26. May 2012

We are nearing the end of a day and what a day! For one thing the temperature has been high and I mean high, and the next thing …. it takes much longer than you think to get ready for a showing/open studio and to make things a bit more difficult the topic of conversation at lunch was: why was the swimming pool not in summer mode?! So Caroline and Olav decided to get IT started. OK I could manage the other things fine on my own and got it all done without discussion. I can hardly discuss that much with myself.  Since it is so warm we decided that the carport could be used even the windows. Actually the  photos are not as good as it actually looks.

.

Now that I am nearly finished getting the show on the road I have been helping at the pool but we have to wait until the water level is up to full again before getting the finishing touches done.

The sun is going down and Eurovision Song Contest has begun so I can do a bit of blogging.

The light was going but you can still get an idea of how things have been arranged in the greenhouse/orangerie.

I started with white sheets hung outside to give a better background for pictures. The light had gone so I took no photos in the workshop but took a couple of Elisabeths paintings.

I just love these pictures!

But then I went into the garden to try and take a shot of the magnolia that is coming to the fore now and the first flower is about 30 cm wide. Smells awful but looks good and smell is no problem since the caprifolia fills the air aound that part of the garden with a fantastic perfume!

I apologise for picture quality but the light was going! Now maybe I should go to bed and get a good sleep, Elisabeth arrives tomorrow morning early ( she just got back to Lund from a conference in Stockholm) and then IT starts at ten.

This has nothing whatsoever to do with OCA but still has a lot to do with my activity at all levels. Hope to see some of you folks out there tomorrow or Monday

23. May 2012

Finished with my spring leaves, just needs taking off the frame and tidying up! Apart from the quiet of the weaving out in the greenhouse I found it a bit boring, flat and colourless. Should have chosen another theme like a picture by Seurat with all those points! This is the first part where I might say that I have been having second thoughts; wondering why I am actually doing all this. I could be sitting on my BEhind enjoying my otium, not that I am not enjoying this just wondering if I, in fact, do have enough talent to make it through

Never mind I have a second sample to go for, and a deadline that is 15. June, and am not going to choose from the list of suggestions but choose RUBBISH/plastic. I am getting more and more worried about the amount of rubbish that even an old couple like Olav and I can generate. Denmark has as yet not reached the proportions of the USA both in the body mass of the population and the mountains of rubbish but, rest assured, we are on the way! Why oh why does every package have to be much bigger than the contents, do the manufacturers really think that we don´t know. We got a fat tax here so instead of upping the price they cut down on the weight! If truth be told, I did not discover this the first couple of days. Olav reads kilo prices now!!

We saw a TV program in San Diego a couple of years ago about the oceans of plastic in the Pacific. It was breath taking to see; literally oceans of plastic floating on the surface gathered together by the various winds and water streams. Bye the bye, we do not see much tv in the US..it is just too boring and with far too many breaks for adverts. That picture remains in my brain and not even very far back so that I think about it each time I go out to the bin with rubbish as I also think about water each time I brush my teeth or wash my hands. I am not a fanatic but just a conscious being.

Back to the rubbish I think I will go on and weave all my gathered rubbish into a mountain surrounded by a sea. Paper and plastic! I think that it is high time that we all became a little climate conscious  not forgetting social conscious

Why oh why is it that the weather goes from cold to tropical overnight! Yesterday was horrendos and this am promises another day of the same. No piccies this time just words but I leave you with a thought,

19. May 2012

Yesterday was a long day driving up to Ålborg( northern Jutland)  and back after spending a couple of hours at the Nordic Quilt Meeting looking at the exhibition. I will start by telling a little of the last Nordic show in Gothenborg in Sweden which we also drove up to see and believe it or not left again within the same hour. Now one would ask oneself why two reasonably sane people drive 4 hours to and fro and only stay for so little time……. the venue was horrific as Olav put it should never have been allowed and he was seriously worried about the danger of panic in a crowd that big in a locality that was so poor. He even spent some minutes looking for the fire escape/s being the engineer he is. His opinion was that it would have been closed at once if the local firechief had seen it!! The crowd was horrific so looking at anything was difficuly but on the whole I thought the quilts shown were good and that was what I went to see. Enough said on the past now to the present.

The venue was great with easy access from the motorway and good parking. The entrance was airy and uncrowded which was the overall impression throughout all the  show areas  which really made me wonder if there were as many guests as there usually are at such events but then the area was big and able to cope with the crowd.

