just a couple for now, expect this to be updated.

radiant vista: i found this when searching for the photography podcast equivalent of craft sanity. nice long in-depth podcasts, message boards and genuinely useful multimedia content e.g. video photoshop tutorials and daily critiques.

utata | @flickr: massive photography community, projects, articles, loads here.

anyone got any other good suggestions for me?

venturing tentatively into the online world of art quilts (why do i find the very idea so off-putting? i think my deeply ingrained art-scepticism instinctively baulks at it - to my mind the whole point of a quilt is that it keeps somebody warm) i’ve found a whole heap more links to drop for later reference:

ragged cloth cafe
art quilt reviews
squidoo: art quilts

quilting is apparently part of the fabric (heh) of society in the us, but here it feels like a rather unlikely thing to do. casting around to find some kind of british tradition i could link into i found quiltart. i’m especially taken by the work of elizabeth brimelow and ann fahy, both speak to the latent archaeologist in me. and for sheer fabric joy i don’t think mary fogg can be beaten.

with immaculate timing the purl bee (i swear i’m not on commission ) today recommended this book on welsh quilts.

early quilt history, wholecloth quilts, inc. welsh, at quiltersmuse.

vintage welsh quilts can be seen (and purchased) here. tangentially, she also has a stock of welsh nursing shawls, which i feel somehow duty-bound to at least have a try with, although the traditional carry is one-handed, rather than hands free. and on the same tangent i must remember to post a pic of my new mei tai - it’s one of the loveliest textiles that’s come into my possession in a loooong time.

sadly not much info online at the v&a, although they do have a reading list and (don’t hold your breath) an upcoming exhibition of british quilts in 2010.

the quilters’ guild

quiltstory has an up to date list of uk exhibitions and events, as well as various articles with a uk slant.

fabric dyeing 101 - definitive dyeing resource (which will follow in due course, i have no doubt ) i’ve also really enjoyed reading her hard-won insights into running an art-based home business (ongoing series).

it seems to me that, when it comes to design, the victorian era is often overlooked. perhaps because it’s so ubiquitous - in the uk at least. huge swathes of our towns and cities were built in the 19th century, a quarter of us live in houses built before 1919. and if we don’t live in a victorian house, we’ve been accustomed to using victorian buildings all our lives, so much of our infrastructure - schools, hospitals, police stations, doctors’ surgeries, etc. - is housed in victorian buildings. victorian flourishes and flounces surround us; mouldings, coving, glorious decorative tiling that often survives on hallway floors or fireplaces; all are commonplace. and familiarity breeds contempt.

we only did away with the last of the surviving victorian interior aesthetic after the second world war, and not effectively like they did in the states. that dark wood furniture, those velvet curtains, those panelled doors, they lurked gloomily on for a long time. it’s stuffy, it’s fussy, it’s the antithesis of modern, and we all know how much we love modern. even those who dig old stuff tend to go for the atomic, the mid century, or simpler, rustic, country style. everyone (except perhaps the crazy quilter) neatly sidesteps victorian, it just isn’t cool.

i can’t say i’m any exception to the rule, but i do recognise that the more celebrated movements that grew out of the end of the victorian era - arts and crafts, art nouveau - had their roots well and truly in the victorian age. the modern was born out of the heart of the old fashioned. and i have a huge fondness for ceramic tiles, particularly victorian and islamic designs, which share a combination of botanical and geometric motifs, brought together with some kind of magic that must be specific to the medium (but to a degree is often echoed in textile design).

and i’ve already shared my love of browsing for original sources. so when i found a copy of f edward hulme’s suggestions in floral design (1878), a book that is apparently seminal in the development of art nouveau - most astonishingly - at a price that i could theoretically afford, how on earth could i resist?

i haven’t yet had a chance to read the text, i’ve been too distracted by the illustrations - crisp chromolithographs, many highlighted in gold. all astonishingly beautiful, and often surprisingly “modern”. sadly i don’t think i can afford to hold on to the book - i sank a chunk of my digital camera fund into the purchase, and i’m really aching to move on with that. so its stay with me will be temporary, but i’ve taken the chance to record all 52 plates while i have them, and put them into an inspirational flickr set. i’ll try to annotate the pics as i work my way through the text.

while it’s not the same as the stunning originals, the good news is that the illustrations at least are available in reprint under the title victorian floral designs in full color, although i don’t know whether the text is reproduced alongside them.

such beautiful designs couldn’t have been developed without a thorough understanding of the subject matter, and f edward hulme is probably best known today for his series of volumes illustrating familiar wild flowers, pages from which are readily available as prints. if you’re digging these as much as i am (heh, can you tell how much i dig them?) you might also be interested in christopher dresser’s studies in design, from the same era, available in reproduction.

