Tag: art

Knitting

Pottery, Sad and a Table

mud&stringLeave a comment

MY POTTERY

My least favorite thing about throwing pots is the glazing, mostly, I think, because glazing is something that cannot be rushed if you want a good result.  With me, it’s sort of a chicken and egg thing: am I not good at it because I don’t enjoy it or do I not enjoy it because I’m not good at it?  Anyway, a few weeks ago I got busy at the glaze table and these pots are the result.  For the first time, I’m actually happy with how they turned out.  I took my time on this bunch and it paid off,  I know I was more thoughtful and patient, thinking out the process with regard to colors and how I wanted each piece to look when finished.

image

 

WHA….?

Sadly, the Cable and Pleat Tunic is not going well.  I frogged it for about the third time last night when I just couldn’t get the stitch count to jibe.  After frogging, I put it away until this morning, when I was much fresher and in a much better mood.  Come to find out, I had miscounted way back in the casting on, with 38 extra stitches.  No wonder it didn’t work!  I’m getting ready to cast on again; wish me luck!

CREATIVE MINDS AND ALL THAT

I thought I’d give you a look where all some of my crafty stuff hangs out.  I console myself with the quote, “Creative minds are rarely tidy.”  Mr. Iknead avoids this room like the plague, but I like being able to see my stuff.  I have a feeling that our housekeeper is going to hyperventilate when she gets a look.  A warning sign on the door might be in order.

All serious daring starts from within.  Harriet Beecher Stowe

B

 

 

 

 

Knitting

With An Umbrella And Everything

mud&stringLeave a comment

LOVE THIS

It finally stopped raining and we were able to step outside and enjoy our newest patio purchase:

image

It was a long time coming and I predict  many, many happy hours.  Next on the purchase list: a glider and a wading pool for the grands.  This will be a perfect spot to work on my art journal and my knitting projects.  I might even bring Violet, the spinning wheel, out for some fresh air every now and then!

PARTING SHOT

image

Can I help it if I’m easily entertained??

E=mc2.  Albert Einstein 

B

Knitting

Still Documenting

mud&stringLeave a comment

TDL

Still going strong with The Documented Life art journal.  I started about 12 weeks late, after reading about it on a blog I follow.  I finally got caught up last week and while I’m not working on it as obsessively as I was when I was trying to catch up, I find myself doing page prep and trying out new ideas and techniques off and on during the day.  Honestly, I don’t think “techniques” is the right word for what I do.  It’s more like “I wonder what would happen if……”  I love doing this stuff!  Taking part in this project has shown me my inner artist – the one I didn’t know I had.  Here are some of my pages –

Monochromatic Challenge

This challenge was to ask someone else to start on my drawing, then I was to finish it.  Mr. Iknead started with a drawing of his iPad.  I couldn’t get the image of a theater ticket or the idea of a premier out of my head and this was what developed.

Draw A House Challenge

I saw a pin of some crooked pottery houses and pinned it with the intention of trying the idea out in my pottery class.  Guess the images stayed with me.

PARTING SHOT

If the good people, in their wisdom, shall see fit to keep me in the background, I have been too familiar with disappointments to be very much chagrined.  Abraham Lincoln

B

Knitting

The Documented Life Project – Playing Catch Up

mud&stringLeave a comment

CATCHING UP

I’ve been promising to catch up my TDL Art Journal photos and now is the time.  Here goes:

Add a flap to your flap

 

Collage something you recycled

 

 

Make a list of the things that make you you

 

Draw, photograph or collage a bird onto.your page

This one is especially special to me.  I gave my mother the hummingbird magnet several years ago and it was on her refrigerator up until she passed away and my oldest grandbaby painted the picture of the ducks as a gift to me.

 

Cut up a magazine -add

 

Use a rubber stamp in a new way

 

Add embroidery or embroidery floss to your page -no floss? Use thread

I printed out my favorite poem, gave it a watercolor wash and sewed it into my journal.  Then, I added a pocket to contain a  vintage handmade hankie that belonged to one of my favorite aunts.

So that’s it so far.  A new challenge will be posted Saturday morning, so stay tuned!

We are all something, but none of us are everything.

B

Knitting

Busy, But With What?

mud&stringLeave a comment

DISTRACTED

Suddenly this evening I realized that I hadn’t posted since Saturday.  I know it’s only Monday, but I’ve really worked at getting into the at least three posts a week habit and truly, I enjoy posting, putting my thoughts in order and then onto the page; I mean, the “virtual” page.  I don’t remember the last time I hunted up a workable pen and a sheet of paper to write. Nowadays, handwriting, for me, is limited to list making and reminders, and even those are slowly being edged out by my iPad.

