may all your projects be fruitful

peace and joy to all

Takinga blog break. Back after Epiphany.

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still cold

Back to 3ºC after having 6º on Saturday.Almost felt tropical.
And it's raining too. Not very inviting to go out. It is nice and dry inside.Postponing some grocery shopping for the Christmas dinner.
Working on a series that can't be shown if i want to submit to Small Expressions .Sometimes it's good to have deadlines.
To keep this textile related the photo was taken some some weeks ago when the weather was nice and i could leave the house.The upholstery pretty cool and the photo is not too bad considering it was taken with my cell phone.

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pot-au-feu

We've had 3-5ºC all during the week.i know you snow birds are cracking up as you read, but we're not used to this cold weather.What we have here is balmy Mediterranean weather.

My pot au- feu has been steaming with one of those hearty, thick Spanish soups with loads of chorizo , dried sausages, chick peas and ham bones for taste.
You start out with a sofrito ,then add the bones and water and simmer.There you have the secret. Add the rest of the ingredients and let it follow its course.
Wonderful comfort food and a way to keep the heater down to a reasonable level. And you don't have to cook just keep adding things to the ham bone stock.
Have a warm and cozy weekend.

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design principle#37

Any aesthetic quality is usually enhanced by the presence of a counterpoint.

Mathew Frederic

101 Things I Learned in Architecture School

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in between acts

Making new friends, saying good bye to old ones. It's bitter cold here by our standards. Can't even think of going outside to check the dyes, so i'm patiently winding on the warp inside.
Luckily i had taken out this one at the weekend before the cold front hit.First stage in a pomegranate dyed shibori.
i have been told that yellow dyes are fugitive.So is life. Enjoy the fleeting moment. Carpe diem.
For textile buffs and stitchers check this and also this

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pomegranates-act 1

Here is the silk skein after two days in the soup.This one was mordanted in alum, no heat, for two days, taken out and left it to drip the excess water.Then it was plunged in the soup and left in peace.Since it won't be used immediately i'm leaving it to cure without rinsing until its due time comes.Unbelievable taxi cab yellow oi? No ps here so excuse the dark cast on the background.
Now i have some shibori in the soup and this one will take longer.

Have a fab weekend!

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design principle#36

Value drawings(rendered in shade and shadow)
tend to convey emotions better than line drawings.


Mathew Frederic

101 Things I Learned in Architecture School

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doo wop doo wop

Finishing this afternoon the 1200 thread tying ordeal. It wasn't the number of threads, but trying to keep the color sequence right as it was double width. Promise not to talk about tying on-ever again
For all who shared the boredom with me, let's do the Watusi!


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visual pun

Natural dyes with a street and parked motorcycles as background.Get it?
The silk skein was alum mordanted and put into a diluted pomegranate solution and the photo was taken after 24 hours.i have visions of shiboried scarves floating in the liquid.Just a matter of time.

The warp hasn't made significant progress,i managed to tie about 100 threads yesterday.My cop out for yesterday was a long due visit to the hair salon for a desperately needed haircut.Do not tell me it isn't an impeccable excuse :)

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strutting along

Reached the halfway mark, although my house has never been so clean, have never been taken so many nice photos, my Flickr never so organized. Have 2 mordanted silk skeins to dye in the pomegranate soup.
Creative and efficient procrastination is what i've developed :)
Still, i want one of these.

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i'm curious

Yellow!! When i took the sample out of the pomegranate soup after two days it was taxi cab yellow. Some color washed off, but it is still pretty vivid.Next step will be mordanting some silk yarn with alum and leaving it for 2 days as well.
Weavingwise i managed to finish tieing on the first chain in all of its 300 knots.Amazing the strategies used to combat boredom. Like chanting gray-blue, blue gray in mantra fashion to keep the order on each layer as if i suffred from Asperger's syndrome .C' mon people, i need a pep crew!

We are having a 5 day bank holiday until Tuesday.Anybody wants to move to Spain?

Have a lovely weekend!


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design principl#32

The most effective, most creative problem solvers engage in a process of
metathinking, or "thinking about thinking".


Mathew Frederic

101 Things I Learned in Architecture School

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tying on to a dummy warp

Unlike this, which is absolutely mind blowing. But no more procrastination, i have started. 1950 threads to go. Sometimes peer pressure is good.

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an implied promise

Battling with a book cover and trying to fit it to a book in the impossible quest. Doing things that Etsy doesn't like, like using dark photos.
The rebel in me came out in these photos, too"artsy" to get a clear idea of what they are about.
We all have similar sensibilities, travel to the same places therefore our photos tend to look alike. i'm trying to change directions photowise. Perhaps this blog will end up looking like this other one, who knows.
Anyhow the actual narrative of the photos is very straightforward. A woven silk sample,no scouring, machine zigzagged and dunked in the pomegranate soup that has been steeping for 2 weeks now.
No romance.

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