honestly, this isn’t as o/t as it may at first appear. i was once (briefly) an archaeologist and have always found design inspiration in the ancient world. i was just reminded how drawn i am to the motifs on british celtic coins, in particular the horses. many of these coins were made in imitation of greek coins (the gold stater of philip II of macedon, in particular):

over time the designs evolved further and further from the original, becoming progresively more abstract:

you can still see the chariot wheel in both my examples. the cross/ear of corn type pattern on the obverse is derived from philip’s laurel wreath (and ears?).

i was searching for a book with plenty of illustrations to use as a design reference when i came across the ultimate resource; the celtic coin index online. there are thousands of images, you can browse by tribe and every image is accompanied by comprehensive information on its provenance, composition etc.

love it

i got a new book this week. well, new to me at least. crochet workshop by james walters. when someone as talented as helle jorgensen who makes such amazing stuff as this:

highly recommends a crochet book you have to sit up and take notice. i found one online for a very reasonable price (if you’re trying to track down an affordable copy don’t despair!) and snapped it up. i haven’t yet had a chance to settle down for a proper read, but i love that it gives you the real nitty-gritty knowledge that informs a real understanding of the structure of a crochet piece.

i love vintage craft books, i love having a less-well-known source of inspiration. that’s not saying that following a project word for word from a book no-one’s heard of has any greater merit than doing the same from stitch n bitch or knitty (and not knocking that, particularly as a way to pick up new skills, or as simple relaxation). but it offers an alternative aesthetic, as well as techniques that may have been overlooked by modern authors.

i was pretty excited when i heard via inaminuteago that a 1912 embroidery manual - embroidery and tapestry weaving by grace christie - had been added to the guttenberg project. and oh how disappointed i was when i realised that guttenberg doesn’t support illustrations. i mean how much use is that? i’m not a particularly visual learner, i like words (in case you hadn’t guessed :D), but really, an embroidery manual without pictures?

i’ve also been browsing the art&design books on ebay and have found a few crackers, though they’ll have to wait for payday. i feel that going back to original sources like this forces creativity - the work isn’t done for you, you have to translate your inspiration into whichever medium you’re working. it’s reawakened my interest in acquiring a more systematic art education rather than the bits i’ve picked up piecemeal over the years. i still have half a shelf-full of art history books on extended loan that haven’t been read and are due back soon, so i’m going to try to work my way through them. now i just have to stop myself falling asleep in the middle of the greek classical period…

forums: martha pullen phorum
quilters review
sewforum
equilter (also home to a library which includes this discussion on puckering).

flickr: quilts and quilting

misc quilting links: handy info on various things to consider from quiltville including thread colour choice and pieced backings (plus lots else to browse).
batting faq
standard quilt measurements
looooads of info at victoriana quilt designs
press your seams open
starching
hand piecing
cutting - grain lines
piecing sharp points
hand piecing tips
perfect hand quilting stitch

yay for blogsurfing. a lovely step by step tutorial here for top-down socks, gansey style (which i’m guessing translates to guernsey this side of the atlantic?).

i’m back and i’m thinking fair isle, this is a great blog: can’t find a permalink for the entry, but scroll down for a list of technical knitting posts

Knitting Beyond the Hebrides - Lace Symposiummiles ahead of myself as usual

gypsy fabric (linen) by neisha crosland. i have such a big thing about ferns, ferns and palms, i think it’s harking back to a victorian thing.

since she doesn’t do the design as a wallpaper (by which i could potentially have been sorely tempted) and because one (enormous) panel of this weighs in at a whopping £160+ i shall have to file it under “inspiration” only. pah.

so how did i manage to miss lomo for so long? lomography.

i’m a sucker for weirdy cameras and films - i’m particularly attached to the murky, out of focus, poor resolution, colour-casted pictures i’ve taken over the years. particular winners in those stakes were our first digi camera the matchbox sized l’espion (max 352 x 288 resolution :D) and the instax mini with its fuji blues.

what particularly appeals about lomo is that it’s not a proprietory film format, so as long as there’s 35mm there’ll be lomo. i also like the idea of cross-processing slide film as negative to intensify the weirdy colour thing as seen here (lomo) and here (general). i just had a surprisingly helpful chat with jessops who said that while they won’t cross-process there is an online company who will, though i’ve yet to find them.

from having a quicky shufty about a lot depends on your processing. most places correct the colours, which is exactly what you don’t want. i’ve read advice to just slap a digi filter over a standard photo but that’s gonna take away the randomness of your weirdy effects and the interplay between the lens, the film and the light.

