CrumpArt » Embroidery

I made things.

June 13th, 2007 by Crumpet

And I’m still making things. Here’s an update on where I’m at with my uni stuff. Assessment is Friday.

All my prints dismantled and on the cards.

On the wheel.

Finished yarn. It’s a 100% silk, 2-ply worsted-esque weight yarn that weighs just under 50 grams and measures 55 metres.

And here’s my first set of circles all sewn together. I sewed them onto dissolvable backing, and this shot was taken just after I took them out of the water. The washing made the silk shrink slightly, which made the colours much more vibrant â€” a helpful side-effect…

I’m still working on the second set of circles, and I have to finish a digital project, a (simple) website and a bunch of prints that need to be cut up and laid out on the floor at uni like quilt squares.

Eek.

Posted in Spinning, General crafts, Art, Embroidery | | 0 Comments

Slippery slope.

June 1st, 2007 by Crumpet

I finally realised tonight that I need Pomatomus. I can’t believe it took me so long to figure that out.

Also, I hadn’t bought any yarn all year.

Except this week I had a slight accident. Or two. I blame the silk embroidery thread that I needed to buy for my assignment. It is the one and only reason I saw any of these yarns.

Somewhat Gryffindor sock yarn from Clegs on Elizabeth Street:

*coughtenballseachcough* … Patons Totem and Cleckheaton Country 8-ply from the Tapestry Craft Sale. Yep, that’s right, sale yarn. So in yarn logic it cost me next to nothing, and that’s close enough to nothing at all… so it cost me nothing! Right?!? Right?

And here’s the naughty scamp that started the landslide, which I need for school:

I might be looking forward to my holidays just slightly…

Posted in Animation, Art, Embroidery, Knitting | | 0 Comments

Menial or Meaningful?

May 15th, 2007 by Crumpet

I’m a printmaker. My favourite process is lithography.

To make one lithograph, I need to move my heavy limestone to the graining bench, wet it, then sand it by hand in a rhythmic pattern with 60 grit carborundum and a levigator. I do that four or five times before moving on to the 90 grit carborundum, followed by the 180 grit and 220 grit. When my stone is clean and smooth, I dry it off with a hand flag and move it to a bench, where I draw/paint a wash/transfer/etc. until I have the image I want to print. Then I do the first etch. This involves rubbing talc into the surface of the stone, applying a special nitric acid mix to the surface, and then buffing it back so it’s smooth. A few hours later, I go back to the stone and apply the second etch. I apply gum arabic to the surface, buff it back, remove the image from the stone with turps, rub/buff in liquid bitumen, wash the gum off the stone with water, wipe the stone with a drier sponge so that the layer of water is thin, then roll up the image with black ink. I wipe back the stone with water again, dry it with the hand flag, then follow the steps from the first etch. After a few hours or a day, depending on both deadlines and patience, the stone is ready to print. I won’t go through the whole printing process, suffice to say that it includes preparing paper, lots of ink rolling and keeping the stone wet to stop it from drying out, among other things.

I could get ten prints or a hundred prints this way. Or I could save myself all the effort, send an image to a printing business, and have them do the work for me. I mean, who would want to do all that work for a printout? Kris posted links to this blog post and the article it relates to, and this kind of thing always gets my defences up. I mean, really, why bother doing something when you can get someone else, or some other machine to do it for you?

I had a bit of an artistic epiphany in my bookmaking class last year. My lecturer and I were clashing, and I finally figured out why. She didn’t like my first project â€”Â I didn’t understand why and she didn’t understand why I didn’t understand. She also didn’t think I’d done enough work considering how far we were along in the semester. When I finally figured it out and sent her an email explaining why I do things and how I work, she stepped back, let my do my thing, and I created some of my favourite pieces ever. And she gave me a high distinction. Anyway, for her, it’s the finished piece that matters. The process doesn’t inform the final artwork, rather, the final artwork informs the processes. She does a lot of digital printing, and is more than happy to outsource any type of printing she does.

