Thursday Thoughts...

“I want to write a novel about silence. The things people don’t say.” 

Virginia Woolf

As my eyes flew along the page that holds my quotes for Thursday Thoughts, this one caught my eye and I went with it immediately. That doesn't always happen, but today I thought -"ooh I wonder what that would look like???"

And before I knew it, it was copied and pasted over here and I was typing. 

At first I imagined an artists' book type book that had chapter headings like "Silence when sitting in awe at Nature" or "Companionable Silence whilst reading alongside each other" or "Silence when your heart hurts too much to speak of it" with each chapter followed by blank pages.

However because Virginia Woolf was a novelist I imagine she may well have written descriptions of these sorts of silences, because there really is so much variety in silence. She may have described in words, the silences I am imaging and no doubt silences I haven't even conceived of.

Silence can be deafening, or eloquent. There is a lot of power in silence. And indeed, there is lots to think about or write about it.

I am tempted now to collect a bunch of silences and I might just make that book at some point!

Quote by Mark Rothko; calligraphy by me, and etching and embossing by Susan Bowers. 2015.

In the red

 The number of times I wrote Studio - stamping or Studio - stitch on my daily to do list in the last week or more is funny. I think I managed an hour or two twice during the week before I needed to come home and nap. So progress has been slow.

I set out to do the Letraset on the red cards. In the foreground is an inside cover masked off for stamping.

Here are some of the cards. I honestly feel as if it's got to be this loud, this simple, this clear. 

You can feel my frustration and weariness in this one.

And it has been interesting to see how red is featuring elsewhere as well.

This small collection of blooms has kept me company and made me smile.

And this. 

As I watch with horror at all of the losses in the US, I have taken to stitching in Morse code. 

If you want to discover for yourself what it says, you can check here.

Otherwise I have written what the de-coded message is, way down below.

RESIST

I think there could be a world of subversive stitchers and printers out there.

Some more jewellery

 I have really managed a good run at jewellery making in the last wee while, before I spent the week being very quiet and trying to recover from RSV. A very nasty bug. Sometimes things align and you get the chance to use the moments, and sometimes if you are even luckier, the things you try to do in the moments, work out. 

A while ago I set out some pieces I had to see what I could make of them. The long thin strips are stone and I love their smoothness and the contrast with the wobbly pebbles. I also liked how they went with some of the beaten jump rings I had.

I had some small textured pebbles which also went well with the textured jump rings.

And then they became earrings.

And some bits became a pendant. I still really like the contrasts between the oxidised pieces, the textured and the silver...

Thursday Thoughts...

Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.” 

J. R. R. Tolkien

It feels timely to be pondering Life today, and to have happened upon this quote. I have read that this may not be an actual Tolkien quote, but that rather, the words appeared as a line spoken in The Hobbit movie; rather than in the book itself. Nevertheless, and no matter who wrote the words, I appreciate the sentiment.

I think it is really hard, when power can and does so much, to believe that it is also from among the small folk, and the small actions, that change can be wrought.

I have no doubt that small acts of kindness and love have an impact. They make a difference. 

It's not necessarily that together the small acts add up and rise up and take control. It feels more like what is suggested here, that they help keep the darkness at bay. They help us not feel alone; overwhelmed; or blinded by the darkness. Perhaps the collective force of them can shift the balance of power, can nudge the curtains open and work to keep the darkness at bay.

Lots of stamping and letters

 The red book continues along. I have made a cover and am happy with the way it worked out; although piercing all the holes for the hand stitching took a while and a lot of control to stop the covers slipping. I tried some tape but it didn't hold, so I just had to be very careful.

I like the contrast between the single red line of machine stitching and more rugged hand stitched black running stitch.

The inside cover looks good with its overstepping.

And how the cover looks standing alone.

More stamping on the pages inside.

Working through Letraset options for the red cards that go in the pouches.

I changed my mind and rather than do the titles with Traditional Letterpress and metal type; I am going to continue with the Letraset. I thought it would seem odd to introduce a different style of lettering so went for a consistent feel rather than the jolt of contrast that added nothing, and may have distracted.

I think this will be the title Letraset.

My work table is a complete mess; but that is the good thing about a studio space you can lock and leave. It doesn't have to bother anybody else; and I can return the next day and just dive back in.

I am aiming to make an edition of three books, but you never know how things will work out. Fingers are crossed as the finish line gets closer.

Componentry

 I have been able to go back and forth a little bit to the jewellery making workshop and put into play a few ideas I have had. So far, I have made lots of components, and not necessarily turned any of them into jewellery; but you can't do the latter, without the former!

I am still keen on oxidising and am also keen on getting surface texture onto the silver. So I set about making pebbles forms: cutting the wire; forming it; soldering it and rolling it.

