February - what I have so far (crochet)

While I have spent the last year dabbling in different techniques to increase my range and repertoire, crochet has the #1 place in my heart, and I am (attempting to) pull out all the stops in regards to this next work and what I will be crocheting for it. Fortunately, construction of theGRID space continues on, allowing a bit of a run-up to the work.

Some of what I have so far:

A place for all the floating pieces

One bag of a different kind of growth

It's not much, yet, but combined with the rugging and felting...I think I just need to keep going! 

Wish me luck.

Put an arachnid on it.

Sometimes things are very beautiful but they are also very... not boring (never boring!), but less interesting than they could be. This post was originally titled Put a skull on it as I had initally planned to hop on board the candyskull train to Kitsch Town, but I couldn't find any pictures of skulls that grabbed my attention. That's on the backburner currently.

Note how mean the bedbug looks. 

Anyway, this image of ticks did. And so, I have begun to use it in a small amount of embroidery, namely, this purse. A Pimp my Wallet, except the wallet won't cost thousands of dollars (that I obviously couldn't afford in the first place) for upkeep.

Side view.

.... top view?

Ingredients clockwise from left: diagram, tracing, carbon paper, scissors, sharpener, pencil, thread, quick-unpick, wallet.

First tick.

Placed fairly haphazardly, like actual ticks.

Tick break during lantern time.

I am still tossing up on whether or not to continue the tick pattern around to the other side of the wallet, and a final number of ticks. Also, I now need to find something to do some bedbugs on. I can hear the ghosts of puns past; "OOOOooooOOOoooo say something about a mean bedbug problem in the title of it wOOOOoooOOO...."

And I'll consider it.

theGRID - Planning for super secret fun times pt. 3

This is the last installment of pre-planning photos. It's exhaustive, but I wanted to cover all the angles.

Half a pathway, near the tree

A place for the smokers?

I have been told the wall mounted.... object was a clothesline

Anyone have a book on beginner's clothesline repair?

This is just depressing, but I'm glad things will grow here.

Some of the surrounding architecture

Beautiful in it's own way

Perhaps even inspiring?

Sunday morning....uh-oh!

But on Monday... they'd been piling up more stuff for us!

theGRID - Planning for super secret fun times pt. 2

Welcome to the second installment. There's a lot of different angles to be covered, so stay close.

Reusable materials

DANGERZONE

Barren

Is virgin soil called virgin soil because it hasn't been ploughed?

Are repairs made, or do we let the jungle have what it wants?

Two trees. Not negotiable.

Hmmmm.....

Front view of the trellis.

Any day now?

theGRID - Planning for super secret fun times

Slightly off tangent post about a different kind of practice.
Around the back of theGRID hybrid arts collective's space there is room many different outside-based things. I will be having a go at creating one of these things, and as there is still a lot of work going on around the space, we are in the early stages. Waiting for the workmen to finish up before we can really start, but here's a documentation of what we have (hopefully soon, we will say 'had'). Was that vague enough for everyone?

Is this counted as cruelty to plants?

Predominantly featuring scaffolding, hastily erected fences and a portable toilet.

Rusty fence collapsing under weight of vines. 

Here's a nice pile of shit. 

Fridges. Those white things are fridges on their sides.

Fridges, bricks. I forsee heavy lifting in my future.

I think this shows promise. Everything will try it's hardest to do what I want, which is obviously still a secret*.

And a trellis.

*It's probably not a secret.

Crafternoon Feb 11th; Lantern decoupage

The very cool and switched on Alison Mooney from MARS invited me to go dumpster diving recently. Look what I found! 

Today I do something new.

Just what I've always wanted, one of those things. But in decoupage. So, I went to some sites to find out how to decoupage. 

Because there's nothing I like better than putting the cart before the horse, I had earlier in the week purchased some unappealing dress patterns from an opshop (est. price: $1) in preparation for my imminent decoupage.

Ingredients (clockwise); PVA glue, patterns, pattern sleeve, scissors, brush, some kind of lamp. 

Wet, extremely fragile, hollow sphere of paper and PVA - should have hung it up before starting.

The first couple of panels. At this point, I am still trying to find my way with the medium, and maybe you can tell.

 

First layer, getting the hang of it now.

Sewing break! Added another tick.

After using up one WHOLE pattern already

The second pattern has many new pictures - mostly arrows and cutting scissors

Don't follow the suggestions of the cutting scissors! All finished with an extra layer of PVA glue to make it tight as a drum.

Relax, have some tea.

At the end of this, I'm not sure if I've just done a decoupage. The Decoupage Guild Australia site has things that are so much more... polished and other sites featuring how-to's are doing... things that are different, I just don't know if I'm doing it right. Is there a difference between decoupage and collage, or is it all just glueing shit to other shit?

I think the sphere will look very nice in my designated space for theGRID anyway. It'll be in a hybrid arts collective (when it opens, in _____________), so I think that will fit right in.

Worlds colliding

So, it was probably bound to happen. I like tying knots, and fibres, and string, and rope is just pretty much big string, right? And, a lot of the knots are like macrame knots, right?

And I don't create in a vacuum and I am not an island...

I just wish my torso wasn't so grubby... and was a real life, very patient person...

The always effervescent Puzzletits.

So... shibari, that ancient Japanese art of tying people up, with different kinds of restraint and ties based on social status, sex, disability and likelihood of escape. There's more, but, well, it is currently just body macrame to me. The aspects of healing, meditation and tantric sex that shibari can also be used for are still beyond me. 

And here's why: This is my third attempt at it. Ever! The first two attempts have been by myself, on myself, and the going is s-l-o-o-o-o-w when attempting intricacies behind your back. Not that I wasn't successful, mind; I'm pretty boss. And I always have my safety scissors!