Guest series 2012: I asked fellow bloggers, makers and creators to write on their creativity and focus their essay on one of four topics: creativity and health, creativity and business, creativity and parenting or creativity and process. I am very excited to have a wonderful lot of fellow creative folk guest posting here at whipup.net over the next couple of months. Please welcome…

Sayraphim Lothian is a craft and visual artist interested in exploring playful and participatory experiences. She co-runs Pop Up Playground, a Melbourne pervasive and social games collective; recently participated in a playful residency at the National Gallery of Victoria and some of her work can be found in the archives of the NGV, the collection at MOMA and on streets around the world.

Yesterday morning I was feeling pretty excited. I’ve been making artificial cupcakes on and off for the past couple of days and yesterday they were ready to be distributed in the CBD. They’re all in colourful patty pans, with purple ‘icing’, sprinkled with different coloured glitter and a cheery red bead on top. Threaded through each bead is a glittery paper tag, printed with a hand carved stamp that reads “For you, stranger <3 sayraphim”.

I went into the city and left them all out in various places for people to find and take – I’m exploring random acts of guerrilla kindness – and I was really excited to see how it went. My ultimate goal was to make someone’s day a little brighter by gifting them with a fun fake cupcake. By the time I was back on the train heading home I’d already gotten my first response, someone on twitter telling me that finding a cupcake had made them smile and that they were so inspired by the project they were planning to do something similar.

My current body of work investigates kindness and loveliness as art. I create fun, magical moments for people to experience and enjoy. Sometimes these take the form of games to play, in the street, in theatres, in parlours or out in the open, and sometimes they are joyous craft pieces, installed in the street. Along with the For you, Stranger project I’m also working on Gilding the City, which installs reworked pieces of found and broken jewellery in cities around the world, and Street Pests, which places pigeon and rat softies sewn from material found in the streets back in the suburbs they came from. I see all these pieces as little bubbles of joy or surreal moments for passersby to notice.

There are two main influences on my current practise. The first was my grandmother, Marge. She tirelessly created toys for charity throughout her life. She had a wardrobe filled with material people had donated to her, a garage full of yarn and she knitted, sewed and created hundreds of dolls and toys for charity and gifts. She would also teach anyone who asked and freely gave of her time and expertise whenever she saw a need. At the end of her life, while in a high care dementia home, she was still knitting scarves for the hospital and teaching the nurses to knit. She shared her skills and knowledge freely to anyone and she made the world a better place for hundreds of people.

The second person is a British gent named Tassos Stevens. He co-runs the playful society Agency of Coney and just over a year ago he visited Melbourne to invite people to rediscover their playful side. He inducted us into Coney’s world of play and its principle of loveliness via games and challenges. In one challenge he asked us to gather into pairs and suggest someone we thought might like a lovely, possibly anonymous, surprise and what that surprise might be. Another challenge was to get together in groups and chat about a group of people who are normally ignored, or who do crappy jobs for little pay, and what we might create as a nice experience for them. Nurses, public transport drivers, cleaners and people living in old folks homes were some of the people nominated for loveliness and some of the experiences brain stormed were quite touching.

I fell in love with this idea – niceness’s organised for people who might need them – a little bit of kindness to improve someone’s life. During the week, through these challenges and some physical games out on the street, Tassos taught us that making lovely experiences for people is actually a Thing. Which sounds silly when you say it out loud, but sometimes you need stuff pointed out by other people to fully understand it.

The whole experience made me want to do that too, so I started a new direction in my work, making niceness’s for other people in all manner of ways.

My first project was called A Moment In Yarn. It took the craft skills and generosity of my grandmother and mixed them with the personalised kindness experiences that Tassos teaches. It’s a one on one experience in which the participant tells me a cherished memory and, as we chat, I translate the memory into a granny square for them using different coloured and textured yarn. It’s a really beautiful experience and I always feel really honoured that people trust me with a memory that’s so precious to them. I love hearing their stories and I love the challenge of re-creating them in yarn. It’s a big responsibility – you’re being lent a treasured moment of their lives and you don’t want to do anything to sully it – but it’s always so heart-warming at the end to see their faces when they receive their Moment In Yarn; their memory made solid, something warm and soft they can hold. What I knew would happen at the end of each Moment is that the participant would get a craft object based on their memory (which they all seem to love) what I didn’t expect was the awesome feeling I’d get that I’d made something that meant so much to someone.