For me, it’s the other way around. My processes are very important in developing the ideas, and the finished piece is less important than the journey I go through to get there. The methodical nature of printmaking allows my mind to rest and focus, and it gives me the time to think and dream and make obscure connections. Concentrating on the rote tasks also stops me stressing about irrelevant things. There’s also a magic in printmaking â€” taking a moment to notice how sunlight shining through the window plays on a stone and sparkling carborundum when you are graining it; running your hand over an exquisitely smooth, wet surface; the chemical magic in the way that the image will pick up ink when you roll over it, but the damp, non-image areas won’t; pulling back the paper after your first proof; the flexibility involved in printing something yourself. Although lithography is my favourite, I do other forms of printmaking for the same reasons â€” lino/woodblock prints, etchings, engravings, collographs… And when it’s all said and done, I’ve made something beautiful and unique that I can keep or sell. Or keep AND sell, which is another one of the joys of printmaking.

I love to knit and spin and sew and embroider and all the other somewhat antiquated things I do for the same reasons that I love printmaking. It’s about the magic in giving myself time to think while I construct something stitch by stitch. And watching something slowly grow and evolve is fascinating. It’s like a good book â€” you desperately want to get to the end to find out what happens, but at the same time, you want to enjoy the story for as long as possible.

Posted in Sewing, Book making, Spinning, General crafts, Embroidery, Art, Knitting | | 3 Comments

June whiplash

June 26th, 2006 by Crumpet

Now that I’ve finally caught up on (most of) my blog RSS feeds (was 270, now 33! — I only had time to read a few blogs over the past month), I’ve discovered the Whipup Whiplash theme for June is to upload your favourite recently crafted item. So I’m uploading two.

I know that’s probably technically cheating, but I’ll justify it by the fact that they’re both prints, and were both inspired by the same thing — the r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r poem by e.e. cummings. It’s my favourite poem — I discovered it in my year nine poetry anthology book, and it took me a full six months (or more) to understand it. It’s the poem that lured me in to liking poetry, and tells the tale of a grasshopper’s leap.

The first print is an etching combined with a the digital collage/solvent transfer from my last post, which I cut up and re-collaged back together on the scissor print.

The second print is a three plate aquatint, which was printed in an edition of twelve for our “language as image” class project. We had to use one found plate and create two of our own using the aquatint etching process, then overlap the plates using three different colours. I went through a process of loving my plates, hating them with a fiery passion, then loving them again while proofing to come up with a colour combination that worked.

scissor grasshopper print

leap print

Posted in Art, Embroidery | | 2 Comments

Dear Buddha, please bring me an awesome swap package

May 5th, 2006 by Crumpet

Buddha listened.

the whole shebang

earrings and necklace

I got this package in the post yesterday from Frangipani on Craftster for the Firefly/Serenty round 2 swap. I adore all of it. I’ve worn the earrings for two days straight (I love me some dangly earrings), and I totally needed some new chopsticks (the pair I’ve been using for years, while still beautiful, are getting chipped at the ends). I opened up the wall hanging last. It’s possibly the greatest cross stitch ever. For the uninitiated, it reads something to the effect of, “Dear Buddha, please bring me a pony and a plastic rocket.” Fried gold.

Posted in Sewing, Swaps, Whedon, Jewellery, Embroidery | | 0 Comments

A mixed bag.

January 26th, 2006 by Crumpet

It’s been a tough week. Many happenings, both good and bad. First, the bad.

(more…)

Posted in 2006 Knitting Olympics, Art, Embroidery, Knitting | | 5 Comments

Friday accomplishments.

January 20th, 2006 by Crumpet

Because Kris asked:

1. Finished spinning a sample of soysilk.
2. Attempted to dye said soysilk with food colouring.
3. Started spinning a sample of bamboo.
4. Embroidered on my entry for the Linden Postcard Show (due Monday).
5. Went to work.
6. Embroidered some more on my breaks at work.
7. Am currently cooking risotto and doing blog postage.
8. Will eat and embroider some more.

Edited to add:
9. Ordered yarn (Cascade 220 in burgundy) for the Knitting Olympics! So exciting. I may also have ordered some Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride and some Noro, just to get the free shipping, of course…

Posted in Spinning, 2006 Knitting Olympics, Art, Embroidery, Random | | 1 Comments

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