Just a (sort of) quick picture post before I go work on my tapestry some more!
Our second print project was due on Wednesday. I am sort of disappointed by what I ended up doing… I think the idea was ok but not very awesomely executed.
The truth is I did start it early, and I had grander ideas for it, but I ran out of time, and this was also partly because life decided to be like “Oh p.s. your apartment is being sprayed, how about your caulk your entire home and bag all of your clothes and transport your pets via transit to burnaby and also your toilet is leaking so you need to fix that too, oh and remember that dentist appointment where you were going to get half the work done? Well actually let’s just do everything all in one go ok?”
So as you can see, I ended up doing a small series of grocery bags made out of recycled t-shirts. You basically take a t shirt, cut the arms off, cut a dip in the centre and then sew the bottom together. I sewed the bottom twice to make them a bit more sturdy.
I know they do not look related at all at first glance, and I will admit I probably should have done more with the birds (inspired by these photos – just a warning, they are pretty heartbreaking). But I did learn an important lesson about choosing a smaller scale project (my original plan was a duvet cover) and also time management. Some things were out of my control, yeah, but still.
The Earth bag was a monoprint – I took my source image, flipped it in photoshop and then stuck it under a plate of glass. Then I painted the pigment on using the picture as a guide. Otherwise it would have been so wonky. The leaf is just a found object print.
Just to give you an idea of how awesome everyone is, here are some pictures of other projects:
Marissa’s hair clip printed shirt.
Meredith’s Day of the Dead hanging.
Sol’s Missing People.
Serine’s Jellyfish scarf.
One of Hillary’s ottomans.
Mackenzie’s discharged woodgrain print outfit.
Mary Ann made a slipcover for a cushion. Pretty much you wish you were in the Caribbean yeah?
There were other rad projects but I unfortunately did not get pictures of them all. Sometimes I feel like a creep taking pictures of everyone and their stuff, but I think it is interesting and I love seeing what people come up with, so I want to share it with you, the internet.
Ok so after we presented the projects we made Indigo happen.
You really have to love your vat to get it to work properly. We wrapped them with one million per cent foam and towels to keep them warm and happy.
We tried out a few shibori techniques but I haven’t checked mine yet to see how it looks because it needs to dry out. We also watched a video where some lovely people demonstrated shibori and pretty much I do not thing I will ever be that quick.
Unfortunately it was really busy with everyone trying to dye everything, so I am not happy with my samples at all, but luckily we will be working on this for the rest of the term so I’ll have more chances to get some good samples.
P.S. Indigo stinks. SO bad.
I also wanted to update you on our little worm friends. They are all grown up now
Pretty much they made homes, hung out for a bit, burned their ways out and then put the moves on each other. I think those little specks are eggs! I wonder if we can make baby ones happen?
Lastly, there was a student sale today for the second years as part of the open house at the university. I was very impressed and also a little intimidated by all the awesome things!
A little terrifying to think this will be us in a year. D:
We did not get to stay long as we had a field trip to go on for Art History but yeah. Good work. I was impressed. I hope everyone made some sweet sweet dollars!
Stay patient, kittens. It is a bit wonky at the beginning but things get rad after 0:20.
I feel a little like life has kicked me in the face this last week, but it is mostly ok. I have made it through what seems to be the worst of it. Our apartment was sprayed for bedbugs on Saturday, so I pretty much spent all of Friday preparing, and then Saturday I was a nomad with all my pets at Steph’s. I can’t even really remember everything that happened? Anyways you know you have too many clothes when they fill an entire bathtub and also an entire storage unit. The saddest part is I do not even wear most of them, but I have a hard time getting rid of things if they are still in usable condition.
Oh finally I had a camera in the day time when I was going to Steph’s, so I took a picture of this crazy tree. The best part is I’ve seen the family in the yard before and they look like 100% normal respectable people. And yet they are clearly full of the crazy. I have given up trying to interpret the meaning behind this tree… The first time we saw it was probably about 2 years ago and it just keeps getting weirder and weirder.
On Sunday I sat at the Textile Arts program booth at Circle Craft, which was pretty rad. It was awesome to get to see all the vendors and stuff that I sadly could not afford. Check out those jellyfish lamps! Man they totally made me look foolish eh?
This booth also stuck out for me, mostly because I thought these guys were mega cute.
They had also a student art show with work done by mostly grade 11 and grade 12 kids. I took a few pictures of the really sweet ones.
Oh by the way, Vancouver has decided that all the rain will happen now.
The first few days are always a bit shocking, and then you realize yes it really is November. Eventually I stop bothering with an umbrella and just resign myself to being cold and wet. My coat is in a bag somewhere.
I think you need some more Okkervil. I know I do!
My favourite part happens around the three minute mark.
Oh also Christmas is happening soon! I find as I get older, the more I like Christmas and the less I care about Halloween. Blasphemy, I know. But Christmas means hanging out with family and Halloween means having anxiety about people shooting off fireworks in the park behind my house and being drunk everywhere.
I found those sweet snowflake things at the dollar store, right before I stumbled upon this explosion of colour.
It’s like someone massacred a rainbow!
Ok now let’s quickly talk about my field trip to Lighthouse park last week. We went for our Design class so we could get inspired by nature, which is pretty much how I roll anyways but it was nice to go outside for a bit.
Mostly I am just going to post pictures of nature so if that’s not your thing get your scroll finger ready.
Oh! One other rad thing about Christmas is EGG NOG LATTES.
And also the decorations at Metrotown, which are made of the greatest colour combination known to me.
Ok so I know this post is way scattered but here is one more thing to show you and then I am going to go to bed.
How amazing is this?! I am so so in love. It is basically exactly what I want to do and in one sense I am sad someone did it already and in another sense I am like “how can I do this in another more different and awesome way?” (P.S. they are made of felt!)
Seriously. These are from the exhibit that was running at the Silk Purse Gallery. I do not even remember the name of the show (I think it was Celestial Textiles) or the artist but if you are interested I can find out.
Also today we dyed with Indigo and I took some pictures but long story short it is 11:40 and I am tired so I will try to get them up soonish. Before it has left my brain.
Indigo is totally gross smelling but it is basically made of magic.
