Something Else Amazing I Didnt Realise I Needed In My Life.

Something else amazing I didn’t realise I needed in my life.

Published by the London Review of Books, 8 November 2012

In Anne Carson’s six translations of Ibykos, the mode of fidelity to the source text varies not according to the closeness of cross-lingual synonyms but according to the spirit of the translation. It is an extreme example of a translator bringing herself and her own ideas into a text, and also an effective one—if her goal is not to replicate Ibykos but to play with his work.

(cp. 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei [Eliot Weinberger, Octavio Paz]; Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird [Wallace Stevens])

This is called 'couching' and is a legit embroidery technique.

I wouldn't want any cosplayer to think that they had somehow cheated and therefore are not actually as skilled as "real" embroiderers.

Also, puff paint is a genius idea for couching with. Whoever thought of that deserves a medal.

Found this GREAT embroidery tip from a Facebook cosplayer!!

https://www.facebook.com/Inusdreamcosplay

For those of you who don’t have an embroidery machine accessible to you, and don’t think you have the skill/patience to hand embroider, this is an amazing tip! Plus, if you paint over a drawn stencil, it should be pretty easy to keep everything neat and even looking!!

Another really cool art-writing-translation project.

Differences achieved by slipping knitwise/purlwise for an SSK decrease, for anyone who has ever wondered. Top left is traditional SSK - both stitches slipped knitwise. Top right is SSK with both stitches slipped purlwise. Bottom left is first stitch slipped purlwise and second slipped knitwise. Bottom right is first stitch slipped knitwise and second slipped purlwise. You can see that the traditional SSK gives the smoothest line. But that might not always be the best style for a pattern. If you're working something that emphasises corners and angles, try one of the other three. SSK with knitwise then purlwise completely hides the second stitch being decreased so it gives a simple step pattern in the decrease. The other two allow a leg of the second stitch to show through so could work with designs where you want to emphasise complexity or a 2-1 rib design, etc.

MakingLearning & the Leuven Conference

A group of which I am a part (MakingLearning) recently ran a practical, art-therapeutic workshop at the Psychology and the Classics conference in Leuven. The workshop we ran is one we have run several times before: Hanging My Heart. In this workshop, participants create ‘votives’ - small art-object treasures mimicking the kind of votive offerings found from the ancient world. Such objects could represent prayers for help with a particular issue or illness, or perhaps even a prayer of thanks for something now over or completed. Obviously, in a contemporary context we (as in, we who run this workshop) do not make these votives with the intention of leaving them in a temple as an offering to a god. In our workshops, the value must be found in the process itself rather than the dedication of a finished item. 

One of the things I struggle with most as an artist, and in general as a person, is the idea that my activities and projects could be process-oriented rather than goal-oriented. I have always worked with the latter model. I make because I want to actualise something; I have an idea in my head and I want to turn it into a physical item that can be seen, held, and shared. The first few times I was asked if I enjoy the various modes of crafting I engage in in pursuit of this goal the question baffled me. It was so irrelevant to my goals that not only had I not considered it, but the question itself confused me. 

I still can’t answer the question. I can’t tell you if I enjoy sewing or knitting (etc.) or not, but I can at least explain that enjoyment of the process is not why I continue to do these things. 

  Perhaps it is odd then, that the group I work with and in - MakingLearning - is emphatically focused on the value and quality of the process: learning should be fun. Making should be fun. The process of making can be more important than the finished item. The process is the part in which learning, self-reflection and discovery happens. Everything of value to the maker happens in the process itself - it does not magically spring into our minds when an object is finally complete. 

  You can see the struggle I have with process-oriented thinking: even when trying to think with such a model my mind immediately grasps at the non-physical outcomes of the process. Goals, goals, goals. My mind remains stubbornly outside the process. And, perhaps paradoxically, this is precisely the reason I value MakingLearning’s approach. Every workshop is another chance for me to try and understand this other mode of thinking, to try again to just enjoy the process, without thought for any sort of goal: to try and engage in a making where success or failure are as irrelevant as enjoyment is to my usual way of working. 

  So when we run the votive workshop, in which participants make votives representing fears, hopes, sadnesses, etc. mimicking the ancient practices of votive giving, what do I make votives of? 

I make votives of anything I want, of things without outside meaning, I allow myself to play, to experiment with new techniques and not worry at all about what the finished item might look like, because this time, at least, it just doesn’t matter; it is the process of making the object, not the object itself, which constitutes my votive.