Review of Treasure from Trash

I saw the display for this show in the Hat Works window last week, and I popped in there today. It's just a small show, but very interesting. It's only on for another week before moving on, so I'm glad I took a long lunch break to check it out. Know trash put the exhibit together, and if I understand right, it was at the Eden Project before coming up here.

Highlights:

• One of those Senegalese suitcases lined with old comic papers, I love these


• Paper beads from Beads for Life, which are a lot classier than the ones I remember making in grade school


• Cool frames by re-Tread or Tread, the tread patterns are like carved wooden frames


• Bag made of small rolls of paper woven over with tread


• Moroccan trend of covering raffia bags with scraps of brocades and braiding, the description says it makes them stronger; reminds me of fancy crazy quilting


• Hat, fascinator and beret from the fabric from just one old shirt (wish I had written down the maker's name!)


• Super cute patchwork chicken on a pillow

I've been filled with ideas about how to use the plastic stuff I've collected over the years. Lots of inspiration for mixing different materials. I know I should put these in my journal, but I've got a sinus headache going on, so it will have to wait until I'm happier in the head.

Oh darn it

Last Saturday, instead of being a can-do-crafter, I fell into the bad habit
of indecision and procrastination. In part of my brain, I've decided to
cut up the old umbrella I inherited from a friend (over a decade ago
and I've fallen out of touch with her now) to make the patches for the
Make do and Mend bag. But there's another part of my brain, the
reticent part, that wants to just leave things as they are, because you
never know when a better idea will come along, and you don't want to
spoil things now, because you'll feel stupid about it later. On the
weekend, reticent brain won.

Instead of patching, this week I started the
darning on the other side of the bag. I used some dressmakers chalk to
trace around a cut out heart shape. That didn't look permanent enough
to stand up to a trip to the office so I added the line of red running
stitch at home. The odd green and red shape is over the big hole on this side
of the bag. I hadn't realized how tongue-like it would look. Starting the weaving
was the first time the needle came unthreaded on this project. Hopefully
not a sign of more problems to come.

The picture also shows part of my stash of craft stuff. I've finally caught the stash-busting-bug, and plan to weigh it all up and start using all the things I've acquired over the years. Cutting those patches would be a good start.

Final note: spent £45 on a light box to help with comic drawing. Hopefully it will motivate me to actually draw, rather than sit around thinking about it.

Don't feed me

Figs. Not even cute little baby figs that are so tasty I can't resist a second helping. My manager is the culprit here. I had to leave work after lunch because my stomach hurt so much. No buscrafting on the way home, because of the pain and somehow I would feel guilty if I left work early and then played on the trip home. Then I got home and curled up in bed for the rest of the afternoon.

My full list of foods to not eat:
Figs
Avocados
Bananas, raw only
Green peppers, raw only
Marzipan

make do mending phase 1

The green part of the blackwork patten is done, and the needle is ready with the pink thread for tomorrow.

mostly from last May

The blackwork bag mending is going slow, but at least it is still going. I think this part of the mending will be finished this week, so next weekend I'll get to cut up an old umbrella for the patches. Hopefully. Maybe. Well, it could happen. I know I'm really slow at getting stuff done, but there is only one, or maybe one and a half, more rows of the green blackwork, then I think I'll only add a few lines of pink thread. It could get done in a week of commuting.

Also, it dawned on me after leaving my phone at home again, that my reason for having only one bag is wrong. When I was finishing the woven bag back in May last year, I thought I would never use it because it would be confusing, and I would leave my wallet or phone in the wrong bag. But that happens anyway.

And another follow up to a project from last May: I'm trying to work on that comic every day, trying to get tidy drawings done for all the pages. The plan is to get into the habit of drawing a bit every day, and just keep going. It's going to take ages.