I learned a bit about art journaling last year from a library book, and did a one-month daily art journaling challenge. This year, I read another book about art journaling, and started doing it more regularly.
The technique takes a bit of time, a bit at a time, with periods of paint drying and glue drying in between. So I have been intentionally doing only one page per week, and making it part of my Sabbath rest.
Generally speaking, the procedure is to start with a page--not necessarily a blank page--and do some arty stuff to it, then some more arty stuff, and then some more and some more, until it all hangs together (more or less). Mistakes can be torn out or painted over, or papered over. Unconnected bits can be overlapped by another layer, to visually relate them to each other.
For materials I mostly use pens, pencils, acrylic paints, the children's markers and crayons, old magazines, and decoupage medium.
As I said in the previous post, after a bit of playing around, often a theme starts to emerge, and can be reinforced, to build a meaningful artwork. Or, the theme can be chosen beforehand.
I have been incorporating some visual images from my life into my pages, like how the neighbor's lighted window shines out into the darkness after dusk.
Friday, March 9, 2018
Thursday, March 8, 2018
Sabbatical project: Crocheted owl
Decorative owls have been a trend for a while, which seems to be on the wane now. I was willing to wait until they started appearing in the thrift stores, until last year. What happened was that I started being interested in owls and some other things, and eventually realized that I was commemorating my grandma, who died ten years ago. She was a huge influence on me, need I say; growing up next door to her was an enormous blessing.
Artistically speaking, when a theme starts to emerge from seeming randomness, then there is the possibility of intentionally encouraging and reinforcing it, to pull everything together into a coherent and meaningful whole.
Grandma had a number of owls in her house, probably many of them gifts from others. But Grandma and owls definitely go together in my mind. So I went on an owl hunt. Because of limited funds, this mostly meant crafting owls. I have a tub of plaster of Paris, and thought about casting an owl. I thought about painting owls, and carving owls out of wood, and making seed art owls. The owl that I actually made and finished, though, was crocheted from yarn out of our stash.
The yarn was brown, orange, and yellow, and looked like it was left over from some crewel embroidery kit from the Seventies. I added in some other scraps of acrylic yarn.
Crochet hints:
1. Start from the center of the piece. and work outward.
2. Shaping is accomplished by using stitches of different heights. From shortest to tallest, in crochet this is: slip stitch, single crochet, half double, double crochet, and triple crochet.* (Below slip stitch you might put just doing an embroidery whip stitch along the edge of the piece.) I found it helpful to think of lines of stitching that I was working across an area, and varying the stitches within each line to vary its height as needed.
The other element of shaping is choosing where to put the stitches; choosing which stitches to hook into, for more or less density and fullness.
3. Finer details (such as stripes on feathers) can be achieved by embroidery, using yarn to stitch on the surface.
4. Some subtlety of color can be given by using multiple strands of yarn at a time, where all the strands are not of the same color. For most of the owl, I used two or three strands of the crewel yarn at a time.
5. Some mistakes can be covered by embroidery; I originally made the owl's pupils much too large, but was able to cover the excess pupils by embroidering over them carefully with the iris color.
6. Crochet lends itself well to three-dimensional work, such as for the beak of the owl, and to incorporating other materials...such as a stick for the owl's "perch".
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* These are in American terminology; I have seen European terminology where everything is moved up by one: their single crochet is our slip stitch, and their double crochet is our single, and so on.
Artistically speaking, when a theme starts to emerge from seeming randomness, then there is the possibility of intentionally encouraging and reinforcing it, to pull everything together into a coherent and meaningful whole.
Grandma had a number of owls in her house, probably many of them gifts from others. But Grandma and owls definitely go together in my mind. So I went on an owl hunt. Because of limited funds, this mostly meant crafting owls. I have a tub of plaster of Paris, and thought about casting an owl. I thought about painting owls, and carving owls out of wood, and making seed art owls. The owl that I actually made and finished, though, was crocheted from yarn out of our stash.
