CrumpArt

I received my Ravelry Bag Lady swap package last week! Hooray!

annie3891, who doesn’t seem to have a blog, sent me a beautiful felted evening style bag made from some handspun yarn she’d bought. I love it, but it was a bitch to photograph. Especially at 10pm when it was raining and dark outside… here it is anyway making friends with my sketchbook.

I also got Pocky (!), origami paper, a beautifully soft blue iPod cosy and some lovely lip balm! Thank you Annie!

I’m pretty sure my ‘target’ will get the package I sent today, so I’m happy to post pictures now.

I have a bunch of old laser discs sitting at home waiting for a crafting opportunity. While my swap pal doesn’t like horror films so much, I decided that Vertigo was the best one to use, considering her profession. Every single office I’ve ever walked into that’s part of this particular business has had a Vertigo poster somewhere. And I figured my pal could do with a pencil box. Or a ‘whatever she wants to put in it’ box, really. I added some arty extras to the box, keeping in mind something that I read somewhere while stalking.

Continuing on the Hitch theme, I sewed this bag. It’s made almost entirely from recycled materials (we had a $30 budget, and I’m doing Wardrobe Refashion, so I set recycling/upcycling/working from stash as a challenge for myself) — I used some op shop pants that once belonged to a very short, very round old man for the outer, and some unwanted handmade pants scavenged from Kym’s stash several years ago for the lining. The batting was also recycled from old manchester, and the pocket was made from some beautiful fabric that I received in exchange for some art years ago. The zipper was also recycled, and the magnetic snap was from stash. Hopefully it’s easy enough to guess which title sequence I was riffing off with the quilting…

I was originally going to put two pockets in the bag, but the construction method didn’t really allow for that, so I used the leftover fabric to make this cute little pouch. So easy, and now I want one for myself!

And considering that the Bag Lady swap was happening on a knitting board, I obviously had to do some of that. This is the Saturday Market Bag from MagKnits, made from stash yarn (Lang Filo, I think) bought years ago for a buck a ball at Lincraft. It even matches the lining of the Hitch Up Yr Pants bag! Next time, though, I’ll figure out how to knit this in the round, then do a three-needle bind-off at the base. Teh Seaming SuXX0r3d.

So there you go, swap pal (if yr even reading…) — I hope it arrives soon, if it hasn’t already.

Putting together the last of my Ravelry ‘Bag Lady’ swap package…

(Just to counter the comment Mr C made last night that I sounded “like a religious nutjob” yesterday… my point was to be the opposite of a religious nutjob. Although the fact that I know religious words at all would make him think I sound like a nutjob… )

When I was a kid, I always wondered why Easter changed dates. I knew it was something to do with some sort of old Biblical calendar, because I saw my parents referencing it for calculations, but I never thought to discover why. Now that I’m studying the relationship between myth, religion, creation, astronomy, cosmology and science for my artwork, of course I wanted to figure out the answer.

Yesterday morning, Easter Sunday, I woke up early and set out to do some sewing. This involved cleaning up my studio, and as I was taking the rubbish to the bin outside, I saw the moon still hanging in the sky, its pale reflection of the suns light looking beautiful against the clear blue, and it hit me. Easter is a lunar festival.

My parents came to visit for dinner, and I mentioned the morning moon to my dad, and he confirmed that there is a full moon each Easter. I’ve done a little research and found that the religious calendar of predicted full moons that Easter dates are calculated from was timed to the Jewish Passover, which in turn was based on a lunar calendar. Makes sense, considering that the stories tell of Jesus celebrating Passover before he is executed.

It all makes me wonder what kind of astronomical cycles happened in Jesus’ time, especially as he was executed. The stories of Good Friday talk of a darkness coming over the land as Jesus died. An eclipse, perhaps? Or maybe just a large storm? The appearance of the full moon in the sky three days later, especially if storm clouds had been obscuring the sky, could be seen as Jesus rising to the heavens (as the moon appears to rise from the horizon at night to us). The Eucharistic bread that Christians receive as “Jesus’ body” certainly resembles the full moon, and with a long history of the body symbolised by the circle, a glowing circle of light in the darkness could of course be seen as godly and mystical.

And what does all that have to do with rabbits?

The myth of the Rabbit and the Moon. There’s a shadow on the moon that many cultures see as a rabbit or hare making food. Myth tells us that through his kindness, the rabbit sacrificed himself as a meal to an old man. The old man turned out to be the moon god, and he repaid the rabbit by placing him in the full moon forever. (I’d post the animation I’ve made of this story here, except I’m not ready to share it online yet — I want to enter it into some festivals and stuff first…)

Again, the symbol of the moon as a resurrection device. And that is why the Easter Bunny brings us eggs… a symbol of new life and sustenance that, in retrospect, look kind of like the moon.

Me: “So, I bought some more CK sheets and pillowcases yesterday. I found a few more in the reserve and they still on a big sale. The sheet cost $29 and the pillowcases were $20 each, instead of $249 and $65 each.”

Mr C: “So, you just bought, what, $380 worth of bedlinen for $70. WHY DON’T YOU BLOG THESE THINGS?”

Me: “Because I don’t want to gloat and I don’t want to sound like a bedlinen geek.”

Mr C: “BUT YOU ARE!”

Me: “Actually, it cost me $63 because I had my staff discount as well…”

So, if you’re in Australia and you think you need some new bedlinen, head to DJs and see if they have any Calvin Klein sheets in the Raisin colour. Best sheets I’ve ever bought.

Old prints on the road to becoming new paper. It’s a creation/destruction/renewal theory of life thing.

It’s been a busy weekend…

First, Kris had a birthday — Happy Birthday Kris, from me and the Hardman. He hopes you had fun blowing out candles!

The Hardman’s dad turned… eight — Happy Birthday Giz!

Zefrank had an anniversary… (I miss The Show!)

And I celebrated my ancestry…