AliaK [filter]

Koalas sew need you this summer | IFAW - International Fund for Animal Welfare

Currently it's fire season in Australia and the koalas have been victims of the fires in South Australia and Victoria. There's still risk of more fires to come (hopefully not!) as summer is still in full swing.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare has asked people to sew cotton mittens for the koalas to help their recovery.

"Koalas with burns to their paws need to have them treated with burn cream and wrapped in bandages. They then need special cotton mittens to cover the dressings. All this needs changing daily so we’re asking if you can help us by sewing koala mittens – as many as they can before the fire season truly hits."

The IFAW has a pattern linked on their site, or see the PDF file here:

http://www.ifaw.org/sites/default/files/default/KOALA-MITTENS-PATTERN-A4.pdf (PDF file)

Use 100% cotton only — e.g.: old sheets, tea towels or cotton t-shirts

Send your mittens to

IFAW

6 Belmore Street

Surry Hills

NSW 2010

Australia

visit the website for more details

prophet of bloom: an invitation: Solace

India Flint invites us all to contribute to her residency at The Observatory, in South Australia.

via http://prophet-of-bloom.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/an-invitation.html

Make a triangular flag or pennon [meaning a personal ensign, derived from the Latin penna meaning a wing or a feather] preferably using a piece of pre-loved cloth.
Stitch on it a word or a phrase or a sentence that might act as a wish for peace or an acknowledgement of beauty, imply a sense of stillness or simply something that  gives you solace. It can be as brief or as long as you like. A haiku, a snatch of song, a word that takes you where you want to be.

Attach ties to the tethering end of your flag.
It is important the flags be made from natural fibre fabrics as they will remain in place following prayer flag tradition, to dispense blessings and good wishes to the four winds...any shreds that part company from the whole must be bio-degradable. Additional decorations such as stone or glass beads, shell or wooden buttons are welcome, but please, no plastic.

Post the flag [preferably packaged in paper* not plastic] to :
 

Who Needs Education? | American Craft Council

An interview with Paul J. Stankard, a fellow of the American Craft Council, teacher, book author and glass artist who didn't study at university level. He speaks about his experiences and what he tells his students at Salem Community College.

Cy Twombly’s Remarkable Treatise

An article about the Cy Twombly: Treatise on the Veil exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum, and his style of painting and drawing. It shows a few paintings/drawings made in 1970/1972: “Treatise on the Veil (Second Version)” (1970), “Untitled” (1970), and two Untitled” (28 May, 1970) studies.

via http://hyperallergic.com/170270/cy-twomblys-remarkable-treatise

TALKING TEXTILES

The Dorothy Waxman Textile Design Prize is a new international design prize awarded to a textile or fashion design student who exhibits innovative thinking and inspiring creativity in textiles.

The award winner receives a prize of US $5000 and coverage on the online interactive trend platform, TrendTablet.com.

The competition is open to students from any country currently enrolled in a textile, fashion or knitting course. The winning design will be chosen by Dorothy Waxman based on its aesthetic and creative identity.

visit the website for the application form

via http://www.trendtablet.com/4155-talking-textiles

Mae Yokoyama, a Swedish student at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design has made a solar panel necklace which lights up LEDs when the power has charged. The aim was to turn “energy into beauty”.

http://www.ecouterre.com/couture-solar-panel-necklace-lights-up-any-outfit

Anne Wilson is a Chicago-based visual artist who creates sculpture, drawings, performances and video animations that explore themes of time, loss, private and social rituals. Her artwork embraces conceptual strategies and handwork using everyday materials -- table linen, bed sheets, human hair, lace, thread, glass, and wire.

http://www.annewilsonartist.com/topologies-credits.html

Crafting Anatomies | Bonington Gallery.

via http://www.boningtongallery.co.uk/events/craftinganatomies
Crafting Anatomies
Crafting Anatomies will place the human body at the centre of a multi-disciplinary dialogue; exploring how this entity has been interpreted, crafted and reimagined in historical, contemporary and future contexts.

