Monday, January 28, 2008
Satin Covered, But Apparently Hazardous!
It never occurred to me this would be turned back - the security officials in the departures area at the Montevideo airport last week insisted that because it was metal, I would not be able to take this item through in my hand luggage! I had feared they might question how long it was since the genuine horsehoe inside had been on a farm or at a rececourse. I was blown away, gobsmacked. I pleaded that this accessory is a symbol for luck to give to our DD at her wedding on friday night - but no go.It's not large - max 5", but it is a genuine metal (iron?) one, quite heavy, and covered with palest almond satin ribbons and fake flowers. It would have gone just fine with the ivory dress. Well, I wasn't going to hand over this frothy creation of mine for someone to just toss into a bin - and fortunately I was early enough to call someone to the airport and take it home for me. When DH and I go up again in a few months' time for the fiesta/reception we'll take it in our checked luggage. When the officials saw my dismay they were very kind, but most insistent; and my linguistic skills didn't run to the finer points of whether or not this was weapons grade metal - and so I didn't crack any jokes. These guys have guns on their hips. I suppose there was a danger I could have tossed it and knocked someone out - quite ridiculous. Actually I have always thought how easy it would be to do someone a serious injury with the one thing that every traveller carries - a ball point pen. But at least American Airlines entrust their passengers with actual metal knives - unlike our own aussie Qantas , who, last time I travelled with them were still issuing eaters with grey, metallic-looking, but pathetically weak plastic knives.
Labels: bridal accessory, horseshoe, symbol of luck
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Influences Are Everywhere
This is not a new work. I have shown a part of this pic before, in a blog recounting some of the work covered in a Dorothy Caldwell workshop, "The Expressive Stitch". This is the worksheet, the experimental page, on which I explored ideas she presented. (see October 2005 archive) That very stimulating workshop reminded us all that anyone regardless of skill or experience can sew a simple straight stitch, in and out, again and again, without any fancy turns or knots along the way, and grouping them in lines, crosses or randomly, create expressive and possibly powerful patterns of marks on cloth .I am an admirer of UK textile artist Clyde Olliver, whose thread marks are not on cloth but on stone. ("slate or other suitable material" ) This week I visited his blog, http://clydeolliver.wordpress.com and was fascinated by a recent post on current influences in his work. After reading his analysis, I was prompted to consider my own work in terms of 'influences'. Everything we admire for qualities of design and craftmanship has influence, and I think degrees of admiration and influence are in direct proportion to each other. I think of fav. artists from several countries, all of which I realise have added something to my individual sense of colour, design concepts and love of line and texture.
Serious influences in particular come from textile artists and teachers I have encountered. I became interested in 'creative embroidery' in 1975 in a class of that name; Laurel Fraser Allen really opened my eyes to the enormous variety of embroidery/stitchery as a craft practised in all cultures. My mother and grandmothers stitched counted thread work, smocking, needlepoint and 'fancy work' - remember the cloths, doilies and duchesse sets on pre-printed fabric? Often sold pre-edged, but Mum and Gran x2 bought ones you needed to crochet your own edges. Then between 1977 and 1980 followed Cynthia Sparks (own design, consider any thread, any stitch) Constance Howard I was privileged to have as a teacher for 4 days in Aus '79 (emphasis: really looking at colour ) and Meg Douglas ( paint plus stitch, free machined embroidery) The next major textile influence was the world of traditional patchwork and quilting as experienced living in the USA '87-'94. A first flying geese wall hanging preceeded my own designs, all of which owe something to the grids and repeat units of traditional patchwork. Nancy Crow's multi-faceted influences on approach and attitude have been far greater than the mere technique of template-free rotary cutting and piecing construction techniques she teaches and which I and many other contemporarty quiltmakes now use exclusively. In recent work I am influenced significantly but possibly less obviously by temporarily living out of my own country in another with different cultural background and values; and finding an interest in lace and leather reflected in some ways, too.
My website, http://www.alisonschwabe.com/ is currently being updated - the most recent artist statement/bio addresses this, too.