The next project was called Gilding the City. You can read the post I wrote about it for Whipup here. It’s a street art project reworking found bits of broken jewellery into little art pieces for cities to wear. It started out in Melbourne and quickly spread around the world. They’re usually pretty small, often they don’t stand out from where they are installed, instead they are little rewards for people who take the time to look around and really see the city rather than just going about their daily business. I love the city, I love peering around corners and scanning the ground to see what I find and, with Gilding the City, I wanted to encourage other people to see the city the way I do. I’ve sent Gilds to people all around the world to install in their own cities and they tell me they love the thrill of the hunt (to find the right place) and the excitement of installing the piece. One lady, who installed a little figure with her son, wrote to me to tell me that he waves to it every day and has named it ‘Lollipoloser’.

Some of these projects take a little bit of time to create but I love doing it. I love the idea that someone stumbles across one of the street projects and it brightens their day. I’m always thrilled to see interesting art out in the streets and I want to share that experience for other people. I create tiny moments of joy for people in the city; out-of-the-ordinary moments that transport them, if only for a second, to a world filled with magic and wonder. I get such joy out of making each item and I’m always chuffed when people contact me to let me know they found one.

My advice is keep an eye on the streets around you, you never know what you might see…Similar Posts:

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Guest series 2012: I asked fellow bloggers, makers and creators to write on their creativity and focus their essay on one of four topics: creativity and health, creativity and business, creativity and parenting or creativity and process. I am very excited to have a wonderful lot of fellow creative folk guest posting here at whipup.net over the next couple of months. Please welcome…

Environmental fiber artist and writer, Abigail Doan, divides her time between NYC, Eastern Europe, and rural Italy. Her work as a fiber artist offers a unique view into the materials, methods, and the life cycle of contemporary textiles, slow fashion garments, and related environmental issues. Abigail started her blog,Ecco*Eco as a forum for sharing ideas and projects related to ‘fashioning self and the environment’. She also keeps a visual journal at Lost in Fiber and recommends reading: BROODWORK Creative Practice and Family Life.

Fiber Flotsam 01 made out of recycled fiber and hand-dyed wool by Abigail Doan (2012)

As a mother of four year old twin boys and the next year mapped out for living in Eastern Europe, my studio practice is all about twining together materials and methods that make the most sense for my nomadic lifestyle and the complex textures of life on the road. As artists and makers we are often nostalgic for chapters in our lives when we might have had more time to create in silence and with total cohesiveness. Having children, particularly preschoolers, is both humbling and uplifting as one attempts to find a new path into studio practice and the focus required for crafting something meaningful and of genuine value.

I grew up on a small family farm in New York State’s Hudson River Valley, and I did not travel to Europe for the first time until after graduation from high school. I never would have guessed that I would marry a European, or rather an American with roots in a far off land like Bulgaria, but true love coupled with true adventure, was ultimately the destiny that was charted out for me. As an environmental fiber artist, all of these things make perfect sense to me now – particularly since my day-to-day life in Eastern Europe feels a lot more like my rural upbringing than life in bustling NYC does. I love that my children are currently immersed in a culture that celebrates local handcraft, village communities, as well as the foods and customs of a vibrant place. Even though we live in Bulgaria’s capital city of Sofia, it is very easy for us to be up on the mountain hiking within thirty minutes or driving to neighboring countries like Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, etc. within the span of just a few hours.

Photo of a color study drawn by my twin boys – based on regional textiles in my home studio

Several years ago I decided that I might be more effective (at peace) as an artist if I let go of the idea of working in a designated studio day in and day out, and instead set up an annual calendar of site-specific projects and outreach initiatives that allowed me to work organically with my surroundings. As part of this new strategy, I began working more with fiber, as it is a material that allows considerable flexibility in terms of transport and rather packable options for site-specific installations. Fiber, as a medium, also provides low-impact design solutions, particularly when paired with recycled materials and local landscape elements. I also love that my work, as someone who also writes about eco-textiles, artisan-based initiatives, and the slow fashion movement, allows me to create a home environment that is constantly evolving with the displayed objects that I am currently researching or interpreting.

