Completed project: Crazy quilt button

 In October, Jean M led a workshop on crazy quilting at the not-the-E-Guild meeting. I love crazy quilting, so even though I didn't want another unfinished project, I went to the workshop anyway. A chat while I was still working on the patch at another meeting gave me the idea to think of how it could be made into something useful, or wearable, rather than something to hang on the wall. The fact that the crazy quilt patch wouldn't be machine washable didn't stop me from mulling on the idea.

Years (like a decade) ago, I acquired this cheap polyester scarf, as a freebie when viewing the plans for a development project. It's warm, and an easy to wear shade, but the logo isn't one I'd like to sport. So it has remained in my horde, waiting for inspiration and energy to do something with it. The crazy quilt patch was big enough to cover the logo, and pinning it to the scarf rather than sewing it on will hopefully take care of the washing issue. 

I could define it as a broach, but because it will always be placed on the same part of the scarf, and also the scarf will be wrapped around it rather than pinned closed, it feels better to call this finished object a 'button'. I had thought a 'button hole' would be needed to make this work, but now I think I'll just play with different ways to wrap the scarf using the button as a focal point.

The good: It's used a lot of things I had hoarded over the years. The level of sparkle is much higher than what I usually wear, but it isn't bad, a contrast with the dull colour of the scarf.

The bad: Though I chose blue coloured items, there is a mix of turquoise and indigo, and other blues I don't know the name for. Because there are so many different blue colours, I feel like it works as a crazy quilt, but it isn't a gentle colour scheme.

The ugly: As usual, it isn't tidy on the back. There are two safety pins to hold it on. This isn't elegant, but it is what I have to hand, and working out a better method is beyond me.

Also, since I've finished this embroidery project, I feel like I can join in the workshop next month.

Another Utopia: Begumpura

Excerpt from the introduction to The Blaft Book of Anti-Caste SF by R. T. Samuel:

In the fourteenth century, Sant Ravidas, a radical anti-caste public thinker and poet, wrote of a utopian city where caste and inequality no longer existed. He called it Begumpura—a place without sorrow or pain. It has excited the imagination of his listeners and readers ever since, down to this day. 

“No taxes or cares, none owns property there,

no wrongdoing, worry, terror, or torture.

Oh, my brother, I’ve come to take it as my own,

my distant home where everything is right.

That imperial kingdom is rich and secure,

where none are third or second—all are one;

They do this or that, they walk where they wish,

they stroll through fabled palaces unchallenged.

Oh, says Ravidas, a tanner now set free,

Those who walk beside me are my friends.”

Completed project: art journal

 I checked in here, and I started this in 2011. Last month, I finished it, or at least got to the point where every page has something on it, something that doesn't feel like it needs more work. So, 13 years. Things have changed in that time. I haven't kept up with the changes. 

The good: I really enjoy collage, a loose, imprecise type of collage. I like doing it, and often like the finished piece.

The bad: My skills have not improved. If anything, I'm less experimental than when I began.

The ugly: Nothing really. There are parts I don't like, but as a whole, it's all okay. 

There is a lingering issue of what to do with it now. I thought about documenting the individual spreads, but that seems like too much work. I also thought about re-working some of the pages, but I just don't feel like doing that. So I have the completed journal, but not a clear idea what to do with it.

Another bookmark

 I was considering re-booting my blog, acknowledging the changes since 2008, but I don't have the energy for it. Or maybe I just don't like it enough. Instead, I'm adding another book to the list of things to look at: The flowers of Japan and the art of floral arrangement by Conder, J. (Josiah). It is, interesting. And the site has more SIMILAR ITEMS. So many more.

Utopia v Shangri-la

  I think it was in one of Korean Literature Now's Inkstone articles that I came across a reference to Peach Blossom Spring as a phrase meaning 'utopia' in Chinese (though I'm also in the middle of reading a translation of Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, so it could have been mentioned there). The "Spring" is spring as in source of a river, not the season. The phrase originates in a story Tao Yuanming wrote, sometime before 427 BCE. I'm not sure if it was a tale he recorded, or one he invented.

This translation by Rick Davis and David Steelman titles the piece "Peach Tree Shangri-la". I'm not familiar with the book that Shangri-la was created for, or the publications that were inspirations for it. I did find it interesting that the place described in Peach Blossom Spring doesn't seem like a utopia to me, perhaps because it is described as founded by people who isolated themselves to "avoid the chaos of war during the Qin Dynasty" but seem to have kept the customs of that time. I can't believe that the customs of the Qin Dynasty would be a basis for a utopian existence (though I'm not an expert on Qin customs). 

It has the theme of being backward looking, like Eden. But I feel like the isolation is also an argument against it being a utopia; that is a theme I would like to investigate further. Also the contrast between utopia, hidden societies (Shangri-la) and secret societies (like the Illuminati idea, but perhaps there are other secret society models to compare to utopias). 

Learning game

 Yesterday I went to the event by Asia-Art-Activism at the esea contemporary, a game called Docks and Seamen. The game is based on their archival research and interviews of the Chinese community in Pitt Street in Liverpool. I'm interested in the topic anyway, but having the game experience was much more emotionally engaging than I expected. The game presented factual information, much like a book, but our reactions were more than reading a book would produce. Was it the group interaction, or a quality of game play?

Utopia v Eden, just some jottings

Utopia: an organized area; made by people; dream for the future

Eden: natural, but a garden, not a wilderness; divine and pre-dating people; ultimate past

Places as expression of a concept, not a location. But still somewhere it would be possible to go?

Edit: Three days after I jotted these thoughts down, the Band on the Wall emailed an ad for Sarathy Korwar's gig, so I ended up watching the Utopia Is A Colonial Project music video. Again just some unfinished thoughts here: Is Utopia something imposed? Eden something taken away?

However, I want to investigate Utopia; I'm not sure a comparison to Eden, or Paradise, would be helpful, useful, or enlightening.