Comic sketch success!

Honestly, I didn’t think placing a time limit on the comic book buscrafting would work, and I’m not sure how it did, but on the Friday commute to work I finished roughing out the last page! Magnifico! Still not sure what the next step will be with the comic, but it feels good to have the whole 22 pages roughly sketched out. I’m thinking the next stage is to actually figure out how to take it to a finished product, then decide if that’s do-able.

My next buscraft ought to be to try out tatting. A woman at the knit club that meets at the 8th day was showing me how to do it earlier this week. As I decided to try new things this year, it would be ideal to start on that next week. But I don’t have a tatting shuttle, a pattern, or a clue how to start. So again, I need to figure out what

to do.

Which is nice in a way, because it will give me a chance to do some of the weaving projects that have been building up- my DIY Weaving Club Membership Card, a postcard and, assuming I finish the second clanger, a clanger dress.

Screen printing: not a buscraft

Yesterday, I went to one of the Handmade socials at Urbis- it was a session about how to screen print run by Ayesha Ansari, an enthusiastic community artist. I knew I wanted to make a stencil from one of P's photos, but Ayesha thought it was too small, so I added the house to it.

Screen printing is really fun. Ayesha's enthusiasm for it is catching! I'm glad I went to a session where I could try it out, because I've read about it but didn't understand the process until yesterday. The whole point of the screen is to hold the stencil in place. We just used thick paper for the stencils, but I can see how a plastic one would be more durable. I'm now wondering about using confetti, leaves or feathers; and could you use a thick screen, like a bit of hessian, to have a patterned painted section?

It is tempting to buy some basic equipment, but I think I need to let the ideas brew for a while. Lots of other stuff in the pipe already, but if I can find space for a screen in my craft area I suspect it will go on my wish list.

And for the buscraft report: I've now roughed out 11 pages, but finding it very slow. I hadn't realised how mentally taxing the layout of the comic book would be, and honestly, I'm just not at my sharpest first thing in the morning or right after work. Twice I've thought I should just put it away and try something else, but then had fresh ideas and made progress with the comic again. Frustrating. I'm going to stick at it this week (just 4 days) and maybe next weekend try to finish this stage off.

This comic writing malarkey

Tuesday to Thursday, I did rough sketches of seven consecutive pages, Friday I did nothing, and today I've decided that pages 4-7 are too rough and need re-sketched. I'm also flummoxed about how to show an aerial battle scene. Also, the comic is going to be much shorter than I originally thought.

As a buscraft, the open A5 ring binder is just a bit big- I held it so it was sticking out into the aisle by accident one morning. There's no way to draw or write neatly, but my scribbles are recognizable to me. I'm not sure if I'll ever develop them into tidy drawings, but it would be possible.

Note- here's my not-ill-gotten gains:

It doesn't look like much, but that's £104 of art supplies and stuff. I'm making a note here, because I'm curious about how long it will take for me to use any of it.

Almost there...

A suitable title for a Star Wars Day post, but it also refers to my progress on the DIY Weaving Club Rag Bag project. The buscrafting bit is done, and the basic bag is complete, but I still need to do a lining. Will I ever get around to that?

The weaving was a good craft for the bus. Bits of learning:

• it's easier to get the shuttle through if there's not too much yarn wound on it, this is more important as the weaving reaches the top and there's  less play in the warp


• near the top of the weaving, basically the bit that goes up over the comb, using the chip fork to lift individual warps and then shove the weft thread underneath was much easier than trying to put the chip fork through a shed


• weave up to the top as much as possible- I left too much of a gap and ended up filling it after taking the loops off the comb (I suppose if I had used a really thick string or length of fabric, it would have worked alright without in-filling)


• people are nervous of sticks waving around


• string falls out of upturned carrier bags

Now that the weaving is complete, I'm going to try something different: drawing a comic book. I'm tired of thinking that I can't draw well enough to do the style of comic I'd like to. It discourages me from drawing at all. So, I'm going to take my sketch book on the bus, and just have a bash at it. The idea is that there's no way to draw neatly on a bus that's jostling its way through rush hour traffic, therefore the pressure to draw neatly disappears! I'll be lucky to have anything recognizable at the end of the journey, but anything I do will be better than just feeling bad about not being able to draw how I want to.

And I'm a bit overwhelmed by all the fabric crafting that I've built up. Joyce at the Embroiderers Guild was advising finishing one thing before starting another. Awfully good advice.

Review of An Embroiderer's Eye

Today I took the train to Macclesfield to see the Embroiderer's Eye: the Diana Springall collection at the Macclesfield Silk Museum's Paradise Mill.