‘Femme Maison’ collage with knotted wool, paper cut-out and pins by Abigail Doan (after Louise Bourgeois)

My home in Sofia, Bulgaria, is pretty much arranged in an open plan where constant interaction with my family and friends is encouraged. It is a common phenomenon for homes in Eastern Europe to have rooms that are multi-purpose, that is, a dining room, living room, or personal study easily and efficiently transforms into a bedroom for several people come nightfall.

My view in Sofia with fiber forms for Vogue Knitting Live in progress (January, 2012)

I also try to make good use of terrace space for growing small plants, herbs, and outdoor projects that overlap with evolving fiber projects that I need to “aerate” a bit before finalizing. Every day includes time spent gazing at Sofia’s Mount Vitosha while I hang clothes out to dry adjacent to neighboring porches draped with woven kilims basking in the sun and vines creeping over garden trellises.

Collaborative work space at the end of the day includes fiber forms in progress and drawings by the twins

My sculptural fiber forms and still life arrangements often migrate from room to room in a dialogue with my children’s play activities as they, too, draw and create objects with materials that we collectively recycle in the home or find on the streets. I generally make a point of documenting my work process and their creative expressions on a regular basis, as I feel that this informs my own work in dynamic and unexpected ways. Early mornings or late evenings are reserved for writing and more delicate assemblage projects – at least until my boys begin kindergarten full-time.

The beauty of all of this integrated home/art/parenting is the fact that my process has become so much more resourceful in the process. Life with children has taught me a lot about what it truly means to be fresh and creative with both materials and time management. Editing is now a big part of my day, my night, and my hands-on work. There is a certain clarity that comes from making things work in the time and space that one has available. Every parent feels as if they are perhaps re-inventing the wheel, but this a good thing when it comes to crafting a purposeful and believable genius of place.Similar Posts:

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After a five year wait, Megan Reilly returns with her new album The Well, out April 24 (Carrot Top Records). Megan is a mother, artist and musician, her new record is inspired by these three facets of her life. Website :: Tumblr :: Sew the Threads into Your Heart – from her latest album.

When I was younger I was a visual artist. It wasn’t until about the age of fifteen I began playing guitar, writing songs and taking singing seriously. Music always inspired art for me. Many drawing and sculpture assignments were finished late in the night listening to the music that inspired me, eventually convincing me to drop out and pursue it. I was a Photography major in college. I loved sculpture and painting. I learned how to weld, gesso a canvas and think conceptually about what I was making. I studied Art History and I took every art elective possible until I had nothing left but Geology and Speech left to complete my degree.

When music took the place of art, I always felt something was missing. It felt difficult to balance them. Now that I’m a mother I’ve not only figured out how to juggle all I want to do (caffeine) but most importantly art has come back into my life. I made my kid a dollhouse and a puppet theater out of cardboard boxes, painted chalkboard paint on the walls of our apartment, learned to sew and I see how all of these things inspire me in a new way. And there’s no pressure. I feel productive and satiated. I thought it was just a distraction for a while. But the older I get the more I realize that who I am is someone that needs art to function. And having other creative outlets aside from music takes the pressure off songwriting.

I am not disciplined and that’s fine. Or maybe I’m disciplined to work like someone with attention deficit. I realized when making my most recent record with a 3yr old in the house, I worked whenever I could. I wrote a line of lyrics when she watched tv or was in preschool. Sitting down to make a quilt or puppet theater kept my mind busy and thinking creatively. I let go and the whole enchilada worked out and I made the best music of my life so far.

Years ago a teacher showed me Grandma’s Bottle Village-The Art of Tressa Prisbey. A lady in a moomoo digging through the junkyard to make art. She’s my inspiration.Similar Posts:

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Niamh O’Connor is a stitch artist and designer working at Urban Threads, where they are revolutionizing machine embroidery one edgy, elegant, innovative, and/or offbeat design at a time.