Barry reminded me he had a lovely set of metal punches that might help me get the marks and textures I was interested in trying to get.

And so I paired up the pieces and made some marks. Some of the small dots were clearly a bit close to the edge!

And then to oxidising. Still loving the darkness you can get with this process. I left a couple of them out of the solution; and hte light make sit look as if I haven't done them all, but I did.

And then to the polishing. This is the non-oxidised pair with the one on the right before polishing; and the one of the left after polishing. Shiny!

But this is one of the things that I like with some of the oxidising - the leaving of dark marks on silver metal. On the left before polishing, on the right afterwards. And so on.

And the stash of components I now have. I plan to make many more pebbles, leave them unmarked/untextured, but possibly oxidising some of them, and then pairing the plain ones with the textured ones. Plan A.

Thursday Thoughts...

“Creativity comes from a conflict of ideas.” 

Donatella Versace

I quite like pondering quotes that I don't really understand!  I have sat with this one for a bit, and still not really come up with any sort of understanding or explanation that holds firm.

I tried to think of it in the context of a fashion designer, and wondered did creativity stem from a conflict like how to make clothes that look ethereal, also fit and stay attached to the body? Is it like how to think about the military and uniforms and yet appear feminine? I'm not really sure. In the first instance, that seems like solving an engineering problem, and I guess that can be creative.

For me I wondered if my creativity was a conflict of ideas? Perhaps it can be in the sense that I want to say something tough, but do it in a way that folk can engage with it. I want to create beautiful and quiet work; that when you look deeply can be really confronting. 

Oftentimes tho I feel my work  and creativity comes about because of a harmony of things; of a kind of symbiosis between materials, technique and message. Occasionally I will set up a sharp contrast - and perhaps that is conflict; but I am not sure my creativity is born of conflicting ideas.

Still, there is a lot to ponder in it and I daresay I will continue to do so...

Time For Change 2015. (Photography by Penny Riddoch). This piece is so calm and gentle looking. The grid is peaceful, the colours are muted, yet it tells the story that at least 1 woman is killed in Australia every week by a partner or former partner. When displayed at Noosa Regional Gallery in 2015, I was told of folk who came to visit and looked at the work, then read the didactic and burst into tears. They weren't expecting it to be such a beautiful memorial. 

Circles of Concern...

 In between times I have been doing the small tasks in the production line of these Circles of Concern, Circle of Control cards.

The steps involve printing the words, drawing the square, drawing the circles, laying on the gilding medium, waiting, then applying the gold leaf, waiting, and then brushing off the gold leaf.

And now they are done.

I managed to grab a few photos along the way - here are a couple where the gold leaf has been applied and is waiting to adhere, then be brushed off. You can see by how the gold is kind of all over the shop how flighty a sheet of gold can be!

Despite the weird angle, I think these two show the 3D nature of the leaf application.

I was quite pleased that I managed to get 20 good ones.

And then there are 5 wobblier ones. In the end, I kind of don't mind these ones as they suggest to me that even when we try to operate in our circle of control, we might be clumsy and/or imperfect!

This one definitely has the wobbles.

As does this one.

Once again, these are giveaways, so if you would like to receive one, please don't hesitate to send me a message or a comment and I shall pop one in the mail to you as soon as I can. If you would prefer a wobbly one, please let me know.

As things get tough and feel even tougher, it helps me to remember to come away from my circles of concern (so many!!!) and return to my circle of control.

The red book continues

 So I had sorted out the look and feel of the pocket, the title and the cards for this wee book; but the cover was making me think long and hard.

I knew it would be black. And then I could see segments of red machine sewing and threads dangling. That feels like me, and the jagged nature of the stitching felt a part of the story I was trying to tell. But when I tested it, it just didn't work for me. It was way too messy and disrupted, and did not feel nice at all.  

I then moved all the dangling threads inside and tidied up the front to see if the helped. It helped a lot, but still wasn't quite right.

So I think I have landed on a single continuous line of red stitching about a third of the way down. Yet to be tested!

The inside cover will be attached to the outside cover by  a frame of hand stitching. I needed to check if red was the way to go; or black. This is what it would look like on the outside cover. I chose the black.

Instead of doing a pamphlet stitch or variation of it I think I will machine sew the book to the cover, and

 here I was testing how that might look on the inside, with either red or black. At the moment I am going with the red.

So many choices! So many decisions!

So I sat down and wrote down everything that I think I have decided to do - from the paper size, to where to stamp; to what to mask off, to which typeface to use for the title; to whether or not I will use Letraset or letterpress on the cards....and I think I might just about be ready to get fully going!

In the meantime it has been nice to visit my Dad's orchid house and see some of his beauties on show. A couple of my current favourites...