recreating the first folio

 another pleasing wee doco from lrb  

botanical plaster casting

 handy. but looks much easier than it is! lol 

18th century embroidery

 bernadetee banner et al are on it! 

woodcut printing

i've been chopping down some trees of late so, after a bit of drying, this is on the cards  

sharpening gouges

 handy tool. handy tips 

make your own pen

 this guy's great. i'm trying this! 

suminagashi

i'm doing some of this later on this week. this vid's in spanish but it's easy enough to follow along. there are loads of other but i didn't want to use one where the person doing the vocal track couldn't at least approximate the proper pronunciation! using glue is a new one on me (pva in uk i'm guessing) but i'll give that a go and see what happens 

barniz de pasto cabinet

 v&a delivers again! this was all new information to me! 

tetrapack printing

 there's a couple of things i'd take issue with in this. i think the dark stripes are done with a method she's not shown, i wouldn't apply ink with my bare hands - you'll get coloured fingers and you're asking for trouble with your paper, and i definitely wouldn't even try the spatula method! mainly because it's time consuming, your pressures will never be even, it'll compress your printing surface, and i just don't think it'll work. other than that, solid vid 

and, obvs, i'd be circumspect about tracing someone else's image!

armour

 old school craft! lol 

bookbinding

i'm planning on making an artists book sometime next year with gelli print negatives, sketches etc. here's a great vid with no voiceover, no music, just someone making their own book. it's not too difficult, just requires a bit of patience and some basic tools. everyone should do it! 

book press

 it's highly unlikely i'll ever need a book oress but, after seeing this, i want to make one!

larissa huff

 of whom i know nothing beyond this. that said as a fully paid up member of the patriarchy it's been interesting as my life's gone by to watch as i see my firsts - female medical consultants, firefighters, bike mechanics etc etc. and i'm so old now i'm meeting the female children of the above at work! (time to retire!). 

why is this important? because when i was a father/uncle etc i felt i really needed to be able to show my little women what was possible, not just say it. that said, it's an ongoing process. it's been gladdening to see more female photographers out and about but as yet i only know two female pinhole photographers. sound recording i think i only know one one female sound recordist. and i've never met a female cabinet maker so now i've seen larissa huff i'm waiting for her to appear.  

dark room getting started

 i set myself up a wee dark room recently. i don't have an enlarger etc (all of that disappeared in my last move) as it's really for pinhole/alternative process work. and it needs to fit in a cupboard. it's not hard but there's technique points that i have gaps in. so these ilford vids are great 

tetrapak printing

i've got this on the backburner for trying out in the winter 

circular design

i'm still sick, just not as sick, and well enough to appreciate both just how long my not as young as it used to be body shakes off its troubles but just how deep set was my assumption that i lived in a society with access to health care. those concerns being set i was interested (as i'm fit enough for making, more or less) in the following podcast via garmology about the notion of circular design.

it throws up some interesting issues. moths for one! but, for me, along with all the stuff about sustainability, like the healthcare above, just how grounded in capitalism and consumption, everyday decisions are. it's not so very long ago i realised that not everyone had the advantage that i did as an island child of being able to sew, darn, stitch, repair, knit and crochet. but also, having had a textile business, as the podcast points out, these very simple things, for a community at that time, have now become a pastime of access and privilege*. 

further, that question i'm unfailingly asked about my visual art - why don't i sell it? because i don't want to. because i want to share it, the means of making it, the joy of doing. and also, because i got off that wheel of selling/exhibiting/publishing i really started enjoying my practice again. then, the interactions i've had since have been so lovely - not arty types, nor poetryland - where i can gift my work, or better yet, show someone how to do it themselves. and music! art/literature collaboration always seemed like such an effort, so much talking and so much ego, but music, despite my awfulness, brought an instant kinship, a communication of play.

and all because i wasn't feeling that well! it's a bit of a listen it's true (and i'm not going to lie, i've been reading a fair bit of montaigne recently) but it's an interesting entry point into the question of how to live.

*a case in point. watching bernadette banner the other day and thinking i could fair give a go to making a waistcoat for myself when it struck me just how much such an endeavour would cost, even assuming i got it right first time - reasonably likely but not guaranteed. currently i have scissors and pins and that's about it (not forgetting i actually have space to work!). no thread, no button stash, no measuring stuff, no chalk, no sewing machine! and that's before buying cloth. if you can't get into clothes making consider joinery. i'm not a complete idiot when it comes to working with wood but currently, given the cost of materials, project work is just prohibitive

bam's way tries inktober

 

    

came across this after seeing a video challenge on bill making stuff. i like bam's choice of pencil, clear lines and i covet that light. most of all tho i like him taking on a daft challenge. i'm doing a lot of this lately. in between the being ill i'm just after reaching the varnishing stage of a picture i really don't like. that said, the person who wants it really likes it so what do i know! same thing with bam here - he wasn't super happy with some of the images but finished. and others he liked that he may work up later. the moral of the story - work is work! 


*many moons ago i had a colleague who was being really sniffy about her son's miniature painting. i'm not the best you'll see at this but i did used to do it for money and everything i know about washed i learned from miniatures. so i loved the bit with bill and his light source. if it's not 'art' enough for you , take a look at yourself! lol

making a teapot

 

  

i'm absolutely rubbish making anything out of clay. here's what happens if you practice

woodworking

i can't lie, watching this is akin to a magic show for me. true my lack of woodworking skills is routed deep in childhood shenanigans but i can offset that anxiety by just admiring the craftmanship on view here! 

more wire trees

 

after last week's wire trees video here's another one. the amount of wire is bigger - i do favour sectioning and then twisting the trunk - but be aware that this is hard on the hands and, if you're using coloured wire like this if you use pliers you'll break the coating and, potentially, break the wire. i like the foliage technique in this. it's quicker than using pliers (and see above) and makes pleasing foliage.

again, it's all in spanish. i think it would be pretty easy to follow even if you don't speak spanish so give it a go. if it's your first tree you may not want to use quite as much wire and definitely don't go for coloured wire!