When I first started designing for embroidery as a freshly graduated illustrator, I was often frustrated by what did and did not translate into thread. Stuff that would look fantastic on paper would just not work out the same in embroidery. Small details, print effects like halftone and offset printing, large designs… it was all limited by thread detail, trims, and hoop size. I would sometimes find myself wishing that embroidery could do more.

Over time, I’ve learned that you can pull out some truly gorgeous stuff if you just learn to design to its strengths, instead of fighting against its weaknesses. With this series, Baroque Punk, I wanted to focus on the one thing embroidery does better than anything: stitch dimension.

Beautiful, textural satin stitches can catch the light and make embroidery look like a sculptural relief when done right. It’s a technique that was common in the regal days of old, but oft forgotten in today’s modern machine designs. When researching embroidery through the ages, I was taken by the ornate qualities of the Baroque period. I thought it the perfect example of a “tapestry” of stitches and depth, and I wanted to bring that back.

This Baroque Punk series juxtaposes those ornate sculptural qualities of Baroque art with tattoo design. While still honoring embroidery’s roots, I wanted to make it fresh and modern by changing up the subject matter. Besides, we can’t seem to miss the chance to throw a skull into things now and then.

To leave the usual “kitsch” association with machine embroidery behind as far as possible, we at Urban threads decided to pair these designs with something you don’t often see machine embroidery on: modern couture fashion — proving that these kinds of designs would hold up to that kind of application, and to show that machine embroidery can be a lot more elegant than its often thought to be. To bring the project to life, we collaborated with celebrated fashion designer Laura Fulk, whose modern and edgy line has appeared on countless catwalks in the Midwest and to rave reviews at local fashion shows. Her classic yet slightly offbeat aesthetic was the perfect style to match the paradoxical Baroque Punk designs.

Together we hit upon the idea of a sharply tailored and asymmetrical jacket mixed with raw edges and patchwork. We wanted to offset the classic look and give it a grunge feel. The layers of fabric would also help to emphasize the overall deep texture we were going for, in both the jacket and the designs.

The blazer came to life in pieces. Laura hand-dyed and marked out her patterns on large swatches of fabric, and then mailed it to me for the embroidery. Using mostly templates, I experimented with placement, size and mirroring effects to get the overall tapestry look I was going for, and embroidered everything over the course of two late nights. Once back in Laura’s hands, it was crafted into the finished jacket and then given a second dye bath, to give the colors a richer, grungier hue.

The whole project took about three weeks from the first sketch to the final shot. This collaboration, along with a few others we have done over the past year, are all part of a larger project we call The Lab, an initiative to experiment, collaborate, and innovate to see just what can be done with the art of embroidery. We’ve had great fun working with other talented people and love finding out just what this medium can do. We plan for many other projects in the future!

If you want to grab the designs yourself, you can get them all right here. See more about this project over on our blog Stitchpunk, or take a peek at a behind the scenes look of the making of the jacket and the embroidery.

Credits: Model: Lucie Mulligan || Photography: Burt Edwards || Hair/Makeup: Sara CapersSimilar Posts:

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The feature post last week by quilt artist Chawne sure did raise a few issues and I would like to discuss a few of them here. First up though I want to say that I admire Chawne and her work and her artistic integrity, she is a wonderful skilled crafter and she creates from the heart. I featured her work on whipup for precisely those reasons and will continue to feature artists and makers whose work is real and raw, as well as the nice and practical and the thoughtful and artistic, just as I have done since whipup first launched over 6 years ago.

We have featured a variety of art/craft over the years – everything from crochet coral reefs to knitted poo, penises and boobs (yarn body parts warning), from knitted tank cosies to radical cross-stitch (language warning), from crafting politics to human hair as yarn, from knitted graffiti to public embroidery - if you are interested in exploring more check out our art+design category.