The yarn was brown, orange, and yellow, and looked like it was left over from some crewel embroidery kit from the Seventies. I added in some other scraps of acrylic yarn.
Crochet hints:
1. Start from the center of the piece. and work outward.
2. Shaping is accomplished by using stitches of different heights. From shortest to tallest, in crochet this is: slip stitch, single crochet, half double, double crochet, and triple crochet.* (Below slip stitch you might put just doing an embroidery whip stitch along the edge of the piece.) I found it helpful to think of lines of stitching that I was working across an area, and varying the stitches within each line to vary its height as needed.
The other element of shaping is choosing where to put the stitches; choosing which stitches to hook into, for more or less density and fullness.
3. Finer details (such as stripes on feathers) can be achieved by embroidery, using yarn to stitch on the surface.
4. Some subtlety of color can be given by using multiple strands of yarn at a time, where all the strands are not of the same color. For most of the owl, I used two or three strands of the crewel yarn at a time.
5. Some mistakes can be covered by embroidery; I originally made the owl's pupils much too large, but was able to cover the excess pupils by embroidering over them carefully with the iris color.
6. Crochet lends itself well to three-dimensional work, such as for the beak of the owl, and to incorporating other materials...such as a stick for the owl's "perch".
-----------------------
* These are in American terminology; I have seen European terminology where everything is moved up by one: their single crochet is our slip stitch, and their double crochet is our single, and so on.
Monday, March 5, 2018
Cleaning a rug with snow
Supposedly rugs were cleaned out in the snow in the old days. This is what I have learned about it, having tried it a few times:
1. Wait for a good snow; several inches at least.
2. Vacuum the rug first (or at least give it a good shaking out), and chill it, at least 30 minutes. You want frozen snow, not melted snow.
3. Wool fibers are weaker when they are wet. That means being a bit careful with the rug, especially a flat-woven rug. Braided rugs are weak in a different way, in the lacing that holds the braids together, so be careful with these as well.
4. Spread the rug out on the snow, throw some snow over it, and sweep it off with a clean broom. Alternately, lay the rug out dirty side down, and dance all over it (if you think the rug can stand it). Either way, there is some agitation of the fibers, and some action that helps carry dirt off the rug.
5. I have read that snow contains a small amount of ammonia, which helps get greasy particles out of the rug. The cold also helps grease solidify and fall out.
6. The hard part about washing rugs isn't washing them, it is drying them. Especially for a very large rug. What I have done in that case was to carefully fold the rug after cleaning, bring it inside, and then gradually unfold it, moving it with each unfolding to a different part of the floor, so that nothing underneath it was damp for long. This method did leave some visible creases in the rug, though.
All that said, I did take our big living room rug (flat-woven wool) out into the snow and clean it recently, and I can't say that it made much of a difference. The rug does look about half a shade brighter, and sweeping it with snow probably did remove some surface dust, but this method will not take out visible spots or grubbiness. Still, I feel that it was worth the effort, just not by very much. Likely sweeping it indoors and then vacuuming it again (I always vacuum it without the beater brush) would accomplish almost as much.
1. Wait for a good snow; several inches at least.
2. Vacuum the rug first (or at least give it a good shaking out), and chill it, at least 30 minutes. You want frozen snow, not melted snow.
3. Wool fibers are weaker when they are wet. That means being a bit careful with the rug, especially a flat-woven rug. Braided rugs are weak in a different way, in the lacing that holds the braids together, so be careful with these as well.
4. Spread the rug out on the snow, throw some snow over it, and sweep it off with a clean broom. Alternately, lay the rug out dirty side down, and dance all over it (if you think the rug can stand it). Either way, there is some agitation of the fibers, and some action that helps carry dirt off the rug.
5. I have read that snow contains a small amount of ammonia, which helps get greasy particles out of the rug. The cold also helps grease solidify and fall out.
6. The hard part about washing rugs isn't washing them, it is drying them. Especially for a very large rug. What I have done in that case was to carefully fold the rug after cleaning, bring it inside, and then gradually unfold it, moving it with each unfolding to a different part of the floor, so that nothing underneath it was damp for long. This method did leave some visible creases in the rug, though.
