Another Really Cool Art-writing-translation Project.

Another really cool art-writing-translation project.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the illusion of pure originality ever since I read this comment from Pablo Neruda, which Mykki Blanco tweeted a few days ago. Last week, a subscriber to my newsletter alerted me to the fact that some other person had started an email newsletter with a structure very similar to mine. “It seems like he’s copied your whole format,” wrote the reader, who was flatteringly indignant on my behalf. I told him that I appreciated him looking out for me, but that I try not to keep tabs on or worry about these things too much. I don’t own the idea of breaking up a newsletter into discrete sections, and I assume that most people subscribe to mine because of the substance of what I include, not due to the fact that I have created a unique new format. Because I haven’t. A few weeks before that, I had a conversation with a friend who’s an illustrator. She told me that younger artists sometimes ask her to divulge exactly which materials she uses—brushes, ink, paint, paper. She finds it insulting. She said she’d never give away such specific information, because to do so would be a tacit endorsement of other people copying her work. I told her that I didn’t think it was a big deal. All creators do a certain amount of ethical stealing, and no other artist could make the work that she does, even using the exact same materials, because she infuses everything with her point of view—which she owns completely. I would like to tell you I sounded wise, but I probably sounded like an asshole. Then today a friend tweeted about a new podcast that’s all about friendship. I felt a flash of annoyance: “Hey, we already have a podcast about friendship.” And I had to take a step back and remember that originality is not the virtue it’s made out to be. This is not friendship-podcast Highlander. There can be more than one—or two or three or four—excellent podcasts about friendship. It’s a big and important topic! And then I subscribed to the new podcast.  Obviously you don’t want someone passing off your words as their own or tracing your illustrations and republishing without attribution. But such instances of straight-up stealing are way less common, I think, than the petulant urge to protect your perceived originality from people who are merely making something similar. I’m putting this here to remind myself that next time I feel the desire to defend and clamp down on my work, it might be time to try making something new instead. And accept that even the new-for-me thing is not going to be totally original.

Just proof that I'm still alive and doing other stuff beyond baby blankets: the WIPs I currently have on square frames. Does not include any knitting, crochet, or embroidery in round frames. The main light in my lounge is so yellow and rubbish. I need to sort that out.

Classics craft workshop at KCL

King’s College London are hosting an event on the 16th October 2015 called ‘Craft process & cultural response: making & thinking about making in Greco-Roman antiquity’ There’s a choice of a mosaic workshop and a textile workshop, followed by an evening talk. 

It’s free but you do have to register (which you can do through the link above). I already signed up for the textile workshop (shocking, I know). 

I’m a huge supporter of alternative approaches to classical material - especially craft approaches. There are experiences you gain from engaging in a making process that you just can’t pick up from translating texts or reading texts, looking at pictures, or reading academic research. It’s an approach that I’d recommend anyone interested in classics tries at least once. This event looks pretty good to me, so, y’know, if classics/craft is your thing and attending seems doable to you, maybe register for it. :3

But yet it seems to me that translating from one tongue into another, unless it be from those queens of tongues, Greek and Latin, is like viewing Flemish tapestries from the wrong side, for although you see the pictures, they are covered with threads that obscure them so that the smoothness and the gloss of the fabric are lost.

Don Quixote, Part 2: (trans Water Starkie)

Oh, but Don Quixote, did no one teach you to marvel at the back of those tapestries, and see them as their own piece of art?

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!!