Jananas

Yesterday was day two of the Modern Batik workshop. Day one was a little frustrating at times, but as day two came to show this was mainly because my artistic vision was leaps and bounds ahead of my skills and abilities. By day two I was starting to get the hang of applying hot wax with a paintbrush and without having it spread. This made me super happy because it means that there is hope.

I didn’t have a lot more painting to do yesterday. I finished up the water, although because of how fragmented this was it took longer than you would think. Here the piece is all covered in wax.

Its kind of crazy how much the wax changes the colours. It can be hard sometimes to remember exactly what you did in one segment and once its covered in wax you can’t even refer back to it. Again, that sort of knowledge might come in time. On day one/two, not so much

Next up was taking the most of the wax off through a combination of physical battery and ironing. At this point it looks like real art, but it still isn’t finished. I didn’t much like the step of having to beat the piece around to try and get the excess wax off, but I admittedly really liked ironing it because it was fun (in my books) to see the wax come through the various layers of newsprint.

Last step was using a calligraphy pen and some indelible india ink to line the piece. Technically I should have inked all the clouds/background as well, but I wanted it to fade into the, well, background. This part was pretty fun as well as you can see the piece come together as you go. The sad part was that clutching the pen made my hand start cramping up, which is sad because I’ve been having problems with my right hand lately. In part due to too much crafting.

Tada, the finished piece. Not surprising, its another interpretation of the Mazinaw Rock landscape. I’m proud of how it turned out, especially for my first piece. My dad likes it so much that when we were over for dinner last night he snagged it to have it framed!

Overall, I really enjoyed the workshop and Roxane at Poetic Art has a great little studio space to hold classes in (and a lovely gallery in general). Now I’m plotting and planning trying to figure out where in my already busy schedule I can find time to put aside for some more batik experimentation.

This weekend I’m taking the two day Modern Batik workshop at Poetic Art (an awesome little art gallery and studio space up at Davisville and Mt Pleasant). Its very different from the Batik course I took in Chiang Mai Thailand, although the premise itself is the same.

I picked a picture of Mazinaw Rock (it drives much of my art so this shouldn’t be a big surprise). At the end of day one, here’s where I stand. I’ve coloured in and covered most of picture. Tomorrow I have to finish colouring the water and then draw in all the lines.

It takes a little while to get used to working with the wax, so I’m hoping that all the places where I messed up and lost detail won’t be too noticeable in the final product.

Poor Gucci’s had to put up with a lot from the cats. Mitzy plays with his toys more than he does, dragging them around the house like she’s caught prey and howling to her little heart’s content. She often sleeps on top of his crate and more than once we’ve caught her just sitting inside it.

I get home this afternoon and Jason and Caroline tell me that Romeo has been sleeping inside the dog’s crate all afternoon. She’s feeling so crummy that I was able to get a photo without her running off to prove that our cats like the crate. Weirdos.

I read alot and talk alot about what I’m doing, not thinking about or talking about or planning for but what I’m actually doing and accomplishing. My reaction to lost productivity (i.e. not knitting during meetings at work) is in mostly because I could be doing something and doing more. There’s a chance to improve and pack more into that one moment so that I have free time later to do or make or accomplish something else.

There’s something more than just doing though and that is what did you make today?

So much of our lives now are knowledge based. I wrote a blog post or finished a business case or tweeted. I thought about a problem.

We tend to focus on how important those things are to our economy and livelihoods. I think that an equally important skill set is being able to challenge yourself in the physical realm as well – making rather than thinking. New skills are always awesome and each new one makes you more knowledgeable and well rounded and formidable.

It helps people to understand others better. For example, I’ve knit myself sweaters. I know how much time it takes me and how much money I spent on the yarn. So when I see a price tag on something that’s been handmade (or even machine made and mass manufactured), I can better evaluate whether that price is reasonable or not. This principle extends – if I try to fix a plumbing mishap myself I’m going to better value a plumber’s time and skillset (and less likely rail against his high fees) next time I need one. Or maybe I’m just a very different thinker.

Last weekend I tried my hand at dying my own rovings. One batch was just a bunch of silliness and rainbow goodness so that I could play and see what happened. I spun it up late last weekend attempting a single ply. It was better than usual, but still kinky so I had to wash and hang it with a little weight to set it.

I made yarn and that’s a pretty neat thing to be able to say.

One of the things that I hate, hate, hate about working is that it actually makes me less productive overall. Its because a large percentage of my time is structured according to what a company thinks a good use of time is – so from 9 to 5 I’m sitting at my desk reading word documents, playing with excel, and attending meetings. But there’s a good chunk of time in there that I’m spending listening to other people or just thinking about problems, and I can do both of those things with knitting needles in my hands. Think of it as multitasking that actually works (multitasking by checking email every 5 minutes and trying to work on three files at once only makes you feel like you’re doing more. it doesn’t actually make you more productive or efficient.).

Its also my first week, so I’m still adjusting to the schedule and having to dress up and am burning tonnes of brain energy trying to process all of this new information. By the time I get home at night I’m not motivated anymore to pick up my knitting or to spin. I’m more like a little kid whose so overtired they throw tantrums (which I did last night when my spinning wheel was acting up and I needed to fix it NOW and I had to do it BY MYSELF. Then I thanked Jason for putting up with my sorry ass and dutifully took myself to bed before I did any more relationship damage.).

Instead I’m trying to carve out some me time in the morning. Its only 20-30 minutes, but its set aside in my mind for spinning. Yes, its taking me a lot longer to make progress because I can’t sit down and dedicate 2-3 hours to it. But, 20 minutes every morning does add up. This week I’ve been spinning up some white superwash merino to use to ply against some super bright singles I’ve spun up over the last few weeks. They are bright and fun colours, but difficult to match to other dyed stuff. Its easier just to ply them against something neutral. I picked white because it should help the colours really stand out, although a friend suggested that I pick a brown for a more tweedy appearance. Thankfully there’s always a next time when it comes to experimenting with spinning yarn.