A few issues that were raised in the comments included those discussing the ‘quilt’ and its place in politics and art, many people were offended by the use of certain words but many others found the work to be as thought provoking as I did. Many quilters and crafters may not realise that quilting has a long and strong tradition of political and social activism, when I posted a series of Obama crafts a few years ago there was a strong reaction to politics raising its head in the craft world, so I want to reiterate that women throughout history have used craft as a way to have a voice in a male dominated world and I am sure that women will continue to claim their craft to voice their opinion or protest or to just speak their creativity.

You might like to read this thoughtful essay at the Quilt Index by Marybeth Stalp and titled In the Shadow of the Quilt: Political Messaging in Quilts

…those quilts that do not incite “fuzzy” and “comforting” feelings, but instead those that highlight and address publicly the social reality of inequality, racism, sexism, oppression, and the like.  I also examine quilts that communicate subversive, ironic, and sardonic messages. [Excerpt from essay]

A few folks were worried that their children might happen upon a few crass words online and as a parent myself I didn’t think twice about sharing those images with my kids and in fact it was the catalyst for a really interesting discussion about American history as well as the way language is used in our society.

Many readers were down on whipup for posting this and some even suggested that I remove the post as they found it ‘offensive’ and ‘disgusting’, and there were a few more ugly words thrown in there that I personally found way more upsetting and distasteful than the words that appeared on the quilts. Of course I won’t be removing the post, and I will continue to defend and showcase a wide variety of crafts here at whipup, just as it is your right not to read this website if you choose. However one point did emerge: it seems that many of you wanted a more defined language warning — that I will rectify for next time.

Thanks for reading
xxSimilar Posts:

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Chawne is a multi-craftual quilter who channels all her nervous energy into making blankets and quilts to keep folks warm. She blogs about the processes at Completely Cauchy.

This post comes with a language warning: [be prepared for some thought provoking (some might say shocking)  images - ed]

The diversity of the crafting world can often surprise crafty folks and astound non-crafters. Among us there are young and old, male and female, able-bodied and physically challenged, tall and short, and conservative and liberal. The public stereotypes are blown away by visits to sites such as Mr X Stitch and Craftster, where featured crafter-artists are shown expressing themselves in unique ways. There is a sense in which one need not self-censor if there is a principle to explore and more of us ought to embrace this spirit of individuality and fearlessly show it in our work.

Did you know that some crafters verbally express themselves using curse words? This is the non-stereotypical behavior (by that I refer to the externally constructed stereotype) that currently interests me.

With the publication of Word Play Quilts, more and more quilters are including text in their quilts, whether to emblazon with the name of the giftee or to send a sweet special message. It has opened up a whole new way to express oneself in textiles. But are there boundaries? One must eventually wonder if quilts are somehow a sacred space on which certain profanities must not be uttered. My own recent quilts have tested this in a small way. Reactions have been mixed and, surprisingly, the negative reactions are deeply personal even when the message is a positive affirmation.

Find out more about this quilt pictured above: Chawne has written a follow up post on her blog 

I needed to know how other crafter-artists felt about the act of cursing in cotton. So I invited a wide swath of textile artists in the US, Canada and England to participate in an ongoing communal Give a F*ck quilt project back in November 2011. Using a variety of techniques—patchwork, embroidery, and filet crochet—they are expressing their potty-mouths by making profane quilt blocks. There are few restrictions, including a size range, a “decency” level, and the requirement that the word “fuck” appear somewhere so that it is legible at a nice distance.

The diversity of interpretations of the request has been impressive and will make the ultimate quilt all the more interesting.

Sample Block Artists: Daniel Rouse :: Corrine Bayraktaroglu :: Jeni Baker 

The blocks are still arriving in the mail, but the artists have been telling me of their experiences while making them. Most common are comments about the cathartic effect, releasing anger or frustration. Yet others express youthful glee about doing something they perceive as “naughty.”

The blocks will be assembled into a quilt, likely a cacophony of f*cks. And we will then see what it is like when several crafter-artists express themselves at once. This project aims to face the issue of language boundaries head-on so that we can all return to free and nuanced expression in the future.

Edited to add: Chawne has written a follow up post on her blog – head over there to read more about her work.