there’s a flickr group on xpro so i’ll have a read up there and maybe just play around with what weirdy effects i can get out of my slr before i start thinking about adding a lomo to my wishlist.

edit: peak imaging do mail order and they’ll xpro, and it sounds like snappy snaps are worth a try too.

more xpro links:
webmonkey
fotoserve

• Machine Quilting
• batting faq
• major quilting inspiration (and tipping me over the edge into starting with this*) hillary lang of wee wonderfuls. how cool not only that a) she uses one of the fabrics i just bought in this quilt (second row from right, bottom square) but that b) i spotted it immediately on seeing the photo :D. that quilt is pretty close to what i’m currently imagining for my first attempt - geometric, largely white, but i’m thinking stripes.
• yet more inspiration contemporary-stylee from denyse schmidt.
• more inspiration from material obsession: an australian store so not great shopping potential but i like the way their deisgns tread so sure-footedly the line between trad and contemporary.
• forums: there’s a quilting forum at pr, which is rather quiet but there are many very experienced people there if i do have questions to ask; block central is the first of the quilt-only forums i’ve found that’s in a format i like but it is rather pink.
• backings
• discussion on preventing backings puckering: lots of good putting-together info here.
• equilters library
• paula reid tips & tricks

*lol i just saw the massive number of comments on the post, including one that says “I wonder how many people will make their first quilt because of this one” - count me in!

yay new category!

i’ll put all my links here and keep updating as and when:

taught courses/syllabus ideas:
Practical Study Group textile artists and tutors
opus school of textile arts

self study resources:
designing britain: fabrics forming society
hand blockprinted textiles
three weavers
artist’s alphabet
common threads: unraveling the world of textiles
guggenheim arts curriculum online

reading lists:
pattern and textiles (historical)
designing britain: textiles

general resources:
arts and humanities data service
crafts study centre
art history resources on the web

collections:
The Textiles Collection: a teaching and learning resource
v&a
the textile museum (washington)
textile museum of canada

some stand-out felty inspirations, mostly via craftster.

slice cushions: someone mentioned slicing felted balls and i instantly thought of making a long sausage shape and joining the circles together into a fabric. i love the execution of these, but i dread to think how big the inital roll must have been!

felted rugs: i marginally prefer these modern designs to the traditional ones, but check out that pile of fluff

i love marijke eken’s use of texture and shape, especially in her panels (art>).

her use of rich colours and graphic designs make karoliina arvilommi’s work really stand out, again the wall panels speak to me most.

one thing i’ve learned on my mini tour of felt artists is is that i detest needle felted trolls

thesilkworker.com: fantastic resource for spinning silk which, typically, i didn’t find until after my first attempt.

as mentioned previously i’m going through a turquoise phase at the moment. turquoise and hot pink is my particular favourite combination. in that spirit i ordered turquoise silk and pink wensleydale locks from fyberspates (delivered in person - now that’s what i call service!). i didn’t intend to use them together but now i think i might have to.

i’ve spun up some of the silk on the wheel. it’s come out fat, soft and fluffy, which was rather a surprise. one of the things i’m really enjoying about the wheel is that it leads me - the yarns are much looser, noticeably less dense and more fluid than the rather over-analysed, often over-spun stuff i was turning out on the spindle. i’m sure that will change with practise, but for now it’s a pleasant change of pace.

i’m not sure whether the finished yarn will actually be any use for its intended purpose (bag strap, probably crocheted), but it’s been fun to get my hands on the wheel after a long time of being too busy to play (i’m really too busy tonight too but am bunking off - shhh!).

my spinning super power has returned - i spun 2 1/4-bobbins just trying out the silk, judged by eye. it turned out they were exactly the same length - to the inch - over 68 yards (and yes, thanks, this time i’m sure it’s yards :P).

oh and have i mentioned how mch i love my skeiner? have i? well not today i haven’t. i LOVE my skeiner.

edit: finished product:

Alpaca Fiber - Selling Fleece - Preparing Fleece -Mount Airy Alpaca Company, Maryland
joyofhandspinning: alpaca

despite appearances to the contrary i haven’t dropped off the face of the earth, or stopped stitching, but i have been rather sidetracked by various things, mostly watching movies.

but all should be back on track soon, i went to a spinning workshop today, had my first ever try on a wheel and also came back with some mmmmm alpaca, hence the links.

Sock Knitting Tips
glitter sock thread
and a whole forums at knittersreview and angelyarns

toe-up sock pattern
knitty sock tutorial
knittersreview sock tutorial
german twisted cast-on and on video

guess what i’m planning after i finish xmas stuff…

Yarn Harlot

knitting-and.com patterns & blog, spinning stuff too.

This page is about Icelandic Sheep site also has felting info.

oh dear, looks like we need a felting category…