Tag: Tools

My new studio

PiaChit Chat

… has huge windows with an amazing view of the countryside and forest, running hot/cold water, a stove for dyeing and no end of large worktables, handy storage solutions, lots of floor space too as well as a reading corner, couch, and of course looks really pretty (although probably messy, knowing herself well). Light, airy and absolutely perfect for my every need.

Never mind what the rest of the house looks like, I’ll only visit it rarely and briefly. 😉 (actually that’s not true, I do have a lot of ideas about what my dream house looks like. And the garden. And the location.)

I don’t think that’s too much to ask, so I am. With colour and doodles and fairy glitter on top.

I need storage space for:

  • yarn and wool
  • paints of various types and brushes
  • all sorts of scraps and doodads for collage
  • tools, scissors, stamps, glues
  • fabric for dyeing, canvases, bookmaking etc.
  • Bigger things like frames, canvas rolls, sewing machine, drum carder etc.

Then I need wall space for:

Not to mention all the ideas I get from the magazine “Studios”. Yes, I torture myself reading such things…. I call it visualization. 😉

This is a 3D image I did years and years ago of the office in our flat. I even had an equal room next door for a studio, but at the time computers was the thing. And myself with the wacom tablet.
1970’s style 😉

In the mean time I guess I have to live with a corner of the kitchen for an office, library and stash, a corner of the guest room (no it’s not big enough for a studio in any which way) for stash and the dining table for crafts. Our kitchen counter is really small and fortunately old and worn, because dye does get spilled… But cooking and dyeing and doing the dishes clash very often.

I’ve perhaps scored a piece of wall currently occupied by my husband’s entertainment center (great big tv). Turn it around, turn the sofa = added bonus we can see the fireplace from the sofa and I get a place to hang canvases. Yes, I’ll splotch the walls, but at the rate that we’re not entertaining dinner guests I honestly don’t care. I live here every single day, and doing is so much more important than showing (off) in my humble opinion.

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Art recycling

PiaPÃ¥ dansk

I’ve got soo many old photos, mainly negatives, that I really still quite like. And never really done anything with after clicking and developing. Yes, I have some harebrained assumption that I’ll one day scan them all in super dooper quality all ready to use, show off, play with, manipulate in Photoshop.. I also have some old 3D images that I might like to revamp (haven’t done any 3d graphics for years), old notes keep surfacing with sketches and ideas. I even have a roll of old, half finished paintings somewhere (the garage probably).

So I’m wondering if it would be fun to mix and match, use oldies but goodies in new contexts, print out photos and sample them onto paintings or fabric, use 3D art as background for masked photos – or should I let bygones be bygones? Always look ahead for/at fresh ideas, let old horses have their rest and ride the young ones?

I’d like to hear from people, apart from recycling actual materials, do you ever revamp old finished or unfinished pieces? (I have an ulterior motive for asking – I think my camera is close to going on the blink. Exposures seem to be happening at random, so the shutter could be suffering from the over 30.000 exposures that I’ve seen as the first likely breakpoint on the Canon 20D. I’d love to get a new one, but that means $$ have to happen…)

New photoshopped background

And speaking of old canvasses, my acrylic paints survived 10 years in an uninsulated garage, the oil paints did not. I do however have some very nice quality canvasses that are either halfdone or I don’t like the motif, colours are great to build on. I know I can’t use my acrylics on top, so what, apart from investing in oil paints (which is ridiculous in a tiny house like this unless we want a perpetual headache and cat hair built into the paintings), can I do to salvage these? I hate to just throw away perfectly good materials…

≈ Leave a Comment

PÃ¥ dansk

Jeg har længe haft en ambition om at scanne alle mine mangemange negativer ind, fordi jeg aldrig rigtig har fået brugt mine billeder inden det blev digitalt og mange af dem er jeg egentlig stadig glad for. Der er sikkert også mange som er kandidater til Photoshop collager eller andet lir, man kunne printe dem og sample (har vi et dansk ord for sampling?) på malerier eller stof, blande dem med (gammel) 3D grafik osv.

Jeg finder også tit gamle noter omkring billed- eller farveideer jeg har haft og nogen giver mig stadig billeder på nethinden.

Det kunne være sjovt at høre fra andre, uanset om vi taler strik eller billedkunst, om I genbruger jeres gamle ting eller om I kun ser fremad. Ideer fÃ¥r man jo nok af… Og hvordan genbruger I det sÃ¥? Det kunne være fedt med noget inspiration…

Vidste du, at man kan kommentere min blog uden at være wordpress medlem? Bare udfyld navn er nok. Det er så hyggeligt med dialog fremfor monolog!

Hackle away

PiaAcid Dyeing

Not having a drumcarder (yet) I like to blend fiber on my homemade blending hackle. I had that pink merino braid that I wasn’t going to spin myself, so I wanted to see what would happen if I combed it.

And, well, it’s now silky, smooth, spins like butter but still too pink for me, so I think I’m going to have to look for a new owner… if there are no takers I guess it will sit until I run into someone who’d love a very girly homespun present.

Continue reading “Hackle away” →

Elizabeth

PiaSpinning

Today I’d like to introduce my wonderful wheel, a 20 year old double drive from Ashford. I got it a year ago after spinning on spindles about 4 months, and I have to say, as much as I learned by starting on a spindle, I do enjoy using the wheel more.

Ashford Elizabeth I

I haven’t tried any other wheels, but with the whole range of bobbins and pulleys and lots more to learn I don’t see the point in switching. Apart from a weird inability lately to run the flyer in scotch tension, it’s always very easy to adjust to what I want. Have to look into that bit though, although I use DD most often, I have some qiviut that I’d like to spin with almost zero uptake.

The wheel came to me dark mahogany, so I’ve stained my extra bobbins to match. Dust collectors like you wouldn’t believe it, but nice I think. Oh, and I just luuuurve my tensioned Lazy Kate as well. Continue reading “Elizabeth” →