Tag: inspiration

Colour choices

PiaChit Chat

I’m completely ambivalent and scatterbrained when it comes to colour taste. I like all the bright shiny colours at once and I like the muted greys/browns, I come up with ideas in both groups and everything in between.

Most artists seem to pick a certain corner of the palette that they work in, making a coherent body of work with a specific “signature”. At least for a while. I can’t help feeling that I need to limit myself in order to not be all over the place and end up doing nothing but sampling. But I don’t want to. I want both the bluish slate greys that I love and the bark colours, fog and dusk, as well as the circus.

I experience this in all areas, paint, photo and fiber. It’s like a kid in a candy store.

My latest yarn splurge:

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And the next to last one:

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I write down all my notions and if I set out a block of time to work properly on each, never get another idea in my life, I’ll be done in about 20 years I think.

Do you think it’s possible to work without constraints like that and still master a few things? Because right now I just feel like I have a head cold (ok, perhaps I do, it’s been a while), I feel heavy and unable to focus as well as rearing to get started again. Everything in my head is stampeding, the desire to sketch, weave, paint, more weave, cloth and tapestry and a mixture of both.

And of course this kind of panic leads to absolutely nothing. I know I can only do one project at the time, and anyway I got some stuff to improve the homemade tapestry loom, so it would make more sense to leave it alone until it’s rebuilt. That’s at least 50 projects off the list for now. 😉

And this is why I never get anywhere. I can’t choose my topic, there’s not one that burns just slightly brighter than the others. I wonder why that is.

It doesn’t feel like an inner critic “you’ll do badly anyway” kinda thing. Possibly it’s the usual result of too much downtime and then trying to cram in all the things when you finally have a slot for playing. Having to build up flow from scratch too often. I’ll first try my usual method, I just wound a couple of yarn skeins that I forgot to when preparing for one yarn adventure, and after I hit send on this I’ll spin the fiber I started weeks ago that should could have been done in a few days. Sometimes a project will present itself when I do these preparatory things. I’ve already discovered during the course of this exercise, one of my conundrums: I want to use the Rigid Heddle loom for two different projects in particular, one could turn out to take a while. But I don’t want to rush through the other to get it done and free the loom. And I used to snort at people with a whole room full of looms, like you can weave on more than one at a time…

Then I just have to figure out what to do with the sketching painting urges. I so admire real artists who get up at 5 every morning and get cracking, putting in 6-8-10 hours of work a day without distractions. (Like, I just realized, no matter how my thumb is doing, I should be giving big brown pony a pedicure asap)

So I guess this pertains to both of my current Keywords: Focus/Intention and Health. Improve both and perhaps I would not have to reboot so often! Perhaps then, my colour tastes could simply be seasonal, and I would have time to exhaust one before the next fascination happened?

Do you ever put blinders on yourself when it comes to colour themes, or does it happen naturally?

Playing with tapestry designs that are totally out of my league:
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Dyeing days

PiaAcid Dyeing

I didn’t yet get up to that promised week of just plant dyeing every day and writing up a storm about it, but I yesterday did a bit of odds and ends for future projects. First I decided to use up the bucket of woad solution that I saved back when I last dyed in fall. I had some extra yellows, so I planned to throw them all in together.

The theory is, I think, that you just need to reheat to 50° C, apply hydrosulfite and Bob’s your uncle. PH was good. Blue froth – not so much. Perhaps that black coating on the bucket lid was all the dyestuff?! After all my preparations the dyebath still looked odd, a lot like another which I never used, of Japanese Indigo which I suspected was harvested too late. So this time I tested one skein just for science and got what I expected: FAIL. But at least this task is now off my list 😉

I can’t properly acid dye beyond the solutions I’d already made, since my scales are broken, and I use such tiny amounts of powder when I mix that spoon tips are too inaccurate. So I’ve run out of most colours after today! 🙁

In fact afterwards I had a pot of leftovers with some other baths poured into as well, some kind of brown, I suspected it might even be nice (on the white spoon it looked just like red wine), but which yarn do I put in, as in, which type of project am I likely to use it for?! I don’t like to just pour it out…

I made a purple that I really ended up liking, so now I regret only making a small skein. For the intended tapestry project (yes, yes, I know I said I’d use the plant dyed yarns for that, and I will, I promise! But, you know… one idea breeds another and….) I don’t need a lot of the purple, if any, but perhaps I’d want to use it in another? Oh well. It was something with violet and a bit of black and a bit of rusty brown from the other pot, but did I also include green? (my goto breaker of purple to tone it down a bit) And if somebody now says “what do you need the scales for”, see the above mention of the huge amount of leftover dyebath. 😉 I also don’t know quite what made the gold colour, which I ALSO like, because that too was made from sloshing leftovers into my last bit of yellow.