Please read my response to the comments on this post here and Chawne’s response here.Similar Posts:

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Gilding the City by Sayraphim Lothian

Sayraphim Lothian is a craft and visual artist interested in exploring playful and participatory experiences. She co-runs Pop Up Playground, an urban games collective; recently participated in a playful residency at the National Gallery of Victoria and some of her work can be found in the archives of the NGV, the collection at MOMA and now, on streets around the world.

When I was young one of my favourite books in the world was Pippi Longstocking. Pippi, the strongest little girl in all the world, had a number of interesting hobbies but the one which appealed most to me was her game of Turnup Stuffing in which she would walk around outside and keep an eye on the ground for ‘Stuffs’ that ‘turned up’. Anything she found she would happily take home. Although as a child I thought the things she found were a bit rubbish (from memory they were a rusty cake tin and an empty spool of thread), I decided I would become a Turnup Stuffer too and find much more interesting things and lots of them. From that day, whenever I was outside, I would spend most of my walking time carefully scanning the ground for anything I might find.

Over the years I’ve found and brought home a myriad of interesting, useful and (I have to be honest) not so useful things. You tend to see a lot of leaves and rubbish, bits of broken glass, cigarette butts and chewing gum but in between all the trash you’d be surprised how often you find other things. If you’re not already a Turnup Stuffer, try it next time you’re out and about and see what you discover for yourself.

A few years ago I noticed that I was regularly finding bits of broken jewellery; pendants that had snapped in half, twisted rings that didn’t fit anymore, stray beads that had made brave leaps off bracelets and necklaces and fake jewels that had come loose from their moorings along with random items that I couldn’t really place but had clearly come off something somewhere. I couldn’t just let all these things get swept away into the trash, it felt like such a waste! These were beautiful, if twisted and broken, and I reasoned that the world hardly needed more rubbish lining its streets. So, I collected up all these tiny, shiny, interestin’ bits and took them all home.

For years I didn’t know what to do with them. They all sat in a big clear glass jar slowly filling their way to the top. I was a bit worried that I was collecting all this stuff for no purpose at all but I couldn’t throw them out. The collection sat on my bookcase and quietly continued to grow as I went about my daily life.

Then one day I saw an interview with Daniel Lynch, the Melbourne street artist behind Junky Projects. “Junkys” are charming little figures created from flattened cans and beer bottle lids which are nailed up around Melbourne. In his interview, Daniel mentioned that he doesn’t introduce anything more to the streets when he makes his pieces; he only uses what he finds and rearranges it into these little creatures.

And then a light went off in my head.

I love Melbourne and I wanted to show my love for Melbourne by making it jewellery to wear and, since Melbourne is a city, jewellery created from broken bits found in the streets seemed the perfect type of jewellery to give. I think the city is beautiful so adding jewellery to it was almost like gilding the lily. So I called the project Gilding the City and I got down to work.

The first ‘Gild’ I created was the Victorian Mourning Brooch, inspired by an ivory coloured resin rose which I found in Dandenong (a suburb on the outskirts of Melbourne). I added black glass beads found in South Melbourne and a crystal bead found outside the Melbourne Theatre Company and finished it off with a pearl drop earring at the bottom. I should clarify that, though I remember where I found most of these items, I’m not obsessive about the collection of broken bits. Instead everything that went into this piece, bar the earring, were found only recently which is why I still remember where they came from. Looking over the photos of the other pieces I couldn’t tell you where most of the other bits came from!

I’ve never worked in the medium of jewellery before and I’ve found the process both interesting and inspiring. Every Gild is created around a central piece that dictates the piece’s theme. For instance, ‘The Garden’ started with the silver spiral bead at the bottom which made me think of a snail shell and I went into my collection and found green beads and other interesting, garden type items to match it. ‘The Night Sky’ was created around the broken semi-circular silver earring, which to me was absolutely a moon, that I then wired to a cubic zirconia still in it’s setting to create a star hanging from the top of the moon.

It’s really important to me that I am not introducing anything new into the environment in the creation of these pieces. I don’t want to create more litter; what I want to do is refashion the things already on the streets into beautiful and interesting works of art.

