Unfinished Crafts, June 2021

Plushy Letters : O

Continuing the plushy letter theme from my last post, I started a Plushy 'O', as it seemed the second easiest letter to design after 'I'.

Floral Skirt

I started this skirt a few months ago, and it's almost finished. I just need to finish the bottom hem, and I'll probably add some of this lace to it. To be honest, it's deep Winter here now, and this is a rather summery skirt, so I'll probably put it aside until the season comes around again and work on other things in the meantime.

Grannyland Blanket

This is such an easy go-to project to grab when I'm feeling the urge to craft, but don't want a lot of brain-work to do. I realised a while back that the overall blanket will look better if I edge each square in the same colour. I finally got around to purchasing some wool for the purpose. I don't know why I chose red. Black is too common for this purpose, and I'm already making another blanket with white edgings. I thought about the primary colours and red just felt like the right one. I've started the epic task of adding one row of red to each of the 36+ squares. To be honest, I'm still not sure what dimensions I want the finished blanket to be, so there may be more squares before this thing is through!

Art Projects

The last two projects are ones that I'm doing under my artist umbrella, rather than 'private' craft projects. They're both still in the early stages, so I won't talk about them too much now. They both involve a lot of cross-stitch, bead embroidery, knitting and other crafty details, so I thought I'd mention them here at least.

Take care and keep on crafting!

Highlights (and Lowlights?) of 2019

2019 was a pretty low-key year for me. It seems fashionable these days to say that the year just past was a rubbish fire, and I was tempted to say that too. I had some setbacks, especially health-wise. But then I looked back through my blog and Instagram and realised that I actually did quite a lot this year. It just wasn't in the categories of what I used to do in the past, or what people 'should' do. There's nothing wrong with that, though.


LIFE & HEALTH THINGS
I only worked for 2 months this year. I secured a two-month contract in March-April, then decided to take a month off to concentrate on my exhibition (more details about that below!). Not long after that was finished, I developed some new health issues and some existing ones got worse. I developed a severe pain in my knee and could barely walk for about a month, something I hadn't experienced before. The doctor seemed to think it was arthritis, but I'm still not sure. Thankfully that got better, but I wasn't able to follow up on it because then I caught a virus which made me nauseous and dizzy for several weeks. Then my Adenomyosis treatment failed catastrophically and I was unable to leave the house again for some time, even just to try and seek treatment. I eventually ended up having a hysterectomy at the start of December, and I'm currently recovering from that. I was also dealing with my Ulcerative Colitis (my 'usual' chronic illness) all during this time. I don't normally go into this much detail on the blog, but I just wanted to acknowledge how much I managed to do this year, even despite all of these restrictions.

So what DID I do?


ART
✽ I held my first solo exhibition! (May) -- this was actually a pretty massive achievement!!

✽ I made a lot of art! (all year)

✽ I was accepted into and had a piece in Fat Feminism exhibition! (October)
✽ I joined a collective: Lucy Goosey Women's Art Collective! (November)
✽ I went to my first life drawing class! (October)

✽ I had a piece in NOIR Darkroom's Kris Kringle art swap! (And got an awesome piece of art in return!) (December)
✽ I made a flatlay! (October)

CRAFT
✽ I finished my first blanket! (Sure, I had to make it for my exhibition, but it still counts, I think!) (May)

✽ I tried a new craft: Lucet braiding! (April)

✽ I made some plushie monsters! (May-September)

✽ I joined the #makenine challenge ... and only made one item! ... It was my blanket that I keep mentioning. (all year)


HOME & GARDEN
✽ I grew potatoes! (January-February)

✽ Husband and I built a garden bed! (November-December)

READING & WRITING
✽ I set myself several reading challenges and read lots of books! (44 books and 39 short stories, novellas, plays, etc) -- this is double what I normally read! (all year)
✽ I re-read The Lord of the Rings and wrote a blog post about it! (August)
✽ I set myself a challenge to write short stories and I wrote 12! (June ; November)


OTHER THINGS
✽ I achieved many victories over my social anxiety!
✽ I went with Husband and my foodie friend on a road trip to the Geelong Show! (October)

✽ I started making videos!
✽ I ate a lot of food at a lot of places! (all year)
✽ I changed my fringe-style!

Whether you did a lot or a little in 2019, it doesn't matter. I had a few experiences which made me remember that I'm lucky just to be here. And I'm looking ahead to 2020!