In the end I found a use for the leftovers, which did not yield red wine but rust. I stuck the end of 100 g top in there until it had enough, next bit in, next dye leftover etc. completely at random. I mean to spin it and weave it as a tapestry, shapes determining what happens with the colours. Or something. It’s cheviot and there’s no way it’s getting near my skin other than hands.

Perhaps not one of my brightest moments. The top ended up looking pretty ghastly, but I’m going to spin it anyway. Who knows, I might get a surprise? And then what happened as I got to the end of the rope and it had taken on enough colour? I was left with ANOTHER bath, this time dark green. So whatever, I added one of the small silk skeins I use for plant dyeing.

And now for some weekend. I wanted to weave now that I’m all warped, finally, but apparently I’ve been overdoing things says the body, headaches for two weeks now. I don’t think I ask it for very much, I’ve been indulging the “no exercise wish” for a while longer, but apparently “projects” are taxing the stress muscle even if they’re fun and relaxed. I don’t feel stressed or anxious, but I know it could be the next step, even though I think I’m doing pretty well with my attitude towards “busy.” I rarely go “OMG there’s so much I have to do”. So it’s probably “I have so many things I wanna do. Just one more…” 😉

Or possibly it’s not my busy-ness at all but my thoughts about “what if someone disturbs me or asks to see me in the middle of my project, not right now please I need to do this thing first. Just go away and come back next year.” And I know I’m blowing it out of proportion. Something to work on.

So I’m not feeling happy about this break as usual, a weekend of just sitting isn’t really my idea of a good time. Probably doing nothing will stress me even more, so I’ll have to pick one, slow project to fiddle with. Back to serial thinking…

Tonight I deserve a rest though, I wheelbarrowed a week’s worth of horse manure out to the back field to try to cure my shoulder tension. And vacuumed the bedroom. Possibly I’ll just spend the weekend doing the rest of the house very slowly and getting my desk ready for a fresh start Monday.

Of things to come (for the yarnies)

PiaAcid Dyeing

Since I really have nothing much to show yet of all my ideas (and sometimes they stay ideas because I get a new one for the same yarn), MotherOwl suggested that I just share some of my design ideas. Today, then, will be yarn. Another day perhaps something more painterly? And some plants are brewing…

So here’s a collection of things that you could get to see more of in the coming months, or a look into my brain. It may seem like a lot, but in fact it’s just a fraction of what I’ve planned and there is no deadline, things may get erased or changed along the way. I have a tendency to just write down my ideas rather than draw them, but if you find it interesting I may be persuaded to change that habit actually, because I think it would be a good practice. Perhaps working more on each project idea will help me weed some out?

Covering the halfdone warp on my large frame in the hope that the kittens don’t find it…loom06

I’m planning to make a small bag with this handspun yarn practising a specific tapestry technique for joins. Homemade bobbins! I just hope there’s enough yarn for the strap too, I’ve calculated and calculated, but since this is a new thing for me, you can’t really be sure to get it right.yarn09

Semi-solid skeins are to be dyed to go with each of these two snow dyed yarns. A dark red/rust (or a dark green – I’ll have to sample) for the one on the left and blue/marine for the right. The third skein I gave to a friend of mine who knitted herself an awesome hat and mitts!snowdye13

ingergarn

Making an inner hat from a soft yarn, then trying to decide which of my oldest handspuns will be the bulky outer hat.yarn01

Drachenwolle sock yarn. Houndstooth weave? Huge cowl/scarf/shawl? I’m not really a sock knitter.yarn03

Trying to make a fun design for the yarn below. Actually I’m not going to use the model shown, but I couldn’t find the other sketches. Still debating the basket weave however, to break up the stripes I’d get if I knitted the yarn. Possibly I’d get really horrible pooling instead. And in fact, after some sampling, this yarn frays way too much to be woven, it’s no good as warp at any rate, very sticky. So now I’m contemplating a linen stitch on large needles, alternating 2 skeins every other row, which is doable even if you work flat. I don’t like to knit the body in the round, then the yoke flat, because that makes the rows half as long = twice as wide when it comes to the width of the stripes = no look good. (imho) Or I could double the strands and mix it with a heavier solid, but I don’t want stripes at all, I also don’t want to have to do stranded colourwork, because then I’ll never finish. In fact this could have been a blog post all on its own…
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Fiber I mean to spin fairly soon:yarn07

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Audience

PiaChit Chat

On Thursday I asked what you would like to see on my blog, mostly in terms of images. The response was underwhelming in numbers of actual commenters (thanks to those of you who do, I always enjoy your replies), so it doesn’t represent any kind of average (or perhaps silence is agreement), but it raised a question for me:

What do you do if you have an audience and they want something different than you do?

