Tales from beyond the glimpse...

The Fabric of Meditation is my main blog

2010-09-25T18:26:00.004+02:00

I went back to the roots.

You can go here to my main blog.

Facebook - why I don't answer invitations!

2010-02-24T18:11:00.000+01:00

As I became a member of Facebook, I decided to use it just for family exchange with my many cousins and other family around the world. We are a huge family. I only have a couple of closest friends as contacts.

I think that having a blog with the possibility of comments and a huge art related photoalbum at Flickr is enough for my textile activities. You wouldn't find anything of interest in my Facebook album.

CorNits Filzzauberschule (for my German speaking friends)

2010-02-24T09:31:00.000+01:00

Meine Freundin Corinna Nitschmann bietet einen wunderbaren On-Line-Kurs für Naßfilzen und nachträgliche
Oberflächengestaltung.

Ich kann den Kurs nur empfehlen! Informationen hier.

Stitched

2010-02-23T17:41:00.003+01:00

I took these photos at dawn and the colors are different than the ones I took this morning. I had to compensate the darkness and now they look quite blue...

I must tell you that this piece is going to be a very crazy one, not at all like the ones you are used to.

You will notice this by and by and I'm thinking about the statics...

I also want to keep this piece and my husband had a wonderful idea about the frame. We have lots of old thrift windows which have 2 glass panes. The idea is to put the piece between the glasses to display it in the studio. I really don't want it to be seen from the back because it is not intended to but to be hung from the wall. This is of no concern to me yet because it is a slow piece and there is a long way to go in front of me before deciding about the hanging.

Perhaps you see better what happened here:

The middle of the story

2010-02-23T10:10:00.001+01:00

This is the earthier part of it. Actually the "under the earth" part. The story under the earth and like at the centre of the earth there is more warmth.

The background will be the surface onto which I will write some clues.

All my stories are for you to tell. Everybody sees and reads something different. I also change my story each time I look at it. My mood of the day dictates the thinking.

I punched this time directly the fabric onto the back without using wool at this stage. I used it around the middle. I want it to be like a book page.

The story is going to continue to grow around all these parts but it is a slow cloth and I have to take my time on every piece and stage of the process.

... and we say it

2010-02-21T15:23:00.000+01:00

I finished the part with the speech bubbles.

The piece is growing but it's only the beginning of it.

We have something to say...

2010-02-21T12:49:00.000+01:00

It looks like his mother told him the story of Peter and the Wolf and he is telling it to his sisters...

Things are growing.

Stitching for the joy of it or my philosophy of work...

2010-02-21T11:07:00.001+01:00

What do you do when you have no material at your disposition and you'd like to stitch?

I was visiting my daughter and suddenly I was dying for stitching and had nothing at hand. She was so nice to give me a scrap of fabric and one of my self dyed threads I gave her once. I began to cut and stitch, cut and stitch. Getting out of material I picked my knitting needles and added a small surface of knitted contrast...

What was I doing? I thought about Slow Cloth, and I also thought that there is a new way of stitching where emulating a machine no longer is an issue. Striving for perfection defined by a regularity and neatness in stitching isn't absolutely necessary. It is the dedication and the eagerness for making an imprint. In my case I can say it is the necessity of expressing something and telling some kind of story or "no story": I never know if I already have the story before I begin or if I tell it to me while I'm stitching and adding details.

I am working on another piece where I'm just adding and adding, the one I already began some weeks ago. That will be my next post. It will be a piece for me, rather a crazy one in its concept and I think it will be the way I'm going chose for the next future.

HAND/EYE Magazine

2010-02-20T20:49:00.001+01:00

I am sorry I didn't have time to speak before about the article in HAND/EYE on Textile Therapy by Wendy Golden-Levitt. She does a wonderful work as a child therapist using textiles in her healing. Please read the article if you haven't done it yet. You will find the work of other artists you may know, not only mine. I was very happy to be told about the possibility of finding a healing dimension in textile work.

You also perhaps like to subscribe to this wonderful free e-Magazine. It has the most interesting articles. You can read more about it here.

Anneli's birthday

2010-02-20T18:31:00.000+01:00

I visited my friend Anneli who had her birthday while I was there and now I can show you the cushion I made for her.We spent a week knitting and having ideas for future work. There is nothing more fertile than chatting, having fun and working with an artist friend.

I did the motives with the embellisher and then made a log cabin with wool fabric by hand

I also did hand quilting on the surface.

The bands on the corners are a Swedish tradition I liked very much when I saw them in Sweden. As Anneli is Swedish too I thought she would like it. She did.

Visiting my friend

2010-02-09T16:04:00.000+01:00

I'm visiting my friend Anneli and we did some crochet necklaces while chatting.

We both love to work with sock wool.

Etsy treasure

2010-02-08T08:54:00.000+01:00

I'm happy to have been put in an Etsy Treasure by Craftomania.

