diverting diversion

tote bag given to me for spending almost too much at the craft store. the first time since it was winter i was gifted a bag umbrella.

it had a cutesy,too cute for my taste as i don't do cute, motto that was begging to be tuned.

first layer 

second layer.

this has served a purpose,

shifting attention to pleasurable things in order to avoid warp debugging  burn out.

fringe benefit also include having a cool totebag. whomever invented gratification should get a statue in every town and village.

neki desu

 

in the temporal paradox loop

next and final step from  this to this  . applying  layers of learned techniques to old blah work. in other words it is about time.you cannot alter the past, but can work on  its sediment.

geezzz while working dilligently january went by.

neki desu

 

tuned eyelets

continuing with the exploration added another layer at the back, paint and gold paint.

next step is going to be some stitching

with these gorgeous steph francis  yarns that have been lying quietly at the bottom of the drawer. i think this is going to round out the piece. no major artwork here, just exploring. having fun  and doing something with all those samples which telling you, it's getting serious.

neki desu 

 

what is the girl to do

with all the scads of samples?currently using them to try out what ifs and other stuff.

 

these are going through a puff paint

experiment. the top one needs more heat gun.

being a fishline knit, one has to proceed carefully with this one.yet it holds a lot of possibilities. am going to work more with the fishline samples.

neki desu 

 

things that happen

when you stamp with dimensional paint on fishline. there's room here for a lot of experimentation. care must be taken with the heat gun or the outcome is a  scorched and fried piece. fups  are great for experimenting new things. no fear of taking them into a more fup dimension.

btw, the white squares are knitted in mohair.

there's also the option of coloring or stamping on fishline. stamping is trickier, but with care it's doable. laying color on it is a no brainer.

will also look on the foiling possibility .

had not been aware that i was in a post pandemic rut.my nature walks are so awesome that they shaded this fact. thanks to the infamous workshop my gears are gyrating again. 

today's the 28th. where did april go?

neki desu

 

and some soul searching too

     

 now some tilling done the academic way. there is something in the spanish system that makes learning a chore bcse  the easier ways are deemed fraudulent. take language learning: students spend years and years learning grammar but they cant speak the language. the direct methodology is  considered as  not sound learning.in the end they probably  know more grammar than a native however,......

 

 let's see what mosaics we come up with. you see, i bought this little program years ago and ive been playing with it all these years. the good news is that the workshop has forced me to use the heesch tillings  a utility i had hardly used. this is for my own production as i won't dare even mention it lest my reputation as a bona fide cheater will consolidate.<(￣︶￣)>

some flowy flowers i drew for stencil to be used in a future project. i already used them years ago when i was working on deconstructed printing.

boy!some years back, i even used a signature in the posts.

 

neki desu

 

mind searching

outcome of last class. it HAD to be like this no matter how boring it looked. the only spunk came from a gold overprint which in my book translates as big deal (õ^õ) to my suggestion to overprint something else to make it less static the reply was that we were learning techniques, not creating art. touchê.

you also cant touch up the parts with no paint bcse that's cheating.wait! ive heard this before re electronic looms, k-machines and probably rotary cutters  ಠ ಠ             

came home frustrated and started looking for 

alternatives via PS. the good news is that:

1. i've come across some new to me functions in the program.live and learn.
2. i am being forced to think patterning, which is a good exercise.

wordle is also helping. i've started on the spanish one  as well.

neki desu

 

take the good and ignore the bad

c'mon, you're old enough to be able to do that, the stamping workshop i'm taking is testing me.

the leader is the kind of person that reprimands you if you color outside the line; she even picks up the colors for you( insert expletive) ⋋__⋌

the good part is that it gives me some discipline and once i get going i come up with new ideas.

she wasn't particularly happy that i ripped the first sample into quarters  and tried some more stamping using the same potato stamp, adding the teal blue and rioting on the last two.

the original number was photo above left, which to my taste was too uniform and boring.

 every time i take a workshop i realize that teaching is hard task that not every one can do. we haven't come to the explanations part, my pet peeve, but we will eventually.

neki desu 

 

wip a little less

got back to this.the white background was covered with a wash of light turquoise.that white was killing me/it. nothing like alcohol for a good wash of color.

the blue gawa  川　needs more stamping and stitching。

neki desu

 

fun and games dept

printed vilene, stitched knitted remnant and trying my hand at wire  kantha; stitching with copper wire is challenging.the blank space on the left of the stitched pieces is an angelina fiber glowy mesh. it never photographs well unless i take out the tabletop setting and lights. not for a blog post, sorry.

this was fun and games relief form the k machine.i am enjoying finding uses for knitted samples or bits.

 next week it's going to be sewing. and weather allowing dyeing. ＼（＾▽＾）／ wooo

neki desu

 

coming along

on the waste not dept. this uninteresting double weave piece is in transit to becoming at least _ you fill the blank.

it includes making gelli plates for mono printing

on it.

do yourselves a favor. do not use gelatin sheets, they really suck.

powdered gelatin is  wyswyg, sheets are a hit and miss. although i don't know if outside europe you can get sheets. 

neki desu

 

the glooms

geezzz.looking for some work to be gifted to a friend i found some  of the work i made in barcelona.

this one even  weaves the words gloom invades the scene, paraphrasing shakespeare.

>

i noticed that most of the work done in the last10 years was pretty gloomy. granted there was some color here and there, but the most compelling ones were dark. and in all media.

 there are many more but i dont want to depress readers.

you judge.

neki desu

 

mattress stitch torment

fighting boredom. why are finishes so boring? same thing with hems. but they have to be as close to perfect as one can produce, because sloppy finishes give handmade a bad rep.

this one is torqueing ,wonder why, so it will hang for a couple of days and get re stitched again.(╯︵╰,)

but all in all i am gaining confidence making this sweater and will be repeated until perfection.

it was a year ago that i bought DAK and still have just scratched the surface.

 

i've been entertaining myself so as not to die of boredom with various things; unproductive such as finding  japanese line stickers and transferring them to WhatsApp and telegram via some entailing apps. 

Productive such as painting layers 

of color washes to finish 

this number.

still needs more work.

some gardening also. anything to keep me from mattress stitching, really.

neki desu 

 

graphic relief

a change of medium and scale.putting the knitting aside because it is quite absorbing. this WIP is bengara on bamboo paper. still  lots to be added to it but since it is  a mind refresher it has its own pace.  

still weaving the never ending silk scarf.

neki desu

 

it was hot

last week. too hot to move. it was 28º too hot.i feel like a princess complaining while the rest of spain and europe were frying in the 40s. but i've already paid my dues in endless mediterranean summers.
 i sat and stitched some knitted samples trying to move as little as i could.





i used beads a resource i had forgotten i had!
they combined well with monofilament and mohair.
 some knitted wire samples i had aged by giving them a patina treatment and painted linen sample as substrate made another surface design piece.












neki desu
 

acclimatize

been getting up at 8:30 to be able to do the morning walk and pump some iron in the park before the heat kicks in.mind you the hottest it gets is 25C but i'm already acclimatized to the lower temps up north. 25 seems like a heat wave   🙄. 

 sitting and stitching, trying to use the ungodly
numbers of knitted samples.
this one even has incorporated knitted wire samples. it needs to be straightened a bit at the top to make it less airborne.
it's a work in progress coping with the heat and feeling awful complaining because this is not really heat.






some weaving done but not worth mentioning.


neki desu