The snarky reply would of course be that there will be a new audience for a different content, but blogging for me is all about communication and not so much marketing myself as being “interesting”. Otoh I want to be me, I can’t see myself getting excited about the things some people expect or like if they’re not on my own list of interesting. I like to take pretty pictures, daily snapshots don’t really give me a kick unless they describe something in the text (not even then – but sometimes you need them). Such as documenting my dinner or the view from the car window – nah.

There’s the subject of being the only one who thinks what you write is interesting, I guess there would probably be instant feedback on that one, so we don’t go there. 😉

I’m still in the process of finding out what I’m doing with this and whether to weed certain things out. Do I want many+short or few+long? (ok, you there at the back shouting few+short, zip it!)

There’s no denying this blog is a “project”, I’m exploring various things about me, you, on and off the record. It’s not just a coffee club where we chat about the latest celebrity gossip. (there might be cake – if I can figure how to make one that is gluten free, non-fattening and still tastes GOOD. Because we do like cake. Alas I don’t have any pictures of it.)

everyday01

An everyday image. This is how I heat my office! And a small rock collection. Incidentally the one in the middle could be a weaving pattern, I have just the plant dyed yarns to match. Office chair anyone?

We removed the electrical heater in the kitchen to give me a safe outlet for the computer. The fuse for the kitchen goes if we use too much machinery in the garage! (well, one specific piece actually)

yarno2

Next week I’ll be contradicting myself entirely and document some of the things I’m thinking about doing, as per request. Useless sketches and all. In one or more installments. How long to you want them? 😉

Not much of anything

PiaChit Chat

A couple of weeks ago I had a million things I wanted to write about, words and ideas were in a queue. In fact I was on such a roll that I thought I could take a break and not be stopped!

Well baahaa. Come Monday and my head was completely empty. That was Monday before last. It appears that if I don’t go with the flow, the flow goes on without me and when I look up, the view is different. Right now, my brain is doing textiles, no words. Apparently I have no say in the matter. I’m doing a lot of things, they’re just not what I thought I’d be doing. I’ve not even been reading anything.

Ok, I do know what happened – last week I had some really bad headaches. And these happened. I guess I should have known that would throw my focus.

Emil Leo
So we took your seat, you weren’t using it!

I hope I can get back to what I wanted to say on Focus and Intention. Or perhaps what I had to say wasn’t all that important and I was therefore saved by circumstances. 😉

I do keep up the Bullet Journal. It’s not a planner, although it has dates and lists in it, I see it more as a suggestion. I write things down as I think of them and they may get done sooner or later. An upgrade from my previous napkin/post-it/envelope note system. And that works pretty well for emptying my head, I even remember to write down some of my design ideas.

I also work pretty hard on not postponing the little things. Yes, the wash room is cold, but you can go pick up the laundry, it takes 15 seconds. Yes, you can put that crochet hook back where it belongs NOW and not just leave it where you’re standing. All those things that are a tiny bit inconvenient right now but won’t kill you. I even finally whipped out the new sewing machine that I got ages ago when I broke my old one mending horse blankets. I simply could not face it if there was issues with the thread tension or something and I’d have to fiddle for ages and not get it quite right. With some things, I can do that dance forever if I feel out of my league. Well I made myself do it and while not as good a machine as the old one, it does, in fact, sew.

Now I’m in a bit of trouble because I’ve also run out of photos for my other blog. I could use some similar shots and whatnot, but we’ll see if I can keep it up. No painting has happened here since before xmas break, that’s the one thing I need the most quiet and the longest time to wind myself up to, and I just don’t seem to get it very often. So I have to dive into the old photo archives again. Because weather. Yuck. Why didn’t I spend all autumn making huge ponchos and hoods and cowls and sweaters from super bulky yarn on size 10 mm needles? Facemasks. Don’t get me started on the mud, at least we seem to get a short break from that now.

Come to think of it, I’m not doing too well in the quote department either. Do I really have to start writing more bad poetry to fill in?! I mean, it’s not like I can give up on the project less than half a year in… Can I?

I’m thinking of weaving things but I can’t show you the inside of my head. (I should be making more colour sketches, so I don’t forget) So many preparations, warping tapestry looms takes days when you get tired. And make mistakes. I’ve learned tonnes already. But I don’t know what to show you to make this post a little interesting. What would you like to see?

(And then I was saved by Pat Tyler. Off to play with orbs! I see collage-mandala potential here.)

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