This week I'm visiting a dear friend, Anneli, and we will work on some new things.

She is having her birthday next Friday and I must wait till then to show you her present because it has to be a secret...

Not only the story...

2010-02-01T16:35:00.001+01:00

The population is growing too.

This is going to be a huge piece. The idea is to continue working on it and adding stories and details.

I think this is the way my mind works. Sometimes I would like to work in one direction but my imagination takes me to another trip than the one I planned. This happened with this story...

The story grows

2010-01-31T15:10:00.000+01:00

This is the lady, perhaps me, who arrived to the island.

She is looking at one of the many birds.

And the island is getting bigger because more people are to come...

Back to the island - further development...

2010-01-30T11:19:00.000+01:00

This piece found its name and I really don't know if I mean that I travelled back to Wales or if I mean by island the refuge in my farm.

I really live at home in an island , far from the madding crowd by all means. It's good for working but I have to escape often from its calm and silence. Perhaps it is because I grew up in a metropole in the middle of sky scrapers. I absolutely love the country and wouldn't like to live in the city any more but I long for a change of coulisse rather often...

I am studying further how to combine machine and hand work. They give such a different definition on the surface. I'm also trying to use some of the zillions of sequins, pearls, etc I have in my stash in a way I can visually cope with. I'm not a lover of too much of them but they have a certain spell you cannot elude...

Slow beginnings...

2010-01-28T16:09:00.000+01:00

This is a slow begin. I have problems with a new TV-Server and a new Netbook. Things are getting so digital nowadays... But I could sit at the embellisher and sewing machine for a while.

I am trying to combine machine and hand embroidery because I think free motion machine stitching can be very interesting on embellished surfaces. You see the before/after photos.

There is less detail in the texture of the piece but there is also more texture of another kind. I think I can use this to do more ornamental work.

Back from Wales

2010-01-12T18:59:00.002+01:00

I'm back from Wales and beginning to feel at home once more after 6 weeks abroad.

It will take some time till I can post regularly because I'm a kind of snail when it comes to begin with a new body of work. After that things begin to work faster.

In the meantime I share some photos I took in Bangor on the pier. The last one is in the coffee shop of Debenhams. I loved to drink tea there because of the sight.

At that time there were warm sunny days. The pictures look very good if seen big.

Small sewing case

2009-11-21T15:46:00.003+01:00

This Thursday I will be leaving for Bangor/Wales and I want to tell you something before that.

I am feeling better and lost my vertigo this week. Thank you so much all of you who sent me best wishes for recovering. You really helped me out of it!

I will be back on the middle of January 2010 and intend to have a good holiday from work and stress.

I will enjoy sketching and getting inspired. I always do when I'm abroad.

This is a small piece I did in my last workshop for demonstration purposes. I just want to have a photo to this post.

Fish Pillow

2009-11-08T14:20:00.003+01:00

This is a fish pillow I did with a face I made some time ago and was lying around in my studio.

At the moment I have a kind of dizziness and doctors cannot tell what it is. It isn't anything bad because I made all kind of tests and they were all negative but I cannot work on my things like before.

I will wait till I come back from Wales mid January to try to update my blog and begin once more to work with a system...

Please excuse my disappearance for a while.

Link

2009-10-07T17:37:00.013+02:00

I would like to link you to a wonderful video Susan Lenz did from my studio.

It is much better than all my photos to get an idea of the place! Thanks, Susan!

There is also a very nice story about her stay at my place, our visit to Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic and our trip to the awesome fabric shop near my farm.

If you don't recognize what I have in the hand on the photo, that's my cellphone's case.

Flu...

2009-10-01T13:13:00.000+02:00

I am very sorry about neglecting my blog for a while.

I had work to do and after that I got the flu (not the swine one I suppose but a dizzy one...).

I will be back...

Sheep-in-Sheeps-Clothing

2009-09-17T17:02:00.000+02:00

This little sheep is not a pattern from me but you can find it in Ravelry.

It was so cute I couldn't resist and knitted this one for my grand daughter.

Now in its clothes...

It is a free pattern from Frankie Brown, who does wonderful things.

KIVA

2009-09-17T14:50:00.005+02:00

I just made a loan to someone in Togo using a wonderful website called Kiva.

I discovered the site in the blog of a fellow blogger.

In Kiva's website you can lend to someone across the globe who needs a loan for their business - like raising goats, selling vegetables at market or making bricks. Each loan has a picture of the entrepreneur, a description of their business and how they plan to use the loan so you know exactly how your money is being spent - and you get updates letting you know how the entrepreneur is going.

The best part is, when the entrepreneur pays back their loan you get your money back or use it for another loan (I like this idea because you can give a small loan once and use the same amount over and over)- and Kiva's loans are managed by microfinance institutions on the ground who have a lot of experience doing this, so I suppose you can trust that your money is being handled responsibly.