This quilt on the left is the winning quilt in the competition “On the Way” sewn by a Finnish quilter Sirpa Mettänen. I know the story behind the quilt because we were lucky in that Sirpa( shown beside another of her quilts) talked  quite a bit with us. Her father died last year and this quilt was made using his old socks the round details being the darned areas which he himself had done and which I though was such a charming detail that I have done a close-up copy.

Actually this artists statement should have been shown beside the quilt so that the audience get the full background but this is not the done thing. I would have shown a full picture of  Sirpa because she had a very specialpair of trowsers on but sadly the system is not playing with me today and that pictue came in sideways! Every attempt to edit the picture was thwarted. Sorry Sirpa

Ulva Uggerup ( Sweden)a legend in Scandinavia, also had a quilt to the fore in the competition and rightly so. This is NOT a good image but I hope you all can appreciate it. Those tiny shoes sewn on to the bottom, just wonderful. Her women are almost a logo for her work and I wish that I could tell that I had met her or better still been to one of her courses! She unfortunately has no site on the net nor many hits for her name which someone should rectify before it is too late. She is not young!

One of the quilts caught my  eye and because of my laughter I did not make a note of the name but am saved by modern technique since I had got the label on the photo. ” Halfway Through the Artic Ocean”  by Zeljka Celegin, Sweden.

I would have done more taking a little away from this photo but once again the system or my lack of computer competence foiled me.

This one on the left by a norwegian,Cranes in flight, caught my eye being just as banale as my contribution to the competition.

This I think I have shown earlier so will not show again.

Alice Frost http://www.af-tekstilbilleder.dk/10763487 caught my eye

 
On the left a detail of a picture of hortensias.

On the right the whole picture. Lovely! Actually I have a plant in the greenhouse  that I had thought of “sewing” but I do not think I can do it as well as Alice Frost.

 

This photo is not quite in focus but anyway one still can capture the feeling of depth and light that she has caught in this picture of a wood in spring.

 

All in all the trip to Ålborg was good but as usual I have not recorded enough but then maybe I  have recorded the best.

The shopping area was also light and airy but there were maybe not as many shops there than I might have expected. Has the crisis hit the quilting world as well as the property world? Maybe. I bought some handwoven silk and some buttons!

 

I will leave with my thought for the next weekend; come visit Elisabeth and I if you can, www.kunstruten.com,

 

16. May 2012

I am still at the part “Developing design ideas into weaving” supposed to take 8 hours but I am still at it. Certainly not because I have chosen a design difficult to execute; not at all but it is time consuming since I decided to go for the materials I have and chose a weft and warp giving a thread density that takes time to weave.
I actually bought the thread over 12 years ago and for the life of me I just cannot remember just why I bought the colour. I must have woven some furniture material at the time since it is rather hard in the spinning. Not the bravest of designs and one warp thread has broken but this I can repair better when I have taken it off the frame. I sit out in the greenhouse under a peach tree as I work which makes the whole process rather meditative if I do not listen to a book! One might ask if I am well pleased with my work and I have to admit I am not. I might be able to be clearer on that point later when it is off the frame. BORING might just be a word I would use.

Otherwise I am still working on things for the Whitsun “Studio Open Doors” that has been arranged in Køge Kommune by a group of artists of which I am a member. I have a guest coming from Dalby in Sweden, Elisabeth Olsson-Linnersten www.artfeel.se.  All this I have mentioned earlier. We met at a course at Solveig Refslund in 2009 and luckily have kept contact since, pity she lives so far away.

On the left freehand machine embroidery on a deconstructed screen printed cotton and on the right yet another handbag. Maybe the handles, which I bought a couple of years ago in a Husflid´s shop in Norway, are too heavy for this but they do fit well otherwise.

The materials used are Olav´s old silk ties. Now that he is almost retired he no longer has the same use for ties. I have added a couple of other things found o0bjects so to speak. Actually this has been lying around for a long while since I got a bit worried about spending so much time doing hand embroidery on a background that is already well worn! The bag frame is made using plastic fly netting used for windows which is really easy on machine sewing, pliable  and at the same time stable. I have applied a few layers of Ocean Lack just to be on the safe side. Actually this bag is one I might just keep for myself!