My June, and Life & Health Update

In June I've been enjoying the colder weather, as I wrote about more in my Hello Winter blog post. In this post I want to talk about some more personal things. Some long-time readers might know that I have Ulcerative Colitis (I even wrote a zine about it a couple of years ago!). In late May I developed some new health problems, quite suddenly. I woke up in the middle of the night with severe pain in my knee. I was almost unable to walk. I managed to make it to a doctor and to my chiropractor with Husband's help, but I was given conflicting information about it. The most likely diagnosis is arthritis, which is a secondary complication of Ulcerative Colitis. It began to improve very slowly, but has relapsed several times. I can only stand for a few minutes, I can't walk very far and between that and a Colitis flare-up, I haven't been able to work. At the moment, I don't know if I'll get better, or if this is how my life will be now.

Having said that, I've been trying to stay positive and do what I can. I can still cook, do dishes, etc, as long as there's a chair nearby to rest my knee. I've been making art, crafting and even writing a couple of stories, which I might share soon.


What I've been painting ...
Here are some paintings in progress, and finished. I like giving the paint-by-numbers an ironic message. I have at least 10 more stashed away to do.

What I've been crocheting ...
It's been a lot of fun making these little plushy monsters. I'm currently onto my fourth. I love choosing the colours, and designing the faces.

What I've been reading ...
As one of my 101 Things in 1,001 Days items, I've been continuing on with The Lord of the Rings, and nearly finished the first book. The Fellowship have just left Lothlórien and said farewell to Galadriel and the other elves. I have been deliberately trying to imagine everything independently, not just fall back on what places and people looked like in the movies. Sometimes it can be quite difficult, even though I haven't seen the movies for about 5 years. Am I the only one who worries about that?

What I've been playing ...
I've started playing The Blockheads again. From what I understand, it's like a 2D version of Minecraft (though I've never played Minecraft). I'm working towards the ultimate pinnacle of the game -- the creation of a jetpack! so my Blockhead can fly through the sky rather than having to put up with riding donkeys. So undignified.

Bonus Kitty Picture ...

101 Things in 1,001 Days : Year 1 Update

I can't believe it's been one year since I started my second 101 Things in 1,001 Days challenge already. It feels as though I've done more than I did at the one-year point the first time I did the challenge, but I can't really be sure. I've completed 11 items -- that's ten percent. I guess it's not too bad. Here are a few highlights:


DONE!
✦ read Ulysses by James Joyce - this book is considered to be one of the hardest to read in the English language, and I can see why. It's so beautiful and complex that I couldn't even attempt to review it. I would never have read it if it weren't for the Reading Ulysses with Conner Habib course. The course is run once a year to coincide with Bloomsday, which (actually coincidentally) is next week, on the 16th of June.
UPDATE: The course is now available year-round!

✦ finish making a blanket - yes, it's true, I have several blankets in progress, one of which I started when I was 14, and until a few months ago, had never actually finished one. If you read this blog at all, you'll recognise it as the one I made for my first solo art exhibition. I cherish it not only for the art in it, but the craft in it.

✦ get another tattoo - as with my other tattoos, I decided to get one design at first, but then changed my mind in the end. I got a candle in remembrance of all the forgotten people, all the people who have had violence done against them, who should be here but aren't. I chose a rose, poppy and peony for the flowers. The artist told me she usually does one flower showing from the back as her signature style, and I agreed to that. It only took 3 hours, and, I have to confess, it hardly hurt at all.

✦ watch 50 new movies - I finished this one very early, thanks to Netflix. I guess I'll increase it again next time, assuming we still have Netflix then!

IN PROGRESS!
✦ do nanowrimo - but isn't NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November? Yes, it is. But I still haven't finished my story, so I consider it to be 'In Progress'. I'm pleased to say that I'm up to the final editing stage though. After those few final tweaks, all that remains is formatting it (after figuring out how it needs to be formatted), creating a cover image, and then uploading it to some self-publishing site (after I choose which one/s). I can't say when it'll be done, but I'll be sure to let you know when it is.

✦ go to 15 exhibitions - It seems I'll finish this point early, too. I've been to 12 so far, big and small, from paintings to jewellery. It's been very inspiring! I want to make it a regular occurrence, if I can. I saw an original Frida Kahlo! A Yayoi Kusama! And so much more.

✦ go to 30 new restaurants - since Husband and I started having regular lunches with our foodie friend, this point has been easy to work towards. I/We have been to 25 so far, from Korean to Colombian.

✦ donate 101 items (new) - I recently replaced a point I no longer wanted to do with this one. So far I have donated 15 items. 11 of them were books I gave to the Melbourne Central Little Library. I bought a box of 25 random children's books from an op shop for a bit of light reading, so there will be plenty more to donate soon.