I made a loan to Adjo Solomé in Togo. I liked her immediately because she's working with a sewing machine!

I love the internet because you can do things like this directly now.

I checked the site for its credibility as much as I could and you should do this too before giving some loan so that you feel good about it!

Dragon shawl

2009-09-16T15:18:00.001+02:00

Anneli and me are are totally into sock wool knitting! After she created the African Impression shawl I took the idea further and did some changes in the pattern getting as a result a Dragon Shawl that has some scales in the middle. I loved this because it helps to give structure to the piece. I also did some points at the end of the piece.

Bird Bag

2009-09-16T15:08:00.000+02:00

This is a rather strange piece I did for carrying my cell phone and some tools with me while working.

It was actually an exercise on bonding wool/felt/knitting with the embellisher and I must admit I was very happy with the result and possibilities.

The idea came from a book I have with South American indian bags. They used to knit this kind of bags with small pockets for carrying amulets (I suppose a cell phone is a modern amulet...)

I made some pockets and took some pictures of the layers of knitting.

I specially like the last one (the one for the cell phone) for the way the knitting turns into felt.

Sophies gift

2009-09-11T21:13:00.000+02:00

My daughter Sophie made this gift for her friend. She always likes to give gifts made by herself.

I loved the idea and wanted to share it with you.

Anneli's African Short Rows Shawl

2009-09-07T15:14:00.000+02:00

My friend Anneli from Bockfilz had this terrific idea. She's experimenting with sock yarn and using it in very interesting ways.

I had to try this too because it is such an inventive idea!

It looks quite different depending on the yarn you use. I used an Opal Hundertwasser one and she used a Colori from Italian Style.

I hope she's going to write the pattern.

Spinning Spools Holder

2009-09-07T15:06:00.000+02:00

My husband made this spinning spools holder for my spinning wheel.

I wanted to share it with you because it's such a good idea!

And now back to the embellisher

2009-09-05T16:24:00.001+02:00

This is also the second step of the cord I spun and knitted.

I added some medaillons made with the embellisher. My favourite birds...

I made the birds the way I make all my pieces but I added an extra padding to the back and sewed them to the cord:

I did the same thing with the medaillon. Here I added a button I bought in England. Love it!

Here you can see a close up of the scary bird! :-) I used a silk fabric for the body and also some silk fibers for the background.

Some more spinning...

2009-09-05T16:15:00.001+02:00

This is to show how far I'm with my spinning and knitting with the pastel coloured wool.

It looks like an octopus, growing in all directions.

I like the way the colours form a pattern. I'm just spinning a wool piece after the other. What I mean is that I'm not carding the colours all together. This creates a kind of variegated wool.

The true Emma

2009-09-05T16:02:00.001+02:00

I was talking about my Emma crochet piece and I just come back from visiting my daughter and I found an Emma throw at her house I had forgotten about.

Now I can show you a photo of a finished piece. Mine is going to take long to be finished because I'm working on many different projects...

You can see the way it works if you do the grids in coloured stripes and after that weave the wool also "stripe wise" but in the other direction:

Continuing...

2009-08-30T17:09:00.001+02:00

Now you can see more of the pullover I'm knitting.

Today I did the stitching and embellishing on it:

Emma - free pattern - Ultimative recycling throw! KAL

2009-08-30T15:07:00.002+02:00

I am working on a throw I learned to do as I was five. Of course at that point I did it for a doll. Emma, the Swiss lady who taught me the technique was known for these pieces that were made for everybody, for baby beds or for king size ones. For the babies she used a band of satin to cover the edges and I can remember the feeling of it in my fingers when I laid down to sleep. I cuddled in the throw and wrapped my fingers in the satin border.

I did a small piece for you to see the result. I notices, that while Emma used just wool strands to weave in the holes, I could use all my old fabrics I want to recycle for this task!

And here is the way you do it: free pattern

You make a grid of double crochet.
1st Row: you make a chain of a multiple of 2 + 1. Each time you turn you make 4 chains (counts as dc, ch1) 2nd Row and all other rows: *1dc, 1ch* ending with 1 dc.

The idea is that you make rows in different colors the way I'm doing in this throw:

e.g. I began with 3 rows in brown, dann 1R in brown/white, 4R in red, 3R in white, you get it...
using all those wool rests you have in your stash.

When the moment comes to weave in the fabric stripes (about 1"/2,5cm wide) or the wool strands (about 7 strands of wool cut in the length of the throw + about 10-15cm), you will weave in 3 rows of brown fabric or wool, 1 row of a brown/white print or brown/white wool, 4 rows of red fabric or wool, 3 rows of white fabric or wool, etc. You can of course use printed fabrics that have an overall brown, white, red or whatever appeal.