TDLP

My art journal has been kept me especially occupied the last few days.  Here are a couple of my entries over the past few days.

This Week’s Challenge

Document a Random Act of Kindness

The two coffee cups represent the RAK I received in the drive-thru at Starbucks when the person ahead of me paid for my latte, which I then passed on to the car behind me.

Last Week’s Challenge

Document an Inspirational Quote

I loved the imagination/kite analogy.  I’m not sure who to credit for this, maybe Lauren Bacall?

ON/OFF THE NEEDLES

Hitchhiker is finished!  Official FO pics on Friday.  Very pleased with how it turned out.  Stay tuned….

Knitting has  commenced in earnest on Vivacious Chocolate Shrug with the first three inches of the first cuff completed.  The Fyberspates yarn is a joy to knit, with just the right amount of squishy; I see more of this yarn in my future.

If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.  Thomas Edison

B

Knitting

WIP Wednesday, Booklove and TDLP Obsessed

mud&stringLeave a comment

ON THE NEEDLES

Newest WIP is another Hitchhiker, in Sachet Patons Lace that I picked up I don’t know when on a Hobby Lobby run.

I’m really liking the way this is knitting up.

Socks on a Plane are still on the needles, but have grown not a bit in the last week.  Tomorrow, I keep telling them, just hang on.  So, yes, the crazy yarn lady is talking to her unfinished socks now…..

BOOKLOVE

102 pages in and it has me walking extra miles on the treadmill.  That’s how fantastic this book is, a repeater, for sure.  I’m so glad I bought this instead of checking it out at the library, it’s a book to be savored.

WORD DOC

I got my first challenge for The Documented Life project completed and posted; the challenge was to use a cardboard food box in an unexpected manner; this is what I came up with –

The new challenge for Week 17 is on the drawing board.  I’ll be sharing it soon, meanwhile, check out it out, don’t be surprised if you find yourself drawn in and then obsessed.  Everyperson Art.  Love. It.

Linking with Tami, Ginny and Frontier Dreams.

All great art is the work of the whole living creature, body and soul, and chiefly of the soul.  John Ruskin, The Stones of Venice

B

 

Knitting

Word Doc

mud&stringLeave a comment

DOCUMENT ME, PLEASE

After reading Pixelknit’s Ponderings and admiring her pages, I’ve decided to join in The Documented Life, a yearlong journal/art project from Art to the Fifth.  OK, my confession is:  I’m not artistic.  I can’t draw or paint and have always colored outside the lines, but I love creating things and if I can do something in an unexpected way, all the better.  Also, journaling is not my strong suit, but ask me one question a day or give me an idea and I’m off and running.  Also, I love buying journals, all that blank space makes me feel like anything is possible, brand new and open to anything.  Listen to me, waxing positively dreamy.

Imagination is the highest kite one can fly.  Lauren Bacall

B

 

 

Knitting

Acorns, Pot and Clunk

mud&stringLeave a comment

GOING POTTY

I had a touch of bad attitude Sunday, just feeling tired and overwhelmed – I suppose I finally ran out of adrenaline after running on it all week, so I took a field trip to the pottery studio for a couple of hours.  After some enthusiastic wedging, I settled down and began a new coiled pot.  Class meets this morning, so I’ll get some feedback on what works and what doesn’t on this particular project.  I remembered to bring the fancy camera to take a photo of the acorn I started last week.

It needs a little fine tuning, I think.

Trying to decide, should I glaze true to nature or go for something more whimsical, like blue or purple?

A peek at the pot I started Sunday.  I can’t decide if it needs a little fine tuning or not.

Clunks for a windclunk I randomly started

(I call them clunks because they don’t chime like glass, they clunk)

After glazing with Rhodes Turquoise

Excited to see their true color after firing!

ON, THEN OFF THE NEEDLES

I swatched the handspun yesterday, take a look –

I’ll keep practicing.

Very little is needed to make a happy life.  Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Meditations

B

Knitting

Raku

mud&stringLeave a comment

POTTERING AROUND

Today was the next to last pottery class for the Spring quarter and we tried our hand at raku for the first time, a really neat technique that uses special glazes, a special kiln and the coolest thing of all, putting the pot into a container right out of the kiln lined with newpaper or sawdust so that it flames up and completes the firing.   You have to wear special gear, gloves and something like a welder’s mask to protect yourself from the kiln’s heat, about 1800 degrees F.  You have to use long tongs to handle the pots after firing.  Can you tell I have a little firebug in me?  Here’s my first raku pot –

First Raku, 06/03/13

I’m retaking the Basic Handbuilding class this summer, just to have a good handle on the basics, hopefully to try the pottery wheel in the fall.  So loving this!

It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance, for our consideration and application of these things, and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process.  Henry James

B