The BNP were handing out leaflets on the high street, which put me off Macclesfield (though the only person I know who lives in Macclesfield isn't a fascist, so I shouldn't judge them all by what they permit on the high street). And I did end up at the wrong Silk Museum because they have 4 sites and their web site is a bit inadequate at explaining what is where or which is what, or something like that.

But on a positive note, I stumbled across a very busy haberdashery shop, I'm not sure if its called Malkin & Pyatt or The Fent Shop, but it had a wide selection of printed fabrics for traditional (or not so traditional) patchwork, and loads of other fabric as well. I may be tempted back when I feel like I've used up enough of the fabric I have in my stash. Or I may just go and buy a meter of that strawberry print, anyway!

The show was small, but still well worth seeing. The quality of the work was so high, and though it was all from one woman's personal collection, there was a wide selection of styles and techniques. I also appreciated seeing some of the sketches or plans for the pieces on display, and a few samples worked up as studies for the finished pieces.

Neat bits:

• Setting embroidery into plaster of paris, as in Paddy Killer's Stones of Venice; could this technique be used to mix embroidery with tiling or as part of furniture?


• Saw work by Anne Morrell, whose book I'm re-reading at the moment


• Liked the pieces by Jane McKeating, which is good because she's a friend of a friend (via work)


• Impressed with the or nue technique Margaret Nicholson used in Mother and Daughter; can the design process for this technique be applied to wrapping string around sticks?


• Loved how small bits of fabric were used, especially by Richard Box in Daisies, and Rachel Setford's Sandcastles, which unfortunately isn't in the catalog, and my quick sketch from memory is a bit inadequate


• Could a stuffed festoon be designed, similar to what Ruth Tudor did, but left soft and flexible?

The show is obviously inspiring. It's making me think again about machine embroidery. The catalog is well worth buying, though some of the pieces just don't photograph well.

Definitely worth the trip, and I did a few more rows on the rag bag. And I think I saw a bunny on the way there.

Clumsy

Thursday, as I was weaving, I dropped my bag of yarn. Not much fell out onto the floor of the bus, but I couldn’t reach it, mainly because I still had the weaving and a bag of groceries on my lap and the seat beside me was inconveniently occupied. The occupant got off at my usual stop, and I stayed on, putting my shopping bag on the seat and squeezing down between the seats to pick up the bits that had fallen. Luckily, the bus floor was clean(ish) and I didn’t actually loose anything. I easily got off at the next stop, which is actually closer to home.

I’m not planning to invest in a bus crafting box with oodles of handy compartments, but the incident is worth remembering.

Review and update

Because it's supposed to be good to review, here's the list of stuff I was doing around the middle of last month:

• Add another row onto the quilt


• Knit clanger to next stage of instructions


• Cover old headphones


• Start a patchwork piece


• Secret step of great birthday present for P


• Try out the Rag Bag Loom weaving project


• Bento everyday

And here's the progress report:

The quilt finally got that row added, and it's ready for another. One a month is a bit slow, but I'm still optimistic about finishing this, someday.

The clanger is now up to the row where the arm holes are, so I need to refresh my knitting knowledge. I'm not Wii Fitting everyday, but I have been working on it if I get a spare 5-10 minutes. Again, optimistic, maybe to finish this summer.

The headphones are still an outstanding issue- I just haven't done anything on this one. It's a source of shame.

My patchwork ambitions have been put on hold for the moment, and I'm feeling alright about that. I'm planning to go to the big quilt show at the NEC in August (and visit the in-laws), and it will be just fine to go as an observer rather than a participant.

The next steps in the great-secret-birthday-gift were taken, but then one was un-taken and will need to be re-taken. Another secret step is ready to be taken. I have a feeling this will be a rush job in July.

The weaving of the rag bag is progressing nicely (see the action shot of me on the way to the great Chorlton Big Green Festival). I do enjoy the weaving, and it is a nice bus riding craft even if I occasionally forget the bit of yarn I want to use. Also, I found a broken polka-dot umbrella at the bus stop that will make a nice bit of lining for the bag, when it finally gets to that stage. It isn't a quick project though, and with a short work week coming up, I'll probably not have a complete bag until after next weekend. This is a tiny bit annoying, because I have my next issue of the Tanglecraft DIY Weaving Club zine, but it will just have to be put in the someday pile for the time being.

Another project note to get down: the balcony and kitchen window sill are now home to some experimental gardening. For years, I've thought about gardening, planning sowing times, reading about container plants, etc, etc, yawn, yawn. This year, I concluded that the best option is to just put a lot of seeds in some compost, water, and see what happens. If anything grows, it will be tons better than just having the seeds sitting in their neat little envelopes. As P is fond of saying, "Best is the enemy of good"