At the end you will have a check throw!!

The outcome of my combination of materials will be seen in the photo I'll take when I'm finished.

I will keep you informed of the progress!

Does somebody want to join? It would be a nice KAL!

When you begin to spin you can't stop...

2009-08-29T19:14:00.001+02:00

...and because of that I saw a bunch of wool in pastel colours I bought in Italy during my workshop there.

They used a natural dye for it.

Here is the wool and the result.

...nearer...

I love knitting squares. I spun the wool mixing colours all the time while spinning. I didn't card them. The result was similar to the one using sock wool.

I don't know yet what this will be.

I casted on 29 stitches and used a needle 4 (metric) / US 6.

The beginning of a necklace

2009-08-29T19:01:00.007+02:00

This is the beginning of a necklace I planned yesterday.

I saw an film where King Lear had a metal one that inspired me to try it in textile.

As I want to do something done by me from the beginning, I took some wool in light and dark purple. I will also use a purple yarn to spin together with the wool.

I spun the light purple first...

...and after that the dark purple. I wound them on cones.

I put the three cones in a box and used knitting needles to fix them there.

I began to knit the yarn...

...and as I was finished I had something like this:

To be continued... (I will combine all this with the embellisher and stitching)

Request

2009-08-28T18:36:00.004+02:00

I was asked to show once more my wool storage and I thought it could be a nice color spot on this new blog.

I used conserve glasses for 1lt I bought some years ago. At that time I filled them with fruits and vegetables but now I don't seem to have time enough to do this... I am happy they had a revival!

Reading...

2009-08-28T13:36:00.006+02:00

I'm reading the book "Die Kunst des stilvollen Verarmens" from Alexander von Schönburg. It is a real pity they don't have it in English. Translated the title is "The art of sinking into poverty with style". The author is a member of the European nobility, a brother to Gloria von Thurn und Taxis.
I love the way he depicts the contemporary situation in the world and what is absolutely necessary in life... or not.

It is exactly the way I think. We are told we need so many dispensable things and we just lose time and money.

I think we only need time to do all the wonderful things we'd like to do. And we already have all the material we need to make them!! This is really good news! We just need to open the eyes and dive in the world of creative discovery.

If you have 12 minutes...

2009-08-28T13:35:00.001+02:00

liked this...

Mimi Kirchner's dolls

2009-08-28T12:44:00.000+02:00

I love this video!

It is so interesting to see the life and work of an artist.

The internet offers such wonderful possibilities!

Small "Urchfont" piece

2009-08-27T14:14:00.007+02:00

I was at Urchfont last month with the ladies of my internet group. I did this small piece combining all bits and pieces I had taken with me. My luggage had to be light and this doesn't allow to transport my studio with me!

This is perhaps a good example of the way I want to see my work in the future. In the theory. I want to use what I have at home and I don't want to buy anything more. I already have lots.

There is going to be a shift in the philosophy and in the pace.

Knitting

2009-08-27T14:08:00.006+02:00

I also finished this shawl. I got the pattern from Ysolda.

She has two wonderful collections of Whimsical Little Knits.

I haven't knitted in the last 20 years and I began doing this once again last Christmas. I will design my own patterns as soon as I feel sure about it. The pullover underneath is already "half" a pattern of mine.

Spinning

2009-08-27T13:58:00.004+02:00

Anneli from Bockfilz visited me last week and we spent a week of discovery.

We worked with many different techniques. We always enjoy spinning while watching a good film. This time it was "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency", a film made in Botswana, very interesting and fun. My friend Sue K from England gave it to me as she visited and I'm really happy she did! There is a series of books of it I can only recommend!

I spinned the red wool and wound it with the pink yarn. This I combined with a Rowan Tweed Wool in black/blue and I love the way the self spun wool stands up. I want to stitch on the back of the pullover and I tried two small motives I will embroider alternately.

Embellisher

2009-08-27T13:52:00.006+02:00

Working with the embellisher always gives the opportunity of combining materials at hand.

This is perhaps the thing I like most about it.

A recycling trip in which you find yourself honoring studio's debris.

I like the way a fabric develops, the capacity of giving birth to something new out of old and already dumped small pieces of textiles.

Lunz am See - Austria

2009-08-27T13:45:00.006+02:00

My new blog will be written in simplicity and in a spirit of deep admiration of all crafts and ideas, old and new.

I visited this embroidery museum near to our city in the little city of Lunz am See for the yearly weaver's market.

We could visit this years special exhibition of undergarments of different centuries.

I loved the bra. A real naughty piece!

Everything is change

2009-08-20T15:02:00.002+02:00

This is my new blog. I hope you will enjoy it.

It is a fully new concept. Many things are going to be happening and I don't want to define them right away. You will discover them as they come.

I thought it was the moment for a change because I was getting too lopsided and I need new challenges.

Let's see...