last row of the first chart, but at 12:30 last night, about two hours past my bedtime, I had to put it aside in frustration, just couldn’t make it work. I’m confident that I’ll fix it though 🙂
Tomorrow we head up to Mount Buller for some skiing. The season hasn’t been great apparently, but the weather turned nasty last night, and we are assured of good snow cover for the weekend. I’m taking my spinning wheel with me to demonstrate spinning to my friend Carol (and Lynne if she’s interested), should be fun! Continue reading
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A Computer Holiday
I’ve just had a nice little computer holiday 🙂 But I’ve been busy doing other things like painting (nothing good to show here though), spinning and knitting.
This is some of the yarn I’ve spun up for the big jumper (sweater) project:
This is spun from that yucky felted merino, it is a real pain to work with, but the results are good.
The wave and shell scarf is finished. I didn’t take a photo before I wore it though and I need to reblock it so I can show it here to it’s best advantage.
I’m now just about to start knitting the Kiri Shawl. I tried to join the knit along, but I haven’t been accepted … not sure what that’s about, but I’m not too fussed. I’ll just try it on my own, see how I go. I had thought about the Faux Russion Stole from A Gathering of Lace, but I think Kiri would look better in the white yarn I want to use.
A report on the Eat Local Challenge… I didn’t Officially join the challenge, but we are trying to keep to our pledge anyway. The main problem is that we won’t be able to attend any farmers markets til the middle of the month, so we shopped at the organic grocer on the weekend. We made pumpkin soup, tuna lassagna (using tuna from our pantry…) and beef patties with home made corn salsa, lots of leftovers, very yummy 🙂
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Posted in Linocut
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