I see the Gilds as secular versions of the ritual items hung off trees and thrown down wells in earlier societies; little trinkets that hold wishes and hopes, prayers to gods big and small. They also echo the natural debris and rubbish that gets caught in low hanging river trees after a flood. At the same time, they’re little decorations hung on the streets; surprises for those who see them, tiny magical moments bubbling through the city.

This project was released on the streets of Melbourne on January 2 and it’s already evolving. With the help of members of the Agency of Coney, a UK based company whose three principals of adventure, loveliness and curiosity helped inspire this project, Gilding pieces will start appearing on the streets of England and America in the next few weeks which is a thrilling development.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go out and Turnup more Stuff. Gilding the City has just become Gilding the World and that’s going to need heaps more discarded and broken bits to create enough pieces!Similar Posts:

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November: Month of books at Whipup.net

Pinhole Cameras: A DIY Guide. By Chris Keeney, Published by Princeton Architectural Press (June 8, 2011).

This is avid photographer and pinhole camera expert, Chris Keeney’s first book, nicely published by Papress – I love their quirky and quality mix of design, diy and architecture books. In Chris’s book, he claims that you can turn any container into a pinhole camera – exciting to experiment with – there is something about this old style of photography that is very raw and very real – and such a contrast to our digital age. Great for kids to experiment with these projects too – teaches about light and lenses – good diy practical science at work!

Images from left: SPAMera Medium Format 120 Film Pinhole Camera :: Lavazza Espresso Coffee Can 5×7 Photographic Paper Pinhole Camera :: Romeo y Julieta Cigar Box Pinhole Camera

Publish Your Photography Book by Darius D. Himes and Mary Virginia Swanson, published by Princeton Architectural Press (March 23, 2011).

Insightful and informative guide to getting a photography book published. Industry insiders Darius D. Himes and Mary Virginia Swanson, take you through the steps of producing and publishing a photography book.

This book will help you to understand the publishing world and the process of getting a book to press – from submissions to contracts and the digital revolution you will come to terms with what you need to do to get started. Once you have that contract or you have decided to self publish then the authors take you through the next stage – the design and production. From there it’s onto marketing and selling your book in this very competitive market. Along the way you will hear from industry professionals and be able to read case studies and access a multitude of resources. Good luck my friend!
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Victoria Gertenbach is textile artist living in Lancaster County, PA. where her story continues to unfold. To learn more please visit her blog.

Finding Your Creative Voice

Hello Everyone! I’m Victoria from the Silly BooDilly, and I am delighted to be filling in for Kathreen today as one of her guest bloggers while she is on vacation.

When Kathreen first asked me if I would do a guest blog post, I wasn’t sure what I would write about it. So, I started thinking about various topics which are important to me in regards to creativity, and that led me to the topic of finding one’s true creative voice, something I feel very strongly about.

"Work Quilt #1" 2010. Inspired by the surrounding farmland where I live, as well as old patched utilitarian quilts.

It’s common for most of us, when first learning a new craft, to look around at what others are doing. In fact it’s usually seeing what someone else is doing that first sparks our desire to learn about a certain subject. The next obvious step is to try and recreate something similar in look and style to whose ever work it is that we admire. And if we can find any how-to’s provided by them, books featuring them, or take a class taught by them, all the more wonderful, for this helps us learn about process, techniques, and methods.

But too often, (in my personal opinion) folks can easily get stuck in this apprentice stage, embracing and taking on the style of the teacher/influencer to such a degree that they forget to move forward into the next stage, which is where one takes the technical information that they have learned and figures out how to apply that information to express something that can only come from their own unique perspective, which is how true art is born.

So, how does someone find their own creative voice? Well, I think one of the best pieces of advice that I have ever heard about this topic was in regards to writers. You probably have heard it too, at some point…

“If you wish to be a good writer, write about what you know.”

I would suggest that the same holds true for the visual arts. Create what you know. Create what you care about. Create what you are drawn to. Create what you resonate with. Create what you love.

If you follow your heart it will lead you to your soul.

