cooking

This is what i'm cooking and i'll go back to work right now. But before let me gripe a little.
Yesterday i went to a juried art exhibit with a painter friend of mine. She had entered a painting and had to go to the opening to find out whether her work had been accepted or not. Keep counting, please.

The awards were announced and the exhibit opened. Ninety eight percent of the works were figurative. And some of them verging on the commonplace.
This in a country which gave Miro and Tapies to the world.
It is disenchanting to say the least, that in year 2009 people still need to see the little house with the path and the tree. And i'm quoting my art history teacher on the house, the path and the tree.

By the way, my friend didn't get accepted.

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vanitas

Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower,
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind.
William Wordsworth

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improvising as i go

This is a fun warp, no pressure, no ambition, just plain let's see what happens.
i started with a drawing saved in my Fiberworks sketchpad which then was put it through the P program, the one you can't name without the copyright notes or else... After that i went to The Book for inspiration. Having woven very little lampas it seemed like a good choice for experimenting .

As every weaver knows the threading once threaded is written in stone, but the liftplan is flexible because you can change as you go. Cut and paste, wrap, you name it, those are the joys of computer assisted loom weaving.

Once the structures are assigned to each layer in the liftplan this image is flattened, saved as bitmap and opened in Fiberworks sketchpad.
This image in turn is copied and pasted to a liftplan and saved as a wif along with the threading and other information such as color or thickness. Because i use Patternland to drive the loom i have to be able to open the file there hence the wif file.

This first piece was woven using the lampas dobby presets straight up. After this i'm going to start creating other presets to go with my threading and image as i will also be brocading parts of the weft.

i am not really concerned if the outcome doesn't conform to the lampas weaving canon because i'm going to be post processing the pieces. A lot. The weaving talibans will come after me for sure, but anything for the look i want so why set limits?
And as Alice says i created the weaving so i can do with it whatever i want :)

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stratified

More rusties. At some point and pushing the concept of layers i started adding machine knitted wire. i have been slowly teaching myself how to use a knitting machine and it was fitting to add some knitted elements. These were the first additions, then i started rusting them too.

The series is not being shown in chronological order. i have been asked to explain the works and as a result i see many more connections.

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wooo!

Playing with the big girls!

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warming up

Weather and my dyeing self. Serves as a good excuse for being outside on the terrace.
The usual summer indigo vat, but this year i'm also diversifying. Here's a selection to choose from: foreground: wandering madder (rubia peregrina) aka wild madder
left. logwood chips, center: suo (caesalpinia sappan) aka brazilwood, right: sukumo,which is just posing elegantly here as i am not old enough to give it a try.
i think madder has lots of tickets for the raffle :)


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two other

More from the series. Don't know if i mentioned it, but the series is called Strata.

As always click on the images and you'll land on Flickr. There are notes in the photos.
Have a great weekend!



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wooo! me too

Visiting Fiona's blog i came across rosiepink . How could i resist? Look at those colors!
So i placed an order on Friday the 8th and it arrived yesterday the 12th. Absolutely brilliant, counting that there was a weekend in between and that it was coming from England.
Postal instant gratification exists :) Not only that, i also got kudos from them :) :)
While you're at Fiona's she's got an interesting post on Felt United and the international day of felt.
Guess what we all be doing?

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my rust phase

Still going on although not as strong. This is part of the series i was working on last year. i was very pleased with the results and submitted some of the works to the Small Expressions show and the triennial in Hungary and they were accepted.

That's why i could neither blog nor show any of the work until now. There are some 15 or 20 works and i'll be posting them occasionally.

These are rusted and stitched zisflor (sort of) paper with knitted copper wire incorporated.the wire was also rusted resulting in that gorgeous verdigris.The gorgeousness of rust is that depending on the material it takes different colors. Serves as a good metaphor for life.

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食べましょうか

Let's eat!

Although not usually found in Japanese cooking pak choy is a vedette in Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese cooking. For me it is one of the most exciting vegetables to be found in the market.
And with just minor cooking effort you can have a succulent dish.

• Preheat 1 to 2 tablespoons peanut or corn oil in a wok or large pan until rippling.

• Halve 6 heads baby bok choy lengthwise, keeping the stems and leaves intact, and place in the wok with chopped or sliced garlic and fresh ginger.

• Stir-fry until fragrant; season with salt.

• If you feel like celebrating you can also add shiitake mushrooms and tofu cubes to the stir fry. And for texture i add a tablespoon of sesame seeds.
  

• Dribble some mirin and soy sauce dressing to which a pinch of brown sugar has been added.
• Serve and enjoy.

And just to keep on topic notice the Finnish linen table runner in the photo ね！ :)

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watch this word

image from http://www.provincia.mediocampidano.it/mediocampidano/it

It will become household. Soon.

Pibione

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pibiones
http://www.sardi.it/sardinia/artig3.htm
http://antonello-luxuryhandbags.blogspot.com/


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starry night-the idea

i was working on this and it was going to be submitted to a juried show. Stuff, lots of it, got in the way and i never got to send the application.This is a difficult one to photograph so perhaps that kept me busy in other fronts so that i didn't have to deal with the photos.
The piece is my take on trellis stitch.Worked with a very fine reflective thread it gives a lacy net. In between there are French knots worked with glow in the dark thread. It looks awesome in the dark! But try taking a photo :( The black velvet foundation does not facilitate things either.
After some unsuccessful attempts i just gave up. And i'm not a quitter.
This will be filed in the for-your-eyes-only category.

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this is color, si señor

My Artfire production. Click on the photos to go to the descriptions. Had a great time with the photos :)
Have a great weekend!

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