Two Scarves

Two scarves for the Craft Victoria shop. They are made out of a beautiful warm pink linen from France. I thought I'd try and see how different the effect would be if one scarf was stitched in a natural thread, and the other in black.
I like them both. They remind me of Samantha and Sabrina: essentially the same, but the dark one makes a little more impact!

Signor Rossi and a timely lady's hand

Red and white is a colour combination that I love and return to again and again. I finally made a red and white cousin of Gustav: he happens to be an Italian national called Signor Rossi. Then I finished the second clock hand, this one on a stand rather than designed to be hung on a wall. As I mentioned in this previous post, I am really getting into photographing on a white background, and feeling alot less guilty about revving my pictures up in Photoshop!

I have been keeping an eagle eye on them and I am glad that my clock mechanisms are keeping the correct time: therefore I will soon be adding the clock hands to the shop.

Scarf madness!!!

I made another scarf. Unlike the last one, which was very subtly coloured (for me) I have gone all out with this one. The inspiration began with this photo above from Inside Out -- I love the pale lilac flowers against the kitsch bright yellow, green, purple and red. So while the scarf started with those colours, they soon multiplied as I have alot of wool and not much discipline.

Photo from the Manhattan home of Australian stylist Marcus Hay. (I don't know the date of the magazine as the page has been torn out and the rest of the issue thrown away. I do that occasionally, otherwise I would have been buried under an avalanche of magazines long ago.)

Some wooden people on a white background

Above: Man with Woman Running on his Head.
Above: Mr Jones, Meat Purveyor. (I found a good selection of paper fasteners to use for the arms and legs at Dean's. Made my day.)
Above: Man and Cow. (He's already in the shop.)

I attended Craft Victoria's fantastic annual Craft and Design as a Career seminar last Friday. Among the sea of ideas was Lucy Feagin's simple advice to photograph one's work on a white background, as it can then be used in any context. That was a relief to me, as I often find styling my shots a bit painful, knowing that the things I choose to surround my work with might put people off as often as they might draw them in. So a white background it is, although it does little to give a sense of scale. And in my case, I had so little light coming in through the windows on a rainy afternoon, that I had to blast the pictures up in Photoshop to a ridiculous degree. But I think that my photos are improving. Slowly.

The Kermit Club, 1983

I LOVE KERMIT.
Vogue Knitting, Fall/Winter 1983.

The Clock Hand

I have been wanting to make this for ages, but haven't found the time until now. I needed a little clock that I could easily look up at while sitting on the couch, and I came up with the idea after spotting a clever rectangular canvas of a grandfather clock which actually told the time too. I was going to have a bit of the elbow joint showing at the top -- in a cartoon Flintstones way rather than a gruesome bleeding way -- but I decided to give my man a sore finger instead. (Oh, there is a little 'stripe' of blood at the top -- but it looks more like a halved chocolate bar with a strawberry filling! Or maybe I'm just getting hungry.)
Here he is in progress, with a little girl friend who is now almost finished too. I will need to order more clock mechanisms -- and test them to make sure that they work. After that I will put at least one Clock Hand in the shop. And then make a couple more...

Another Chinese picture book

This little book came from Chinatown in Melbourne, just like the books in these previous posts (see A 1970's Chinese Reader and Words and Pictures retro HK style). Above: the front cover. Note the photo-collaged bits: their hair is actually made up of a cut up photo of hair. Nice touch. Below: the back cover. If anyone out there could translate it so that I can add some publishing details to the post, I would be grateful!
This post is for TY, and tiny baby Adam who is too small to read these - yet.

Knitting is...making rags into riches

Further to this previous post, I decided to write 'RAGS' on one side of the scarf and 'RICHES' on the other. I will put it in the shop once it's finished. Wear it according to your mood. Actually, the lettering has just as much to do with the act of taking the bits and bobs of wool and fashioning them into something special. Nice for the times in which we live.

A man with a woman running on his head

The man was going to have an entire woman running on his head, but as I was cutting out my paper templates to trace onto the wood I decided that it might look top heavy, and that to leave out her torso might add some interest to the work as well.

I am having a bit of trouble with the joining part: I want the legs to be moveable, but have decided that the hardware might not be right. I am going to keep looking for nice long paper brads, although they seem increasingly hard to find.
Before cutting out, last week. A little corner of the Meat Purveyor is visible to the left. I had a big cutting day at the studio yesterday! At least that part is finished.