Ack! SPAM!

I'm being spammed :( I'm going to try and find out how I can delete these stupid "comments" and probably set Moderation ON.

Annoying!

It's a sad, sad world we live in

I've been away on holiday in Denmark where I was born. While I was there, several major events occurred, some of which hit hard:

1. The attempted murder of Kurt Westergaard, he of the Mohammed cartoon fame, in his own home. He was in fact only one of 12 cartoonists, but became the "face" of the issue. I'm a staunch defender of the right to free speech, especially where this is enshrined in one's own country.

2. The shocking attempted bombing of the plane bound for Detroit. It is chilling indeed that a single deranged individual has the power to sow havoc around the whole world and demonstrate how fragile our safety is. We were subjected to intense searching at the airport after this, with random body scans and sniffer dogs. Must say I was grateful for that.

3. COP15, the world climate change conference. There was no room at the inn during the conference, but I made it there the day after it ended. Many exhibitions and writings on the subject were still available and I learned a lot about just how urgent the problem of global warming really is and how much evidence already exists to demonstrate this urgency. We have fouled up our own backyard and our own children will pay the price. One day they will ask us "if you knew it was happening, why didn't you act to stop it?" But too many countries lack the political will to take it seriously. Depressing. It reminds me of what TS Eliot wrote in the poem The Hollow Men:
"This is the way the world ends.
this is the way the world ends.
this is the way the world ends.
not with a bang, but a whimper"

4. The heaviest snow conditions in Britain in the last 30 years. We made it out of Heathrow at midnight on 5 Jan, after a 4 hr delay to deice and redeice the plane. At one stage the captain announced it was "not looking good". It reinforced for me, how the world weather is changing, with more extreme events. Some say we are headed for another Ice Age, and will become extinct like the dinosaurs. We certainly deserve to.

Well, there, I have minced no words about my opinions. (It is my blog after all.) Why am I writing this in a blog about fibre art?

On the plane home, in the middle of a sleepless night, it all got to me. I sat for probably half an hour with tears rolling down my face, silently listening over and over and over to Katie Melua's "Spider's Web" on the headset. My head filled up with images of destructiveness, hate, arrogance, the complexity of protest and convictions, consequences, sorrow and fear. We will succumb to flames that will burn to our own destruction.

I will use these images in a visual composite of all my impressions. There's a danish 'silver lining' proverb - probably has an equivalent in every language, but I learned the danish one first - "There's nothing so bad that it isn't good for something".

I'm a speck of dust in the universe and cannot change the world.
But I can comment.

Just found this

Untitled

2008
35cm x 35cm
Fabric
Machine pieced, hand appliqued

I must've finished this some time ago. I don't even remember it. I found it in a pile of fabric I was cleaning up. That's actually quite b-a-d! :)
Ah well, nothing like discovering something you thought you hadn't finished, but in fact, had. There's hope for me yet!

Heritage, completed

Heritage: Viking girl's longings
2009
43cm x 54cm
Fabric, leather, beads, stones
Hand embroidered, -appliqued, -beaded. Machine fastened.

Here is a photo of the completed work. I carelessly didn't take a picture before sending it off. Silly me :)

An easy Sunday

I picked up this work from when I was in hospital in 2007, during what I can now see was a mixed episode. I was very depressed, but did a remarkable amount of quite frenzied art during that time, not exactly typical of my down times. Each square is an individual quiltlet 10x10 cm. I've been pinning them in various combinations onto my polystyrene design board. It's all still very much "in-progress".
I don't know where this is going, but I am thoroughly enjoying the journey! This intuitive working is a bit of a leap of faith. I'm a hard taskmaster, so I must say it's wonderful to just ignore that inner critic and go ahead and PLAY and remember there's no such thing as wrong.

Why is that so hard to learn? Or to remember? Why such guilt associated with FUN?
"I command you to have fun. Now!"

What is "Gel Medium"?

I subscribe to two American magazines: Quilting Arts and Cloth, Paper, Scissors. Both of them frequently mention an art material called "Gel Medium", used to stick/glue/adhere things together. As I am using more and more "mixed" media, other than fabric, I'm wanting to glue and not just sew.

Can anyone who might read this, tell me what "gel medium" is, so I can find the equivalent here in South Africa??

Here is what we have here, and what I have used:

Wallpaper paste comes as granules, that you mix and whisk with water to the thickness of paste you want. It forms a gelatinous, clear mass, that also dries clear. It's used, not just to hang wallpaper, but to do papier mache. It's my favourite: it works well, it's cheap and has a nice finish, and I'll be so happy if this is the same as the mysterious "gel medium".

"Modge Podge" is a runny substance, used for decoupage (ie paper). It comes milky and dries clear. It also works well to stick things to each other. It's good, but it's expensive.

Clear, water-based varnish. I bought this in a hardware shop once, when I was needing a lot of Modge Podge, but the Modge-Podge just proved too expensive. It worked just as well as Modge Podge. I wonder if "Modge Podge" is just a brand name of water-based varnish?

Wood glue, also known as craft glue or white glue. It is also available in a "Quick-Dry" version. Where does this fit in? It's white and dries clear. You can water it down to whatever consistency you like, it both sticks and "varnishes" to a nice finish. I've also wondered whether Modge Podge is a watery form of wood glue (?)

I can't imagine that "gel medium" is some foreign substance we don't have here. It must surely just be a matter of matching the names! I don't know how the above relate to each other, but they are all water-based.

I'll be grateful for any help. :)

Slow Cloth 1

Slow Cloth 1
93cm x 87 cm
Fabric, yarn, beads, metal castings
Hand applique, -beading, -quilting. Machine finished.

From Wikipedia:
"The Slow Movement is a cultural shift toward slowing down life's pace... (It) began with a protest against the opening of aMcDonalds restaurant in Piazza Di Spagna, Rome, that sparked the creation of the Slow Food organization. Over time, this developed into a subculture in other areas, such as Slow Travel, Slow Shopping, and Slow Design."

The Wikipedia entry is worth reading in its entirety. The Slow Movement spread to Slow Life, Slow Parenting and Slow Art. And, of course, it was picked up by fibre artists.
There's been much interesting discourse about Slow Cloth. Read Slow Cloth/Slow Craft: Is This the Birth of a Movement?

Another good article is entitled Defining Slow Cloth: 10 Qualities. Though I only read this AFTER Slow Cloth 1 was finished, my heart is singing with joy at how the process has intuitively incorporated many of these qualities, without my knowing.

I began with the intention to create something meandering that would develop by itself, through whatever took my fancy at each moment. The process was daunting as it ran the constant risk of producing a complete flop, after months of effort. At several stages I thought I had overdone or otherwise ruined it, but I read somewhere that if you think you've overdone it and you can't undo, keep going! Layer over layer also works.

It's been enormously good for me and I know it's the start of a satisfying and therapeutic series of works. :)

I'm sure most of us live the dilemma of how to slow down in a world that moves so fast, that if you stand still, you're going backwards. Since being unemployed (since Jan this year) it's been easier for me to slow down, but I fear employment will force me back to the hectic pace. When I read job advertisements, they inevitably say "Must be able to multi-task and work under pressure" and my heart sinks. I know well that situation where there are 5 things that have to be completed yesterday. I used to do this, and somehow cope, but it took a heavy toll, and I'm sure it contributed to my recent long bout of continued illness.

Part of Slow Cloth 1 is three-dimensional, and design credit for this goes to Jenny Hearn, a South African artist, who incorporates this in her work.)