"Barn Door" 2011. Inspired by the beautiful worn and weathered old white barns near where I live.

Start paying attention to what in your environment makes your heart skip a beat. What do you find yourself looking at, photographing, collecting, thinking about? And ask yourself, “why?” Why do you like what you do? Break it down… for example, if you find yourself photographing close up shots of flowers and insects, ask yourself what it is that attracts you to them… is it that you love the relationship between the two? Their colors? Their shapes? If you have a collection of found bird nests on your mantle and artwork of eggs and feathers hanging around your home, ask yourself why… do you like the freedom that birds seem to have? Are you attracted to their ability to weave a nest, (I know I am). Is there something about the shape and/or color of their eggs that lifts your spirit? These types of questions can help you define what it is that you want to explore and express in your art.

Remnants #5 and #4, 2010. Inspired by the lines and shapes found in the old farms near where I live.

If you are attracted to architecture, (as I am) ask yourself, what style of architecture you are drawn to, and what aspects about that style are you most drawn to? And for the record, don’t be surprised if you find yourself drawn to more than one type, even if those types seem to be completely different. (This just proves that you are multi-dimensional!) I for one am very drawn to mid-century design for it’s clean esthetics and use of line. For me it represents order and simplicity, the ability to say more with less. However, I am also extremely drawn to old farm structures, primarily for their worn exterior with peeling paint, their holes and broken windows, their patched and mended areas and their wonderful odd lines and off kilter shapes. For me they represent quiet beauty, endurance, an undying strength of spirit and a life well lived. I also daydream about owning a darling little beach cottage one day, as I love the seaside and associate it with true bliss. And last but not least I have a real attraction to cute vintage trailers as I associate them with one of my favorite childhood books, “The Boxcar Children” which sent my 8 year old self day-dreaming of young independence found in the act of setting up housekeeping in a small place of one’s very own.

Embroidered Miniature Houses, 2011. Inspired by my attraction to little beach cottages and small retro trailers.

Regardless of how many different architectural structures I am attracted to, I know that each one holds something personal for me, and that’s the key…

As soon as you start to examine what truly resonates with you, and figure out why it pulls at you, you will begin to create your own personal foundation that you can then build upon with a body of work that reflects you as an creative individual.

Everybody has a story to tell. What’s yours?

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A crafty type and a lover of mischief, a whim, a ‘Why Not?’. Tania is also a mum of three, a wife, a graphic designer, a juggler extraordinaire (in training). You’ll find her over at Myrtle & Eunice, celebrating her crafty hits, confessing the misses and always bewildered by the pile of dirty washing.

It Ain’t Only About The Flies

It’s not that I’m obsessed with flies, cos I’m not. Certainly, if you happened to refer to the November page of this year’s Whipup calendar,  you’d turn to look at me all sideways and squinty and doubtful-like. But THAT fly – the one composed of a bazillion stitches, was really all about the obsessive joy in (finally!) mastering the french knot. THIS fly, the one above, was all about the sudden fascination with the crafty potential of fly screen.

I almost did my eyeballs in. Crafting with fly screen is like crafting blind. The grids of tiny squares appear to move and intersect, creating a moiré effect. Half the time you can’t tell which is shadow, or which is the surface you’re working on. And it’s a SHOCKER to photograph. Navigate the light, the shade, the shadows cast, the greying effect of the mesh, the disappearing into-backgrounds, then give up in a huff. Put away your camera, live it in real time.

In real time – and you’ll probably have to trust me on this – it is possible to appreciate the delicate intricacies of embroidered fly body hair.

As a crafty type who never knows when to leave well enough alone, I couldn’t help but try my hand at cross-stitching a flying fly…

…which in one fell swat, becomes a cross-stitched, well past-his-prime fly.

It struck me that flies were not the only obvious subject matter. Too busy losing focus to fly screen, to notice teetering laundry piles, a disaster kitchen, and an impressive spider web population inhabiting window frames, it finally dawned upon me. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

While the bug lovin’ middle kid is chuffed to bits with his fly-eating, window-inhabiting spider,

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