small things that make me happy

A list of small things that make me happy has to begin with trading ATCs. Just look what Ati sent me. Thanks for making me such a happy camper Ati :)

The rest would be:

• a good indigo vat
• morning glories in the summer
• a well warped loom
• a comment on my blog
• an e-mail from my sister
• fados( strage thing, they reek saudade!)
• recognising a kanji
• morning chill
• those days working in a state of grace
• evening port and cakes at A Casa Portugesa
• lunch with friends
• red skies
• daifukus
• an attractive fractal
  

i could go on, but let's keep it short.

neki desu

if it's march it has to be TIF

This month's TIF proposal is small things in life. Difficult, but interesting topic as small things are the stuff of life. They make life. Big things don't. They alter and change life, which is a different story, for better or for worse.

As a warm up i started out listing some small pleasant things that make up my life, but had to stop as a daft Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music complex overcame me.
Luckily i remembered Lady Sei Shonagon who in her book The Pillow Book makes endless lists including both annoying and pleasant things. That is more close to life than the Julie Andrews listing. It's also incredibly beautiful and full of textile descriptions of the silk kimonos worn by Heian court ladies.
What more can i ask for? Three of my small pleasures, books, textiles and things Japanese rolled in one.
i still have to make up my mind, but as of March 7 listing is my plan for this months challenge. How to make it textile is another challenge.

As you all know i'm also interested in animation and worked out a graphic representation of the small things that make up life .This is also a warm up exercise and i don't really know where all of this will take me. Stay tuned :)
Oh and for some techie stuff visit the TIF challenge blog

neki desu

more spyrograph

This post is more about multi-tasking than anything else. i have 2 screens covered with dye paste working hard to get dry in this awful humid weather we have. Therefore i can't print.
i am warping my 12 shaft loom, slow cloth here, and doing warp chains to warp the dobby loom for a loom controlled shibori that will-holding my breath here-eventually be indigo dyed as soon as the weather gets hotter. So no actual weaving nor dyeing -yet.

Needed something fun to do in between the warping the making of the chains and the waiting.
i had this idea of trying plastic bags before the disappear, late comer here, also wanted to keep on with the spyrograph and the challenge was to try and work it all without getting excessive :)
And have some fun, nothing serious here

Here's what i did:

• cut plastic bags in strips and assembled them grid like
  
• ironed them between parchment paper
• put a piece of poly organza over and ironed some more fusing both layers
• topped it all with some florist lutradur like paper that had been dabbed with white opalescent paint and a bit of painted bondaweb
  
• went wild stitching circlets with polyester thread
• zapped it with the heat gun, i'm in love with this gadget!!
  

Et voilà mesdames! Fun it was.
Now on with the warping.

neki desu