The exhibition will dissect attitudes and approaches towards contexts of the body by showcasing visionary practices of leading international artists, clinicians and designers. These will be featured alongside anatomical exhibits selected from historical collections including films from The Wellcome Trust archive.

Organs crafted by silk worms, bespoke jewellery cultured from human skin cells, and couture garments constructed using plastic surgery cutting techniques are just some of the speculative projects that will be on display.

I've been away from my class materials since working on this new work project. which means I haven't had as much fabric, paints, threads, the sewing machine etc to work with. I found an app called art set on the itunes app store and tried it out on the flight home last week. it's pretty good. it has a large range of colours, and background "paper" with different textures and colours and weights - actually more than I have at home. plus multiple pens, pencils, felt pens, paints, crayons, sponges, erasers, water for smudging edges, and the app is really easy to use. it's not the same as using the materials by hand of course, but I think it does replicate the styles / effects the materials have quite well. and it was only 99cents. wish I'd known about this prior to spending a couple of hundred dollars on a much smaller range of pens and paints! I tried a few simple mark making exercises, then I took a photo from the front airplane camera (was my first time on an A380 & it has camera views on the tv/entertainment system - a view from the front of the plane, below near the wings, and looking towards the tail of the plane) and made a drawing of the view.

I'm going to try the knit a year project after hearing about it from Michelle from Reef Knot (& recently 107 projects). the aim is to knit a minimum of 2 rows each day, using a different colour to reflect my mood for the day & leaving a thread at the edge of the piece to show the start of each day

http://knitayear.ning.com

knitrageous has written a great post about the project - she travels also so has similar issues to me, ie not having your yarn stash with you all the time.
I think it'll be an exploration in colour and texture - perhaps I'll add some embroidery over the yarn, or try some weaving also.

as I'm traveling at the moment, I don't have my yarn stash available so I brought some multi-coloured sock yarn with me and will use different colours from this whilst away. it means cutting up the yarn and thereby ruining the skein but this should be OK - I can always join threads if needs be.

I cast on 23 stitches, which is different to the instructions, but 23 has a bit of maybe logic flavour to it. I think I'll leave tails on both sides too
traveling yarn stash

I've been staying in the same hotel for the past few weeks in Auckland, in different rooms each trip. I have been noticing the different patterns in the furnishings and textiles in the room. the room I'm in now has a mixture of lines and circles - none of them perfectly shaped. they have a nice feel about them, and match the nearby building's outer surfaces too. the carpet lines in the corridors flow through to match the blanket on the bed which has similar curves stitched onto the ends of the blanket.

I put the sewing machine in for a service at Chatswood Sewing Centre prior to my work trip & collected it on saturday. it's working much better! the dropped stitches problem from my previous attempts has been fixed - apparently this is caused by the timing being out, so the position of the bobbin & needle are mismatched which cause it to drop stitches intermittently.

I tried some machine embroidery and had much better results too! I haven't worked out the full control of the machine in freehand mode but I made some marks with it, and some circles. I also did another test swatch with straight stitches (in normal sewing mode) and the decorative stitches, and they're all looking much better.

the fabric is bunching a bit with the stitches. I just grabbed the first scrap of fabric from one of my bags, so I'll have to try some plain cotton too to see if that helps. also I think I need to guide the fabric more carefully and perhaps hold it taut more whilst moving it around, so it doesn't bunch up more.
zoomed in: (I need to rescan this - the scan came out blurry in parts)

this week I'm away from home, and have been sick. it's thursday and the first day my head's felt clear in ages. after a week of early night's sleep with nighttime cold'n'flu tablets I'm finally catching up on some class work.

tonight I came across these projects:

project 3: colour

stage 1 - Introduction and preparation

stage 2 - colour perception
exercise 1
exercise 2

stage 3 - recording colours accurately
exercise 1
exercise 2
exercise 3
exercise 4

stage 4 - colour moods and themes
exercise 1
exercise 2

stage 5 - coloured stitches

prep for assignment 2 / part 2: building a visual vocabulary
these notes are mostly to list which materials & techniques will be used in the exercises, so I know what to prepare for
project 3: colour
materials