All that said, I did take our big living room rug (flat-woven wool) out into the snow and clean it recently, and I can't say that it made much of a difference. The rug does look about half a shade brighter, and sweeping it with snow probably did remove some surface dust, but this method will not take out visible spots or grubbiness. Still, I feel that it was worth the effort, just not by very much. Likely sweeping it indoors and then vacuuming it again (I always vacuum it without the beater brush) would accomplish almost as much.
Saturday, March 3, 2018
Cushion slipcovers, with dye transfer
The cushions on our very used glider rocker needed slipcovers. The fabric that I bought for it (a thrift store tablecloth) turned out to not be quite right for it, but in the box of thrifted fabric that I received for Christmas, mixed in with all the polyester were two new pieces of plaid wool. One in browns and black, one in blue and green and black.
The brown and black piece was just big enough to use for making the slipcovers, but the brown colors were just slightly too frantic for the room, so I decided to try to get some of the blue and green dye from one piece of fabric to the other.
First thing needed is a large stock pot that you are never going to cook food in again; dyes are no good for your health. I had one already. I pre-washed the fabrics in the washer. I filled the stock pot most of the way, put in a small amount of laundry detergent, and the blue-green-black fabric. I bought this to a simmer, and simmered it for a while, stirring it with a dowel from the garage.
Enough dye bled out of it that the water turned almost opaque. I took out the piece of fabric, set it aside in a bucket, and put the other piece in, again simmering it and stirring for a while. (This other piece also had some detergent on it, from a false start that I had made before.) Then I gave each piece (separately) several rinses in clean water, starting with warmer water, and ending with cold.
The brown and black fabric took up very little color in the dye bath, and what it did take up was mostly black, because of the excess detergent, I think, and because the browns mostly cancelled out the blues and greens, color-wise, before being overwhelmed by the blacks, and also the plaid fabrics didn't contain nearly as much dye as some wool fabrics that I have tried this with before. Anyway, the piece came out slightly mellowed, as well as slightly toned down in color. It related much better to the other colors in the room.
The first step in actually sewing the slipcovers was to get the zippers ready. I had two scavenged zippers that were the right length (or longer). One of them needed some seam ripping to free it completely from its original setting.
The next step was to cut a top and a bottom piece of fabric for each cushion, which required some careful layout.
I didn't think I had quite enough fabric to accommodate the zippers, so I decided to set the zippers into strips of a fuzzy black polyester fabric that was also in the box. I consulted a sewing reference book to figure out how to sew in the zippers, but still managed to make a bit of a mess of them. Luckily, the zippers were going at the backs and bottoms of the cushions.
Because of the curved shapes of the cushions, and the plaid stripes that I wanted to carefully match, and the ties that I had to leave openings for, I elected to hand sew, with a whip-stitch, the fabrics around the cushions. I did three sides of each cover, then took it off the cushion, turned it inside out, and machine-stitched outside my handstitching, for reinforcement and to reduce raveling. Then I sewed in one side of each zipper strip.
Each time I did that, I did it upside down/inside out! But I recovered by cutting the strips off the covers (I left extra width in the strips, so that was possible), and resewing them correctly. Then I sewed the other edge and the side edges by hand.
Altogether, the slipcovers make the rocker look retro, but boring, like a saggy old plaid couch. (Plaids really highlight any saggy parts; I should keep that in mind in the future when I'm sewing my own clothes.) It does help to tie some of the other colors in the room together better.
The brown and black piece was just big enough to use for making the slipcovers, but the brown colors were just slightly too frantic for the room, so I decided to try to get some of the blue and green dye from one piece of fabric to the other.
First thing needed is a large stock pot that you are never going to cook food in again; dyes are no good for your health. I had one already. I pre-washed the fabrics in the washer. I filled the stock pot most of the way, put in a small amount of laundry detergent, and the blue-green-black fabric. I bought this to a simmer, and simmered it for a while, stirring it with a dowel from the garage.
