Not writing

My writing on the bus hasn’t progressed at all. I think the concentration needed to edit is more than what’s needed to write. Maybe that’s a comment on my writing skills!

Anyway, I’m switching the writing to an ‘at home’ project for now. On the bus, I’m going to play with a bit of crochet. I had started a Dorset Cross Wheel button at an Embroidery Guild meeting. After starting the edge, I thought it would be better as a flower, but then I lost in on my craft table (yes, it’s in a disgraceful state). The current plan is to see if I can crochet a few petal shapes onto it. Pictures of any successes will follow!

Negative space

Tuesday, I finally got a grip on what negative space is. I’ve been doing a light weight 6 wk course on 2D design at Urbis, and though it has been fun to try batik and some sketching techniques, I hadn’t felt like I was learning much until the exercise last night. The exercise was just the one where you cut out lots of the same shape, then arrange them in different patterns. I had heard of this before, but
never done it.

Cutting a very simple shape (based on a rubbing from a drain pipe fitting on the Triangle, which I had made at an earlier class), then arranging on paper, and being able to see the different shapes that made. It all became clear! At least for a while.

On a bus crafting note, currently I’m back to writing the sprite thief story, taking on board suggestions made and my own ideas for improvement.

What am I doing?

I'm wondering, are bloggers in general over-achievers? Am I comparing myself, or rather my blogging and crafting, to workaholics? In my own mind, I identify as a slacker- I don't have loads of energy and drive. If I try to do too much, I go all scatter-brained and forget stuff (like my keys). Trying to do more is like setting myself up for failure, which does no one any good, and myself a load of bad.

I usually tell myself I just need to get organized, prioritise better, focus on just one thing, focus on what's important to me. But to be honest, I know that won't work. Now I don't want to sit around doing nothing, but I don't want to load my life with pressure to do stuff, especially stuff that doesn't matter much either way. I want to just enjoy life, have fun, and not cause any bother. But I feel like that would be a bad thing to do. Not quite criminal, but bad. Like I was wasting my potential.

Recently, I've been trying to relax more. But I'm annoyed that I haven't been working on projects as much as I want to. And there's always the other stuff to do as well. Never satisfied.

Trip to Gallery Oldham

I had a nice visit to Gallery Oldham today. The Fairies exhibit by Samantha Bryan is what tempted me out there. (Yes, it’s only 15 mins on the train, but still I had to be tempted out.) Her work isn’t exactly my cup of tea, but I find it interesting to see what she’s doing. She uses paper clay to sculpt the heads, and all sorts of bits go into the sculptures. I did like the buttons used as wheels. Possibly the problem I have with Samantha Bryan’s work is that she makes sculptures rather than toys. “Do not touch” tags bug me.

The next gallery along was a pleasant surprise, as I’m not familiar with either artist but really liked the sculptures. An Englishman, a Scotsman and a Tree: Paul Aston and James Castle, is only at Gallery Oldham until 27 June 09, but I do recommend it. The work and the gallery space was just refreshing. Photography was permitted in that room, so here’s a favourite of mine:

It makes me want to put dots on all my furniture.

Also, the exhibit called A Lost Landscape: Roger Hampson was very interesting 9on until 25 July). Hampson was a Northern, post-WW2 artist, who seems to have known that the common lifestyle in his native land was dying out. Fascinating from a socio-historical perspective: the clogs, the Walking Days, workers in mills and mines. It would have been nice to have more description with the images, but a whole book would have been more appropriate.

Last note: I did get slightly lost and ended up in the education area inside the library, where one of the craft displayes featured painted plastic bottle tops, and another had a quilt of apliqued hands with embroidered decoration. Neat!

Very bad day

I'm sickened by the fact that I live with 132,094 racists who voted for the BNP, and that means their leader is now one of my MEPs.

I'm not a British or EU citizen yet, but I've booked my Life In The UK test, and I'll be saving up the £750. Next election, at least I'll be able to vote.

Manchester Fab Lab

Tuesday, I went to a very interesting talk by Dr Eddie Kirkby, head of charitable operations for the Manufacturing Institute. He's in charge of setting up a Fab Lab in Manchester, and hopes it will be up and running by the end of this year. I made notes, but can't say I took everything down correctly or completely, but the project does sound really cool.

The Fab Lab idea started at MIT. Very open source ethos influenced. I think the set up is generally enough to go from idea to prototype, but it also seems to be a place to make stuff. Not a factory, but definitely somewhere you could build a one-off piece of, well, whatever you can think of.

The current plan for fitting out a local lab includes:

• CAD/CAM software


• lazer cutter


• lathe


• moulding and casting facility for stuff made of plastics, silicon, chocolates, etc., but not metal


• 3D printer and scanner


• vinyl cutter


• maybe something for printing curcuits (can't see this in my notes, but I think it was mentioned)

It won't have anything to work hard substances (iron, granite), so if your idea called for something like that, either that component would have to be made elsewhere, or you could do a prototype in available materials, but you wouldn't be able to stress test it.

As I understand it, the fab lab would be free to use with agreement to the fab lab charter. Users need to know how to use the equipment (or learn by sharing knowledge), and document the design and process for other fab lab users (this is a world-wide network- not just Mancunian). If you want to work in secret, you will be able to rent the space (cheap, if Dr Kirkby's estimate proves correct) and work all on your own. Staff time can also be purchased (at the moment 'staff' means a manager and an assistant manager, but volunteers are being sought as well), and they plan to do workshops and team-building events to generate income, and participate in open innovation challenges (no- I didn't understand what that means, but one involved new crisp flavours [what's wrong with salt and vinegar? I say]). I think Dr Kirkby said funding was already in place for 2 years.

The proposed site is currently somewhere on Oldham Road, but this isn't confirmed yet. And the Manchester Fab Lab website isn't up yet either, but the nice eddiek said he'll email a load of us with updates.

I'm excited about it. Even though it is a 'manufacturing initiative' the ethos is weloming to arts/crafts endeavours.

The talk was organized by the Manchester Inventors Group.

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.