Labels: influences
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Tatts !
Living in the relatively quiet backwaters of Uruguay, I had not seen this stuff, but probably all north americans have. Our DD has not had her arms covered in a full set of zany tattoos - the printed flesh-coloured stretchy mesh sleeves attach inside the t-shirt she's wearing and, being form hugging they give the appearance of tattooed arms.
She says she gets a lot of looks, some of them horrified, some admiring, whenever she gets out in this number. I was rather taken with this witty idea, and pleased she isn't planning to actually 'do' the whole arm bit. However she and fiance G are planning to have wedding rings tattooed before the big day... bizarre imho but, it's their business. What will 'they' think of next to part people from their money....
OMG - Laser cutting Machine
My regular readers and all who know me personally will know that I am by inclination very low tech, my love of fabric and stitch having been expressed through hand and sewing machine techniques, with the occasional aid of paint by various techniques, and the use of adhesives and bonding materials. Wherever possible I use a rotary cutter, of course, and scissors for the tricky bits. In recent work using leather, I have resorted to hand cutting with scissors and using a leather punch to achieve lacey effects. However, last year, after attending the SDA conference in Kansas City and seen many interesting developments in work on show there resulting from some of the new technologies being explored in the textile field, I then spent some time with my computer and graphics design savvy son, who opened my eyes to the potential of a laser cutting device.... and so, I have been thinking and dreaming about this for the past 6 months. Finally, last week DH, DS and I all went to visit the distributor of one of these machines for an actual demo. It took me very little time to realise that this is an answer to my love of repeated units, the tricky non-traditional materials that I love, and slightly arthritic hands which really feel the impact of hours of cutting and punching through something like leather. And, the time saved putting my ideas together will be enormous.
It was no mean feat to get from Easton MD over to Fredericksburg VA, at 3 hours each way - but once there we spent several hours with Paul who ran one of these machines through its paces. I took along a selection of fabrics and other materials I was interested in seeing perform under the laser cutting beam. Although he had other stuff like granite, wood, laminated plastic and lots of other 'hard' materials, it was leather and fabrics including synthetics I was especially interested in, and sure enough, he did not have most of those things around. By either scanning the lines of a hand drawn or photographed design, and setting the level of the laser's focal point to the surface of the material being cut, the same shapes can be cut, enlarged and reduced, with the aid of the dedicated computer, onto which of course the settings for each material and the different designs you are working with can be saved. The cutting takes mere seconds, no matter how complicated the shape. And, the scope of endless exact repeats is infinite. DH's eyes were really opened, and I totally fell in love with a machine that day. My son says it was like watching a kid in a candy store....it was all I had hoped it would be.
One great thing about cutting/burning with a laser is that especially on synthetics, the heat seals the edge each side of the cut - meaning handling of the shapes does not lead to instant fraying, something that is hard to combat and which has been rather offputting re cetain materials - nylon organza, synthetic metallics and silk especially. See detailed view above left.
The full view, right, shows : UL cutouts of an artificial silk-like fabric with embossed glittery Christmas shapes; some gold lame UR; at LL some batting; and LR some stretchy red metallic knit fabric - all cut with exactly the same pattern at different sizes.
Odd layout - sorry - in deleting some text I accidentally got rid of one pic- which did not go back in where I wanted it - sigh - it's just one of those days Blogger wins. I am just not re-doing this - it's too hot and humid.
The samples are of Paul's designs - he is an engineer and as I told him, it shows. I'd have gone for more organic shapes, but we didn't have all day to fiddle around, and it is clear to me that between now and when the machine lands in Uruguay I need to make myself familiar with Adobe Photoshop, and get ready to start tapping the potential of this machine. The cost? IMHO quite hefty - but, really the smallest desktop model I am getting is just a bit more than one of the fanciest top line sewing machines available - and a bit less than setting up with one of the popular long-arm quilting machines. And so I have chosen to take a higher tech direction that I feel is in tune with where I am going with what I am doing.
Labels: laser cutting, new hitech tools, repeat designs