New Art and Craft Projects

After finishing off my blanket, which you can see in my last post, I was a little bored. Crocheting back and forth, back and forth for 13 months, I really wanted to do something different. Though, kind of strangely, I still wanted to make things with crochet. So I started this scumble. Scumbles are freeform crochet -- they can be any mixture of stitches, shapes and textures. This one evolved in a completely un-planned way. I started out just mucking around, sticking with a blue and green colour scheme, then decided to add some sequins and beads. Then I decided to make it round and attach it to a backing board to make it easier to hang. Some bamboo plates I found at the supermarket make perfect backings. It just needs to be filled out around the edges now. I'll probably stuff parts of it to make it more 3-D. Maybe there'll be bits hanging off it. Who knows.

I also had an urge to make another plushy monster, so here is Splodge. All they need is some stuffing, attaching the arms and adding hair to be complete. Hopefully that won't take too long.

I've been working on this paint-by-number for a while, and it's almost finished. The kitten is finished, anyway. I want to add some text, and I've ordered a stencil for that. I hope it arrives soon!

Finally, well, I've already warned you that I can't draw, but I want to improve. I had an urge to use my dip pen to try some drawing, so I did pictures of Vincent van Gogh and his brother Theo. I always get the urge to draw them in the darker part of the year. Though it's not quite Winter yet here, they're as good a subject for drawing as any. I confess: I smudged them a few times and tried to make it look like it was deliberate. Perhaps I'll practice some more before I waste any more good watercolour paper.

I've ordered some wool for making a Newt Scamander scarf, so perhaps you'll see that soon!

Preparing for My Exhibition

After the sadness of my last post I haven't felt like communicating much. But life went on. I had an exhibition to prepare for!

I finished the blanket over a week ago. That was the easy part. I've been crocheting for 30 years and I know how to do that. Everything that came after it was new, and I was nervous! The first thing I did was create some postcards. I really like the idea that people have something they can take away with them, like a small gift. Instead of a normal flier, I made up postcards that are a little more durable, so people can use them as a bookmark, hang them up on the fridge, or whatever they wish.

Sharick seems to approve -- he kept trying to sit on them!

Designing the postcards was easy, and taking photos of the blanket was much easier than I thought it would be. I have to thank my photographer friend for his advice there. The text was much harder. I needed to summarise my ideas in a few short sentences, in a way that would make sense to other people. I've lived with this project for over a year, and I know it inside out. I was worried that I was too close to it to be able to explain it to a newcomer. I took some advice normally given to writers, and slept on it (and also did a spell, but that's a story for another post!). The next day I re-wrote it completely and I was happy with it. I ordered the cards and they came on time.

Then I needed an idea of what the space would look like. I already knew that I wanted some signs and accompanying materials that would explain what I was trying to achieve. To be honest, I just kind of bashed something out, as it's hard to know what everything is going to look like and exactly how much space there'll be.

I know the blanket will be in the centre and it will be very wide, so I printed two copies of each sign so one copy can go on each side. Then I don't have to worry that people will miss out on seeing all the signs. There's one with the title of the exhibition, a sign explaining what it's about, a mock invoice that shows what you'd pay for the blanket if you really wanted to pay a fair hourly rate, and just for fun, a 'Crafter's Resume'. Aside from being fun, I'd like to think that people might consider craft work in comparison with office work. I'm also including some photos of the blanket in progress to give it a more personal feel and to prove that I really made the whole thing!

I printed out the larger (A3-size) signs at my local big-box stationery store as my home printer doesn't print larger than A4. The process was surprisingly smooth -- I just emailed the files to their email address and received a code in return. At the shop, I got a pay card, entered in the code and it was done! I bought a folio so I can carry the papers around and keep them safe. It's pretty boring (the cool one was too expensive) but I'll decorate it when I have time.

Install day is tomorrow, so I needed to pack everything! I checked the blanket one more time and folded it up. Sharick very kindly helped me with this. He always looks grumpy in photos but he was actually purring away madly and seemed to be having a lovely time.

I popped everything in a bag and put it by the front door ready to take to the gallery tomorrow. Voila! An exhibition in a bag!

What Is This Handmade Blanket Really Worth? is on at NOIR Darkroom 13th - 26th May 2019.
57 Moreland Road, Coburg. Open Wed-Sun until 6pm. My blanket is in the front window so you'll be able to see it 24 hours a day! There will also be a rad zine exhibition on in the main gallery at the same time. I can't wait to see it and I hope you'll check it out.

P.S. This is actually my first solo exhibition! I can hardly believe it!