CrumpArt » photography

Making Rainbows.

April 12th, 2008 by Crumpet

Well, I’m actually busy making essays, not rainbows. But the little birdy is…

Why I’ve been a little absent.

April 4th, 2008 by Crumpet

Making paper. 112 sheets from offcut ragpaper and old prints. Exhausting to the point of ridiculousness. Really, I was so wiped I left the oven on yesterday. Thankfully the house did not burn down.

Posted in photography, Art | | 0 Comments

Swapperific

March 31st, 2008 by Crumpet

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.

Posted in photography, Geekery, Book making, Film, Swaps, Sewing, Knitting | | 3 Comments

Revelations.

March 24th, 2008 by Crumpet

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.

Posted in Freaky Coincidences, Universe, Animation, photography, Art, Random | | 0 Comments

Celebrations!

March 19th, 2008 by Crumpet

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…

Posted in Food, photography, Knitting, Random | | 4 Comments

Submerged.

March 10th, 2008 by Crumpet

I started back at uni last week. I’m in the final year of my undergrad, and it’s already pretty full on. After much to-ing and fro-ing with admin, I managed to be approved for an uneven workload, so I’m doing five subjects this semester and three next semester. Doing this means that I don’t have to give up an extra day of work next semester, and I’ll also be able to concentrate more on all the big end of year assignments and whatnot. So, this semester I’m at uni for pretty much four full days. I’m very excited about it all though. My theory class (Theme and Variation) seems really interesting — there are two 1500 word essays due for this one, and I’m hoping to write the first on Dave McKean. I’ve just finished Cages, and it was one of the single greatest reading experiences I’ve ever had. Very, very relevant thematically to the work I’m planning at the moment. Hence the essay for Theme and Variation.

It’s been a big week or two with the reading. Aside from Cages, I’m working my way through a bunch of other sciency library books, another philosophic astronomy book I bought earlier in the year and the Librivox recording of Moby Dick. Suffice to say, all the reading and processing of information has left me pretty exhausted. And of course, it being the Labour Day long weekend here and all, I had to work today.

I did have yesterday to myself though, and I made the most of it.

I finally, finally, finally finished spinning the yarn that’s been sitting on my bobbins for over a year.

It’s 100% merino spun from tops, which I realised I’d spun and plied in the wrong order during the last step. I meant to ply the purple and green together then ply it again with a thicker single of the teal, which I’d bought extra of on purpose, but screwed up by plying the teal and purple together. Of course, I didn’t have enough of the green to finish the job, but it turned out for the best anyway, because I ended up making a yarn I love more.

It’s the rest of the blue and teal plied together with a strand of commercial acrylic yarn that I received a massive cone of on my birthday, then plied again with a very fine strand of orange wool I bought a long time ago. I see a very cute handbag in my future.

And the best thing from all this spinning? The bobbins are completely clear and I can start the mammoth spinning/knitting/crocheting project I have planned for school.

Yep, I get to spin, knit and crochet for class! I’m in the best. course. ever.

Posted in Books, photography, Spinning, Art | | 2 Comments

The One Word Challenge

March 9th, 2008 by Crumpet

1. Where is your mobile phone? dunno
2. Your significant other? elsewhere
3. Your hair? greying
4. Your mother? chatterbox
5. Your father? quiet
6. Favorite thing? life
7. Dream last night? no
8. Favorite drink? beer
9. Your dream/goal? Pixar
10. Room you’re in? hot
11. Your ex? Britpop
12. Your fear? falling
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? California
14. Where were you last night? home
15. What you’re not? normal
16. Muffins? meh
17. One of your wish list items? books
18. Where you grew up? Ballarat
19. The last thing you did? spun
20. What are you wearing? clothes
21. Your TV? projector
22. Your pet? smiles
23. Your computer? white
24. Your life? happy
25. Your mood? wondrous
26. Missing someone? sometimes
27. Your car? tram
28. Something you’re not wearing? underwear
29. Favorite store? bookstores
30. Your summer? lingering
31. Like someone? many
32. Your favorite color? changes
33. When is the last time you laughed? recently