Spring is really here and our magnolias and rhododrendons are a daily pleasure for the eye, not to speak of the green asparages that we pick every day.
We have magnolias in bloom from April starting with the Stellata right though till almost the end of June. Different colours and different forms but all beautiful. This is not a small garden since it could accommodate more than one football pitch and our kitchen garden is about the size of a normal town garden. All this beauty just right outside our door and every bit planned and worked on by Olav and I is marred by one really big problem…IBERIAN SLUGS.. otherwise known as KILLER SLUGS here in Denmark. Your common slug is not a real problem since they have evolved in the climate and although are many, some years they are nothing compared to ….. These Spanish invaders are neither beautiful or nice, they have no redeeming factors and seem to have no enemies in this biotope. We bought muscovy ducks a few years back but even they would not eat the B……s. I even saw one rush to the pond shaking it´s head under the water maybe to rinse it´s mouth. We spend many hours picking them ( I am talking about many hundreds) up into a bucket which we have treated with salt and we also use poison in our kitchen garden which is very unlike us. I risk a comment or two from the animal lovers but I gladly take the risk. They have no idea just how gigantic the probem is!

Nothing to do with OCA, learning logs and the like just a bit of info about my daily life!

If anyone has time and is nearby do join the art route on Whitsun sunday and monday

 

 

2. May 2012

Finished another bag! I published a bit of the process the other day but now it is finished or maybe. This type of bag I usually give a coating of decoupage lack and ocean lack, however, I am wondering whether I will leave it as is or..

This morning I discovered that I had made a mistake in my research point investigating the work of the textile artist on how their work differs from designer/maker, designer or craftsperson. Not a BIG mistake but one that has given me plenty of food for thought. Accuracy is the key word! Anyway it is a good thing that I do the research as an on-going process only to be finished just before I send off the next assignment.

The picture on the right is of the last weave ; experimenting in different threads/materials. Paper and plastic are just no problem at all but cellophane is just too difficult and I gave up after two rows! I was sitting out in the greenhouse and dried flower petals got caught up in the work so I just left them.

The next project is developing design ideas into weaving scheduled to take 8 hours but I do know from experience that this will not be enough for me anyway I have started thinking about it while I make I embroider the next purse. Actually I have been contemplating a simple design with leaves and will probably go for that!

Another OCA student sent me a message about http://www.sketchcrawl.com/

and  http://www.urbansketchers.org/p/membership.html, two great ways to get in touch with others in order to go walking and sketching together. Being in a group can be inspiring.  Actually I received a super present from a friend for my birthday, a rucksack with chair! I can have all my sketching/painting things with me and be able to sit down when inspired!  I hate drawing when standing!

29. April 2012 post scriptum

Just to give you another address to check out.  http://www.untitledgallery.org/index.html. This is an on-line gallery showing works of art by several students on OCA also me!

29. April 2012

I often take photographs while I am in the process of carrying out a project since I find looking at the photos is almost like looking at a design wall giving me the added inspiration of viewing from a distance. The camera can be a cruel instrument showing up the flaws in the design or colour scheme. I am actually well pleased with both things I am going to show you now and excited to see if I will just as pleased after seeing them on the post. First the bag.
This started as a white piece of loosely woven cotton I printed using the deconstructed screen printing technique and when finished and fixed monoprinted using a hard sponge as a block. These marks have been accentuated using the sewing machine to make them look like flowers. Dried half lemons also make really good printing blocks not longlasting but then lemons are cheap.  At the same time I am working on the bag I am working on the weaving project ” Experimenting with Different materials” I have started with a constrainted pattern, 4 rows with plain weave and the two with Ghiordes Knot over two threads with a plain weave between then again 4 plain weave. The first thread is a wool (shropshire ) coloured by me many years ago then a loosely spun wool I bought in the Woolshed near Insch.

After which I used paper used to pack flowers in over in the USofA, cut up into malleable strips. Although malleable this does say that they were easy to weave, no sir. Then I have found a silk thread also loosely woven but stiff enough to stabilise the weave. Still a long way to go!

http://www.thewoolshed.co.uk/ visit this for a real  treat. But of course when nearby you have also to visit http://www.touchedbyscotland.com/ a feast for the eyes. Both these virtual places are hidden off the beaten track where the Gadie runs at the back of Bennachie but are always busy with folks who come from all over to enjoy. If you do get around to visiting both these shops bring a really big purse for you will be sorely tempted to spend money!!

Back to work; I am working many hours every day now that the creative bug seems to have awoken again.

Tags: Bennachie, Gadie, The Woolshed, touched by scotland