Enough dye bled out of it that the water turned almost opaque. I took out the piece of fabric, set it aside in a bucket, and put the other piece in, again simmering it and stirring for a while. (This other piece also had some detergent on it, from a false start that I had made before.) Then I gave each piece (separately) several rinses in clean water, starting with warmer water, and ending with cold.
The brown and black fabric took up very little color in the dye bath, and what it did take up was mostly black, because of the excess detergent, I think, and because the browns mostly cancelled out the blues and greens, color-wise, before being overwhelmed by the blacks, and also the plaid fabrics didn't contain nearly as much dye as some wool fabrics that I have tried this with before. Anyway, the piece came out slightly mellowed, as well as slightly toned down in color. It related much better to the other colors in the room.
The first step in actually sewing the slipcovers was to get the zippers ready. I had two scavenged zippers that were the right length (or longer). One of them needed some seam ripping to free it completely from its original setting.
The next step was to cut a top and a bottom piece of fabric for each cushion, which required some careful layout.
I didn't think I had quite enough fabric to accommodate the zippers, so I decided to set the zippers into strips of a fuzzy black polyester fabric that was also in the box. I consulted a sewing reference book to figure out how to sew in the zippers, but still managed to make a bit of a mess of them. Luckily, the zippers were going at the backs and bottoms of the cushions.
Because of the curved shapes of the cushions, and the plaid stripes that I wanted to carefully match, and the ties that I had to leave openings for, I elected to hand sew, with a whip-stitch, the fabrics around the cushions. I did three sides of each cover, then took it off the cushion, turned it inside out, and machine-stitched outside my handstitching, for reinforcement and to reduce raveling. Then I sewed in one side of each zipper strip.
Each time I did that, I did it upside down/inside out! But I recovered by cutting the strips off the covers (I left extra width in the strips, so that was possible), and resewing them correctly. Then I sewed the other edge and the side edges by hand.
Altogether, the slipcovers make the rocker look retro, but boring, like a saggy old plaid couch. (Plaids really highlight any saggy parts; I should keep that in mind in the future when I'm sewing my own clothes.) It does help to tie some of the other colors in the room together better.
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Writing more letters
I just finished reading a biography (of George MacDonald), and I couldn't help but notice how many letters were quoted from...letters not only to family and friends, but also letters to acquaintances and complete strangers. Long letters, too, not just quick notes. And these letters were preserved for years.
It's a mystery to me how they found the time for all that writing, even without internet and television and other modern distractions.
I've noticed that email often doesn't work well for keeping in occasional touch with people...I feel too much pressure to reply promptly and efficiently, and to keep the conversation going for a bit. With snailmail, there's some...latency?...built into the process; no one expects an immediate reply.
Anyway, it has become one of my goals to write real letters more often.
It's a mystery to me how they found the time for all that writing, even without internet and television and other modern distractions.
I've noticed that email often doesn't work well for keeping in occasional touch with people...I feel too much pressure to reply promptly and efficiently, and to keep the conversation going for a bit. With snailmail, there's some...latency?...built into the process; no one expects an immediate reply.
Anyway, it has become one of my goals to write real letters more often.
Monday, February 26, 2018
Carpet remnant
A while back, my husband brought home a long strip of new carpeting that he had scavenged from somewhere. It fits very nicely down the length of our utility room. The floor in there is painted, supposedly with an epoxy paint that is intended for garage floors, but the paint has not been holding up well, especially by the sink where it sometimes gets wet; I suspect that the floor was not cleaned thoroughly enough before painting.
Anyway, the floor looks much better with the carpet, and I am thankful for it.
Anyway, the floor looks much better with the carpet, and I am thankful for it.
Friday, February 23, 2018
Surviving February
February is my least, or second least, favorite month of the year. This year I stowed away two things from the holiday season, to save them for the last week of February: a gift card, and a few pounds of berries in the freezer. I think I will have to make a tradition out of this.
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